Dune Awakening won't force PvE players into PvP going forward, Creative Director assures

Dune Awakening has undergone a successful launch with the laurels of over 80% positive Steam reviews. That's just as well, it's a phenomenal survival game with towering payoffs - until, that is, you're forced to head into a PvP battleground. The fact that Deep Desert, Dune Awakening's designated endgame, is a PvP-centric zone of conflict between various guilds, throws an ugly counterweight to what is essentially a 60-hour PvE campaign.

This has been the big flaw of Dune Awakening, as identified by some players even before its release. Funcom has officially acknowledged it as a problem, though. In a letter to the community, Creative Director Joel Bylos explained that they're working on it, starting with a soft bifurcation of the Deep Desert.

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Dune Awakening's Deep Desert will now get dedicated PvE sectors

My hopium of having a dedicated PvE endgame (Image via Funcom)

The current issue with Dune Awakening is how it gatekeeps its final tier of resources and gear into what is functionally a very different game. As Deep Desert is the designated farming spot for T6 gear, it completely lops off the PvE progression if you're not interested in PvP.

While the developers aren't letting go of their creative vision of guild politics and PvP spice wars determining the biggest winners, they thankfully will not abandon PvE-only players like myself.

In their first big step to servicing both sides of the aisle, they will also divide the Deep Desert: some of the areas will now officially be tagged Partial Warfare (PvE), like the entirety of Hagga Basin (sans Wreck PvP zones).

Just like going into any old Imperial Station Station in Hagga Basin, these PvE sectors will now allow you to go farm T6 resources and gear exactly as you have before this point. The enemies in these T6 dungeons still hit quite hard, so the risk-vs-reward ratio will still be there.

However, PvP enthusiasts and resourceful guilds will still get to keep their winner-take-all endgame:

"The deepest parts of the Deep Desert will remain as they currently are – high reward, high risk areas."

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Dune Awakening developers don't want PvP to boil down to aerial combat

Due to how askew Dune Awakening's balance is towards vehicles compared to foot soldiers, PvP at the time of writing locks you into thopter vs. thopter battle. Funcom does not want this status quo to last very long, and they will start by nerfing the player-driven apex predator: Scout thopters.

• Scout Ornithopters with rocket launchers attached will have their speed maneuverability reduced.
• Rockets fired from Scout Ornithopters will have increased heat generation.
• Thrusters will provide a max speed bonus regardless of wings, ensuring that thruster equipped scouts will be the fastest vehicles in the game (a change which does somewhat challenge the role of the Mk6 bikes).

To return some power to ground units, a new T5 infantry rocket launcher will also be added to help improve the dynamics of vehicle/ground combat.

Exactly how they will "fix" PvP is a complex question that will probably become clear after various patch iterations. However, they are throwing a bone to solos like myself, and small player groups, by making the Landsraad more lucrative with smaller goal thresholds.

Fundamentally, the Landsraad will still remain a checklist of homework, but solo players will now get reasonable micro-homework for micro-rewards. The Landsraad system is the centerpiece of Dune Awakening's endgame, Joel explains, and it will receive more attention from the developers to make it less chorey:

"If we ever add raids to the game, there will be a task on the Landsraad to complete those raids. It is a framework that holds the endgame activities in place. (...) We are addressing some key flaws in the Landsraad design – the inability to hand in items after a square is completed and the rapidity at which some squares are turned in. Stockpiling is currently rewarded, but that is not our intention for this system, and we will make some changes to address it as best we can."

It remains to be seen where the needle will eventually fall between the developers' vision and what PvE players really want. Ultimately, the steps promised today already makes Dune Awakening endgame a more viable place for solo players, and that's a win in my book.

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