⊃∪∩⊂ Awakening - Funcom's survival MMO releasing May 20th

[bylam]

One thing that has always confused the shit out of me is these Dune based entries that for some reason or another have guns.

It was all over the place in the Dune movie, people shooting rocket launchers and missiles at literally everything, threatening orbital bombardment and so forth. Why?

Wasn't the whole point of why close, intimate combat with knives was possible is because shooting a shield with a high velocity projectile caused a nuclear reaction?

Why do they feel the need to include guns and other conventional bullshit? Just for spectacle? In the Dune movie shit was exploding all over the place when the Harkonnens attacked Arrakis. I don't remember any of this shit in the books, but perhaps my recollection is extremely poor. I just remember that Lasguns were a big fucking no-no just because of even the possibility that someone might be wearing a shield. I mean, unless you wanted to be a huge asshole and deliberately cause a nuclear explosion, but even the Great Houses seemed to shun this. Hence why Duncan Idaho is famous for being a great swordsman, and likewise the Sardaukar are feared for their skill with a blade, why House Atreides values swordsmanship and has Duncan train him, why Duncan's feat of singlehandedly taking down 9 Sardaukar or whatever it was was so impressive, etc, etc. Similarly, this is why taking down the shield wall on Arrakis was such a big deal and why they bothered using sandworms. Nukes were weapons to be feared rather than weapons to be actually used, same with lasguns.

It's what makes Dune feel so intimate and medieval in the books. Generic sci-fi boom-booms and kablooies, yay, let's make a boring ass videogame.

In almost every battle in the books, outside of the very specific duels with knives, projectile weapons are used (including rockets. In fact Paul co-opts the ones the Harkonnen used for his campaign against the Emperor). Happy to provide extensive quotes. But even beyond that, unless we assume people are absolute idiots, the moment they realize that shields are not viable in the desert, it makes sense to switch to ranged weapons. So any extended period of fighting in the deserts of Dune leads naturally to a conclusion that people would move towards ranged weapons again.

With that said, the game has a fairly extensive and faithful implementation of melee/shield dynamics so it's not like ranged weapons are the only useful weapons. One of the first bosses in the game is shielded to teach you this exact lesson - you cannot just shoot everything.

Almost every great house has a stockpile of nuclear weapons and they are all strategically placed - so if someone uses a nuke the retaliation will be swift. Again, the book has two examples of casual nuke usage - once when Duncan leaves a shield out deliberately to prevent the Harkonnen using lasguns against them in the desert, and when Paul uses the nuke to open the shield wall gap and let them through.

The game doesn't feature nukes, except as a part of the backstory.

 

[itsme]

One thing that has always confused the shit out of me is these Dune based entries that for some reason or another have guns.

It was all over the place in the Dune movie, people shooting rocket launchers and missiles at literally everything, threatening orbital bombardment and so forth. Why?

Wasn't the whole point of why close, intimate combat with knives was possible is because shooting a shield with a high velocity projectile caused a nuclear reaction?

Why do they feel the need to include guns and other conventional bullshit? Just for spectacle? In the Dune movie shit was exploding all over the place when the Harkonnens attacked Arrakis. I don't remember any of this shit in the books, but perhaps my recollection is extremely poor. I just remember that Lasguns were a big fucking no-no just because of even the possibility that someone might be wearing a shield. I mean, unless you wanted to be a huge asshole and deliberately cause a nuclear explosion, but even the Great Houses seemed to shun this. Hence why Duncan Idaho is famous for being a great swordsman, and likewise the Sardaukar are feared for their skill with a blade, why House Atreides values swordsmanship and has Duncan train him, why Duncan's feat of singlehandedly taking down 9 Sardaukar or whatever it was was so impressive, etc, etc. Similarly, this is why taking down the shield wall on Arrakis was such a big deal and why they bothered using sandworms. Nukes were weapons to be feared rather than weapons to be actually used, same with lasguns.

It's what makes Dune feel so intimate and medieval in the books. Generic sci-fi boom-booms and kablooies, yay, let's make a boring ass videogame.

Guns and shields is one thing but the real one is total lack of any form of computers and AI. EVERYTHING was based on simple mechanics. And look at those copters and tanks on screenshots and in movies. This shit looks like some sci-fi tech produced by precise robotic engineering.

 

[anvi]

Is it shaping up to be a success like Age of Conan and The Secret World?

 

[bylam]

I'm going to enjoy watching Anvi slowly lose his mind as we move towards launch.
Every time he bumps this thread with a poorly researched ridiculous take (Age of Conan was a massive success, for example) I'm winning. Every time he doesn't post anything at all, I'm winning.

Happy to answer any questions about the game that other people have (within reason, I guess some things are still under wraps).

 

[actor]

My only question: is it fun?

 

[bylam]

My only question: is it fun?

Yes. I enjoy it a lot. With the caveat that you place it in the right genre (survival) and setting (Dune). If you don't like either of those things, you probably won't enjoy it. But if you enjoy one or both of those things, it's fun. Of course, I am biased. Better to wait for other takes.