These are gold.
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In regards to the part of the vid that discusses the studio communications to the community, the CMs at Coffee Stain lay the lowest and bestest bar to hurdle for other studios to follow. This is a video they made to communicate to the community about issues their dev cycle has been having, but the rest of their videos are mostly not about discussing dev issues. I have no idea why FS can’t be more like CS.
In regards to the hounds, muties, and bursters, I think the fixes to their stagger immunity and magnetism affinity were necessary for a more satisfactory burger experience. FS’s mismanagement issues just turned their fixes into more problems.
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I’d never heard of you before, but I watched every single second of that post and subscribed about half way through it. It’s well thought out and coherent. We need more of this. @FatsharkJulia - watch this! (and listen to it)
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That’s why this one was heart breaking. It’s also interesting how he talks about his approach as a CM and other game developers/community managers reaching out to them for advice.
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A lot of those are particularly bad recommendations considering they don’t directly affect him or his gameplay at all. People trying to play at the top level likely aren’t casuals, and it’s rather ironic to offer opinions like this especially considering the entire video he did was to help FS increase their player retention; disregarding casual players is the absolute worst thing a studio can do if they want to increase player numbers. Also, there’s nothing to say that the game has to get rid of casual play to elevate hardcore play; they can exist simultaneously; they’re mutually exclusive areas of engagement. I know he’s trying to make the argument that if lower difficulty games are removed that it might open up slots for higher difficulties, but that’s a complete assumption. FS can absolutely increase the number of available lobbies, so the more correct ask of FS would be to increase the number of available lobbies rather than stifle games that others are more willing to enjoy. Another more appropriate solution would be some sort of hidden mmr system that can gauge a player’s ability and pair them with players of similar ability.
They also really need to reintroduce the “keep strike team” option. I mean, that option doesn’t affect you in any way if you choose not to engage with it. There’s no reason to ask them to disregard the feature. If you’re worried about it getting in the way of development time for content (if content and social systems are that closely intertwined), I’d argue that in-game social engagement is orders of magnitude more important to keep people playing and having them return than a new weapon drop. One of the only reasons I still play today is bc people I know from vt2 might be playing it, and I wouldn’t have added a bunch of people from vt2 without the simple social integrations that it had (even something as simple as continuing to play as a group). Again, another strange personal opinion to have on their development that would actively hurt the game if followed.
I think the other cms are going to live up to the legacy. They’ve done vids themselves already and it’s all good. Oh, and he said he left to go work on his own game, which is great. Rootin for him!
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For sure. Not that I am one to promote parasocial relationships or idolism in general but I couldn’t help but tear up listening to Jace’s resignation.
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Haha I just read your comment further up also mentioning coffee stain. Yah they’re def a gold standard in community engagement.
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Crusader is better and cooler than any cringe Death Cult Assassin and I dare you to try and prove otherwise to my Power Sword and Suppression shield (he only wants Death Cult because he’s an Aeldari lover and wants the closest human equivalent! Ew! 
)
This should’ve been the default state of the game and I have yet to see a good argument against this. I believe the only reason we’re stuck with axes and auto pistols is because the dev team were far too lazy and rushed to make enough interesting and good 40k weapons for the game.
Also something people don’t seem to understand about casual vs hardcore players, having good end game content helps casual players even if they never play it. Seem as MMO games with Raids that many people will never play. The point and goal of the game is to aquire gear to play the end game content. That is the progression system and goal of the game, that’s the carrot that drives the player forward. It’s not important for every casual player, but still is an incentive to drive gameplay time.
Having lower tier weapons restricted to lower difficulties makes sense thematically as well. Having people hard stuck in lower difficulties with ‘unexciting’ weapons would bring up a different series of complaints though, that content is being gated per difficulty, which would likely create frustrations for people in that situation (which the current system avoids). So, the pro to the current system is that everybody has access regardless of their skill level, but the con is that it makes gameplay overall suffer somewhat and creates balancing and thematic issues.
A way around this could be to integrate an optional mission secondary where people can attempt an event to have access to higher level gear for that mission (an example similar to one given by deisu in his vid), and would give them a bit of a carrot to get more into the higher difficulty content.
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I would suggest against this, just because we have so many mundane weapons and very few 40k weapons. The problem isn’t gating off content etc, the problem is conceptually how the game was made. There should have been only 3-5 human mundane weapons, the rest being 40k themed ones.
Again I feel like either the dev’s idea for “rejects” is bad and their implementation worse, they were too lazy to make cool and interesting 40k weapons, or were too rushed to do that.
before the beta cycle, they were saying they weren’t likely to add a bolter even, because they were trying to stray away the typical space marine theme. They obviously had a change of heart, in many ways, but a lot of people will likely agree this is one of the ones they did for the better, though its overall implementation could be better.
Their primary theme intent is that we’re a bunch of rejects that shouldn’t even have the bolter and to try and stay away from the space marine power fantasy stuff, but they put it in the game anyways, so now we sit in a space where those weapons exist, but still need to fit within their original intent.
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And that is conceptually stupid. We always should’ve been Inquisitorial Agents ranking up. We’re not Hive Gangers and we’re not part of a full penal legion. The first trailer had a full Guardsmen squad using actual weapons. Crazy to think how off base their design team is/must’ve been.
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Its my miss that i communicated badly in that section. There were some changes that were necessary, especially early on. But after the 7th or 9th or 11th time fixing and breaking dogs its worth spending those resources elsewhere. And IMO the newest mutie changes are actually far worse than they were before. Their unpredictable stopping is awful and they’re no easier or more reliable to dodge. Things that are “good enough” shouldn’t detract from adding new stuff rather than being continually reworked was all i was getting at.
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Bolters aren’t just space marine weapons in the first place. We are acolytes of the inquisition.
Ok we’ve done this a lot of times if memory serves so lets make this easy. The tagline of the game is REJECTS WILL RISE. To what? Well to the occasion. But also to the rank of trusted acolyte of the imperial inquisition within the ordo herericus. We know this because upon hitting level…27? 30? We get a cutscene that tells us this. And we get a stupid Keychain which is actually a huge deal: the inquisitorial rosette. (This should be stressed to players unfamilair. Its our secret agent liscence.) Which means we get cool gear.
The game will see growth in only one direction from hereout in terms of weapon variety. Towards cooler more 40k gear. Already planned are more chain and more power weapons as well as a melta gun.
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I had to relearn pushing dogs so many damn times I come to the point I just don’t bother anymore. I cc it with a ranged weapon when it tries to jump or just hide behind something.
With the “lag compensation” I find it even harder when the game will just teleport it on me if I try to dodge. At least previously I did know that if I dodge when the sound plays it’s already too late.
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I think you even manage to understess it here. Bearing the mark of the Inquisiton on your uniform is one thing, and still very important. However we get an Inquisitortorial Rosette (not a full one obv, but still a physical object).
More than just an agent liscense, it means we act with the authority of Grendyl (our Inquisitor), and everything we do is done with their authority. Such a sign of trust is usually only reserved for the closest of Inquisitorial Acolytes or agents on extremely important or critical missions, that must succeed at all costs. They are not something you give to someone who you have never directly, or even indirectly communicated with and hasn’t even finished 1 planetary campaign yet.
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So I’ve listened to the whole thing.
It’s a fairly solid analysis, but it’s missing a couple things:
- Fatshark is clearly unwilling to bend on crafting and is focusing on the Xbox release, thus fulfilling your first two priorities - nobody in charge there is going to make the crafting system less terrible so they’re going to focus on putting out the Xbox port, as they do with literally every game.
- You’re operating under the assumption of either good faith effort on the company’s part or the idea that this isn’t just going to be abandoned now that it’s not raking in the money like with previous games developed by this company (see: War of the Roses).
I understand that you’re probably looking at this from an improvement perspective but you may want to also rejigger your speed understanding under the idea that most of the team is already focused on the Xbox port and has likely been focused on it even when they sent an open letter saying that wouldn’t be the case - as Fatshark has lied openly about development resource allocation before.
Overall you make good points, which is why Fatshark will likely ignore it along with the oceans of feedback they’ve received over the past six months - if anyone there is actually listening, they lack the power to implement the changes the community wants.
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I wasn’t trying to make a stance on anything, just explaining why it is the way it is. They have contradicting design intents making it difficult to have the gameplay make sense with the thematics. Something similar can be said about the “confirmed” attachment system, where the weapons we have now are just the botched remnants of a design intent that can’t easily be balanced because it was based off an entirely different intent, like a ‘trying to fit a square peg in a round hole’ sort of thing (it feels like that a lot of blessings were slapped on in a last-ditch effort to replace the attachment system). I also imagine (hope) they had a lot more intent for the hub too, being a much more social space, but rushed that out the door before it was finished too, which is why it feels rather poorly integrated.
Also, while I agree the random start-stopping on muties is less than optimal, I find them to be much more interactive and easier to dodge/manage. People still get grabbed by them all the time, so it’s not like they’re a non-issue either. I think aside from the awkward pathfinding, they exist in a “good enough” state atm.
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That is definitely the case. All those cutscenes happen in places you were clearly expected to wander around in. Including the pub, and presumptive cardgame you could play in it. Obviously that was a boondoggle if ever there was one.
I agree. But i will continue to say they were better before. I could consistently dodge them with a thunder hammer before and they had reliable pathing. All you had to do was avoid obstacles so they didnt do sharp turns. Now i can’t tell if i should approach or not when they’ve stopped. They might do anything. In any case they’re fine so focus on content.
That makes more sense. My bad.