Dune: Awakening confirms air-to-air combat in ornithopters

It's almost spice time. Survival MMO Dune: Awakening launches on May 20, and we're all sitting here not-so patiently in our stillsuits and wearing our nose-tubes until the day we wait to finally set foot on the sands of Arrakis.

But let's not worry about tromping around on the blistering hot sand dunes just yet. In a new blog post today, Funcom revealed more information about Dune: Awakening, and most of it had to do with flying, not walking. Specifically, ornithopters, those cool dragonfly-like helicopters.

The first 'thopter highlighted was the "strong and bulky carrier ornithopter," which is used for carrying sandcrawlers into the deep desert to harvest spice. These carriers can also transport other vehicles, Funcom says, "like groundcars and even other ornithopters." Seems weird for one flying vehicle to carry another, but then again I guess it's just like seeing a two-truck pulling a car, right?

Funcom also answered an important community question from Discord regarding all things 'thopter:

"Is there any way to shoot rockets or guns out of Ornithopters?"

The answer is yes, and what's more, you can shoot down other 'thopters. Air-to-air combat in Dune: Awakening confirmed.

"Ornithopters have several optional modules you can craft and place onto them, one of them being rockets," Funcom said. "This will help when you’re dealing with other ornithopters in the sky or sandcrawlers trying to steal spice in the Deep Desert. As with other weapons, ammo levels must be managed, so make sure your ornithopter is fully loaded and armed before heading into combat."

I do wonder if the Discord user asking meant something more along the lines of, like, if someone is piloting the 'thopter while another player stands at the rear with the ramp open and shoots at people on the ground with a hand-held weapon. So, that part we don't yet know.

But you'll be able to shoot down other 'thopters with rockets, which sounds pretty cool. Maybe there'll even be an achievement for using your 'thopter to shoot down a carrier 'thopter that's carrying another 'thopter? We'll find out in May. In the meantime, you can read Funcom's full blog post here.