As the title states, below is my wishlist for changes/updates/tweaks to the game as someone with a lot of hours in it. If people have thoughts on it, cool, but I direct this mainly to any Fatshark staff that might read it. Anyhow, here goes:
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Redo the crafting system, damn near from the ground up. Minimize the RNG wherever possible. I want options for buying base weapons by rating range, so I can pay more but be guaranteed a better roll. I’m fine with the price scaling exponentially, as long as the option is there. I should be able to purchase blessings. Again, I’m fine with the price being outrageous for the higher tiers, just don’t leave it up to chance like it is now.
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Proper and meaningful weapons customization. There’s a mod out there called weapon customizer that let’s you swap around pieces on all weapons. Besides putting different sights on some of them, it’s entirely cosmetic. I think this should be an actual mechanic in the game, but with stat and functionality changes with it. I should be able to put a bayonet on my Lasgun and use it. I should be able to acquire high capacity magazines for certain autoguns, etc. This would add a new and, in my opinion, better gameplay loop centered around acquiring new weapon attachments and maybe the odd cosmetic piece(barrels, grips, etc) rather than just harvesting enough coin and resources to eventually get a lucky roll and get what you want.
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Clearer separation between high tier difficulties. I’m sure this is offensive to some but there has to be clearer differences in who has access to what missions. Malice should be unlocked at about level 8, Heresy at around 15 and Damnation at 30. Maelstrom missions should disappear from the regular mission board and be redirected to the Auric page. Speaking of which, I feel those need higher level caps than level 30, which leads to my next item.
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Redo the level system, somewhat. Nothing drastic, just remove the ceiling. Leave all the unlocks as they are, but let the level count keep going indefinitely. In general, there’s a vast difference in skill level between someone who just hit level 30 and someone who’s the equivalent of a level 300 player. They’ll both be listed as level 30 without mods, but they are not the same. In my opinion, the Auric page should be restricted to those at least level 50 and above. Hot take maybe, but I’ve seen so many Auric missions with people at levels 30-40 in the majority fall apart from really basic misses and mistakes that more experienced players would not make. Maybe remove the difficulty cap for private sessions though, just so randoms don’t have to be burdened with carrying unexperienced players who are out of their depth. This way they get a reasonable space where they can practice at harder missions.
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More customization options. More faces that don’t look so… drastic. There’s a reason the John Darktide face is everywhere and it’s because it’s the only one who looks like a normal person. I get that it’s 40k and the faces there now are actually sort of thematic and fit real well, but they’re all outliers as far as human faces go and it makes it difficult to make a character that looks right. Same kind of thing goes for hair as well. And of course, we need more personalities and the ability to change it for existing characters. More cosmetic sets that are obtainable through ordo dockets that are not just reskins in different colours. Generic Inquisition troop theme is fine, just a little more mesh/silhouette variety is needed. Speaking of colours, I think we should just be able to customize that per armour piece ourselves really. Some of the colour combinations of certain items drive me nuts, especially the ones that don’t actually match in colour or pattern with anything else but on their own look really cool. I think what I’m proposing here is a simple and potent fix for a lot of people’s gripes with the customization currently. Also more backpacks.
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More maps and mission types. Self explanatory, though I’m sure it’s on the way.
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More weapons. Things I want are a plasma pistol, a bolt pistol, a stub pistol, a meltagun (I know this was at least planned at some point), some variation of the Combat knife that’s more of an intermediate between the current one and the combat blades, a longlas, more boltgun variants, an autocannon for ogryn, a new staff for psykers that’s kind of machine gunny and faster than the others (think assail but straight shots with less damage and a higher RoF. A storm of darts type of thing), some kind of one handed mace/hammer for the zealot that can do decent AP damage and stun without being big and slow. And probably something else that I’m not remembering at the moment of writing this.
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Custom missions. I want to be able to play whatever map I want with whatever conditions I want at any time. Make these unranked if it irks you for whatever reason, but give me the option. Bonus points if I can tweak it even further by dictating the prevalence or absence of certain enemy types etc (No trappers).
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Stronger lore connection. This latest update was great for this, but we need it more. Dan Abnett is the goat as we all know, so I’m sure there’s great stuff in your vaults we have yet to see. I’d love for it to be incorporated into the game in some compelling manner before this game’s lifecycle comes to an end.
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More classes (?). We’ve all heard this a hundred times I’m sure. The only arguments I’ve heard that would make sense for a new class that fits thematically with what Darktide is about, which is essentially an Inquisition penal battalion, are ratlings. Could be a neat stealth and sharpshooty class. Maybe give it a passive -50% threat or something, I don’t know. I’m sure these conversations are being had internally already but there you go.
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Different game types. It’s the best way I can word it. This might be a far-fetched suggestion or it may not. Seems easy enough to me. Basically what I’d like is a game type or game mode that’s more like a slower paced, space hulk horror type of vibe. Spookier, darker and deadlier. Basically the vibe the release trailer gave off. The current base gameloop I love to death, but the constant high octane of it can get repetitive and kind of exhausting sometimes. Not to mention the amazing atmosphere of this game (kudos to everyone behind it). It’s sadly a little wasted on the current type of gameplay where you’re so caught up in the fight that you don’t really take in what’s around you. Maybe what I’m thinking of can be considered a more lore accurate gameplay style where you’re not a super capable and blessed out of your ass convict soldier, but you’re just another guardsman/priest/ogryn/psyker sent on a suicide mission. It gives you a different type of intense experience that’s more psychological than visceral like the current one. I’d basically like to be scared of the corrupted madness before me and not scoff at it like I do now. I don’t know, it’s just a thought but I think it could really broaden the reach and appeal of the game as well as give longtime players something different to engage in by really just tweaking some values mostly.
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Less restrictive skill trees. The new skill trees saved this game to me, they’re an amazing improvement. Truly. I do think they are sometimes too limiting, though. The point limitation is fine, but it’s the way you have to move through the skill trees that bother me. For example, say there are two really complementary talents that are on opposite sides of the tree but on the same vertical. They could never be used together currently and it takes away player freedom (needlessly). I’m not talking about keystones and such being restricted to one, I’m talking about how going down one path effectively bypasses whole branches of modifiers etc (the psyker tree is the most egregious one in this regard). It becomes this horrible game of distance between things rather than “here are the points I have, these are the skills I want”, which I feel like it should be. Some effort to open the trees up a little I think would be great as it would generate an even greater list of potential builds.
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Enemy rebalance. Again, I’m sure there have been an infinity of takes on this subject but here’s mine. Most specials (my one size fits all term for anything taggable.) are fine in my book, save for a few. The most cursed of all is the trapper and it needs fixing yesterday. It’s too tanky, too stagger resilient and too supernaturally capable. It’s net can fly through several ogryn and dozens of other enemies like nothing and the son of a gun doesn’t even have the decency to be staggered by my revving chainsword in her face. It’s too much, the thing needs a nerf bash and it needs it now. My solution is, make it about as durable as a bomber and get rid of it’s obscene stagger resistance when firing but make it move faster than it does now and shoot faster than it does now and we should have a more reasonable result.
Gunners need to be more inaccurate at medium to medium-long ranges. I get that when I’m incapacitated in front of him, all his rounds are boring into the same square centimeter of my skull, that’s all well and good, but if I’m 20-30 meters away, he should be far less accurate. Give him more suppression and less accuracy because just like a real machine gun, that should be his function, rather than the outright damage dealers they’ve become. Also there’s way too fudging many of 'em.
Pox hounds are a lot better than they were, but they’re still so unbelievably janky. It’s something to do with their traversing animation and the way it leaps, it just keeps screwing its movement up. It’ll leap and stop and morph into the floor or the walls and all kinds of things and it’s long overdue to be fixed. -
Fix the jank. This is a big one for me. Every single enemy, especially the ranged ones, is too damn janky in its movement patterns. It could be anything from starting and stopping 5 times in 5 seconds to doing a 180 turn without a loss of momentum like a damn UFO, to shooting and then running and then back to shooting in less than a second, effectively upping their RoF with some accidental AI cheesing. I’m sure anyone who’s played this game any amount of time, obviously including developers, know what I’m talking about. It’s a nightmare for any sharpshooter class, not to mention it doesn’t make any sense in the first place. Maybe tone down the decision making timer a little because this one’s bad.
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Reduce the arbitrary rate of fire limitations on certain weapons. Don’t make me click 3 times to fire 2 shots, basically. If my actual finger can do it, then my character’s can do it. I’m thinking of the heavy stubbers for the ogryn, the headhunter autoguns and maybe some of the Helbore lasguns uncharged shots, though I can make more sense of it for energy weapons than ballistic ones.
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Add some form of collision for enemies. I know there’s some already, but it’s not enough. Way too many enemies phase through each other in ways that are too clear to me and that just smells a little too much of AI handicap bonus to me. Again, the cursed trapper should have to wait her damn turn and not just ghost her way through her chums to then shoot a ghost net at me through some more of her chums. It’s all just a bit much ya’know.
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Deployables. I think this is a pretty simple but cool concept that should be relatively easy to implement. Things like mines, barriers for cover and obstruction and maybe even usable turrets with limited ammo for the veteran could be neat and useful in the defensive parts of some missions. Ogryn could have the same but bigger. Dunno about the other 2 but I’m sure there’s something.
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Larger strike teams. I’ll save my dreamiest one for last. I think having up to like 8 players in a real crazy maelstrom mission could be amazing but I know I’m probably reaching here. Maybe squeeze it into my custom mission suggestion
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I fookin love this game but it’s not perfect. These are some things I thought of that would help improve it to me. Cheers for the good times Fatshark. I know this game was off to a rough start (and let’s not get it twisted, it was. Yikes.) but the core game is masterfully done in my eyes so major props to the devs behind that.
For da emprah 
