Dune II bug?
Jesse M Civan
Hi,
I noticed this bug in Dune II:
Once in a while one of my harvesters gets stuck in my spice refinery. My
other harvester/s (I never have less than one) can't enter, and the one in
the refinery never leaves, even though I usually have a carry-all. So
soon I run out of cash. Also, at the same time, my missile turrets just
stop working. I figure that it may be that if I save a game while a
harvester is in the refinery, that may cause it to be stuck there if I
load the game.
Another thing is the "cannot build more" message. In the final level I
got this message a few times, but found that when I destroyed an enemy
structure of a certain type, I could then make more of that structure. I
figured that this would be useful for certain things, like If I destroyed
the Emporer's palace and thewn build one, he can't rebuild it. This
worked for a while (especially useful with rocket turrets) but suddenly
near the end of my battle strctures started popping up like crazy, even
though moments before I got the "cannot build more" message. Also, I had
destroyed the Sardukar refinery and silo (meaning that he must have 0
spice credits) and the Sardukar palace still kept on being rebuilt.
Anyone notice anything like this?
Jesse
Niklas Smedberg
>Another thing is the "cannot build more" message. In the final level I
>got this message a few times, but found that when I destroyed an enemy
>structure of a certain type, I could then make more of that structure. I
>figured that this would be useful for certain things, like If I destroyed
>the Emporer's palace and thewn build one, he can't rebuild it. This
>worked for a while (especially useful with rocket turrets) but suddenly
>near the end of my battle strctures started popping up like crazy, even
>though moments before I got the "cannot build more" message. Also, I had
>destroyed the Sardukar refinery and silo (meaning that he must have 0
>spice credits) and the Sardukar palace still kept on being rebuilt.
>Anyone notice anything like this?
I am a just a newbie, but I've had the same message in the beginning
of the game (third mission or something). I was playing Atreides (or
whatever they're called) and was faces Harkonnen. I had less firepower
so I wanted to build a huge army before going into combat. But even
though I had enough credits I couldn't build more than about 15 units
or something... So I had no chance. I always got that message -
"Cannot build more". Why?
/Smedis
Michael A.Sakai
>though I had enough credits I couldn't build more than about 15 units
>or something... So I had no chance. I always got that message -
>"Cannot build more". Why?
Why do you need more? You'll get bored pointing every unit with mouse. :-)
By the way: 15 rocket launchers, lined in two rows, moving step by step
(i.e. move every unit one step closer to enemy, wait until they destroy
everything in range, then continue moving) are the _most_ devastating
weapon of the house Artreides. Good idea is to backup your attack with
at least two repair facilities and pair of carryalls to move damaged
units from battlefield to repair.
Also, send two or three kamikaze rocket launchers to destroy enemy's
construction yards (all of them). This will stop enemy from rebuilding
(not repairing) devastated objects. One or two of kamikaze will distract
rocket turret(s) while third unit hacking construction yards with rockets.
>/Smedis
WBR, Sakai, once known to be an Emperor of Dune.
BARAK NEEMAN
>From: jci...@mail.sas.upenn.edu (Jesse M Civan)
>Subject: Dune II bug?
>Date: 14 Aug 1994 04:37:28 GMT
>
>Hi,
>I noticed this bug in Dune II:
>Once in a while one of my harvesters gets stuck in my spice refinery. My
>other harvester/s (I never have less than one) can't enter, and the one in
>the refinery never leaves, even though I usually have a carry-all.
.
>Another thing is the "cannot build more" message. In the final level I
.
>Jesse
Firts make sure you have v1.07! if you don't you can get the upgrade in
ftp.cdrom.com (I think). Before installing the upgrade (if you don't have v1.
07 yet) you should know that the game is a bit harder with the upgrade in
the low levels (enemies keep building all the time) but makes the final two
levels much easier. oh, and the saved games are *not* compatible... so if
you do install the upgrade you'll have to start ALL OVER AGAIN.
Harvesters: The nano-second they enter the refinery, they choose an exit, in
other words, if a harvester went in and you place (while the harvester is
unloading spice) a structure near the refinery it is posible that you
blocked the harvester's way out. It's just the same for factories and the
repair facility. One way to solve this is... bring down the refinery, get a
tank or two to blow it to bits (of course, you'll need to build another one
before you run out of cash... that's why you should NEVER let your cash
total drop below 400 credits). The second and better solution is to place
structure near the refinery only when it's idle.
"unable to create more": As sad as it might be, the game has a maximum
amount of units... If you get the upgrade to v1.07 you can still order units
from the spaceport, if you don't upgrade.... your'e F#@$ed.
Barak.
Todd Sinclair
>units by "moving" a unit with its destination as another unit. The first
>unit is supposed to follow the second. This doesn't work for me.
I have never gotten that to work either.... really a pain, too, as you
have to move each unit individually, and quickly, if you want to keep
some sort of formation.
>One final thing I noted: After almost every time I called for Fremen
>playing atredes, they would all die except for one trooper and the enemy
>units would completely ignore this trooper. he marches in, destroys a few
>buildings and units, and eventually they notice him and kill him. But for
>several minutes this trooper is wreaking havoc next to rocket turrets that
>are leaving him alone.
I've noticed that too, although it only seems to happen for me when the
Fremen get hit by a Deviator. Seems there's a bug that once the Fremen
go back under your 'control', the computer still sees them as their
ally. The only why they'll be killed is by getting run over. They'll
just keep on pumping missiles into enemy buildings.
Todd.S...@Castles.com
* TLX v4.00 * If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll laugh at you instead
* SPEED 1.40 [NR] *
David Martin
: I am a just a newbie, but I've had the same message in the beginning
: of the game (third mission or something). I was playing Atreides (or
: whatever they're called) and was faces Harkonnen. I had less firepower
: so I wanted to build a huge army before going into combat. But even
: though I had enough credits I couldn't build more than about 15 units
: or something... So I had no chance. I always got that message -
: "Cannot build more". Why?
There is a quota system which prohibits both you and the enemy from making a
certain ammount of objects. The way around this is to edit the battles in
the SCENARIO.PAK file. You can also edit this file so that enemy spice
refinery's are Wind Traps instead, meaning the enemy receives no credits.
It's easy to do and makes the game a lot simpler since the bad guys can't
get more money.
Cheers,
David
--
/ dav...@kcbbs.gen.nz | Coming to you all the way from \
| David J Martin | down under, mate - |
\ Auckland, New Zealand | 36.55S x 174.45E /
Paul Jeffrey Smith
>
>>consistant way. Also, according to the manual, you can make teams of
>>units by "moving" a unit with its destination as another unit. The first
>>unit is supposed to follow the second. This doesn't work for me.
>
>I have never gotten that to work either.... really a pain, too, as you
>have to move each unit individually, and quickly, if you want to keep
>some sort of formation.
iI got it to Work! Handy. You just make a unit move to a lace, and while
they are moving, select another unit and make their desitination the
location of the movingunit (you need to hit it just right, some of the
units move pretty quickly off the screen) I have found that you
can chain them too, so C follows B who is following A etc..
>
>>One final thing I noted: After almost every time I called for Fremen
>>playing atredes, they would all die except for one trooper and the enemy
>>units would completely ignore this trooper. he marches in, destroys a few
>>buildings and units, and eventually they notice him and kill him. But for
>>several minutes this trooper is wreaking havoc next to rocket turrets that
>>are leaving him alone.
>
>I've noticed that too, although it only seems to happen for me when the
>Fremen get hit by a Deviator. Seems there's a bug that once the Fremen
>go back under your 'control', the computer still sees them as their
>ally. The only why they'll be killed is by getting run over. They'll
>just keep on pumping missiles into enemy buildings.
>
>Todd.S...@Castles.com
>
> * TLX v4.00 * If you can't laugh at yourself, I'll laugh at you instead
>
> * SPEED 1.40 [NR] *
If you read the book, the Fremen are reknowned for their courage (or lack
of brain, whatever :)) , so I assume he isjust on a suicide mission of his own accord, and he uses his own
desert strategies to infiltrate the bases unnoticed. THe book is very cool!
regards
--
|psm...@lawson.its.utas.edu.au | "Money isn't everything but its a close |
|Bachelor of Applied Computing | second to Oxygen." -- Mrs. Confucious |
| IMPROVE THE UNIVERSITY - GET A REAL AUDIO-VISUAL DEPARTMENT |
|"**& &^ ^% % $ $##@#@!!~**(" - words to say during your Project Development|
reid....@pca.state.mn.us
>
>I noticed this bug in Dune II: my harvester gets stuck in my spice refinery.
I've never seen that one.
>
>Another thing is the "cannot build more" message.
I've only had that happening when I want to build units, never buildings. But
then I'm a gnome of zurich and don't build any more buildings than necessary
(though I dearly love rocket turrets.)
>Also, I had destroyed the Sardukar refinery and silo (meaning that he must
>have 0 spice credits) and the Sardukar palace still kept on being rebuilt.
>Anyone notice anything like this?
They might have another refinery somewhere, and since it'll store 1000 spice,
they don't absolutely have to have a silo. On the other hand, I have been in
situations where I've denied them any spice income for ages, they've got
almost nothing left, and stuff still gets repaired and even rebuilt. I think
they cheat a bit there.
My comments on the game? Fun to learn, but the AI is sooooo stupid that
replayability isn't too high.
A fun thing to do (not optimal in terms of winning, by any means) is possible
if you're in a province where some enemies are on the same rock as you (or I
suppose you could build a mobile construction yard vehicle). Pave your way up
to the enemy, and build rocket turrets. It's amusing.
Any of you ever succeed in capturing an enemy structure? How about getting a
mass of units to follow the leader--never could get them to do that though it's
in the manual.
Jesse M Civan
: My comments on the game? Fun to learn, but the AI is sooooo stupid that
: replayability isn't too high.
Yup.
: Any of you ever succeed in capturing an enemy structure? How about getting a
: mass of units to follow the leader--never could get them to do that though it's
: in the manual.
I've caputred an enemy structure and it's really over-rated. First of
all, you can't capture anything _really_ important like a palace. You
can't capture turrents. You can capture factories, refineries and silos.
Well, capturing factroies is pretty useless because if the enemy is very
strong he will easily destroy the factory, and if he is not strong enough
to destroy a defenseless structure in his own territory, you probably
don't need it much. Silos, on the other hand, immediately struck me as
nice things to take over. The prob is, by the time you weaken it enough
(to capture you must weaken an enemy structure into the red and then move
infantry or troopers onto it), and by the time I enter it, it's always
just about empty anyway.
As for making teams - I read an answer to that somewhere around here.
Somebody said that it works, but that you have to select the leader
_when_its_moving_. I tried this with the leader not moving and it never
worked. I havn't tried it the other way yet.
Here's a question: Has anyone else ever run out of spice? I was playing
Atredes and I have mined every blotch of spice on the planet. In order to
be realistic, the game should allow the worms to produce more spice. I
assume that the little hills that explode into spice are meant to simulate
this, but I used all of them up too! I had a bunch of rocket turrets so
the enemy couldn't destroy me, but I had no money to build more units. In
the end I gave up and started that level over. Except for that one time,
I never had this problem.
Oh yeah, I figure that the cheat that the computer pulls with building
things it can't afford actually makes sense. The game concept is that
both enemy houses have the support of the emporer (sp?). Well, presumably
the emporer is extremely wealthy and can provide these houses with funds
or raw materials in a pinch.
--
Jesse
jci...@mail.sas.upenn.edu
Peter Juul
> How about getting a
>mass of units to follow the leader--never could get them to do that though it's
>in the manual.
I managed it yesterday...
Keep in mind, that when a vehicle stops, it STOPS!
So the trick is NOT to let the follower reach the followee, then it'll follow
it until the worlds end.
It's not very useful, though. Better to point and shoot the 'attack' command
on the overview map.
--
GCS/P -d+ H-() s++:++ g+ p? au- a22 | Sing to me the ancient song,
w++ v++(*) C++ UH P+ L !3 E N++ K+ | the song of forgotten tales.
W--- M !V po++ Y-- t+ !5 j R G' tv | Tell me next the untold tale,
b+++ D-- B-- e+(*) u+ -h! f !r n- !y? | Of geeks from here to Wales.
reid....@pca.state.mn.us
>Here's a question: Has anyone else ever run out of spice?
I came near to running out. Since then, I've been religious about devoting a
tank or two to 'guarding' spice fields in order to minimize how much spice the
forces of Evil get to harvest.
- Reid Gagle Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Flakes
Kirk Neuman
> (Jesse M Civan) writes: re Dune II games
>
> >Here's a question: Has anyone else ever run out of spice?
>
> I came near to running out. Since then, I've been religious about devoting a
> tank or two to 'guarding' spice fields in order to minimize how much spice the
> forces of Evil get to harvest.
I've run out several times. But by the time there is no more spice to
harvest, I've well engaged in destroying the enemies base(es), and have
built up enough in storage to cover vehicle and building repair as needed.
I did run out of spice one time when I hadn't really started my attack. I
thought I was in deep doggy doo-doo and would have to restore a saved game,
but decided instead to try and capture as many enemy silos and refineries as
I could. Worked wonderfully. I was able to continue and ultimately won the
scenario.