In a new FAQ, the developers have published a slew of fresh information on Dune Spice Wars. In the process, they also addressed the topic of base building.
Since its announcement in December 2021, Dune: Spice Wars has become a beacon of hope for many fans of the books. The last game set on the eponymous desert planet appeared around the turn of the millennium. Expectations for the real-time strategy game are correspondingly high.
In a (Steam-FAQ) the developers have now published a series of new information. Among other things, the factions, the faithfulness to the details of the book template – and also the base building are addressed. And there they break with a genre rule, which might not please everyone.
(If you’re looking for more information on Dune: Spice Wars, you’ll find it here)
All info from the new FAQ
Let’s get straight to the elephant in the room: If you were hoping for conventional base building in the RTS, you will have to accept a disappointment. Because as the developers have often emphasised, Spice Wars relies on a kind of hybrid of 4X principles (known from turn-based titles like Civilization) and real-time strategy.
And for the expansion of your cities, this means that you can only commission new building projects in the menu and are not allowed to decide on their placement. Instead, the new building will appear in a predefined place in the city and thus organically expand it, so that you can expect really big metropolises over time.
The render trailer might already give you a taste of what heavily expanded cities will look like. With this pure Dune atmosphere, they want to win the hearts of the fans:
The main reason for this step is that Spice Wars is on a much larger scale than typical real-time representatives. This probably means the 4X elements already mentioned, i.e. in addition to combat, trade, diplomacy and the planned economic features.
Great value on template fidelity
Besides this quite controversial point, the FAQ is primarily devoted to adherence to the book template. For in many respects, connoisseurs of the films must expect not to see familiar characters and factions. A summary:
- Factions: Some well-known houses will be missing in Spice Wars. The well-known house Ordos is mentioned in the FAQ. The developers state that the House Ordos was mentioned in the Dune Encyclopaedia and later in the video game Dune 2, but never by Frank Herbert himself. That is why they are sticking strictly to the book. However, in the course of the Early Access phase, which will start soon, they will consider how to deal with such content.
- Optical Changes: In previous Dune games, comics and films, the banner and uniforms of House Atreides were marked with blue colours. In Spice Wars it is now a mix of slightly darker green and black, as was also explicitly stated in Frank Herbert’s books.
- Display of the desert planet: The visuals also want to capture the spirit of the original. The maps are procedurally generated and are supposed to differ from each other in terms of size, wind strength, sandworm activity and other factors. The deep desert is supposed to function as an organic challenge at the beginning of the game. Only when you have researched more advanced technologies in the course of a game will you be able to cross it and thus open up new areas. You can find three fresh screenshots in our update gallery:
Release still planned for 2022
The release date of 2022 has not changed yet. First of all, the Early Access phase is to start, with which the previous project Northgard had good experiences in terms of player feedback. Localisation is currently planned in English, German, Spanish, French, Polish, Russian and Portuguese.
There is also information on the topics of mod support and DLCs after the launch. There are currently no plans to enable mods, but if the demand remains high enough, this topic will be looked at again at a later date.
Speaking of a later date: DLCs are currently not in the pipeline either. They are fully concentrating on the start of the Early Access phase. Here, too, they want to react to player feedback and are keeping the option open for additional content at a later date
And what do you say? Do you already feel the sandworm rising up inside you when you look at the pictures and videos, or do you still remain sceptical as to whether the title can really fulfil the high gameplay expectations? Put your Spice aside and type your opinion in the comments section!
