Dune Awakening dev apologizes for radio silence as new roadmap arrives

It's been a tough post-launch period for Dune Awakening. Despite Funcom's best efforts to ensure the sandworms are the only bug-adjacent entities players have to worry about, its bold new MMO has been riddled with issues from the off. I'm not surprised there have been teething problems considering the sheer scope of its undertaking, but the studio's consistently risen to the challenges it's faced. While the game may not be in a perfect state, its new roadmap offers a promising look ahead.

Between collapsing Pentashields, item duplication glitches, and even an exploit that abuses Steam's Family Sharing feature, Funcom's been through the ringer with Dune Awakening over the past couple of months. Some of the new MMO's issues, like the patch that turned the Deep Desert's PvE zones back into PvP, have been self-inflicted, while others, like Landsraad kill contributions being hoovered up by guilds, is a sign of fledgling systems finding their feet.

All of this, alongside a dearth of fresh content, has contributed to the gradual downtick of players. SteamDB registered a 33,641 concurrent peak over the weekend; a far cry from the triple digits it was pulling in as recently as early July. Despite things looking a bit tetchy, Funcom is pushing forward, focusing on what's arriving over the coming months.

In a fresh community letter, the dev team starts off by apologizing for the lack of communication surrounding Dune Awakening's issues, citing team vacations as a major factor.

"We've been playing whack-a-mole with bugs, cheats, and exploits during the July month of summer," it continues. "We've banned thousands of cheaters, fixed a bunch of duplication and exploit bugs and continued working on the stability of the game. We've been working to achieve a cadence of patches that allows us time to make stable and consistent fixes, while being fast enough to address issues like exploits before they get too far out of control."

Looking ahead, the roadmap promises the second chapter of Awakening's narrative in September, which will also introduce new Deep Desert layouts, archetype armors, customization options, and more. Its first DLC, Lost Harvest, is also set to drop, and we'll be hearing more about it during Gamescom.

The big one for many will be the "revamped endgame" coming in Chapter 3, which is set to land in the first quarter of next year. Funcom acknowledges that the Landsraad lacks "the breadth or depth of content or progression" an endgame activity driver needs. In the lead-up to next year's update, faction progression will be tied to the assembly, while "a greater variety of activities across the world" will be added.

"As a player this means that you can increase your faction rank by completing Landsraad tasks, checking in with your Duke or Baron occasionally to perform special missions and visit faction vendors," Funcom explains.

Stockpiling will also get a crackdown, with Landsraad activities shifting to being "contract based, rather than delivery based." This, in theory, should make the solo experience more rewarding.

While Chapter 3 seems like an eon away, the team is introducing some short-term salves that'll have a more immediate impact on the endgame experience. These include improving player logging so you can see who's been nabbing stuff from your base's chests, a way to recover lost vehicles, and, for the magpies out there, the introduction of instanced Deep Desert loot - no more queuing up to get your crack at those testing station goodies.

It's a comprehensive roadmap, to say the least, and a real show of ambition from Funcom to get Dune Awakening where it needs to be if it's to compete long-term with the best MMOs out there. While I expect there to be a few more bumps on the road en route, the rolling dunes of Arrakis are starting to look a touch more golden.

If Dune Awakening hasn't been doing it for you, then peep some of the other best survival games to play today. Alternatively, check out more of the upcoming PC games we're expecting to get updates on at Gamescom this week.

If you've got your own ideas on how to improve Dune Awakening, or would love to show off a cool build, our community Discord server welcomes you with open arms.