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

• 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
• 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, 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" 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 not
• 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 that have
• 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
• The skill trees - archetypes (Great Schools) Bene Gesserit, Swordmaster, Trooper or Mentat. You start with a talent
• Bene Gesserit ability is the Voice. Our characters
• 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
• 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 left.
• Crossplay discussions will happen after PC release
• 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.