After having played for 174 hrs in total with my time in CB, these are the things I’ve compiled that would greatly benefit the game to add and hopefully Fatshark will at least sift through some listed herein:
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Bring back defensive objectives! – This should really be a no brainier. In V1 it added additional challenge and yes even at times made it where you could be failing same mission ad infentium (I’m sure there are plenty of harrowing stories that abound and people still have flashbacks of the first cata wellwatch runs ofc!) but lets face it, those moments esp the wards on wiz tower could be some of the finest in the first game and added depth to the game in making you feel immersed in the world as part of the band of misfit ordinary heroes holding the line and protecting those who have need of you. In this game that feeling is nonexistent.
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New last stand - Honestly I had been bemused by the absence of this mode, or even so much as an attempt to overhaul it. For instance, you can just have it where there are levels specifically for this mode and if you survive all the series than you get rewarded weapons. Also, they could be made in the same vein as slaughterdomes in BL2 and you could integrate the traps back into the game this way. I think this would be a great way to satisfy both vets and newcomers to see something like this implemented.
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Classic mode - One of the key things that is missing without a doubt is the process by which players decided on what kind of things they’ll take to match and compliment what others brought specifically when it came to trinkets. This dynamic always reminded me of guild wars 1 where you could only equip certain skills at a time but IT MADE YOU THINK and have to be selective as to what skill sets best served over all team. Better still, it taught people about thinking things out long term and learning about this key dynamic in life called trade offs. Meaning, you cant have it all and learning how to work effectively as a unit to mitigate weaknesses is allot of the time the best you can do. Furthermore, having two grims without every other person just sporting max curse resistances + revive speeds given out sooo freely it stifles the challenge
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Lorebook pages – This is just a given. If you want players to be better oriented and to care about this Helmgart setting then this is the way to do it.
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red item fixes – Re-implement loot table that would count off reds you already have and prevent you from getting dupes. Also, PLEASE allow use to have alt skins that turn off the really bad looking blue glow items. If I want to have my sienna proper sienna bright order blade that is true to the lore and stay burning red I should not have that denied to me
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NPCs in missions – This would be really neat to see escort missions where you have to lets say get them to your keep whilst baddies burn down their village and attack you. Granted, I’m not sure if this fits with the lore or not considering helmgart setting seems desolate.
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Revert nonsensical weapon changes – Please just revert handguns and brace of pistols back to where you left them in the first game. These weapons are just completely under performing at almost every level. Also, another thing that had been changed that makes no sense is the inablity to consecutively shield bash. In addition, change the drakefire pistols back and give us back the old charge bar that is more clear on overheat.
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No resources as chest rewards – This is just logical, as constantly opening up emp boxes that can have up to two spaces inside of them wasted by the new silly resources is absurd. After all, you’re inevitably going to get loads of dupe greens etc anyway that you can just mass salvage for the resources easily enough.
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Assemblage objectives – This could be a really cool and neat new objective type. For sake of simplicity I’ll yet again recall an exp of one such type from my time playing guild wars: in one of the first mission series you had to go around collecting parts for this catapult in order to destroy this thing that would let you progress. Well, gee, now that would had been WAAAY more interesting and better to have had for say that sequence in the warcamp instead of the payload objective where you actually got to assemble catapult and use it to clear the gate. Just a thought…
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More items – Again, this should go without saying. Really shocked they didn’t have any new grenade kind and only one new potion. Frankly, they should had just added in smoke grenade that they had modeled from the first and then as new potion type have one that benefited ranged or even somethings like a freeze bomb… Obviously there’s allot of room here for development and we’ll see
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QoL features – Another self explanatory point. The devs even stated on stream they have learned allot from such mods, but yet did not show it in this game as the UI is actually worse esp the cartoony tab menu that no longer allows you to still see in front of your character whilst at the menu – for ex if you need to kick which is yet another thing needing fixing as the menu on occasion will grey out the options. Also, sound notifications like the ones from the first game that so highlights on the character portrait when they talk would just be wonderful to have back!
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Buff & debuff ques – Again, no idea why these things weren’t brought back as it really helps to know what enemies have off balance debuff etc etc…
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Variety of mission escapes/entries – Lets be honest, just always having this giant over protective portal at the end for EVERY mission is LAME. give us back escape vessels or something new even perhaps? I mean, they could even just have some new magical spectral stage coach that characters actually climb into from all sides when they leave. Same goes for having better diversity in intros to missions.
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More destructible environment! – Really surprised this hasn’t been brought up. When fatshark gave us the waylaid mission with the sequence with the ratties and ogre breaking through the floor I thought for sure this was a prelude for better destructible environment to come. granted, they have some like the grim spot on EiF but it really should go without saying that it would be awesome if the new bosses can come at you from multiple areas and even from below…
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Sparing ground/arena for keep – A really good idea ofc considering the amount of downtime betwixt pugs you get whilst in keep. Plus, believe it or not there were many of us who were expecting a improved pub brawl to be a thing here…
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Trade – Self explanatory. It would be really nice if there were more integral interactivity you can have amongst those in your team. Also, just as a disclaimer: I’m not advocating or giving license to any idea there should be an auction house or something of that nature just a simple p2p trade system will suffice for a game like this.
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More distinct & thoughtful new weapons – Ofc this goes without saying, but I’m really surprised that they didn’t even think of having some obvious ones such as throwing axes for the dwarf and even something as simple as say a bow that has flaming shots or just maybe a staff for sienna that allows her to have a firewhip instead of just a copy pasta flamethrower…
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Added input from Lohner & Oeysha – This should be a given. We hardly know enough about these two… which brings me to my next point
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Better character development – This is something that they promised on launch that we would be given distinctive lines etc to fill the players in on how the characters have grown, but that seems plainly missing atm. Also, why not have missions that explore the characters past more? I mean we already were given some of that in wiz tower in the illusions sequence and yet for some stupefying reason they have chosen not to explore this further…
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Boons – I could easily see these being re implemented by being introduced as a new reward for doing deeds. + the return of contracts would be a further boon here dare I say.
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better map for mission select – This should be a given as well. In the old game we had map that gave spatial depth to where each mission was placed in and around. Also, it showed us by sigils which maps we had done on what difficulties and was just objectively better than the soul less plaque from which we select missions to play from in this game.
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Improved bosses – This has to happen. I was absolutely disgusted by how much a push over this supposed chaos lord is … You shouldn’t be able to mass stagger and knock down a chaos lord with these characters. They’re not supposed to be freaking demi gods you know
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Less linear maps – This should had been self explanatory, but it seems it begs repeating… There needs to be more maps like those in games like deathwing where you can explore multiple new avenues to take each time …
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Better level design – Admittedly, this could’ve just as easily been just a tie in with the point above and not made separate, but I felt compelled to single this out as the level design is just not as good nor as captivating. It is not just because of linearity though, but rather it is also the decision to keep in needless giant speed bumps like the lowering of the cannon on righteous stand which is objectively less good than its counterpart from the first game horn of magnus in terms of both depth and dynamics
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Ending/reward! – Last, but certainly not least, why oh why did they not include this from the onset? I mean, this is 2018. You should not be committing such an obvious cardinal sin in game design this day and age such as this! I mean, even the first mario game had this. The very least they could had done was give us some new line/ cosmetic. Moreover, you did set the player up expecting there to be one by virtue of the intro sequences and tut that there would be some form of binding resolution even if its partial like V1 which was WAAAAY more satisfactory when it comes to this point.