Dune: Awakening beta patch says you're not Muad'Dib, makes riding Sandworms fatal and puts a stop to ornithopter griefing

In the Dune books, Paul "Muad'Dib" Atreides is a man carefully bred over the course of thousands of years – trained in combat, piloting, and politics beyond anything most people in the known universe can match. The latest Dune: Awakening patch reasserts that you are not him, you're no Kwisatz Haderach, and riding a sandworm will definitely kill you.

If you're signed up for the MMO's Public Test Client on Steam, you'll now have access to patch 1.1.20.0. The biggest highlight for me is this: "Colliding with the sandworm's body during any of its animations will now result in death or vehicle destruction." This is sad news for people who managed to ride Shai Hulud, even though this was clearly never supposed to be possible.

The devs have also asked that people prioritize testing ornithopters crashes, because they want to make sure a new fix actually works: "Colliding ornithopters will now get an impulse applied to separate them. This will mitigate the griefing done to Carrier ornithopters by swarming with multiple ornithopters."

If it does work, it's great news for players who fell foul of an old technique that saw an ornithopter land on their vehicle before the pilot hopped out, planted a thumper to summon a sandworm, and then waited to fly away after it consumed them.

Another great quality-of-life update is you can now search for items by name on the exchange. A lot of items have had their prices adjusted, too, to make them more affordable. Coffee and missiles are all heavily discounted, so get out there and get shooting.

You can read the full patch notes right here. This patch should be live across the whole game August 12.

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