Darktide AI director needs much better pacing

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Gameplay Feedback
1

The Darktide AI Director has 0 chill and that should change for the game to have lasting improvements.

In Auric and Damnation and Havoc there is ALWAYS another wave, or another special or another thing that on the way. There is never a moment of calm to catch your breath. It’s 100% gogogo from the start of the map to the end and its honestly exhausting.

I went back and played vermintide 2 on legend/cata for the haloween event and difference is night and day. There is something which can actually be identified as ‘pacing’ in the way that v2 AI director actually runs a level. There’s noticeable highs, and noticeable lows in every playthrough that allows the gameplay to just ‘flow’. When you go back to compare it Darktide, despite the obvious similarities in the games, its just shocking how little variety and pacing there is in the way that it does things.

Darktide AI director only seems to push 1 button and thats “spawn more , and now even more things on repeat and hope that works” and it doesn’t seem to ever stop pushing that button. Its just non-stop from start to finish and the gameplay suffers from it.

It’s little things that just i just kept noticing that made me realise it: In v2 After you clear some crazy event with multiple monsters and hordes and bestigors etc. The AI director gives a subtle breather gives to let the party catch its breath, reload, vent warp peril whatever, and then it ramps it back up into another crescendo and it truly makes a world of difference in how the gameplay feels. Darktide just doesn’t seem to do this.

The most noticeable impact from this difference in AI director pacing was that after playing v2 for several hours i’m not particularly fatigued, i could easily keep playing and because i’m having fun I want to keep playing.

In Darktide, it was the opposite, after ~3-4 games i honestly can’t play anymore, the constant stimulation from the non-stop sensory overload, that you want to stop. Not that you have to stop or need to stop, but I want to stop playing because it’s not fun anymore and i’m exhausted from it.

I might be in the minority here. But, in my opinion the AI director needs to be re-tuned because regardless of whatever class/enemy/weapon balance you have going at the moment, it doesn’t mean much if the director is just giving players the shits.

9 Likes
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Yeah, we talk about this all the time.

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3

Tell me about it…

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It’s not just you… Pacing in Auric is seriously intense, so much so that it’s difficult to find a few seconds to type in chat.

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The most noticeable is in High Havoc when you get flooded with multiple bosses in the very start of the mission…which feels very much like an area that wasn’t designed for that level of ruck.

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not necessarily but I definitely find myself in the other camp on this.

for one if I decide to have “gametime” I want the max out of the 4-6 hours I spend.

after that I can go tilt to the point of falling asleep on the couch, doesn’t matter, time well spent.

once I’ve properly warmed up I go match after match with no feeling of tiredness or even take a :toilet: break when not absolutely necessary.

cause here’s the thing, once I get out of my flow, I get angry at misplays and it takes a while again until the :gear: run smoothly again.

second usually I’m chugging a few cans of energy drinks so when they do their thing I’m riled up for a couple hours anyways.

plus when I’m “in the zone” and relive them 40 hour lan party sessions in my mind, I dont wanna quit. :face_with_tongue:

so in a sense non-stop action is what really makes darktide enjoyable for me and reason I never played vt2 :man_shrugging:

different strokes

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auric type in chat = someone dies, you or a teammate.

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Yeah, I have the same feeling.

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every time a dude failed and had thus the time to write I’d love to reply him an earful AFTER the match was saved to shove him nose first into the :poop: in hopes something would stick.

lo and behold, at the sight of either a clutch them perps leave a good %of the time or race through the ending screen with a speed I wish they had when playing… instead of dying and writing :rofl:

so a)I wouldn’t write even if i had the time cause I’m here to smash heretics not write essays

b) hardly have the time, picking up the torch that just dropped.

best scene in a while, sadly failed due to a far away spamming reaper in the front and a kited mixed horde close on my heel, the dude had the audacity to write “what is he doing?”

well sh!t sherlock,

for once get the damned ammo crate you died with trying to take to the shuttle while the rest was red/orange

and split up the crapload of enemies coming my way in the process while on 7 health

:man_facepalming:

watchu doin? well I’ll damn not jump into the moshpit like you just so eloquently displayed

how would one ever cure stupid with mere words?

:face_with_tongue:

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Now, I just don’t type, not even to answer.

Just shoot or bonk enemies.

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11

The areas where the NPC “guards” just stand there pointing their rifles out while they watch our group get swarmed by the twins, a chaos spawn, a horde of poxwalkers, maulers and ogryns lmao

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In Auric and below hordes have locational triggers. Stop progressing and you’ll get a breather (good luck doing that with pugs).

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Or hear character banter, music etc. It’s back to back Specialist sound cue.

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Not so cut and dry, meine freund:

Auric Hi-INT(INS?) and Maels have timed hordes now.

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this is true in havoc too, all spawn pools game wide are based on map progression, in sectors. In auric and havoc you can bleed out hordes and other non boss pacing if you just do not move. I miss infinite pacing allowance for timed hordes

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And what are they supposed to do? Shoot the horde of Crushers to death with the few lasguns they have? xD

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17

They could throw out some words of encouragement. I mean hel, our veterans can knock them over by yelling at them lol

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I would be on the no-breaks camp, except at this point I’m so thoroughly pissed off at missing sound cues for specials that I really believe the only solution is to reduce the bulk like many other people/threads are asking for.

After all, if Auric isn’t intense enough for you, there is always Havoc. Wasn’t that what Havoc was designed for?

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19

There’s practically no midpoint between too easy with the current Damnation and Auric (which almost always defaults to double high-int on top of that + other modifiers). I honestly think they messed up the spawn rates for Auric since the mission and difficulty shuffle. It’s not overly hard, but it’s damn tedious and I do feel the burnout after 2-3 missions. Pre-Havoc Damnation and Auric and Maelstroms still had a bit of flow. Overstimulation is a thing.

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Just throw some kraks. Veterans are easily the most overpowered against crushers. They get deleted by kraks which vets regenerate. The ogryn nuke gives them a mild tickle in comparison

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