Imo this could be designed as a pretty fun new archetype in the game. It would be the ranged class that many have sought and the humour from their presence and VA lines would be excellent. They seem to be the perfect personalities to fit into the DT world too. They’re already considered thieves and criminals.
Could be fun scurrying around as a foul-mouthed Ratling sniper/scout
I bet some interesting abilities could be conjured up too.
Edit: adding some additional info from the thread to make it easier to digest here.
Off the top of my head I already have a lot of very different gameplay class mechanics floating around for a Ratling.
Some examples for Ratling classes…
Sapper/Trapper. He could have various mines, trip wires and a trapper net etc. Trap a bullwark whilst everyone beats it to death. The enemies get a taste of that cursed net he could even have bait that sets the hounds on enemies (instead of grenades). Or a dart gun that sends chosen enemy into attacking anything nearby (awesome suggestion by @Khorne_Dawg)
Sniper. Obvious one but he could have a lock on feature. Guaranteed headshots on anything within line of sight, slow fire rate obvs. He could also have some new and interesting tagging perks for the teamates.
Sneakthief. A scout ratling that could pickpocket enemies to prevent them from shooting and the team gets an ammo boost (eg he stole ammo from the gunner, or grenades from the bomber and replace with boobytrap or duff ones). Just has to physically tag the enemy without getting noticed by them. Enemies could have a chance of malfunctioning weapons if tagged too.
rattling turret. Can piggyback on an existing player and shoot from their shoulders (this would not obscure or affect the carrier). Rattling gets useful tag options and lock-ons from here. Could do it to enemies too for the lolz. Have a crusher running about trying to get you off their head whilst you lob grenades out around them if you don’t get off before the timer runs out then crusher squishes you.
Physically tagging an enemy replenishes a grenade (pickpocket).
A skill tree perk could be that a killed enemy that was tagged by you counts as a kill for you also… So you could tag the hell out of the army and you’d still get the kill count if your teamates kill them. Obvs would limit amount of tags live at a given time to prevent pure spam.
‘ankle-biter’ could be another skill tree perk. Hit an enemy below the knee with knife melee slows it’s movement by 50%
Man I could do this all day. Give us a Ratling!
The banter to and from the Ratling would be amazing for the sound designer to play with imo.
A northern Irish, Cornish English, and Aussie accent options would be so fun for Ratlings imo!
Ratling players should be annoying for enemies to catch, so I think being able to scrabble up walls to get height advantages and hiding in smaller crevices than other players can would be great. Give 'em a long-las or a bolt-action boltgun (why? because that would be AWESOME, that’s why. we have bolter canes, an explosive kar98k wouldn’t be too ridiculous), too.
Being on the wall just opens you up to get very shot.
But i would be extremely happy for a long-las, or any scoped rifle for that matter. It’s unfortunate that two other classes already have invisibility though, would be a great fit for a ratling.
Don’t really see what the skill tree/class has to do here.
Like Ogryn and Squats/Ratling would all need their own bodytype, voice actors…
But the main part here is that, of the 2 possible lower PoV/Bodytype, Ratling and Squats, there is one that has some potential weapons that are exclusive, while the other don’t have any.
Ratling don’t really have much in lore, not any exclusive weapon, and their role is both ill-suited for the gameplay, and already covered by Veteran
Instead of creating a whole new Ratling Archetype… what if Fatshark makes Ratlings into an additional “body type” for the Veteran? You know… with their own unique personalities?
I argue this because a Ratling Archetype would certainly lean into a lot of the same things as the Veteran and that would probably end up making one of those two Archetypes redundant.
Thus either requiring to adapt all the Vet cosmetics; as well as some weapons not making sense on a Ratling (Bolter for example).
At that point that would mean a full archetype, just with the same tree, which is just making all the work, for not much pay-off. Like if you made a Sister Archetype, with 3 personalities and such, but you simply give it the Zealot talent tree
True enough. I’m just trying to think of something outside of the box is all. I’ve seen many suggestions for a Ratling Archetype and it’s just… odd in the way that the Ratling would probably either steal the Veteran’s spot or get overshadowed by the Veteran. I certainly do think that the game isn’t very Ratling-friendly in general and that’s why it’s so hard to actually brainstorm about it for the sake of speculation.
The main question that you and I will bring to the table here:
“Is making an Archetype within an Archetype worth it?”
Off the top of my head I already have a lot of very different gameplay class mechanics floating around for a Ratling.
Some examples for Ratling classes…
Sapper/Trapper. He could have various mines, trip wires and a trapper net etc. Trap a bullwark whilst everyone beats it to death. The enemies get a taste of that cursed net he could even have bait that sets the hounds on enemies (instead of grenades).
Sniper. Obvious one but he could have a lock on feature. Guaranteed headshots on anything within line of sight, slow fire rate obvs. He could also have some new and interesting tagging perks for the teamates.
Sneakthief. A scout ratling that could pickpocket enemies to prevent them from shooting and the team gets an ammo boost (eg he stole ammo from the gunner, or grenades from the bomber and replace with boobytrap or duff ones). Just has to physically tag the enemy without getting noticed by them. Enemies could have a chance of malfunctioning weapons if tagged too.
rattling turret. Can piggyback on an existing player and shoot from their shoulders (this would not obscure or affect the carrier). Rattling gets useful tag options and lock-ons from here.
These are just some that popped in my head this morning. I’m sure a dedicated team of designers could really open it up.
I obviously missed the trick to call this “Ratling Rodeo”
Could do it to enemies too for the lolz. Have a crusher running about trying to get you off their head whilst you lob grenades out around them if you don’t get off before the timer runs out then crusher squishes you.
Really? Hm… odd. I’ve never seen anyone else make my specific suggestion. I’m not diminishing your suggestion, though. I certainly do love your unique responses that I’ll mention below.
You’d have to kind of “cut away the fat” in order to make those sorts of things work well with Darktide’s current flow.
For example: the “bait” idea is a tad too niche if it only works on Pox Hounds… maybe make it something like the “hallucination dart” from Ghost of Tsushima? Your Ratling might passively craft them over time like an Ogryn does with his rocks. The hallucination dart would send an affected enemy into a confused frenzy, killing their own friendlies in the process.
I would so use that while camped up on the previous ledge or something… that sounds very fun.
I do so love the idea of stealing some extra goodies for my teammates whilst I irritate the Traitors!
If I’m riding on an Ogryn’s shoulders… I can finally be Og Rider!
Thank you! You mentioned the Pox Hound idea and I kinda mulled it over in my mind until I had a “Eureka! ” moment from my Ghost of Tsushima experience.
All good, no offence taken! I just didn’t remember seeing anyone else have that idea before is all!
Laying proximity mines in doorways the team have left could prevent trappers in their tracks.
I’m actually really excited the more I think about a Ratling archytpe.
Physically tagging an enemy replenishes a grenade (pickpocket).
A skill tree perk could be that a killed enemy that was tagged by you counts as a kill for you also… So you could tag the hell out of the army and you’d still get the kill count if your teamates kill them. Obvs would limit amount of tags live at a given time to prevent pure spam.
The banter to and from the Ratling would be amazing for the sound designer to play with imo.
A northern Irish, Cornish English, and Aussie accent options would be so fun for Ratlings imo!
he could even have bait that sets the hounds on enemies (instead of grenades). Or a dart gun that sends chosen enemy into attacking anything nearby (awesome suggestion by @Khorne_Dawg)
” moment from my Ghost of Tsushima experience.