So like half the internet I’ve been obsessed with helldivers from my first match after hearing about all the hype and frankly I think the hype isn’t hype its fact. Helldivers is amazing there are some gripes I have but its the very beginning and the game hasn’t even been out for two months so of course there are going to be tweaks and changes.
That said I think some mistakes were made but I love the game and now I find myself reflecting on darktide and realizing that it falls short in a lot of ways and one of the things that is the case with that is the game is simply getting stale.
The devs of helldivers have a fraction of the resources of fatshark and in less than two months they have pushed out more content than fatshark does in a year. I love darktide but I can only run the same missions so many times and frankly with how long we waited for a meaningful update Karnak was not enough.
The skill tree system should have been in the game since day 1 that wasn’t additional content more than anything it was something they added that originally was left out. 2 maps and a boss fight took us a year to get.
The whole purpose behind darktide being live service is to add to and grow the game but content is being drip-fed to us here like this is star citizen. Fatshark you have tons more money, tones more manpower, tons more assets why are you being outdone by an indi studio from Sweden that without even trying created what could easily be Game of the Year. How do you dwarf them in resources and get outdone in potential this bad?
Fatshark has a horribly inefficient internal structure, doesn’t want to change it, and refuses to communicate because it’s already thoroughly poisoned the well. That’s why Arrowhead can get so much more done and talk more.
Very questionable take. They were pretty up front about there being four classes to start and they said a new one would be added ~every 3 months. Instead they did the skill trees which we know from data mining was basically the 2 extra classes for each archetype that were originally going to be released one at a time. If anything that’s 8 extra classes delivered through the skill trees in ~a year which is a full year ahead of when we would have gotten them by the original 1 every ~3 months plan.
Yes clearly more fleshed out skill trees is something they wanted to have for a while but what we got was a combination of a more fleshed out skill tree AND additional classes. It’s extremely odd to me that one of the things you decided to specifically pick out as an example is the one case where FS delivered more and significantly ahead of the schedule they originally indicated.
I think it can still be considered a fault for saying that they would add a class every 3 month, and then did the tree development in silence, which while not outside of the standard FS process still come out as pulling the rug from under us.
Which I will add, they had previously mentioned a more expansive system than the class/career in VT2. So the tree update is them going back to the system they initially had planned, so it’s likely that the 4 classes we had always just were a stop gap and never a change of plan that reverted again later
That wasn’t the point OP was making with the example nor is that what I was responding to so I’mma just ignore this paragraph yeah.
I think it’s probably somewhere in between. I think they originally wanted something more fleshed out that what we got on release but had still planned to release classes periodically (quite probably paid much like VT2). Then in the process of trying to realise more fleshed out skill trees they decided they could incorporate the other planned classes into it too and that would be a win win for them, getting the extra classes out earlier than they would otherwise, while also not having to design and balance 12 separate skill trees.
Of course this is mostly just conjecture, but no more than your take. I think my reading of events matches pretty well with the communications and hints we got about this as well as the data mining of the extra classes earlier on.
Anyway whatever your opinion on what exactly happened here I still think it’s an absolutely awful example to use for being all “grrrrr bad developer, never delivers yada yada”. Just comes across as sour grapes to lambast one of the most universally liked updates to the game that genuinely delivered way way more than anyone was really expecting in the lead up.
sony was there publisher nothing more the devs were 100% on their own which is why the monetization is so fair sony didn’t sink their filthy fingers into the heart of the game.
I’m not saying fatshark didn’t nail it with that patch they did basically every balance complaint I had died with that patch but in a game like this a skill tree system like that should have been in game since release not added retroactively.
Just because you deliver in the long run doesn’t mean you didn’t mess up big time along the way. My real issue here is the drought of content and the feeling that the content we are getting should have already been there. Why weren’t stims in day 1? Why didn’t they make a better combat tree prior to release things like this should be top priorities as they corollate directly to both balance and player experience when you publish you need your best foot forward and darktide to me in a lot of ways actually still feels less like a live service and more like a very stable but unfinished beta. These were things that should have had to be in before release in my opinion I think not addressing these things hurt the games reputation killed a good chunk of it’s player base and honestly sometimes it feels to me like the lobbies are getting more lonely I’m worried that between the massive content droughts bad player relations and a lack of late game content are going to bleed the player base over time until the game dies and I do love this game a lot
i agree, to me the initial careers were obviously last minute placeholders, they didn’t meet the “more expansive” system they promised, and copied a ton of the mechanics directly from V2 characters
and lastly they massively undelivered in terms of characters/ career play-styles compared to the predecessor
all those points are classic signs of not having enough time
so im with OP, not only do i think the career update should have been the depth at launch from player expectation side but i also think FS always meant to have a similary deep career system than we have now from the beginning.
wich also means i don’t consider them to have delivered on their promise to deliver new class quarterly (and since they never cleared up their hypothetical new aim((obviously)),they are to this exact promise still very much beholden to in my view).
but then again, its very much redundant to classify any of this, since no matter wich promise we talk about, they gonna underdeliver, best case scenario is when they “technically met” the goal…
Honestly crazy to demand a talent tree as fleshed out as what we got in patch 13 in a post comparing to helldivers
In that game you have what, 4 stratagem slots, 3 weapon slots (including grenade) and a body armour slot that tangibly affects your build. DT had a truck tonne more build diversity than that literally day 1. At this point WITH the talent trees it’s like orders is magnitude more actual impactful RPG elements to influence your gameplay. Yes the acquisition method sucks in DT, but I have no idea how you play HD2 and think to yourself that it somehow puts even release DT to shame in terms of effective RPG elements.
@Riku I gave my opinion on how I think that went before, but this is also relevant tying back to OP’s original point.
Just wait a year and come back when they drop a big update. You aren’t missing out on anything. Chances are all the things that annoy you now are gone at that point, or atleast 1 or 2 of them, and if you’re the type to care about cosmetics, rest assured that the stuff they dish up to the current playerbase of 3k or whatever is just the leftover garbage nobody really wants anyway. They’ll release the cool sets right with the big update, like the Krieg set did. You’ll probably have to pay more aquilas for it by then though.
I consider the branches to be equal to new classes, as they basically are the same thing but in a different form. And they never promised a fixed amount so it very much could be that they’ll not make any further ones.
irrelevant, neither have they confirmed that they consider the class rework to be → delivering on the promise, nor have they confirmed that no more classes will make it into the game
so as always information is stuck in limbo and the problem its pure speculation on our part what is meant to be what.
Fatshark had at least the partial backing of Microsoft. I’m shocked they didn’t lean into that more and utilize MS resources and expertise for the network infrastructure. Every game I’ve played that uses Azure is radically more responsive on the network side than Darktide. Missed opportunity for sure.
This is such bs. Everything you put in this post hurts my brain. What content has HD2 put out? A mech? You are exaggerating, fibbing and whining here like a little spoiled kid.
