Thus far, my Dune: Awakening expertise has largely consisted of constructing an ungainly field and hanging from the ceiling in my underwear. However extra pushed gamers have already barrelled their method to the endgame, the place its “extraordinarily aggressive” PvP focus has turn into one thing of a priority for PvE gamers. Enter developer Funcom, which reckons it may need discovered an answer.
Dune: Awakening’s endgame, in the event you’re unfamiliar, is targeted on the Deep Desert. This huge, ever-shifting panorama is the place gamers can enterprise seeking beneficial assets and endgame gear as they make a grasp for factional supremacy, and one which’s reset each week by Coriolis storms. It is also PvP-focused – a design determination Funcom has beforehand stood agency on, at the same time as Ornithopters rained down from above. Now, although, Dune: Awakening artistic director Joel Bylos has admitted the system is not fairly working in the way in which the staff had hoped.
“We nonetheless consider within the core idea of the Deep Desert,” he defined in a newly shared developer weblog. “The stress of heading on the market, head on a swivel, eyes peeled for foes as you enter essentially the most harmful a part of essentially the most harmful planet within the universe. Our want was that gamers would embrace this loop, forming guilds to work collectively to beat the bleakness of the Deep Desert… The fact is that gamers are reporting being reduce out of the endgame because of the extraordinarily aggressive nature of the Deep Desert.
This runs counter to the staff’s imaginative and prescient, in response to Bylos. “We wish PvE gamers to have the ability to play the endgame and have entry to the content material of the endgame. Our objective is to not power PvE gamers to work together with a PvP system that they might have little interest in.”
As such, Funcom is introducing Partial Warfare (PvE) zones to the Deep Desert the place gamers can discover testing stations and harvest T6 assets with out being pressured into battle with different gamers. Nonetheless, Landsraad management factors, shipwrecks and the biggest spice fields will stay Battle of Assassins (PvP) flagged. “The deepest elements of the Deep Desert,” Bylos continued, “will stay as they at the moment are – excessive reward, excessive danger areas.”
“The fantastic thing about the Deep Desert design with weekly resets and renewals,” he added, “is that we will iterate and experiment with totally different layouts and setups to actually assist us tune it. As we make adjustments we’ll ship out surveys to assist us seize your ideas.”
On prime of that, Bylos acknowledged a wide range of points impacting PvP. A few of these relate to Ornithopters, which have dominated Dune: Awakening’s endgame ever since gamers realised they might drop them on different individuals’s heads. Scout Ornithopters will see a spread of adjustments, which Funcom particulars in its weblog, as will different mechanics the studio believes are being “abused”, together with respawn timers, automobile storage instruments, and hand scanners.
“The meant dynamic of Deep Desert PvP” Bylos famous, “is that – except you actually mess up – you all the time have the choice to retreat in good order with no matter you’ve got managed to say thus far. If you happen to’re sensible and vigilant, you by no means must struggle in the event you do not need to. If you happen to run, you may must name a halt to no matter activity you have been pursuing, however that ought to all the time be a selection. PvP ought to occur when each events determine they need to struggle over a location.”
And at last, Bylos had a couple of phrases to say on Dune: Awakening’s Landsraad design, admitting this endgame “framework” nonetheless has a variety of “key flaws”. Funcom is at the moment taking a look at addressing a few of these, together with the “lack of ability at hand in objects after a sq. is accomplished and the rapidity at which some squares are turned in”, alongside stockpiling, which is at the moment being unintentionally rewarded. Moreover, the studio can be introducing Landsraad “micro rewards” for solo/small group gamers.
“As soon as a reside recreation launches, it turns into a collaborative effort between the builders and the gamers to make it one thing wonderful,” Bylos concluded. “We respect your suggestions on what we hope is the start of a protracted journey collectively. Bear with us – our intention is to be clear and open in our communications and to make Dune: Awakening a recreation that everyone can get pleasure from.” And by all accounts, Dune: Awakening – which we gave 4 stars in our evaluation – at the moment has lots of everybodys, what with having already hurtled handed 1m gross sales.
