Dune: Awakening developer Funcom has apologized after "patching out" a layout change in the Deep Desert that briefly transformed PvE territory into PvP, leading to "an unfortunate amount of lost bases and equipment."
Yesterday, Funcom released another patch for Dune: Awakening, with more tweaks to improve the endgame experience for players who'd prefer to spend time in PvE activities, including the ability to farm Tier 6 resources and a better chance of getting Unique drops in PvE loot in Deep Desert.
It follows on-going efforts from the developer to improve PvP in the Deep Desert after an AMA revealed many players branded the endgame "toxic" due to griefing even after the ability for players to squish each other with their Ornithopter was supposedly patched out. Later, griefers intentionally landed their Ornis on other players' own thopters to prevent them from farming.
However, the change — which was "intended to only occur with the next Coriolis cycle and not impact the ongoing cycle" — resulted in an "oversight in the development process and internal communications," resulting in heavy losses for some players.
"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 team said in a statement.
"We are working to reimburse vehicles and items (to the best of our ability) to players who were impacted by this. You can expect the reimbursed materials, items, and vehicle components to show up in the in-game ‘Claim Rewards’ tab by the end of this week."
In the same statement, the team also revealed it was working hard to eliminate cheaters from Arrakis, writing, "our primary focus, which continues over the next weeks and months, will be to remove all identified exploits (third party cheat engines, client hacks, or in-game exploitation of game mechanics). In addition, we will be hard at work improving the game, adding quality of life features, and addressing critical gameplay issues.
"We have zero tolerance for the type of player behavior that has an impact on the experience of other players, and we will continue to focus on ensuring that players can enjoy the game as it is intended," the statement added. "If you see someone cheating or exploiting, please report them to us using the available reporting channels."
Funcom said that so far it has taken action on "several hundred" cheats caught using exploits, cheats, and hacks, with "more waves of bans coming as we identify further culprits."
"We have a team dedicated exclusively to fighting hackers and fixing exploits. Over the next few patches, they will be introducing additional efforts to prevent exploits by increasing security on several client/server communication layer, performing additional penetration testing against common attack vectors, and auditing our item and inventory systems to make sure they are resistant to item duplication," Funcom stated.
Finally, the team also apologized to players who had lost "vehicles or other resources" due to in-game bugs. Though admitting some issues are hard to replicate and resolve, Funcom said it is now working on tools to "better reimburse players for vehicle losses due to bugs."
Dune: Awakening has enjoyed a superb launch, with a 'very positive' user review rating on Steam. Within hours of going live on June 10, Funcom's survival MMO had clocked up over 142,000 concurrent players on Valve's platform, and hit a new high earlier this month of 189,333 players. And it's already clocked up over 1 million players, too, making it Funcom's fastest-selling game ever, and securing a Great 8/10 in our review.
If all that's got you interested but you're not sure where to start, make sure to check out all the Dune: Awakening classes you can choose from, and our Dune: Awakening walkthrough for a step-by-step guide to the story. We've also got Dune: Awakening resource guides that'll help you find iron, steel, aluminium, and a Dune: Awakening Trainers locations guide to help you survive on Arrakis.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
