The real traction is in the average concurrent player counts, which continue to prove to be the best for a Tide game ever.
Lots of folks have very specific issues with/around the game that are not going to be addressed to their exact specifications, and no amount of free stellar content will change that.
Nah you’re always the mushroom people to fat shark. I just play the game in fear they’ll totally throw the gameplay out the window with a garbage update at some point ala WoM and kill the game for upwards of a year.
I mean they literally address everything to us with rejects, should let you know where you stand.
As a fun guy, I try not to live in fear.
An unfortunate stylistic choice! Varlets would have been more palatable in my opinion. But at least we’re Devoted Rejects now!
EA I really feel. I used to love Need for Speed. The games before the underground series came out.
And Nox. Made by the CnC devs, one of the few non-strategy games they made.
EA is definitely on top of the charts of companies who poisoned the well for everyone. Not just towards customers but also developer - publisher relations. The amount of studios they bought, just to cannibalize them shortly after is staggering. Some odd 12 studios were bought out and then “killed off” by EA.
They also performed practices such as laying off studios regularly right after launching a new game, so they would not have to cash out bonusses or health care benefits. Absolute top clown behavior that borders criminal.
And their CEO who was the main reason for many of these decisions, John Riccitiello, is now in the process of ruining Unity.
Some people in this world do not deserve the opportunities they are handed. I am not one to rag on the rich or affluent any such. If you do well with a project and earn big bucks, more power to you. But this one CEO, he’s special. He has used both, his reach and his wealth to substantially harm Gaming. I wonder if he is even aware of it. Even approaching these decisions purely from a Sales perspective or a Company-profit perspective his decisions served no meaningful purpose. I will never understand such people, who prioritize the short term this much over the long game.
Gearbox is also a good mention, although I’d say that the CEO of Gearbox is less at fault for his weird actions, as I believe him to be suffering from some form of narcissm. So he isn’t fully in control of himself, whereas Riccitiello’s decision-making seems to purely stem from Hubris alone, maybe some pressure regarding his shareholders at best.
They certainly have a hard time just taking some easy wins. Granted, we don’t make it easy for them often, but when an obvious opportunity is on the table I don’t see them reach for it.
It’s the weirdest thing. Maybe it’s a cultural disconnect what expectations are concerned. For one, they are a Swedish company through and through. Their mindset must be different in many ways to the “common Western” company.
Secondly, Fatshark comes from a contractor background. They were once doing compartmentalized work for bigger companies who outsourced this and that in Game development. And along that path they became their own thing, transitioned into being their own publisher and scaled up. Their company history is kind of interesting.
Maybe their shot-callers still approach things from a similiar mindset all these years back, simply because “it brought us this far so why change it”.
“Do a job, get it done, cross it off the list, next.” That’d be the mindset of a contractor me thinks. And sometimes I imagine seeing such a mindset in some of their work. But maybe I’m projecting something onto them.
Anyway, I don’t attribute anything Fatshark does to malice. They really don’t seem the type, because there’s none of the toxic in-house behavior in the background we see at corps like aforementioned EA or Gearbox.
Fatshark’s Glassdoor reviews for instance are pretty damn good, which indicates they actually value their employees and their livelihood. In 2023, that’s more than we can say about most publishers (and big companies in general) out there. 
Yeah, you remember that. When we didn’t hate journalists or didn’t have to fear that they’d come with some twisted agenda. Those were the days.
You read the new magazine coming out and there was actual care put into the articles (IGN meme reviews aside, that Godhand situation will haunt them forever and rightfully so).
You’d get developer interviews with actual meat, juicy new details on upcoming stuff, mostly balanced critic of releases. People would place some trust on these magazines. There was less nasty, less spitefulness. Even when they were obviously pushing something, it was still in a good spirit or so it felt.
Of course there was also some signs of pandering here and there, some games got used as outlet for the journalist’s bad attempt at comedy. But overall, there was a lot less glee and a lot more substance.
Post 2010’s I cannot even look at a journalist anymore. The profession is dead to me. I feel bad for the few who still try, but I can’t let that negative energy into my life anymore.
This is true, albeit I did see some praise on these forums, too.
The Carnival so far has been an amazing series of updates. And you’re right, this is the type of thing that would have been a DLC in the past.
They will likely release a 2nd mission soon as a highlight to the event.
So it seems Fatshark is sticking to their promise of doing the paid cosmetic shop as a replacement for paid story DLCs. Hats off to them for making good on their word.
Come on now. It’s more than apparent that this is a roleplay thing to stylistically dress up their announcement write-ups. You can’t be seriously thinking they do the reject thing to spite you. No way. I don’t buy it.
Eh, the last on-going service game I played was Gears 5, and The Coalition was way more open than Fatshark has ever been. That didn’t stop them from getting demolished by the community on more than one occasion (sometimes deservedly, sometimes not), but they did put in a lot more effort.
When the game was still receiving content, weekly dev streams were common. That game’s entire PVE also did a 180 over a year in and became much better as a result. TC is a AAA Microsoft-owned developer.
I used to play Sea of Thieves way back, and again, Rare is a lot more open with the community. Another Microsoft-owned developer. Probably not considered AAA before Sea of Thieves since the Nintendo days, but it certainly is again now. SoT became massive.
Fair point.
What I will say is that Fatshark present compared with Fatshark from the past is a vast improvement.
what. They haven’t even had a developer stream of Darktide ever, nor has there been any kind of video related to anything other than content promotion of Darktide yet until this Jesper interview that they didn’t even list. Compare this to dozens of developer streams and insider looks at content creation and how Vermintide came to be. There’s a video where a guy explains how he spent days just tweaking the impact and energy of melee weapons stopping on enemies to where it felt just right, and numerous instances of the main cast coming together to help them make videos and deliver memes. At best in Darktide we have James Alexander reading some patch notes of his own volition as the judge because he loves the character so much, Fat Shark doesn’t utilize this in any way.
And I think the real rejects are the alpha to today players, really like all communications and stupid comments like ‘pearl clutchers’ sort of prove. Yes, we are so greedy wanting some acknowledgement of the early access constant crashing mess that they made…beyond a ‘we sorry’.
I didn’t say Fatshark has developer streams. I said their communication improved drastically compared to the Fatshark of the past. And it’s true. VT2 we got months of total silence, especially post launch. And VT1 I don’t remember much of any communication happening at all. They silently dropped a big DLC out of nowhere and then went silent again. But I wasn’t on these forums back then, so maybe I missed something.
Nevertheless, Darktide hasn’t had a single month without some announcement or Community Manager commentary.
As for the pearl clutcher comment, I feel you’re making a mountain out of that molehill. What one CM (who no longer works with the company) said to one specific user really shouldn’t rile you up all this time later.
Why do you feel that her comment was relevant to you in particular? SeptSis reacted negatively, because she was insulted by this person directly.
Was it a too emotionally typed up comment in the heat of the moment? Most definitely, nobody is arguing it wasn’t. And it was a poor look, I fully agree with you.
But eventually it’s best to get over small things of that nature. Reserve ones’ anger for the real occasions where it’s called for. SeptSis’ comment wasn’t a Fatshark endorsed statement. That was a personal thing that shouldn’t have happened.
Its a GaaS, how could they seriously not do that at a bare minimum to maintain enough players to keep it running? Do you not remember those frustrating months of waiting to know what the heck was really going on with Darktide?
Of course VT and VT2 had different communication flow, they were standalone games that were played P2P. Updates dropped whenever they felt like it though, with minimal discussion on what and when.
I remember reading the “We’ve been paying close attention to the forums” post, on the lead up to WoM.
And yet its not the first CM faux pas we’ve had from Fatshark. Almost as if the enviroment at Fatshark is generally one that has little regard for forum users or Discord members.
Just a crazy thought of course, could be that people in the office at Fatshark only sing praises of their “Devoted Rejects”, right? I mean, how could they run a company without customers, afterall.
Immeasurably complex…this isn’t CoD…the fabled Next Week™️…and then this:
A million percent I am not going to be upset that my brothers and sisters just joining are getting a bonus gift when I too got a bonus gift. especially when i consider how updates on consoles tend to be funky across the industry versus PC updates, how support can tend to be on consoles, the small differences in gameplay and visuals, how many more CS items were in the shop when they are joining versus when I joined.
I will pass on sentiment that players think if the pack on PC is still lowered that it should be made even.
But the pearl clutching is a bit much.
Meanwhile, many pain points brought up by the community continue to be addressed in ways that may not be complete in the eyes of some community members, but in ways that I feel make it abundantly clear that Fatshark is listening and cares about common concerns raised here and elsewhere.
Things like: shared wallets, easing of the locks, increasing the quality of items at Brunt, the whole Armory system, the Commissary, multiple increases in material drop rates, the Auric board, the Vanguard pack, the new penances, locking some unpopular penances (that could encourage anti-team play) behind private sessions, being able to select exact perks instead of the nightmare we had before, etc.
How else can Fatshark atone for the missteps of (two) CMs but by taking tangible steps that address real issues affecting players’ enjoyment of the game?
On another note, yes, the official news/blog has had some multi-week lapses in communication, which I couldn’t say one way or the other is typical of developers, but I guess it’s not? Seems to be normal for my other fav, Gunfire Games, but I don’t truly know what a reasonable standard is.
Still, I feel FS has done a decent job trying to put out more communication than just patch notes with Darktide. And CMs are regularly around in the various social channels interacting, answering questions, etc.
I also want answers to these questions… all of them.
And yes, I am really annoyed by fatshark communications. Even when they communicate, we have to guess what they will implement cause it is not complete and lets parts in the dark.
Like fixing martyrdom so we can get 9 stacks, they just sort of gave up on timelines.
how about, upholding promises, and not repeating the same mistakes…
That would be akin to asking water not to be wet. FS deliver what they promise? Ha!
How about similar mistakes? Seems awfully subjective. Try to build a different crafting system, come up wanting, take steps to improve it, no good because the “mistake” has been made.
I can think of one explicit DT promise I personally think they should be bound to (and I think it’s a pretty serious one), but I’d love to hear how you think they aren’t doing what they’ve said they would. Catfish says she’ll pass along feedback on many things, many of those get FS’s attention/action. Catfish says they’re looking to make PC folks happy after the Xbox launch, they do the Vanguard bundle.
We don’t have solo mode yet because they said they aren’t happy with the state of it. I guess that could never come (outside of mods or hacks like we have now), like versus mode.
during V2:
DT
these are some direct promises, broken, without ever mentioning any reason as to why.
so yeah i get exactly why hedge got memed with CoD etc. while i think it was overblown what hedge recieved, it was very much inevetable.
Promise → Not delivering → being in total silence → get asked about → and making fun of him for asking. yeah how could it have gone any other way…
Timely, regular patching is communication. They are acknowledging bug threads within days. I made two unacknowledged threads about adding sensitivity settings and they were added a few weeks later. Was it me? Were they already planned? Who cares. They are clearly aware and reactive to multiple forums. I’d argue they are more reactive and communicative than 90% of developers.
Not really sure I need more communication than viewing the history of game patching. A roadmap would be nice. I’ll throw in the obligatory “you youngsters don’t know what it was like just a few years ago” comment.
I don’t recall the first two, and so I can’t really speak to them. But I do recall catching more than a few FS streams. Seems like a nice thought, and I guess it’s a shame they didn’t happen.
Versus has come up a few times though, so I thought it only fair to do some legwork on that one. Here is the actual for real official word on it from Aqshy:
Reposting what I wrote on Steam here (Does Vermintide 2 have PvP mode like Vermintide 1's Brawl Fight and Survival Mode like Vermintide 1 ? :: Warhammer: Vermintide 2 Helmgart Keep - General Discussions):
[There’s no PvP mode] at this time. We had plans for it, but after testing it in around 2019, realized it still had a ways to go. We still do pick it up now and again during hack weeks, but for now, it’s on a bit of a hiatus.
The RNG can still be the pits, but there have been continual improvements to the crafting system. At some point, in my mind, the question must become “are they trying?” instead of “is it exactly what it was intended, years ago, to be?”
As for weapon customization, promising a “Full” release (which I don’t quite understand and can’t find direct quotes on, even going thru the entire news blog), and bugs from VT2: building big things that require many people is hard and plans change. I point again to the question, “are they trying?”
And I don’t think that any of the systems-related changes show anything but that they hear our concerns/criticisms and are trying.
are you going in a restaurant, for the chef to “try” to cook you something?
you paid money, to recieve a product based on the promises they made, its redundant if in 2 years from the initial point of recieving the product it became good.
“i can apreciate a dev, that tries more than one who doesn’t, but both will never be close to the dev that does things right.”
I am SO happy I got to play Darktide all this last year. I preordered with glee knowing (after the pain that was the VT2 launch) what I was getting. But if I hadn’t been so eager, I’d have waited for launch, seen the brutal reviews, and weighed my options.
And even still, now that we’re eating good, why would I waste my time being bitter about being able to enjoy many many hours of an imperfect thing?
Who is this mythical dev making ALL the right moves? Even my other favorite dev, Gunfire Games (Remnant 2 hollllaaaaa) has had long-standing issues, like ENTIRE saves being corrupted (EDIT: and funny enough this bug survived 2 games and multiple DLC). Software is hard.