Dune Awakening's Coriolis storms will act as a weekly map reset

A big part of Arrakis' identity in the fictional world of Dune Awakening is its nature as an inhospitable desert biome. Generally, deserts in video games only add some thematic flavor, and not much in terms of gameplay mechanics. The upcoming video game adaptation of Dune is a welcome exception to that. The sands of its titular dunes will not only be a lore-faithful backdrop, but also a vehicle of its online gameplay economy.

In a recent trailer, Funcom explained some key details about how the geology of Arrakis will be part and parcel of Dune Awakening's Survival-MMO gameplay — most notably, its dangerous desert storms.

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Dune Awakening has found the perfect way to sidestep content drought with its Deep Desert

The map will be kept fresh by force of nature (Image via Funcom)

It would be all too easy to write off a sandstorm as weather condition that adds some survival debuffs, or forces you to take shelter. It will possibly do all of that in Dune Awakening, but the kicker is how it will change the entire landmass of the Deep Desert.

It's no surprise that resource-gathering is the central goal of a survival game. Within the MMO environment of Dune Awakening, this will manifest a race to finding the shiniest ore veins and treasure troves across the desert. When out of combat, most of the exploration in Dune Awakening is situated upon the premise of surveying the juiciest resource locations.

Naturally, once these loot-caches are found, this means an obvious point of contention between different players who want the same piece of the cake. In a persistent MMO map, once these locations get figured out, they become hotbeds for PvP power struggles directly or indirectly.

Dune Awakening brings out the perfect solution to that problem. The Deep Deserts, where likely the most riches are to be found, will have a new map every week. A massive Coriolis storm will sweep across its landscapes, completely altering where the good stuff is. In pure gameplay terms, this means a full reroll of where all the resource is.

Survival MMOs with static maps such as Once Human inevitably run into content fatigue until new maps are available. Dune Awakening, thankfully, won't have to deal with that draught problem. The only caveat is that the procedural generation has to be done right. It is, after all, hard to keep things engaging, varied, and dynamic in a desert biome — few games have pulled off the feat, and none of them are a large-scale multiplayer survival title.

Dune Awakening comes out on May 20 for PC, while console release dates remain unknown. Check out more news on the game:

• PvP will not be necessary for progression, Dune Awakening devs explain
• Dune Awakening to be the first MMORPG to have DLSS 4 on launch
• All notable character creation options in Dune Awakening
• Devs baffled as nearly a hundred kangaroo mice had their blood extracted by Dune Awakening closed beta players