Hi all. There’s been heaps of great discussion all round the forum but I was thinking something that might be getting lost is what peoples’ general priority for addressing these issues is.
So I’ve created a poll for people to pick what their highest priority is. I tried to be thorough but I’ve probably forgotten a few things. I know it won’t give the most conclusive data but figured it would at least be interesting to see what is generally top in the forum goers minds at the moment
I think the matchmaking improvements are the things that would improve quality of life and the playerbase’s mood the most. Or rather, it’ll help a lot toward preventing people from being worn out.
Maps are long. Vermintide is a tough game. And the hardest part is always at the end. It really wears players down when there’s a lot of unnecessary time wasting. Having to go through 2 loading screens when you die right at the end of the map if you really need to finish this map(back to the keep, then pick the mission, everyone agrees and walks into the portal, and another loading screen to return to the keep), or having the host disconnect and suddenly all your progress is null and void is, quite simply, demoralizing.
It’s the biggest hit.
Host migration and at the very least a checkpoint system is, imo, a major priority that will help the health of the game for the rest of its lifespan. Almost all other options are temporary helps, y’know? Balance will always end up getting skewed by the latest change, new maps wear out fast, bugs get fixed and then new ones come in, but huge Quality of Life changes and improvements to help mitigate the more frustrating aspects of Vermintide’s core design is what will help the most in the long term.
This doesn’t just include the matchmaking improvements. The crafting system is also included in this.
I could be here all day listing things that everyone has already heard a thousand times before so I’ll just sum up my thoughts: I think the biggest priority for the sake of the game, is to start grinding away at every unnecessary feature or lack of feature that irritates players, frustrates players, and overall hurts the players’ enjoyment of the game, to help player retention and have Vermintide be more successful, lively and healthy.
Not bugs. Core issues.
Very well put, i agree. Qol and bugs first, content close second. Can’t enjoy the new content and events if you still have tedious crafting/matchmaking and bugs
At first, I picked new content (maps/weapons), but then I read Kaelus’s post and thought that he made a good point, and thus changed my vote. Host migration and checkpoints for said migration are pretty important and I believe improving that system to a functional level will pay dividends over the life of the game. Losing progress when a host d/c’s can be pretty frustrating, and probably drives some people away from the game.
I think priority is matchmaking, bug fixes, and quality of life, which must be high since FS delayed an update to tackle a crash
That leaves the art team free, so they could be populating the Emporium with new weapon skins amd hats, if not getting the bulk of the next map’s art stuff out of the way.
And UC is needing a good looking at, can’t see why two guys who know what FS wants out of the class versus what the playerbase wants can’t knock that out.
The crafting is as good as it’s going to get (sans some quality of life changes that speed up different things).
Deeds are a different beast altogether and really, really need to catch up to WoM, the Weaves, and Twitch mode, with tons more mutators and an improved way of acquiring them that’s fair and doesn’t leave players at the cruel mercy of Ranald. Def need some doods thrown on that.
Maps are getting trickled down to us, it’s not the story expansion I want, but it’s there and it’s coming.
Lower on the list to less urgent things, weapon balances and class buffs. Even if a good chunk of things underperform in Cata, I still think the game is not in a state that desperately needs another big balance pass (as fun as that was last time). Battle Wiz isn’t invalidating the game, Slayers far and wide made a triumphant return, THP on cleave was legit unnerfed and the game didn’t break… things are pretty good.
I see the vote has that as the top 3 as well, but exactly the opposite order Ah well I would expect that.
Although the technical play experience is the most important thing (which should be obvious - games are a medium that is experienced, by definition), it’s not the most visible thing.
PVP with no dedicated servers is going to be comically bad. FS, please release a server host client. I’ll happily rent a few public rooms. I’m sure others would too. C’mon, lets see some 1997 level technology, I know you can do it!
A general response to the craving for new content.
I love content just as much as the next guy but it’s definitely not a primary issue. When I started playing the game I did so with two friends. Once they had played through all the maps once on recruit, and tried veteran once or twice, they were goners.
I almost burned out once or twice (way before max level heroes) but came back for the core gameplay, despite feeling that the maps were a bit repetitive, and later on hit the point of no return that was custom and, at the time, more challenging content. Grinding out deeds for the 500 frame was terrible in itself but once I started doing it with twitch activated it wasn’t a chore anymore despite a reduced win rate.
My point is twofold.
Some people will drop off because it’s not their kind of game and more content is just going to stall them somewhat. On the other hand, if they feel that the game is keeping them from experiencing the full experience by having a chore of a levelling process or of obtaining gear then they might be more inclined to drop off earlier.
If the core mechanics doesn’t work properly and there are frustrating elements (lack of QoL) even the long time players will lack incentive to play out of joy (it’s not a good thing if people only play because they lack options or still have something useless to grind).
I agree, host migration is super important, checkpoints would help too in case the game crashes. The campaigns are long, which I like, but it’s devastating when we have to start over through no fault of our own.
However, I would also like 5 player. I know 4 is the magic number we’ve all played by since Mario Party on the N64, but come on, you’ve got 5 heroes.
Finally, bring back all the maps from the first game!
I would appreciate the ability to reset a hero’s level. Maybe with the addition of a veterancy or renown level.
Currently there’s no real reason to experience low level content and character progression is enjoyable but is experienced only once per hero.
I enjoy playing single heroes and solo or with close friends. Ad nauseum. Having the ability to reset my level would add dozens of hours of enjoyable replayability without much effort. Low level content is still fun, but becomes less so when you are just a lawn mower to the enemy’s grass blades. And that is per hero. I’d likely enjoy resetting at least 3/5 heroes just for the fun of it. Kind of like DoW Last Stand progression.
I think the poll already reflects my point of view. That is – keep it simple and keep adding maps (as this is easily the most meaningful content), meanwhile adressing all the outstanding technical problems. Once they get that patched out, it would be time to introduce all the desperately needed QoL features and other revamps.
As many others have pointed out, bugfixes & performance improvements is very high on the list but i’d also love to see frequent balance changes to liven up the game a bit more. Introducing new weapons or even careers is kinda redundant if a majority of the weapons & talents could use some tuning up.
Host migration would be a really great thing and I dont think it would be that much work to implement it but i cant say since I’m not a programmer . After this one I would go with maps /weapons
I would appreciate a look at properties / traits, as I think it’s the thing that prevent V2 to have a fun diablo side.
Properties and/or traits are just not interesting enough.
And I think it’s the biggest drawback when it comes to the game itself.
Not bugs, not host migration, not even very welcomed weaves improvement.
Interesting traits and properties would kinda create a lot more depth when it comes to builds (and somewhat fun builds as well).
And I would even start by removing all the “% damage against X type”.
This is something that I don’t tackle “a lot” on thoses forums. And I really think it would do more good to the game than any of the improvements (including checkpoints host migration, or whatever the dedicated servers could bring) proposed here in the long term.
Showing “depth” even in builds would also show to new players that the game doesn’t lack any.
This is a very interesting idea. As long as it is reasonable, 2-3 per map and not one every five seconds. And also allow host migration when dying and reloading from checkpoint, to avoid the “f*ck, the little one woke up, gtg” issue which always happens (at least for my age group).
Host migration and check points are somewhere at the level of dedicated hosts.
It probably would have to be stored on the host and you all know already what happens when the host is gone.
If they could have, they already would have done it, doesn’t matter if they are left behind due to technical or financial issues.
And this will probably be the death of versus too, when a host ragequits and the time of 4-8 people goes down the drain.
Checkpoints wouldn’t require that much data to be snapshoted every now and then. This could be easily replicated among the clients until one of them is selected to rehost the game.
While I’m not familiar with the level of control using the available Lua API, I doubt one could easily (re)start maps, access/control map’s state and other players’ match inventory/stats.
Ah well I would expect that.