Earlier this month, we learned a little more about the survival MMO "Dune": that is, to own a piece of Arrakis, you have to pay the emperor. Yes, even 20,000 years in the future on an alien planet, you have to pay taxes.

We learned more about Dune's player base at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco last week: we learned more about Awakening's player base. While base invasion by other players is a feature of many multiplayer games like Rust, Ark, and DayZ, Funcom hopes to encourage player conflict in other ways.

"One of the PvP approaches we wanted to take with 'Dune' was to get people away from fighting each other for bases and destroying each other's stuff," Bylos said, "Instead, we made them fight for the world's resources on location."

These resources are often the most precious resource in the entire galaxy: drugs, spices (also known as melange). The "Spice Blow" occurs as a Dune world event: huge geysers of spice erupt from the sands like volcanoes, visible to players all over the map; Funcoms, during races to harvest the spice or to transport the harvested spice, are not only on each other's home turf They want players to fight, not raid.

"We think PvP works best when people are fighting each other for resources, trying to get resources back to their bases, or fighting over something not as personal as a base," said Scott Jr. executive producer of "Dune": and "Dune : "I think it's time to fight over things that aren't personal," said Scott Jr. executive producer of "Dune: Awakening. and executive producer of "Dune: Awakening," said Scott Jr.

That's not to say that bases can't be invaded. There are ways to do it," Junior said. Players use a device called a sub-fort console to claim land and build bases. 'When the shield happens, players can't interact with you. As Joel said, "We don't want to attract people who want to kick down your sandcastles.

Once your shields are depleted or turned off, your base will be vulnerable not only to other players, but also to damage from events such as sandstorms. Also, as you progress through the game and deeper into the world, you may want to participate in base raids against other players.

"On the starting map, base raids are almost non-existent. But there are scenarios in the later stages of the PvP type of game where that could happen." But for that to happen, the player basically has to choose to do it.