Norwegian video game developer Funcom is working on an open-world survival game set in the universe of Frank Herbert's Dune. Funcom is a veteran of massively multiplayer and survival games, with 2012's The Secret World and 2017's Conan Exiles to their previous credit. Funcom has many years of experience to draw from and it stands to reason that its previous experience with Conan Exiles will help Dune reach the market in a better state than its previous games. No game is perfect at launch and Dune likely won't be, either, but there's one major mistake Funcom made in the past that it must avoid to establish and then maintain long-term success with Dune.
Conan Exiles, Funcom's previous survival game before Dune, was released in 2017. Even from early access builds, the game showed immediate promise, with a smooth movement and combat system bolstered by robust construction and character development systems. PvP combat was not only supported but considered a large part of the game. It was quickly discovered, however, that it was possible to exploit lag caused by both internet connections and lag within the game code itself to achieve easy melee victories by utilizing the 'sprint' function.
Players that specialized in enhanced movement speed that sprinted toward another player with a weapon drawn could cause the server to desync, making it virtually impossible for the defending player to respond to the attack with a dodge roll or block before the attack landed. This gave an inherent advantage to players with faster internet connections and stronger computer hardware, causing the sprint attacking technique to dominate the post-ranged nerf meta in PvP. Funcom decided they had to do something to fix this PvP problem, but the particular solution the studio came up with and implemented was an extraordinarily bad one: it completely removed the ability for a player to sprint with a weapon drawn. It's a mistake that the Dune survival game will have to avoid.
Dune's PvP Can Learn From Conan Exiles' Problems
The major problem with this survival solution for Conan Exiles was that virtually everything a player could equip and hold in their hands, from a simple torch up to a two-handed hammer, was considered by the game to be a weapon. So, while it was no longer possible to sprint while equipped with a greatsword, it was also no longer possible to sprint while holding a torch or tool, either. This added a brand-new layer of tedium to an already tedious part of the game: gathering materials. It was now impossible to sprint from one tree or ore node to another to gather resources without first stopping and sheathing a tool, then re-drawing it once a player reached their destination. The Dune game could learn a lot from this problem by making sure its weapons don't have this issue.
This change also made traversing Conan Exiles' gigantic maps while in the darkness much more tedious, difficult and dangerous. The already lengthy travel times from one point of interest to another were made even more lengthy because you couldn't sprint with a torch equipped. This forced players to choose between either braving the dangerous darkness while blind or standing around and waiting for the sun to rise. If they decided to try traveling at night and were attacked in the darkness, something that was common due to both the density of angry enemies in most areas and just how incredibly dark their darkness was, players couldn't even see what was attacking them.
In Conan Exiles, if players wanted to see to fight then they had to equip a torch, which not only cost them precious time while the enemy was chewing on them but was also held in their off-hand and thus automatically prevented them from using a shield or a two-handed weapon for the ensuing combat. Players could choose the better part of valor and simply sprint away when attacked, but doing so in the dark could very easily send them running right off a cliff if they didn't see, causing them to plunge to their death. It would be a frustrating part of the Dune survival game if it were to keep some of Conan Exiles' more problematic gameplay aspects.
What Conan Exiles' Problems Can Teach The Dune Game
Removing the ability to sprint with weapons drawn solved the sprint-desync issue for the most part, but it created a whole host of new problems that the developers hadn't foreseen. The change was nearly universally hated even by the PvP players it was supposed to be helping. It generated massive amounts of negative feedback on internet forums and Reddit and particularly enraged more PvE-focused players because it was seen as a PvP balance change that was destroying their completely unrelated, PvE-focused gameplay. Mods began popping up as a way to upgrade Canon Exiles almost the same day the change was implemented to revert it to something closer to its original form. However, this could benefit the Dune game, since Funcom learned from its mistakes.
Funcom eventually realized the folly of its decision and reverted the change in a later patch. The old axiom "better late than never" certainly applies here for Conan Exiles players, but Funcom had already generated tons of negative feedback and hard feelings that could have been avoided earlier. Video games are made up of incredibly complex, interdependent systems, and this solution to a problem with one system that created dozens of new problems with others highlights how important it is to consider how a change impacts the entire game rather than examining it in a bubble. Oftentimes, PvP and PvE-focused player groups and game systems have vastly different needs, and sweeping changes that affect both groups must be carefully scrutinized before being implemented. Funcom can avoid a lot of unnecessary negativity with Dune if it makes sure any design decisions are thoroughly examined for their potential impact on players of all types - PvP and PvE included - before they are implemented.