"Arrakis is at its best when the desert is alive": Dune Awakening will start character migration and closing near-empty servers – but fans are already "nervous"

Dune: Awakening developer Funcom has just posted new patch notes to help prepare players for Patch 1.3.10 in March – and players are, in fact, going to want to prepare. They're going to be moving houses soon.

"With Patch 1.3.10.0, we will begin the process of migrating characters and consolidating less populated official servers," says Funcom in its update. "Arrakis is at its best when the desert is alive, when the social hubs are bustling, the Exchange is active, and the player cooperation and Landsraad competition is high."

The developer assures fans that, in early March, it'll release a comprehensive list of all the worlds affected by its consolidation plans, "to give you ample time to prepare." But March is still a little bit away, and that gives players time to worry.

"I actually enjoy having less people on the server I am on (Richese). I think Richese will be one of the servers hit when it comes to these migrations," one fan observes in a Reddit thread on the issue. "This makes me a bit nervous about the migration."

Anticipating these worries, Funcom continues to explain that fans impacted by the shuttering of servers can eventually "choose to immediately initiate a token-free character transfer after backing up your base and storing all vehicles. If you prefer to wait until the world closes, your characters and everything they own, including bases and vehicles, will be stored safely for you automatically."

And, speaking of bases, Funcom would also like to officially apologize for what it's calling "the recent Hagga Basin incident" – that exploit bad enough to trigger a server shutdown.

"While we deployed a fix as soon as we could on Monday, February 23rd, this breach of the game's core rules should never have occurred," Funcom says. As penance to players who lost bases and time, Funcom will "provide generous resource packages," and it'll double rewards earned from Landsraad Missions from February 27 to March 2.

The developer has already finished permanently banning 155 "biggest offenders, and it's issued 289 14-day suspensions "to other players who knowingly abused this exploit."

"These were not new players; they were individuals who chose to bypass the game's mechanics to harm others," Funcom says decisively. "Such behavior has no place in Dune: Awakening."

After surprise server shutdown, Dune: Awakening devs squash bug that cost players 1,000-hour bases – and promise "adequate resources and item packages to cover any losses incurred."