bro i reverse image searched your pfp are you an astrophysicist
More like, they use an image of an astrophysicist for their profile picture.
Scabs are pretty low quality enemies as well tbh. It seems like over half the conventional traitor guards are armed with clubs and machetes lol. What happened to all their guns?
And chainswords. Yeah, there’s very little differentiation between Scab and Cultists at the moment, outside of Scabs being better armored.
I’d like to see Dreg Ragers be able to keep pace with a max mobility combat knife, and not use the combo that locks them into an animation as often. Make a small group of them a higher threat that can’t just be kited endlessly, but must be dealt with before a knife player can kite enemies.
That said, I like the high mobility aspect of knife so ideally it would be specific types of enemies that are able to act as more of a hard counter for high mobility weapons. The knife doesn’t have CC or much cleave, so it makes sense that a group of Ragers (3-4) should be a hard counter to it.
As for Scabs, they should feel more oppressive in ranged than they are currently, more tactical. They should be able to lockdown a path better, force players to flank rather than just blitz in with dodge-slide spam and wreck the Gunners. Scab Shotgunners should spawn as a 1-1 pair with Scab Gunners in roaming groups and ambushes, also their shots should not be dodgeable by sliding. Rather than go into melee like the less trained Cultists, ideally they would blast away at melee range making melee suicide until Scab Shotgunners are blasted with a headshot. They’re very weak enemies, most ranged weapons can OHKO them with headshots.
Scab Gunners should get a Carapace head so they’re less susceptible to being OHKO’d when peaking out of cover, and should have a higher suppression resistance. Blaze Bolts should not shut down Scab Gunners. Scab Gunners should mount their guns when peaking out from behind cover, giving them much greater accuracy and fire rate, so their spawn count can be reduced. They should also drop Smoke Grenades right before they begin their volley, that Shotgunners, Scab Shooters and other Scab Gunners can aim through.
Hopefully the new Scab Suppression Shield enemies will have Shotpistols they wield as they peek from behind their shield, periodically using the Shield’s Flashbang feature when players get within close range. The Flashbang would ideally not allow players to dodge, or Sprint for a short period of time - if players were looking at the Shield when the Flashbang went off.
Anyway, just a few ideas.
Honestly I’d add more onto this. All the suggestions below would act as compensation for lesser spawns:
Scabs ranged troops should be more responsive to ranged combat since they are a military faction. They should be noticeably harder to fight with from a distance. Things like:
- Every Scab ranged enemy reacts much faster when bullets start flying;
- Scab Shooters and Gunners run faster to cover compared to their Dreg Counterparts. You could even switch their running animation to the one of Flamers. This running animation looks more intense and could justify why they are moving noticeably faster when running;
- Scab Stalkers, Gunners, Shotgunners move faster while shooting (compared to their Dreg counterparts);
- Scab Shotgunners:
- having a new special dodge mechanic (after using it would go on cooldown - 5/7 seconds) where they make a quick dodge animation to either left or right which would make it harder to hit them with ranged weaponry. As a reference point check out the dodges of an Agitator from Helldivers 2;
- doing less damage but shooting faster because their shotguns clearly have a much bigger magazine compared to the Dreg one;
- Having a new special melee attack that only activates on higher difficulties when a player gets close into melee range on higher difficulties. An attack where their melee is drawn and used to strike the target in one single, quick motion. This attack would knock a player back a little just like the shield bash of a Bulwark does.
As to melee Scabs, it all comes down to attack speed or new attack animations:
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All Scab enemies should take away more stamina if their attacks are blocked. That would be underlining that they actually received training and know in what way to swing and hit to make their strikes more impactful;
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Scab bruisers should either:
- have new attack animations that are harder to read compared to the Dregs;
- faster attack animation compared to the Dregs;
- have a new attack where they make two swings in a quick succession (if blocked, the first swing wouldn’t stagger them, only the second one would).
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Scab Maulers should either:
- Have their overhead attack be faster (on higher difficulties);
- Have a new attack animation based on the moment from Darktide’s trailer “Rejects will rise” at around 0:55/0:56 mark. An upward attack followed by an overhead strike. I imagine this attack would be made when the Mauler is in his running animation, and it could have two versions. One where the overhead strike is done standing still (like in the trailer) and second where it’s done with Mauler also walking forward, in case the player dodges the initial upward strike. Said upward strike should take away all stamina and stagger the player for a second, like the Bulwark bash, making it harder to dodge the follow-up overhead.
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Scab Ragers should:
- Be more resistant to stagger since they are covered in armor which means they weight more and should be harder to knock down.
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Scab Capitans: I already went over the potential buffs they could receive here:
Just some suggestions to feed the void with.
Those are all great ideas honestly.
Making every Scab grunt wear carapace is an actually horrible idea, and makes no lore sense whatsoever. Also horrible for the game. Fatshark’s spam of walls of carapace HP drove the destructive Dueling Sword meta which despite nerfs still badly affects the game.
Unless you play high Havoc, horde enemies aren’t really threating, and even in Havoc they mainly serve as a mass to obstruct your movement and …toughness battery for players. In my old VT2 friend group we used to have that running joke, that the most dangerous enemy is that one slave rat, you didn’t see who downs you after your successful last stand against a mixed horde.
Apparently common shield enemies are being added to Darktide, in the next content drop. That might be interesting.
Possibly, only shame Darktide “gunning experience” is easily the weakest part of the core combat experience. A pretty bad move if you ask me, especially based on H40 experience. Most guns just don’t feel fun to use. Some, like the old bolter, and both bolt pistols have RNG written into their “recoil” behaviour. Some guns are designed for “horde clear”, and as a result have been totally forgotten. Multiple other guns just don’t perform well at tasks they are supposed to excel at.
I would love for Fatshark to play some Counter Strike, and come back to the drawing board. Then limit ammo, to make ammo actually count. Make guns harder to master, but more punchy into the target groups they are supposed to be good at. Limit gun target groups simpler: soft targets and armoured targets, to not over-complicat things.