Fever enemies but those that spawn in are tougher.
This is literally what I want the main game to have. Less enemy spam but beefier enemies. If only they hit harder too…
I hope the feedback to this one will be positive, so there’s a chance it becomes a reality for the normal missions. Then again I may just eat my words like I’m a hungry Ogryn who just got his rations if the concept will be executed badly, which I hope it won’t.
Hammer out!
Well, time to eat my words I guess.
I played a version where apparently the enemies were tougher. It was less spammy overall, but still spammy in that Darktide way. Can’t say it felt bad, it definitely felt more tactical overall, though elites and specials I can’t say still felt all that elite or special still.
Will need to play some more to form an opinion. The first attempt ended in a failure, the area was literally swamped with ragers in numbers you’d see only Poxwalkers in. The second attempt went better, but still had quite a high number of enemies spawn. But it still felt more breathable.
My initial impression of this is very poor. Had a hi int auric comms plex (because histg wasnt on the board, we love unelectable modifiers). Game was boring as hell. I expected a game with dense elite groups replacing hordes, something like the vermintide 2 deed The Vanguard, or something like havoc 40’s elite density but with the normal auric enemy health and player health. But instead what i got was a mode with timed hordes entirely disabled, each room had less ambient elites than a havoc 40 room, and the only noticeable change about elite spawning was that during the mid events it repeatedly spammed the scheduled elite waves, and those elite waves were bigger than normal. And of course most events skew their event waves towards ranged enemies, so it just became a speedrun mode where events throw 30 shotgunners, or gunners, or plasma gunners at you at once, and keeps spawning the waves as you kill them. Overall i didn’t have fun, especially since most rooms i was walking around looking for something to do but got nothing because there aren’t enough enemies to keep up with the scrier’s gaze deimos psyker i got matched with who held W through the whole map one shotting every elite.
fewer enemies 
if the arena at the end of carnival literally filling up with waves of ragers means fewer… no idea if the spawn director just broke, or one has to fight through the waves and launch the flare, and then it stops… (it got ruined by a trapper right there)
Ya, some in game events are pretty nuts with this modifier. My first map was Dark Communion and the ambush section probably had dozens upon dozens of ragers lol.
I’ve had fun with the event so far, only played two games though.
First one was with hunting grounds, with two psykers (one smiter and one purgatus), my shieldgryn, and forgot the last one. Went as smooth as you can imagine, with entire hordes of ragers/maulers getting stunlocked and burned to ashes.
Second game showed how quickly grut can hit the fan if you come unprepared. That must have been a miserable experience for that guy who joined from QP without being able to deal with that much armour…
Interestingly enough, I’ve yet to play with a krak Veteran, I imagine this must be a great playground for them?
sad to see such flood of enemies required because some weapons / abilities nullify them.
yes, krak vet does quite a good job. i just wanted the event insignia quickly
I’ve lost some, but overall it’s a . . . change of pace? I can definitely see how this nets them useful data. They’ve narrowed their data set down, can see how weapons do against armored enemies in the wild. At least I HOPE they are studying this data.
the event is fun until a melee scum is making it a running simulator.
hope these snippets of data collected from “outliers” make it to next “adjustment” 
Wait an event in auric that doesn’t constantly spam the best the game has to throw at you all at once.
500 Aquilas?
No Aquilas
Played it some more yesterday, it was definitely fun, though I admit not what I expected. I personally think they should’ve gone further if they wanted to experiment with this concept, make enemies meaningfully tougher and dangerous, but maybe even less of them around compared to right now.
But to be fair the tide aspect of the enemies has its own charm too, so I can’t quite say I am sure which is better. Maybe best to somehow provide both.
This is my take too. I wouldn’t still be playing the game if it didn’t have ridiculously frenetic, adrenaline pumping action.
But I do quite enjoy the occasional time I get to one on one a crusher or boss with a subpar weapon and have to utilize my knowledge of their attack patterns, my weapon’s patterns & special, my build’s strengths/weaknesses, my map knowledge, etc.
Me too, I think they should really go with the idea to release modifiers you had and maybe, since this seems to be a big discussion point, maybe make “Tide” and “Elite” as two separate foundation modes to call em that. I do not know if we will see such a thing because it will take some work though.
But maybe we can get to pick two subgames within the same game this way, depending on preferences. Something like Elite (but less numbers than now maybe) + Rotten + that one modifier that makes dead enemies leave DOT on the ground. Or just the usual tide.
@Bulanskovich @CH3DD4R_G0B-L1N I’m curious, what do you think of Vermintide 2, regarding the topic at hand? Because the spawns in that game are just not spammy like they are in Darktide, do you feel that it lacks the “tide” aspect?
To preface I am not really that great in either game, and I played Darktide more than Vermintide 2, though I did start with Vermintide 2. I think the spawns in Vermintide 2 fit the balance and flow of the game. The characters there feel slower, clunkier and there’s just 6 talents to choose from. It feels alright, but I didn’t get to the top difficulties to really give you a solid opinion.
As for Darktide, to keep it simple, I think the design of the game and characters fits more spawns than Vermintide 2 for sure, but to me personally at times they just feel excessive. Like walls of bullwarks and crushers. Feels goofy at times, just the way some maps are designed implies this wasn’t the intention.
Sadly I wait to see old hordes returning… so when we had few elites / specials and giant hordes.
No luck for me. There times are definitively over.
I’m generally asking because due to Vermintide’s lack of enemy spam, there are a lot of quiet moments and last time I played, I realized just how empty the maps are compared to Darktide. On Legendary difficulty you can walk into an entire square and see that it has only a few chaff enemies, one or two elites and that’s it.
Of course what allows for such small spawn rates is things like not being able to run and in-turn never being able to outrun enemies, having very sparce ammo so it’s no use immediately killing the few roaming enemies you see but in the end it creates a very good atmosphere that fits the entire “Everyone’s dead and only rats and heretics remain” feel that the game is going for. It also makes it that much more effective when the horde spawns in, and we’ve gone from quiet to chaos in an instant.
There’s no such feeling in Darkitde. The game never lets player breathe, and it works to the game’ss detriment.
I was hoping the event would make it so we are allowed to breathe and take in the environment, character dialogue etc. but unfortunately this event was just another “fill the quota of requried dev activity on the game” rather than an actual test to see how fewer spawns will affect the gameplay’s experience.
