I’ve been lurking for a bit but I just wanted to add my 2 cents to the general discussion.
I enjoyed the more stagger resistant enemies for how they change the dynamic of the game.
While waiting for WoM I had been playing Vermintide 1 again and was struck by how methodical and paced everything was. You had to be deliberate in your actions and gauge carefully as enemies were a real threat. Vermintide 2 has been fun and I have enjoyed every minute of the game, but my friends and I have joked how the four of us kill a 1000 point army every match. The faster pace was balanced out by increasing the numbers of enemies, but it rendered the kill counts farcical and feeds into another problem I’ll propose below.
While playing the last couple of days my friends and I were quite impressed with how dangerous the enemies had become and enjoyed the added challenge. Coordination became more important, there were excited discussions of tactics and weapon combos. The sound of a horde moving in was met with calls of “Tighten the formation! Shields up, spears out!” as people deployed in a phalanx to protect the ranged specialists. They, in turn, pick off the critical enemy leadership before they can disrupt the formation.
The gameplay as of yesterday was a tense, but satisfying, dance of tactical requirements that you just didn’t get in the past. In a large part because you didn’t need specialists on a team and because constant dodging would pull people away from each other.
So overall I have found the changes have: increased communication, incentivized coordination and changed up play styles for the better.
That said, I understand that some are not happy with how ‘sticky’ combat has become. Each opponent is harder to defeat and, with the number of enemies involved, it takes longer to move through the level as a result. This problem, alluded to above, could be offset by reducing the number of enemies allowing the same pace of movement through the level.
Of course, needing to retaining a rapid pace is perhaps its own issue, fed by two other subsystems. First you only get rewarded by finishing the level and second the longer you’re in the level the more likely you’ll make a costly mistake. Quicker levels have less chance for mistakes and thus more chance for rewards. Stronger enemies make the levels take longer, thus increasing the chance of mistakes and thus decreasing rewards.
Personally, this doesn’t really matter, I’m here for the gameplay with friends not the victory screen but I can understand the vicious cycle this might inspire.
This discussion veers on a tangent now, but perhaps finding gear in the level as a result of time spent in the match might break the negative feedback loop. Though that’s almost as though suggesting Vermintide-Diablo.
Anyway back on the original topic: I see the stagger resistance was dropped in today’s patch. I hope this is an initial adjustment and that steadily things will be moved up to a balance point between formations of specialists and lone wolf generalists.
Either way: Thank you Fat Shark for the fun game.
The intent is there and a lot of the ideas are good individually there’s just some unfortunate consequences when you bring them all together. Weapon breakpoints changing with difficulty, hyperdensity and 1000+ kills per player.