Emperor: Battle for Dune

[orald]

I'm a bit afraid to state my opinion, as it's not entirely positive. Can I criticize this game?

I played it a bit, I've recently tried d/l it again but got about the same as you, though I've played with good versions of it before.

First thing is to understand this is a C&C game- if you've played, say, Tiberian Sun, you'll probably understand this better(I think it's closer in gameplay to TD&TS than to the RA universe, but maybe it's just me).

It's a nice game, good graphics, nice concepts(sub-houses for special forces for example) and from what I saw of the campaign it was good too(well, it's C&C).

There are some problems, I think, in the area of unit control(maybe it's just me but I had difficulties selecting them properly, mostly infantry due to their size, and it's hard to differentiate between infantry types), (usually)very limited building space and I think the units just die too fast(combine that with the selection problem).
I've heard there were some big balance problems(some Atreides unit being too powerful?) but I didn't play too much to notice.

Overall it's good enough game, but while I can't really point a finger at something concrete, Red Alert 2, of about the same time(though it's 2D), has better gameplay.

You might be interested to know that there's a fan mod in the works for C&C3: Tiberium Sun(or what's it called) that will attempt to reconstruct the RTS Dune games(not sure if an accurate conversion or just "inspired").

[orald]

Bit of a mix-up, it's for Renegade. Unless I'm confusing 2 "X to E:BfD" mods here.
Renegade to E:BfD.
I was sure I saw one for C&C3:TW though.

But don't count on playing it anytime soon, it might take years for them to actually get a beta version out and who knows if they finish it...like most good mods.

[loremaster]

I loved the game.

Especially some of the mods out there which removed some of the limits but maintained the balance, but even without those it was fantastic.

I wasnt a huge fan of house Ordos, not because they're not "real", but because they were poorly implemented, IMHO.

Atreides vs Harkonnen was always fun. And i like the peril of worms on the open sand.

The only thing i found was that i had an original copy and it was still a bit buggy.

Atreides "sonic" weapons were in there but you expect that from Dune RTS. Bloody Lynch.

Still play it occasionally, it looks a lot better on the silly high resolutions you can get now, compared to the day it was made. And with the mods you can wield hundreds of little men and dozens of tanks.

Oh, and Sardaukar were AWESOME on it.

The campaign was reasonably involving too, though it was different characters (not leto, paul etc) BUT still contained dukes, mentats a betraying SUK etc. Some commando-esque missions without bases, onboard guild heighliners and so forth.

[Dunenewt]

Hey everyone, I'm from dune2k.com, which is the official website and forum of Emperor: Battle for Dune. We also have the creators of the Command and Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars mod, Arrakian Wars, and the Renegade mod, Battle for Dune.

First of all, Emperor, although it is 7 years old, is still a great game, and still has an active community which exists on our website. I must point out, that the Command and Conquer games are based on a Dune game, Dune II, which has recently been mentioned in several major websites, such as msn.com, as a pioneer of the strategy genre. One of the issues with Emperor, was that EA (the publisher) made Westwood (the developer) rush the game's release, which meant there were several aspects of the game unfinished. I'm currently working on a mod, which will try to make the game a little more true to the books, but not massively so, which would create game play issues. I'm replacing Ordos with Corrino, and giving the Fremen to the Atreides only, and adding in House Richese. I am leaving in the Guild, even though they shouldn't really be fighting, simply because the units created for them were so wonderful.

Arrakian Wars, the Dune mod for Tiberium Wars, is progressing nicely, and the latest news on it can be found on this thread on our forums. The mod will first of all bring Emperor to this new engine in its first release, then add its own touch. I got this from their site:
Drei Haupthäuser, bekannt aus dem Dune bzw. Westwood Dune Universium: Atreides, Harkonnen und Ordos.
Fünf Subhäuser, aus denen zwei in einem laufenden Spiel gewählt werden können.
Gebäudeupgrades die den Techtree erweitern
Einheitenupgrades, -pezialfähigkeiten und Spielerfähigkeiten machen das alte Emperor: BFD Gameplay interessanter.
Komplett neues Balancing im vergleich zu E:BFD
Originalmusik & -sounds aus E:BFD
Viele neue Maps, nicht nur auf Arrakis
Skirmish AI für alle 3 Häuser

Which means for those of you who don't read German:
3 main houses known from Dune and Emperor: Atreides, Harkonnen, and Ordos.
5 subhouses from which 2 can be chosen during the game.
Building upgrades which extend the tech tree.
Unit upgrades, special skills (superweapons?), and player skills which make the old Emperor gameplay more interesting.
Completely new balancing in comparison to Emperor.
The original music and sounds from Emperor.
Lots of new maps, not just on Arrakis.
Skirmish AI for all 3 houses.

As for the Renegade conversion, Battle for Dune, this mod again will be replicating Emperor, but in a FPS. One of the best bits about this mod, is that EA have given them the go ahead to launch it as a standalone game, so you wont need Renegade to play it. They currently have Atreides, Harkonnen, and Ordos as the main sides, as well as other subhouse units, but I am trying to get Corrino in the game as a main side. Here is the thread on our forums for that game, and the creators of the mod are on just about everyday.

[orald]

Hi there, Newt, good to see another C&C fan here...slowly but surely we're taking over the board...

I checked out Dune2K some time back when I was looking for info on E:BfD, but I always thought it was a major fan site, not the official.
Something akin to planetcnc.com.

[Tyrant]

i am also a command and conquer fan..i need to get the new expansion for c and c 3............. i also enjoy star wars: empire at war and age of empires alot..teh warcraft series is good too

[Dunenewt]

Hi there, Newt, good to see another C&C fan here...slowly but surely we're taking over the board...

I checked out Dune2K some time back when I was looking for info on E:BfD, but I always thought it was a major fan site, not the official.
Something akin to planetcnc.com.

When the Westwood website closed down, they made us the official website. We're currently running an Emperor tournament by the way.

[Laphtiya]

I liked Emperor BfD, however you could easily tell it was a test bench for the next C&C game. I still play it now and then but its getting less and less lately. I wasnt sure about the vids in between lol, but it was still a good game

[Seraphan]

All i needed was 6 Atreides Minotaurs (i think thats their name) and the mission was in the bag. They are overpower units, too overpowered in my opinion.

[Sole Man]

I love that game, I have it within arm's reach of me right now.

Yeah, those minotuars (The things with the long range cannons) Were Hel, I always played Harkoen though. I'd just build up till I could get thier nuclear bombs and nue=ke the hell out of the enemy.

[Sole Man]

What the fuck...

The only thing I can think of is the way I was holding my hand. my ring finger naturally falls over the minus sign, the only thing I can think of is that somehow accidentally clicked the wrong button.

Or my computer hates me and put that there on purpose. Yeah, that's the most logical solution.

[trang]

Well I never got around to playing C&C but knew folks who liked it. If you refer to it as an RTS game, then include me in as a fan of those type games. I played the original dune game and Dune II and they were fun. I have played a few others as well that I enjoy (Starcraft, Warcraft, Lords Of Everquest, Ages of Empires, Ages of Mythology, Populas, Populas II)

I know about Emperor:Battle for Dune, just had not got around to getting it yet.

The info Dunenewt has given is interesting and will look into it.

Trang.

[Hunchback Jack]

What the fuck...

The only thing I can think of is the way I was holding my hand. my ring finger naturally falls over the minus sign, the only thing I can think of is that somehow accidentally clicked the wrong button.

Or my computer hates me and put that there on purpose. Yeah, that's the most logical solution.

Looks to me like you tried to backspace to get rid of the 'e', and hit '=' instead.

HBJ,
typo aficionado.

[Unfront]

I love that game, I have it within arm's reach of me right now.

Yeah, those minotuars (The things with the long range cannons) Were Hel, I always played Harkoen though. I'd just build up till I could get thier nuclear bombs and nue=ke the hell out of the enemy.

I love that game too. Not true to books however, still fun as hell.

Personally, I like to create my own battles. I will select an 8 person map. (I choose Atreides or Ordos (with Sardukaur!) and make everyone else Harkonnens. I will then set up a good defense and bide my time while the AI units attack each other (and me on occassion) all the while I just sit back and build up a huge army of Sardukaur. Once the army is 75 or more units, I will then raid the nearest Harkonen base, capture their construction center and build my own Harkonen base (complete with nuclear missle silo). Then I nue=ke all the other harkonens with their own technology.

Sometimes, I will build up an army of engineers (30 or more raiding party) and swamp each base and just "sell it out" from underneath them.

On occasion, I will leave an enemy spice refinery open and their infantry barracks operational. I will surround the barracks with my own units. As the barracks produces foot soldiers, they are immediatly killed by my units...thus building up my units strength points. I just call it a "training center".

[Lawliet]

That game came out in 2001...i want a new Dune game.

[inhuien]

That game came out in 2001...i want a new Dune game.

Have you seen the Civ 4 Dune mod?

[Lawliet]

That game came out in 2001...i want a new Dune game.

Have you seen the Civ 4 Dune mod?

Yes, i like it. But that's all that it is : a mod. I really want a brand new Dune game.

[inhuien]

And I want cocaine and hookers, its good to have ambition.

[Lawliet]

And I want cocaine and hookers, its good to have ambition.

Getting cocaine and hookers is easy. Making a videogame, not so much.

[inhuien]

Man, I live in Glasgow, the hookers are old and the cokes cut.

[Omphalos]

Man, I live in Glasgow, the hookers are old and the cokes cut.

Aye, Moraig! Come give me some sweetness, why dont'cha!