I apologize in advance for the block of text. That being said, the feedback presented here is a collection of thoughts and ideas that have been present with me since beta up until now. I presented a very similar post to a feedback post on reddit three weeks after launch and, while the game has improved exponentially since then, I still feel like there are some things that could make the experience more enjoyable. None of the opinions that are presented here represent THE way that issues SHOULD be fixed, merely the way that they could be or that they are awkward enough to need mentioning.
Ability to see character backgrounds after character creation. Adding this to the stat sheet would not be difficult.
Ability to preview cosmetics on the character before purchasing.
Allowing the player to pick a mission that they want to go to from all available missions and apply the mission modifiers themselves, with varying degrees of bonuses for completing missions with said modifiers, could help to alleviate the issues people have with the mission selection system. Ideally beyond the bonuses that are already offered. Understanding that this presents an issue in Vermintide and can limit the pool of players that want to play that specific mission that you set up is important though. So, with that being said, if we are unable to pick the mission and apply the modifiers that we want and must be held to the current RNG missions selection, at least allow us to organize the Mission selection UI in a way that makes it easier to locate Grimoire and Scrip missions by difficulty and or modifier or apply the grim/scrip modifier to any game we select. Or perhaps allow a player to pick the certain aspects of the mission and its variables but not enough to limit the pool of players who want to participate?
Either a page that tells the player what the various status effects and stats do, or, explain what they do on the weapon page when highlighting a perk/blessing. Does our iLvL have an impact on our character at all beyond the accumulation of stats that it can have? What does brittleness do? What does power do? What effect does soulblaze have on the enemy? If it says this somewhere in the UI, I’m not aware of it and the game certainly doesn’t teach you. De-obfuscating the weapons with numbers as opposed to just showing bars was a great step, but further strides need to be made so that the player can be aware of the systems in the game without needing to google/wiki/ask reddit what said systems are and how they interact.
The recent audio update has made it easier to detect enemies, but I feel like having some sort of footsteps or hissing from lesser enemies not just before they hit you but as they are coming up to you would be ideal as it gives you more time to reposition as opposed to panic dodging in the hopes of avoiding dmg. As it stands, with little to no time before a hit is registered, it makes achieving no hit runs very frustrating.
Dog and Mutant dodging is wonky at best. Some maps it’s very easy to block a dog attack or dodge a mutant, other times it feels like nothing registers or you’ve blocked/dodged, a few seconds go by, and then suddenly you’re being held down or smacked around. Unable to determine if this is a server connection issue or an animation/hit registration issue, but as it stands it feels too inconsistent to feel rewarding and instead mostly feels like luck. Some strides have been made in this regard but these enemies still present a problem and have done so since launch. I imagine that it deals with ping or tick rates between the player and server so a rework of how the enemies work might be in order.
I appreciate the calls to add modding into the game, as another system to play around with could be very interesting depending on its implementation. That being said, what I think I appreciate most about it is the call for things like better iron sights or red/green dots. What I think this really highlights is the lack of accessibility options that are currently present. Back 4 Blood has an extensive accessibility list that allows for you to customize enemy highlights, weak points, and other various UI effects to make things easier(especially for those of us that struggle with being color blind). So, giving us the ability to change the color of our iron sights when ADSing, change the color of our reticle, etc, would go a long way towards making the combat easier to navigate and engage with. That being said, scopes or the options to use scopes for sniper style rifles would be nice as it allows for greater magnification which, again, is good QoL for accessibility.
Much has been said about the loot system and there are numerous ways that it can be fixed and resolved with no answer being the right one. That being said, we can all mostly agree that what is there is currently unrewarding. At the moment, at level cap, you can run missions with the hopes that you receive a gift that is a high enough iLvL to use and is the right weapon type that might have a blessing you need on it so that you remove it for your coffers. So, from just completing a mission, that’s already two layers of RNG if we don’t take the actual mission variety into account which increases the RNG exponentially. There is zero player agency in this which I think is what makes it very frustrating to the vast majority of people. If you want to go with an RNG system that is 3+ layers deep, then you need to throw more loot at the player than they know what to do with so that the frustration isn’t felt, ie. a dungeon crawler or looter shooter. Right now there just isn’t enough loot to justify this implementation. Having a reward after every mission is a nice step in the right direction but other than crafting our own weapons we’re just waiting for better ones to show up in the daily shop. I also feel that allowing the player to receive crafting materials when breaking down weapons would be more ideal than just receiving money as the money tends to be unneeded after a certain point whereas crafting materials are far more important. A conversion of EXP earned at max level into more crafting materials would also make the end game feel a bit more rewarding and encourage more build variety as the materials won’t be as scarce and we will feel more inclined to consecrate and re-bless them. More materials and resources means we could craft more weapons which means we could more easily access the blessings that we don’t currently have.
The ability to roll for the perks we want on a weapon is fine, but when the ability to roll for the perk you want is free the layer of rng on which perk you’re offered should be removed and instead favor a ui that allows for the player to choose the perk you want while also removing the lower tiered perks. Why would a player take a perk lesser than a 4 pip?
To continue with crafting, the ability to take the base stats or stat rolls from one weapon and move them to another would also reduce the headache of the RNG from searching for perfect weapons. You already have one layer of RNG from base stats, another two from the perks and their levels and another two from the blessings of the weapons. Having just a bit more control over the weapons might ease the pain that most players seem to feel from the crafting system. You could also allow for the player to spend a large amount of gold or resources to limit break the weapon and unlock the locked attributes. I think this would go a long way in making it feel like we had invested quite a bit of time into crafting the perfect weapon.
Currently the Scab Snipers have the ability to shoot through walls and floors. We stood on a bridge and a sniper was shooting at us from the ground floor, through the bridge, and getting clean kills. I’ve also seen them shoot through walls when behind enough cover. Perhaps it’s that their weapon has an innate amount of penetration, but in many situations this leaves the player without any way to respond and creates a pretty poor feedback loop. To piggy back from this, it is frustrating when the enemy can also shoot through their own troops when we can’t. Perhaps something like shooting a bomber before they’ve thrown their bomb could allow for the explosion and immolated floors to hurt their own team?
Enemies currently spawn around the player and can pop in randomly. This perhaps makes the hordes feel thicker but it also feels incredibly unfair after just having checked corners to make sure the team is safe.
Again, just some thoughts and nothing here is a deal breaker or THE WAY to fix the game. Just some thoughts that might go some way as to making the gameplay loops a bit more flexible or enjoyable to some. Thank you for the love and passion that has so clearly been present in this game and I hope to see even more great content in the future.
