Hello again Sleepers!
The transmissions have been dense lately. From the quick approach of self-hosted servers and server migrations to our first chilling look at The Polar Cap, there is a mountain of intel to catch up on. This edition of the Communinet Signal is your dedicated recap of those major milestones, alongside our favorite community creations and Q&A.
Self-hosted Servers Live Stream
Join us on Wednesday, May 20th at 5pm CEST for a brief live stream. Chief Creative Officer, Joel Bylos, and Tools Director, Michael Sovik, will be talking more about the upcoming self-hosted servers. Feel free to bring any questions you have, but please note that this will be a focused stream and won’t include other announcements. You can find the stream here:
Round Up
PTC Patch 1.4
The self-hosted servers are up and ready to be tested on the Public Test Client! If you’re looking to create a server, you’ll want to get in on this, familiarize yourself, and try it out before it goes live. You will be able to tweak various settings in configuration files to change the behavior of the game servers to your liking. You can find details and instructions on how to set it up on our blog post here.
Server Migrations
Our date for server migrations has been announced for May 26th! Everything you’ll want to know including how exactly they’ll work, how to prepare yourself and your base for a closed server, and a list of all impacted Worlds, can be found in our blog post here. To give you more control over your experience, you can choose to migrate to a higher populated world or a quieter one, depending on your preference.
The Polar Cap
We know many of you are looking forward to cooling down in The Polar Cap after handling the heat of the desert. So, while this new map isn’t available just yet, we wanted to keep you all updated on what the plan is and what you can expect to see. You can find a lot of information in our blog post here, as well as a short video showing an early look at this new biome.
Developer Deep Dive
These are early explorations for how a Planetologist might look in our game. Later, as the game design team built out the player abilities and ability trees, we created an armor set to use in that context. But other Planetologists look different depending on their personality and experiences.
Gabriel Blain created the first two images (ArtStation) and Senior Lead Concept Artist, Josh ‘Badger’ Atack, created the last image.
Community Corner
Fanart, Creations, and Events
Deathrace
LanceWestWalker over on Stoneheart has been hard at work creating Deathraces, so we wanted to share a little on what goes into creating these and maybe you’ll want to create your own!
Want to show your mettle and participate in the next one? You’re in luck! Join the Stoneheart server for their upcoming deathraces this weekend and win prizes!
Friday May 15th: PvP Deep Desert race 10pm CT
Saturday, May 16th : PvP tournament 7PM CT and Deep Desert PvE races 11pm CT
Sunday, May 17th : Ornithoper tournament CT
Monday, May 18th : Castle war base raid 10pm CT
If you’d like to get in touch with Lance, you can find them on Twitch, Reddit, or in-game with the name LanceR#18943.
Watch their trailer to get even more hype:
We also spoke a little more to Lance for a little Q&A and probe their head on how the races are made:
Q: How do you begin making a deathrace? Do you have an ideation of what you’ll be doing or do you start and then it forms as you go?
A: The first step is always advertisement—building anticipation for what’s to come. Putting up a billboard over the event base draws attention from other players who often want to help build or donate prizes. From there, I start scouting the terrain, flying around to find rock formations that would make for interesting race paths. Once I’ve found the right spot, the track naturally begins to take shape as I build.
Q: Do you have a team that helps build and then judge/moderate the race? Or do you work alone?
A: When I first started, I did everything solo. I have a specific vision and prefer to control how the experience unfolds for racers. Over time, people began volunteering to help by providing materials, assisting with security, or promoting the event. I’ve recently been impressed by the talent of other builders who have joined in. Collaboration has added new creative energy to the races.
Q: What’s the most challenging part about making these deathraces?
A: Meeting deadlines is definitely the hardest part. There have been times when I couldn’t finish everything I planned before the scheduled start, but players have always been patient and supportive while I worked to deliver a complete experience.
Q: How many have you created so far and which was your favorite?
A: This upcoming event will be the 13th PvP race I’ve hosted over the past seven months. I’ve also organized several PvE races featuring different types of vehicles to mix things up. My favorite race is always the most recent one, because each new build teaches me something that helps improve the tracks, the flow, and the overall atmosphere. I’m constantly pushing to make each event bigger and better than the last.
Q: Do you have any tips for those who may also want to make their own deathrace?
A: Absolutely! My goal has always been to highlight how much creative potential this amazing sandbox has to offer, it’s truly a builder’s dream. My advice is to start small and expand as you refine your skills and learn to manage your time. Beginning with checkpoint races across open sand between rock formations is a great way to minimize building demands while you focus on spreading the word, gathering materials, and organizing logistics. Learning to delegate tasks is also key. Forming a community for events makes the entire process more enjoyable. Creating these events has been the most fun I’ve ever had in gaming, and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon.
Fanart
An amazing fanart piece of Feyd Rautha by brocolli7 on Discord.
Doodles created by silkspectre on Discord.
“This is Lillea Drummer, a Bene Gesserit assigned to observe Pavel Dasaud, a Mentat sent by the Reverend Mother to find the Fremen, for motives unknown to them both. They find that they have to rely upon each other as they traverse the treacherous sands of Arrakis.” -Written and drawn by Blu on Bluesky. (ArtStation)
U/D0PP3LG4M3R has created a physical Arrakis clock that fits neatly by your PC and follow the in-game time of day! You can read more answers from the OP on how it works in their post here.
The German guild “Custodes Scutorum” has created their coat of arms, with each side symbolizing a pillar of their group.
From strangers, to Sietch mates, to best friends. These two Sleepers met in Dune: Awakening and became fast friends, even meeting for the first time in real life! Seeing strong relationships form through our game is incredible to see and means the world to us. You can read more on their Reddit post here!
Buildings
“AWOO Promenade is now open to the public! Restock and refuel at the gas station! Have a brew at the pub where «the spice must flow».. on tap! Located in Stoneheart’s northwestern corner of D6 of the Deep Desert! Come on down, it’s a beautiful Dune out there 😀 –IllusiveMartyr
And they’re not the only ones! Grumbles on Discord has also designed a spot for Sleepers to stop for fuel in a pinch.
A Smuggler themed base by u/Acrivos! Located on the border of O’odham, they’ve created a beautiful base with an open ornithopter hangar. More pictures here on Reddit!
A beautiful base used for extra storage space located in the Eastern Shield Wall by skellt. More pictures on Discord here!
An adorable building with storage resembling a little frog by Rennstrauss on Discord.
A large and function base built to resemble an old world church by u/Sotrax. More pictures here!
A symmetrical home by u/Much_Ad4162. More pictures here!
Building
A gorgeous base by u/oreo368088. Check out many more pictures here, as well as questions they have answered on how aspects of it was achieved.
An absolutely incredible spaceport by Fcwedd on Discord.
Enforcedconch90 on Discord created this impressive base with inspiration from Anubis.
Voxicity and their wife Loxicity on Discord have created their new guild HQ: The Kitten’s Mittens. It even has a “backdoor”!
A balloon base built in the Deep Desert by u/Rezrarick. “Simply destroy the bottom pillar, and Pop!”
And Rezrarick won’t stop there either. They’ve made another very creative build, making a super yacht! The chances of flooding on Arrakis are…low, but they’re not taking any chances. More pictures here!
A beautiful building in Mysa Tarill by u/reddits_in_hidden. More pictures here!
Mynxkitty’s guild base, spacious and practical both inside and out. More pictures on the Discord here!
U/jke75 has created multiple unique builds over the past few months with inspiration from various medias, including Thunder Cats, Star Trek, and Star Wars. You can see them all here!
Screenshots
By u/Flenari on Reddit.
By yamada_goat on Discord.
u/FUMBLING_TITAN has created a montage of incredible screenshots from environmental shots, to life around the social hubs, and various NPCs. Check them all out here!
By DarioZ on the Discord.
“My journey continues overground and underground in search of the Fremen, no sign of them at blushing caverns or smugglers run. My search continues.” – u/sojiblitz
By taera_aeter on the Discord.
By Jimbodiah on the Discord.
By Rennstrauss on the Discord.
Q&A
Q: I have a large/complicated base on a server that is slated to close. What can I do if I am unable to place my base on a new server?
A: If your base’s original location is unavailable on any Sietch in the new World, and if you cannot use the «Snap to Origin» option in the Base Reconstruction Tool or place it elsewhere, you can recycle your base using the Base Backup Tool. This will transform all your building pieces and placeables into resources, which you can access via the «Reserve» tab on the Sub-fief console you own in Hagga Basin. Of course, you will need to build a new base afterwards.
Another option is to transfer to a different World where your spot might be available.
Some players with unique bases created simpler ones to make the process easier, allowing them to rebuild something cool on the new Sietch. We also recommend saving a blueprint of your old base in the Solido Replicator so that your design does not go to waste!
Q: How do I decide what server to move to if my current one is closing?
A: There’s a couple factors you can consider! Do you want to play with a guild or many other players? Others have begun advertising their guilds on places such as the subreddit or our Discord server (under the guild-recruitment channel). Check it out and see if it fits what you’re looking for!
You can also use third party websites by community members such as AwooTools or DuneStatus to find stats about various servers.
Q: I’ve read the server migration blog and I still have some questions!
A: We have created a Reddit thread here, where you can find answers to questions you may have. You can also ask your own!
Q: How did the Water Shippers inspire the themed building pieces for the DLC?
A: The Water Shippers are more of an industrial faction more than a major house; we wanted their aesthetic to reflect new money pragmatism mixed with industrial flair. Where the Atreides buildings are grey and modest and Harkonnen are black with monolithic structures, their palette is built on vibrant reds, copper, and white. A distinct feature of this set is the structural supports. We designed the legs to look almost parasitic or crab-like. They symbolize the way Arrakis’s industry latches onto the landscape to extract spice, water, and other materials.
Q: Are there plans to add elevators to the game?
A: Implementing elevators is tricky and much easier said than done. It’s a feature we’ve discussed having, and we even have prototypes on internal builds. However, it affected performance too much and needs to be worked on further. Having this in game isn’t completely off the table, and it is something we’d like to have at some point.
Closing Words
And that’s that for this issue! Our work here is not yet done and we have so much more coming at you. We’re looking forward to 1.4 going live with the self-hosted servers, and we’ll be keeping close eyes on your feedback and suggestions on it. Until the next Signal!
