Earnable cosmetics need some work, as does just about everything outside of darktide’s gameplay. There’s the peddler recolours, but they’re just that: Recolours. Not even extending to all penance unlocks either.
So I have an idea: add some of the upcoming Hallowette sets to Sire Melk’s offerings. In particular, more of the practical, militarum style gear could go his way and set the two apart:
Hallowette and her more flashy, offhanded clothes to sell and Melk with militarum surplus gear to hand out to accomplished rejects.
Melk and Peddler could also get some standalone bits to sell, such as the unused cosmetics (Vet earpiece and helmet, ogryn armor, backpacks, etc) to bring it into circulation in a way that eases the tedious grind to get the best gear with some nice clothes now and then.
Probably never going to happen but thats how i’d sort out the problem of underwhelming earnables and add more to Melk.
At least they could make cool, but not-flashy ones unlockable behind penances. There is currently no incentive in going for harder content, especially if you need to farm stuff for every character separately…
With melk in particular, a few of the leaked sets could go with him. I get the idea he’d have some surplus militarum gear like the cadian veteran set or the psyker set seen in the intro (guy with thr funky T-shaped hat thingy)
I understand need of in-building some monetization, but it would not hurt player retention if there was something to be gained by playing the game (for disclosure: we are talking about people who need motivation other then fun of murdering enemies with friends). I don’t remember the paper, but there is a study that shows that players are much more likely to stay in game and buy things if they can also gain something (challanges, badges, bragging rights, etc…) by playing and mastering the game.
Nice case of “loop” that keeps players online can be seen in Path of Exile. Free 2 Play, not pay2win (but, if you invest a lot of time into game some things are quality of life upgrades). In seasons you can get nice cosmetic upgrades on par with many available in shop. You can’t buy them and you can’t get them after season ends. Never. This make players go back again and again, even if the seasonal content is disliked by them.
The best thing VT2 had for player retention were the challenges that awarded you nice/good cosmetics for completing every mission on Legend difficulty for every career.
Darktide desperately needs cosmetic rewards that push people to play heresy and damnation X number times. The benefit is big. It gives fledgling players motivation for them to try a harder difficulty and push themselves. Higher difficulties IMHO is where the gameplay shines and is vastly more interesting, so players wouldn’t get as complacent and “bored” as quickly. And they’d be working towards a nice goal at the same time.
you earn them with the money you earn in real life isn’t that fun? I agree its a joke and such a blatant cash grab I don’t like wearing crap everyone can just buy
Another thought that might align with Fatsharks desire for a rotating cosmetic shop:
Have a “season” that lasts a month or two and that has an associated set of new premium cosmetics. Allow players to earn special coins from competing missions that can only be spent on the current season’s cosmetics. You’d still of course be able to purchase the cosmetics with real money (Aquilas).
When the season is over those items would no longer purchasable with the special season coins, but can still be purchased with money.
The season coins can be timed around some reasonable level of play, eg 8-hrs per week over 4 weeks of the month would earn enough to be equivalent to say 2400 Aquilas (so you could earn one premium set or assorted smaller pieces). Could also be tied into doing weekly quests, which would cap the rewards in a more controllable manner.
Anyway, something like this could also work well to drive player engagement longer term and give people a reason to come back every other month to grind for cosmetics. Anything they don’t get “for free” they can pick up as an MTX.