Piratesoftware interview 2024-12-13

On 2024-12-13, well-known Twitch Streamer and game dev Thor (PirateSoftware) interviewed Joel Bylos, the Creative Director of Dune Awakening

Link to the Twitch stream VOD here or on the Youtube channel stream here

• Using a Game design document, Funcom are using Confluence for Dune.
• The general creative direction process for the game - letting directors have their own speciality/niche and all agreeing on direction
• Joel's history with Dune, from the books, the old Dune games and movies.
• The Funcom CEO being a huge Dune fan too, wanted a new project, then reached out to Legendary
• The beta discord has a Worm survivor support group channel!
• We start in Hagga Basin, behind the shield wall, which is somewhat safer than the rest of Arrakis, but still pretty hostile
• In the beta, there are large guilds and solo players - the game can support both styles of play.
• Originally the game started out as a single world with server meshing, but changed given technical requirements
• There is no building in the social hubs. Hagga Basin is persistent and permanent, Deep Desert fully resets and changes weekly.
• Deep Desert is full open PvP, only take what you want to risk.
• There is an idea to create the "Coriolis Race" - a standard MMO pattern of activity from the weekend, down.
• The Coriolis storm happens on a Tuesday Night.
• The Cartography system can be used for players to create their own maps every week of the deep desert, and share it between their guilds or trade it
• There is a Scanner, which can highlight resources marked on the map. By default not all resources are shown.
• The Deep Desert has new eco labs, rock islands, and shipwrecks.
• At mid-week, guilds would be scouting out the Deep Desert, setting up bases
• The Landsraad asks guilds to perform tasks, and then vote to implement a server rule for a week.
• :Joel wants a third faction, which is planned. Potentially not until after launch'
• An example Landsraad rule is 25% reduced crafting costs for the winning faction for a week.
• The deep desert does not have full loot drop, but "The Right of Salvage" landsraad rule could implement full loot for a week
• Loot Rules - Players drop a percentage of resources. All Spice and Solaris. Normally no other players can loot this though, even in a PvP Zone
• The Sandworm threat should remain even into late game.
• The traversal in the game should go from on foot, to on ground vehicles and then in flying
• Discussing the change of gameplay styles with flying vehicles
• The (Deep Desert) is mostly empty sand
• There is not a custom change to map (e.g. player-made markers) but it was discussed but was pushed out of scope for launch
• The doors to the Deep Desert eco labs may be locked at the start of the week, but then unlock after a certain time, to prevent the first-come-first-served advantage
• Levelling up - spending skill points on skills and technology points on technology
• But Unique Schematics have limited uses (once, for example)
• An example: In one week, an ecology lab has a special limited unique lasgun schematic. It respawns once an hour for a week before it goes away for a month. About 50 drops per week, until that eco lab comes back (random chance), whoever loots the schematic corners the market for it for that time.
• As an organisation runner, there isn't much to automatically prevent insiders, deliberately to encourage Dune Intrigue
• There is a permissions system within bases to restrict access to chests, doors etc. Guild leaders can lock everyone out to prevent it, if they're paranoid
• The monetization model (which Joel isn't meant to talk about). One time fee, no subscription, and followup transactions.
• Not pay-to-win. Conan exiles did have battle pass, but it was all cosmetics. Not Joel's philosophy to implement P2W
• The money people at Funcom listen to the devs. (e.g. having different cultures of Conan inspire their cosmetic packs)
• Base Raiding - Bases have shields. So long as they are powered, they will not be vulnerable
• A large shield can build up static and overload a base shield. In the Deep Desert, for a brief period after a specific large sandstorm, base shields can be knocked down temporarily.
• These base storms are randomised, and specifically configured not to affect when people are not online (e.g. when people in a region are normally asleep)
• Base raiding is not encouraged in the game, kicking down other's sandcastles does tend to make a community toxic
• PvP is meant to be opt-in, where both parties consent, and it is fair
• There are small PvP zones in Hagga Basin. These places are marked for Kanly - Shipwrecks (the Right of Salvage applies)
• There are more quests/contracts than an open survival sandbox, and a Journey that follows character progression that the player can drop in and out of.
• The main story follows the character's purpose on Arrakis
• The two PvE "dungeon" types are abandoned Desert Imperial Testing Stations, and Shipwrecks
• Shipwrecks have fallen from the war of assassins
• An explanation of the eco labs in the lore, as the Fremen open them up. They are like vaults from fallout - abandoned, varied, some taken over by slavers, some overgrown and with different experiments. Each is a break from the usual desert, and have their own little story
• There's over 200+ testing stations in the lore. What they were saying they were doing may not have been truthful - perhaps experimenting with AI underground. They could add these to the game
• The skill trees - archetypes (Great Schools) Bene Gesserit, Swordmaster, Trooper or Mentat. You start with a talent
• First Bene Gesserit ability is the Voice - Compel.
• When we level up we gain skill points to spend on passive techniques or active abilities. But also passive buffs to boost stats
• Shiga-wire claw - sending off a grappling-hook like thing wire with a claw
• You start with one archetype, and then have to seek other mentors in the world. There are also much longer quest chains to gain advanced training and abilities.
• The Voice can be used on players. Some other skills can grant immunity to the Voice.
• The Voice does take some time to lock on and activate - by breaking line of sight you can interrupt this.
• 33/33/33 Gear/Skills & Progression/Player Skill. As players level up - you gain intel points, but also can find intel points in the world
• Intel Points = Technology Tree. Ability Points = Skill Tree
• At some point progression is blocked until you find the trainers
• Players are never locked into one skill tree. You can learn all the archetypes, it might take over 500 hours though.
• Joel designed the Investigation Missions in the Secret World
• Secret World was Thor's favourite MMO of all time :) (also made by Funcom)
• ....continued Fanboying over Secret world....
• Perhaps be able to rent a Hagga Basin -':' which could have a shared Deep Desert/Social hubs with other privately rented instances
• Any private servers would not have changes to rules or mods, to keep it fair.
• Closed beta is ongoing, hopefully having an Open beta at some point, when the game is ready - early next year. (2025)
• A text-to-speech voice of an Atreides NPC trying to muster the troops with a flat "Awoo" which became a meme
• :There are around 7 types of ranged weapons. But not all are effective against shields'
• Poison and Fire can pass through shields more.
• Sending in a Hunter-Seeker is an insta-kill for most NPCs that are unshielded. It is not insta-kill against players.
• There is a parry and block system, but NOT Directional Melee Combat nor Souls-like
• A slow-blade plunge attack penetrates the shields to take them down
• Darts ping off shields
• Shields attract the worms. They are a living entity, with territories and chase vibrations.
• Worms have a threat system generated by vibration. Holtzman Shields will drive the worm crazy "100x"! the threat
• Be careful not to annoy the worm too much
• You can activate your shield to kamikaze and attract the worms. Joel has done this. Ew.
• Spice is used in Crafting. In Bribing people to see political adgendas. As a goal in the Landsraad to deliver the most Spice. It forms part of the character's journey - expanding your mind through spice.
• Characters start on a prison transport to a Harkonnen slave camp to rebuild Neo Carthag which was destroyed in the war.
• The game will likely have
• The game will launch on PC, but the console release will follow - it's just not up to pairty yet.
• Crossplay discussions will happen after PC release with the platforms
• Worm riding is something to come post-launch
• Originally Legendary didn't want Funcom to show ANYTHING Fremen, notably worm riding
• Possible BIG Fremen expansion patch - including Worm Riding?
• Need to determine the place of worm riding in the game - what can you do on a worm that you can't do on a vehicle?
• The Landsraad system is a driver for the endgame.
• There are territory control points recently added as part of the Landsraad to earn points
• House Argosaz envoy - "go out to the deep desert, control this area for us, we'll give you out vote in the Landsraad" - they also tell the same to both factions
• Landsraad Votes are on Sunday night
• 'Next week, the envoy asks for "5/50 Ornithopters" for their vote - or "Run 10 Eco labs and bring back manifests" or "Deliver a map of H,G,I zones in the deep desert":
• The landsraad is a competition, and a menu for tasks to complete.
• Not all PvP is combat - the Landsraad is both combat, exploring, resources etc objectives
• The landsraad can expand in many ways over future updates.
• It was inspired by "Bingo Brawlers" - a bingo board between Elden Ring streamers. A series of 25 objectives they compete to win
• The Landsraad is shared between a whole server (all Hagga Basin instances)
• You have to be part of a guild to engage with the landsraad, but you can be a solo guild.
• The planned third faction is a balancing faction - which has the ability to flip any square on the Landsraad
• Thor is a Harkonnen
• The difficulty of testing and building endgame systems in beta as it needs large numbers of players
• Players are goblins who will always game every system they can
• Players can have dogfights in Ornithopters - but rockets are expensive. Lasguns.
• There was a beta event called "The Rumble in the Desert" with over 20 Ornithopters fighting
• The game can run on the ROG Ally, unoptimized, and will run likely run on the Steam Deck
• No system requirements yet. But there will be benchmarking before launch.
• Joel plays the game on a 3070 (70FPS) at home, runs fine. 4070 at work runs much better (100+ FPS on Ultra)
• Worms are the one consistent thing in the world you want to avoid. When they eat you, you lose everything. You wake up naked, with nothng.
• Worms come to eat shipwrecks. They fall from the sky and have hatches on each side the player has to open and loot - but be careful!
• Players have and can use Thumpers to distract the worms
• Harvesting large spice fields in the deep desert is like a raid - you need many people, A transport thopter carrying a sandcrawler, some spotters in thopters, having someone on a sandbike to place thumpers to keep sandworms away.
• Worms will be drawn to thumpers as they have high threat, but after a point, you attain more threat than a new thumper and they will go for the spice harvesting
• The lore had to be changed to trigger off
• Carthag was destroyed by a lasgun-shield interaction, hence the Harkonnens rebuildng it. This made the Emperor declare that all Lasguns have to have a safety mechanism to lock when pointed at a shield.
• There is proximity voice. There is text chat, and 'map chat.:
• :There will be some level of chat bubble for text chat in the game, like oldskool WoW (Proximity text chat)'

Points in Bold are new pieces information as of the time of the interview