DUNE 2000: LONG LIVE THE FIGHTERS! LATE BREAKING NEWS Copyright (c) 1998 Westwood Studios, Inc. All rights reserved. "Westwood Studios" is a trademark of Westwood Studios, Inc. "Dune" is a trademark and copyright of the Dino DeLaurentis Corporation. Licensed by Universal Studios Licensing, Inc. All rights reserved. August 8, 1998 For latest goodies, news and updates visit WWW.WESTWOOD.COM Contents: 1. General Information. 1.1. Microsoft DirectX. 2. Troubleshooting. 2.1. Known Video Card Problems 2.1.1. Error Message "Set Cooperative Level Returned - 2005532097" 2.1.2. Display only appears in top 1/3rd of screen. 2.1.3. Video Flicker during play. 2.1.4. "Scratchy" or distorted display. 2.2. Known Sound Card Problems 2.3. Install Problems. 2.3.1. Lockup during "Registering Dune 2000 and creating shortcuts in Start Menu" 2.3.2. Lockup while "Installation Complete" is displayed. 2.4. Uninstalling Dune 2000. 2.5. Virtual Memory Settings. 2.6. Microsoft PowerToys. 2.7. Microsoft Home Mouse and Natural Keyboard. 2.8. Autoplay. 2.9. 16 bit CD-ROM drivers. 2.10. Microsoft Office Toolbar. 2.11. Game or audio stutters after being paused. 2.12. Choppy movie performance. 2.13. Increasing performance on minimum spec systems. 2.14. Westwood Online. 2.14.1. Duplicate Channel columns. 2.14.2. 4 Player Internet Games 2.15. Multi-player problems. 2.16. Power Saving Modes. 2.17. HP Pavilion Computers.. 2.17.1. Background Applications 2.17.2. LT Win Modem 2.18. Game Updates and Patches. 2.19. Playing Without a Dune 2000 CD (spawning). 3. Gameplay Notes 3.1. Infantry Only Areas 3.2. Capturing Enemy Buildings - Part I 3.3. Capture Enemy Buildings - Part II 3.4. Spice controls the universe 3.5. Keep an eye out! 3.6. Turrets 3.7. Infantry 3.8. Use your strengths 3.9. Deviators 3.10. Hot keys 3.11 Multiplayer Handicapping 4. Unit Comparisons 1. General Information. 1.1. Microsoft DirectX. The Windows 95 version of Dune 2000 is a Microsoft DirectX application. Version 5.0a of Microsoft DirectX is included on the CD and you have the option to install it when Dune 2000 is installed. If you have difficulty running Windows 95 after these new Microsoft DirectX drivers have been installed, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary, or write: Microsoft Customer Sales and Service, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399, USA USA telephone: 1-800-426-9400 International telephone: ++1-206-882-8080 All Microsoft DirectX drivers are located in the Dxsetup folder off of the root of the CD. To reinstall the Microsoft DirectX drivers go into the Dxsetup folder and run Dxsetup.exe. You can explore the CD by choosing the "Explore the CD" option in the Autoplay title screen. Microsoft DirectX Direct Play. If you already have DirectX version 5.0 installed and did not install the DirectX drivers from the Dune 2000 CD please ensure you install the Direct Play 5.0a patch from the Dxsetup folder off of the root of the CD. This patches some bugs in the original Direct Play 5.0 release and will not affect any other products you may have that use Directx. 2. Troubleshooting. 2.1. Known Video Card Problems. Most video display problems can be corrected by installing the latest drivers for your particular card. Please consult your video card documentation for details on how to get the latest drivers for your card. Here are some hints and tips for specific video cards found while testing Dune 2000 under Windows 95 and Windows 98. 2.1.1. Error Message "Set Cooperative Level Returned - 2005532097" This message will appear on older video cards that do not support hardware page flipping. To solve the problem create a shortcut and add the option "-f" to the command line. A shortcut is created by right clicking on the Dune2000 program icon and selecting "Create Shortcut". Right click on the shortcut and select "Properties". Click on the end of the "target" line and add the new command line option. 2.1.2. Display only appears in top 1/3rd of screen. If this happens please add the "-g" option to the command line for Dune 2000. Please refer to 2.1.1 for details on how to do this. 2.1.3. Video Flicker during play If the video display flickers during the game every 20 seconds or so then this can be prevented by adding "-f" to the command line for Dune 2000. Please refer to 2.1.1 for details on how to do this . 2.1.4. "Scratchy" or distorted display. If the video display looks scratchy and there is no static image then please use the "-g" command line to fix this. You can also make sure that the driver for your monitor is correct as the monitor being incorrectly set for display modes it cannot handle causes this problem. 2.2 Known Sound Card Problems Crystal PnP Audio System on Dell Dimension XPS R400 The factory sound card settings on this system appear to be incompatible with Dune 2000, which will drop back to the Windows desktop, sometimes with a dialog stating, "Unable to create Direct Sound object". We have found that the following adjustments allow Dune 2000 to work perfectly on this system: Open the Control Panel under Settings on the Start menu. Open the Multimedia applet Click the Audio tab Select CS4236/37/38 as the Preferred Device Check the "Use Only Preferred Devices" option. Close the Multimedia applet and the Control Panel. 2.3. Install Problems 2.3.1. Lockup during "Registering Dune 2000 and creating shortcuts in Start Menu" Should the install program lockup while registering the Dune 2000 application then you may want to run the install program with the "-a" option. However this means that to play Internet games you must register the WOLAPI.DLL manually. The easiest way to do this is to go to start -> find and find the file regsvr32.exe. Then open the folder containing the Westwood Internet components, the default is c:\westwood\internet. Drag the wolapi.dll onto the regsvr32.exe icon. Wolapi.dll will now be registered. 2.3.2 Lockup while "Installation complete" is displayed. If the message "Installation complete" does not go away and closing the window produces the error "Setup is incomplete ..." please restart the setup application with the command switch "- b". To do this go to start->run, click browse and then locate the Dune 2000 CD. The setup.exe is on the root of the CD. Click OK and then add " -b" to the end of the line. It would look like this if your CDROM is your D: drive : "d:\setup.exe -b". 2.4. Uninstalling Dune 2000. After running the Uninstall program, if the Dune 2000 group is still present, try rebooting your computer. This should clean up the Dune 2000 start menu folder. 2.5. Virtual Memory Settings. Dune 2000 may need to use more RAM than is present on your system. Windows 95 automatically takes care of this by using what is known as "Virtual Memory" - it uses space on your hard disk to simulate the memory it needs and swaps data back and forth from your hard disk as required. Windows 95 allows you to manually set the amount of hard drive space it uses for Virtual Memory: WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU DO NOT DO THIS! To let Windows 95 manage the Virtual Memory, go to the Windows 95 START menu, select SETTINGS\CONTROL PANEL, then double-click SYSTEM, click PERFORMANCE\FILE SYSTEM\VIRTUAL MEMORY and then select "Let Windows manage my virtual memory settings (recommended)". 2.6. Microsoft PowerToys. If you have the Microsoft PowerToys system extensions installed on your system (including QuickRes and FlexiCD) you may experience excessive accessing of the CD followed by system lockup. If this happens, you should remove the Microsoft PowerToys while playing Dune 2000. 2.7. Microsoft Home Mouse and Natural Keyboard. If you are using a Microsoft Home Mouse, the Microsoft Natural Keyboard or are using Microsoft's IntelliPoint Tools and Controls Software, having the "Sonar" setting on under "Visibility" in the "Mouse Properties" section in the "Control Panel" can cause Dune 2000 to crash. Please turn this setting off when playing Dune 2000. Using the 'point' feature of the Microsoft keyboard may cause mouse trails to be left on screen. Do not use this feature while playing Dune 2000. 2.8. Autoplay. If your CD does not Autoplay when inserted in the drive, you may have this feature disabled. To Enable Autoplay, right click on 'My Computer' and select 'Properties' then 'Device Manager'. Select your CD-ROM drive and click 'Properties'. Select 'Settings' and check the 'Auto insert notification' box. 2.9. 16 bit CD-ROM drivers. Dune 2000 may fail to start if there is a 16 bit CD-ROM driver loaded from the AUTOEXEC.BAT or CONFIG.SYS. If you have references to MSCDEX or equivalent drivers then try removing them from your autoexec.bat and config.sys files. Windows 95 does not generally need these drivers to work and in most cases will actually perform better without them. 2.10. Microsoft Office Toolbar. If you make use of this feature of Microsoft Office and it appears over the game screen when playing Dune 2000 then you will have to disable the Office Toolbar before playing. 2.11. Game or audio stutters after being paused. If the game is left in the paused state with the game options menu up for an extended period of time, performance may be reduced for a while after play is resumed. This is due to Windows 95 giving the game's resources to other tasks while it is not being played. A possible symptom of poor video performance is that of the video freezing. If the video freezes the game has not crashed, just hit ESC to skip the movie. Try adjusting the settings cache settings and updating the video drivers to solve the freezing. 2.12. Choppy movie performance. If you find that the movie performance is choppy or jerky, try reducing the Windows 95 CD caching by going to the Start/Settings/Control Panel and double-clicking the System applet. In the System Properties dialog, click the Performance tab and then click the File System button. From the File System Properties dialog, click the CD-ROM tab and note the Supplemental Cache Size setting (so that you can reset the cache size if need be). Now set the Supplemental Cache Size to Small. This should have a marked effect on movie performance. 2.13. Increasing performance on minimum spec systems. If you are playing Dune 2000 on a minimum spec. system, we recommend playing the game in 8 bit mode, by selecting the option on the main menu, or by starting the game with the 8 bit icon in the start menu. You may also be able to improve performance by turning off in-game music scores. To do this, go to the in game options menu (select the options tab) and go to the sound controls section. Move the music volume slider all the way to the left to disable in-game music. Another option that sometimes speeds the game up, depending on the video card, is to use the "-f" command switch. Please see section 2.1.1 for details on how to do this. 2.14. Westwood Online. 2.14.1. Duplicate Channel names columns. We have found that certain versions of COMCTL32.DLL (the Windows common controls library which handles standard Windows interface elements) do not support certain Westwood Online features, which is most obvious in the user/channel list area when you will see repeated columns (e.g., you see each channel name listed twice). The solution to this is to update your COMCTL32.DLL and one way to do this is to install Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.02 or above. Alternatively, checkout Microsoft's web site at http://www.microsoft.com. 2.14.2. 4 Player Internet Games If you are playing more than 2 player internet games, we strongly recommend that you have a Pentium 200 or higher, as performance will be greatly improved. Playing in 8 bit will also help. 2.14.3. Modem Problems During multiplayer games if you recieve excessive pauses or messages telling you that the game is trying to reconnect it is possible that your modem and computer are not communicating effectively. Sometimes this is due to the modem to computer speed being set too high. Setting this to 56K rather than 112K on some machines will help a lot. 2.15. Multi-player problems If you experience disconnects while playing multi-player games or that games do not appear in the multi-player lobbies both on internet and local area networks please ensure you installed the Direct Play 5.0a patch from the Dxsetup folder off of the root of the CD. This patches some bugs in the original Direct Play 5.0 release and will not affect any other products you may have that use DirectX. You do not need to do this if you installed Direct X 5.0 from the Dune 2000 CD as it is done automatically. 2.16. Power Saving Modes. It is possible that your computer loses connection to your ISP due to long periods of inactivity. Sometimes this is caused by the sleep mode in your "Power Saving" options. This can cause problems during gameplay or when connected to Westwood Online. To avoid any problems please make sure that your screen saver or power-saving modes are set to enable after long delay times. 2.17. HP Pavallion Computers. We have found a number of problems whilst testing Dune 2000 on HP Pavallion Computers all of these can be fixed by adjusting user settings. We also saw a dramatic speed improvement when playing under Windows 98 rather than Windows 95 on these machines. 2.17.1. Background Applications Like all games, especially ones that can play over the internet, Dune 2000 puts a lot of demand upon your HP Pavallion Computer. Please close all tasks that are running in the background especially Find Fast and Media Indexer. Control panels for both these applications can be found in Start -> Settings -> Control Panel. Switch both to off. We have found cases where these applications launched every hour and this would cause a dramatic loss of performance when playing Dune 2000. 2.17.2. LT Win Modem If you experience excessive pauses during Please make sure you have the latest LT Win Modem drivers from http://www.hp.com . We have also found that for best performace during modem play or Internet play the HP Pavallion should be set to communicate to the LT Win Modem at 56K. To set this use Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Modems. Open the modems control panel by double clicking, select the modem, then click properties then set maximum speed to 57600. 2.18. Game Updates And Patches. Dune 2000 contains an auto updating feature. Updated versions of the game will be announced to you when playing Dune 2000 on Westwood Online. When an updated version of the game is available you will be able to receive it and automatically have it installed, if you wish. If you do not intend to play Dune 2000 on Westwood Online then please check HTTP://www.westwood.com for update information. 2.19. Playing Without a Dune 2000 CD (spawning). It is possible to join a network game if you do not have a Dune 2000 CD in your drive but you have installed the game. You do need a CD however to play an Internet, Practice or the Campaign game. Please do not remove the CD when Dune 2000 is playing a mission, as this will cause the game to fail. 3. Gameplay Notes. 3.1 Infantry Only Areas There are some areas on the battlefield that only infantry can pass. When you have only infantry selected, you will get a blue "move" cursor to indicate that you can move your infantry into and through that area. Vehicles will get a "no move" cursor. 3.2 Capturing Enemy Buildings - Part I Capturing enemy buildings will sometimes provide the ability to build structures or units not otherwise available. Capturing an enemy's Construction Yard will allow you to build that side's Palace and, in the case of the Atreides, the High Tech Factory (to generate Ornithopters). To acquire enemy units, you need to capture an enemy's Heavy Factory, and have all the prerequisite buildings. For example, if you capture an Atreides Construction Yard, you will be able to build an Atreides High Tech Factory, which allows you to build Ornithopters. You can also, if you have the appropriate prerequisite buildings, build an Atreides Palace, and create Fremen. If you capture an Atreides Heavy Factory, and already have the prerequisite buildings, you will be able to build the Sonic Tank. One exception to this rule: capturing the Emperor's construction yard will not allow you to build the Emperor's palace. 3.3 Capture Enemy Buildings - Part II Once you capture a building, if there is space, you can build concrete inside your enemy's base. This provides a very potent method of harassing an opponent (AI and Human). Because there is no way of telling what concrete is 'owned' by you, once somebody builds concrete inside your base, the only way to prevent him from building in your base is to quickly destroy the concrete he has built. Here are some suggestions to counter this tactic: Pay attention and keep engineers out! Siege Tanks, Trikes, and infantry are effective guards against a sneak attack. If somebody captures a building in your base, notice where it is, and destroy it quickly! If any new concrete springs up, destroy it! It is very easy to destroy concrete, but not all weapons work well against it. Siege Tanks and Trikes can destroy concrete quickly. Early in the game, build concrete around the critical areas of your base. This will prevent people from taking a remote building, and quickly building concrete into key areas of your base. If you've already built concrete, your enemy can't! If you don't have time to destroy the concrete, a last resort is to spread out units in areas you think your opponent might build. You can't build on top of an enemy unit! This will buy you time to destroy the concrete later. 3.4 Spice controls the universe To make sure that money is always available place your refineries as close to the spice as possible without exposing them to the enemy, always try to use carryalls when the spice is further away. The optimum is two harvesters per refinery anymore and they have to wait too long to unload. 3.5 Keep an eye out! Use scouts and the radar outpost to spot attacks on your harvesters early so you can get them back to your base or get some units out to defend them. Using the outpost to spot units early also comes in useful when the AI is using Saboteurs, as you can catch them before they cloak. In the later missions make sure you have infantry scattered around your base as they have the ability to reveal stealth units such as Fremen or Saboteurs. Be careful squishing Sardaukar - they will damage tanks as they run them over by exploding. 3.6 Turrets Using gun and rocket turrets in clusters is also a valid tactic, if your turrets are spread out along walls the AI will be able to concentrate against one at a time. Turrets are very effective except against infantry. When you have a cluster of turrets you should support them with Siege Tanks. Turrets and infantry are particularly effective against Deviators as they do not effect them. Turrets can be outranged by Siege Tanks and Missile Tanks, so you will need to keep a reserve to deal with this problem. 3.7 Infantry Standing troopers on infantry rock can be a useful tactic against most units except siege tanks and light infantry. It is probably best to run infantry away from siege tanks as they will annihilate them. Placing turrets near infantry rock and using them along with infantry can be very effective. 3.8 Use your strengths All units have their weaknesses as well as strengths so exploit them. For example, Devastators are vulnerable to Rocket Tanks that are constantly moving; Quads are particularly weak against Troopers. Also, each side has strengths and weaknesses. The Harkonnen are very powerful but slow, Atreides are average whereas the Ordos are quick but weak. 3.9 Deviators If a unit becomes deviated, control can be regained by firing at that unit. Each time the deviated unit is damaged the remaining time until the player regains control is reduced. This means it is best to attack it with weapons that fire rapidly but do little damage. Sonic tanks can be very effective against Deviators, but they need to be used in pairs. 3.10 Hot keys You can switch your cursor to the 'repair' cursor automatically by pressing "t" - and similarly, you can switch to the 'sell' cursor by pressing "y." In the heat of battle, this can be extremely helpful. Also, if you right click on the up and down arrows, the icons will move an entire screen upward or downward, which can save time in finding the unit or structure you want to build. You can use the function keys to communicate with other players during the multiplayer games. F1 through F5 sends messages to individual users, F6 sends a message to everyone, F7 responds to a Westwood Online page and F8 enables or disables incoming pages. 3.11 Multiplayer Handicapping In multiplayer games, it is possible to give yourself or your opponent an advantage through Dune 2000's handicapping system. This system provides a way for players of different skill levels to be able to enjoy games together on a more equal footing. In the multiplayer game setup screen, each player has an icon next to the user name with either one, two or three stars. This icon describes the handicap level of the player. The handicap effects the prices of buildings and units in the game. One star means that player has a price advantage compared to the default setting of two stars. Three stars increases prices over the default. Only the host of a multiplayer game can change player's handicap levels - but each player must approve the settings before the host can launch the game. 4. Unit Comparisons Unit Side Armor Health Cost Tech --------- -------- -------- ------ ---- ---- Light Inf All Infantry 600 50 1 Trooper All Infantry 700 90 3 Engineer All Infantry 500 400 4 Thumper All Infantry 375 200 7 Sardaukar Emperor Infantry 1000 120 6 Fremen Atreides Infantry 700 N/A 7 Saboteur Ordos Infantry 400 N/A 6 Harvester All Heavy 4500 1200 1 Trike Atr. & Hark. None 900 300 2 Raider Ordos None 1000 350 2 Quad All Light 1100 400 3 Atr. Combat Tank Atreides Heavy 2100 700 4 Hark. Combat Tank Harkonnen Heavy 2700 700 4 Ord. Combat Tank Ordos Heavy 1800 700 4 MCV All Light 4500 2000 4 Missile Tank Atr. & Hark. None 1300 900 5 Siege Tank All Light 1200 700 6 Sonic Tank Atreides Light 3000 1000 7 Devastator Tank Harkonnen Heavy 5000 1050 7 Deviator Ordos None 1100 1000 7 Carryall All Light 4800 1100 5 Ornithopter Atreides Light 900 N/A 7 Note - cost is at medium difficulty level.