Dune: Awakening Chapter 2 goes live, making the survival MMO's desert a little more welcoming by making sandworms less erratic, reducing quicksand, and introducing "a multitude of bug fixes"

It's finally here – after three months, the second chapter of Dune: Awakening has arrived with a massive new update containing some of the most hotly anticipated features and fixes.

The previously unveiled new Chapter 2 changes are here, alongside some unexpected tweaks and additions. Funcom outlines the big Dune: Awakening update in its official patch notes, first highlighting "new dynamic encounters, the ability to recustomize your character's appearance, and many quality of life changes" as well as the "multitude of bug fixes and improvements" – many of which address the community's most aired complaints.

One that immediately catches my eye is the change to sandworms' notoriously erratic behaviour – yes, the same behaviour that sees the Shai-Hulud, as the Fremen call the wriggling subterranean beast, spontaneously soar mid-air to eat unsuspecting ornithopters. Funcom explains that the terrifying creature "will now check if there are players or vehicles nearby when selecting a location for the breach animation."

Hopefully, if things go according to the developers' words, "This should reduce the instances of being randomly killed by a sandworm." That's not the only "smaller" tweak that has me looking forward to hopping back into Arrakis' unforgiving dunes, either. "Quicksand between sectors in the Deep Desert has been removed," according to Funcom's notes, "allowing you to cross these borders on foot and in ground vehicles."

Borders are more seamless overall, too, as abilities, weapons, and combat now "works across sectors," so crossing "should no longer cause disconnects and hitching." The allowance for smoother play coupled with the "new Deep Desert layouts and increased rock island density in them" is welcome, to say the least – and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that farming in the end-game area is going to be a lot less painful than before.

It sounds as though the Deep Desert – which has sparked its fair share of controversy among fans, PvE and PvP enjoyers alike – and Arrakis as a whole are a little more welcoming now. Considering some of the other cited changes, from improved resource generation to weapon functionality, I'm hoping they will be, anyway. The bigger additions are nice as well, I can't lie… it's been a long three months without new story content or character recustomization, after all.

Sadly, however, we still can't change our names – so I'm sorry to those of you who picked HarkonnenApologist69 or something similarly ridiculous. But, hey! At least we can finally pet the stillsuit-donning donkeys.

Dune: Awakening lead says some "people love the game, some people hate the game," but Funcom is "hoping more" will get into it now after "things slowed down over the summer" in the survival MMO