Let’s Talk About Dune: Awakening – Combat, Shields, and That Janky-Ass Endgame

[w0rm_lord]

After grinding beta footage, dev updates, and theory posts, I figured it’s time someone just laid it out plain. This game’s got potential, but let’s stop pretending it’s all polished or even fully working.

🛡️ SHIELDS & ANTI-SHIELD TOOLS: WHAT ACTUALLY WORKS?
Right now in beta, only dart guns and Hunter Seeker turrets are confirmed and functional for breaking through Holtzman shields. Darts bypass shields and do DoT—they’re your go-to. Turrets force positional plays and punish overextending.

All the other cool-sounding tools—Drillshots, Disruptor grenades—total vaporware. No one’s seen them, used them, or has footage of them. It’s all dev blog flavor text. If it ain't in PvP footage, it's not real yet.

Also: shooting your gun drops your own shield. That’s right. Offense literally exposes you. If you’re smart, you bait people into attacking, then punish them while they’re exposed. Classic risk/reward—but with sand.

⚔️ COMBAT: FUN IDEA, JANK EXECUTION
Melee:

Tries to be Souls-lite with parries, dodges, and stamina.

Daggers > swords. Faster, better at punishing during shield downtime.

Animations feel slow, stiff, and input-laggy.

You’ll win fights by not screwing up more than by playing smart. It’s that kind of system.

Ranged:

More effective than melee right now.

Risky, since firing = dropping your shield.

Hunter Seeker turrets are nasty for zoning and kiting.

Bullet time-to-kill can feel a bit high, but it’s situational.

The Meta:

Win by baiting someone into lowering their shield, then slapping them before they recover.

PvP is more about timing, reading, and baiting than raw mechanics—when it works.

But network issues, lag, and clunky controls absolutely get in the way.

🏛️ ENDGAME: A MESS OF IDEAS
Here’s what Funcom claims the endgame will include:

Landsraad politics: Guilds vote on server-wide laws. Sounds cool. Will likely be zerg-farmed.

Territory control and PvP in the Deep Desert: Yes, there’s base building. No, you can’t offline-raid (thank god).

Dynamic world events like Coriolis storms that reshape the map.

PvE "Ecology Labs": Dungeon-like content for co-op loot grinds.

Guild faction alignment: Siding with Harkonnen, Atreides, etc., gives perks, gear, and story content.

Sounds ambitious? It is. And that’s the problem. Half this stuff isn’t testable yet. They’re selling a vertical slice with a PowerPoint full of dreams. If you’ve played Conan Exiles, you already know the vibe.

🔥 FINAL THOUGHTS
Dune: Awakening could be awesome. The ideas are there. Shield mechanics are unique. The political PvP sandbox thing is rare. But let’s stop pretending it’s already working.

What we have right now:

Decent PvP ideas

Working dart guns + turret tactics

Janky animations and spotty hitreg

Half-baked melee

Unproven, untested endgame promises

Is it worth playing? If you like janky PvP sandboxes with lore flavor, sure. Just go in with both eyes open and expect to eat a few bugs (literal and metaphorical).

I'll update this as more solid info drops. Until then, stop quoting Drillshots like they’re real. They’re not. Yet.

[LucasR]

Why everyone using chatgpt? people can no longer write?

[w0rm_lord]

Originally posted by LucasR:

Why everyone using chatgpt? people can no longer write?

Why do you care?

[76561197979566298]

If "decent pvp ideas" is all they truly have for end game then it will be a dead game after 1 mo max.

[LucasR]

Originally posted by w0rm_lord:

Originally posted by LucasR:

Why everyone using chatgpt? people can no longer write?

Why do you care?

If you’re okay with mediocrity, that’s your problem.

[w0rm_lord]

Originally posted by LucasR:

Originally posted by w0rm_lord:

Why do you care?

If you’re okay with mediocrity, that’s your problem.

Nah, the problem is people like you jump into threads not to argue facts, but to police how people talk. I could’ve written this with a quill pen and candlelight and the points would still stand.

[w0rm_lord]

Originally posted by LucasR:

Originally posted by w0rm_lord:

Nah, the problem is people like you jump into threads not to argue facts, but to police how people talk. I could’ve written this with a quill pen and candlelight and the points would still stand.

That wasn’t you talking, that was ChatGPT.

Doesn’t matter if I used a keyboard, a quill, or ChatGPT the facts are the facts, you're just mad.

[LucasR]

Originally posted by w0rm_lord:

Originally posted by LucasR:

That wasn’t you talking, that was ChatGPT.

Doesn’t matter if I used a keyboard, a quill, or ChatGPT the facts are the facts, you're just mad.

Using a keyboard or quill means you did the thinking. Quoting ChatGPT means you outsourced it.

[w0rm_lord]

ye, so if i use a calculator for math, I didn’t do the thinking?
you have no idea, what tools i did or didn't use. You're not here to debate the topic, you're here to argue about what tool i may or may not have used.

Go whine somewhere else.

[LucasR]

Originally posted by w0rm_lord:

ye, so if i use a calculator for math, I didn’t do the thinking?
you have no idea, what tools i did or didn't use. You're not here to debate the topic, you're here to argue about what tool i may or may not have used.

Go whine somewhere else.

A calculator doesn’t think for you, it just handles the numbers faster. You still need to know what you’re doing. With ChatGPT, you can skip the thinking entirely, no wonder you’re defending it so hard.

[w0rm_lord]

Doesn’t matter how it was written, what matters is it’s accurate. If you’ve got a problem with the points, refute them.

All you can do is cry about how I wrote it, when in reality you have no idea.

The truth is, you have nothing to say, no points to make about the actual thread topic.
You are a brain dead cry baby, who thinks he can psychically guess what tools I do or do not use.

[w0rm_lord]

Originally posted by LucasR:

Originally posted by w0rm_lord:

ye, so if i use a calculator for math, I didn’t do the thinking?
you have no idea, what tools i did or didn't use. You're not here to debate the topic, you're here to argue about what tool i may or may not have used.

Go whine somewhere else.

A calculator doesn’t think for you, it just handles the numbers faster. You still need to know what you’re doing. With ChatGPT, you can skip the thinking entirely, no wonder you’re defending it so hard.

Funny coming from you, this whole line sounds like it was written by ChatGPT trying to sound deep.

[Steven]

Originally posted by w0rm_lord:

Originally posted by LucasR:

A calculator doesn’t think for you, it just handles the numbers faster. You still need to know what you’re doing. With ChatGPT, you can skip the thinking entirely, no wonder you’re defending it so hard.

Funny coming from you, this whole line sounds like it was written by ChatGPT trying to sound deep.

people no longer type sense they only teach you how to finger tap tablets in schools these days lol

all seriousness, copy and past from source martial is called Plagiarism, to use chatgpt as a tool, you would to treat it as a source of research which means you would have to ask it question then not copy and past it any of it and completely rewrite all of it in your own words then at end of your statement you need to put that the reference material is from chatgpt.

which is how writing is done, you find source material from different sources gather it all then rewrite all of it into your own thing, after you do that then you put at end you give dedication to all those sources materials that you used to help write your article or document or comments.

this is also how you tell if what ever it is you are reading is worth while and trust worth in first place any journalist or write or author who cant quote where there source materials come form for there topics is pretty much usually just BSing.

that why in game reviews when people do there own videos they show game footage of what is going on in real time as reference as they are talking about issue for example.

other whys topic being talked about is nothing more than opinion..

also in way ChatGPT is nothing but an opinion generator because it just requires opinions of others to generate its or writing its presentation.

here example you in your chat gpt thing "are confirmed" but there no reference as to what sources confirmed anything?

anyways to your shield issue, I am not sure how game could ever get the shield system from Lore to work correctly in game.

here how the shields work and the source material is from dune.fandom.com

the hotzman generate shield is anullification effect shield, what is calibrated by the user to allow matter to pass through it based on speed that they specifically calibrate shield to.

so shield that is calibrated for melee would not stop bullets, but shield calibrated for speed of bullet would not stop a knife also if shield is incorrectly calibrated it would stop atmospherics gasses from passing through which would suffocate the user, also different weapons guns for example in lore have different speeds, so a shield calibrated for bullet at x speed would not stop bullet at different speed, a shield calibrated for knife moving slow would not stop a bullet at all and so forth, the lore also says that if a user has shield calibrated to stop bullets then they would not be able to shoot out of the shield and possible injury the user or the shield.

the shield in movies do not function same as the shields in the books or lore do they try to mimic it best they can which is all this game is doing trying to mimic it best it can.

the game is probably just de-buffing the damage everything does for the user who has shield, and then if someone goes to that user and holds the attack button for slow melee it probably adds extra damage to the attack more than likly that is how the shields work in this game.

that not to say that game is not janky with basics movements like running and dashing and fast quick movements, but that is more of performance issue and way they increased speed vs walking, for example you don't get that janky movement stuff when in walk mode, I am going to guess if they slowed down animations bit the movements would come off less Janky.

then again it also has improved sense first open beta which was so janky it was unplayable almost at some points these could be server performance problem also maybe.

me and my friends never going play this game for the PVP aspect or just the PVE stuff and only once it gets ability to make your own dedicated servers so there is also that as an issue for this game for some people.

[w0rm_lord]

Originally posted by Steven:

Originally posted by w0rm_lord:

Funny coming from you, this whole line sounds like it was written by ChatGPT trying to sound deep.

people no longer type sense they only teach you how to finger tap tablets in schools these days lol

all seriousness, copy and past from source martial is called Plagiarism, to use chatgpt as a tool, you would have to ask it question then not copy and past it any of it and completely rewrite all of it in your own words then at end of your statement you need to put that the reference material is from chatgpt.

You guys are obsessed with how posts are written because you can’t actually argue with what they say.

Nobody plagiarised anything, this isn’t a classroom, it’s a game forum. If you think something’s wrong with the actual points about combat, shields, or endgame, speak up. If not, maybe stop pretending you're my school teacher or my boss at work.

Who are you to say what I can and cannot do? Did i break the forum rules? No.
You have no idea what tool s I did or didn't use.

You’re not here for discussion, you're just spouting nonsense.

If you’ve got something real to say about the game, say it. Otherwise, cry somewhere else.

[De Vilks]

Actually I agree with almost all of the points OP made there. Still, I'm going to try it, because game got me curious. It is trying something new, and its worth a praise, in otherwise stale market. But, yeah, I consider the fact that I might be disappointed, but I don't think Ill feel like I lost money, I had my fun in the beta.

[goodgame]

Another Failcom fail. This game is so bland, gameplay is worse then destiny 1, but you don't get any fancy or cool looking armors, the only part that is "fun" in this game is the tricycle mount but it gets old pretty fast and it's very little to save this game's extremely limited gameplay.

Far are the days of Age of Conan and the more innovative combos, this has just some of the most boring and 15 year old outdated third person FPS gameplay ever.