Dev Blog: Deep Dive into the Shrine

[Lexa]

I think we should wait and see, but, unfortunately, as I predicted, the design intent hasn’t changed:

Unless it's somehow signalled that the core design philosophy of Darktide has shifted from exploiting whales through hostile mechanics to meaningful, rewarding gameplay, players simply won't return

To be precise, the design intent has to change first because this design (philosophy) is a product of design intent. These things (e.g. RNG all over the place) are a consequence of deliberate design choices. They are not bugs or some unforeseen consequence of interactions between complex systems in the game (e.g. Economy). I’ve said this already: