Dune II
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| Dune II | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Westwood Studios |
| Publisher(s) | Virgin Interactive |
| Designer(s) | Joseph Bostic & Aaron E. Powell |
| Engine | Custom |
| Release date(s) | 1992 (DOS) 1993 (Amiga) 1993 (Mega Drive/Genesis) |
| Genre(s) | Real-time strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | Amiga, DOS, RISC OS, Genesis/Mega Drive |
| Media | Floppy disk, CD-ROM or Cartridge |
| Input | Keyboard, Mouse |
Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty (also known as Dune II: Battle for Arrakis in Europe and in the Mega Drive/Genesis port) is a Dune computer game, released by Westwood Studios in 1992. It is a loose sequel of the computer strategy game Dune (although it shared no storyline or gameplay). Both games were based upon David Lynch's 1984 movie Dune, which was in turn taken from Frank Herbert's science fiction novel of the same name. A new house, House Ordos (not found in the novel or film), appears in this game even though it is mentioned only once in the Dune Encyclopedia.
While not the first real-time strategy (RTS) game (the first being Stonkers), Dune II established a format that would be followed for years to come, and is the first to use the mouse to move units, giving much fluid interaction [1]. As such, Dune II is the founder of the RTS genre in its modern form. Striking a balance between complexity and innovation, it was a huge success and laid the foundation for the coming Command and Conquer (which was nicknamed "Dune III" by some fans and detractors), the Warcraft series, and many other RTS games.
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[edit] Plot
Emperor Frederick IV of House Corrino is desperate for the harvesting of the valuable spice melange, only found on the planet Arrakis, to pay off all of his debt incurred on internecine wars with family members. To achieve this, he now offers the sole governorship of Arrakis to the House (huge nobleman family/cartel) which delivers the most spice for him out of House Atreides, Harkonnen and Ordos. War begins as deputations from all three Houses arrive on Arrakis.
The player is a military commander from a House of their choice. In the first few missions the objective is to successfully establish a base on an unoccupied territory of Arrakis, to harvest spice and defend against intruders. Later, when the three Houses divide Arrakis among them, the player has to assault and capture enemy territories. When the player dominates Arrakis on the world map, the two other enemy factions ally against their common enemy. The ultimate final showdown is the battle among the player's House up against three enemy sides, among them Frederick's forces the Sardaukar (an unplayable elite force whose heavy infantry are particularly powerful). The final cutscene is different for each House, in consonance with their very disparate worldviews.
[edit] Gameplay
The player takes the role of a commander of one of three interplanetary houses, the Atreides, the Harkonnen or the Ordos, with the objective of wresting control of Arrakis from the two other houses. The basic strategy in the game is to harvest spice from the treacherous sand dunes using a harvester vehicle, convert the spice into credits via a refinery and to build military units with these acquired credits in order to fend off and destroy the enemy. The game map initially starts with a fog of war covering all area which is not covered by the player's units. As the units explore the map, the darkness is removed. Unlike later games such as Warcraft II, the fog of war is lifted forever with initial exploration, it does not become dark once more when units leave the area.
In addition to enemy incursions, there are other dangers; like the marauding and gigantic sandworm, capable of swallowing vehicles and infantry whole but only capable of moving through sand. The player can only build on rocky terrain, but must build concrete foundations before to avoid deterioration of the structures due to the harsh weather conditions although in general, structures will gradually decay over time regardless of the presence of those concrete slabs due to the aforesaid weather conditions. Spice fields are indicated by orange patches on the sand, dark orange indicating high concentration. Some spice may be concealed as bumps on the terrain (spice blooms) that become spice fields when they are shot at, or when a unit runs over them (the unit is destroyed in the process).
The player is presented a map of the planet Arrakis before most missions, where he can choose the next territory to play in among two or three. This affects primarily the enemy house fought in the next mission, as all missions except the first two require the complete destruction of the enemy. Nine territories must be fought, irrespective of house, to reach the endgame.
Some key elements that first appeared in this game, but would later appear in many other RTS games, are:
- Mouse operated units and buildings.
- A world map from which the next mission is chosen
- Resource-gathering to fund unit construction
- Simple base and unit construction
- Building construction dependencies (technology tree)
- Different sides/factions (the Houses), each with unique unit-types
[edit] Units
House Harkonnen relies on heavy and powerful, but expensive units, while House Atreides is a more "middle of the road" side with access to good specialised units such as the Sonic Tank. House Ordos tends to prioritise speed over strength, with quite specialised units and a lack of heavy firepower, and thus require a degree of cunning gameplay to win.
[edit] Infantry and trooper units
| Picture | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
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Light Infantry | Soldiers with minimal protection and attack capabilities. They can infiltrate and seize command of enemy structures. Available only to the Ordos and the Atreides factions. |
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Heavy Troopers | Troopers have special power suits and heavy weapons and equipment. Available only to the Harkonnen and Ordos factions (though Fremen units are comparable in combat value to this type of infantry). |
[edit] Light Vehicles
| Picture | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
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Trike | A very fast and maneuverable three-wheeled vehicle with very limited protection. Useful for scouting. Available only to the Ordos and the Atreides factions. |
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Quad | A four wheeled vehicle, slower than the trike, but with much more armor and firepower. |
[edit] Heavy Vehicles
| Picture | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
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Combat Tank | A medium-sized tank, with average speed, firepower and armor. |
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Siege Tank | A slower, heavier version of the combat tank, with 50% more armor and a double-barreled cannon. |
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Rocket Launcher | A moderate-speed tank providing long-range rocket support. It inflicts high damage, especially against buildings (does only half damage to units), and has longer range than turrets. It fires with low accuracy and has a minimum range of effectiveness. It is only buildable by House Harkonnen and Atreides. |
[edit] Support Vehicles
| Picture | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
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Harvester | Harvests melange from the spice fields. If the player loses his last one, another one is provided free of charge although certain later, more difficult missions may not have such a privilege. |
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Carryall | A non-controlable transport aircraft, it can carry harvesters to the refinery and units to the repair center. |
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Ornithopter | A very fast and non-controllable aircraft. Launches attrition attacks against the enemy base. Can be fired upon by enemy rocket turrets. Available only to House Atreides and House Ordos. |
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MCV (Mobile construction vehicle) | A mobile construction yard, allows construction and repositioning of bases. Every newly deployed construction yard must also be individually upgraded if higher level structures are to be constructed. |
[edit] House specific units
Atreides
| Picture | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
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Sonic Tank | A tank that fires sonic waves with range covering the entire game screen. Its attack may damage the player's own units if they are in its line of fire, but it is also incapable of hurting another sonic tank. |
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Fremen | Native elite guerrillas, invoked from the Palace. They decide for themselves which enemy unit to attack. They do not attack enemy buildings. |
Harkonnen
| Picture | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
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Devastator | A immensely powerful nuclear-powered tank that self-destructs when in critical state or when ordered to. |
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Death Hand | A multiple head missile fired from the palace that can damage a vast area, but is very imprecise. |
Ordos
| Picture | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
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Ordos Raider | A modified version of the trike; faster but with decreased protection. |
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Deviator | A missile tank that fires special nerve gas ammunition which can confuse units and temporarily change them to the player's side. |
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Saboteur | A lone agent trained in the palace that can destroy and take control of any enemy building or vehicle (which can be useful to disrupt attacks or destroy the enemy base from within). |
Completing higher missions gives authorization to use improved technology and higher-order weaponry unique to each House, ensuring varied gameplay. For example, House Harkonnen may be able to construct their Devastator tanks with heavy armor and ordnance but cannot build the similarly impressive Atreides Sonic Tank. The Ordos have access to the Deviator - a specialized tank firing a nerve gas that switches the allegiance of targeted units to Ordos for a limited period of time. The three Houses also are restricted in their production capabilities - House Ordos cannot build Atreides-style trikes, instead making the faster "Raider" trikes, while House Harkonnen constructs heavier but more expensive quad bikes.
A player can gain access to other Houses' special units by capturing an enemy Factory and manufacturing the desired units at the captured Factory (House Atreides' Heavy Vehicle Factory for Sonic Tank, House Ordos' Light Vehicle Factory for Raider trikes, House Ordos' Heavy Vehicle Factory for Deviator tanks, or House Harkonnen's Heavy Vehicle Factory for Devastator tanks).
[edit] Third party units
| Picture | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
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Sardaukar | The Sardaukar are elite troops belonging to the Emperor's House Corrino. |
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Sandworm | The Sandworm roams the sands of Dune. It is attracted by moving units and can eat them. It is possible for them to be killed, but this takes an enormous amount of firepower. |
[edit] Buildings
Buildings may only be built in rocky zones and connected to another existing building, and are the same for all houses. To protect them from constant wear, the player must place first concrete slabs in the construction areas. Production buildings can be upgraded at a cost several times, allowing the production of more advanced units or buildings.
[edit] Support Buildings
| Picture | Name | Description | Version |
|---|---|---|---|
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Concrete slab | Foundation of other buildings, prevent wear. Buildings not built on this start with some damage. Later in the game, groups of four can be built at a time. | All |
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Construction Yard | Builds all other buildings. | All |
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Spice Silo | Adds spice storing capacity to the base. | All |
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Starport | Allows the player to buy units delivered from orbit. | All |
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Windtrap | Wind energy stations that power all other buildings. | All |
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Refinery | Converts Spice from harvesters in credits and stores a limited quantity of spice. | All |
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Radar Outpost | Allows to view unit movements in the explored area of the minimap. | All |
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Repair Facility | Repairs damaged units. | All |
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House of IX | Makes house specific tanks and ornithopters available. | PC and Amiga |
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Palace | Allows use of the house "superweapons" (Death Hand, Saboteur, Fremen). | All |
[edit] Production and training buildings
| Picture | Name | Description | Version |
|---|---|---|---|
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Barracks | Trains light infantry. | All |
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WOR | Trains and arms heavy troopers. | All |
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Light Vehicle Factory | Manufactures light vehicles, such as Trikes and Quads. | PC and Amiga |
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Heavy Vehicle Factory | Manufactures tanks, rocket launchers and specific house tanks (Devastator, Deviator, Sonic Tank). | All (in Mega Drive/Genesis manufactures
light and heavy units) |
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High-tech facility | Allows production of support non-controlable units, such as carryalls and ornithopters. | All |
[edit] Defensive buildings
| Picture | Name | Description | Version |
|---|---|---|---|
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Wall | A 1x1 wall section that protects buildings. | All |
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Turret | An autonomous turret that tracks and fires bullets at incoming enemies. | All |
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Rocket Turret | A more effective and long-range version of the turret, with a cannon and accurate rockets. | All |
The final prize for the commander is the building of the House Palace from where superweapons may be unleashed on opponents in the final closing chapters of the game. The House Harkonnen superweapon is a long-range finger of missiles called the Death Hand, whereas House Atreides may call upon the local Fremen infantry warriors, over which the player has no control, to engage enemy targets. House Ordos may unleash a fast-moving Saboteur whose main purpose is the destruction of buildings.
[edit] Interface
The Dune II interface is the basis for subsequent real-time strategy games, being the first to use the mouse for unit control[1], but is inconvenient when compared, for example, to Command & Conquer. Dune II did not have unit grouping or context sensitive cursors, as they were not used in RTS games until C&C and Warcraft [citation needed], and, unlike later games, clicking on a piece of land or enemy will not result in movement or attack actions. To do so requires clicking on the "Move" or "Attack" buttons, and then selecting the target.
[edit] Artificial Intelligence
The AI of Dune II was one of the first used in RTS games, and while better than that of Herzog Zwei, it has various drawbacks [2]:
- It will only attack the side of the player's base facing its base. Also, it targets a player's building and will continually attack that target until it is destroyed. The AI targets the player's repair center, palace, starport, and unit producing structures with high priority.
- It is generally incapable of flanking or ambush maneuvers.
- It sends attacking units as soon as they are built from their base instead of assembling an attack force.
- It does not build additional defenses once initial base construction is concluded although the AI will replace destroyed base defenses as its priority.
- It will attack its own buildings in an attempt to get to your units which are within sight and firing range.
- It relies on several cheats, such as infinite credits, the ability to build unconnected buildings, and the ability to build structures on top of your units (which destroys those units in the process).
[edit] Ports
This 1992 game was ported to various platforms. The original DOS version was converted to the Amiga and Mega Drive/Genesis in 1993. Two years later it was also brought to the Archimedes and Risc PC range of RISC OS computers.
The Mega Drive/Genesis port has fairly different building and unit graphics, a full-screen menu-less user interface suited for gamepad control, and no savegame support, relying on access codes for accessing each level. Other additions include a music test option and a tutorial that replaces the mentat screen.
The Amiga port is nearly identical in interface and gameplay to the PC version, with less detailed graphics and frequent disk swapping -- the game fits in 5 disks. Savegames are stored in a specially formatted disk.
[edit] Legacy
Dune II is one of the most influential games in the real-time strategy genre. Though not every characteristic was unique, attributes such as fog of war, and the game's model for resource-extraction, base creation, and military micromanagement became several standards upon which the RTS genre is based. Obvious influences of Dune II can be seen in numerous games, particularly in Westwood's own Command & Conquer series.
Chris Taylor stated that Dune II and Command & Conquer were a very strong inspiration, motivating him to leave Electronic Arts to create Total Annihilation.[3]
Dune II was given several direct sequels: a Windows remake of this game was published in 1998 as Dune 2000, along with a PlayStation port in the same year. In 2001 Emperor: Battle for Dune was published.
[edit] Trivia
In the original (DOS) version:
- There is a global limit on structures and units which curiously encompasses both the human player's and those of the CPU (the computer-controlled opponents). This severely limits the size of the human player's army when the CPU's army starts big on the later missions. To work around this the player has first to take "small bites" out of the CPUs base, destroying a few of the CPUs outwards constructions like missile turrets, before he can fully develop his base and launch the final attack.
- In order to render the game playable on 8-16mhz systems, it was necessary for the designers to have off-screen units update at about half the rate of those on-screen. This only affected movement, but it resulted in a player being able to move an army much faster if he scrolled the map to keep them in view.
- Nearly every map in the game had at least one very long interconnected path of rock leading from the player's base to the enemy base. Unfortunately, this led to the practice of "creeping", where players would place concrete all the way up to the enemy base and begin erecting turrets, removing the need for a large component of the gameplay.
- Because of errors in the code, combat units gained a slight increase in range when placed at certain angles; Rocket launchers attacking from the north or south could out-range Missile Turrets, but from other angles could be easily destroyed by return fire.
- Mercenary units (and a few accompanying sound bites) were included in the game code, but never implemented.
- The Atreides sonic tank attack range is supposed to cover the whole screen, but the range is actually determined by the "Game Speed" setting. When set to "Very Fast" the attack covers the whole screen, but when set to "Very Slow" it only covers about half of the screen.
- In the earlier versions, the AI turrets did not attack enemy Fremen units, but your own turrets did. This was fixed in a later version.
- The sandworms technically belonged to the same side as the Fremen. As they were allied with the Atreides, units and turrets from this house would not attack them.
- Carryalls would pick up damaged units and bring them to a repair center. If there was no way to exit the center, because every side was blocked, the Carryall would return the vehicle to its former position. As long as the unit would only attack buildings, the enemy ignored it.
- The Ordos deviator changes the loyalty of a targeted unit to yours for a short period of time. If you "deviate" an enemy unit, select it and do not issue any command to the unit. Eventually, the unit will revert to its original side. You can now issue any command to the unit and it will continue to do that command until it is completed or the unit takes damage. Common uses of this tactic are to have the "deviated" unit destroy a computer structure or to command an enemy harvester to drive back to your base, where you can destroy it. (Any harvested spice in the enemy harvester when it is destroyed will be placed on the ground.)
- Furthermore, deviated units ordered to attack houses other than their own will continue to attack them even after the deviation wears off. A deviated Atreides tank ordered to attack a Harkonnen base, for example, will continue to attack the base even after the deviation wears off. (Fremen are great targets for deviation, since they will always continue to attack whatever they were ordered to attack after the deviation wears off.)
- If you attack an enemy harvester with an infantry unit the harvester will attempt to run it over. In the initial 1.0 version of Dune II the harvester would stop collecting spice once it had crushed the infantry unit, neutralizing it. This was a useful strategy as maps contained limited supply of spice and it was important to prevent the computer from harvesting it all, especially in the later levels. This bug was fixed in the 1.07 version of the game.
- In earlier version of this game, you could place a Refinary near from a spice pool. The Carryall will bring the Harverster as soon as you placed the Refinary. Let the Harverster collect spice for, at least, five seconds and issue a Return to refinary command. If the carryall that brought your Harvester still flying at your base, it will pick the harvester up and transport it to your base. The harvester will just drop some credits and soon will be ready to be released. The Carryall takes the harvester back to the field and never leaves the war, as it should be. Instead it, it will work as an built carryall from you. This is very useful in the earlier stages where you can't have High Tech Factories, since carryall will speed up some tasks like repairing a damaged vehicle or take the harvester back to refinary / spice pool.
- Radnor is the official mascot for the DOSBox MS-DOS/x86 emulator.
[edit] Cheats
While there were no "built in" cheat codes for Dune II, game settings could easily be manipulated by editing the "scenario.pak" file using a text editor. These settings include: amount of starting credits, maximum number of units allowed, what units and buildings player has at the beginning of each scenario, changing enemy units and buildings at start of each scenario, even allowing the player to partially control Sandworms (they do not take orders too well and will still consume the players units if the chance arises). Changes could also be made to allow the purchase of specialized units from the Starport. Sonic Tanks, Devastators, Deviators, and Saboteurs could be purchased by the player regardless of what House was chosen. Unfortunately, Deviators will always change the loyalty of targeted units to Ordos, even if the Deviator belongs to Atreides or Harkonnen.
[edit] Remakes
[edit] References
- ^ a b Bob Bates. Game Developer's Market Guide, p. 141, Thomson Course Technology, 2003, ISBN 1592001041.
- ^ Brian Schwab.AI Game Engine Programming, p. 107, Charles River Media. ISBN 1584503440.
- ^ Tracy Fullerton, Chris Swain, Steven Hoffman,Game Design Workshop,p. 377, CMP Books, 2004, ISBN 1578202221
[edit] External links
- Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty at MobyGames
- GameSpy Hall of Fame
- Review by Abandonia
- FED2k Discussion
- Dune Wiki @ FED2k
