Why not other planets?

[Whisky]

We've already had like 5 different Dune games all set on Arrakis. That's fine and all but RTS games usually struggle with creative map design and there are only so many variations you can pull off with a desert environment. One of my favorite RTS games (Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak) was also set entirely on a desert planet and I gotta say by the end of the campaign I was feeling extremely weary of looking at shades of brown despite all the different "sandy" terrain variations and day/night and wind strength cycling that the devs utilised, even though DoK was very pretty graphics-wise, so I can't help but feel a bit nervous, especially since this game has a more "cartoony" art style.

Dune has a massive universe, but all everyone cares about is Arrakis. Where's the creativity? What about additional environments/planets like Caladan (Atreides homeworld), Giedi Prime (Harkonnen homeworld), Salusa Secundus (Prison world/Sardaukar training ground), etc.?

Yes, these planets don't have spice so they aren't "as important" but let's be real: no Dune games are "lore accurate" anyways since they all posit a conflict on Arrakis that doesn't actually happen according to the books, so why can't we also have conflicts on other planets just to spice gameplay up and take us away from all the sand for a while? The devs made Northgard which had ice, field, and water environments so it shouldn't be such a challenge to make non-desert terrains since they aren't starting from scratch.

Also, different environments could also lead to different units for the factions and divergent gameplay which could shift the meta depending on what planet you're playing on (ex. maybe Caladan could have a heavy water focus and thus heavy emphasis on Navy and Air units, and your starting base could even be underwater or in the air, or on Salusa Secundus a secondary objective could involve freeing powerful neutral prisoner units that will join and fight with your army, or on Giedi Prime since it's so heavily industrialised, an environmental hazard could be a recurring acid rain that does minor damage to all buildings and units indiscriminately on the map ever so often).

Anyways that's my hot take for the day. Also devs please make one of the first four factions in Early Access House Corrino since I really want to see your take on Sardaukar units in action thanks!

[DNsingbanana]

A lot of the gameplay of Spice wars is centered around spice : harvesting, storing, selling at the right moment, waiting for the tax etc.
You couldn't just switch planets, as you would have to either change the gameplay to not use spice at all, or commit a crime against the entire universe of Dune by having spice on other planets. Simply not an option.

TBF this would be more a complaint about the licence that games around it : The Dune story is centered around Arrakis, there is not much information about other planets. Also, Arrakis is the only "neutral" planet out there : it's given autority to a house , but the house doesn't really own it, unlike their core system like Caladan.

Spice wars goes a little bit against the lore by envisionning what would happen if the emperor decided to lend control of arrakis to multiple house at once instead of only one, but that's a really minor change. You would have a really hard time justifying why every house in the empire landed on caledan, all in a "neutral" state towards the others and while still under the authority of the emperor.

[Artcake]

Quite litterally:

Dune without Arrakis = Dungeons&Dragons without Dungeons or Dragons.

Frank Herbert even explained the parallel between the worms and spice of Arrakis borrowing the idea of Dragons hoarding treasures in mythology.

[Naib]

The clue is in the name

[Whisky]

Originally posted by Artcake:

Quite litterally:
Dune without Arrakis = Dungeons&Dragons without Dungeons or Dragons.
Frank Herbert even explained the parallel between the worms and spice of Arrakis borrowing the idea of Dragons hoarding treasures in mythology.

I'm not saying "take out Arrakis", I'm saying "add additional planets besides just Arrakis to enhance replayability".

Originally posted by Naib:

The clue is in the name

This may surprise you, but the majority of levels in the "Halo" series don't actually take place on a Halo ring, and the majority of environments in "Star Wars" are on the ground within small sections of planets rather than inside actual stars.

Anyways that aside - there are other planets besides Arrakis that Frank already created and established in his book series.

Originally posted by DNsingbanana:

A lot of the gameplay of Spice wars is centered around spice : harvesting, storing, selling at the right moment, waiting for the tax etc.
You couldn't just switch planets, as you would have to either change the gameplay to not use spice at all, or commit a crime against the entire universe of Dune by having spice on other planets. Simply not an option.

TBF this would be more a complaint about the licence that games around it : The Dune story is centered around Arrakis, there is not much information about other planets. Also, Arrakis is the only "neutral" planet out there : it's given autority to a house , but the house doesn't really own it, unlike their core system like Caladan.

Spice wars goes a little bit against the lore by envisionning what would happen if the emperor decided to lend control of arrakis to multiple house at once instead of only one, but that's a really minor change. You would have a really hard time justifying why every house in the empire landed on caledan, all in a "neutral" state towards the others and while still under the authority of the emperor.

Yes, Spice is on Dune...but you do realize that economies are never solely based upon one commodity? Spice is used for spaceships to transport other goods and people. Take oil today, which, while very important for all countries, is only one of many things that happen to be traded. You can transplant your gameplay of a spice-based economic system to any other planet by substituting spice for another commodity or manufactured good. Maybe Caladan can export water or foodstuffs instead of spice since it's primarily agricultural, and Giedi Prime could export metal. After all, building ships and arming warriors and creating weapons requires a ton of metals and minerals anyways.

As for the "neutrality" point you can quite literally hand-wave it away by either making these planets newly discovered and insert an alternate timeline where everyone competes for control just like with your current version of Arrakis, or just repeat the excuse that Arrakis originally had "the Emperor decided to transfer control and thus everyone is fighting over it". The needs of gameplay should be prioritised first especially when the game is already non-canon/100% lore accurate.

[Retrolicious]

Emperor battle for dune did this pretty well. They included also caladan, giedi prime and couple of other planets. This way battle on a dust bowl never got boring visually and you had other obstacles to tackle / special missions as well :D

[Blitzwing]

House Harkonnen for example did make secret "storages" on allied planets. So why not use that as inspiration source?

During Leto II's reign some smaller sandworms were also removed and shipped off with colonizing vessels during the Scattering.

[theseeman]

I thought Atredies had withdrawn all of its forces to dune to max profits?
I hear OP on more planets but I think sticking with one where most of the source material is based is good.
it keeps from the devs having to make new lore to fill the gaps of these other planets.
More planets means less detail so instead of one big planet we would get multiple planets with smaller maps ala Empire at War.
If we went to another singular planet like geidi prime it would be a different tile set but just invasion as the political part of the fremen would be missing, unless the devs wanted to make new lore.
Maybe if the game does well, and I hope it does, we can see expansions with other planets, maybe a prequel back to the Butlerarian Jihad?
But at the end of the day I think the game play for this title works best on Arrakis. I would buy and play a Dune franchise title with different game play set on different planets. Tilaxu Vat Manager could be a fun game. Bene Gesserit Breeder.
And just a simple, "Mine the spice, dodge the worm, go for high score." type of Dune:Spice Miner game would be great.

[PickleRick]

Originally posted by Blitzwing:

House Harkonnen for example did make secret "storages" on allied planets. So why not use that as inspiration source?

During Leto II's reign some smaller sandworms were also removed and shipped off with colonizing vessels during the Scattering.

And they all died, is only one instance of worms surviving off of Dune with genetic alteration.

[TIGERMANIA]

Other planets can follow in later add ons, worms must be not plenty because if to many worms you have not a good recept for a wargame. In the book worms had it very difficult to survive in the deadly Dune atmosphere. Natural disasters like wirlwinds and sandsstorms that make sight almost zero must also be included.

[Gurney's Pug]

Originally posted by TIGERMANIA:

you have not a good recept

Found the Dutchman. :)

[TIGERMANIA]

Recipe, recept is dutch indeed. You are very right.

[ashbery76]

I'm sure if you fund them $40m they would be happy to do it.

[Gurney's Pug]

Originally posted by TIGERMANIA:

Recipe, recept is dutch indeed. You are very right.

Buiten dat was het ook te zien aan je zinsbouw, die is ook heel Nederlands. ;)

[TIGERMANIA]

Indeed, you never cant hide your roots. :)