Dust 514 celebrated its second birthday on May 14th, and to celebrate CCP has awarded all its newsletter subscribers a 7-day Active Omega Booster. Dust 514 has come a long way over the past two years, with a multitude of updates and additional features.
When Dust was announced in the summer of 2012, it promised a game to integrate ground troops into the EVE online universe via the PS3. On initial release the game received poor reviews, with IGN discussing its “poor shooting and driving mechanics, and a terrible grind that keeps its most interesting bits out of reach.” Not one reviewer at launch could call it unambitious, with gamespot saying “an innovative concept and a merely decent game.”
Dust has come a long way SINCE then, and continues to correct issues and expand upon its features. Dust has seen a great deal of updates over the past two years, with each update adding content and correcting game issues. Since the initial release the UI has been overhauled almost completely, and the fitting interfaces have seen significant changes as well. Players now have the ability to SKIN their dropsuits, and customization has boomed.
RELEASE HISTORY
To show how far Dust has risen, the most noteworthy of features from each patch have been extracted and arranged in reverse chronological order. Some patches/hotfixes/betas may have been omitted, however this list was made to be as complete/accurate as possible. Details of the early releases, and a more complete history can be found on the Dust 514 Wiki.
Warlords 1.1 – April 28th 2015
Player Trading
Vastly Improved User Experience
Visual Customization with Dropsuit SKINs
Improved Performance
New Game Mode : Acquisition
Warlords 1.0 – January 27th 2015
The Mercenary Warbarge
Warbarge Subsystems
New Faction, Quafe and Officer gear
Improved Visuals
Multiple additions based on community feedback
Uprising 1.10 – December 8th 2014
New Orbital Strikes in Public Contracts, Small EMP Strike, Large EMP Strike and Laser Strike
Daily Missions and Rewards
Loyalty Ranks displayed in the Kill Feed
Encrypted Strongboxes with rare gear
Gameplay Experience Improvements, Equipment Bandwidth, Scan Changes and much more
Uprising 1.9
DUST Marketplace Update
Added Booster stacking: Up to 3 Boosters can now be stacked
Uprising 1.8 – April 25th 2014
War Point rewards for vehicle damage
Added Cloak Field equipment
Uprising 1.7 – December 10th 2013
Vehicles have received significant update
New Weapons Added
EVE orbital strikes are now earned within EVE by capturing a complex above the district where a battle is taking place.
EVE orbital strikes are no longer based on war points
EVE players connected to a district will show up in team chat for the side they are on and can connect to voice. This affects both factional contracts and planetary conquest.
Uprising 1.6 – November 5th 2013
Bug fixes, and module/weapon adjustments
Uprising 1.5 – October 8th 2013
New War Points rewards
Corporation CEOs and directors can now hand out roles to other members in their corporation.
Uprising 1.4
Adjustments to Controls
New daily activity bonus: 3000SP for the first day, increasing by 500SP every consecutive day. Daily bonus is capped at 6000SP (attained after 7 days of consecutive logins)
Skill Adjustments
Module Adjustments
Uprising 1.3 – July 30th 2013
New Dropsuits
New Weapons
Bug Fixes
Uprising 1.2 – July 2nd 2013
Star map update
Planetary Conquest Districts no longer locked once conquered
Uprising 1.1
Major Bug/Performance Fixes
Added a News tab in the Launcher window.
Uprising 1.0
New dropsuit roles and race/role-specific bonuses added:
New Kill Screen that shows who killed you and his/her statistics
Uprising 1.0 Launch Release
Added Domination game mode
Corporations within DUST are able to conquer planets, collect clones, and battle for control of more districts.
MERCS WITH A MOUTH
In order to hear what the mercenaries of Dust 514 truly think, a post was written on reddit. There is no better way to sum up how the game is fairing today than asking its players. Many responses were received, and unlike Dust’s early press, it was widely positive. Some of those responses are this :
Pseudogenesis > “Dust 514 is 100% MADE of niches. I get to jump around with triple myofibrils and a flaylock in each weapon slot, I get to run around with a nova knife primary and slash up unwitting foes, I get to speed tank a minmatar heavy and zip around with an HMG laying waste to all that I can catch, and that’s only a tiny bit of the things I do or have tried. The fitting system allows for so much freedom of expression, more than any other FPS game I’ve ever played.”
devilmachineyea > “I play Dust because it really is an amazing game — since I started playing in open beta this game has changed completely, and is still changing. Some of the changes are good, some not so much, but the game is dynamic, it evolves. It’s amazing.”
Thrownawaybyall > “I stay because it’s a fun game and I hope that through iteration we’ll be able to have the same effect and impact on New Eden as the Capsuleers from EVE enjoy. I’m looking forward to being a part of a living universe, where my actions can affect the whole cluster, and not just as a prescripted mission by a team of CCP writers.”
Dust may have seen negative press when it was first released, but since then it has truly begun to flourish. From the mouths of the mercs we see Dust as exactly what it sought out to be: a free to play FPS/MMO that entertains. We here at TMC wish Dust a happy birthday, and many more to come.
This article originally appeared on TheMittani.com, written by Wolf Merrik.
