Today's Dune: Awakening patch takes another sidestep away from the PvP-heavy endgame

Dune: Awakening's endgame continues to evolve. The massive Deep Desert, the only place where huge spice deposits and top-tier level materials can be found, was nearly entirely PvP at launch, with only about 10% of the map marked as PvE-only. A hotfix on June 26 made the Deep Desert an even 50/50 split between PvP and PvE—a pretty big shakeup for a game that's only been out for a month.

Today's patch takes yet another sidestep in the direction of an endgame that's more friendly to PvE play. The first line in the patch notes for Dune: Awakening version 1.1.15.0 states that "Tier 6 resources can now be collected across wider areas in the PvE part of the Deep Desert."

See, even after the 50/50 split came along, endgame resources were pretty sparse in the PvE half of the Deep Desert: to find major spice blows and Tier 6 minerals in heavy supply, you'd still have to risk your neck in the PvP areas—which meant the earlier patch didn't really solve the issue for players who wanted to enjoy endgame activities without getting swarmed by other players in armed ornithopters.

With this new change it sounds like players will have even less reason to wander into the PvP half of the Deep Desert. It's a bit of a shame, if you ask me, because PvP zones are where the real tension and excitement happens, though getting blown up by a swarm of 'thopters every time you cross the line does get old pretty quickly.

Another PvP-centric change in the patch notes isn't quite as friendly to PvE enthusiasts: "The delay for leaving a PvP security zone increased from 5 to 30 seconds to prevent border camping and allow PvP players to protect their area."

So, if you dip into a PvP zone it takes quite a lot longer to dip out. This feels most impactful on the accidental incursions into PvP I think every Dune: Awakening player has done at some point by not realizing they're overflying overflying crashed ships and control points, but from my experience it takes a heck of a lot longer than 30 seconds to be shot down. I think PvE players can avoid this by just flying a bit more carefully.

Finally, here's one endgame patch note that should make everyone happy:

"Changed Landsraad tasks to allow for Kill and Delivery Contribution to happen after the task has been completed but awarding only personal contribution. (i.e., which faction won and how many guild votes were awarded are unaffected by contributions made after the task was completed by one faction)."

As I noted in my Dune: Awakening review, I really liked the Landsraad portion of the endgame, though the missions were completed so quickly that if you didn't login at the right day or time you could miss them entirely. That's not great for people who only have real time to play on the weekends. At least now players can participate in the tasks, even if they get there a little late.

Here are the full patch notes for Dune: Awakening version 1.1.15.0.