Completed Let's play Dune

[omega21]

Thanks. Battles with zero losses? Sounds like the real book then, it was hilarious how much the Fremen stomped everyone. And yeah I get how it was supposed to be an allegory and all, yada yada

 

[abnaxus]

In the books womyn and children even beat Sardaukar.

 

[Ulminati]

The women threw their children at the sardaukar :3

 

[omega21]

Also they could operate ornis with no training whatsoever.

 

[Great Deceiver]

 

[Abelian]

13. The Green Menace

To the working planetologist, his most important tool is human beings.
Pardot Kynes, Imperial Planetologist

Last time:

Spoiler

Paul: You know, you’ve had almost four weeks to inspect this palace at your leisure. [come with me]

Paul: Whatever. [stop talking]

We go to the only room that’s left to find. The palace has eleven rooms total. What’s the point of looking for secret rooms if you already know where they are? It may be more difficult to find the map (figuring out the red dot is clickable) than the hidden rooms themselves.

Were the developers seriously worried players would get lost or frustrated from having to brute-force through fewer than a dozen rooms?

In the novel, Jessica did find a hidden greenhouse in the palace, but it happened right after arriving on Dune.

Paul: You’re a big waste of water. [stop talking]

Paul: Have it your way. I’ve found all the hidden room and you won’t leave the palace, so I won’t need you as a companion for the foreseeable future. Get it, foreseeable future? Prescience? Never mind. [stay here]

A reminder to show the greenhouse to Chani:

Paul: Actually, you didn’t. When I asked you what the secret was, your exact words were: “Don’t ask me what… I don’t know!”

Paul: You’re comparing me to your father? Don’t tell me you have daddy issues… [talk to me]

Paul: Whoa, slow down girl. We’ve known each other for barely a week and you want me to meet your father? [talk to me]

Paul: WHAT?! Stilgar, you manipulative bastard. And I thought you were being a righteous wingman. [talk to me]

Paul: Well, I already introduced you to mom, so I guess I can’t back out. [stop talking]

That was Duncan in the background, by the way. I wanted to see if he makes any comments regarding to greenhouse, but he didn’t.

If we don’t have Stilgar as a companion, Chani reminds us to bring him along.

Paul: I’m sure you’d like that, you old fag.

Keeping the prospectors gainfully employed.

We find Oxtyn-Timin on our way to Oxtyn-Tabr. This Fremen chief also has a unique intro speech:

Classic Cryo translation

Paul: I’ll give you guys a revival, alright. There’s going to be a bad moon rising with a mouse on it.

This is one of the game’s largest Fremen troops, so we’ll have them specialize in army.

Paul: Yup. Wait, your dad was here all along? [talk to me]

Paul: You know, you could have just showed me the location on the map. [talk to me]

As you may have noticed, I’m still using the orni because in order to call a worm, Paul needs to be in the desert and he’s almost always indoors, so it’s easier to choose “take an orni” from the Dune Map, whereas he needs to be outside in order to call a worm from the map screen. Also, the worm summoning animation takes longer than the orni liftoff (which is sometimes skipped).

We reach Oxtyn-Tabr and meet Liet Kynes, the imperial planetologist.
Note the Stilgar is not in the party. I was curious what would happen if we didn’t bring Stilgar along. Also, you can tell that I’m taking my time in the main playthrough, since the day counter is only 19 in some of the next screenshots.

Cutscene:

Paul: Hey, you kinda look like a mad scientist.

Paul: Stilgar?!

Paul: What do mean you brought him someone?

Paul: Don’t take this the wrong way, but do you use human test subjects?

Paul: Stilgar! You lured me into an ambush? Was it the fact that I constantly insinuated you’re into dudes?

Paul: OHGAWDPLEASENO

Paul: Mommy.

Paul: Oh, I get it. These experiments are research for the secret weapon. It’s like that thing Thufir was talking about.
End of cutscene.

Oh, Cryo, you never let the absence of characters get in the way of the plot, do you?
At least they don’t make us go back a fetch Stilgar just so he gets to say his one line of dialogue.

We try going forward.

Paul: I thought you were telling me everything. [stop talking]


Chani: I’m glad to see my father.

Paul: Ignoramuses! [talk to me]
flashback from update 8
Stillsuit maker: Ha, ha, Paul Atreides, you seem to be much interested in spice!
Paul: It’s kind of the only reason anyone visits this hellhole planet…
/flashback

Paul: A fool’s errand if you ask me. True love needs to be unconditional. So many people enter relationships thinking “I’ll get the other person to change” and maybe they can to an extent, but they’ll revert to their old ways. I should know, plenty of girls tried that on me. [talk to me]

”Huge Dune saga spoiler”

That was an inside joke on the fate of Dune’s terraformation project.

This is how Dune was conceived by Frank Herbert. He was researching how grasses can help reduce desertification for an article on the Oregon Dunes. The article was never finished and was published decades later in The Road to Dune, which also includes an early draft of Dune, called Spice Planet.

Chani: I’m glad to see my father.

Paul: Man, don’t talk to me about that dude’s bulbs. [talk to me]

Paul: Ha ha, very funny, Stil. You’re not suggesting we use biological warfare, are you? Get it, biological? Bu seriously, you’re not suggesting we destroy the spice? Do remember that spice it by far the most valuable substance in the whole universe and that it can only be found here, on Dune. [talk to me]

We follow Liet Kynes in the next room, which is not a room at all, but a garden.

Paul: Uh, so you’re really suggesting fighting the Harkonnen with flower power? [talk to me]

Paul: How many Fremen would you like to work on your bulbs? [talk to me]

Paul: Don’t you mean work under you? [talk to me]

Paul: What about Liet Kynes’ father, Pardot Kynes? He was Imperial Planetologist before his son and married a Fremen woman. Gotcha. [talk to me]

First, we do it the wrong way.

Paul: Sure! [accept]

Paul: Whoa. Psychedelic.

Paul: I’ll pass. I’m not drinking that stuff until I find out what it is. Since only Reverend Mothers use it, it could be some weird feminine hygiene product for all I know. [refuse]

The same three options are presented in all negotiations. In this case, choosing “Argue” has the same effect as choosing “Refuse”.

Chani’s comment is based on another character’s quote from the novel.

[stay here]

Stilgar, Gurney or Harah would say the same thing if we told them to sit in the reservoir.
The YYMV: Dune page on TV Tropes mentions: “It's also perfectly possible to tell Stilgar to remain in a place which you can only enter with him (the windtrap with Water of Life), and then leave. Since he is a Required Party Member at some points of the game, you can't win anymore.”

One mistake is the fact that any sietch with a windtrap also has Water of Life, and there are quite a few of them. For storytelling purposes, I omitted to show that as soon as we gain Stilgar as a companion, we can enter the reservoirs (only if the Fremen accept to work for us, which they will now that we have Stilgar) or tell the fremen troop to leave the sietch and they won’t refuse. The conversation in the catchbasin would have been the same.

The TV Tropes quote refers to the sietches where the chiefs wouldn’t allow us to go to the back room. The secret room is actually another water reservoir. Since Stilgar can’t be abandoned at the reservoir, the situation described is impossible to achieve.

A difference between the game and the novel is that in the novel, every sietch had a windtrap, catchbasin and Water of Life (they need water for drinking and Water of Life for Reverend Mothers). This was probably a deliberate choice, since building windtraps is part of the ecology gameplay.

We fly from Sihaya-Tuek to one of the new sietches added by Kynes, Sihaya-Harg.

Paul: Hey, another normal-looking Fremen. [talk to me]

We’ll humor the old man and let him run his vegetation experiments.

I forgot to take a screenshot, but I sent the troop to Kynes’ sietch to help him grow bulbs, which ecology troops will be able to carry to sietches with windraps/water reservoirs and plant them there.

This guy has a large troop, so we assign army training instead.

I sent the prospectors ahead to one of the new sietches.

We return to the new sietches that Kynes added to our map.

This guy is from the Habbanya region in the south, and I forgot about him.

We assign this troop to spice-mining, since the south is rich in spice.

We go back to this naib who said earlier that he doesn’t see the point of working for us.

Paul: Well, you blew your first chance and I removed your harvester, so that means you’re in the army now.

We stop by a smuggler to buy some weapons. We drive a hard bargain.

We go back to the palace and tell Duncan to pay the smuggler.

Jessica: You’ve been invited to drink the Water of Life… Hmmm… You were right not to try… I’ve heard about it but not much… Listen, I’m going to investigate.
Paul: Oh, good. For once I’m not the one who is supposed to search for information. [stop talking]

I’m not sure what the trigger for this event is, but I think there’s a timer that starts after meeting Liet Kynes.

Stilgar says the same thing.

When Chani says epidemic, she’s not kidding. If we wait around too long, the disease will spread to other sietches and the Fremen will simply sit around until we take care of it.

From my experience, the disease starts at the sietch with most Fremen troops, so it’s probably wise to spread your army troops in multiple sietches to avoid having a large chunk of forces out of commission.

We recruit another troop from one of the sietches Kynes added to the map.

We actually have to make him join us before he’ll allow us in the catchbasin.

We send this small troop to Liet Kynes to work on the ecology projects.

We reach the recently-conquered sietch, Bledan-Timin.

Paul: So you think you can cure an unknown disease that affects a few thousand men in a couple of days? Let Thufir handle the mentat projections, alright? [stop talking]

Paul: I’ve brought halp. [stop talking]

Paul: Stil, she wants the D.
… suddenly leaving her with thousands of sick men sounds like a bad idea. [stop talking]

We recruit some more volunteers from the newly discovered sietches:

Paul: Ugh, this day’s not been going so well…

Paul: Fan-freaking-tastic.

Paul: Don’t we all.

Pau: Wow, that was really close. I could do with some good news right about now. [accept]

Paul:

Paul:

”Wormriding in CD version”

The last update was a little short, so I’m adding some bonus screenshots from the CD version.

The palace at night.

Summoning a worm at twilight. This is an example of how the dunes in the worm animation look strange because they don’t change color based on the time of day, unlike the rest of the game. The fainting/death animation has the same issue.

Also, the dunes in the animation are the ones from the DOS version, not the 3D rendered dunes usually used in the CD version.

As I mentioned, I don’t really like the flat, monochromatic sky in the orni and worm travel sequences on the CD version, but the worm travel is better implemented than the orni since the travel loop is not as evident. Ironically, the next three screenshots managed to capture the exact same dunes in the travel loop at different times of day.

The DOS version dealt with rocky areas by just placing rocky outcroppings. The CD version added mountains for orni travel, but worms can’t travel on rocky terrain, so it’s been removed from the worm travel sequence.

Riding a worm at different times of day.
Evening:

Morning:

Day:

Evening:

Night:

I’m guessing the next few screenshots are supposed to take place during one of those strange red nights (see the very last screenshot, which is definitely at night):

 

[abnaxus]

The upcoming part never worked for me, considering Fremen womyn and children can beat Sardaukar in the books...

Spoiler

so no way some Harkonnen faggot can kidnap Chani

 

[34scell]

Yeah, they're basically sand ewoks

 

[Abelian]

Yeah, they're basically sand ewoks

You mean Tusken raiders are Fremen with the serial numbers filed off, right?

 

[34scell]

Tusken raiders couldn't take over the universe in hand-to-hand combat

 

[Irenaeus]

Great LP. I love this game (and novel).

 

[Abelian]

14. Water of Life

Father... father, the sleeper has awakened!
Paul Atreides, Dune film

Last time:

Spoiler

Power ballad time (except that in the song the male singer is the one who is chained, and only metaphorically)

Paul: Screw that, what about my motivation? [stop talking]

Paul: Pup? How appropriate! You fight like a bitch.

“Extra Feyd screenshots”

Since we don’t get to see too much of Feyd during the game, here are a few more of his facial expressions. Feyd and Shaddam IV have the most animated faces in the game.

First, some appropriate stalker music, courtesy of Feyd Sting.

Paul: You already said that two weeks ago. Don’t you have anything new to say? [talk to me]

Paul: I meant something useful. [talk to me]

Paul: And you suspect this because… reasons? [talk to me]

Paul: Oh, so we’re guessing now? OK, it’s my turn: my guess is that you’re just dicking around here instead of doing actual work. Here’s an idea: why don’t I use my Mentat Master of Assassins to try to locate her? Oh, wait, he can’t even conduct basic espionage to find out about Harkonnen attacks. [talk to me]

Paul: That’s right, I forgot I have to do everything around here. Can’t you at least come and help me look for Chani? [come with me]

Paul: Right. Just make sure you don’t go blind from all that “analyzing” all the “elements” in your hand. Are you sure you understood “come with me” correctly? [come with me]

Paul: Hey, they were your words, not mine. [stop talking]

Actually, I never saw this reaction until today since most characters repeat the same reply when refusing to join you, while Thufir alternates between these two.

The Duke also has two ways of declining to join Paul:
“No, I have to stay here!” (default reply)
“There’s no use for you to insist, Paul, I have to stay here.”

Paul: Hopefully I won’t get the Fremen no-pattern male baldness. [stop talking]

I was able to capture a sabotage message this time:

Paul: Not if you don’t watch your language!

Paul: So what you’re saying is that you’re going to have your hands on your equipment all day long?

We send out a couple of spies from the recently conquered sietches in the Bledan region north of Ergsun.

Paul: I know the Harkonnen are twisted sadists, but were you honestly expecting armless soldiers?

Paul: Dude, I get that you miss Chani and remember her from when she was a baby, can you get a little motivated before this attack?

Even though he’s the guy from the last update, I picked this Fremen leader randomly. They all have low morale now because Chani is gone and the vegetation has not started growing yet to compensate for that.

In order to give the Fremen a morale boost, we join the battle.

Paul: Good job capturing the abandoned fortress. You want a medal for that?

Paul: Since we’re winning so easily, do you mind leading this battle while I check out the other fortress? [stay here]

Paul: Stil, I’m sure Thufir would have a field day analyzing this Harkonnen erection. And by analyzing I mean what I meant in the conversation with Thufir earlier.

This Fremen looks just like one from the start of this update (the one I commented on having a normal-looking haircut back in update 8). If he would have been captured and we had just rescued him, he would have said "These Harkonnens... they caught us. We'll try to do our best in the future." as seen in update 11.

Fremen are hard-coded to specific sietches and the one we found in update 8 is in Habbanya region near the south pole, so he couldn’t have been captured by the Harkonnen before we got to him.

We go to pick up Gurney and move him to the newly-conquered fortress to continue training the Fremen.

Here are the current results. Since last time I showed the results of day 25, we’ve surpassed the Harkonnen in controlled areas and spice production. Our charisma has also increased from 45 to 52 and the number of men has increased from 23K to 40K.

The Harkonnen still have two of our sietches north-east of the palace, though.

We buy another orni for a spice harvesting troop.

This is how Paul looks with his eyes fully blue.

Paul: Eww, gross. Good thing I didn’t drink it earlier. Let me see where you looked it up. [talk to me]

I deliberately withheld the definition of Water of Life from the Terminology of the Imperium:

WATER OF LIFE: an "illuminating" poison (see Reverend Mother). Specifically, that liquid exhalation of a sandworm (see Shai-hulud) produced at the moment of its death from drowning which is changed within the body of a Reverend Mother to become the narcotic used in the sietch tau orgy. An "awareness spectrum" narcotic.

Paul:
The Fremen will worship me for drinking that disgusting bile? What is this, a reality show? Though, I’ve got to admit, the associated “tau orgy” piqued my interest. By the way, Chani and I are technically on a break, right? [stop talking]

The Water of Life scene is present in the book, film and video game, but in each case it occurs under different circumstances, with different characters present and a blackout length ranging from three hours to three weeks.

I forgot to mention that by riding a worm, it is possible to cross into Harkonnen territory without being automatically killed as when travelling by orni. When Paul arrives at a fortress, the screen flashes white and a new death message is displayed:

It is also possible to ride a worm to the Harkonnen palace. For some reason it looks like a regular fortress when approaching it by worm; see the minimap in the top-right hand corner. The death message is the same as above.

We attack a fortress in the Tsympo region, near the Ergsun and Bledan regions.

Paul: You know the drill, Duncan.

Paul: DUNCAAAAN!!!


It seems I actually forgot to bring Duncan in the comm room after accepting to make the payment the previous day.

I forgot to visit Liet Kynes after sending some Fremen to help him with growing bulbs. He would have said:
Liet: “Fremen do help me to get these bulbs ready. Muad’Dib, the dream comes true!”

Paul: That’s dynamite. Listen, I hate to be the bearer of bad news and dampen your enthusiasm, but Chani’s been missing for the past week. And by missing I mean taken prisoner by Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen. And by taken prisoner I mean likely forced to join his harem or bordello. Say, do you happened to have any of that Water of Lifeless Sandworm laying around here?

Paul: Not really, but my mom made me. Shut up. [accept]

Paul: See you on the dark side of the moon.

Paul: Nie wiem, kim jesteś. Co się ze mną stało?

Paul: Nudzę się. Chcę znaleźć pirata i kupić kontrabandy.

Paul: Czuję się bardzo silny.

Paul: Czy to oznacza, nieograniczone dane, bezpłatne SMS-ów i bez roamingu?

We can now communicate with Fremen across the entire planet, which will eliminate travelling to get into contact range. Funnily enough, after consuming the Water of Life, the player can’t actually do this until talking to Jessica.

Here are our current results.

We continue scouting Harkonnen fortresses. There is also a liberated fremen troop we forgot to visit.

When sending a Fremen troop to do espionage, the troop will head to the nearest fortress whose territory shares a border with the troop’s current sietch. If we attempt to send another troop to do espionage before the first one reaches its target, we get this message:

We go to recruit the Fremen troop.

Paul: Jak szybko można rozpocząć pracę dla mnie?

I sent too few Fremen to ensure a flawless victory, so Paul joins the battle to provide a morale boost.

Paul: Dziękuję.

After winning, we recruit another Fremen troop and go to fetch Gurney to the new sietch.

Here are six of the sietches we conquered.

I finally remember about the ecology side of the game. Ecology troops need to pick up a bulb from Dr. Kynes’ sietch, then plant them in a sietch that has a windtrap/catchbasin. If a sietch does not have a windtrap, we can make the ecology troop build one and it will slowly accumulate water over time.

Oh, Cryo

This is the only Fremen chief I know that has brown hair. He also has a unique hairstyle/beard. I find it rather strange that Cryo reused at least three Fremen portraits when they could have easily added more variety by reusing this guy’s hair color/beard/male pattern baldness in other combinations.

He’s got a large troop so we assign him to the army.

We’re starting to reap the fruits of our the Fremen’s labor.

We fly to take a look at the new vegetation.

We have enough Fremen army troops to attack two fortresses at once.

Both are easy victories.

Fremen troops will refuse to go to the palace or smuggler villages. As opposed to smuggler villages, Fremen chiefs refuse to go to the palace even if they need an orni and the only nearby one is located there.

We’re fairly close to the Harkonnen palace now.

The Emperor’s demands keep increasing.

We identify our next target.

Paul:
Your face and the sounds of battle triggered me! What happened, where am I? Why is it so dark? [talk to me]

This Fremen looks identical to the one from Carthag-Turk at the start of the game.

Speaking of which, I was able to find three pairs of Fremen who look identical. There is also the guy who looks similar to the stillsuit maker, but I actually noticed a difference in the way their mouths were drawn, as mentioned earlier.

Here’s some other random stuff:
Attempting to move a troop to a sietch that already has 7 troops.

Fremen comments on removing their harvester and orni, respectively.

This is an example of Fremen comments when they’re losing a battle. This was a spice-harvesting troop, so they couldn’t defend themselves.

After conquering a fortress, Fremen troops will work a couple of days converting it into sietch and they cannot be moved while doing so:

Here is a weird bug I found:

Basically we tell Duncan to make a shipment, which he doesn’t, then receive a thank you note from the Emperor, who still wants the full amount by the end of the day.

This occurs when we keep Duncan as a companion and wait until the next spice shipment. Duncan will only accompany us when we accept to send a spice shipment to Shaddam IV and right after the shipment is complete (he leaves the party automatically when making the spice shipment in the comm room).

If we leave the palace afterward, Duncan will not join as a companion until the Emperor’s next request. If we try to leave the palace by either ornithopter or sandworm, he will automatically return to the palace.

I had Duncan join again after finishing the spice shipment and then waited in the desert for a few days, until the Emperor demanded the next shipment. I then talked to Duncan and accepted the shipment. Since we were already in the comm room, the spice shipment cutscene did not trigger, but we did get the above-mentioned confirmation message from the Emperor.

The spice quantity was not deducted from our stocks and the Emperor was still demanding the previous quantity, so this bug doesn’t affect the game. Even if it’s unintentional, it makes it look like the Emperor is sarcastically thanking Paul for not making the payment.

Finally, since I was talking about Duncan joining the party, here are his replies after being made to stay in the desert (he will disappear from the party and wait for Paul on the palace steps):

 

[Storyfag]

So when will the Emperor inevitably stab us in the back?

 

[abnaxus]

I didn't know about that dialogue with Duncan in the desert.

 

[Abelian]

So when will the Emperor inevitably stab us in the back?

Sorry to dissapoint, but he actually doesn't. As you've noticed, the single largest difference between the novel/film and the video game plots so far is the lack of the Sardaukar attack. This influenced the plot in many ways, such as the circumstances of Leto's death and there no longer being a need for Wellington Yueh or Piter De Vries.

 

[Abelian]

15. Conquest of Dune

Mood's a thing for cattle and loveplay, not fighting!
Gurney Halleck

Last time:

Spoiler

I forgot what I purchased in this transaction.

We send spies to two fortresses near Arrakeen.

Paul: You know, I’ve been buying stuff almost exclusively from the smuggler near the palace. I think he can afford to spare some free items every now and then. Think of it as a customer loyalty reward. [argue]
Duncan: Hmm… er… I understand that you have more important things to think about now…
Paul: I wonder if he can get me some kielbasa. I’ve been wanting some ever since drinking that worm piss or whatever it was. [talk to me]
Duncan: I hope he’ll wait…
Paul: Considering the way the balance of power is shifting on this planet, I’m sure he will. [stop talking]

Paul: Don’t you mean “Ya hya chouhada”?

We now control three times as much territory as the Harkonnen and produce more than thrice as much spice. The number of men looks balanced, but once we get seven expert military troops with the best weapons available, nothing can really stop us, since the max number of troops that can go to a sietch or attack a fortress is seven. That’s about 10K-14K men.

We visit Arrakeen-Tuek.

I forgot about him in the last update, but this guy looks like the Fremen chief in Carthag-Tuek at the start of the game.

Paul: Jackpot! I wonder if I can sell some of these extra ornithopthers to the smugglers.

You’ll notice two new weapons next to the mouse cursor: weirding modules and atomics.

The game borrows the weirding modules from the movie, though that yellow bottle-shaped icon doesn’t resemble the maroon boxy pistols from David Lynch’s adaptation. The weirding modules represent one of the biggest differences between the film and the novel.

Weirding modules are sonic-based weapons introduced by the film. The Westwood Dune RTS games would feature sonic tanks for the Atreides as a nod to the film, while Emperor: Battle for Dune also included Fremen fedaykin (death commandos) armed with weirding modules.

While film did technically feature the weirding way of combat in a couple of scenes with Paul and Jessica and it did specifically mention that the weirding modules are only part of the weirding way of combat, it runs counter to the novel's description of the Bene Gesserit as reliant on only their skills and training.

Here is a weirding module in action:


As a neat bonus, Paul’s comment that his name has become a killing word becomes literally true in the movie, since Muad’Dib is used by the Fremen to trigger the wierding modules, whereas in the novel the Fremen simply used it as a battle cry.

Weirding is a term used by Fremen to describe strange or arcane things, and is usually associated with the Bene Gesserit sisterhood. From the Terminology of the Imperium:
“WEIRDING: idiomatic: that which partakes of the mystical or of witchcraft.”

The term “weirding” is only used in the first novel. Fremen usually use the term “weirding way” to refer to Bene Gesserit prana-bindu training (nerve and muscle control). Fremen also refer to the hidden greenhouse as the “weirding room”. As a small aside, Stilgar’s summation of the greenhouse as a waste of water in the previous update is in line with how the Fremen viewed it in the novel (the film omitted it).

David Lynch stated that he didn’t want kung fu on sand and that’s why he used weirding modules instead. I understand his reasons for doing so, since they both basically serve the same purpose in the plot as a means of empowering the Fremen. The whole point of the wierding way is to train one’s body to accomplish seemingly superhuman feats of agility and strength, so it would be understandably difficult to accomplish this with regular actors. Even so, on film it would probably look like wuxia combat.

However, this approach clashes with the rules of Herbert’s universe, since warfare had mostly reverted to close quarters combat due to the existence of the shields, as well as the fact that one of the series’ overarching themes was humanity’s increased abilities due to genetics and intense training (nature and nurture).

Atomic warfare is prohibited by the Great Convention: Use of atomics against humans shall be cause for planetary obliteration. Nevertheless, great houses still maintain an arsenal of family atomics as a means of nuclear deterrence:

“The advent of the Field Process shield and the lasgun with their explosive interaction, deadly to attacker and attacked, placed the current determinatives, on weapons technology. We need not go into the special role of atomics. The fact that any Family in the Empire could so deploy its atomics as to destroy the planetary bases of fifty or more other Families causes some nervousness, true. But all of us possess precautionary plans for devastating retaliation. Guild and Landsraad contain the keys which hold this force in check.” (excerpt from Dune Messiah)

Thus, technically, the Fremen can’t even use the atomics against the Harkonnen, so they shouldn’t increase their fighting ability. By this point, the player is steamrolling the Harkonnens and atomics cannot be purchased, only captured from fortresses, so they probably don’t make much of a difference in combat.

Also, I’m not sure how the game handles Fremen troop strength when a troop has weirding modules, but no crysknives or lasguns. One interesting detail is that when you tell an army troop to search for equipment in nearby sietches, they will only looks for the next weapon tier (ex. if they have crysknives and there are weirding modules or atomics nearby but no lasguns, they will complain there are no weapons in the vicinity). The player can still manually give them weapons out of sequence, though.

Paul: I’m a tough guy period. [stop talking]

I probably bought weirding modules during this transaction and the previous one (for which I did end up paying the smuggler after all), since I’m pretty sure I didn’t need any more ornithopters at this point (especially since I found new ones in conquered fortresses).

We attack the fortress to the south of Arrakeen-Tuek.

Paul: I see you’re still sore about the last shipment being late.

Money has stopped being a real concern a long time ago.

Paul: Dudes, I was thinking what my mom said a few weeks ago. Have you ever experienced deep desert penetration? I mean, penetration in the deep desert? ...that doesn’t sound any better, does it?

Paul: Chill out, bro. You’re like messing with my aura. You should lay back and do some sun gazing. [stay here]

Paul: Busted. [stop talking]

Paul: Wusses. At least Duncan is a bad enough dude to stay in the desert and outrun a sandworm back to the palace. [stop talking]

The vegetation is starting to spread to the north.

Here is the vegetation viewed from atop a sandworm.

We head back north to the conquered fortress near Arrakeen.

Paul: What up, homes? Got any info you’d like to share? Think of it as an investment in your life expectancy and the quality thereof. [talk to me]

Paul: Right. You’re facing the Kwisatz Haderach, his fighting instructor, and a Fremen who got to the top of the food chain by killing everybody who stood in his way or challenged him. You've gotta ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya, punk? [talk to me]

Paul: Stilgar? [overpower the prisoner]

Paul: :facepalm:

Paul: You, D’Artagnan. Hog-tie this swine. [overpower the prisoner]

Paul: I’m glad that you and your two thousand men were enough to tie a single Harkonnen captain. You may now have your way with him. Goodbye. What was that? You said something? [stop talking]

Paul: Pardon my manners. Are you more disposed to parleying now? [talk to me]

Paul: I’m all ears. [talk to me]

Paul: Arrakeen-Timin. Heh, that rhymes. [talk to me]

Paul: Well, I guess I’ll have to send ONE TROOPS to deal with it. [talk to me]

Paul: You do see the ten thousand heavily armed and well trained Fremen who handed you your ass, right? Come with me and I’ll introduce you if you haven’t met them yet. [come with me]

Our current results:

Paul: I’m not sure where that it, but good job!

It’s near the Ergsun region. Our main attack was to the north-east to approach the palace, and this fortress was northwest.

Another fortress conquered.

Paul: Be careful where you point that sword, skull-head. You could get pretty badly injured if you’re not careful. [talk to me]

Paul: Snappy comeback, dumbass. Gurney, restrain the prisoner. At least you won’t need help from a Fremen battalion. [overpower the prisoner]

Paul: This is the part where you sing like a canary, Harkonnen scum. [talk to me]

Paul: Fascinating.

Based on the 1540 price, I’d have to say that the past two smuggler transactions I’ve shown were for weirding modules and I simply forgot to take screenshots when weirding modules first became available for purchase or first encountered in a Harkonnen fortress.

Paul: Do you happen to have a twin brother who lived in Stilgar’s sietch? [rally me]

More results. Notice the blue area to the north of the palace has decreased, since keeping a sietch occupied expands the controlled area up to a limit.

The funny thing is that if I were to fly an ornithopther through that Harkonnen territory, they would still shoot it down, even if they don’t have fortresses or troops left in that area. Another interesting thing is that the Harkonnen don’t shoot us down if the flight trajectory passes through Harkonnen territory and we skip to destination.

Attacking another fortress.

We now continue our attack northwest of the Ergsun region.

The worm’s travel route is crooked because I was manually steering it using the arrows in the bottom right corner.

With Chani captured, the maximum motivation is capped at 60%.

Another Fremen “twin” I forgot about in the last update.

Found some more atomics.

Some more results.

Our spice production has dropped considerably, mostly because I forgot to move the harvesters to areas richer in spice, like in this case:

That’s a lot of thopters!

I forgot to use the equipment in this sietch, even though I found it weeks ago.

This is the other half of Dune I generally don’t display. There are fewer sietches and Fremen in this area.

A view of the south pole and southern hemisphere.

A view of the north pole and northern hemisphere.

Paul: I’m sending you all these tons of spice and you can’t afford a decent haircut?

Stilgar is missing since he had to make room for Duncan.

I’m finally attacking Carthag-Tabr to take it back from the Harkonnen.

Paul: Them’s fighting words, pal. [talk to me]

Paul: I'll get that sword at the very least. Do you still steal steel, Stil? [stop talking]

Paul: Dude, you look so heavy metal. Hey, you remember the Harkonnen captain, don’t you? [overpower the prisoner]

For some reason, I found most the Harkonnen captains during the endgame, where they don’t have any information to provide.

Paul: In retrospect, I probably shouldn’t have let spice mining troops work in border sietches once the attacks started. [give orders to troop]

Paul: Talk to the head of my human resources department, Thufir Hawaht. (Or was it Duncan Idaho?) [give orders to troop]

Paul: It’s better than pounding sand.

I haven’t shown the Standard view of the globe in a long time, because it didn’t change from the start of the game. However, now that we’ve started working on ecology projects, you can see vegetation in three distinct clusters.

The vegetation will slowly spread to the north and when it reaches a Harkonnen fortress, it will destroy the spice and the Harkonnen will abandon the territory. Plants cannot grow in rocky terrain, but they will continue growing on the other side.

We got rid of one of those blue spots in our territory.

As you may have noticed in the past few screenshots, this fortress is located just north of an area with vegetation. Here is alternate way of capturing the fortress using ecology, where I simply waited for eight more days.

Paul: Interesting how they left a harvester, ornithopter and two Fremen troops behind.

Harkonnen fortress and vegetation.

Still life with harvester, ornithopter, fortress and vegetation.

The problem is that the Harkonnen troops defending the fortress have simply relocated to another fortress, so we’ll still have to deal with them later.

We now attack Tuono-Harg, the other sietch the Harkonnen have conquered.

Paul:

Paul:

 

[abnaxus]

Kinda funny that Chani is in some random fort.

You'd think Feyd-Rautha would've put her in his Arrakeen harem.

 

[Abelian]

16. The Battle of Arrakeen

You heard my father speak of desert power. There it is. The surface of this planet is ours. No storm nor creature nor condition can stop us.
Paul Atreides

Last time: we conquered many Harkonnen fortresses and finally found Chani.

Spoiler

We are still at Tuono-Harg, where we found Chani. I read that Chani is usually found in one of the sietches that the Harkonnen conquer northeast of the Atreides palace. I’m not sure where she will be transported if the Harkonnen don’t manage to capture any sietches.

I’ve read that you need expert level troops armed with weirding modules in order to rescue Chani.

Paul: Good. Now back to mining spice. [give orders to troop]

Paul: What.

That is literally the absolute worst haircut I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen my share of terrible haircuts on this planet.

There were extra weapons in the fortress, so I had the troop assigned to military training. It was hardly necessary at this point, but I can’t stand having idle troops.

We press our advance toward Arrakeen.

Paul: Eh? I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but my official duty around here is kicking ass and taking names. [stop talking]

Paul: Gee, don’t sound so enthusiastic. [stop talking]

Paul: Good job. Here, have one of these weird modulators.

Results

Paul: Can I say how disturbing I find it that you people fight harder if you know I’m banging your planetologist’s daughter? [stop talking]

Results. The number of men is the same as three days ago, but the area Harkonnen controlled area has decreased from 6% to 5%, while ours has increased from 37% to 38% and our spice production has increased from 4K to 5K.

Just to show that not every battle is a flawless victory, here is the naib I recruited from Stilgar’s sietch back in update 9. His troop size has decreased from 2350 to 1570. Also, with Chani back and vegetation projects underway, motivation has increased to 100%.

This troop was just recruited, so their motivation is not as high.
In case you’re wondering why be bother conquering all these fortresses rather than heading for Arrakeen, it’s because the game doesn’t let the player do that:

I’m not sure what caused this huge production spike, but I probably moved expert spice miners in areas with higher spice densities.

We try to get Liet Kynes to accompany us, to no avail.

Paul: No, why would I think that? [stop talking]

Paul: You’re a real greedy bastard, ain’t ya?

Paul: Chump change.

Saving the game.

Here’s a version with sunburnt Paul. It really makes him look older.

Paul: Uh, that happened like a month ago. [stop talking]

Thufir’s delayed reaction is actually my fault. I was so used to his standard replies (“View the message before anything else.”; “The Emperor only seems to be interested in getting spice. But, Hmm… I wonder if he’s hiding something…”; “Nothing new”) that I ignored him for over a month.

Found a new sietch northwest of the palace. The large grey area west of the palace is mostly rocky terrain.

Even though this troop only has 960 men initially, they start off with some military experience, so I use them for espionage for two reasons: the initial experience makes it less likely for the troop to be captured and even if they are captured, at least it isn’t a 2000 man troop.

The vegetation is spreading slowly, but surely.

All Harkonnen fortresses are under our control now.

Paul: Chani’s back. Thanks for noticing. [stop talking]

Paul: What do you mean almost?! We have 67 thousand men versus the Harkonnens’ measly one hundred.

Our troops are packing some serious firepower.

Paul: Yes, you were there when Thufir said that in the comm room.

Paul: How do you know they don’t have any hidden fortresses? Otherwise, this means you know all sietches and fortresses on Dune and you’ve been holding out on me all this time. Well, which is it?

Paul: Changing the subject, are we?

Paul: If I were a master of assassins like Thufir, I’d be real suspicious of that…

Paul: I am disappoint.

Only three sietches are acceptable as close enough to the palace: Arrakeen-Tuek, Arrakeen-Tabr, Arrakeen-Timin. Arrakeen-Tuek you can see highlighted above, Arrakeen-Tabr is the one immediately south of Arrakeen-Tuek and Arrakeen-Timin is the one south of the Arrakeen palace. Haga-Tysmyn is directly east of the palace and borders it, but it’s considered too far away.

We’ll go to Arrakeen-Timin.

Paul: There’s been a change of transportation plans, Thufir.

Paul: I’d say a palace with a high-tech communications room is better, but at least it got you out of the palace.

Paul: I actually have another suggestion.

Paul: In order to become a Fremen, you must learn to respect the desert. Now stay here and meditate. [stay here]

Paul: Say what?

Both Thufir and Chani teleport to the sietch entrance if we tell them to stay in the desert, but they don’t make any special comments like Duncan.

Paul: Hmm… First, let me check the schedule to make sure no tau orgy is scheduled in the next few days… [talk to me]

Paul: I am the Kwisatz Haderach. That is reason enough.


Fremen won’t allow us to access reservoirs if Stilgar is not with him, even though our charisma is already 100, the maximum value.

If a sietch already has seven troops, additional troops will refuse to go there.

Fremen can’t mine spice after vegetation has reached a sietch.

This is rather embarrassing: I was comparing notes with a walkthrough and found out the prospectors will accept an ornithopter to travel faster.

Paul: You and everybody else. Do you want front row seats to the final beatdown? [come with me]

Liet finally agrees to join Paul, but he doesn’t have any special comments.

Vegetation near Kynes’ sietch.

Paul: Since day 1, you mean. Anyway, come with me to see the fireworks show. [come with me]

I left Kynes at Arrakeen-Timin, but it makes no difference since he doesn’t have anything else to say.

Paul: That’s an unusual number, considering he’s been demanding spice every five to seven days so far. Anyway, Duncan, you’re a Swordmaster of the Ginaz and House Atreides Warmaster… technically. Do you want to join the final attack on the Harkonnen? [come with me]

Actually, no more spice shipments are required. The 255 is simply the maximum value of the two-byte shipment day counter.

Paul: What work? We literally have a hundred tons of spice and no shipment to worry about. Do you have any final words of advice for the big battle? [talk to me]

Spoiler

Here is a graph of the kilograms of spice required each day. The blue line is a line of best fit computed using linear regression.

Here are the days on which shipments were due and the corresponding amounts of spice in kilograms. Both the values will vary on each play through.

 5   1000
11   2630
16   4450
21   5020
26   6260
32   8100
38   9920
46   11540
51   12840
56   14500
61   14750
67   15510

Paul: Hey, mom, check this out.

Cutscene:

Paul: Here we are, born to be kings.
We’re the princes of the universe.
Here we belong, fighting to survive,
In a world with the darkest powers.

Paul: You never explained why, though… Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed taking you and mom on a sandworm ride.

Paul: I approve of your choice of the word “annihilate”.

Paul: I’m not sure “proud” is the right word… after just talking about annihilation.

Paul: Fortunately, I accept spice as legal tender.

Paul: Good old Gurney, always ready with a fitting platitude – I mean aphorism.

Paul: Er, that’s good news, isn’t it? As opposed to them being back on their homeworld, Geidi Prime?

Paul: …I should hope so.

Paul: OMGFORESHADOWING!
End of cutscene.

At least the devs gave lines in the cutscene to every character they made you haul here.

Paul: Shield? Doesn’t that attract worms? That place must be crawling with sandworms. He he. Crawling, get it? [talk to me]

Paul: I don’t think you understand the concept of shields: the rule is “the slow blade penetrates the shield”, not the “nuclear devastation penetrates the shield“. Also, I’m pretty sure we won’t need atomics to deal with 100 men when we have 10,000. Maybe I should remove the Fremen’s lasguns so they won’t cause an atomic explosion due to the Holtzmann effect…

“plot spoiler”

The use of atomics in the battle of Arrakeen is true to the novel:
“The language of the Great Convention is clear enough: 'Use of atomics against humans shall be cause for planetary obliteration.' We're going to blast the Shield Wall, not humans."

The Shield Wall was actually a cliff that protects Arrakeen from the desert sands. However, since the game doesn’t have cliffs, only rocky areas, Cryo replaced the shield wall with a house shield, which is a technology mentioned in the novel.

Also, the likely reason for why the Atreides are based out of Carthag and the Harkonnen out of Arrakeen is so that the final battle takes place at Arrakeen, like in the novel. Since the Sardaukar attack was removed, the Atreides never lose their initial base of operations.

Chani, Thufir, Gurney, Jessica, Stilgar, Kynes and some Fremen.

Selecting “argue” or “refuse” will simply result in Stilgar saying: “As you want, Muad’Dib”.

Paul: Eh, I don’t know. I think you, Gurney and I could have handled it. [stop talking]

Paul: Hear that Stilgar? Thufir grants you permission to attack. [stop talking]

Our forces are assembled.

Sometime I’ll have to try expanding the vegetation all the way to Arrakeen.

Paul: Ya hya chouhada! [accept]

Every character, except Jessica will say the say the same thing. Jessica will keep saying “I think you have the situation under control.”

The final attack in progress.

Every character, except Jessica will say the say the same thing. Jessica will keep saying “I think you have the situation under control.”

All Harkonnen fortresses look like this when travelling by worm or ornithopter. The actual design changes when sitting in front and during battle.

If we try to bring other characters and make them stay here, most will say “Oh no, Paul! I don’t like this place” and refuse to leave the party. Gurney’s a badass, so he has no problem.

Cutscene:
The Water track is playing in the background.

Paul: Oh what a surprise.

Paul: Looks like we’re late to the party. Wait, how did Duncan get here?

Paul: You and whose army?

Paul: You told him, Duncan.

Paul: And he would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for this meddling Kwisatz Haderach.

Paul: You know you look even uglier in real life?

Paul: Fremen, Thufir. The plural is Fremen, too. :facepalm:

Paul: You probably meant “have” instead of “has”, Stil.

Paul: Punks?

Paul: Yeah, I’m sure this chosen one deal won’t backfire in some ginormous way.

Paul: Hey, Baron, it looks like you need to have your heir cut. Also:

Paul: I believe this the part where I’m supposed to say: OH SNAP, SON.

The prison planet being Salusa Secundus, the place where the Emperor trains his Sardaukar troops.

“plot spoiler”

Jessica delivers the final line of the game, just as she does in the novel (but not the film). The difference between the two lines is telling and highlights the change in tone of the Cryo adaptation as compared to the original:
“While we, Chani, we who carry the name of concubine - history will call us wives.”

The film features the infamous ending where Paul causes rainfall by force of will, ignoring its lethal effect on worms and spice production. This is the single largest difference between the film and the novel. Whereas the film presents the narrative as a classic hero’s journey, the novel serves as a cautionary tale of the consequences of a civilization entrusting its fate in the hands of a single person, especially one with extraordinary abilities:

No more terrible disaster could befall your people than for them to fall into the hands of a Hero.

I have my quibbles about the film, of course. Paul was a man playing god, not a god who could make it rain.

Author Frank Herbert said in 1979, "The bottom line of the Dune trilogy is: beware of heroes. Much better [to] rely on your own judgment, and your own mistakes." He wrote in 1985, "Dune was aimed at this whole idea of the infallible leader because my view of history says that mistakes made by a leader (or made in a leader's name) are amplified by the numbers who follow without question."

For those of you who haven’t read the book, but don’t care about spoilers, here is a final twist:

Spoiler

Baron Vladimir Harkonnen is Lady Jessica’s father, so he’s actually Paul’s grandfather. Thus, Duke Leto’s archenemy was his father in law. None of these characters know this until Paul finds out and tells Jessica. Also, since Feyd is the Baron’s brother’s son, Paul and Feyd are first cousins once removed, while Jessica and Feyd are first cousins.

The Atreides crest. Although in the novels it is often described as being red and usually found on the breast pocket (see the uniforms of Leto, Gurney, Duncan), it’s always described as a hawk crest, not just a hawk’s head.

Nevertheless, I prefer the stylized Atredies crest from Cryo’s Dune to the blue hawk’s head used by Westwood in Dune 2, Dune 2000 and Emperor: Battle for Dune. It just looks like something more realistic on a uniform.

Dune 2

Dune 2000

Emperor: Battle for Dune

“Credits”

The track from the game introduction, Wormsuit, plays during the credits.

Every character is depicted with a background associated with the character in the game.
The characters are shown in order of appearance:

Paul and Liet are the only characters shown outside. The color of the sky depends on the time of day when the player finishes the game.

The Skies Palettes have their own credit.

Stéphane Picq, the game’s main composer, is also interestingly credited as “Sietch decorator”.

I’m not sure if Cryo really planned to make a sequel to this game, or whether this is an allusion to Westwood’s Dune 2.

On one hand, Dune 2 was a game in a different genre, made by a different developer (albeit working for the same publisher), so the Dune 2 is not a sequel to Cryo’s Dune per se. On the other hand, only the first novel really lends itself to this kind of open conflict (even so, most of the Fremen battles against the Harkonnen take place during a two year time skip), as Frank Herbert’s other Dune novels focus more on intrigue.

I mentioned in update 3 that Cryo Interactive and Westwood Studios were racing to complete Dune at the same time, since Virgin Interactive commissioned Dune games from both developers. In this light, with both developers being aware of each other’s project, the screen could have been a sly jab towards Westwood, with Cryo bragging they were able to finish first.

 

[abnaxus]

Should've turned Arrakeen into sietch.

 

[Abelian]

17. Bonus Update

Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife--chopping off what's incomplete and saying: "Now, it's complete because it's ended here.”
from "Collected Sayings of, Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan

Spoiler

Remember that book icon I mentioned back in update 5 and then promptly ignored? Well, here’s the complete contents of the “journal”. Each page is tied to a plot event, so the player might unlock pages somewhat out of order.

“Book contents”

Thought you’d seen the last of this quote, did you?

The only reference I could find to mock-spice is in the Dune miniseries. It may be a reference to the explosive pre-spice mass.

There’s a minor error here: Mentats’ lips are stained by Sapho, which allegedly improves mental powers. Semuta is a drug paired with and eerie, atonal music and causes mental dullness.

This is the only place where the game clarifies that Feyd-Rautha is the Baron’s nephew (and heir as well).

The ornithopters are rather small and while they are used in spotting approaching worms, the harvesters are actually lifted off by carryalls.

For example, in the novel it took nine thopters to evacuate a harvester crew of twenty-six.

There are six smuggler villages to be found. They all use the same graphic when viewed from afar, but each has a distinct architecture from up close, even though certain elements are recycled.

Oxtyn-Pyons

This the smuggler I usually trade with the most, since he’s so close to the palace.

Tuono-Pyons

Tsympo-Pyons

Sihaya-Pyons

Haga-Pyons

Arrakeen-Pyons

Villages seen from the desert during different times of day:

This is a screenshot from the non-interactive Dune demo that plays during the introduction. Back in update 5, I wrote: “the village at 1:13 is never seen in-game (that I know of; there may be one or two villages I never found)”.

I did know all the six villages; the structure in the background is a mirror image of the one included in Tsympo-Pyons. Part of the building are also visible in Tuono-Pyons.

And now, something special.

We tell Stilgar to launch the final attack.

Even though Arrakeen-Tuek in the northwest looks closer to Arrakeen, Arrakeen-Timin is the only sietch close enough to allow us to join the battle before it’s over.

This is a very short battle, so we immediately select “massive attack”.

We didn’t get a victory message this time from the Fremen.

We wait for a couple of days.

Where did the palace go?

Paul: (using the Voice) You shut your whore mouth when the Kwisatz Haderach is talking!

Shaddam IV does not have that zoom-in effect.

Paul: Military Training, eh? I’m sure Gurney and Thufir would like to give you a hand with that.

Unfortunately, nobody acknowledges we’ve actually captured Arrakeen and they all act like the final attack is yet to happen.

This bit of sequence breaking is known as the Neverending Game and the name is self-descriptive: we have no way of finishing the game and we can just wander around. However, we could have still done that once Thufir said he want to plan final attack, so the only actual difference is getting to talk to the three villains.

http://dune2k.com/Duniverse/Games/Dune/NeverendingGame

If you follow this sequence of events, you can keep playing after you destroy the Harkonnen palace. To do this, you first must plan the final attack in Arrakeen-Timin, the seitch closest to the palace. Once you are ready to launch the attack, talk to Stilgar. It will pop up with the menu.

Wait for the moon or sun to move once, (meaning the next hour has begun) and immediately launch the attack. You have to quickly leave the seitch and ride a worm to the palace.

If you have done this correctly, you will appear at the palace during the battle. Do not fool around. Immediately press the MASSIVE ATTACK button. Not the FIGHT FOR A DAY, or anything else. Only MASSIVE ATTACK will work. When you do this, the battle ends, and you have no vision.

Instead of going into the palace, go back a screen. Wait for two days to pass, and the Harkonnen Palace will actually be changed into a sietch!

Inside, you will find the Baron, Fyed Rautha, and the Emperor. You can actually talk to them too.

Another Hint- You CAN keep playing after this, except for the fact that there is no one to fight, no emperor to give spice to, and no way to find new sietches. But you CAN get Liet Kynes to go walking around with you.

-Brian Davis”

From the Dune Wiki:

Avoiding the automated end game sequence
There is a way to avoid the automated end game sequence and keep on playing forever as the (supposedly - see below) Emperor of the Galaxy (without being able to leave Dune though). To accomplish this, as soon as Paul orders his troops to launch the final battle, he must quickly ride a worm into the battle before it could be won without him. If timed correctly and the battle is still in progress, Paul must quickly choose Massive Attack (it must be this fighting mode). The battle is then won without Paul getting a vision.

Paul must then avoid entering the taken over palace and instead go back a screen and wait for two days to pass - the standard time it takes for a taken over Harkonnen fortress to be turned into a sietch.

Paul can then enter the palace turned sietch at any time and talk to his new prisoners - The Baron, Feyd Rautha and the Emperor of The Galaxy.

From then on, the player can keep playing. There will be no one to fight with, no need to send spice to the Emperor (which, supposedly - as there was no official sequence that determined that, is now Paul) and no new sietches to discover. At last, Paul can finally get Liet Kynes to walk around with him.

This may not work when using DOSBox emulator and the CD version of the game but there have been documented sightings of this working even in that configuration.

This second entry contains some mistakes/omissions:
- it does not mention that the player must plan the final attack in Arrakeen-Timin
- it incorrectly states that “Paul can finally get Liet Kynes to walk around with him” since Liet can join the player ever since Thufir mentions that we are ready for the final attack (as previous screenshots have shown)
- there could technically be other sietches to discover that the player has not found yet
- I was able to achieve the Neverending Game in the DOS version using DOSBox, so chalk up another documented sighting

Also, both guides mention that you should ride a worm. However, this is the only time that the player can travel to a battle in an ornithopter. You will still see the warning message, but you will be able land safely.

I’m not sure whether the Neverending Game is intentional or a bug. On one hand, it seems unusual that the developers would cause the palace to be transformed into a sietch when they could have hardcoded an exception. On the other hand, no character comments on having won the battle of Arrakeen and the game does have a couple similar sequence-breaking bugs. Even the responses from the Emperor, Baron and Feyd seem generic.

For some reason, Liet reverts to talking about needing Fremen to grow bulbs while on the palace balcony, but only in this room.

Here is a map of all the discovered sietches: four screenshots for the northern hemisphere and four for the southern.

Here I decided to spread my troops around during the Neverending Game so that I could maximize the controlled area.

View from the north pole.

View from the south pole.

While taking screenshots for this LP, I discovered another game feature: by clicking on the words “Spice Density” on the Spice Density map, the troops occupations are shown on the map instead.

Just like on the Dune Map, yellow means spice specialization, red means military and green means ecology. If more than one troop type is present at a sietch, you will see a combination of two or three colors, like in the northeast corner.

This troop is mining in the south, one of areas richest in spice.

The interesting thing is that unlike other areas, Habbanya-Harg never seems to completely run out of spice and the harvesting rate stops at 1 kg/hour.

Greenery around the palace.

The blue cursor points to our current location, where the area of influence is smaller than the others.

Fast-forward a couple of weeks and 62% seems to be the maximum area we can control. Also, our spice production has become negligible as the spice mining troops exhausted the spice.

Since there’s no more spice and no use for military, I’ve made many troops switch over to ecology.

A couple of unusual screenshots of Jessica and Liet in an orni and on a sandworm.

For some time, I’ve noticed a grey area on the map that is not on rocky terrain, southeast of the palace.

Paul: Huh, I wonder why none of the Fremen told me of this place.

Paul: I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Spoiler

I used hex editing to enable Celimyn-Tuek, a sietch that the developers forgot to enable.
In the beginning, most sietches are not discoverable even if you travel directly over them. As the game progresses, they become enabled, so that the player can discover them either by finding out the direction from Fremen in adjacent sietches or by travelling nearby (by accident or educated guess). However, Celimyn-Tuek is never marked as visible during the course of the game.

The Fremen is actually from Tsympo-Harg and I chose him because he is from a relatively hard to find sietch and his eyes look unusual compared to the other Fremen with his face type.

Also, I couldn’t very well finish a Dune LP without including what is probably the most famous quote of the series.

Finally, some group shots:
Most characters will refuse to stay in in front of a fortress, the Arrakeen palace, or smuggler village, saying “Oh no, Paul! I don’t like this place”, but not Gurney or Liet:

Liet’s botanical station.

Visiting Harah.

Spoiler

I edited Leto in these last two images, but they are achievable in game. Due to a bug, Leto will forget to attack the Harkonnens (it involves not reading the Baron’s message about devastating a sietch and waiting for the next spice demand). Other characters will comment that he left and died, but he will actually keep sitting around the throne room for the rest of the game.

 

[Luka-boy]

Thanks for the LP. Very informative. Thanks to it I'll take the plunge and finally buy a copy of Dune the next time I visit my usual bookstore.

 

[SCO]

Jacurutu

 

[Sceptic]

Superb LP, I'm sorry I wasn't around to comment more often. Great job

Loved your Jacurutu joke, I actually fell for it at first

the novel serves as a cautionary tale of the consequences of a civilization entrusting its fate in the hands of a single person, even one with extraordinary abilities

Actually, according to Herbert, the novel's main point is that not to entrust its fate to a single person, especially one with extraordinary abilities. The Herbert quotes you used up there illustrate this, as well as another Herbert quote that I love and have used in the past, and which Herbert once used to summarize the entire Dune cycle: "Superheroes are dangerous." The thinking is even present in-universe: this knowledge is what drives much of the Bene Gesserit's reactions and fear about the ghola and Teg in the last two books.

That open ending is funny, I never realized you could do this. I wonder if Cryo had initially planned for the game to continue after you convert the palace to a sietch and this is the leftover and incomplete code, or if it's just a "normal" bug.

The game completely ignores the lasgun/shield interaction, which is a major point in the novel (and even in the movie). The liberal use of atomics is what I found most jarring though - you can distribute them to your troops and have them use them against the regular fortresses, something that would've instantly brought the Emperor, the Sardaukar and the entire Landsraad in the novel. The only reason they don't incinerate Arrakis in the novel, even for Paul using them against a terrain feature, is that it is the only source of Melange, and the Guild would never allow their precious drug to be destroyed.

 

[Abelian]

Actually, according to Herbert, the novel's main point is that not to entrust its fate to a single person, especially one with extraordinary abilities.

That was spot on; I've made the correction.

The game completely ignores the lasgun/shield interaction, which is a major point in the novel (and even in the movie).

I think it stands as testament to the Westwood devs' respect for the Duniverse that Emperor: Battle for Dune didn't ignore the lasgun/shield interaction, causing both units to be destroyed (even though the novels state that the explosion could be more powerful than atomics; that would have been way too imbalanced). The most common example was Elite Sardaukar attacking shielded Ordos units, such as the laser tank (!), APC and deviator.

 

[Abelian]

Now that the LP is complete, I'd like to hear the final verdict straight from the horse's mouth.