Developer Update - May 8

Heroes,

Welcome to another Developer Update!

The Sharks are still working on from home and everyday we miss the office a little bit more. The water cooler chats and lunch catch-ups with colleagues of different teams are amongst the things that the Sharks are missing the most. Some miss the office enough to have recreated it in their spare time in Minecraft.

Last week we showed you a concept of a Premium Cosmetic hat that is in the works, and this week we wanted to talk you through another change that might come in the future.

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Roamer-Spawns on Vermintide 2 Base Levels

One of the most recently revisited areas of Vermintide 2 is the Roamer Spawning on the Base Levels. Here is some of the most recent changes that might make it into the next update:

  • Reduced the amount of mixed factions for roamers. There should be less intermingling with Skaven and Rotbloods roaming around.
  • Removed the possibility of Beastmen spawning in most human settlements (like town areas).
  • Randomized events where possible (and needed). Some events that always spawned the same wave have now been broken up into several smaller waves that can randomly spawn for more variety. Some events that might have lacked a Rotbloods presence now has the possibility of Rotbloods spawning. More variation on the type of Specials that can spawn during events.

We would love to hear your thoughts on these changes.

15 Likes

I love it.

Well thatā€™s interesting. Sounds like your typical drunk Teamspeak meet-upā€¦
At least we have those once a week.

Could you give some more details or examples?
Iā€™m not quite clear on how roamers and event waves mix upā€¦

Have you compensated this by increasing the spawning chances in nature environment or is the result overall less Beastmen?

I think we have to wait how it plays out to actually give any meaningful thought for these changes. More variety is for most people normally a plus but it could lead to events either becoming to easy again or by bad luck only getting the most difficult wave compositions. So either you try to balance it out that each Wave is similar in difficulty or that you ā€œscoreā€ the difficulty of a Wave and the ā€œtotal scoreā€ influence the next wave.
Also is this a concept you may think of transferring to the Weaves (as they also have time-based and location based waves). Personally, I donā€™t see the problem with static spawns but it would kill off one of the arguments against Weaves which would be a definite bonus.

Sidenote: Could we get some kind of timeline information in one of these developer posts in the not so far future?

2 Likes

We already barely see the Beastmen and now you reduce their presence even more, after already nerfing their power and already having a small roster.

Besides weapons, I start to see less and less from the expansion. Nobody plays the Beastmen level, and I canā€™t really be bothered with the weaves, so the one thing I was most exited for when the expansion got announced, got quite a shocking release. Beastmen having an extremely small roster compared to the Skaven en Rotbloods and only getting nerfed because most players had trouble dealing with them.

Now they have few unique features, and are in the end not that different from fighting the older factions, and they keep getting smaller and smaller. I wouldnā€™t mind them being rare spawns if they at least were a force to be reckoned with. Like being a lot tougher then the Norscans, but besides having a ranged units, which are great by the way, and goat support unit, they really donā€™t have a presence in the average game.

Either make the Beastmen a proper third faction, or just stop adding new factions and focus on expanding the Skavens and Rotbloods. I still wish for more enemy types, but the way Beastmen got added doesnā€™t really make me hopeful.

2 Likes

Changes sound good, although i recently have seen very few beastmen at all.

Great changes! All of them. Random events would be very sweet!

Compensation for beastmen at nature environment sounds like great idea.

Just salt in the bloody wound, I swear to god

5 Likes

This makes me quite hopeful for a little tweak to the end event wave spawns of Fort BeltenBraces and Old Haunts, also Covocation might benefit from the adjustments to specials.

I know some people miss the beastmen, and itā€™s a pity theyā€™re getting sidelined but Iā€™m one of the cry babies that simply donā€™t enjoy fighting them. A bigger roster with a bit more variety? Nice. Current Beastmen? No thanks.

1 Like

Does this mean that end events will still spawn the same amount but just split up in different enemy types? Like for example (wrong numbers for example sake): if fort spawned 5 monks per wave, does this change mean that it will still be 5 elites per wave, but just a chance to have 3 monks 1 sv 1 mauler?

Or does this change mean that it can increase the cap or lower the cap if you get unlucky/lucky? For example: on convo you could have in the first wave 5 specials spawning and in the 2nd you could only have 1 spawn?

I also would suggest if you make such changes to the game. Fundamental changes to spawning etc. That you put out a mini beta, just put it out there to let players test it and only release it when itā€™s ready or if itā€™s not liked donā€™t release it, donā€™t give yourself or us and end date on the beta and just take your time. I wouldnt want you to change stuff like this and then spend the rest of the year band aid fixing it.

4 Likes

Big +1 to that.

4 Likes

I envy those people that donā€™t see Beastmen in gameā€¦ They are, to me, still the most numerous faction.

P.s apart this, since they are so bugged (damage taken you donā€™t know how or strange spawns), it would be a good thing if they were less present (but I repeat: in my game, they are the most numerous faction).

1 Like

I honestly donā€™t like this change, might just be me but i think all roamers complement each other well, there is no special that makes dealing with another special simultaniously impossible.
I like beastman so the beastman change is meh, theyā€™re definitely the hardest faction but not by a big margin, itā€™s still fun to fight them.
While i think i understand the final change, itā€™s harder to visualise, so i canā€™t tell if i would prefer it or not, sorry.

I think it would be a good ideia to turn this into a BETA, i think the current special spawning is perfect so personally i dont think it needs changes, but i might be surprised who knows. But for safety you should definitely release a BETA.

While this is unrelated i think the game right now really needs a new set of weapons, i know there are diferent teams working on these sections, but weā€™ve been without new weapons for quite some time, iā€™m not a big warhammer fan so i canā€™t really give suggestions. While this next suggestion is probably for only a fragment of your playerbase, a new ā€œchallenge mapā€ like fortunes of war but with beastman involved would be very good, weaves are filling the challenge thirst for now, but i would love to progress through a challenge map again with my friends.

1 Like

Info on season 3 / versus / next patch please?

I think variation in spawns for events already makes them too inconsistent. Certain events can become a walk in the park if you do not get elite spawns (Skittergate, Old Haunts, Enchanterā€™s Lair).

Info on season 2 on console?

Very glad to hear it.
Especially happy about the beastmen bit. Iā€™d love to see them used again (future maps?), even expanded, but as they are, itā€™s a change iā€™ve been hoping for for a long time

1 Like

Iā€™m intrigued, and I think spawn tweaks could improve immersion a lot, which is always nice. About the possible changes to roaming enemies though: I kind of like it when the enemy factions are mixed, because different enemy compositions result in different gameplay challenges. I really hope that sort of thing wonā€™t be reduced with the coming changes.

1 Like

Would breaking the wave in smaller waves fix the high usage of the CPU?