Community Mod Project

[Bombur]

Hi guys, I must read something about Dune, so I would be able to help with the project...

[Tufkal2]

@Bombur: Here is the link:
http://www.amazon.com/Dune-40th-Anniver ... 054&sr=8-1
For a quick summary try this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_%28novel%29
The book can be highly recommended.

So ... as this is an attempt at a community project I think it might be kind of interesting to hear some more suggestions as to setup?

[Ande]

Looking for an alternative Sci-Fi scenario?
Maybe an asymetric alien invasion game.
There could be several alien factions battling for a very sought after resource. There are also several factions of a technologically inferior species that is not at all interested in this resource but is only concerned with controlling as much native population as possible.

This way there would be two wars on top of eachother and it could result in some very interesting diplomatics.

[mgaffn1]

Imagine different peoplegroups fighting for completely different resources - not just oil and ore, but more...

people 1 needs oil to function,
people 2 need water and ore, but could care less about oil
people 3 needs electricity, but not oil, water, or ore...
you get the picture

[Tufkal2]

Good suggestions. I think some of them might be combined.
E.g. it could be a Dune setting with maybe the Fremen requiring Water urgently. The Atreides war equipment. The Harkonnens quality manpower. The Emperor spice. Etc.
Asymmetric Alien invasion game might also work in a Dune setting with the Fremen taking the roles of the natives all other trying to grab spice.

I think the most important decision might be if we want to work human-only or include AI and in which role...

[SSFSX17]

All Humans setup:
- House Corrino - gets Sardaukar, who are matched only by Fremen
- House Harkonnen - gets more PPs due to their deviousness and trickery
- House Atreides - excellent morale
- Fremen - gets more water, and their adult warriors are a match for Sardaukar

Co-op vs. AI setup:
- Jessica Atreides - main objective is to restore House Atreides and turn Dune into a water planet
- Paul Atreides - main objective is to become Emperor by marrying Princess Irulan
- Stilgar - main objective is to get all Fremen tribes into the allies

Also - if this is a democracy (which is not necessarily good for getting a community project done in a timely manner) then I would vote for a co-op vs. the AI setup. I have no opinion towards Dune or to an alien invasion scenario. In the case of the latter, using a Harry Turtledove type of situation would allow the re-use of existing Advanced Tactics data.

[Tufkal2]

Yes from my point of view this is a democratic community mod project. Main goal is to have fun for everybody who is participating.

[Tufkal2]

Ok so my suggestion to proceed is as follows: I will summarize what I understood from the suggestions into a joint conceptual text. Then everybody who wants to be in can add their view or edit the text and provide a new version and then we can see how things go from here.

Name of the Mod: ???
Setup: Dune
Map: Arrakis (no water hexes). Maybe with some offworld unconnected planets (Caladan, Giedi Prime, Salusa Secundus,...). Only land and air units are available, ships are represented by cards.
Mode: Semi-Cooperative. All human players play against the AI. There is potential benefit of backstabbing between the human players.
Regimes: 3 Human (e.g. Paul Atreides, Jessica Atreides, Fremen). 1 AI (Harkonnen/Emperor). Open: Can be played with 3 human players or 1 human player playing all three regimes (without backstabbing).
All regimes are set up to give a very different feel. E.g. get different bonuses, have different SFT, have different goals. Open: Should the evil faction be playable by a human player?
Features (to be discussed)
- Strategic resources. Players need to exchange them as they are scarce and not everybody will get each. Water, manpower, nobles, equipment.
- Spice (obviously). Harvest via moving spice fields
- Atomics
- Bene Gesserit (heir main goal is to have Paul Atreides completely under their control, or to kill him and thus be able to work on the much-more-pliable Alia. Making a pact with them can be useful for increasing the Morale of those People types who are susceptible to the social-cultural engineering programmes. Their SFTypes are most effective against Nobles and Infantry.)
- Bene Tleilaxu (heir main goal is to determine how to artificially-produce spice. For gameplay purposes, this means that making a pact with them results in the complete destruction of spice fields or having to donate sandworms to them. This also greatly worsens relations with all Fremen. )
- Drones (Very "glass-cannon" units vs nobles)
- IX (Their forbidden thinking machines can act as excellent Staff and provide great combat effectiveness, thus letting you put more forces on the front compared to relying entirely on nobles and mentats. However, making a pact with IX will probably cause all AI-controlled factions to immediately declare war on you. )
- Lasguns: Since they cause a nuclear explosion when they shoot shields, any SFTypes wielding them would definitely be suicide units.
- Mentats: Probably classified as "nobles," they can provide combat effectiveness but not morale. If you want your troops to fight to the death, only real nobles / special characters will do the job.
- Sandworms: They provide Landcap, and are much more efficient than any vehicle. They also make excellent mobilizers across sand, and provide some cover to infantry. Last but not least, they move very quickly through sand and are excellent in combat at sand.
- Fremen player can cultivate the desert.
- There will be a diplomatic system which measures what neutral factions are thinking of the human/AI faction. Maybe they also can give missions, rewards etc to the player or oppose them...
SFT:
- Nobles / Special Characters
- Infantry
- Vehicles
- Air
- Drones
- Sandworms
and more
Special Races:
- Sardaukar
- Fremen

[Tufkal2]

Mmh. I hope there is some interest to collaborate? I forgot to mention how we might conutinue in case there is. Maybe we split up the work a bit:
One modder can take over map creation.
Another could detail the SFT.
Another could work on the graphics.
And another modder (or group) could work on regime setup and events.
Volunteers?