Dune Legacy (PC, 2016)
Graphics-7 Sound-7.5 Control-7.5 Challenge-7* Story-6
Level Design-7 Frustration-7* Fun-7* Originality-7.5
Overall Score-7
*qbot medium AI
+
Control improvements (box selection and multiple unit selection with shift+LMB, double click to select all units of one type, control groups, right-click commands, build & train queues, some new stances/behaviors for units (hunt - goes after the nearest enemy on its own, guard area - larger reaction range, stop (doesn't fire nor approach), ambush - ?, retreat), more responsive units?, factory and construction yards cycle keys (F/G), repair/capture/return harvester/carryall drop/upgrade building hotkeys, C&C-style sidebar menu for building and training with separate ones for the construction yard and other buildings, production building rally points)
Higher resolutions and three levels of zoom (F1-F3)
New game options (toggles: start with explored map, buildings degrade after a power outage even if on concrete, respawning sandworms, killed sandworms drop spice, manual carryall drops (D key), concrete required to avoid damage when placing buildings, fog of war, instant build times, rocket turrets need power, unlimited unit cap (each mission has a different set number by default which is relatively small here), only one palace per house/faction limit, )
Improved AI options (9 different scripts, qbot medium does flank attacks, aerial deep strikes and is quite good at macro)
Skip ahead feature (10+ seconds - F4-F6)
Online MP
Map editor
Separate SFX and music toggles (no separate volume sliders though)
Rocket launchers have better aim at a distance
See Dune 2
Buildings can be placed one tile further apart, allowing for faster base crawling/expansion/spreading out
+/-
Upgrade icons are now placed in the C&C style sidebar menu and they are tied to relevant buildings (minor issue with upgrades - see below)
Having a starport lets you go past the unit cap (kinda strange) but eventually a unit type becomes sold out (after 10? - however it later restocks again)
Can pause (space) and give orders while the game is paused
Need to surround a repair facility with walls/other buildings/units to make a carryall consistently return the vehicle to where it was picked up?
Spice doesn't regenerate (but you can make sandworms respawn+drop spice when killed)
Can't repair ornithopters (they're still pretty overpowered though - final mission is basically over once you have 5 of them unless you got unlucky with the death hand missile attacks)
-
Buildings are destroyed way too quickly by single tanks (walls too considering how long they take to build)
Caryalls are too good in the AI's hands (qbot medium, efficient repairs+quickly reinforces their front with tanks dropped behind yours)
Overly aggressive sandworms in that there's barely any delay between attacks so they can take out a handful of units in quick succession (the wormsign warning messages also happen a bit too late making it near impossible to react in time at higher game speeds). However they only eat about three units so you can feed them with infantry
Some interface/control issues (no unit waypoints (order queues), no building hotkeys besides for placing a complete building and no unit stance hotkeys (guard, etc), no stop command that doesn't make your units not fire (this should be added along with a hotkey), no attack area command (Warcraft 2), can't access the new game options while in-game, still can't place concrete slabs like zoning in SimCity or walls in later C&C games, can't see how much a building upgrade costs or what it does beforehand, ornithopters don't reveal more of the map but can still be landed in the black shroud - this makes it impossible to select them again unless you've set them to a control group)
No MT-32 or GM support
Infantry is kind of painfully slow making capturing buildings a bit tedious and tricky to time right (need to lower their health to red while the enemy is repairing or you just do a bit of damage instead) - no infantry transporters
Harvester AI still goes into enemy territory if you don't pay attention
Some units fire further than they can see meaning they fire into the black unexplored land tiles
Can't sell nor destruct buildings
Fremen kinda suck and saboteurs are meh
Bugs:
-Harvesters can glitch out when returning and stay at the refinery without dropping off their cargo (you also lose control over them while they're there so you can't manually fix it)
-The starport can glitch out and start displaying negative numbers for an order, then not let you reset the counter to 0 (this lead to me accidentally ordering tons of harvesters in one mission and then not being able to order anything else nor get rid of them without also destroying my repair bay)
-Not sure if it's a bug but couldn't build ornithopters from the hi-tech factory in the final atreides mission (only order them from the starport)
Notes:
-Beat it as Atreides
Level Design-7 Frustration-7* Fun-7* Originality-7.5
Overall Score-7
*qbot medium AI
+
Control improvements (box selection and multiple unit selection with shift+LMB, double click to select all units of one type, control groups, right-click commands, build & train queues, some new stances/behaviors for units (hunt - goes after the nearest enemy on its own, guard area - larger reaction range, stop (doesn't fire nor approach), ambush - ?, retreat), more responsive units?, factory and construction yards cycle keys (F/G), repair/capture/return harvester/carryall drop/upgrade building hotkeys, C&C-style sidebar menu for building and training with separate ones for the construction yard and other buildings, production building rally points)
Higher resolutions and three levels of zoom (F1-F3)
New game options (toggles: start with explored map, buildings degrade after a power outage even if on concrete, respawning sandworms, killed sandworms drop spice, manual carryall drops (D key), concrete required to avoid damage when placing buildings, fog of war, instant build times, rocket turrets need power, unlimited unit cap (each mission has a different set number by default which is relatively small here), only one palace per house/faction limit, )
Improved AI options (9 different scripts, qbot medium does flank attacks, aerial deep strikes and is quite good at macro)
Skip ahead feature (10+ seconds - F4-F6)
Online MP
Map editor
Separate SFX and music toggles (no separate volume sliders though)
Rocket launchers have better aim at a distance
See Dune 2
Buildings can be placed one tile further apart, allowing for faster base crawling/expansion/spreading out
+/-
Upgrade icons are now placed in the C&C style sidebar menu and they are tied to relevant buildings (minor issue with upgrades - see below)
Having a starport lets you go past the unit cap (kinda strange) but eventually a unit type becomes sold out (after 10? - however it later restocks again)
Can pause (space) and give orders while the game is paused
Need to surround a repair facility with walls/other buildings/units to make a carryall consistently return the vehicle to where it was picked up?
Spice doesn't regenerate (but you can make sandworms respawn+drop spice when killed)
Can't repair ornithopters (they're still pretty overpowered though - final mission is basically over once you have 5 of them unless you got unlucky with the death hand missile attacks)
-
Buildings are destroyed way too quickly by single tanks (walls too considering how long they take to build)
Caryalls are too good in the AI's hands (qbot medium, efficient repairs+quickly reinforces their front with tanks dropped behind yours)
Overly aggressive sandworms in that there's barely any delay between attacks so they can take out a handful of units in quick succession (the wormsign warning messages also happen a bit too late making it near impossible to react in time at higher game speeds). However they only eat about three units so you can feed them with infantry
Some interface/control issues (no unit waypoints (order queues), no building hotkeys besides for placing a complete building and no unit stance hotkeys (guard, etc), no stop command that doesn't make your units not fire (this should be added along with a hotkey), no attack area command (Warcraft 2), can't access the new game options while in-game, still can't place concrete slabs like zoning in SimCity or walls in later C&C games, can't see how much a building upgrade costs or what it does beforehand, ornithopters don't reveal more of the map but can still be landed in the black shroud - this makes it impossible to select them again unless you've set them to a control group)
No MT-32 or GM support
Infantry is kind of painfully slow making capturing buildings a bit tedious and tricky to time right (need to lower their health to red while the enemy is repairing or you just do a bit of damage instead) - no infantry transporters
Harvester AI still goes into enemy territory if you don't pay attention
Some units fire further than they can see meaning they fire into the black unexplored land tiles
Can't sell nor destruct buildings
Fremen kinda suck and saboteurs are meh
Bugs:
-Harvesters can glitch out when returning and stay at the refinery without dropping off their cargo (you also lose control over them while they're there so you can't manually fix it)
-The starport can glitch out and start displaying negative numbers for an order, then not let you reset the counter to 0 (this lead to me accidentally ordering tons of harvesters in one mission and then not being able to order anything else nor get rid of them without also destroying my repair bay)
-Not sure if it's a bug but couldn't build ornithopters from the hi-tech factory in the final atreides mission (only order them from the starport)
Notes:
-Beat it as Atreides