Dune: Awakening developer Funcom said there’s a fix coming for players sick of getting squished by helicopters — known in-game as Ornithopters — in PvP.
As admirably reported by redditor Bombe18 in the video below, there’s pretty much nothing you can do if an Ornithopter sets its sights on you, as the moment you self-revive, the Orni will be back to rinse and repeat. It’s a particularly egregious way to die given there’s very little you can do to stop it unless you have a missile launcher with you.
“Dune developers, I agree to have a defeat in PvP,” Bombe18 wrote (thanks, Eurogamer). “But been [sic] crushed by orni that do[es] not take any damage? No.” They even suggest a couple of solutions: either let the Orni take damage when it crashes into players like this or, you know, just disable crushing and its ability to make aerial assaults.
The good news is it didn’t take long for Funcom to notice Bombe18’s (and many others’) plight.
“Sorry about this,” replied Funcom’s Chief Creative Officer, Joel Bylos. “We have people working on fixing the goomba stomping ASAP.”
It’s not just the Ornithopters that take no damage, either — it’s the same with all vehicles. So unless Funcom addresses them simultaneously, players fear the PvP meta will simply roll from Ornis to something else. Fingers crossed we get a solution soon.
Apart from this PvP griefing, Dune: Awakening has enjoyed a superb launch, with a ‘very positive’ user review rating on Steam. Within hours of going live on June 10, Funcom’s survival MMO had clocked up over 142,000 concurrent players on Valve’s platform, and that peak is expected to swell this weekend. You can also see what we make of it so far in our Dune: Awakening review in progress.
To help you survive on Arrakis, we’ve got Dune: Awakening resource guides that’ll help you find iron, steel, aluminium, and more. If you’re just getting started, check out all the Dune: Awakening classes you can choose from, and keep an eye on our in-progress Dune: Awakening walkthrough for a step-by-step guide to the story.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
