Preface:
So recently, while recovering from a major surgery, I’ve had a lot of free time on my hands, and as a game designer myself (for TTRPG Games) I decided to spend that time exploring and breaking down the mechanics of Darktide. My goal was to offer up my own perspective and insights on the mechanical definition, organization, and balance of the Veteran, Zealot, Ogryn, Psyker, and Arbites, as well as the factors contributing to the polarizing State of Balance, not only as a community member and player of the game, but as a game designer myself. And largely, at the end of my recovery period, I feel like I’ve achieved that goal. It’s longform, in depth content that will only appeal to a few readers, but it’s there.
That being said, I don’t really have any interest in engaging with discussions on balance any further. Most post are either complaints, without any reasonable solution offered, or suggestions for changes that only work in a vacuum or have nothing to do with balance. I don’t say this to invalidate the complaints or dismiss the suggestions, but I don’t have any personal interest in complaining just to complain, or explaining to someone why a massive buff or nerf won’t actually balance the game (because the game is currently suffering from a multitude of small problems, not one big one).
At a time like this, with all the mechanical and balance considerations behind me, I want to think about the the prospects of Darktide that excite me instead of just focusing on the things that frustrate me. I want to imagine what Darktide could be instead of what it currently is stuck as. This is just a list of personal wants, but I do try to provide context for and justify each. There is not TL;DR. It’s Just Bullet Points and Block Context. If you want to know what I want in the game, read the bullet points. If you want to know why, read the block context.
Quality of Life Changes:
I don’t want to diminish the real strides Darktide has made in improving the quality of certain systems. Weapon Crafting and Mastery Changes, despite the community’s fears, is a major improvement to the Quality of Life experience. But those improvements make the inadequacies of other existing systems in the game extremely stark. I want all of the systems I use to engage w/ the game to be good, so some changes I would love to see is:
- Mission Playlists:
Darktide has finally woven a story together out of its disparate collection of missions, but if I want to replay the campaign, I either have to remember the order I played the missions in or look it up. Players should be able to easily see in-game missions, their order, and even things like their locals with playlist. You want to do campaign missions? Here’s a campaign playlist. You want to do missions in The Torrent? Here’s a Torrent Playlist. If players being able to choose any mission poses some kind of matchmaking problem, then limit the ability to choose any mission to at least 3 Player Strike Teams, and let QP sort out the rest.
- Better Tutorialization and Weekly Contracts:
My breakdown as to why the opinions on the state of balance for the game focused on tutorialization a lot, and for good reason. The tutorials we have in the game now are boring, time consuming, and ineffectual, telling you only the most basic concepts and fail to teach you any advanced ones. Contracts and most rewards only add to this problem, as most are more likely to reinforce bad player behaviors over good ones. Ultimately, the best resources for learning how to play the game don’t exist within it, and fixing this would easily improve community balance sentiment and levels of toxicity.
- Turn the Commissary into a Chroma Shop:
In a lot of way, the Commissary already is a chroma shop, offering simple Red or Blue weapon skins, and Red, Blue, or White versions of simple armors. And this is…alright? But it’s such an under utilized system. I recognize that I don’t have context to the limitations of the game engine, but I would argue that if buying those different colour options for armor and weapons didn’t give you a piece of armor or weapon skin but instead gave you the ability to turn any armor set you’ve Purchased or earned from Penances blue, or red, or white, or purple, or green, or so on, it would greatly encourage the player base to actually spend money on gear from the Commodore’s Vestures while also taking preasure off of Fatshark to constantly produce new cosmetics. Fatshark doesn’t get money from the Commissary anyway, and I don’t mind spending money on cosmetics but I don’t want to pick between two digital hats that are both priced at $2, but one is Red and the other is Black. Or one is Patterned, and the other is a solid colour. Or one has a little decal on it, and the other is blank. Paying for slight variations to the same base model doesn’t feel like worthwhile options.
Content Additions:
It might seem a little greedy to be thinking about more content I want in the game after the major content drop that was Arbites. But even ignoring the many ways the Arbites failed to be a satisfying content drop due to issues of balance that its inclusion exacerbated, I also just recognize what kind of content would interest me as a player and get me to engage with Darktide more often. As a consistent player of the game (1500+ Hours), I know what I feel is missing from the experience or what can be added to enhance it:
- Add a Weapon Mark for the Zealot’s Flamer:
Weapon marks are a great way to give the player more bang for their bunk with any weapon, and the best weapon marks give you a reason to spend resources on obtaining multiple “god rolls”, For Zealot, I would love to get an Incinerator Flamer Mark. Incinerators are used by Inquisition Pyroclast, so it’s not like it’s a huge leap for Zealot’s to have access to them. To distinguish it from the Purgation Flamer that the Zealot already has, the Incinerator could be a more long range variant, with less burn and no infinite cleave cloud, but more damage, impact, and built in Rending to make up for the difference. The Main Fire mode could be globs of consecrated promethium that could travel further than the Purgation Flamer’s cloud puffs, and the braced attack could be based on the Beast of Nurgle’s throw up attack, allowing Zealots to cover the floor and enemies in burning, slowing ooze. Replace the Cloud Radius stat with Plume Length and the Ammo Stat w/ Rending and Boom. You have a great counter pick Flamer option.
- Add a Weapon Mark for the Veteran Plasma Gun:
Similar to adding a Mark for the Zealot’s Flamer, I think this is easily justifiable, and there’s already a Plasma Gun mark that actually would serve this purpose perfectly: the MK IV Clovis Pattern Plasma Gun. And you would have to do even less work to include this mark, as none of the stats need to be changed to make it work. The major difference between it and the M35 Magnacore Mk II Plasma Gun would be the Charged Attack. The Magnacore’s charge shot sends a lance of plasma through hordes of enemies, cleaving through everything. The Clovis could effectivly distinguish itself with a charge attack that fires the plasma equivalent of a wide, powerful shotgun blast.
- Buyable Curios from Brunt, Red Tier Weapons, and Giving Sire Melk Purpose:
Honestly, the fact that you can’t just choose to buy curios from Brunt, and he only sells 2 at a time is just frustrating, and it’s a hold over from when Itemization was more RNG than Crafting. But in the same vein, before the itemization update Sire Melk was at least a little useful. But now that you can craft your weapons, he doesn’t serve an purpose. I Probably have somewhere around 60,000 Ordo Ingots, and it’s only that low from Gambling at getting better curios for my Arbites. Based upon VT2 though, there’s a weapon tier that were missing, and I think that making Melk the sole way to acquire these weapons would be great. Of course, this means actually making Red Tier weapons distinct, and giving players a reason to continue trying to earn new ones. My suggestions is giving red tier weapons a third blessing slot with the caveat that the blessings you can choose to place on the weapon aren’t from that weapons’ specific weapon family, but from another random weapons family. This isn’t necessarily a balanced idea, but it’s more than what we have now, and having a cracked weapon for the highest level of plkay sounds like a blast.
- New Enemies for Existing Faction and New Enemy Faction:
I want to be very clear, this is not content that I want added before balance problems with the classes get resolved. Right now, despite all the issues, Darktide has a real opprotunity to significantly improve balance across the board. But I think any radical changes to the enemy Sandbox without first resolving those balance issues will only make the game worse. That being said, I really think those Dreg Ritualist are going to be a new Specialist Enemy real soon. Vermintide has enemies who buff the horde directly or debuff player directly, and considering how much Havoc relies on modifiers that do the same thing, I can’t wait for those sloppy modifiers to be replaced with just one enemy within the horde that I can actually target to stop the effect. Additionally, what is currently the final mission in Darktide’s “Campaign” leaves off with one of the Cult Leaders claiming that it’s time for the three to meet. We’ve met the Dregs (Cult of Admonition) and the Scabs ( The Moebian 6th Regiment). Based upon snippets of stories we’ve seen, I really hope we get to fight Genestealers Cultist.
- New Debuff for Player’s to Utilize:
In a similar vein to adding enemies that buff other enemies directly, I do feel like Darktide is missing maybe one more status effect. Currently, we have:
- Bleed, Burn, Shock, Soulfire, Brittlness, and Rending.
I would also argue that the Zealot’s Pulse could be argued to be a Status Effect, as it is the only effect in the game that generates light specifically and it has a unique mechanical properties effecting Player Stun and Damage Immunity and Enemy Stagger and Supression not replicated in any other class (which is not the norm). Pulse is Miracle made Manifest. It’s you Generating the Holy Light of the Emperor. Which is a Player Version of the exact thing I expect the Dreg Ritualist will be used for. Considering Vermintide also had enemies that debuffed the player directly, I think the game could use one more debuff. Something that specifically weakens enemies around a target. That would give players access to 8 debuffs and these debuffs provide a great structure to build/update classes around
- New Player Classes and Class Role/Position Balancing:
I know that we just got the Arbites, but they’ve come with their own host of problems. Even ignoring those problems, I don’t think it’s unfair to express ideas for classes you want to see. Based upon data mined info, we already know there’s another class in the works, codenamed the Broker, and people are guessing it might be a Sanctioned Xenos. If that turns out to be the case, firstly, to all my peers who thought that was too much of an ask a year ago, “I told you so”. But more importantly, I also want to try and guess what role they might serve.
Veteran and Zealot feel like mechanically similar in terms of role, but diametrically opposed in terms of what ranges they operate at. And if we get a Sanctioned Xenos, I imagine that they might have a similar role to Ogryns but at an opposite range emphasis: a Boss Busting Class with an exclusive armory composed of Xenos Weapons and a focus on further ranged fighting. Personally, I hope for a Sanctioned Eldar because Eldar as a faction need better representation and the chance to play one in first person is great rep. Plus the Eldar already have close ties w/ Nurgle considering who their Goddess of Life is. The branches practically write themselves:
- Exodite, Craftworld, and Drukhari, with the first having a focus on guns, the second a focus on Warp powers, like a more destructive but less AoE focus Psyker, and the third having a focus on closer range options and bleed, to help balance out the class’s options.
In a similar vein, I recognize that Arbites is probably the Close Ranged/Damage equivalent of the Psyker. The fact that the two of their trees give them massive amounts of melee and range cleave, and the their other tree is more hound focused (when the hound specifically has so many options that turn it into a roaming ball of hurt) supports this assertion. But like. I really hope that isn’t the case because it feels like (to me) the most boring use of their toolkit. A lot of the problems that I have with Arbites has less to do with their balance (because I think i’ts a relatively simple fix that doesn’t need major nerfs) and more to do with the fact that they kind of just do a lot of the things Psyker does, but better, and with shotguns instead of warp powers. It really feels like the team that worked on the Psyker Rework not only failed to actually give Psyker engaging and useful gun options so they could actually have 3 Distinct Playstyles, but like they also then got moved over to working on a new class so they just made one that is basically two diffrent flavors of Gun Based Horde Clear with a Melee Option to balance it out. Even if the Arbites get to a point where they aren’t significantly overtuned, and Psykers get to a point where they actually have 3 full Class Tree Branches, I think it’s going to be very hard for the two to feel distinct from each other since the heavy mechanical similarities and similar ranges of operation will still be a part of the class. Personally, I’d much rather the horde control, not the horde clear, and the flexibility of playstyles within the Arbites get emphasized, creating a new fourth class role to add to the line up of Boss Busting, Elite and Specialist Hunting, and Horde Clear: Control Characters, that are good at a lot, but not as good as other, making up for the difference in impact with lots of ways to corral and debuff enemies instead of outright killing them. Not only do I think this would make the Arbites a significantly more defined class, but it would leave the door open to make two more classes that i would gladly pay money for:
A Skitarii and a Sister of BattleSkitarii could counter the Arbites if they were made into Close Range Controllers, letting Skitarii act as their Long Range Counterpart. Fatshark could keep Class Production cost down by giving the Skitarii access only to Kinetic and Laz weapons (no bolters). Just like Shock Trooper specifically only effects Laz Weapons, Skitarii could have access to Passive nodes that let their Laz Weapons work like Radium Weapons (giving them an enemy debuffing effect) and another Passive Node that lets their kinetic weapons work like Arc Weapons. This is an easy way to give people access to the fantasy of using those kinds of weapons w/out making Fatshark have to create a bunch of new weapons just for them. Give them a Galvanic Rifle and/or Transuranic Arquebus as their Class ranged weapon and a Taser Goad and/or Transonic Blade as their melee. Let them have access to the Helbore Lazgun. And give them a Servo-Skull that can cut players out of nets instead of a Hound that can knock Poxhounds off and I think you have a compelling class.
A Sister of Battle could be a Gender Locked Class like Ogryns, but they could operate as the close range/damage equivalent of Psykers. Instead of clearing out Hordes of enemies with Warp Powers, they do so with melee. Weapons like the Relic Blade and Eviscerator are SoB weapons, and both of those weapons are meant to be great at cutting through chaff, so building a Sister of Battle Class around the idea of Horde Clear and giving them access to weapons that they are already known for using that are already good at that job makes complete sense. Give the a Hallowed (Power) Halberd and/or a Neural Whip as Class Melee weapons and Hand Flamers and/or a Melta Gun. And to keep them distinct from Zealot, the class could have High Toughness and but Low Health, with a focus on jumping in and out of the horde with their enhanced mobility and micro Light of the Emperor Pulses, but an inability to sustain themselves away from the team in the same way Zealots can.
I think these class ideas also have the benefit of creating more distinct and engaging dynamics between the classes. Zealot and Veteran are both Elite and Specialist Hunters, but oner operates at close range, and the other far, distinguished between Zeal and Discipline. The Ogryn and the Sanctioned Xenos are both Boss Busters, but split between the Brutish Mutant and the Agile Alien. The Arbites isn’t getting compared to the Psyker anymore, a class with a personality that explicitly worked for the Lex, and is now split between one who Chooses to Serve a Code versus one who chooses nothing at all. And the Psyker gets a better comparison, as Sister hate Psykers, and you have the distinction of Miracles and Faith versus Warp Manipulation. And I’m willing to pay the $36 to get all of these classes, making no mention of the money I would spend on cosmetics. What other 40K games are there where you don’t just get to control an Eldar, or Skitarii, or SoB, but you get to make a custom one and play as them. And I think the ways in which I’ve laid out how Fatshark could make these classes proves a level of mechanical viability and production cost limiting that uses mechanics and resources that already exist in the game.
And finally, I want the Comprehensive Class Rework changes that I suggested. Yeah, I recognize that it’s bold of me to say “Hey, add the mechanical changes I suggested to the game”, but I’ve spent the last two weeks entrenched in the mechanics and synergies of not just the individual classes, but also they Class Dynamics. Over the last two weeks I’ve effectively written five essays breaking down the content and providing context for my evaluations of the mechanics. I’ve basically been doing my actual job, but specifically in regards to Darktide and for free. And the engagement that i’ve gotten on those post, while limited, does make me feel like even if I’m not right about everything, a lot of my suggestions from my breakdowns are very grounded and well thought out. Ultimately, I just want this game, that I have sucken entirely too many hours into, to still be worth sinking hours into in the future.
And these are all the Quality of Life changes and Content Updates that I’m thinking about and hoping Darktide lives long enough to see. I didn’ mention easy things, like more missions, because that’s going to naturally come. Nor did I mention anything like game modes, because as much as I would love to have a Darktide equivillent to Chaos Waste, the game needs far more balancing before it’s prepared to offer that kind of experience. Since it seems Arbites is about to start getting nerfed, I may have to put Darktide down for a while. I suspect we are entering into a state of balance not unlike before the Psyker and Ogryn Reworks, and that just wasn’t a fun period to play the game. I really do believe that Darktide has the capacity to be a great game. It’s already kind of a sleeper hit. But major balancing issues and content voids across almost every system in the game, from classes (obviously), to weapons, to blessings, to enemy design and tutorialization. And until Fatshark is able to take comprehensive steps for overall game balance, we’ll keep getting slap dashed updates that don’t actually address the root causes of the balancing issues and instead make impromptu Buffs and Nerfs that only act as band-aid fixes. Or maybe I’m dead wrong. We’ll See. Also, I have to add it here, Inquisitor Gendyl is giving me major Inquisitor Gideon Ravenor vibes and I’m watching you Dan Abnett.