Developer Funcom has apologised to Dune: Awakening players and pledged to restore missing vehicles and items after a recent patch inadvertently deleted bases and other equipment.
Dune: Awakening, you might recall, recently made significant changes to its end-game, introducing a substantial number of PvE-focused areas to its ever-shifting Deep Desert area following player complaints. During a subsequent update, several PvE-designated areas were inadvertently switched to PvP, and Funcom released a patch on Monday swapping them back.
However, as it’s now revealed in a new post addressing the issue, these changes weren’t supposed to come into effect until the next Coriolis cycle, when the Deep Desert is reset and reshaped by raging sandstorms. As a result of their premature deployment, players who’d set up camp in the impacted areas suddenly found their bases gone and their hard-earned end-game resources and equipment missing. Annoyance, as you might imagine, ensued.
“This was an oversight in our development process and internal communications,” Funcom explained in its developer update. “We’re incredibly sorry that this happened and we want to acknowledge that this should have been handled better. We’ve changed our internal processes as a result of this and will be better in the future.”
The studio has also pledged to restore all lost vehicles and items “to the best of [its] ability”, noting that impacted players should see their reimbursed items, materials, and vehicle components appear in Dune: Awakening’s in-game Claim Rewards tab by the end of this week.
Funcom’s post also addresses a number of additional issues it’s currently tackling, including item and vehicles losses resulting from other bugs. “At launch we lacked the tooling and logging to identify and reimburse all circumstances of item loss,” it explains. “But we have been working on improving our tools so that we can better reimburse players for vehicle losses due to bugs. There is a backlog of customer support requests, so we beg your patience when waiting for tickets to be resolved.” It adds the team is “working to address the root causes of the item loss” and has a “dedicated team focused on mitigating vehicle/item loss on server crashes, disconnects, server mesh transfers, and travelling between maps.”
And finally, Funcom notes its primary focus over the coming weeks and months will – in addition to addressing critically gameplay issues and introducing quality of life improvements – be to remove identified exploits, including third-party cheat engines, client hacks, and in-game exploitation of game mechanics.
“We have zero tolerance for the type of player behaviour that has an impact on the experience of other players,” it explains, “and we will continue to focus on ensuring that players can enjoy the game as it is intended.” The studio reminds players to report cheats and exploits using the “available reporting channels”, and notes it’s already “taken action on several hundred players who have abused exploits, cheats and hacks”, with “more waves of bans” on the way.
As for the game itself, it’s a good ‘un, teething troubles aside. “[It’s] a case study in how to adapt a beloved body of work right.” Eurogamer’s Connor Makar wrote in his review. “At a time when triple-A game development tends to play it safe, I’m sure there was real pressure to sand down some of Dune: Awakening’s many quirks. I’m very glad that didn’t happen.”