Folks are all abuzz about that under construction area in the Mourninstar and how it’ll lead to a new game mode like Chaos Wastes or something pertaining to the 2nd Hive City or Nox Alpha etcetera etcetera. But as neat as those things seem, I gotta say I don’t think I really want that stuff right now. Not that it’d be a bad addition but it seems like since Havoc and Mortis Trials were added, things like new standard maps and new weapons for the existing classes have dried up considerably as more resources/manpower are focusing on supporting the new gamemodes and even classes.
Back in 2024 we were eating fairly well when it came to new maps and weapons, particularly with the Grim Protocols and Blessings of the Machine God. But in the following year with Havoc getting further fleshed out since it’s debut in December of the prior year and Mortis Trials coming out in March, we’ve only had one single map throughout that whole year and we only got it at December, literally the last month. New weapons haven’t been all that great either, with 2025 only having a Relic Blade copy for the Veteran in the Falchion and another Bolter/Bolt pistol mark that scarcely get used - Not to mention how Veteran was left out of the beefier weapon update in Grim Protocols and they had to wait 8 f***ing months later.
I don’t dislike additional game modes or characters in totality, after all I’ve enjoyed the s**t out of Arbites/Hive Scum and Mortis Trials is kinda neat. But if you don’t care for Mortis/Havoc (which is a lot of people, especially for Havoc) or having to pay extra money for the classes (A valid reason for skipping them tbqh) then you’re pretty much stuck waiting even longer than usual for Fatshark to hopefully add something like new weapons/maps or even more enemies to the base game.
And I don’t know about y’all, but I’m getting a bit tired of having to wait for such things while ancillary game modes and classes get all the focus.
The game suffers from so many issues silent specialists, backfilling problems, server errors, crashes, performance drops, (lack of base classes weapons) balancing and other issues reported a year ago that still hasn’t been addressed. I wish the devs would focus more on fixing the game first then pumping whatever game mode nobody asked for and new classes. Frankly the only thing well maintained in this game is the greedy slop shop .
tbh, uploading a bunch of textures every 2 weeks requires much less work than scouring the code for errors. if these can be fixed at all without replacing the engine or large parts of it (for example if it’s so overloaded by the numbers of enemies currently in the game that sounds get dropped, enemies spawn out of the air, network errors etc)
I believe expeditions (aka chaos wastes) are exactly what’s needed for long-term content.
Just adding a few new weapons/maps is like 1-2 weeks of freshness and back to tediousness (we should get that kind of content, but they will never produce “enough”).
While expeditions could become the primary mode to play for a lot of players, in case endless replayability will make sense (unlike Mortis trials).
Chaos Wastes were dominant for a long time then people migrated back to campaign maps.
First of all CW session is longer, so people with not a lot of free time can’t rly enjoy it. And second - level design is extremely simplistic (wich is expected). It was just a honey moon phase.
CW alike mode would be a cool update for a game that is finished, fixed and balanced, when every possible type of contet was already added. We have no 3rd faction still, and no new enemies like casters/psykers, no new map biomes. Free cosmetics shop is shallow, tones of weapons families have 1-2 marks still. A lot of iconic weapons are not there, including dual wielding pistol+sword. And more and more.
Bashing blobs of 20 rotten armor crushers with some new powercreep boons in new decorations will not change much.
another Bolter/Bolt pistol mark that scarcely get used
I dont think ive used another gun since the new bolter dropped on my zealot since its release, its ability to make space to get through somewhere, vaporize hordes in an instant, and have stagger utility (like keeping someone netted unharmed till you can reach them), all while still being bolter you can still use as a bolter, is too much value to pass up. The new boltpistol is the same way, trading damage for aoe size due to blessings
If its being scarcely used, its because people are sleeping on them super hard
That depends on what they’ll be solely. If it will be a truly new content, like an engine that generates great variety of random maps, with some unique modifiers, and some interesting strategic map game on top of it - yes, that would be a great addition.
If it will be another flavor of Havoc, so the same maps we have, taped together in a sequence of missions, just with a strategic map on top - well, it will be another useless mode of play few will be playing most likely. I won’t for sure.
Unfortunately, lately I noticed that my interest to the game dropped significantly. I’ve played all “flavors” of every class in the game that felt different enough for dozens of hours each. And I know every missions in the game, every map, how it proceeds, where to expect each kind of mobs. It became utterly boring at this point. The game needs either a huge drop of content, like a new faction, 7-10 maps etc in one big DLC - or something with RNG maps, but properly implemented, so that those maps would really be interesting to play.
The “new” Bolter that gets scarcely used did a pretty good job at reducing Plasma’s market share in Havoc and is altogether a pretty useful weapon with a good utility.
The “new” Bolt pistol is okay except for being outdone by the old one with Lethal proximity blessing!
I tried the new bolt pistol for the first time on desperado hive scum and it’s just silly, I feel like Moses parting the red sea while I sprint though the area where a horde used to be.
You have to keep in mind that while yes, everyone would want more fixes and a lot of issues to be fixed, the best times for the game, especially from Fatshark’s point of view, was when some new significant content was dropped.
For example Arbites, the game was packed with new and returning players alike. The game was very much alive. Havoc is fun but it’s more of a subset of more dedicated players that gets something meaningful out of it and demands more of that type of content.
For many other players, Havoc is too much of a difficulty jump and basically the same maps anyway over and over again. Actually new content brings in more than variations upon the same content. About Mortis I do agree, the problem in my opinion isn’t that it was new, more so that it was a frankly half-baked take on Chaos Wastes, or a test bed.
The worst part about Mortis Trials for me personally is how detached it is from the main story of the game, the very goal we, as players, were invited to help with - saving Atoma. Instead, we are sent into some abstract simulation to test some crap. Like what? It’s not invigorating enough to start the game. Whatever comes, it must be an integrite part of campaign for saving Atoma, nothing less.
I agree, Chaos Wastes was part of the story and the chaotic nature of it actually made perfect sense in the lore. And it follows the structure of the game, moving from one point to another.
If the moon is sufficiently corrupted, or the hive city for that matter, the warp could definitely start messing with reality to make a mode like this fit.
This is what FS does, they keep changing the window dressing and spraying perfume but never take time to clean said room. It’s nice at first but once you’re stuck sitting in the room they made you start to notice everything around.
You can try to convince yourlself it’s all important and such, but I assure you it’s 100% not the case for absolute majority of the people playing a w40k-based game. That’s not kind of people who start a game to be a space dork that plays video games inside a video game. People need epic events, epic battles, facing Big Bad Evil Dudes - and a sense that what they do means something, that they made a dent here and now by investing their time.
Instead you try to sell them they need to spend hours in some simulation “to prepare for epic things in the future”, it won’t sell mate, no matter how you try. It’s hard to sell the extra tutorials in the simulation to them, already.
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