** Introduction**
Well we’re here again. I hope FS takes some of this feedback to heart. I’m going to try and be as concise as possible. There are miscellaneous gameplay tidbits that would benefit from some looking into and a few balance what-nots that would generally improve gameplay experience.
Disclaimer: This is going from the point of view from an Ogryn who plays exclusively nothing but damnation across an extremely large variety of builds. Some good, some “bad”.
UI and audio issues
-
Marking ammo should highlight and show the ammo container outline:
The difference between the small crates and the large satchels DOES matter, not everybody online is going to use a mic or even have voice enabled, and typing takes you out of the gameplay (not to mention being slower). This small fix goes a long way towards aiding team coherency. -
Marking a marked target should no longer say “mine”, “I need that” etc:
Marking a marked target currently defaults to stating intent of acquisition. This sends mixed messages when two people are low and they both need the medicae/ammo/grenade. Stating intent to acquire should be on it’s own deliberate key. Marking a marked target should have the character use the soundclip for marking a target initially. -
Marking (enemy) targets should last a tiny bit longer:
I’m sure there are many balancing considerations in regards to it’s length. But as things stand in this games more hectic combat environment compared to VT2, marking a high risk target to keep track of it multiple times in a single firefight is a bit cumbersome. (not exactly a pressing concern or that important of one, but one that would help a lot of people out) -
Enemy specials need to generate sound, even if not moving:
This is going to create overlap with an additional pain point later. But, enemy specials need to generate sounds due to their interaction with spawn points and exactly where they can be placed in relation to you. If a pox walker spawns 2 feet in front of you, it needs to generate it’s sounds immedieatly.
Matchmaking
I won’t touch these too hard given that they’re probably well aware it’s not functioning correctly.
-
Lobbies need to be rid of their timelimit:
Due to things like populating a match with players (especially necessary if in hi intensity) as well as needing an ability to coordinate your loadout with teammates (made more necessary due to the existence of the new stage ‘Comms-Plex 154/2f’) -
(sometimes) Can’t join games unless you spam quickmatch for damnation:
Goes without saying. I ran an experiment with some friends. We eached queued for quickmatch at the same time and were put into 4 separate solo lobbies. When we spammed join we were able to join each other. The results didn’t change when one of us made a lobby and the others waited a few minutes to attempt to quick match it without spamming it. This is absolutely not working as intended. -
The lobby menu isn’t detailed enough:
There is absolutely no way to tell at a glance what loadout, weapons, talents, etc anybody is using. Given there are multiple weapon types designed to fulfill a support capacity (high suppression low damage weapons, high stagger low damage weapons, things like ogryns shield, surge, etc etc) players need this information in order to coordinate. -
Players should be placed in a lobby menu even when quickplaying into a match in progress:
Following up the above, players need the ability to see what stage they’re going onto (I’ll talk about this briefly) and change their loadout accordingly. Things like taking a kickback into maps with spread gunner locations doesn’t fly well. Nor does being sucked into the game with a flamer and the other 2 zealots+1 psyker are also using the flamer.
Brief note of contention
Comms-Plex 154/2f
Not going to be talking too much about this stage balance. I need to run it more. But when this first came out I did this stage with a team of 2 ogryns using the grenadier gauntlet, 1 using the rumbler, and and 1 zealot. We cleared but…
Anybody familiar with this stage on damnation understands how the issues we encountered could have been handled by any of the recommendations above. We were pin cushioned by bullets as none of our weapons were capable of handling the kind of protracted firefights we were given. Had any of us been able to change to more rumblers, rippers, stubbers, etc, we would have had a more balanced experience.
Stage Play
As in, the various aspects about running a mission proper.
-
Environmental Hazards are too weak:
Barrels and bombs don’t do enough damage to enemies and don’t feel impactful enough when triggering them. Cooking an entire horde on a fire ground only to have nearly none of them die doesn’t feel very good. -
Sub Missions aren’t pursued
In the current climate, once people do their weeklies for melk they tend to just ignore every single scripture and grim insight. It would feel better if doing these rewarded more crafting materials. Speaking of- -
Mission Length and Crafting Materials
Longer times spent into a mission actively playing it should give a bigger payout to the mission. It would also go towards making people feel like they’re not wasting time if a stage takes longer than 20-30 and would likely stop those stories you hear from earlier difficulties where people just rush on through to get it over with.
That’s about all I’ve got.