Idea Info Name: Dune MMO Index: Secondary Category: Online Submitted: 9/6/2003 7:35:30 PM Written By: Therak13

I have been a fan of thinking man's RPG's and of the Dune novels for as long as I can remember. I remember first trying Earth and Beyond, thinking that this would be just another Allegiance-style space-based shooter. I was sadly mistaken. I was captivated by the trade and exploration facets of the game. The only dissapointment to me was the player-interaction. I wanted to be able to be able to trade EVERYTHING with other players, instead of just high-level minerals or high-level weapons/engines/shields/reactors/etc. So, I loved the game, but i wished there was a little more p2p interaction, instead of just interaction with NPCs.

          I thought that the Dune series would make an INCREDIBLE MMO. You would be able to align with any faction you choose. You would have the option of joining any faction you choose, like the  Bene Gesserit, or the CHOAM traders. You could also align yourself with a House Major, like the Atreides, Harkonnen or you could possibly become an Imperial Sardaukar. You could also align yourself in a combat-oriented class, like as a soldier in the armies of any of the Houses Major. The start would probably place you in the army of a house for training, or it could place you in the academies of one of the trade factions. The training would probably leave you at a fairly high level quickly, as to level the playing field against other players. The game would probably actually have no level-up system, i know many of you are probably sayng, "WHAT!?!? NO LEVEL-UP?!?!". I find that the level-up system is too degrading to newer players. I kept finding myself being viciously attacked by high-level players in E&B and Everquest. I hated being the low-level guy in the group just because i can't afford to spend 40 hours a week playing the game. No leveling-up would even out the playing field between casual and hardcore gamers. It would be replaced by the fact that newer items like items for your ship, if you're a pilot, or newer items for youself, if you're a ground grunt, will cost you money and then a weekly tax. So if you were planning to have your ship loaded with super-powerful death-star weapons,you better be rich or it'll cost you because the tax on ultra-weapons is expensive. That leads me to my next point, the game would be more of a mix of space piloting, ground piloting and grunt-on-the-ground combat.

 The only forseeable problem in this game is that of Interplanetary transit. In the Dune books, transit is handled by Heighliners, massive ship carriers that hold ships in berths in their cargo bays.These are operated by the Spacing Guild, and are crewed by Navigators, mutated humans who can teleport by "folding space". The only problem is that if there was scheduled heighliners, there would be to much boring "wait time" My idea for this is that the Guild has new "Transit Centers" with ships that will take you to other Centers for a tiny fee.

 If you are interested in any other info about my idea, feel free to email me at burner800@hotmail.com. By the way, if you haven't read them, the Dune books are an incredible read.