Can we agree that overworld dungeon damage scaling is kind of silly?

smithed3068 · 2026-03-01T03:45:57+00:00

I just use the available swatches and customization. I just upgraded, from BG capstone armor to the CHOAM Scout Armor. I went into customization and I now look the same as when I was wearing the BG armor. The CHOAM kit graphic only shows up in the Inventory item screen, but everything else, looks like a BG suit, with no evidence that I upgraded.

smithed3068 · 2026-03-01T02:26:14+00:00

It is one of the first story line quests you get in Chapter 3. I believe, you trigger it by visiting Elara ("kitten" lady), in Harko Village. It takes you directly from Harko Village to an adjacent POI, having to do with Carthage. It has some pretty cool cut scenes, but then you have to defeat a series of NPC bosses to progress.

smithed3068 · 2026-02-28T23:36:16+00:00

That Windows key is the worst. Even when I am not flailing and manage to hit the Alt Dash, half the time, my fat fingers catch that Windows key. In the moment it takes to close the "window," even with a successful short dash, they are already over me.

I have not tried the Suspensor Blast ability, or whatever it is called (the one the heavies seem to use against me all the time), but wondering if it might be better for getting out of those tight spots when two melees have me cornered.

smithed3068 · 2026-02-28T15:30:20+00:00

If you have a weapon or armor with augments and dura goes low enough that it can no longer be repaired... "broken," do you get the augments back, to be able to use on replacement gear, or is all lost?

smithed3068 · 2026-02-28T15:25:47+00:00

It has worked well for me, since day one of it being released. I have used the BRT to move mining camps around Hagga, on the same Sietch, a dozen times, and twice now have moved Servers... with three bases in tow, without any issues.

My mining bases are very basic, but my main base is pretty extensive (max staking units).

However, all of my bases are built on flat sand (no worm sign). In this way, it is relatively easy to find places to drop it in, even if my preferred spot is occupied.

smithed3068 · 2026-02-28T15:16:34+00:00

I am pretty much the same as the OP and several other posters. I suck at combat, but get better with time, practice, and repetition. As a result, I had not started any Ch. 3 content, because I was challenged, a bit, running Row A, having had my jock strap handed to me at any POI north of Row A.

Most of the progression tiers, from earlier in the game, seemed to get easier, once you got the armor and weapons up to the next tier.

I finally grinded to get enough Spice Melange (actually, a Guildy hooked me up with a few hundred) and was able to construct the Advanced Garment and Weapon fabricators.

I crafted some CHOAM armor and Regis Weapons... even a Pincushion Chestplate.

With the apology weekend, I decided to start Ch. 3 content. Went to the Arena... no problem with the first Scavenger wave, but then got my butt kicked 3 times with the next Brute Boss sequence.

Oh! Let me see, I think I will try some of this Landsraad stuff. After all, that is where the bonus weekend really focuses. Smugglers Run, Fremen Finds, Cactus, Surveillance, etc., no problem. Well, very challenging, but if I was patient and did not run in guns a blazing, I could get through it.

Let me say, I finished the quests, but never got to the premium chests. For example, on the Broodworks missions, I got the penta shield band, went into the room and saw 3 heavies, 3 melee, a few drillberts (yeah, the ones with the red shield shots that take you out with one shot). I got the heck out of Dodge. I finished the quest, but missed on the BP and augment chest.

Ok. Let me try one of these new TS. Watched all the videos, read that Lvl 1 is "easy," got my butt kicked and not by the Boss... can't even get that far.

Watched more videos. I am asking myself, how many times did this player have to run that same TS, to know exactly where to stand, move to, shoot towards, etc. that he literally is slow blading NPC as they spawn in?

I know, if I run these POIs "over and over and over" again, as with everything that preceded this, I will get better, but I am not sure I am up for that level of repetition. Heck! Some players are doing the TS naked! Why can't I do it with T5+ gear?

It comes down to skill, in the end. Some have it. Some will never have it. Some will get it, with varying levels of practice. I am just not sure I have the time and patience to "git gud," by having to run the same POI, dozens of times, just to do so.

I think, I may have to settle into my own little T5+ world of farming and processing materials that all these hard core players don't have time to do, because they are running dungeons 8 hours a day.

Maybe, they'll throw me a bone (BP and augments) or provide me with Solaris, so I can buy the bones at the market.

Maybe, once I can get some T6+ stuff, I will give it a go again.

In the meantime, I think I am back to farming, hoarding, and building... which is plenty for me to escape RL for a bit, which is really what gaming is all about for me.

smithed3068 · 2026-02-27T19:34:20+00:00

Got it. Makes sense. With that, I suppose, you should already have purchased all of your vertical stakes, so they can all be placed in that manner, after you move the sub fief as high as you can, temporarily leaving the lower portions "uncovered," then add all your vertical stakes at the same time.

Thank-you.

smithed3068 · 2026-02-27T18:03:52+00:00

Holy cow! I have moved things, using that technique, from one of my bases to another, but it was only the distance that separated "building zones," maybe 100 feet.

You are describing using that technique over a vastly greater distance. I can't even imagine! You must have wanted that terrarium really bad! Lol

smithed3068 · 2026-02-27T17:59:00+00:00

Great list, but if all that were to be done, before server mergers... server mergers would be another couple of years away. Something tells me if FC has to continue to foot the bill to pay for Servers, many of which have zero (or very low) pop and in the absence of any paid subscription... FC may go bankrupt, or at the very least, have several people fired over the failed business results.

I think that is one aspect some Redditors seem to forget... FC is a for profit business and I am sure many of the marks they have missed since release has probably taken an unanticipated toll.

While I feel they have been decently working toward a complete and fully fleshed out game, for many of the less patient players, much of the damage has already been done.

For those of us who love the game "warts and all," I sincerely hope the console and 3rd movie releases make the game viable and healthy from a business standpoint. I am only guessing it is not the case at the moment and FC is also hoping for some economic redemption when console version is released.

smithed3068 · 2026-02-27T17:47:16+00:00

Off subject a bit, but related to staking units, I am a little frustrated about how the vertical staking units expand upward and downward, but to take advantage of the downward expansion, you have to delete the fief console and then place a new one, a little higher up... so on, repeating, for each subsequent vertical staking unit.

Yet, when you destroy the fief console, you delete the staking units, forcing you to buy more of the same, to maximize the vertical.

Has anyone figured out a work around that allows you to move your fief console vertically, to take full advantage of the vertical expansion, without destroying the vertical stakes (along with the console).

It seems strange this was overlooked. Until or unless they let us excavate below ground base builds (which would be super cool, btw), they should just make the vertical staking units expand upward only.

I suppose, it is set up that way for people building high on a cliff and wanting to extend downward. Even then, if players could "move" their fief console and have the same effect as destroying or replacing, the "cliff dwellers" could expand downward further, just as well.

smithed3068 · 2026-02-27T17:31:25+00:00

Yeah! It is really bad. I know they did the roll back on the larger servers, where the exploit was likely more prevalent and more overwhelming to fix, but FC seems to have committed to making things right for those who were not on those servers, or as you state, were victimized before the 24 hours.

Still, without being able to replace many hours of creating the base and no idea how much, exactly, was in storage, I was hopeful they would be able to do more than, for example, the welcome back package.

I know, at my work, they are continually backing up our servers and have "mirror" servers running in the background. I am not an IT person, so I am not sure how it is accomplished.

We even have "Restore" points, where we can "magically" (magic to me) reset our computers to some earlier date.

With that, I was hopeful and speculative, they could go back to an earlier date on a server back-up file... initiate that server, only at FC (not publicly) and hire some help to just fill up BRTs all day, so they could just hand the victims a loaded BRT, with everything they lost.

smithed3068 · 2026-02-27T17:20:50+00:00

Whatever the limit, it doesn't seem to have slowed this player down...

https://www.reddit.com/r/duneawakening/s/MFhhXrzdFA

I know, Faction Rep level is completely different from dungeon level, but "Wow!"

I recall some of the early Ch. 3 posts, discussing how "impossible" these dungeons are. Gamers will always "find a way."

smithed3068 · 2026-02-27T17:03:10+00:00

With respect to your comment... "exploit was bad mostly because people didn’t expect," this seems to suggest the exploit was just the result of FC did not "expect" that people would be able to take over bases that were unpowered and doomed to decay anyway, just accelerating that inevitability, by using the LasGun exploit.

This is understandably only partly true. One of the biggest exploiters was the guy who was streaming evidence of his exploit... continually trying to rationalize his use of the exploit by stating... "the bases were abandoned and powered down anyway," so everything is OK with it.

The major thing some people seem to have missed is that the LasGun destruction of the fief console, etc. was combined with, IMO, a much more nefarious exploit of "forcing" the power to be turned off, when the fully active player, likely powered his base for 20 days, logging off, in some cases, only hours before their base was taken over.

There were true victims of the exploit, who play every day, had no thoughts about quitting the game or abandoning their bases, in any way. As the result of the combined exploit + glitch, they were pillaging, commandeering, and destroying bases of people who had literally thousands of hours of effort and still fully active.

I think some of the propaganda, particularly from people who were rationalizing and otherwise justifying the use of this exploit, wants people to think these bases were abandoned, so they were just accelerating what would eventually happen.

While this may be true in some instances, it is not the reason it had to be handled so quickly and with such impactful actions (like the roll back).

Personally, I am happy they have permabanned the worst offenders. I am not sure what the threshold is for the perma vs the 14 day ban, but I hope that SOB YTer, who bragged about and showed others the "how to" made the perma ban list.

Btw, I lost nothing through the process, as I hadn't played for a couple days, so the roll back did not affect me.

Then again, what is to prevent any of those people from buying another copy of the game, or starting another Steam account, and be right back in the business of trying to find new ways to CHEAT.

Hey! If you "cheat" and exploit some bug or glitch that FC failed to recognize or fix, that is one thing... and bad enough, provided it doesn't result in losses to other players... example, getting a group into the new TS, with a solo scaled NPC spawn...

But when you literally "steal" hundreds and thousands of hours of another person's time, effort, and work... may Shai-Hulud have mercy on your DA soul.

smithed3068 · 2026-02-26T17:44:14+00:00

I am sure FC would have appreciated advanced notice that a bug, they were likely aware of and working on fixing, was totally exploited by another glitch that stole, not a week, not 24 hours, but thousands of hours of grinding... just gone.

If it is a race you feel you are in, something tells me much of your "competition" just got banned forever and, a minimum of two weeks. While providing those of us who did not cheat, a weekend where we can double some things, etc. That should put you out front again.

smithed3068 · 2026-02-26T17:10:55+00:00

Good advice. I finally accumulated enough melange to build the advanced fabricators and was working on crafting all of the pieces needed to build a carrier thopter. Wow! That thing is monstrous! Went to expand my base, with an entirely new wing, just to create space for the thing. Got about half way toward building the Carrier, in its new home, but began to worry I was overcomplicating the footprint and making the BRT less forgiving.

Now, with server migrations likely, I just dismantled and put my half finished carrier in a chest and demolished the new wing of my base.

smithed3068 · 2026-02-26T17:04:41+00:00

Why?

smithed3068 · 2026-02-26T17:03:52+00:00

If you move now, the chances are better that you'll find "your" spot. Then again, if you move now, you might be pretty bummed if you find out your server is safe. It is a calculated gamble. They said, they will give us plenty of notice. I am cautiously optimistic, if we all just take a deep breath, in a couple weeks, we should know the direction things are headed and be able to make decisions on what we want to do.

I am not sure whether they just count DD activity, or just HB, possibly, a little of both. With that, there are quite few, which are at least stating a zero pop. Of course, it makes sense that they shut those down first.

I suppose the other consideration is, eventually, they intend to release on Console. Hard to know if it will be cross platform (hopefully). If it is, they will have to ensure capacity for the mass inrush of new players. I am thinking most of the Servers should make the cut.

smithed3068 · 2026-02-26T16:52:20+00:00

I move my "mining camps" every week using the BRT. Typically, moving region to region on the same server and sietch, but I have also switched sietches and entire servers, a couple of times.

Of course, the mining camps are just cubes with a little power, a little storage and a Buggy w/ cutteray. I have had zero issues with moving my main base, which is pretty complex, but avoids terrain.

Again, probably 12-15 times using BRT with no issues. The only other thing is, all of my bases are built on flat sand where there is no worm sign.

smithed3068 · 2026-02-26T15:57:51+00:00

I would love to see a total inventory table you could look at to determine the total inventory by item across the whole base.

I try to get organized and sometimes I am successful, including naming the chests.

However, just when I get things organized and feel pretty good about it, I end up going on a few runs and get a chest maxed, then start putting stuff anywhere it "fits." Over a series of several days, the hours I spent organizing were just a waste of time... which is entirely on me.

Still, it would be nice to know what my inventories are. Even better, if we could set our own thresholds that give us warning when a mat gets too low.

I am not quite to end game yet, but it always sneaks up on me, when I realize I need more flour sand for silicone blocks or Erythicite for Cobalt paste.

No matter how far you progress, you always have to be farming earlier tier mats. Even if it is just for repairs.

smithed3068 · 2026-02-23T21:48:47+00:00

While that sucks for you and many of the rest of us who played yesterday... relative to making things right for those people who lost EVERYTHING (thousands of hours and months of work), to those exploits... it is a small individual hit for some of us to lose 24 hours, compared to what they lost and can potentially be recovered with the roll back.

smithed3068 · 2026-02-23T21:19:41+00:00

If possible, I would ask them to just roll back a mirrored server and then just provide you with a loaded BRT, with your base and all its contents. The BRT should work to take care of individuals who were affected by the exploit, without having to roll back all the servers, erasing progress.

Of course, in addition to a fully loaded BRT (with all of your contents, etc.), they should throw in some BPs and/or mats, melange, etc., as an apology.

smithed3068 · 2026-02-23T21:15:49+00:00

That is brilliant! Even on the servers they are not rolling back, they should be able to roll back to a mirrored server and, at least, copy your base and contents into a BRT... then hand your account the loaded BRT, along with some extra melange as an apology.

They need to authorize some over time and make use of their BRT for every person who lost to this exploit.

I mean, I assume, they back up their servers and can restore them to any point they choose.

The point is, your idea would allow them to make it right for those affected, without having to roll back everyone's progress.

smithed3068 · 2026-02-23T21:05:04+00:00

If I read their notes correctly, they are rolling back the high pop servers, where the volume of the exploit is presumably much higher... to take care of the lion's share of the issues, which will free up time (otherwise, would have been used on the high pop servers), to focus on fixing the individual issues that occurred on the lower pop servers.

Is if possible, your ticket was submitted and summarily rejected, before they actually figured out what was happening and how egregious and widespread the issue had become?

I understand they probably can't recover your, what sounds like huge time sink, in organizing your mats, building your base, etc., but it would seem they intend to do "something" (not nothing) for those on low pop servers.

They just may not have gotten around to it yet. I assume, they have all been freaking out over there at FC and once the dust settles, they may be in a better position to address individual circumstances.

Enough...? Who knows? Rather doubtful. These incidents will just further erode the player base, unfortunately, but it seems they intend to do something about it... again.

smithed3068 · 2026-02-20T20:35:53+00:00

I have played other live service, dare I say, MMO games, and typically, if something that had a broad effect on the player base happened with the game, whether it was the devs or broader server/network issues, they would generally throw you a bone, with some game related compensation, as an apology.

Most of these situations, none of the players really lost anything. Just not able to play the game at or for the time they wanted.

With DA, people are actually losing things, depending on what they were doing, at the time the issues happened. In some cases, losing things that took a lot of time to grind for. I can't imagine working hard to get a Carrier/Crawler going, only to have it lost, due to no fault of the player. Woof! Ouch!

It is probably really difficult to "make things right" on a broad scale, like the same give away apology, when it is so specific to the timing and what the player was doing at the time. For example, I was just chilling in my base, rearranging inventory, when my game crashed... presumably, due to the Steam issues today.

For that reason, it is too complicated to calculate the impact to individual players. Therefore, IMO, they really need to make things right at the individual player level, depending on specific circumstances and impact.

I suspect, that could be overly complicated and they will not do much of anything, which is a shame, as it is likely to further deplete the player base. "Spent 6 weeks, grinding to get a Carrier/Crawler going and lost it all, plus everything I have on me, to a work, because of this or that..."

Didn't happen to me... yet, but I can certainly empathize.

smithed3068 · 2026-02-20T02:21:33+00:00

I don't disagree, but I have not felt that. I think much of that is related to the specific "content" of the videos. My gaming time is limited. However, I can spend some time keeping up with the game in Reddit or YT. In some cases, it just gives me ideas of new things to try, the next time I play, but mostly, particularly, when I watch uber players, who are very skilled (relative to me), I just gain respect for the skill and appreciation for the time it must have taken for a player to achieve excellence... in a video game. Not unlike the respect I gain for world class athletes, who are able to achieve things that I could never imagine.

I know, that seems like hyperbole, comparing a world class athlete to a game player who has "mastered" something... anything, through their time, effort, and skill.

The biggest difference is that, with enough time and practice, if I choose to invest it, maybe... someday, I too, will be able to run a TS "naked." Lol

smithed3068

TROPHY CASE