Here is my frustration:
Started playing a new character from 1 and playing since level 20 Heresy.
Giving the ability to play Heresy should NOT be for anyone less than level 30.
(Maybe if they have at least 2-3 characters on level 30, it could be allowed)
Seems like now 70% of all players encountered in Heresy should not really be playing on that difficulty, as they are level 10-20 as they are getting downed like every 3-5min.
Please lock Heresy to level 30 and then gate Damnation and Auric after that like they are today.
It’s been a very very bad user experience when complete novice players are allowed into Heresy.
I did not think it was this bad when leveling Hive Scum from 150->200
(personal fixation to have all classes on even 100:s level (true level) before next class release)
It’s been the complete horror show when starting from level 1 with all the PS5 players that seems to have gotten into the game and they really don’t have a clue.
And before anything wants to say I haven’t played enough since Beta:
Edit: Or Fatshark - give us PC players the option to disable cross play. I’d turn xplay off instantly as bots are more useful than what I get now in the past 10-15 games, as out of those games only 1 has been fun and it was only Steam players that knew how to play.
Rest have been dying PS5 players
The real issue is that the lower difficulties are an absolute cakewalk, so people assume damnation and auric will be too. Can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen lvl 27 players in auric who run forward every single choke point and get surrounded, only to repeat the same thing as soon as they’re alive, because they’re used to not being punished at all for playing like that. Lower difficulties training you to push constantly because there are no enemies on the map is the real problem.
the progression curve is messed up to a cursed degree yes. the old system was far better. it didn’t make people feel like they had to progress through the difficulties AS much and they were more content playing heresy until they got the hang of it
they could probably salvage the current system by tuning it so you hit level 30 by the time you’re halfway through heresy, then explicitly unlocking damnation and auric and calling the progression quits there. like just “okay you did it you did the progression, wasnt heresy hard? you filled the bar! now you can do these optional bonus difficulties if you like”
part of the problem is also that loadout disparity is so high that many of those new players actually CAN do just fine on damnation/auric if they just pick some meta loadout. the other, lesser problem is that these people even if they fail personally get carried by 1-2 teammates who aren’t totally new because player power has gone up so much that it’s fairly easy to carry 2-3 dead weights on aurics now
all of these factors combine into an increasing amount of players who feel like they should queue into aurics, get their lights punched out by it, but feel like it’s totally where they belong because OP loadouts and OP teammates carry them through enough for them to be fine with it
i dont ever recall having this issue in vt2 btw. people would self regulate and tell eachother “move onto the next difficulty when you can comfortably do your difficulty without dying or taking up too much healing”
there should simply be a system for characters beyond the first honestly, it’s beyond stupid that im expected to play malice missions on my skitarii in a couple weeks
auric should be level locked, and havoc behind auric completions (more than one), otherwise level requirements on heresy & damnation is kind of.. silly
FS should add level limitation to auric n auric maelstrom so that i wont encounter high leveled gamers carrying their friends with low levels. once i was playing arbiter in auric maelstrom then quick joined a match with 2 zealots. im sure they were friends n one of them was only level 17. that level 17 dude didnt even know what to do so he kept dying and we had to leave most of the medicay for him. i aint his babysitter. i dont want to play with a newbie who aint know about the map in auric maelstrom
Like I said, having one or more level 30 chars could bypass it, but as it stands now with all the influx of PS5 players at level 10-15 playing heresy is horrible.
It was better previously with the level cap if my memory serves me at all.
(or then it’s too long a go since since I played a new char as all my other ones are between 200-1000)
For now I’m just killing time till the new class comes along, but right now the novice players in too high difficulties are killing at least me instead
I don’t want to babysit the rest of the squad - this has turned into me playing almost solo and then maybe ressing people at the end if needed for some event. Again bots would be my choice instead of these level 10-15 PS5 players
I mean yeah the real solution here is the ability to disable cross play, and ideally a solo mode (as promised years ago) would also be implemented.
Unfortunately the former almost certainly won’t happen, and the latter at very least ain’t happening any time soon.
I think a level limit for your first character only sounds good on paper, but I’ve actually lost people I’ve tried to get into the Tide franchise because we were forced to do so many abysmally boring low difficulty missions before they were allowed by the game to play something vaguely stimulating.
If you’re trying to get friends into this game, meaning you’re already a quasi pre made, level requirements become vastly more bad than good for your experience.
I’d be ok with a first character level requirement ONLY IF there was a way to bypass it by being in a strike team with a level 30 player.
This part is in the game?
But it could be that it’s only in private games, as we pulled a level 16-20(?) HS through a few damnation missions. I can’t remember
And that would be fine if you have dedicated people keeping one player alive, but not when you have 3 complete novices dying every 2-5min like it’s right now.
This is a little more complicated than you’re making it out to be. Realistically playing on a higher difficulty means a higher chance of failure, as well as very likely longer time spent for each mission. If the rewards are made the same, playing content that challenges you actually turns into a significant per hour loss in resources gained.
You don’t want to encourage players to go too far above their skill level, but you equally don’t want to create a system that encourages grinding lower difficulties for efficient resource gain. Accordingly you need to have increased rewards for higher difficulty, but carefully set to give a roughly equal per hour return.
Havoc is kind of the exception here, since you should be reasonably expected to be fully kitted out before climbing into the higher levels. That’s the one place where I think it would be wise to have lower per hour reward rate to ensure everyone is there for the right reasons.
It was definitely better before they made the change.
I’m always perplexed as to how these devs think.
I think what happens is, players do the ten missions and think the game is telling them they are ready for the next tier when they certainly are not. Ten wins on Heresy does not in any way mean you are ready for Damnation. Forget Auric.
The player ability needs to inform the game on their skill level and then unlock the difficulty when it’s at least viable/close. Having various penance requirements would be one way to do it.
I think the fun of the game is playing the game and doing penances etc. Grinding for resources has never ever been fun by any stretch of the imagination.
The only grind I think there should be is for melkbucks contracts if the melkbucks could be used to recolour your cosmetics (ie not gameplay affecting like weapons blessings etc).
Give people an easy way to get the many pointless rEtEnTiOn resources for simply trying out new blessings or perks as they please.
I think you underestimate the propensity of the general player base to optimise fun out of a game. It’s considerable enough to design around where reasonable to do so IMO.
I have always hated the resourse system and feel as though it restricts any true build exploration until you’ve sunk hundreds of hours and collected enough to play with. It’s arbitrary fluff. You just can’t explore the deep and complex build system with any ease.
But if you enjoy it then I guess some must and if so, keep the system but keep the same rewards for the topmost 3 tiers IMO. That is where the issues really begin. So you would still have the sense of progress and achievement for new comers to reach the peak rewards tier of Heresy. Then people could choose to dabble in Damnation or Auric if they want the challenge. They will still need to do so for many penances but could drop back down to heresy afterward if they feel it’s too intense (with no penalty for rewards).
