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Although it’s only been out for two weeks, there are dedicated Dune Awakening players who have already reached the MMO’s endgame, and despite the allure of an immense challenge, there have been complaints about the unfair treatment of PvE and solo players when compared to those that love PvP. A Reddit AMA last week addressed some of these complaints, but the answers weren’t enough to satisfy most. In response, Funcom has outlined some big changes that are in the works.
Even for the best MMOs, endgame content is always a tricky thing to get right – especially the first time around. Now, Joel Bylos – the creative director of Dune Awakening – has penned a post on the survival MMO’s website to explain the current state of PvE and PvP, what developer Funcom’s intentions were for each of these experiences, and what’s going to change in the future.
Bylos concedes that “players are reporting being cut out of the endgame due to the extremely competitive nature of the Deep Desert.” To address this, the Deep Desert will add PvE-only areas soon “where players will be able to explore testing stations and harvest T6 resources without the threat of conflict they may not want.” This doesn’t apply to Landsraad control points, shipwrecks, and the largest spice fields within this region of the Deep Desert, however, as they will remain flagged as ‘War of Assassins (PvP).’
Solo players still get the short end of the stick though, as the top tier of the game is balanced around guilds and groups. So you have a lot of grinding to do as a solo player unless you buddy-up with a guild.
“PvP itself has plenty of issues that need to be addressed,” Bylos continues, listing a lot of planned changes to Scout Ornithopters – vehicles that are a big reason why aerial combat is so widespread. Changes include Scout Ornithopters with rocket launchers getting their speed maneuverability reduced, rockets fired getting increased heat generation, Thrusters providing a max speed bonus regardless of wings, and a new T5 infantry rocket launcher will be added to help improve ground vehicular combat.
There’s also changes coming to the Landsraad, a divisive endgame Faction system that favours groups of players, as it’s tough for solo players to complete tasks for their Faction fast enough. Bylos admits that the tasks are a lot of item hand-ins and crafting requests, but reasons that this is because “the system is in the earliest launchable iteration” and promises that the Landsraad will be “an umbrella for all endgame activities” in the future. Like dungeons with bosses that drop endgame loot, more contracts that require specific tasks to be undertaken, and delivery tasks that include components that can’t be stockpiled. Raids were even teased as being a part of Landsraad activities “If we ever add raids.”
General Landsraad stockpiling issues are also being looked into, as is the inability to hand in items after a square is completed, and the speed some squares are turned in. Additionally, solo and small group players will get “micro rewards” to make up for not being able to get the rewards that a big group can. Additional changes are also coming for respawn timers, vehicle storage tools, hand scanners, and “other mechanics that we see being abused in the Deep Desert.”
You can read the blog post in its entirety here.
If you need some assistance in Arrakis, our Dune Awakening class tier list can help, but if you’d prefer to find other games like it instead, check out our picks for the best survival games on PC.
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