Still Surviving on Arrakis

Atraidies! Atraidies! Atraidies!

Ok first, of course I chose House Atraidies, Aside from the fact my friend's were going that way so the guild we were making would be. I saw that original movie nope sorry Harkonnen was never happening, not on my main character. But beyond that, If you are a Mass Effect lover like I am you likely recognized the voice of Brandon Keener pretty quickly during the conversations with Anton Tolliver, the House Atraides Recruiter at The Anvil Tradepost! I have to add here, that it made me smile to come across an "old friend" in a new universe. Unlike many I am newer to gaming, and so haven't played a lot of the games all these amazing Voice Actors are in but this one was like a hug from a lifelong friend! For that, thank you Funcom and Brandon!

I did play some of my time on a second one that I was streaming, and intended to go Harkonnen then swap once I was done but given the decline in the game there were never that many viewers outside of when a drop was going and that's no way to play through a story so she's been packed up, her small base moved to storage space in the bank and tucked away at the social hub for now. I may someday finish her playthrough but well probably not.

Steam says I have played an obscene number of hours, so no matter what happens going forward, yes I got my money out of this game many times over. I do find it sad that it's continued to bleed players and if it closes down, it will be a sad thing for me. I have loved this universe, loved the game, and even through the glitches, and issues, I do not think the game is a bad one, just that some choices were made that were possibly far from the right ones, some issues went on too long or were "course corrected' too late, or in a way that only compounded issues rather than corrected them, and there was a bit too much of a grand plan that did not survive first contact with the player base.

I can hardly believe it's only been 5 months since the game came out, honestly it feels like so much longer, but also that makes it even sadder to see so many bases empty and falling apart, so few people on at all, have they all moved to the DD for 99% of the time, are they storing the supplies in the new larger bank storage rather than even coming back to Hagga Basin? I'm an optimist, not blind, I see how empty everywhere is, how little is listed on the market anymore, and I see the numbers for average daily players. At this point, I honestly worry that the game will not survive. From nearly 200k at launch to what is now less than 10k 5 months later is very worrisome.

I was hoping for more time, and I will still hope for more time on Arrakis, but I am not positive that server merges can even fix things because there are still other problems that just seem to not be anywhere near a fix, including the fact that sadly I do not believe that anything close to a real end game set of content is anywhere on the horizon soon enough. Without more than just the grind of gathering, refining, and crafting, which at some point actually just becomes pointless, there is no real good way to keep players active.

I do have to say, that the building is quite fun in the game, though it will take some time before we have the kind of flexibility that was available in Conan Exiles but I can see where it will be amazing if given enough time. The taxes are not that high really, even with my main base using 4 staking units it's easy enough to earn the money to pay the taxes. Fuel is not that hard to stock up on. more so once you have a high level buggy cutteray!

Story wise, I really enjoyed Chapter 2 as well as the Lost Harvester DLC. I still love wandering around in my treadwheel when I am just going to places near my base but not gathering supplies and flying around in my scout when i want to soar around. I still love the world, the beauty and harshness of it is stunning and incredible to immerse yourself in. If you ever played Conan Exiles you knew before Dune Awakening was out that the sandstorms were going to be amazing. The Sandworm may have had it's wild glitches and issues, but it's undeniably amazing! The Spice blows are actually pretty amazing to see, so beautiful! Science stations are interesting with bits of lore seeded through them to find. Just exploring is pretty wonderful even with some really cool finds in the most unexpected spots, never forget to look up, down, under, and over or you may just miss some of the coolest finds out there!

At this point I am still playing, I will continue until I 100% the game or it shuts down. I'm pretty sure we will at least get the 2 remaining DLCs for the season pass, one is apparently cosmetics and the other is The Water Wars which I expect to be a bit like the Lost Harvester in that it looks to be another story. I have a handful of contracts I haven't finished, some exploration to complete, and 14 steam achievements left to complete!

Currently, I have a Scout Ornothopter stuck under Helius Gate, yes UNDER, my base is not far from there, but sometimes sandstorms come to fast and well I made the choice to duck down into it or try to, Unfortunately lag and hitting a wall glitched me through the floor and under the fortress. In fact there was no way to even get out myself until I logged into another sietch. Unfortunately, it's a green zone, which means you can't use your vehicle backup tool there so it's stuck. The reply I got from Funcom was a form letter with solutions that obviously were not helpful and I was so upset by that given I was also stuck there that I have not put another ticket in though I really need to but hey the thopter is safe under there at least.

In the end, I am still surviving, I do tend to be pretty stubborn, and still playing and exploring Arrakis. I am still awed by the views and finding things that surprise me regularly. At least for now but Arrakis is getting quieter and that is sad because the world is absolutely amazing!