So many people have called for there to be a constant hi-int STG so those of us who think normal mode is too easy have some thrill. They should just implement that so there’s some challenge.
The lack of Hi5STG is probably one of the larger causes for the player count dropping off.
End game players are in this sh*t situation where T5 has a ridiculously insanely vast gulf between its easiest modifiers and its hardest modifiers, leaving them with only a fraction of T5 as a real challenge for them.
lower rank players can always try for a new difficulty tier if they cant see something they want in their current tier, which gives them something like 7-8 slots on the mission board to choose from, tons of choice.
End game players have 3 slots… and because modifiers often come in pairs of low int (which may as well be T4) it sometimes gives them a grand total of one slot.
Giving T5 an extra mission slot would have been a solid temporary band aid while they make larger changes to the mission board, (especially as T4 & T5 apparently have similar player counts and T4 has 4 slots while T5 only has 3), it would be like how they band aid buffed the ogryn shield while they make larger changes, but this… didn’t happen… the mission board remains a miserable experience for end game players.
I guess they haven’t that much interest in trying to maintain player count and are just going all in on a huge and serious soft relaunch with the xbox release, I say as I huff copium.