Dune II

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), was created specially for this game.

While not the first real-time strategy (RTS) game per se (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 Bob Bates. Game Developer's Market Guide, p. 141, Thomson Course Technology, 2003, ISBN 1592001041.. 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.

Plot

Emperor Frederick IV of House Corrino is desperate for the harvesting 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.

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 havester 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. 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 an unit passes 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

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.

Infantry and trooper units

Picture	Name	Description
Light Infantry	Soldiers with minimal protection and attack capabilities.
Heavy Troopers	Troopers have special power suits and heavy weapons and equipment.

Light Vehicles

Picture	Name	Description
Trike	A very fast and maneuverable three-wheeled vehicle with very limited protection. Useful for scouting.
Quad	A four wheeled vehicle, slower than the trike, but with much more armor and firepower.

Heavy Vehicles

Picture	Name	Description
Combat Tank	A medium-size tank, slower than light units but much better armored.
Siege Tank	A slower heavy tank, with double the armor and firepower.
Rocket Launcher	A moderate speed tank that can support the battle from a range firing rockets. It inflicts much damage, especially against units, and has longer range than turrets. But it fires inaccurately, especialy at short ranges

Support Vehicles

Picture	Name	Description
Harvester	Harvests melange from the spice fields. If the player loses his last one, another one is provided free of charge.
Carryall	A non-controlable transport aircraft, it can carry harvesters to the refinery and units to the repair center.
MCV (Mobile construction vehicle)	A mobile construction yard, allows construction and repositioning of bases.
Ornithopter	A very fast and non-controllable aircraft. Launches attrition attacks against the enemy base.

House specific units

Atreides

Picture	Name	Description
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.
Fremen	Native elite guerrillas, uncontrollable by the player, invoked from the Palace.

Harkonnen

Picture	Name	Description
Devastator	A inmmensely powerful nuclear-powered tank that self-destructs when in critical state or when ordered to.
Death Hand	A multiple head missile fired from the palace that can damage a vast area, but is very imprecise.

Ordos

Picture	Name	Description
Ordos Raider	A modified version of the trike; faster but with decreased protection.
Deviator	A missile tank that fires special nerve gas ammunition which can confuse units and change them to the player's side.
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 required 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).

Third party units

Picture	Name	Description
Sardaukar	The Sardaukar are elite troops belonging to the Emperor's House Corrino.
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.

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.

Support Buildings

Picture	Name	Description
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
Construction Yard	Builds all other buildings.	All
Spice Silo	Adds spice storing capacity to the base.	All
Starport	Allows the player to buy units delivered from orbit.	All
Windtrap	Wind energy stations that power all other buildings.	All
Refinery	Converts Spice from harvesters in credits and stores a limited quantity of spice.	All
Radar Outpost	Allows to view unit movements in the explored area of the minimap.	All
Repair Facility	Repairs damaged units.	All
House of IX	Makes house specific tanks and ornithopters available.	PC
Palace	Allows to use the house "superweapons" (Death Hand, Saboteur, Fremen).	All

Production and training buildings

light and heavy units)

Picture	Name	Description
Barracks	Trains light infantry.	All
WOR	Trains and arms heavy troopers.	All
Light Vehicle Factory	Manufactures light vehicles, such as Trikes and Quads.	PC
Heavy Vehicle Factory	Manufactures tanks, rocket launchers and specific house tanks (Devastator, Deviator, Sonic Tank).	All (in Mega Drive/Genesis manufactures
High-tech facility	Allows production of support non-controlable units, such as carryalls and ornithopters.	All

Defensive buildings

Picture	Name	Description
Wall	A 1x1 wall section that protects buildings.	All
Turret	An autonomous turret that tracks and fires bullets at incoming enemies.	All
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.

Interface

The Dune II interface is the basis for subsequent real-time strategy games, being the first to use the mouse for unit control, 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 Tiberian Dawn and Warcraft , 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.

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 Brian Schwab.AI Game Engine Programming, p. 107, Charles River Media. ISBN 1584503440.:

It will only attack the side of the player's base facing its base.
It is generally incapable of flanking or ambush maneouvers.
It does not build defenses once initial base construction is concluded.
It relies on several cheats, such as infinite credits and the ability to build unconnected buildings.

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 in 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.

Legacy

Dune II has become considered as the most influential game in the real-time strategy genre. While not all its characteristics were novel, such things as fog of war, its model of resource-extraction, base creation, and military micromanagement became the type of RTS that the genre is known for. Obvious influences 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.Tracy Fullerton, Chris Swain, Steven Hoffman,Game Design Workshop,p. 377, CMP Books, 2004, ISBN 1578202221

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 Battle for Dune was published.

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.
Ironically, "dune" terrain in the original game did not affect most units in any way. Oddly, it did provide a slight speed bonus to Rocket Launchers.
Mercenary units (and a few accompanying sound bites) were included in the game code, but never implemented.

Cheats

While there were no "built in" cheat codes for Dune II, game settings could easily be manipulated by editing the "sceanario.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 begining 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 Sabotuers could be purchased by the player regardless of what House was chosen. Unfortunatley, Deviators will always change the loyalty of targeted units to Ordos, even if the Deviator belongs to Atreides or Harkonnen.

Section of Dune II "Scenario.pak" file:

Quota=0

Credits=1500

Brain=Human

MaxUnit=25