PCG Article A Dune multiplayer survival game is on the way, and here's how we think it should work (PC Gamer article)

[ZedClampet]

A Dune multiplayer survival game is on the way, and here's how we think it should work

Funcom announced it was making a Dune multiplayer survival game back in 2019. Here are some features we're hoping to see.

www.pcgamer.com

This is by Funcom, who readily admits that they probably wouldn't be here today without Conan Exiles, so my guess is that this will follow the Conan Exiles formula as much as possible, and that's fine with me because Exiles was an excellent survival game.

Pointlessly, several people in the comments are lamenting that this isn't an RTS like the Dune RTS of old. But let's be honest, in today's market a survival game is far less risky than an RTS. Plus, if Funcom does what they did with Conan, which was purchase the rights to make several games, then an RTS isn't off the table down the road.

 

[SWard]

Sounds exciting but it's like one of those things where I think everyone wants a different level of immersion, and it's such a shame it couldnt be a MMORPG like EVE... just imagine

 

[ZedClampet]

I think everyone wants a different level of immersion

Just, curious. What sorts of things do you think contribute to immersion?

It's such a shame it couldnt be a MMORPG like EVE... just imagine

I wouldn't mind it being an MMORPG, but I definitely wouldn't play it if it were too much like Eve. It's kind of a "the worst of humanity" simulator, and I'm already living in one of those irl

 

[Pifanjr]

I think Dune lends itself much better to a story-driven RPG than an open-world sandbox game. I want politics and scheming in my Dune game, not just wandering the desert and gathering spice.

 

[ZedClampet]

I think Dune lends itself much better to a story-driven RPG than an open-world sandbox game. I want politics and scheming in my Dune game, not just wandering the desert and gathering spice.

There wasn't any Conan story in Conan Exiles. You just sort of existed in the Conan world. I'm not sure that the Dune world is as interesting a place for that sort of thing. Wouldn't that just be endless desert and some giant worms? I only saw the Dune movie many years ago, but that's how I remember it. Will be interesting to see what they do with it.

The latest trend in big survival sequels seems to be to move toward the RPG space. You still have the sandbox, but you have RPG-like missions to go with the RPG type progression systems that many survival games already had. Both Ark and The Forest seem to be going this way with their sequels, so maybe the Dune game is headed that way too.

 

[Brian Boru]

lamenting that this isn't an RTS

Maybe they don't know that Westwood isn't the only company to make Dune games—Cryo Interactive also made a couple, the first of which had some RTS but also some adventure. There's even a major Civ4 mod for Dune.

 

[DXCHASE]

I think Dune lends itself much better to a story-driven RPG than an open-world sandbox game. I want politics and scheming in my Dune game, not just wandering the desert and gathering spice.

I agree, i really just want a SP game for this like a witcher or something. I dont mind something in a world with other people per se but i dont want it to be just strictly that. I also wouldnt mind seeing Dune in the style of Destiny, a FPS maybe, but not so much so that its just a multiplayer sandbox like this...

 

[ZedClampet]

I really don't think it's going to be "just" a sandbox game. Even Conan Exiles had more to it than that. I don't think they are making Dune Rust here.

 

[ZedClampet]

Just for the record, I love open-world survival games, so I'm pretty excited for this. I assume this game will be like Conan in that, even though it's multiplayer, it can be played SP or co-op. At one time, it seemed like we were being flooded with survival games, but there really aren't that many, not compared to things like shooters, hack-n-slash, etc.

 

[Colif]

I want to play as the character who merged with a sand worm to be ruler of dune for 3500 years

Leto II Atreides - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Which planet dune? the old one, the greenified one or the new one created once sand worms stopped existing and spice was almost impossible to get?

Funcom killed Sacred... thats all I know. The Conan game was just a reworking of Age of Conan. Dumbed down.

 

[SWard]

Paging @Mknott to what is now a Conan thread

 

[ZedClampet]

Funcom killed Sacred... thats all I know. The Conan game was just a reworking of Age of Conan. Dumbed down.

Well, it wasn't the same type of game at all. It wasn't an MMORPG. I'm not sure that changing genres means you've dumbed the game down. It was pretty advanced for the genre it was in.

But I'd like to see this new Dune game be a little more Age of Conan while keeping the survival/building/crafting elements at a high level.

 

[Colif]

You dobbing us into the boss @SWard ?

I enjoyed Age of Conan and would have loved to see my new PC destroy it but its probably gone now, it went free to play sort of and lost all its meaning to those who paid to play. My PC at the time wasn't up to playing it , some areas of game weren't showing up for me on GPU I had then.

I didn't play the newer one as I was between good PC at the time it came out... I think. And I don't play survival games.
Wikipedia doesn't mention it but Funcom worked with Deep silver to distribute AOC 1st expansion

Funcom is proud to be working with two new distribution partners, Deep Silver for the European territories and CompuExpert for the North American markets. Both Deep Silver and CompuExpert are heralded industry-leading distributors with over 35 years of combined experience.

link

I thought I was wrong until I looked further. So it left a bad taste in my mouth when first release of AOC had an amazing first chapter but no real game after that, took a year to get it fully made to point you could do end game. Or start to do end game as they had added more by then. Expansion mentioned above was fun.

 

[ZedClampet]

You dobbing us into the boss @SWard ?

I enjoyed Age of Conan and would have loved to see my new PC destroy it but its probably gone now, it went free to play sort of and lost all its meaning to those who paid to play. My PC at the time wasn't up to playing it , some areas of game weren't showing up for me on GPU I had then.

I didn't play the newer one as I was between good PC at the time it came out... I think. And I don't play survival games.
Wikipedia doesn't mention it but Funcom worked with Deep silver to distribute AOC 1st expansion


link

I thought I was wrong until I looked further. So it left a bad taste in my mouth when first release of AOC had an amazing first chapter but no real game after that, took a year to get it fully made to point you could do end game. Or start to do end game as they had added more by then. Expansion mentioned above was fun.

Ah, yeah that makes since. I misunderstood which new Conan game you meant. They've done at least 3 in the last few years. They actually completely own the Conan IP now.

 

[Brian Boru]

Speaking of Dune survival, this video may be of interest:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC1yZVqtwxY