Dune: Awakening Chapter 3 is live bringing massive changes

Dune: Awakening has been struggling for a while, but I do hope this latest major update brings some more people back to it as there's some great stuff in it.

There's now, thankfully, a little bit less annoying management to do with your bases as you no longer have to pay upkeep taxes on your base. Before this update, you would have to repeatedly travel to social hubs to pay this upkeep which has been completely removed that the developers say results in "simpler, clearer, and far less disruptive to play".

For long-time players there's a revamp to end-game progression, 5 new specialization tracks to further customize your character to your liking, various newly added map locations, Chapter 3 of the story is in, new weapons (like dual-wielded knives) and a special Return Package to get you up to speed if you've been away for a while.

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Main highlights:

• Continue your story! Fight through the Neo Carthag Duelling ring, and team up with an unexpected ally as you dig deeper into the mystery of your origin. Expect a call from a familiar friend when next you enter a social hub.
• Taxation has been disabled, including the UI in the sub-fief, the NPC dialogue options in social hubs, and the related journey. You won’t need to pay any taxes that may be overdue, which the Emperor has begrudgingly agreed with.
• Revamped Endgame Progression – A redesigned Plastanium (Tier 6) experience with deeper choices and more meaningful ways to advance for PvE and other playstyles.
• Landsraad Revamp – The whole Landsraad has been rebuilt, with new replayable missions and new rewards.
• Faction Ranks – New contracts, rewards, missions, and extended standing/rank progression.
• Specialization Progression – Choose between Crafting, Gathering, Exploring, Combat and Sabotage as you level up your preferred playstyle.
• 5 New Challenge Locations – Five of the new overland sites feature fresh open-area challenges that boost faction progress, influence Landsraad control, and earn Specialization XP.
• New Augmentation Progression – Push your late-game builds even further with the new Augmentation Station, letting you enhance Unique Plastanium (Tier 6) gear with powerful augments that customize and strengthen your playstyle.
• 5 New Repeatable Testing Stations – The other five new overland locations feature completely new Testing Stations and boss fights with escalating difficulty and increasingly valuable rewards.
• 2 new weapons and a rework – Dual Blades, the Pyrrocket and the Rapier has been reworked
• The new vehicle relocation feature in the Vehicle Backup Tool allows you to move any vehicle on the same map at the same cost as recovering a destroyed vehicle. The contents of the vehicle inventory will be dropped on the ground.
• Redesigned the Personal Light into the Personal Glow Globe, which now allows to direct the light source along the camera’s view, instead of being aligned to the player’s character.
• Added new chat channels for each faction, one for the Atreides and one for the Harkonnen. Players are granted access to a faction’s chat channel once their rank reaches 2 (or higher) with that faction.
• Significantly decreased the durability lost when taking damage for Radiation Suits of all tiers. This should now be similar to other armor types of the same tiers.
• Ornithopter Pilots now accept solari both from player inventory and bank as payment for the travel.

For a full list of what's new and improved see their official changelog.

There's also an optional paid DLC that adds in more building pieces and armour variants.

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