Are the current design decisions out of touch?

I normally don’t bother participating in forums but the release of the new update and game mode has me a bit confused.

Why is it that the thing people enjoy about tide games, namely cool maps with fun combat is ignored and getting no content? Apart from 2 short operation missions the base game has gotten no real content. No maps, barely any weapons. No new challenge unlocks.

Meanwhile this is the second mode that is a content island no one asked for. It hasn’t even been 3 days and I can’t find a full lobby for the mode.

At what point do you attribute ignorance of community feedback to plain incompetence?

I’m also kind of sceptical of “biggest content injection” yet when all we got was the same empty open world map with different daytimes and slightly shifted assets. I’d have accepted that statement if it came with new weapons, or 2-3 actual maps maybe leading up to the mode but the thing itself is pretty bare bones, broken (constant crashes) and goes against everything darktide is about: fighting enemies for the fun combat and not running around collecting resources.

just trying to put “experience working on open world extraction shooter” on his resume

I wonder if this is all an elaborate trick in preparation of his application to Arrowhead Studios

he wouldn’t make it(also aren’t they literally next door?)

crutchsword still isn’t nerfed

The devs wanted to experiment most likely, and that’s it. I can respect that, but sometimes experiments fail.

I would prefer more maps for Mortis Trials, if they refuse to do Chaos Wastes.

Mortis has unique gameplay features from the buffs and it’s really fun to do some broken loadouts, like Recon lasgun permastunning Daemonhost on every tick or Assail Psyker having auto-aim on assail projectiles or melee attacks in electric build oneshotting Twins due to 5% instakill passive.

I like that as well but I think you should be able to deliver the bare minimum required for the game to live before you jump into experiments.

The Devs have always made experimental content most miss but very interesting they keep trying… at this point I’d prefer they focus on core game play again… Maps, Factions, Weapons, Classes, STORY

-/+ Last Stand
-Weaves
+Chaos Waste
-/+ Havok
-Mortis Trials
-Expeditions

Perhaps they could even convert some of these mode maps into the core game play maps like the twins.

They keep trying because Tide games have poor player retention.

I remember when Vermintide 2 had a free to own and keep weekend on steam, you download it and you own the game forever. The player count peaked to an all time high of 104k, the community was excited and happy that vt2 was getting another lease at life and a new player base injection.

and then the player count crashed back down to where it was in a month meaning pretty much nobody of that wave of new players became a long term player. Its the exact same story with their most recent vt2 free to keep weekend, peaked at 39k then went back to pretty much the exact same set of regular players within a month lol.

I think they are probably onto something with Expeditions, but the execution is what is lacking,

…I could say the same lacking execution about mortis trials, but in expeditions case I think the idea is better for replayability and retention so if they could make something great out of it they would see better results than mortis trials being made great.

these were not exactly misses

just locked behind paywall and a lot of busywork(fortunes of war)

weaves were not great but it was a progression rework in a decent direction

because fatshark still couldn’t solve the massive difference between difficulties that let noobs ignore blocking/dodging and difficulties that kills them for not doing any of those, that and crafting system in vt2 was mid(still better than karktide release) and they didn’t go through with what was experimented on with weaves.

no proper tutorial, no proper training room(in which you fight an active enemy not just hitting a dummy), not even a weapon moveset/combo menu for reference(even space marine 2 has it)…etc.

new player experience in this kind of game is typically garbage

Heck, just add mortis trials “expeditions”. Boom, chaos wastes 2.

It’s not entirely failed though. It’s just FS has really strange aversion to incentive, it seems to me. I can’t explain why otherwise their rewards are so crappy across the boards. And if you do extraction shooter mode, which is notoriously grindy as a genre, and grind during a mission isn’t fun to anybody - you don’t cut off the very thing that makes this grind feel justified in that other genre, the fact you take all you grinded for home and convert it into something cool.

If you do just half of a game, it’s not surprising it flops. Easy to fix though: just add red items to the game (in a way it won’t create another powercreep spiral, there are ways to do just that), and bind their progression to resources you get from expeditions.

I actually do not think it’s bad. I like the gamemode, although I’m not rushing through it. I’ve only done two maps and played the sand vortex map once. I’ve played a day or two, and then went to do some Havoc climbing.

There’s no point in rushing it right now, before they do a couple of hotfixes and small changes to improve it. It happens every update. They release new content, something about it is underbaked and/or broken, and then after a few hotfixed it’s improved.

we need more of mikael hansson design, level designer that did really good maps in vermintide

but in DT

If they want to experiment then should launch a beta test client and gather the feedback.

A lot of things in DT stinks that decisions were made by the people who don’t play their own game, and don’t play video games at all.

That’s a content issue. Whenever a new map pack or weapons dropped the player count went up.

If they’d add a new map and a weapon or two every 2-3 months you’d have way more people returning. It somehow works for arrowhead.

mortis trials was bad, and its just not fun having boons that are just op oneshotting everything

id rather had an actual fortunes of war that is skill based than mortis trial

and chaos wastes is just some overrated mode that is also bad and boring as well, 60mins run with people praising the RNG with boons and randomness of what you get in stats with weapons when people just always hope/pick the same stuff and then it’s not even about randomness

This. 99% of the time people pick maps that help them regain the build they’d normally run for the class. And boons are mostly just RNG that don’t really matter until you buy the same OP stuff you always do at shrines.

And don’t get my started on some of the extremely unfun map variations like the nurgle cursed ones where one player is forced to carry a staff.

It’s the same issue expedition has. Adding those reliquary containers that have to be carried by a player is effectively saying “one of you is not allowed to play the game”

Insane decisions.

LMAO, that surely is an opinion that is disconnected with the reality. Lots of Darktide players has been asking for Chaos Wastes since year 1 of the game. It’s probably the most requested “thing” to return from Vermintide.

If you look at Vermintide 2 lobby browser, there are almost as many lobbies for Chaos Wastes as there are for normal maps…

not fun having boons that are just op oneshotting everything

Doesn’t happen every single game. Unless you think bringing 1 Morgryn bomb to the final arena is a oneshot build.

And even then… not fun to you. Fun to many others.

They obviously try to copy what works in other games.
In other words, they don’t believe in their own concept, the Tide games…

Sad… I was waiting new enemies, new biomes, new classes (this one we had it), balance patches and a game finished (still no solo).
Instead I have got Havoc that destroys the balance by pushing players to ask buffs, Mortis trial that is a total fantasy game mode and now expedition that looks like a failed remake of Helldivers 2.