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Dune: Awakening
Allow me to preface this article by saying that I actually love the organic way the world of Dune: Awakening has developed since the game launched this week. If you revisit the starting zones of Hagga Basin now, you’ll find shells of old buildings, chests with bits of loot within them, and lots of player-made structures that add flavour to the world. I love the idea of a newcomer arriving on Arrakis and seeing remnants of those that came before them. It’s very cool. That being said, Arrakis is a naturally competitive place, and that has led to some unsavoury interactions.
Dune: Awakening truly shows off the best and worst of humanity, in about as many ways as you’d expect a multiplayer crafting game where resources are hotly contested. I’d seen a few reddit posts about people building walls across important travel chokepoints and founding fortresses on top of dew patches, but it wasn’t until last night that I got a taste of this chaos myself.
I’m pretty sure this is the player that griefed me, but I’m not 100% certain.
I’d hopped out of my scout Ornithopter to clean up some Flour Sand. I thought I’d be in and out in less than a couple of minutes. Easy-peasy. In the time it took me to cross the sand, another player appeared out of nowhere, dropped a subfief (which allows you to build), and had blocked my Ornithopter with a small structure, a la Fortnite. I was stunned.
I couldn’t actually access it anymore. I typed in chat, quite a few expletives, but the player was already long gone. To be honest, at least after I’d got the rage out of my system, I did laugh: it was hilariously fast and well-executed. It made me think the other player had likely done this before to similar unfortunate souls.
The Passive Battle For Water
Our guild server is a pretty busy one, with at least two hardcore groups that are passively fighting over the control of water dew patches. The water dew is an excellent way to harvest loads of water. During the peak dew hours, around dawn, you can get a bunch of water stored directly in cisterns with top-tier water scythes.
This has led to our group and others on the server building bases on top of water dew patches and then blocking them off, preventing any other players from access. It’s a cool mechanic, and makes perfect sense considering we’re on Arrakis and water is everything. My only concern is the smaller groups and solo players being unable to access any of these dew patches — that’s just annoying.
Likewise, I saw a slew of reddit posts about players building structures across important travel points — like spanning the crossable desert between two stone pillars — that prevent other players from moving through them. I haven’t seen an example of this myself, and now have an Ornithopter that allows me to cross regardless of any structures in the way, but I can see how this could be frustrating for a newbie just trying to get to an objective on their sand bike.
One of our guildmates even spoke about how on another server they’d found a small group of players based up next to one of the crashed ships, which are the only PvP zones in the Hagga Basin. They’d wait for solo players to come along and then kill them. I said they just had to let us know where they were, and we’d go and help clear up the bandits. I’m not even against this sort of emergent gameplay, but again, I can see why a new or casual player could find this frustrating.
It’s Not All Bad
Thankfully, I did see some much nicer posts from players who’d heard feedback about building massive walls and instead building tunnels that players can fit their vehicles through. Some have even set up small public areas with some resources — like fuel and water — where players can seek refuge from the sandstorm and replenish their dwindling supplies.
My own Hagga Basin base is still there, and I’ve filled it with some early game resources that I hope some new players stumble across. I periodically check up on it to see if I need to refill any of the chests. Despite some bad actors, most of the community I’ve met in Dune: Awakening has been helpful and down to run content together. Band together on the sand—the desert is dangerous alone.
