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To date, my Dune: Awakening experience has largely consisted of building an ungainly box and hanging from the ceiling in my underwear. But more driven players have already barrelled their way to the endgame, where its “extremely competitive” PvP focus has become something of a concern for PvE players. Enter developer Funcom, which reckons it might have found a solution.

Dune: Awakening’s endgame, if you’re unfamiliar, is focused on the Deep Desert. This vast, ever-shifting landscape is where players can venture in search of valuable resources and endgame gear as they make a grasp for factional supremacy, and one that’s reset every week by Coriolis storms. It’s also PvP-focused – a design decision Funcom has previously stood firm on, even as Ornithopters rained down from above. Now, though, Dune: Awakening creative director Joel Bylos has admitted the system isn’t quite working in the way the team had hoped.

“We still believe in the core concept of the Deep Desert,” he explained in a newly shared developer blog. “The tension of heading out there, head on a swivel, eyes peeled for foes as you enter the most dangerous part of the most dangerous planet in the universe. Our wish was that players would embrace this loop, forming guilds to work together to overcome the bleakness of the Deep Desert… The reality is that players are reporting being cut out of the endgame due to the extremely competitive nature of the Deep Desert.

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This runs counter to the team’s vision, according to Bylos. “We want PvE players to be able to play the endgame and have access to the content of the endgame. Our goal is not to force PvE players to interact with a PvP system that they may have no interest in.”

As such, Funcom is introducing Partial Warfare (PvE) zones to the Deep Desert where players can explore testing stations and harvest T6 resources without being forced into conflict with other players. However, Landsraad control points, shipwrecks and the largest spice fields will remain War of Assassins (PvP) flagged. “The deepest parts of the Deep Desert,” Bylos continued, “will remain as they currently are – high reward, high risk areas.”

“The beauty of the Deep Desert design with weekly resets and renewals,” he added, “is that we can iterate and experiment with different layouts and setups to really help us tune it. As we make changes we will send out surveys to help us capture your thoughts.”

On top of that, Bylos acknowledged a variety of issues impacting PvP. Some of these relate to Ornithopters, which have dominated Dune: Awakening’s endgame ever since players realised they could drop them on other people’s heads. Scout Ornithopters will see a range of changes, which Funcom details in its blog, as will other mechanics the studio believes are being “abused”, including respawn timers, vehicle storage tools, and hand scanners.

“The intended dynamic of Deep Desert PvP” Bylos noted, “is that – unless you really mess up – you always have the option to retreat in good order with whatever you’ve managed to claim so far. If you’re smart and vigilant, you never have to fight if you don’t want to. If you run, you’ll have to call a halt to whatever task you were pursuing, but that should always be a choice. PvP should happen when both parties decide they want to fight over a location.”

And finally, Bylos had a few words to say on Dune: Awakening’s Landsraad design, admitting this endgame “framework” still has a number of “key flaws”. Funcom is currently looking at addressing some of these, including the “inability to hand in items after a square is completed and the rapidity at which some squares are turned in”, alongside stockpiling, which is currently being unintentionally rewarded. Additionally, the studio will be introducing Landsraad “micro rewards” for solo/small group players.

“Once a live game launches, it becomes a collaborative effort between the developers and the players to make it something amazing,” Bylos concluded. “We appreciate your feedback on what we hope is the beginning of a long journey together. Bear with us – our intention is to be clear and open in our communications and to make Dune: Awakening a game that everybody can enjoy.” And by all accounts, Dune: Awakening – which we gave four stars in our review – currently has a lot of everybodys, what with having already hurtled passed 1m sales.

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