A Dune: Awakening Reddit AMA has provided insight into when the next major update may be coming, as well as a firm stance on the design direction of the PvP endgame.
The AMA was handled by Funcom developers including creative director Joel Bylos. It was Bylos who responded to questions regarding the endgame PvP, which has proven controversial among those torn on the orniphopter-laden meta that has formed in the game’s opening weeks.
When asked whether the team was considering removing missile launchers for scout orniphopters – the source of much ire – Bylos responded with considerations from the team.
“Equipping a Scout Ornithopter with rocket Pods [could] reduce overall maneuverability and max speed. This will help solidify this module selection as a desire to engage in combat and balance it versus other combat-focused vehicles,” said Bylos. He also noted other ideas, like an increased impact on the scout orniphopters’ heat when shooting missiles, as well as a baseline speed increase to orniphopters with boosters equipped to make escaping easier.
As for the overall endgame experience, Bylos expanded his thoughts as to explain more macro goals the team desire.
“We want players to make meaningful decisions about what they bring with them and how they outfit their vehicles,” Bylos stated. “Once players have engaged in PvP, we want the experience to be reliable, responsive, and clearly understood. This determines how PvP as a whole feels and how players make their moment to moment decisions in a fight.”
Bylos would conclude by addressing concerns regarding connection-related troubles: “To ensure a more reliable experience in ground combat, we are continuing to address issues with movement desyncs and rubber banding, as well as ability activation reliability.”
When asked whether or not a Deep-Desert-style zone without vehicles was being considered, Bylos outright stated no, elaborating: “a lot of our adjustments and balancing are going to drive combat towards the core vision, which is people competing over points of interest in the Deep Desert”. Bylos continued: “The current balance between vehicles and on-foot is not tuned to our liking and there are multiple changes in the pipeline to address this (above and beyond bugs we will fix).”
So it’s certainly been made clear that quality of life changes are being worked on, like the removal of vehicle ramming damage in PvP, the team stood firm for their ideas on how the Deep Desert works. Which is good, in my opinion. Filing down this “vision”, as Bylos puts it, risks removing a substantial amount of character from the game.
The AMA wasn’t just focused on PvP! Other interesting tidbits were revealed by the team, such as a quality-of-life update coming in July, the fact that major Dune: Awakening updates are planned to release every three-four months with new PvE and story stuff to play through, as well as plans to add new contracts to the game.
In Eurogamer’s Dune: Awakening review, the endgame was described glowingly: “It feels less like structured group activities you’d see in a traditional MMORPG raid, and more like grouping up in Classic WoW for a world boss. Or joining a hunt train in Final Fantasy 14. It’s organic community play, something that forms bonds, strong friendships, and undoubtedly tense rivalries.”