sorry but any game that ships and has content added onto it for an indeterminate amount of time while also pushing out MXT’s is quite literally a live service game.
i get what you mean by reporters making it tough by claiming things that were never said or set by devs but the devs themselves are being silly by supporting a game with the same way other devs support their live service games and being like “this isnt live service. we’re just developing it like one so we dont have to work as hard as real live service developers”.
But 3 classes per archetype is a decent spot. The amount of additional party variabilty we got from that change was colossal. I wouldn’t say no to more but adding further branches would be tricky, especially to the more interwoven trees like ogryn and psyker. I’m not sure what they would focus on either. We kinda have the most obvious roles all covered already.
Maybe they could add a prestige tree expansion? No, we’re already borderline too strong that would just make it lop-sided.
A full-on new archetype would be the way to go but they only have a couple options that are both doable and would bring something new to the table.
I think having 2 new branches on either side wouldn’t much of an issue, as long as people don’t get in their heads that you need to be able to use both extreme in an economical manner
Good posts. Question is what the 3.5k avg steam players will rebound to with the next dlc release and if they stick to the bite size. Looking at their track record, they are unlikely to fix most of the bugs without creating more, so the dlc had better be good. It’s a question of how many people feel it’s too little too late.
You had me till this point. I think if they had not repeated the many mistakes they should have learned from in the last game, then the core fanbase who love V2 would have stuck up for the game whatever its shortcomings.
I know you cant please all the people all the time but I dont think thats the case here.
Listen, I still immensely enjoy the base game. Many gripes other people have, I dont have. That doesnt mean I cant see where they dropped the ball and it doesnt mean I dont understand why people are frustrated and annoyed.
As Iv said all along, I think the saving grace will be that they will sort most of the wrinkles out, track record as proof (not that many people care about that and why would they?!) e.g. I will never be ok with the FOMO shop.
I love the game despite its flaws. Its not the only game I love despite its flaws, but its the only sequel I love this much that didnt learn from its previous games.
there was a very loud component of VT2’s fanbase that wanted to buy more cosmetics. i cussed them out whenever i ran into them but i cannot stress enough, fatshark caved to the visible demand there and now hallowette is annoying us all.
this is the worst fanbase, you can’t even blame fatshark, they simply go ask what people would like and a pack of mangey LoL escapees rush in and ask for insane garbage and then refuse to shut up about it.
Definitely. There is a reason we know the Fatshark cycle.
They keep repeating the same chain of events for each of their releases with a trajectory of an underwhelming release, but a fun niche game in the long run. Since Lead and Gold this is how it seems to work out for them every time.
Honestly, I think a much bigger factor for their switch to the new monetization model was the backlash over the community split happening with content DLC.
Cataclysm being locked behind Winds of Magic was a big deal (and rightly called out).
That and Whale spending is more profitable if you can hook a few, anyway.
The open letter from more than a year ago said they were suspending their “seasonal content” and the Xbox release until later.
“Seasonal” is gamer lingo for regular content updates either tied to some sort of regularly occurring in-game time periods and/or to actual holidays. There was a pretty clear expectation set, coming right from CEO’s mouth, that seasonal content was on hold but would come back.
This “live service” semantic debate ignores the reality: the game is online only, multiplayer only, has premium currency and rotating cosmetics, has “content drops.” It doesn’t have a steady predictable cadence of content or seasons, but it is effectively live service even if it isn’t being called out as one. And this intent was telegraphed to the community more than a year ago in multiple different outlets.
That letter is universally understood to be PR, your garden variety “We’re sowwy” crap, suspending mtx for browny points.
But if we have to examine it, in addition to what you pointed out - “In particular, we will focus on delivering a complete crafting system,” - we got one update that shifted sand in the desert, and one adjustment to resource quantity. No further work has been done.
This would suggest the system is complete, right? Love it or hate it, it’s complete. Yet, the commentary on that patch was “these are steps on a journey, we’re looking at it.”
Schrodinger’s Darktide - the crafting system is complete and in progress, depending on the context.
a more rewarding progression loop, well consider me unimpressed. Nothing has changed about the progression loop. The keystones were fun for about a month at most. Everything else is the same rotation shop and weekly MEHlk nonsense.
and continue to work on game stability and performance optimization. Work ongoing. Still ongoing. Every patch seems to bring in a new set of weirdness. This perception that the game has vastly improved is anecdotal and further bolstered by the dwindling player base. When the genpop spiked around Oct 4, the same issues re-appeared in the support threads, and then died down around January. Hmm.
GaaS Light.
The game is fundamentally the same since that sowwy letter. This perception that it’s vastly improved is corresponding to the remaining player base, which is more willing to look past the known stuff and more adapted to it, as they remain.
All conversation aside, that term is both horrifying and perfectly apt and sums up how I feel about GaaS.
Just in case ppl havent seen it, this amazing video by Accursed Farms (the guy who made the amazing Freemans Mind half life series) breaks down why GaaS is a c*ncer upon the industry and needs to die in general:
Edit: I just want to add something interesting here. At about 6m30s we see Vermintide 1 on the list. V1 is a GaaS game. You cannot play offline. Interestingly, V2 is NOT a GaaS game, you can play offline. I can pull my internet cable out of my PS and play in offline mode (turns out you cannot play on PC with no internet!). You can even copy your current online progress to the offline mode.
On to DT. Yes, Darktide is currently GaaS. There is no offline mode. Once again, a backwards step for FS. Make of that what you will.
