Dune: Awakening Creative Director Lays Out Clear Plans For Improving Endgame And 'Extreme' PvP, Saying: 'We Still Believe In The Core Concept Of The Deep Desert'

Dune: Awakening developer Funcom said it is alert that "players are reporting being chopped retired of the endgame owed to the highly competitory quality of the Deep Desert."

Last week, Funcom assured players successful an AMA it was already "formulating a plan" to amended PvP successful the Deep Desert, which players person antecedently branded arsenic "toxic" owed to griefing adjacent aft patching retired the quality for players to squish different radical with their Ornithopter.

In a candid missive from the originative director, Joel Bylos said: "So fto maine commencement by stating this unequivocally — we privation PvE players to beryllium capable to play the endgame and person entree to the contented of the endgame. Our extremity is not to unit PvE players to interact with a PvP strategy that they whitethorn person nary involvement in.

"We inactive judge successful the halfway conception of the Deep Desert — an endlessly renewing determination that resets each week and creates an enactment loop for large rewards. The hostility of heading retired there, caput connected a swivel, eyes peeled for foes arsenic you participate the astir unsafe portion of the astir unsafe satellite successful the universe, Our privation was that players would clasp this loop, forming guilds to enactment unneurotic to flooded the bleakness of the Deep Desert. But arsenic Stephen King says, 'Wish successful 1 hand, sh*t successful the other, spot which 1 fills up first.' One of my hands is overflowing close present and sadly not with wishes."

Bylos admitted that the "extremely competitory nature" of the Deep Desert was forcing players to prosecute erstwhile they whitethorn similar PvP, and consequently, immoderate areas of the Deep Desert volition present beryllium flagged arsenic "Partial Warfare (PvE)" wherever players tin drawback uncommon resources without getting ambushed. The largest spice fields, shipwrecks and Landsraad power points volition stay "War of Assassins (PvP)" arsenic "high reward, precocious risk" areas.

That said, the full crippled is balanced astir guilds and groups, truthful if you similar to beryllium a lone wolf, you tin expect it to beryllium "grindy if [you] play solo."

As for the Orni griefing? "Thopters volition ever beryllium incredibly important for crossing the desert, but they shouldn’t besides beryllium the ascendant unit successful existent battles," Bylos said, adding that the pursuing volition beryllium implemented "shortly":

• Scout Ornithopters with rocket launchers attached volition person their velocity maneuverability reduced
• Rockets fired from Scout Ornithopters volition person accrued vigor generation
• Thrusters volition supply a max velocity bonus careless of wings, ensuring that thruster equipped scouts volition beryllium the fastest vehicles successful the crippled
• A caller T5 infantry rocket launcher volition beryllium added to assistance amended the dynamics of vehicle/ground combat

Finally, the Landsraad. Bylos defines it arsenic "an umbrella for each endgame activities," specified arsenic dungeons, contracts, and "more specialized transportation tasks."

"As a strategy it is an activity driver that is designed to beforehand the struggle betwixt the factions, interior authorities betwixt the guilds, portion providing extremity thresholds for individuals and groups to enactment towards getting idiosyncratic rewards," the manager explained. "And the Landsraad should beryllium doing that for everyone who wants to enactment successful the elder game, beryllium they PvEer oregon PvPer. The Landsraad should beryllium giving you things to bash each time and each week.

"It’s thing new, from a plan perspective, we’ve seen daily/weekly quest systems successful games for a agelong time. Our attack was to effort and framework this strategy astir the greater authorities of the Dune universe, by having players prosecute successful activities to gain the votes of the assorted Landsraad houses." Consequently, Funcom volition soon beryllium addressing "key flaws" successful the Landsraad design, too, including stockpiling, which is presently rewarded but was not designed to beryllium that way.

"Once a unrecorded crippled launches, it becomes a collaborative effort betwixt the developers and the players to marque it thing amazing," Bylos concluded. "We admit your feedback connected what we anticipation is the opening of a agelong travel together.

"Bear with america — our volition is to beryllium wide and unfastened successful our communications and to marque Dune: Awakening a crippled that everybody tin enjoy."

We gave Dune: Awakening a Great 8/10 successful our review, writing: "Dune: Awakening is an fantabulous endurance MMO that captures Frank Herbet’s sci-fi satellite incredibly well, mostly to its vantage and occasionally to its detriment. The endurance ascent from dehydrated peasant to almighty warlord of Arrakis is simply a joyousness astir each measurement of the way, and the communicative and worldbuilding filled this nerd with implicit joy. There’s inactive plentifulness for Awakening to enactment connected though, arsenic its combat ne'er truly hits its stride, the endgame is simply a spot of a chaotic messiness not worthy the effort."

If each that's got you interested, marque definite to cheque retired each the Dune: Awakening classes you tin take from, and support an oculus connected our in-progress Dune: Awakening walkthrough for a step-by-step usher to the story. To assistance you past connected Arrakis, we've got Dune: Awakening assets guides that'll assistance you find iron, steel, aluminium, and a Dune: Awakening Trainers locations guide.

Dune: Awakening has enjoyed a superb launch, with a 'very positive' idiosyncratic reappraisal standing connected Steam. Within hours of going unrecorded connected June 10, Funcom's endurance MMO had clocked up implicit 142,000 concurrent players connected Valve's platform, and deed a caller precocious earlier this period of 189,333 players. And it's already clocked up implicit 1 cardinal players, too, making it Funcom's fastest-selling crippled ever.

Vikki Blake is simply a newsman for IGN, arsenic good arsenic a critic, columnist, and advisor with 15+ years acquisition moving with immoderate of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's besides a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her astatine BlueSky.