Some thoughts

Hey everybody. Just wanted to pop in again for an update. Progress has been very slow for the last month due to many other life concerns, but my thoughts never stray far from the course, and I plan on resuming normal operations soon.
Regarding the tactic of repeatedly dropping new buildings down on attackers, I concede that is a valid point. I do think that if your opponent is concentrating on doing this to slow you down, that it's taking up some of his time and you should be able to exploit that somewhere else on the board. It also does cost the opponent some money to do this, so I don't see it as a game-breaking flaw. However, it's made me think a lot about it.
I have three choices basically. I can add a time limit to stop building-mashing from being possible, just like the concrete-slab-timer currently works. I'm kind of iffy on that one because it opposes the whole dynamic of reducing management for placing structures. Another option is to add a minimum cost to the placement of a building (like 25%), so more is lost if it's destroyed right away. That's not a bad idea but I'd have to re-write a few things. Finally, I could change the way units behave toward uncompleted buildings, making them ignore them if they're under a certain health level, or even completely. I'll do some thinking on this for a while, and feel free to post your thoughts in a comment.
Regarding Death Hands (again), I still have to say I think you'd get destroyed every time by a good player on a small board if you were focusing on getting to Death Hands. A Palace, Heavy Factory and all the power they both need make a slow and expensive goal to reach, and on a board that small, protecting against exploration and hiding it out are not an option. If I get five Quads and three Combat Tanks instead of your Palace, HF and a Windtrap on a small board, I consider you in big trouble.
Also, yes, my version of the game is a bit of a CPU hog. There are lots of good reasons for this (such as those listed in the DOCS which everyone SHOULD READ), but one of them is definitely slow code, which I think will be greatly improved in this new version.
***EDIT***
I just remembered that I never put up the Mp3 music files, and that may be one of the reasons people are having speed problems. The MIDI files that came with the game actually use a surprising amount of horsepower on some machines, so I recommend wholeheartedly you download the MP3 music files now included on this site. The only real disadvantage is the extra RAM you'll need to hold the MP3 files in memory, which is kind of a lot. Just expand the Zip and all files into a folder called "music" in your Dune 2: TSHA directory, and the program will automatically recognize and prefer to use the MP3 files.
Alternatively, if you don't want to sacrifice the RAM or the CPU cycles, just go into the config.ini file in the TSHA System folder and put a zero in the line for Music. :0)

Death Hands

Hi guys,
Thanks again for the feedback. Most of the questions you have can be easily explained by reading the documentation for the game (such as the buttons not working and the inability to attack single enemy units).
However, I wanted to comment on two bits of feedback which I found interesting, namely on the Death Hands and on Microwave power.
In my own playtesting with numerous friends, we found many ways to counter both these tactics. First of all, if you aren't allied with Corrino, you should be allied with one of the other two house, which both have powerful weapons also. The Spacing Guild has saboteurs, but more importantly a discount at the Starport, so they can really mobilize armies in a hurry. And the Fremen have Warriors who can sneak around the map because they don't show up on radar (and also PWN large vehicles like Death Hands), and don't suffer losses from worms often.
I found it easy to counter Death Hands. Of course it goes without saying that the most important thing in the game is exploring the whole board, so I always got that advantage early. Once I knew my opponent had them, these are some of the tactics I used:

• Since their accuracy is horrible over longer ranges, your enemy needs to get them close to you. However, they can't be airlifted, so they have to be moved into place (and remember, units on MOVE orders always take extra damage). Always keep a small group of units in reserve outside of your base to fly/run out to eliminate them in short order. 500 credits may not seem like a lot, but when they're killed so easily, your opponent won't use them often and survive.
  
• Since their use requires some micro-management, put some pressure on the rest of your opponent's base while he's working on them, and you can cause much more damage than the average Death Hand shot.
• Try to force your enemy to fire them from within his own base, before he's had a chance to move them closer to you. They malfunction 10% of the time and land right where they're fired, which can be great fun to watch.
• Also keep in mind they must be launched one at a time; this combined with the risk of malfunction makes it very wasteful for an enemy to keep them in groups or to send them out with escorts. If he insists on doing so he'll eventually lose a couple thousand credits instead of just 500 when launching one, which will leave a sour taste in his mouth.
• If I had Fremen, keep a few Warriors scattered around the open areas of the map. They can cause huge disruption to harvesting and Death Hand operations because they excel versus larger units. If I had Saboteurs, run one right up to the Death Hand and detonate. Or, more insidiously, watch his Death Hands to see when he's using them, and take that time to use the micro-management needed to get your man into the perfect place to cause him large monetary losses. Otherwise, even a small team of Trikes and Quads is an effective counter. You'll get there fast, and he's guaranteed to lose at least 500 credits.
  

In the end, I reduced their price to 500 simply because they weren't useful enough. They're gone after one shot, easily killed, require management time, and don't hit targets often. Personally I'd rather build another squad of Sardaukar and a Wall.

As for Microwave power, sure, those three turrets can do some damage. Only a few problems with that though. First, they can be destroyed while being built, and if they're being constantly repaired, they're chewing up more credits than you think. They can also be picked off one at a time or out-ranged. But most importantly, they're using a lot of extra power if you've built them at a great distance. So, while you're busy doing that, I'll send an attack group into your Windtraps and disable a large part of your base.
I've never had a problem dealing with an opponent using Microwave power. It's really supposed to be more help with expanding your base, rather than as an attack vector. However, I'll be revisiting it during the final phases of the next version (along with everything else, at least a moment), so there might be changes to it in the future.

In my testing, when spice production levels were even, the game ended up being very nicely balanced after the final changes were made.

Thanks again everybody!

Some quick notes...

Just to respond to some of the comments I've received...
Thanks a lot for all the the fine words! It's nice to get some appreciation for all the hard work.
Please be sure to read the documentation file, and focus on the Interface section. That's always a big issue with people, but once you get used to it, I think it's superior.
Just to answer some quick things:
You can select multiple units easily - by double-clicking!
I may very well add game-speed control in the new version. AI is definitely planned.
Microwave power allows you to build structures at any distance from any other structure. The normal power system is still in effect though, so expect that far-out WOR facility to soak up a huge amount of power.
The other bugs I'm aware of. They will not be an issue with the new version (but expect some brand new ones! :P )

Back to work...

Milestone

Hey all,
Today I've successfully finished porting and debugging the code for the server-side functions.  So, the server portion is up and running successfully (to a certain extent).  There is no graphical interface, but I've managed to track and confirm the motion of all the units and entities using only debug code.  Now I have to get started on adding all the new code involved (such as the network comm system).  After that, I'll start on the Client (graphical player interface) version in earnest.

HOLY %*#@&

Wow... Just found out something about the new language I've been using that blew my mind. Linked lists can be embedded into custom objects! That means DIRECT access to other objects pulled from other lists during previous iterations. And you can imagine in a real-time strategy game, where everything makes a target out of something else and with collision checks and whatnot, there is plenty of nested iteration to go around. This could pave the way to enormous increases in game speed. I wish I could bring this improvment back to the old version of the game to satiate those waiting for the new version, but alas, this is a result of some of the reasons I moved away from that language. :)
I won't rush into anything and probably won't modify my code to take advantage of this new discovery until it's all been converted, but based on preliminary testing I expect this to open a lot of doors; higher unit counts, better speeds, and possibly even larger board sizes.

Version Universal

Dune 2: TSHA vU is progressing. I've concisely separated the server/client modules from a design standpoint and am back into moving and converting the code from the previous project, making enhancements where available.
As for someone's comments on a mobile phone version: Dude, have you seriously thought about that? That's like putting a stock racing car on a sidewalk. Not really how it's meant to be used.
And since this touches on my overall thoughts on intellectual property, I'd like to add that I detest proprietary business models such as Apple's, and I think anything that can be infinitely reproduced (software and code in particular) should never be sold for profit. So, anything I create will always be free, and I'll be picky about which platforms I support. I'll support every operating system I can, because people are more limited in their choices there by many other factors beyond their control. But if you want to jump on the IPhone bandwagon, forget about me.

Major design decision

Hello all. I've been mulling over several major options for the future of this project lately, and the largest one has just settled itself. I have begun coding two separate modules, one dedicated server, and one client for the players. The server will handle calculations and physics, accept requests from clients, and allow administration of players and game tools. The client will display all the graphics and allow a player to interface with the game. Among my reasons for doing this include simplified network synchronization, centralized control, discrete programming, and most importantly, to create a general communications interface for any "player" that will pave the way for automated intelligence (i.e. computer players!). Obviously this will slow my progress for quite some time, but it will be worth it.