Dune: Awakening griefers are at it again, concocting ever-new and exciting ways to make other players' lives miserable. And once again, the griefing concerns Ornithopters.
Last week, Funcom launched Dune: Awakening's Public Test Client and then extended the PvE zone of the Deep Desert from about 10% of the map to 50%. It followed an AMA in which the studio told players frustrated by the endgame experience that it was "formulating a plan" to improve PvP in the Deep Desert. Previously, players branded the endgame as "toxic" due to griefing even after the ability for players to squish each other with their Ornithopter was supposedly patched out.
But despite Funcom's mitigations, unscrupulous players have discovered another way to grief players by landing their Ornis on top of unsuspecting players — this time to prevent them from farming.
"All the griefers are now coming into Hagga to farm spice. They're doing the same thumper and land on thopter technique they perfected in [Deep Desert]. But now they're using it to farm all the minor nodes in Hagga," wrote one aggrieved fan over the weekend.
"This game has some massive issues ahead. Griefers are in an all-out war against everyone else on their server, and yet there's zero way for solos to band together to stop it. And as a Dune fan, I don't think planting a thumper and then having four thopters land on you is part of the mythology."
u/RandoFinder then edited their post to add: "I kept my Thopter at 730 km for 30 minutes until a spice blow, and as soon as I moved, four thopters were chasing me. JFC, y'all are pathetic. This was in Hagga. I had players tonight telling each other to doxx me when I stood up to them in Hagga chat. I've been in WoW general and other horrible chats, but Dune general is the most toxic chat that I've ever seen."
"I think it goes without saying that PVP is PVP, and killing other players in a PVP zone is totally legitimate and expected," responded another player. "Entrapping someone by abusing game mechanics intended to prevent grief of a similar kind, ala pinning people with ornithopters that otherwise can't be destroyed or escaped in a PVE zone, is griefing. Griefing should be explicitly and implicitly disallowed. If you're in a PVE zone, you should not have to worry about players killing you through an abuse of mechanics."
At the time of writing, there has been no public response from Funcom about the issue.
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 keep an eye on 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.
