Okay first of all, my ideal map selection is the exact same from Vermintide 2:
- Quick game
- Custom game
Quick game works as it does now in Darktide, but the Custom game part is the big deal here. When making a custom game you get to choose the map and the difficulty, like you do in Vermintide 2. But in Darktide, there are also map modifiers which I think in their current state are under utilized, and have a lot of potential. This post is my idea of a system for them, which resembles a lot of some rogue-like games out there (for example, Hades. Reference images below).
The Modifiers:
We already have these in the game but right now they are limited to specific small changes, such as the dog, fog and lights out conditions or whatever you wanna call them. Here is my idea of how they would impact the game:
- The player gets to choose what modifiers there are on the map, not limited to just one.
- Selecting modifiers increases rewards you get from playing a map: crafting materials, ordos etc.
- Completing a map with enough modifiers quarantees you an Emperor’s reward.
- Quaranteed Emperor’s reward increases in quality the more modifiers are selected. With 0 modifiers it’s still possible to get a emperors reward of legendary quality. More modifiers just makes it more likely and eventually 100% chance.
- As the intent here is to make the maps harder, it would be a great thing to be able to see your own high scores per map per difficulty that you have completed.
Now to the modifiers themselves:
1. Slider system to increase the spawn rate / the quantity of enemies per spawn
- Ability to increase any enemy spawn rate, specific elites, mobs, specials, bosses.
- For example, when you have the Gunner spawn set to 2x multiplier, you have 2 gunners spawn where you would normally have 1.
- Going higher on the slider makes the “modifier rating” go up. Therefore granting more rewards.
2. Patrols
- I personally really liked the patrols in vermintide 2. Completely optional to kill, but requires some teamwork and good situational awareness to not get screwed by them.
- You quite rarely deal with multiple spawns of big elites right now in Darktide. They usually arrive at the same places on each map, and therefore are rarely are a surprise. This makes them easy to deal with and don’t cause troubles for experienced teams.
- This system is currently not in the game at all, and therefore this could be a toggle system. You could choose whether or not these are present on the map at all, but also would have a slider to increase the frequency, like the spawn rates.
3. Map conditions
- Lights out, fog, etc. Impacts the map itself on a different way than just increasing enemy spawns.
- These would be toggles, you either have it on or don’t. Increases rewards similarly to everything else.
- I have seen some forum posts already going over cool map conditions and modifiers that are a bit more unique and those could all be included under this “Map conditions” section of the modifier selection screen.
- Examples:
- Whispers of the dark gods: Having corruption damage tick on your squad throughout a map.
- Supply line disruption: Much less utility spawns.
- You could come up with so many different modifiers here, I’m not putting more here but you get the idea.
I’ve included example pictures of Hades, and in that game this “modifier system” uses the term Heat. The more Heat you have, the better rewards you get and of course set a new high score for yourself. In hades these modifiers increase such things as:
- Enemy HP
- Enemy damage
- Player HP
- Limited time to spend on a map
- Entire new boss mechanics
- Harder enemies
- More and deadlier traps
- And more
No modifiers selected AKA no Heat
Heat maxed out
Map selection
Right now the map selection screen has all different difficulties on it. However a player who’s level 5, has no place in a damnation match. Similarly, a player who’s level 30 and plays only on damnation, has no desire to even see difficulty 1-3 maps on the board mostly. The first thing would be to update the map selection screen based on what difficulty the player has selected. At the moment the player changes difficulty, the screen changes to show that difficulty (or a range, if selected). This way there is a lot less RNG even on the “quick play” aspect of the game.
Second thing, instead of showing random maps on the board, how about you show the maps that players have created through custom game, and have the modifiers be visible on the mission selection screen? If no missions are available, then you could fill the space with the system that is already present.
I think honestly this kind of system would increase the replayability of Darktide by and immense amount, and keep it fresh for much longer. Vermintide had a similar system to this with the twitch integration system, but I find it a bit weird since it requires you to mess with twitch at the same time. This system would be it’s own thing and accessible more easily. What do you guys think?