SGF 2024: Dune: Awakening Will Have You Forge Alliances and Fear the Worm | MMORPG.com

System · June 20

SGF 2024: Dune: Awakening Will Have You Forge Alliances and Fear the Worm | MMORPG.com

At Summer Game Fest Play Days, we had the chance to check out another hands-off demo of Funcom's upcoming Survival MMO, Dune: Awakening.

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Tiller · June 20

Fear the worm!

Image: https://i.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExaGlnMGh3cHNoaHQzdWxvemM4b2tla3E0eGc5enc5YzU2dnNiaDRlNiZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/KDXeCd6bh0YzLK88Vt/giphy.gif

ShinyFlygon · June 20

I know everyone's excited because it's Dune, but Funcom doesn't have a great track record if we're being honest. Every single one of their previous releases has been just good enough, never truly great. To this day, problems persist in each of their titles that make me feel like no Funcom title ever truly reaches a polished state.

Time will tell, and maybe the licensor will exert enough influence to keep the devs on track, but I'm expecting things to be pretty messy when the clock strikes 1.0.

Samhael · June 20

I don't believe the licensor is going to have the ability to do that. But I'm in mostly in agreement with you on everything else. (the "mostly" part is because I don't quite agree with "good enough" as I think it's too high a praise) I think the survival mechanics + PvP focus are going to end up making this more of a chore to play than actually being any fun.

Elidien_ga · June 20

I fully expect the game will draw big numbers due to Dune interest, but issues will cause it to see plummeting numbers, end game PVP will be dominated by hackers and exploiters (it is Funcom after all). Numbers will plummet and then they will drop PVP and re-brand as a SSMORPG (social survival MMO) and by then the damage will be done.

Not sure if thats best case or worst case scenario actually.

Eldrach · June 21

ShinyFlygon said:

I know everyone's excited because it's Dune, but Funcom doesn't have a great track record if we're being honest. Every single one of their previous releases has been just good enough, never truly great. To this day, problems persist in each of their titles that make me feel like no Funcom title ever truly reaches a polished state.

Time will tell, and maybe the licensor will exert enough influence to keep the devs on track, but I'm expecting things to be pretty messy when the clock strikes 1.0.

Well - they’ve done great with Conan Exiles - which is basically the medieval version of the Dune game they’re building.

Eldrach · June 21

Elidien_ga said:

I fully expect the game will draw big numbers due to Dune interest, but issues will cause it to see plummeting numbers, end game PVP will be dominated by hackers and exploiters (it is Funcom after all). Numbers will plummet and then they will drop PVP and re-brand as a SSMORPG (social survival MMO) and by then the damage will be done.

Not sure if thats best case or worst case scenario actually.

Yes it will - but if they copy their current Conan formula - they will have multiple server types with multiple rule sets.
I myself enjoyed the PvE-PvP servers where you could kill and loot other players, but not touch their bases

Robokapp · June 21

ShinyFlygon said:

I know everyone's excited because it's Dune, but Funcom doesn't have a great track record if we're being honest. Every single one of their previous releases has been just good enough, never truly great. .

is it even an MMO?

Angrakhan · June 21

Can't wait for all the jokes involving "the worm" and "yo mamma" or "that's what she said".

Scot · June 21

"You can also have a ground vehicle, which looks like a nondescript buggy, which is another method of travel".

So you can't learn the randomised walking to fool the worms, but you can travel in a buggy that does not attract them. Right.

harken33 · June 21

Angrakhan said:

Can't wait for all the jokes involving "the worm" and "yo mamma" or "that's what she said".

Summon water via the worm

ShinyFlygon · June 21

Eldrach said:

Elidien_ga said:

I fully expect the game will draw big numbers due to Dune interest, but issues will cause it to see plummeting numbers, end game PVP will be dominated by hackers and exploiters (it is Funcom after all). Numbers will plummet and then they will drop PVP and re-brand as a SSMORPG (social survival MMO) and by then the damage will be done.

Not sure if thats best case or worst case scenario actually.

Yes it will - but if they copy their current Conan formula - they will have multiple server types with multiple rule sets.
I myself enjoyed the PvE-PvP servers where you could kill and loot other players, but not touch their bases

We already know they are deviating significantly from the Conan formula. They are calling Dune an MMO, which Conan is clearly not. Dune will not have offline play or solo mode. You cannot create a private server in Dune.

That doesn't mean there won't be different server types, but it does mean you won't find nearly the variety of server types you get in Conan. It also implies we should see higher player populations per server because the first "M" in MMO stands for Massively.

In short, if you like the way Conan works, you're probably better off playing Conan. While they are both survival games, Dune is not just a reskin of Conan.

Borluc · June 21

Scot said:

"You can also have a ground vehicle, which looks like a nondescript buggy, which is another method of travel".

So you can't learn the randomised walking to fool the worms, but you can travel in a buggy that does not attract them. Right.

Did they say that the ground vehicle wont attract worms?

harken33 · June 21

Borluc said:

Scot said:

"You can also have a ground vehicle, which looks like a nondescript buggy, which is another method of travel".

So you can't learn the randomised walking to fool the worms, but you can travel in a buggy that does not attract them. Right.

Did they say that the ground vehicle wont attract worms?

No they did not that i have seen. The ground vehicles attract worms but in the words of the developer you might have 400 land vehicles going across at the same time and the sandworm's come to get them but cant eat everyone at the same time so more make it safely across the desert, kind of like gazelles or something i guess.

I think they talked about it in this video here:

Scot · June 21

harken33 said:

Borluc said:

Scot said:

"You can also have a ground vehicle, which looks like a nondescript buggy, which is another method of travel".

So you can't learn the randomised walking to fool the worms, but you can travel in a buggy that does not attract them. Right.

Did they say that the ground vehicle wont attract worms?

No they did not that i have seen. The ground vehicles attract worms but in the words of the developer you might have 400 land vehicles going across at the same time and the sandworm's come to get them but cant eat everyone at the same time so more make it safely across the desert, kind of like gazelles or something i guess.

I think they talked about it in this video here:

This makes somewhat more sense then and they did talk about distracting the worms, but still you only use a buggy if there are others using them, seems odd.

uriel_mafess · June 21

harken33 said:

Borluc said:

Scot said:

"You can also have a ground vehicle, which looks like a nondescript buggy, which is another method of travel".

So you can't learn the randomised walking to fool the worms, but you can travel in a buggy that does not attract them. Right.

Did they say that the ground vehicle wont attract worms?

No they did not that i have seen. The ground vehicles attract worms but in the words of the developer you might have 400 land vehicles going across at the same time and the sandworm's come to get them but cant eat everyone at the same time so more make it safely across the desert, kind of like gazelles or something i guess.

I think they talked about it in this video here:

Well I at least you can say they have knowledge of source material and that they are consciouss about the changes they are making to make it into a "live" game. Not sure it will work out tho.

harken33 · June 24

Scot said:

harken33 said:

Borluc said:

Scot said:

"You can also have a ground vehicle, which looks like a nondescript buggy, which is another method of travel".

So you can't learn the randomised walking to fool the worms, but you can travel in a buggy that does not attract them. Right.

Did they say that the ground vehicle wont attract worms?

No they did not that i have seen. The ground vehicles attract worms but in the words of the developer you might have 400 land vehicles going across at the same time and the sandworm's come to get them but cant eat everyone at the same time so more make it safely across the desert, kind of like gazelles or something i guess.

I think they talked about it in this video here:

This makes somewhat more sense then and they did talk about distracting the worms, but still you only use a buggy if there are others using them, seems odd.

Yeah sorry about that, i wasn't totally clear, you can certainly use the buggy's alone without others. The developer was talking in regards to land vehicles, how they want that *Jaws* feeling anytime you are out on the sand and about players being players they will try and find a way to exploit the AI for sand-worms.

His example was 400 players get together to make a youtube video, take off in vehicles at the same time, a larger percentage of them will survive because the worms can only eat so many due to the AI.

Also the Dev's just put out a blog (i think the day after this article came out) talking about their ideas for MMO, server structure etc. That is located here: https://duneawakening.com/en/what-makes-dune-awakening-an-mmo#

One interesting tidbit is that they apparently plan to add private servers eventually, but no guarantees on how much of the game or if it will be in at launch.

"There is one other area where Dune: Awakening will differ significantly from many other survival games. Due to its multiple MMO-based features, there is no single-player mode. You will have to be able to join our servers. Our plan is to allow private servers, at least for the Hagga Basin map, but we can’t promise this will be available for launch.

No doubt these answers leave you with even more questions, and we look forward to revealing more about Dune: Awakening in the time ahead.

Thank you for reading.

Best regards,
Joel Bylos
Creative Director"

vonryan123 · June 25

More worried about the survival mechanics I have heard about with heatstroke and dehydration. Sounds like it's going a little too hard on the survival. Which knowing failcom they have a crap track record. And I don't know very many people who think exiles was a success.

Samhael · June 26

vonryan123 said:

And I don't know very many people who think exiles was a success.

Yup, I played it for almost 45 minutes before I requested a refund. Just a boring/bland game. nothing to draw you in. However, so many folks claimed it was a great game so I doubt Funcom learned any lessons from it.

vonryan123 · June 26

Samhael said:

vonryan123 said:

And I don't know very many people who think exiles was a success.

Yup, I played it for almost 45 minutes before I requested a refund. Just a boring/bland game. nothing to draw you in. However, so many folks claimed it was a great game so I doubt Funcom learned any lessons from it.

They never do. They had a great base with AOC and then phoned in half the game. To be fair I would still play AOC if anyone still played it but they don't. It's just like wow now, see you on raid night and then ghosted till reset.

Sovrath · June 26

Samhael said:

vonryan123 said:

And I don't know very many people who think exiles was a success.

Yup, I played it for almost 45 minutes before I requested a refund. Just a boring/bland game. nothing to draw you in. However, so many folks claimed it was a great game so I doubt Funcom learned any lessons from it.

It is a great game.

Kyleran · June 27

Opinions, we all have them.

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