BIG NEWS, I know. Everyone has been talking about this, and the Book of Grudges has mentioned it numerous times, but I think we need a big thread plastered on the front page that reads like a 1984 fanfic title to really seal the deal here.
Many of the fundamental problems with Darktide can be summed up as player retention mechanic addiction. Fatshark is adding needless grinding and randomness to the game in an effort to increase player retention. There are other problems, too, such as power creep resulting in a ludicrously intense and exhausting game to play, but that isnât caused by this, so weâre going to ignore it today.
LIST OF RNG Nâ FOMO KARKSHIT WEâVE SEEN SO FAR:
Rolling for weapons
Mission board
Available missions
Available difficulties in said missions
Modifiers to said missions
Weaves Havoc derank
Weekly decay specifically, though loss derank also factors into this
Special events that add special modifiers (jombies, waves of ogryns, etc.)
The microtransactions
All of these systems contribute to at least 80% of the metagame of Darktide, a.k.a. everything youâre doing when youâre not killing heretics. It really drags the game down behind what it could be as a proper horde shooter (or hack nâ slasher), and yet there is a significant enough presence at Fatshark, either some twerps in management or everyone in the dev team is just fine with it that these mehcanics continue to stay despite the constant salt these systems mine.
We really do need to get rid of them. It is important for the longevity of Darktide as a whole and the original vision that these systems (the mission board at least I understand) were supposed to accompany can no longer be realistically achieved. Times change, so must the game.
FWIW itâs been a LOT easier since the unlocks, I got a bunch from the hourly shop but I did check the shop fairly often when testing and stuff.
Gambling with Melk seem a very low chance, but if youâre sitting on a pile of Melk Money, why not.
I think youâre conflating FOMO with an RNGesus fetish, FOMO is the shop, buy it for fear of missing out, but yeah thereâs a lot of RNG still and not enough player agency.
2.5 years later and we still canât pick private strike team maps and modifiersâŚSMRNGH.
I just want fun modifiers like mobian 21st or the ogryn spam to be added into the auric rotation permanently, instead of hunting grounds for the 1000th time. Is it that much to ask?
Fatshark, self-admittedly, has no idea why people play their games, and is flailing about every time trying to find an âanchorâ to ensure consistent profit generation.
Ensh*ttification imposed by Tencent/executives in general.
Some idiot in the dev team GENUINELY BELIEVES that their dark design nonsense is all thatâs holding the game together by now, and whatever project they touch includes it (see, Havoc, and crafting before that).
I think the thing that is the worst aspect is that the company has solved these problems before. Player retention is accomplished by giving people easy access TO THE GAMEPLAY. Let players play how they want to play, itâs really that simple. It worked for crafting, it would work for mission selection, cosmetics, solo mode, and EVERY OTHER ISSUE THEY REMAIN SILENT ON.
would be easy to keep player retention high, if they added actual new maps for campaign, or even simply new content like weapons or cosmetics to unlock through penances on a consistent schedule
but yes mission board the biggest offender, not having the ability to select what map you want to play and modifiers. and the fact they remove the special event modifiers is no sense, even if they bring those back every now and then, still no sense creating content for then removing it
ok my 2 cents because the world would be poorer without them:
Rolling for weapons
i donât know why they kept it. looks like just clinging onto the last bit of their original RNG-based concept we fought for almost 2 years.
whatever, itâs pretty much meaningless. but itâs silly we have to roll for dump stats instead of just pulling some sliders.
Mission board Available missions Available difficulties in said missions Modifiers to said missions
now thatâs still a big one, and iirc there was never a clear explanation why we still canât do things that were normal 30 years ago, like selecting what maps and difficulties we want to play, but have to pick something from whatâs on rotation.
server load? scattering the players over too many instances because everyone wants to start their own game?
fortunately thereâs the MMT mod, so missions can be replayed at least for 24 hours.
Weaves Havoc derank Weekly decay specifically, though loss derank also factors into this
posted in another thread on that, tldr: not fun, not a fan of it.
Special events that add special modifiers (zombies, waves of ogryns, etc.)
yeah, they keep modifiers like dogs and mutants that get annoying after so many times, but really good ones like brutes, moebians and cranial corruption are cycled out.
what about taking monstrous, adding the above and calling it skill 6?
not immeasurably complex enoughâŚ
as much as it sucks to say these games may never have strong player retention even if you âfixâ all the problems its just not the kind of game to make that kind of broad appeal. i think two problems that hurt the game the most in this department is bugs for one and for two learning the game is very difficult for most people and there isnât much in the game to help with this like so many people cant dodge crushers or just die the moment they get swarmed because they just donât know what to do, Iâm not sure if pushing players towards some kind of advanced tutorial would really help or not but it might. for players who do are decent and play a bit more than those newer people only some of those players are up for a big challenge because they want cool missions to blast some heretics, and i think everyone likes new missions but its just that new missions take a lot more dev time than new modifiers and difficulty adjustments so its a tough battle to keep players around
