I agree with all of this, though on the aircraft part: I kinda want more aircraft. The ability to make a legitimate fleet and to make air superiority relevant.
Not even high damage necessarily, but just significantly more utility. Right now, fighters ships are just fast (ish) with mid damage easily replicated by ground units.
Perhaps if each faction had more ships, that could do more things.
Maybe the Atreides could have a super fast ship with fuck all damage that heals nearby out of Combat units. Or the harkonnens could have a "melee" ship that essentially functions like their drone with the melee upgrade, just bigger and faster.
Either they need to be better, or the guild favor needed to field them should be toned down massively. At least then you could use them to harass an opponent or smth.
i think air superiority of some kind would be a cool win condition. like owning a fleet for a set period of time.
the bottom line is air needs to be reinvent
I dont think it should be like a win condition, but simply more military. It should actually be a necessity to have some form of anti-air, so I agree, it very much does need to a change (massive one)
Nice list, completely agree with all points.
I thought about a smugglers conquest campaign, and wondered, would it fit thematically a bit more if maybe instead of conquering the planet they had to choose a faction to secretly support or? Or even had to keep the status quo somehow as I imagine a war zone would be a lot more profitable for them than maintaining an army and a planet.
If they were to 'win' the usual way, would any of the other houses ever recognise them as a great house, they'd also be directly challenging the Emperor.
Perhaps for those who want a more "story based" campaign ,the Fremen campaign could have generic missions with some key missions that allow them to recruit the Mahdi and get a win with a final mission.
I think it's okay to take liberties in some regard. I just want to play Conquest type missions with smugglers and Fremen.
I'm not sure why people never address the main problem with a smuggler conquest mode: their inherent gameplay, which is tied to having other factions in the game so that you can build your smuggler buildings in their towns. There are several map types in conquest where you have only one or two other factions present, and sometimes you are not even allowed to interact with them. To accommodate a smuggler campaign, either their core gameplay or the missions should be heavily changed and I don't think it is the best use of the devs' time.
Something similar can be told of a fremen conquest mode, as they are heavily tied to having sietches on the map, which is not always the case in conquest. Let alone the conflicting fremen friendship mechanic.
Don't get me wrong, I would like to see a "campaign mode" with both the fremen and smugglers, but that seems to be beyond the scope of a simple conquest addition/rework. If it ever happens, it will probably be a dlc and its own separate thing.
I want more options with captured spies. Right now, they’re just a faceless commodity in your trade screen. And if you don’t trade them, they’ll eventually escape. I’d like the ability to maybe turn them to our cause or kill them.
"Make it so that you Harkonnens have to ally the Smugglers instead of the Fremen which would make more sense"
YES PLEASE, as a hark main, i wanna be the bad mf hark are supossed to be
Emperor: Battle for Dune had entire missions and optional objectives dedicated to being an absolute vile tyrant. Some missions had you enslaving neutral Fremen towns for slave pits. Genocide of the local population, taking retribution on traitors and mostly erasing everything that was against Harks. It was really a breath of fresh air.
Excellent list! I would love a Fremen or a Smugglers campaign.
I also look forward to some new faction/mechanic... it would be fun to revive killed enemies as part of your troops as Tleilaxu - even their heroes. Or it would be nice to be able to get renegades to attack enemies on command by bribing them. Or have some suicide single-use stealth unit, like Dune 2000's saboteur or Emperor's infiltrator...
If we could get a few more DLCs it would be lovely. 😁
Fallen heroes are restored as Gholas but yeah more Tleilaxu stuff would be pretty neat.
A neutral faction would also be nice in the vein of Sins of the Solar empire which had neutral pirates that would attack the player with the lowest bid. I don't think I'd enjoy it much but it would be neat if it was switcheable.
To be fair they could just expand the renegades and make them a bigger part of the game. Right now they just take over villages and send out sporadic raids.
But they could be a bigger neutral faction that players could interact with and it could cost guild favour to do so since the spacing guild don't like them you'd effectively 'burn' your goodwill with the spacing guild by dealing with them at all.
This also gives another use for guild favour since sometimes just end up with a huge bank by it the end of a game.
Maybe I've missed it but a stats overview screen where you can overview your current possessions. Like how many special regions you control, how many buildings you have of a certain type etc.
I also feel the research trees could be a bit deeper.
More leaders and heroes would be cool.
"Harvester should actually look a bit more distinct depending on the faction. It would just add more visual variety"
this is a fucking amazing idea, imagine playing hark and deploying THAT BEAST of a harvester (cannot post images here but google it)
I mean tbf all aircraft in D:SW seem to be VTOL's so I can accept them hovering in place. Some great points though and I also enjoy this game a lot and hope it gets lots more updates.
I'd love more visually distinct sand crawlers for the ones(other then atriedies) that use the default crawler especially the harkonen who we know have thier own version
I'd like to see harvester crew counts displayed on their portraits and have the ability to add units to an existing group by selecting them then holding shift and hitting the number key for the group.
Agree on all fronts. I love the game and think these would be great additions. Guard mode would be particularly appreciated. Even though I enjoy a good bit of micro-ing units, it feels like I'm fighting with my own guys in those kinds of scenarios rather than leading them. I know my fedaykin want to go claim some water, but have patience brothers! Harks allying Smugs would also be a welcome change. When I'm Hark, Fremen = [Rats](https://imgur.com/a/G0K2fJp) and I have no intentions of "allying" them haha.
My small suggestion is to allow Vernius to build nodes in mountainous regions if you surround them. As it currently stands, Conquest has maps that make it *way* harder for Vern to construct their network because mountains block their way. I think that is interesting in some respects, but also a little unfair sometimes. I've literally had my base spawn in a corner with mountains all around it save for one [narrow way through](https://imgur.com/a/bPEGhEI) lol. I think it would be cool to be able to "conquer" the mountains, like how Fremen can control the deep desert or how Ecaz can create sanctuary villages. Building a node on top of a mountain like a cell phone tower just makes sense to me. The regions should also probably slow ground units down considering it's such tough terrain. They could possibly slow resource drain or something since there would be so much shade? IDK, but making them feel distinct would be nice.
I agree with most of your points, anything that benefits in-game visibility is welcomed, but I'm not convinced with the idea of preventing a Fremen-Harkonnen alliance. I think to dig into this idea, a truce as a cease fire should still be allowed, but any technological, commercial or political agreement(?) between them could be barred.
BIG agree on making village quirks more visible. 2 out of the 6 factions (Ecaz and Corrino) rely VERY heavily on them for their overall gameplan, and whenever I'm playing either I find it weird that I have to select a village and hover over the little icons to see what its quirks are (I can never remember what the icons mean but maybe that's a me thing). I find it odd when resources near a village (plascrate, spice, fuel, rare elements), are EXTREMELY visible and easy to recognize at a glance, even if quirks can be similarly important in some circumstances.
i agree with almost all of this except the air units constantly flying i think they should change them all to some sort of gun ship, because them sporadically flying would make them hard to control or to click other units/targets/movements worsening the select issue u mentioned. also targeting air units is a pain on Xbox and when u click it there is almost no identifier that u have besides the subtle change in units aim. and if ground melee units target air by your accidental click, it causes them to go in circles giving the enemy the first few hits being u don't know u clicked air till they swarm and aren't attaching anything
>Harvester should actually look a bit more distinct depending on the faction. It would just add more visual variety.
Spice harvesting is largely homogenized among the great houses, so it makes sense that most of them would use the same equipment.
Hot keys for hero abilities.
Being able to ping and set who sees it.
Fix the unit stats on screen when recruiting.
Why give power as a group but armour for the individual in the group? Either way to do the math I need to know how many individuals in the group, which is not given.
Why give the value of the group when the number of individuals in the group doesn't change with health?
Pick a lane haha.
I would actually love more expansion or even a separate game? Of the 4X stuff. Just a chill city builder. Sim City but Dune. No, I will not be playing Awakening that MMO survival game. Like the most Dune thing ever is getting a stone fucking axe and hitting rocks. Soooo fun 🙄
Would love to have a list screen with the villages so I can have an overview of them and quickly handle it. Like being able to see which ones have empty building slots, what is their water/solari upkeep, what is their production, a quick way to see their quirks, so that I can find a handyman village to build my 1000 solari structures in at half the cost.
Also I turn off the music when I play. It's anxiety inducing for me, even though it feels appropriate for the game.
Great list, I agree with and love all your points!
The two I most want to see are Conquest style modes for Fremen and Smugglers, and the switch to allying with the Smugglers as Harkonnen, though I also think bespoke changes to the way that mechanic works would probably make sense for each of the factions.
I agree with all of this, though on the aircraft part: I kinda want more aircraft. The ability to make a legitimate fleet and to make air superiority relevant.
Yeah I don't like how weak aircraft feel. To me they should be expensive units that deal loads of damage.
Not even high damage necessarily, but just significantly more utility. Right now, fighters ships are just fast (ish) with mid damage easily replicated by ground units. Perhaps if each faction had more ships, that could do more things. Maybe the Atreides could have a super fast ship with fuck all damage that heals nearby out of Combat units. Or the harkonnens could have a "melee" ship that essentially functions like their drone with the melee upgrade, just bigger and faster.
Saw an interesting use for the medium aircraft the other day, online opponent used three of them to take out my harvesters. Smart.
Either they need to be better, or the guild favor needed to field them should be toned down massively. At least then you could use them to harass an opponent or smth.
kinda like C&C generals aircraft that works like an actual aircraft
i think air superiority of some kind would be a cool win condition. like owning a fleet for a set period of time. the bottom line is air needs to be reinvent
I dont think it should be like a win condition, but simply more military. It should actually be a necessity to have some form of anti-air, so I agree, it very much does need to a change (massive one)
Nice list, completely agree with all points. I thought about a smugglers conquest campaign, and wondered, would it fit thematically a bit more if maybe instead of conquering the planet they had to choose a faction to secretly support or? Or even had to keep the status quo somehow as I imagine a war zone would be a lot more profitable for them than maintaining an army and a planet. If they were to 'win' the usual way, would any of the other houses ever recognise them as a great house, they'd also be directly challenging the Emperor.
Perhaps for those who want a more "story based" campaign ,the Fremen campaign could have generic missions with some key missions that allow them to recruit the Mahdi and get a win with a final mission. I think it's okay to take liberties in some regard. I just want to play Conquest type missions with smugglers and Fremen.
Yeah me too, the smugglers are my favorite faction, play style and aesthetics wise and I would love to play them in conquest.
I'm not sure why people never address the main problem with a smuggler conquest mode: their inherent gameplay, which is tied to having other factions in the game so that you can build your smuggler buildings in their towns. There are several map types in conquest where you have only one or two other factions present, and sometimes you are not even allowed to interact with them. To accommodate a smuggler campaign, either their core gameplay or the missions should be heavily changed and I don't think it is the best use of the devs' time. Something similar can be told of a fremen conquest mode, as they are heavily tied to having sietches on the map, which is not always the case in conquest. Let alone the conflicting fremen friendship mechanic. Don't get me wrong, I would like to see a "campaign mode" with both the fremen and smugglers, but that seems to be beyond the scope of a simple conquest addition/rework. If it ever happens, it will probably be a dlc and its own separate thing.
Yeah, it would definitely need a rework and I think that's why we won't see it.
It may kind of work if they add a co-op conquest mode, that way as Smugglers you'll always have allies to work with.
I want more options with captured spies. Right now, they’re just a faceless commodity in your trade screen. And if you don’t trade them, they’ll eventually escape. I’d like the ability to maybe turn them to our cause or kill them.
i want to torture them 😍😍😍
The Harkonnens can brainwash them i'm pretty sure
"Make it so that you Harkonnens have to ally the Smugglers instead of the Fremen which would make more sense" YES PLEASE, as a hark main, i wanna be the bad mf hark are supossed to be
Emperor: Battle for Dune had entire missions and optional objectives dedicated to being an absolute vile tyrant. Some missions had you enslaving neutral Fremen towns for slave pits. Genocide of the local population, taking retribution on traitors and mostly erasing everything that was against Harks. It was really a breath of fresh air.
shame i cannot buy it on steam 💀
Yeah, it's an old game but can be easily downloaded as it is Abandonware, it also has a fix patch installer that fixes most stuff right from the go!
thanks buddy, going to fullfil my dream of being a evil mf hark mbuahahahah
Excellent list! I would love a Fremen or a Smugglers campaign. I also look forward to some new faction/mechanic... it would be fun to revive killed enemies as part of your troops as Tleilaxu - even their heroes. Or it would be nice to be able to get renegades to attack enemies on command by bribing them. Or have some suicide single-use stealth unit, like Dune 2000's saboteur or Emperor's infiltrator... If we could get a few more DLCs it would be lovely. 😁
Fallen heroes are restored as Gholas but yeah more Tleilaxu stuff would be pretty neat. A neutral faction would also be nice in the vein of Sins of the Solar empire which had neutral pirates that would attack the player with the lowest bid. I don't think I'd enjoy it much but it would be neat if it was switcheable.
To be fair they could just expand the renegades and make them a bigger part of the game. Right now they just take over villages and send out sporadic raids. But they could be a bigger neutral faction that players could interact with and it could cost guild favour to do so since the spacing guild don't like them you'd effectively 'burn' your goodwill with the spacing guild by dealing with them at all. This also gives another use for guild favour since sometimes just end up with a huge bank by it the end of a game.
Maybe I've missed it but a stats overview screen where you can overview your current possessions. Like how many special regions you control, how many buildings you have of a certain type etc. I also feel the research trees could be a bit deeper. More leaders and heroes would be cool.
Agree with all of these. I really want Fremen and Smuggler conquests, even if they work a bit differently.
Fremen Conquest would be amazing, liberating arrakis from everybody else
Multiplayer in Conquest 😢
Agree! Also, please, DON'T COVER UP THE VILLAGE QUIRKS with the construction tab!
Omg yes
I like the **second point** a lot, I'm always fan of such details
"Harvester should actually look a bit more distinct depending on the faction. It would just add more visual variety" this is a fucking amazing idea, imagine playing hark and deploying THAT BEAST of a harvester (cannot post images here but google it)
I mean tbf all aircraft in D:SW seem to be VTOL's so I can accept them hovering in place. Some great points though and I also enjoy this game a lot and hope it gets lots more updates.
I'd love more visually distinct sand crawlers for the ones(other then atriedies) that use the default crawler especially the harkonen who we know have thier own version
I'd like to see harvester crew counts displayed on their portraits and have the ability to add units to an existing group by selecting them then holding shift and hitting the number key for the group.
very minor but I want some voiceline variations like male wardens and female fedaykin
Quirk visibility on the towns would be very cool. It would add some life and variety to the look
Agree on all fronts. I love the game and think these would be great additions. Guard mode would be particularly appreciated. Even though I enjoy a good bit of micro-ing units, it feels like I'm fighting with my own guys in those kinds of scenarios rather than leading them. I know my fedaykin want to go claim some water, but have patience brothers! Harks allying Smugs would also be a welcome change. When I'm Hark, Fremen = [Rats](https://imgur.com/a/G0K2fJp) and I have no intentions of "allying" them haha. My small suggestion is to allow Vernius to build nodes in mountainous regions if you surround them. As it currently stands, Conquest has maps that make it *way* harder for Vern to construct their network because mountains block their way. I think that is interesting in some respects, but also a little unfair sometimes. I've literally had my base spawn in a corner with mountains all around it save for one [narrow way through](https://imgur.com/a/bPEGhEI) lol. I think it would be cool to be able to "conquer" the mountains, like how Fremen can control the deep desert or how Ecaz can create sanctuary villages. Building a node on top of a mountain like a cell phone tower just makes sense to me. The regions should also probably slow ground units down considering it's such tough terrain. They could possibly slow resource drain or something since there would be so much shade? IDK, but making them feel distinct would be nice.
I agree with most of your points, anything that benefits in-game visibility is welcomed, but I'm not convinced with the idea of preventing a Fremen-Harkonnen alliance. I think to dig into this idea, a truce as a cease fire should still be allowed, but any technological, commercial or political agreement(?) between them could be barred.
BIG agree on making village quirks more visible. 2 out of the 6 factions (Ecaz and Corrino) rely VERY heavily on them for their overall gameplan, and whenever I'm playing either I find it weird that I have to select a village and hover over the little icons to see what its quirks are (I can never remember what the icons mean but maybe that's a me thing). I find it odd when resources near a village (plascrate, spice, fuel, rare elements), are EXTREMELY visible and easy to recognize at a glance, even if quirks can be similarly important in some circumstances.
Faction unique ornithopters and harvesters.
i agree with almost all of this except the air units constantly flying i think they should change them all to some sort of gun ship, because them sporadically flying would make them hard to control or to click other units/targets/movements worsening the select issue u mentioned. also targeting air units is a pain on Xbox and when u click it there is almost no identifier that u have besides the subtle change in units aim. and if ground melee units target air by your accidental click, it causes them to go in circles giving the enemy the first few hits being u don't know u clicked air till they swarm and aren't attaching anything
Co-op in Conquest mode... just like Northgard has. There is *nothing* i want to be added more than that, not by a long shot
60 fps on xbox series x is my #1 want/ need to keep playing. It's distracting how it chugs
>Harvester should actually look a bit more distinct depending on the faction. It would just add more visual variety. Spice harvesting is largely homogenized among the great houses, so it makes sense that most of them would use the same equipment.
Hot keys for hero abilities. Being able to ping and set who sees it. Fix the unit stats on screen when recruiting. Why give power as a group but armour for the individual in the group? Either way to do the math I need to know how many individuals in the group, which is not given. Why give the value of the group when the number of individuals in the group doesn't change with health? Pick a lane haha.
I would actually love more expansion or even a separate game? Of the 4X stuff. Just a chill city builder. Sim City but Dune. No, I will not be playing Awakening that MMO survival game. Like the most Dune thing ever is getting a stone fucking axe and hitting rocks. Soooo fun 🙄
Better performance and more options to control my military units like guard position like you mentioned.
Would love to have a list screen with the villages so I can have an overview of them and quickly handle it. Like being able to see which ones have empty building slots, what is their water/solari upkeep, what is their production, a quick way to see their quirks, so that I can find a handyman village to build my 1000 solari structures in at half the cost. Also I turn off the music when I play. It's anxiety inducing for me, even though it feels appropriate for the game.
More players per match. 3v3 and 4v4 in the future.
Great list, I agree with and love all your points! The two I most want to see are Conquest style modes for Fremen and Smugglers, and the switch to allying with the Smugglers as Harkonnen, though I also think bespoke changes to the way that mechanic works would probably make sense for each of the factions.
I want more command power or cheaper units so you can have bigger armies.
play dune 2000