Letter from the Creative Director Joel Bylos on PvE and PvP

During a recent Reddit AMA with the Funcom team, where the game’s Creative Director Joel Bylos answered a lot of questions, there still were a lot of disgruntled voices asking for changes to the endgame PVE and PVP loops, particularly the Deep Desert and Landsraad systems.

This letter from Joel Bylos, released just a few days after the aforementioned AMA, is proof that Funcom not only hears but actually listens to the playerbase.

• PvE players will get access to endgame content without being forced into PvP they don’t want.
• The Deep Desert will gain “Partial Warfare (PvE)” zones for safe exploration and harvesting, while deepest areas stay high-risk PvP for top rewards.
• Weekly resets in the Deep Desert allow tuning and iteration based on player feedback (surveys incoming).
• Scout Ornithopter PvP balancing changes are coming:
  • Reduced speed and maneuverability for rocket-equipped scouts
  • Rockets generate more heat
  • Thrusters give speed regardless of wings
  • New T5 infantry rocket launcher to improve vehicle/ground combat dynamics
• Other PvP-related mechanics (respawns, vehicle storage, scanners) will be addressed to reduce abuse in Deep Desert PvP.
• PvP is intended to be optional with retreat always possible, fights should happen only if both parties want it.
• The Deep Desert will evolve to support ground battles and player builds, not just air dominance.
• Landsraad system is the umbrella for endgame activities, designed for both PvE and PvP players:
  • Daily/weekly goals themed around Dune’s politics
  • Future activities will expand beyond item hand-ins to include dungeons, contracts, delivery tasks, and potential raids
  • System will reward solo and small-group players with micro-rewards
• Stockpiling in Landsraad will be addressed to prevent it from trivializing progression.
• More PvE content, dungeons, and expansions (free + paid) are coming to enrich the endgame.
• Acknowledgment that the Landsraad is an early iteration; it will evolve with player feedback.
• Commitment to clear, open communication and ongoing collaboration with the community to make Dune: Awakening a game everyone can enjoy.

Below is the full letter from Joel Bylos, Creative Director of Dune: Awakening, addressing player concerns about the endgame, PvP balance, and future plans for the Deep Desert and Landsraad. This letter offers transparency about what’s changing and why as the game evolves with player feedback:

Hello Sleepers, 

I wanted to write something that acknowledges and addresses the comments around the endgame of Dune: Awakening, while also providing context for what we were attempting. 

So let me start by stating this unequivocally – we want PvE players to be able to play the endgame and have access to the content of the endgame. Our goal is not to force PvE players to interact with a PvP system that they may have no interest in. 

“No endgame plan survives first contact with the players” – Mark Twain, probably.

We still believe in the core concept of the Deep Desert – an endlessly renewing location that resets every week and creates an activity loop for great rewards. The tension of heading out there, head on a swivel, eyes peeled for foes as you enter the most dangerous part of the most dangerous planet in the universe.

Our wish was that players would embrace this loop, forming guilds to work together to overcome the bleakness of the Deep Desert.

But as Stephen King says, “Wish in one hand, shit in the other, see which one fills up first.” One of my hands is overflowing right now and sadly not with wishes.

The reality is that players are reporting being cut out of the endgame due to the extremely competitive nature of the Deep Desert. Starting soon, some areas of the Deep Desert will now be flagged as “Partial Warfare (PvE)” areas where players will be able to explore testing stations and harvest T6 resources without the threat of conflict they may not want. It’s important to note that the top tier of the game is balanced around guilds and groups, so people will still find it grindy if they play solo. Landsraad control points, shipwrecks and the largest spice fields within this region of the Deep Desert will remain “War of Assassins (PvP)” flagged. 

The deepest parts of the Deep Desert will remain as they currently are – high reward, high risk areas. 

The beauty of the Deep Desert design with weekly resets and renewals is that we can iterate and experiment with different layouts and setups to really help us tune it. As we make changes we will send out surveys to help us capture your thoughts. 

PvP itself has plenty of issues that need to be addressed. We’re taking steps in that direction with our first changes to Scout Ornithopters. As Viljar stated in the AMA these should be implemented in the game shortly: 

• Scout Ornithopters with rocket launchers attached will have their speed maneuverability reduced
• Rockets fired from Scout Ornithopters will have increased heat generation
• Thrusters will provide a max speed bonus regardless of wings, ensuring that thruster equipped scouts will be the fastest vehicles in the game 
• A new T5 infantry rocket launcher will be added to help improve the dynamics of vehicle/ground combat 

There are additional changes to mechanics like respawn timers, vehicle storage tools, hand scanners, and other mechanics that we see being abused in the Deep Desert. 

The intended dynamic of Deep Desert PvP in Dune: Awakening is that – unless you really mess up – you always have the option to retreat in good order with whatever you’ve managed to claim so far. If you’re smart and vigilant, you never have to fight if you don’t want to. If you run, you’ll have to call a halt to whatever task you were pursuing, but that should always be a choice. PvP should happen when both parties decide they want to fight over a location.

Finally, the intended dynamic has always been “combined arms”. We have infantry and ground vehicles and air vehicles, and they’re all supposed to have clear roles, clear strengths and clear counters. Thopters will always be incredibly important for crossing the desert, but they shouldn’t also be the dominant force in actual battles.

We’re planning to make more changes to the Deep Desert to accommodate ground battles and reinforce the use of player builds. 

Now let’s talk briefly about the Landsraad. 

As a system it is an activity driver that is designed to promote the conflict between the factions, internal politics between the guilds, while providing goal thresholds for individuals and groups to work towards getting personal rewards. 

And the Landsraad should be doing that for everyone who wants to participate in the elder game, be they PvEer or PvPer. The Landsraad should be giving you things to do every day and every week. 

It’s nothing new, from a design perspective, we’ve seen daily/weekly quest systems in games for a long time. Our approach was to try and frame this system around the greater politics of the Dune universe, by having players engage in activities to earn the votes of the various Landsraad houses. 

Let me acknowledge that as an activity driver, the activities it asks you to participate in are simplistic. A lot of item hand-ins and crafting requests. That’s because the system is in the earliest launchable iteration.

The Landsraad is an umbrella for all endgame activities. What form do those endgame activities take? More dungeons with bosses that drop endgame loot, more contracts that require specific tasks to be undertaken, more specialized delivery tasks that include components that cannot be stockpiled. If we ever add raids to the game, there will be a task on the Landsraad to complete those raids. It is a framework that holds the endgame activities in place. 

We are addressing some key flaws in the Landsraad design – the inability to hand in items after a square is completed and the rapidity at which some squares are turned in.  

Stockpiling is currently rewarded, but that is not our intention for this system, and we will make some changes to address it as best we can. 

Landsraad rewards are supposed to reflect the endgame tiers of progression. This includes the vendors which can be unlocked for an entire faction through participation. This is the intention. But once again let me acknowledge that this isn’t exactly in the right place. The Landsraad will be updated to provide micro rewards for solo/small group players. 

Thanks for listening everyone, and apologies for the confusion. 

Once a live game launches, it becomes a collaborative effort between the developers and the players to make it something amazing. We appreciate your feedback on what we hope is the beginning of a long journey together. 

Bear with us – our intention is to be clear and open in our communications and to make Dune: Awakening a game that everybody can enjoy.  

I hope this helps,
Joel