I can see Fatshark has poured a great deal of effort into this mode, with its massive semi-open maps and collection elements built around various mini‑games. Yet after just a few matches, both my friends and I have lost interest entirely.
The reasons are as follows:
1. The collection mechanics are deeply repetitive. As I have stressed many times before, Tech Shards serve no purpose other than unlocking missions. There are no extrinsic progression rewards tied to them, making the act of collecting feel utterly mindless.
2. The matchmaking experience is abysmal. When not playing with a pre-made squad, teammates constantly scatter and act alone. Players are frequently split apart and swarmed by enemies, and the overly open map design prevents the party from staying consolidated. This is by far the worst aspect of the mode.
3. Players gain no meaningful power from collecting loot. The items purchasable with scavenged parts are extremely limited, and support items such as mines, bombardments, and health restores are grossly overpriced. The positive feedback loop is practically non-existent.
Suggested Changes
1. Consolidate map elements. Darktide is not suited for such large semi-open maps. The Expeditions mode should be more closely aligned with the Chaos Wastes mode from Vermintide 2, with difficulty scaling gradually from easy to intense. Scavenged parts should allow players to upgrade their abilities and gear mid-mission.
2. With the simplified crafting system, veteran players have almost nothing left to progress. Therefore, please add Red-tier gear. Each red-tier item should have unique traits to make gameplay more engaging, balancing power and fun.
Example: A red-tier Kantrael Lasgun with high penetration, capable of piercing heavy carapace armor or multiple unarmoured targets in a line.
3. Add more Augur minigames, including competitive Augur challenges between players. Players should not be constantly stressed — some casual downtime is needed.
4. Unlock more areas aboard The Mourningstar:
- A Chapel, where players can interact and pray to the God Emperor.
- Personal quarters for each player, with decoration systems similar to those in Outlast 2, using in-game credits or premium currency for cosmetics.
- A Bar, featuring card minigames and high-tier bounties.
There are a bunch of changes I’d like to see. Less hacking minigames, more sanctuary shop variety so people don’t sometimes leave it with 100 scrap, new joiners need to have their scrap adjusted to match the highest player instead of having 0, the penances need to be changed so they are team wide and not just the person who hands the item in/extracts with it, etc.
Oh and if you are solo/last alive you should count as 4 players for events that require people to be present. Soloing in this mode is pretty horrible because all the events take forever.
Shop items are far too expensive, and time is far too tight. Scavenged parts are rarely collected in sufficient quantities, while splitting up to collect them is extremely dangerous. The entire Expeditions mode is fundamentally contradictory.
Yeah, that hit me about tech scrap, too.
I’m actually enjoying the base gameplay of Expeditions decently well, when performance isn’t tanking, but I can definitely see that people who need an extrinsic motivation to play aren’t going to get it here.
Cosmetics are the obvious answer; we don’t need any more mechanical progression (much as I’d love, like, 2 more talent points on some trees, the power creep is indeed real). Player cosmetics take a lot of time and resources to make (and I do like the design on the Expedition penance ones), but if there’s one thing MMOs got wise to, it’s that players love ‘housing’.
While the lack of preset personalities means that something as robust as Taal’s Horn Keep and the respective characters’ rooms is not feasible, individual player quarters and a “Mortis Lounge” makes sense.
Hadron wants tech scrap. Hadron knows that varlets perform better with more enrichment in their enclosures. Tech scrap unlocks ‘social space’ cosmetics.
Just spitballing, but it seems to hold together on the surface.
Expeditions as a progression path would make sense if it released with the game, and tech scrap was a way you could unlock new weapon types, perks and blessings.
Heidron’s collection of tech shards must serve some purpose, likely tied to the next major phase update, but the Expedition mode in its current state simply isn’t enjoyable.
Something I think would be fun would be a random chance to find a locker containing a rare relic weapon. 40k is full of tech relics that are quite rare and unusual by the 42nd millennium and Hadron would be thrilled if you could recover them. They could work like Chaos Wastes weapon pickups. Some options could be:
- Volkite
- Eradication
- Galvanic Rifle
- Radium Carbine
Not sure about CC weapons but just finding a buffed random weapon could be fun and mix up the game a bit