[POLLS] Discussion around balancing the game

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide General Discussion
1

I am just curious how players see the balance desirable in this game.

Here 5 polls around this question.

And no… I don’t have any hope that we’ll see this game balanced again. I am really curious of what this forum community thinks.

Around what should the game be balanced in your opinion?

  • Malice
  • Regular Heresy
  • Regular Damnation
  • Auric Heresy
  • Auric Damnation
  • Havoc 25
  • Havoc 35-40
0 voters

The 2 following polls are about what you consider as the best balanced weapon that should be considered as the average power level we should have.

What, in your opinion, are the ranged weapons that should be used as a reference for power level?

  • Assault Shotgun
  • Bolt Pistol
  • Boltgun
  • Braced Autogun
  • Combat shotgun
  • Flamer
  • Heavy Laspistol
  • Heavy Stubber
  • Helbore Lasgun
  • Infantry Autogun
  • Infantry Lasgun
  • Plasma Gun
  • Psyker Staff
  • Recon lasgun
  • Revolver
  • Ripper Gun
  • Vigilant Autogun
  • Twin-Linked Heavy Stubber
0 voters

Sidenote: Polls are limited to 20 options, so I add to regroup all psyker staves in one choice.

What, in your opinion, are the melee weapons that should be used as a reference for power level?

  • Bully Club
  • Chainaxe
  • Chainsword
  • Cleaver
  • Combat Axe
  • Combat Blade
  • Devil’s Claw
  • Duelling Sword
  • Eviscerator
  • Force Greatsword
  • Heavy Sword
  • Latrine Shovel
  • Pick Axe
  • Power Maul
  • Power Sword
  • Relic Blade
  • Sapper Shovel
  • Shock Maul
  • Tactical Axe
  • Thunderhammer
0 voters

Next 2 polls are about what you consider actually too strong. This is not just OP weapons, but what you think is really too strong and deserves a nerf.

What, in your opinion,are the ranged weapons that are too strong?

  • Assault Shotgun
  • Bolt Pistol
  • Boltgun
  • Braced Autogun
  • Combat shotgun
  • Flamer
  • Heavy Laspistol
  • Heavy Stubber
  • Helbore Lasgun
  • Infantry Autogun
  • Infantry Lasgun
  • Plasma Gun
  • Psyker Staff
  • Recon lasgun
  • Revolver
  • Ripper Gun
  • Vigilant Autogun
  • Twin-Linked Heavy Stubber
0 voters

What, in your opinion,are the melee weapons that are too strong?

  • Bully Club
  • Chainaxe
  • Chainsword
  • Cleaver
  • Combat Axe
  • Combat Blade
  • Devil’s Claw
  • Duelling Sword
  • Eviscerator
  • Force Greatsword
  • Heavy Sword
  • Latrine Shovel
  • Pick Axe
  • Power Maul
  • Power Sword
  • Relic Blade
  • Sapper Shovel
  • Shock Maul
  • Tactical Axe
  • Thunderhammer
0 voters

Final word. I could have added polls about weak weapons and classes… But I wanted to limit the number of polls and focus on the power level we have actually, and what is the power level wanted by the community.

5 Likes
2

Damn that’s a great question. I’m not sure which gun is the most honest but I have the most fun without feeling like a cheat with Bolt pistol (caveat: not using lethal prox with shredder)

Other polls are kind of tough to answer as well because certain weapons are actually overtuned on a single mk or because of a single blessing, but still need to be pointed out. Pointing out overtuned stuff without nuance is a big ask.

3 Likes
3

Voted!

My only question is whether nerfing the outliers improves the game when the director continues to puke out constant waves of elites and specials at you.

I am in full agreement that we should nerf the overperformers and rework some of the inferior alternatives to give them a niche, but I also despise what Darktide has become with the spawn fiesta in every match.

As long as the spawns remain as they are, I don’t see how solely nerfing the broken weapons will help, and Fatshark does not communicate around what they want Darktide to be and play like so who knows?.

Perhaps it’s just me, and I’m out of touch?

I liked original Damnation gameplay pace way more than the clown car show we have today.

I am curious to hear what others think.

4 Likes
4

You know my position of this…

  • HP balance pass for enemies as a true boost for elites
  • Less elites… a lot less, and that’s why they need to be dangerous on their own
  • Horde density increased by a lot and more horde pressure. In other words, waves should have 70 horde enemies
  • Mixed hordes… not all the time, but depending of difficulty Director could mix horde with flak armored enemies (meobians), poxwalkers (infected) and groaners (unarmored).
  • A lot more “lesser enemies” and I would boost them in a different way. So I would make carapace a lot stronger (regarding weapons that can penetrate them), and flak a little reinforced. In other words, I would reduce damages done by weapons against carapace and flak.
2 Likes
5

Nice poll! But just wanted to add tho that the issues above aren’t binary.

Games need to be balanced around all modes & difficulties. Sure some of them (like Auric T5 imo, and havoc tho I don’t play that) should be a higher priority than others sure, but they all matter.

Similar issue with the weapon balances. I picked shotgun as a reference but it’s really not, like, not even a little. All weapons balance a number of things like builds, player skill, playstyles, AoE vs. single target vs. armor etc. it’s impossible to pick just a one to represent all of them, when the whole point is that we should have many different types of weapons.

Which is why weapons like plasma & Duelling Sword which just do it all and for little effort and ignore all the balance constraints other weapons are subjected to, are such a problem imo.

Anyway. Not disagreeing with anything here mind. Just wanted to add some nuance as above. :smiley:

3 Likes
6

I would agree on this. And best example is HD2 that change HP and also behavior of enemies regarding the difficulty.
Sadly, this is not Fatshark vision. And that’s how assail is clearly a game breaker at lower difficulties.

I should have put multiple choices with 3 options. I have think to it too late. But I don’t think it would not permit to see the average power level that the community wants.
By example, nobody has picked (hopefully) the DS as the reference for melee weapons.
But, you’re right that it should have been a multiple choice poll.

Limit is 20 item in polls. If I would ask by each mark and so I would have to create multiple polls. The easiest would have been 1 poll by weapon… Too many.

Take in your mind the strongest weapon of the family. By example, for IAG, it is clearly the Columnus MK V the reference.

3 Likes
7

One thing missing from this game are horde level enemies that are threat multipliers. Enemies that could catch you off guard because they hard countered some actions, but also had weaknesses.

In VT2 it was shielded grunts.

In L4D it was unique infected.

I’m just saying a bruiser with a riot shield or fatass pox walker with a cleave mass of 7 could do a lot.

2 Likes
8

I personally have each build with different weapon combos and don’t particularly like DS much due to having to compensate for its weaker horde clear. Think some nerfs needed for it though specifically where it’s abused in mobility and crusher kills.

Reducing abused power will make game funner especially when matched with others abusing an OP combination for example charging your hammer and swinging only to have everything melt before contact.

Or pushing through map while a speed zealot or psyker look like they are a race car clearing map.

1 Like
9

To actually make the game hard if you removed spawning large amounts of enemies would require removing the skill trees, the sprint key, iframes on dodges and nerfing most weapons.

5 Likes
10

I disagree. If you add a lot more lesser enemies and a bigger horde density and also buff by a lot the HP of elite… I really think it could be interesting (but sure, numbers have to be tweaked to get a balance between difficulty and fun).

Removing skill tree I don’t see why… but sure, less elites would mean a lot less CDR… and that would be really good.

1 Like
11

You cannot balance HP pools if things like perilous combustion exist

1 Like
12

I suspect soulblaze to be too strong. But I don’t play enough psyker.
However, I agree that too strong talents should be balanced.
As I said:

So yes I agree with you. However, I wanted to limit the number of polls.
Last polls series I did (about how the community wants Fatshark to handle mods), I have seen that more polls you put, more chances you get to see the last polls proposed to the user not being answered.

13

game should be balanced around onslaught c3 and deathwish

1 Like
14

difficulty levels are too many and overlapping. why is there still a standard board + an auric one? is regular damnation about as hard as auric heresy?

also havoc being a separate game mode. just streamline everything into a single mission board, make havoc skill 6+7 (ca. up to h30 / h40). it’s like why keep it simple when it can be complicated, every single time.

as for the train + twins missions, perhaps lump them into a single bigger map so they have their place somewhere.

2 Likes
15

The way AoE dot stack spam is a thing for every class in Darktide is kind of killing balance a lot. Add uncanny to the mix and add to the mix that the best weapon in the game gets uncanny and you have the perfect storm of incredibly OP interactions that should’ve been nerfed a year ago but still haven’t been touched for mystery reasons

4 Likes
16

Malice, obviously, its supposed to be the ‘‘normal’’ difficulty level

nonsense, weapons power level shouldn’t be equalized, they should do what expected in warhammer 40k

why would the inquisition bother dig up plasma guns, relics from the age of technology, or buy handcrafted boltguns if they were at the same power level of those battered down autoguns and recon lasguns

buffing up the trash sounds fun and games until you play the heavy stuff and do nothing more than you usually do when you don’t

1 Like
17

To be honest i love the bolt with prox, i really believe fs should add more of those synergies between weapons and talents. (Not talking balance but about the interaction)

18

Couldnt agree more. This would also solve so much balance isues that plaque the game.

19

we should not balance weapons around lore even tabletop doesnt strictly balance around lore. yvraine’s sword, necron weaponry are all in the game but do not behave how they do in game.

20

It’s kinda wild that people still think Revolver is so OP when Bolt Pistol is currently the best sidearm in the game for most situations with the exception of Las pistol being so much better against bosses, almost the same as Revolver damage-wise, but doesn’t have the drawback of long reloads.