How do you think about Funcom Develop Games with Open World Multiplayer in DUNE Universe?

That’s completely OK and understandable. My dad gave me some advice about buying cars once… “Never buy the first run of a new model, what till 2nd release when they have ironed out the bugs”

He broke his own advice once later and true to his prediction his EA Falcon was not great, not bad but not great…

I’m sure the ‘Diffusion of Innovation’ curve is readily able to make context with software development, gaming included. I think gamers and game designers can both find value with this theory.

I for one stick with Dad’s advice… give it a bit of time to see what it can become. Launches for MMO’S are not something I prefer to partake in, for various reasons.

DiffusionOfInnovation

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Funcom’s board of directors and or owners etc are ruining the company.

They seem to be chasing the next big thing (only to sell the hype) and make a large initial profit.

Their plan then is not to (truely) support the product they just created.

Their plan is to invest in another new project, hype it, sell it, rake in some cash…move on.

They will of course leave a small, residual force of understaffed coders that try to improve the game, without having the resources they need and are owed.

Funcom, I support you creating games as a game company, but PLEASE. Invest more in your CURRENT creations, make them truly great. Rather than leaving them half finished, with vague promises of improvements as you move on to your next project.

I really feel like Conan Exiles deserves more resources from Funcom. Invest money, to make money.

Otherwise you are swindling. (Not directed toward developers, but to the money managers)

I watched Anarchy Online die a stupid death. And I am watching Conan Exiles do the same thing (but faster).

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You could be right, I dunno… they don’t seem to be following the GaaS method at the moment…

I’ve never had a problem with subscriptions and would have been happy to sub to CE. From memory, Secret World had a sub when it was released…

Maybe like SWTOR & ESO they could implement a similar subscription option, for those who want to support the game?

Loved dune, read the books till the pages crumbled, watched the movie and the better mini series till the cows came home…

But to be honest, I don’t see a game here… not in the sense of open world sandbox…

Dune revolves around a handful of main characters, there is no story without them…
But Funcom can gladly prove me wrong…

Hrmm, Dune as a universe/world is IMO interesting enough that there’s plenty of scope for “secondary stories” without a main cast of (pre-determined) characters. Of course it’ll probably never be as deep or involved as a fixed-story medium like a book or movie, except for your own personal headcanon. That last point is alpha and omega for sandbox games if you enjoy a story. Of course the single greatest thing about sandbox games is that they allow you to do as much or as little story as you wish.

That said, my all-time favorite games are those with a deep story, and this almost invariably means a pre-generated cast of characters that are written to function well together.

Getting a bit off topic (but not quite) this has resulted in my all-time favorite games being:

  1. Planescape Torment :heart: :heart: (to date the only game that has had me near tears at the end)
  2. The Witcher 3 (simply a masterpiece and the ultimate achievement in video games)
  3. Baldur’s Gate series (partly a departure from the fixed-main-character requirement)
  4. Mount and Blade: Warband. Terrible graphics (even for its time), virtually no story (sandbox at its finest), sub-par AI but so addictive. Amazing mod scene (of which I was an active part).

They’re not the games I’ve spent the most time on, probably, because none of them are designed with artificial time-sinks built in, but they’re the ones that has had the most impact for a variety of reasons.

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I’d freaking love a Dune flavored CE game.

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The Dune genre spans a long time so there’s a tom of potential to the legs of it. It all depends if it’s along the mechanics of Conan Exiles or of Mutant. I suspect that since many preliminary constructs in CE are replicated in Dune, it would be CE.

The next biggie is how close they stick to the actual genre. The Bene Gesserit could be a clincher for many, as will the Fremen. I am guessing that this is the biggie that Joel B. moved on to. If so, then I suspect there will be every attempt to stick as close to the genre as possible.

One consolation is that at least Conan Exiles has taught FunCom to grow a very thick skin for comments, suggestions, wishes, demands, complaints, more demands, tantrums, etc. - the Dune fanbase is like comparing the fanbase of Lord of the Rings and Star Trek to that of the London Didgeridoo Club…

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Actually there’s a pretty cool history of the Exiled Lands sprinkled in the lorestones around the game world. Then there are the various journals of other exiles where they describe their journeys across the lands. Plus a handful of NPCs who talk. So there’s definitely a story - multiple stories - in there… but it’s not our story; it’s not the story we tell by playing the game, it’s a story of the past. (So yeah, there’s not much of it, but you’d still need to use a pretty tiny font if you wanted to fit it all onto one page.)

Our story is the one we write by playing the game, not one written for us by a scriptwriter.

But that’s beside the point. What was meant by Funcom respecting the Conan IP is that they didn’t try to rewrite Conan’s story. If that means they didn’t write a story at all, well, that’s fine - but they didn’t ruin the IP by trying to write a Conan that isn’t faithful to the original. They’ve been careful with the obvious movie references too, such as the Atlantean Sword or the Wheel of pain - they’re things that could exist in the Hyborian Age even if neither is based on Howard’s Conan stories.

Yeah, the Exiled Lands are something that don’t really fit anywhere on Howard’s map or lore, unless it’s even more magical than we think. But there’s very little in it that couldn’t have sprung straight out of the original Conan stories.

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I have no feelings towards Dune at all. I can’t jive with the writers writing style. (similar issue with Tolkien honestly) I’d maybe give the game a try…but I’m retro-centric in things I enjoy, I doubt it would keep my attention due just to my personal inclinations.

I hope fans get something similar to what they want. It’s just not my genre.

@Mikey some bloody good games in that list… dare I go further back and mention wizards crown, bards tale and phantasy?

A new game based on dune would be could be good… but it won’t be easy… I know people who saw the movie before reading the book and were confused… the movie missed much of what made it a great book, that’s why I preferred the mini series… it wasn’t complete, but more so…

A game… well the dune story is politics/faction heavy… you’d have to be able to build a faction filled with NPCs…

Imagine thralls who will go hunt when food is low, a blacksmith who overtime gains apprentices who go harvesting iron…
a dynamic system that if left alone can survive, but with the players input has potential to thrive…

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What I think would be cool, and possibly annoy people is if they ripped CE and turned that into dune. So similar mechanics, but new map (with no holes), new graphics, and spend a year or 2 fixing the bugs. Maybe add in mounts (or vehicles). All the things they wanted to add to this, they could add.

Not sure if this game would be worth salvaging though. Might just be better to start again. Still would be a big head start IMO, and I would love to play another survival game in a year or so.

Not sure if its a wise thing though. What do you folks think? Bad idea? I know ark did that with atlas (is it called atlass?), so really atlas is just a new DLC ark. But since CE has so many things missing, they could really flesh it out as a new game and make Dune what CE should have been?

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I can’t say for sure what state the codebase is in for CE. But everything I’ve seen suggests it’s… a bit of a mess. From the chaotic start where they were (allegedly) staring bankruptcy in the face and had to push CE out in record time, to the combat system that had to be redone from scratch, to the many features they wanted to put in but for various reasons couldn’t. Then there’s the same bugs resurfacing multiple times, being fixed and then re-broken, and almost every patch needing one or more rounds of fixing after release. None of it sounds like something stable you’d wish to build your next big thing on. None of this should be seen as criticism of the people involved, I have no idea exactly what conditions they are/were working under, but I think it’s fair to say they probably weren’t at all times ideal.

That said, it’s entirely possible there’s many things in there they can use as-is or in part. It also depends what sort of scope we’re looking at - UE4 is not a bad engine by any means, but it has its limitations, and like all tools there are things it isn’t best suited for (CE is scraping up against those limitations at times).

Of course most programmers I’ve worked with (myself included) are often enticed by the idea of a “fresh start”, partly because most projects end up being cluttered to some degree after a while of being “live”, and because any developer worth their salt will be continually learning, and so what you did three years ago is not as good as what you can do today. Managers don’t often like hearing the term “technical debt”, but it is (or can be) a very real thing.

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2 totally different genres…

Conan, sole survivor and lone wolf…

Dune, allies and factions are well as Spock said, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few…

In Conan the hero is the character, in Dune the hero is greater than one individual…

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So you dont think it will be a survival game? I am guessing they will do something similar. They will have races and you pick one which gives no perks, just cosmetic. Then the characters from Dune you will “meet” in the game somehow.

Game has to be playable as single player otherwise I think they will lose out on quite a few potential customers. They did say “sandbox” so I am assuming its a survival game…but just a guess.

While I always prefer a fresh start, they way I see it, is they have been working on this for over 3 years (not sure how long) and it still looks like a beta to me. Was hoping another year or 2 on the current code base would get them to a stage of a proper retail.

But your probably right, its most likely a big mess, especially if they changes developers a few times. Probably why they are struggling to fix the current issues.

Well I hope whatever they decide it turns out ok. And please make a server work in native linux! Had to move my linux/wine to windblows system…bleh.

Who knows mate… Dune is an IP I would not want to tackle…
Too many fans, too many expectations…
like is it set on one planet, or several? Arrakis on its own is just a planet… if it’s just Arrakis then there is no need for conflict, spice becomes meaningless… I’m curious to see what they come up with… and I will most likely buy it… but…
it doesn’t matter what path they take, doesn’t matter if the game is bug free… the forums will explode way more than these ones…

Please Funcom prove me wrong…

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As long as there will be a dickslider im okay with everything

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A wtf?

Emergent Narrative. You build a house, because you need protection from the sandstorms and the elements. The way you build your house and the way it evolves is it’s own narrative in physical form.

Your daily routine, preferences, encounters with other people, your like or dislike of their ideologies, politics, geopolitics, social dynamics, all of that is an emergent narrative. All the while, this emergent narrative comes from you. Your not just the lead character, who’s fate is fabricated by someone else, rather you are the very center of your observable universe.

Emergent narratives are the foundation of narratives to begin with, for all stories we read these days derive from history, and history is nothing other than recording of emergent narratives.

Emergent narratives are unique to you and you alone. You know the story inside out. If you don’t find your own story compelling, it just means you take it for granted. Your entire life will be medicore if you do not posses the mindset to consider your own existence a worthwhile narrative.

I find your self deprecation to be disturbing.

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I kindof just want to experience watching someone unwittingly walking over a prespice mass :grin: