Dune: Awakening griefers are pinning ornithopters to the ground in PvE zones, summoning worms with thumpers, and feeding helpless players to the monstrous beasts in otherwise safe regions of the game.
It works due to vehicle collision. While Funcom removed the ability to damage other players by ramming into them with ornithopters, you can still push other players’ vehicles around by flying into them. What these griefers are doing is essentially parking their own flying vehicles on top of players looking to harvest spice or flour sand, stopping them from flying out of the reach of incoming sandworms.
This comes following a massive patch made the PvP Deep Desert significantly safer for PvE-minded players, allowing them to farm the highest tier of resources without fear of roaming ornithopter gangs. In response, those who got a kick out of hunting down these combat-averse players have seemingly taken their devious behaviour elsewhere.
It’s worth noting victims of this strategy do have ways out. They can attempt to slip out of the grasp of these griefers and fly away, or retrieve their scout ornithopter (while it has no stored cargo) with a vehicle back-up tool. However, taking the second approach still leaves you stranded on the sand with a worm approaching, forcing you to make a break for the nearest safe spot.
This, obviously, trapping players on the ground isn’t an intended vehicle interaction. So what can Funcom do? Well, they can remove vehicle-on-vehicle collision altogether in PvE zones. This was a popular community-suggestion during the whole ornithopter squishing saga.
The counter-argument is, harvesting spice on open sand is meant to be dangerous! While Hagga Basin isn’t a PvP zone for the most part, you’re still meant to keep your head on a swivel for incoming dangers. Removing this vehicle collision issue could make harvesting spice too easy.
It’s a tricky one. Removing vehicle-on-vehicle collision is likely harder than it looks, and may have knock-on effects on the wider game. It’s unlikely Funcom can flip a switch to make it work in PvP areas and not in PvE ones. There is a touch of irony with this, as an update to make the PvP endgame safer for PvE players has consequently made the PvE area more dangerous.
In my heart I can’t really be mad at these sorts of shenanigans. Obviously for the player taking things slow and steady, happy in Hagga Basin, it would be incredibly frustrating to get pinned and eaten by a worm. But I also can’t help but shake the feeling that these sorts of hyjinx add a wild west charm to Dune: Awakening, one I hope never goes away.