We are only a few days out from launch and I thought I’d write down a wishlist of changes I’d like to see to improve my enjoyment of the game. Performance issues aside, I think Darktide is a solid game and I have been enjoying my time in the Pre-Release ‘Beta’ for the most part, but there have been a few issues that have bothered me and one in particular that is making me question whether I want to even play beyond launch at this point.
I know people will disagree or have opinions on the things I list here, and I welcome discussion around them, but I am also writing these down in the hopes that it will be helpful feedback to the developers. So in no particular order:
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Bleed Through / Chip Damage: This mechanics just straight up needs to go in my opinion. Revert it to how it was in CBT or do something to fix this. It feels horrible, unintuitive and utterly frustrating.
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Lowering the spawn rates of Ranged enemies: This doesn’t require much tweaking I imagine but with the addition of Dreg Gunners into the enemy pool they have become much more of a problem, especially when you don’t have a Veteran.
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Increase the Brightness & Contrast of Scab Gunners: Scab Gunners (and to a lesser extend Dregs) blend into the dark environments quite a bit, the Flashlight is fine fore the most part but increasing the glow of their green helmet and gun lights would go a long way to making them more visible.
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Trapper & Bomber sound effects need to be more obvious: I can’t count the amount of times a Trapper has snuck up on me and my team, only for it to instantly net me (sometimes through grates even, wtf?). In VT2 The Mancatcher had a constant jingle and clank that made you aware of their threat, and the Globadier had a distinct mechanical piston sound to tell you they were somewhere nearby. Trapper and Bomber have neither of these traits, only the sound of their attacks, by which time it’s already too late in most cases.
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Communication Wheel & Ping system needs expanding: Not everyone likes using the games VoIP and that’s fine, but it would help if people could articulate a few more commands with the Communication Wheel, such as “Gunners Here!”, “Take Cover!”, “Follow Me!” just to name a few. Also, let us ping more than 1 Elite at a time, maybe up to 3 highlighted targets. Being able to tag non-elite gunners would also be helpful but I understand that might be too much visual noise.
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Account Wide Currency & Materials: This one is pretty self-explanatory I think, respect our time and let us gear up our alts through the work we’ve put into acquiring those resources on other characters.
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Include ability to change name, body type & voice in the Barber: Self-explanatory again, people get sick of the character they’ve chosen sometimes, they should have the ability to change this when they like, and shouldn’t be an issue since names aren’t unique or reserved at all.
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Allow Operative select at pre-mission screen: I know this one may be a bit more difficult but it’s something I’d like to see in the future perhaps. A lot of times I see a stack of 3 Zealots and would prefer to switch to a Veteran given the choice. Maybe only allow swaps to within 1 or 2 Talent tiers of the highest level person. Better yet…
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Add a Role Queue: If the above can’t be achieved, allow people to opt into a more curated experience where they can lock in their class and search for a game that ensures one of each class is present. This may come with wait times, but I’d rather wait a few extra minutes if it means I don’t have to quit out of missions until I get decent spread.
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Cut back on Animation & Weapon Mode timings: This is a minor one, and more of a pet peeve honestly. Sometimes when you’re using weapons with alternate fire modes, the animation can feel sluggish and unresponsive. I wanna fight the Hordes! Not the games UI & animations, please.
Anyway, that’s just a few things I wanted to get off my chest. Hopefully, some polite discussion can be spurred from this, or at least get people thinking about some changes they’d like to see FatShark implement.
Thanks for taking the time to read!