GUIDE TO SOME COMMON PROBLEMS WHILE PLAYING DUNE 2
By Nick Deakin
Those bloody worms keep eating my tanks. Is there any way to destroy them?
'fraid not. The worms are for all intent and purposes indestructible. If
you're playing for House Harkonnen then your units will automatically fire
upon any sand worm and (perhaps) drive it away. Atriedes units, being
environmentally aware and just plain nice, will not attack a worm.
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I'm playing for House Harkonnen. How do I get my grubby mitts on a Death
Hand missile?
The Death Hand missile is the Harkonnen's special weapon. You have to build
a palace in order to get one. Click on the missile icon and you will hear a
countdown (if you have a sound blaster compatible card). Quickly click on
the target and the missile will be launched. It's not very accurate but has
a wide destructive radius. Very useful, but be aware that you only get a
new missile every ten MINUTES so make them count!
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I'm playing for House Atriedes. How do I get the Fremen to help me?
The Fremen are the Atriedes' special weapon. You have to build a palace in
order to use them. Click on the Fremen icon and they will attack the enemy
bases. Not as visually appealing as the Death Hand missile but still
useful. Be aware that you only get a new Fremen unit every ten MINUTES or
so, so build lots of Palaces!
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HELP! I've just built a star base (I think that's what they're called) and
ordered ten tanks at a cost of thirty billion dollars. My bank account is
severely depleted but the tanks haven't arrived! Apart from emulating
D-FENS from "Falling Down" what can I do!
You have version 1.0 of Dune 2 which has a well known "non delivery" bug.
FTP the patch from WUARCHIVE.WUSTL.EDU or FTP.ULOWELL.EDU. Take note that
your saved games won't work with the upgraded version.
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What the hell does the IX unit do? I've built it but when I click on it,
nothing happens!
The IX unit only works in relation with a HI-TECH FACTORY (or is that the
HEAVY FACTORY. I can't remember but it's one of the two). After you've
built the IX unit, click on the Factory and you should be pleasantly
surprised.
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I order my tanks to attack enemy units on the other side of my base. But as
well as hitting the enemy units, they also damage my structures! How can I
stop them from doing this?
In short, you can't. The missile tank isn't very accurate and if you ordrer
it to fire upon an enemy unit close to your base, there is a good change
the missiles will hit one of your structures instead. Siege and Combat
Tanks firing at one another with a structure inbetween them will also
damage that structure.
While irritating, this works in your favour when attacking an enemy base.
Get a few of your vehicles in between enemy structures and when the enemy
units fire at them, they will also damage their own structures.
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Okay, I've built a high tech factory and constructed a carry-all. But it
won't pick up any unit except a Harvester.
Sorry. A carry-all will only let you transfer a Harvester. The one
exception to this is if you've built a REPAIR FACILLITY. Then the carry-all
will pick up damaged units and take them to be repaired. However, when the
unit is fixed the carry-all will transport it right back to the scene of
the battle where it was in the first place.
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I've nearly finished one of the stages and my last Harvester has just been
devoured by a sand worm. I've got three Spice Refineries but no replacement
Harvesters have been delivered! Why not?
After a certain point in the game the automatic replacement of destroyed
Harvesters ceases. If all your harvesters are gone the only solution is to
build a new Spice Refinery. If you haven't got enough credits then I'm
afraid you're stuffed.
This review is Copyright (C) 1993 by Nick Deakin for Game Bytes Magazine.
All rights reserved.