I just finished the skulls event, some feedback:

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Gameplay Feedback
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To get the obvious out of the way, it’s a bit boring. Being effectively just Melk Contracts sans the Melk money. I understand if you don’t wish to add special maps/cosmetics (I.E. ‘The Good Stuff’) for every such event moving forward, so here are some alternative suggestions:

1.) Consider “Festivizing” all/part of the Mourningstar. Such as adding skulls to the merchant kiosks. Even small details could go a long way to making the hub feel more “alive”.

2.) Consider adding special combat conditions alongside the contracts. A “Skull Taker” condition that makes elite enemies heads weaker but their bodies stronger would be both challenging and thematic, as an example. This also gives players who are no longer incentivized by material gains a reason to return. On the flip side, events could be used to bolster new conditions. Whenever you make a new condition, you can have an associated event with it, as well as “pin” the condition on the mission boards so there’s always at least one map running it during the event duration.

3.) Consider adding a community-wide cooperative aspect. Such as “If X players complete all the contracts, everyone gets additional Mats”. You could combine this with suggestion #1 and have more skulls appear on the Mourningstar the more players complete event contracts, I am sure some folks would love to contribute skulls to a skull pile. The last time we had a similar community event, it was used to delay the release of maps and was not well received, if I recall. It might be worth revisiting this concept after the crafting rework, as I think there’s promise, its just in need of some adjustments to better curry player favor.

4.) Speaking of titles, I had assumed their addition was made for events like this, as an inexpensive way to reward players for participating. As far as I can tell, there’s no reward for completing all the contracts. If I missed it, do let me know, but to that end:

5.) I personally felt a bit confused about how the event worked until I was told about the Tab menu. Explaining the event better in the pre-game info popups would have been ideal for me, as they mention the event but not any concrete details.

6.) Lastly, I felt the nature of the contracts themselves lacked variety and did not encourage significant changes in my playstyle/behavior. I am not sure if this was the intent, but having contracts be actual challenges instead of things that’ll just happen through normal play might be worth considering for the future. Or perhaps a combination of the two? So while you’re grinding you can try and complete harder tasks if you wish.

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I still don’t understand how it works :sweat_smile: You just have to head shot enemies?

What do you mean when you say “tab menu”?

I’m a lefty so usually have to remap every single key in every single game.

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The menu that shows up, when you press the tab key.

In the mourningstar, you get the current melk quests, tracked penances and the event.
In missions, you get the same + mission information.

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Complete in first 3 maelstorm runs. I barely noticed the EVENT.

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If they wanted to make this worthwhile they could offer aquilae as price.

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That would have been something special for sure. Then they’d get a real gauge on how many people want cosmetics but unwilling to pay the ridiculous prices.

I was also kinda expecting some kind of skull trophy wall or something on the mourningstar. A bit like what Predator has :grin:

Some nice little artwork touch in the mourningstar for these events would give it that bit of extra care and flavour.

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Honestly, this is a pretty good idea. It seems like a relatively low-effort concept, since Aquilas already exist and you wouldn’t need to build any new cosmetics. But it certainly would have spurred my friends and I to start playing aggressively again during the event. And, since the event only runs for a relatively limited duration, the loss in real-world money would likely be minimal.

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These suggestions more or less sum up what I thought the mourning star online lobby was going to be used for. Unfortunate that they introduce this concept that slows down gameplay a ton (try installing a mod that skips the mourning star, you skip multiple load screens and save so much time) but then just do nothing with it.

As for actual events I really want to see funny low effort gamemodes. Just make an event map that’s just an existing map with red lighting (very low effort is my point) and replace all the spawns with ragers or something. Would be thematic and fun and an extreme change of pace. Then make the reward for beating it a cool portrait or something. It doesn’t have to be actually hard or even well designed for a small event, it just has to be something different. There’s even already a button for it on the mission map, special assignments.

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I read your feedback, its good.

But can I just say, they likely already know all this. Most of them, who worked on this event, are likely professionals to some degree. They know about reward vs time invested, and engaging players.

This event, to me, seems like something cobbled together quickly for the contractually obliged “event”. I’m sure the systems incorporated will be handy in future but, really, look at what event boils down to. Shoot, or hit, heads. Get credits, and mats.

Thats it.

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