I’ve played a few hours now (approx. 150 hours) and there is something that keeps on severly annoying me : low levels joining difficulty 3+ missions !
How many of you actually failed a game and wasted some time because some unexperienced player decided to join their mission ? Of course, some higher level players will be really bad and we cannot do anything about that. However, I do think that FS should prevent:
Players below level 10 from joining difficulty 3+ missions;
Players below level 20 from joining difficulty 4+ missions.
Just a heads up but if you… say, level up your Ogryn to 30 and decide to give the Veteran a spin… that Veteran will be level 1. The player still remain one confident in playing on 3+ difficulties.
…of course, most of the time this wouldn’t be the case. Just sayin’.
Sometimes that is the case for sure. Though 9/10 it’s usually someone who’s dying about 20 times a match and takes all the ammo etc lol. Gear level also seems to matter a decent amount in dark tide.
Personally I don’t care too much, I feel like it would be more unfun for the low level who keeps dying. But imagine they want to level faster so pick the higher XP missions. I tend to play with a pre formed group, so we manage fine, but I can imagine random groups could have a harder time and some sort of minimum gear level would make sense, akin to vt2.
The issue is the Weapon Ratings and such.
An amazing pro player with lvl 1 gear and no feats will still get stomped into the dust at Heresy. Now, as a player approaches the higher levels this discrepancy gets lesser and lesser of course. Yes I know, some level 13’s manage to do Heresy.
We talk about the status quo.
In general I agree with the sentiment, but I’d lock it differently.
The problem is the lack of key talents below 20. All classes become fully functional at higher levels, when you start getting synergies between talents and your signature ability. I do think difficulties 4 and 5 should be capped lvl 20 or 25.
Once we get private lobbies this won’t be a problem, in theory, and you can make your own laws in your own little kingdom. Otherwise playing with randoms is…random.
As it stands I have never ever cared about what level someone who joins Malice is. 4+ I do, but for 1-3 it honestly doesn’t matter and people can contribute with nothing equipped and little knowledge of the game. And don’t you like feeling like a hero when you carry a team of low level players?
Same complaints everyone had about Champion in VT2 like it was some super elite difficulty that only the pros should be allowed in. The community trying to level gate is the kind of stuff that drives new players away from the game, guaranteed.
I agree people can be exceptionally gatekeepy, however i do feel that malice without a level 5 toughness regen perk sounds far too much a liability for your team.
V2 had a staggered approach to its difficulty scales as well and i felt pretty good about those. While it was a little annoying getting a friend to buy a game I had 300 hours in and i had to play on recruit for a bit and handhold, it was good to teach them good habits in recruit and veteran before getting to champion difficulty and not just usher them into a difficulty where i had to carry even harder.
Fatshark has referenced Deep Rock Galactic for some of its inspiration, in that game in order to unlock higher difficulties you have to do 4 missions of the nearest difficulty to earn the higher difficulty. I feel like this is good positive feedback to the player and exciting to do.
If curios were able to be switched around and not level locked, then maybe i would feel okay with my fresh characters hopping into malice out of character creation but i generally wait until level 10, even if i do know what im doing.
The best part is the lvl 5 Zealot perk was broken during beta (about regenning bonus toughness when enemies are nearby) and people still managed Malice with them.
But yeah, a system like DRG could be good. I’m just generally not one for blocking content from players, in the same way I don’t like having to unlock characters in roguelites.
I’ve a psyk lvl 30, a vet lvl 30 and an ogryn lvl 10. I know what it is and yes, I could easily finish diff 3 missions while lvl 8 with a psyk because I knew how to play. I’ve done games with lvl 30 zealots who still didn’t know they had stun grenades --’
I “could” agree for a lvl 5 to join a diff 3, even if I am not convinced (new players don’t have the lvl for it but if it’s a 2nd char, then ok), but lvl 15 for a diff 4 ? forget it.
First, he’ll be missing 3 perks out of 6, which is really incapacitating. Second, his gear will be total crap. Third, I’ve played enough hours and tried enough times diff 4 missions to know that for one lvl 15 able to complete them, 1000 won’t be.
I totally agree.
I would however add a condition to this : the player has to finish 4 times a diff 2 mission without dying (he can get downed but not become a casualty). This way, it will give the feeling he knows how to play his character… If he’s carried all the time because he keeps on dying, then he would still not have the lvl for a diff 3.
The same system would apply for diff 4 missions and so forth.
Moreover, most classes unlock their proper gear at lvl 10:
ogryns unlock their shield and mace;
psyks unlock the different staves;
I think zealots unlock the flamer or the hammer
and i forgot what the vets do unlock at that level but it doesn’t really matter for them.
Part of the problem is the mission select map in the hub. New people want to try new maps and sometimes they have to pick a higher difficulty to get something new.
Well, thing is - The High-Intensity and Low-Intensity encounter modifiers make a big difference and with the Low-Intensity / Fewer Hordes modifier for Heresy, you end up playing something that almost feels like an in-between difficulty between Uprising and Malice.
So it’s certainly doable. with lvl 15.