I’m sure this topic came up before, but I think it’s worth mentioning again. This is NOT about how viable they are. They could give +50% damage done and +50% damage reduction while in the cloud, and I would still have the same issue with them.
And that issue is that their downside affects team mates, as well. Taking away visibility in a game like Darktide is huge.
NO other ability can disrupt other players gameplay, or make that match less fun for other players like Smoke Grenade does.
And nor it should. I don’t know the best course of action to remedy this, but how it is now (and has been for years) is still not okay with me. The only upside is that.. almost no one seems to take them, in Auric at least.
I really like them. I have a veteran build with smoke grenades and the ability that marks specials in yellow for the entire team. I can protect my team mates with the smoke from any gunfire while eliminating all the specials with my rifle. It’s actually really op imho. Makes for easy revives and rescues too
This is not about whether you like them or not, or if they are OP. This is about them affecting your team mates vision. They didn’t choose to have smoke in their vision, but have to deal with it.
Not trying to be rude, but I like to make this distinction clear.
That’s just how smoke grenades are though, they make lots of smoke that block peoples vision. That’s why I like taking the ability that allows the whole team to see all specials in yellow. Although even without that ability it still seems ok because the ranged enemies can’t shoot you and the melee enemies have to get close enough that you can see them anyway.
The main issue with smoke grenades is that they aren’t explosive grenades. Shredder frags and kraks provide invaluable CC and anti-armor utility that smokes just don’t. Veteran is the grenade spam class and using smokes basically means you don’t use grenades at all because they do effectively nothing.
The smoke grenades protect your team mates from all gunfire. It basically makes you invincible. On a maelstrom with extra gunners, smoke grenades on a ranged-based build are a really good choice. Krak grenades are good if enhanced blitz and there is more crusher and rager spawns
Alas, the best status effect is death, and I’ve found more value from just shooting all the gunners with a hellbore. Shredder flags clear a lot of space around you if enemies get too close for comfort.
They should make the smoke graphic like Bardin’s smoke bomb, close to the ground. It’d also be a lot nicer for gaming whether or not you have the benefit of smoke without checking for the UI icon. There’s also gimmicky things it does like force trappers and dogs to attack from closer and the ranged twin stands there and does nothing. I’d like to use it more but a recent update started making these performance slogs for me.
i need people to pick up the pace and move but certainly no “protection”
that aint a jab at peoples choice of loadouts but fatshark’s idea of how powerful a character should be.
additionally i “need” them to step out of my way when it comes to cheaper stuff like smyker or gunscum so i can “play the game”
havoc 40, 3 real life buddies i actually respect as a player, sure smoke away
anything lower its fighting the other rejects to get something done yourself and unless we go back to 2022 power level i dont see that changing anytime soon.
Between Soublaze or even Smite spam, and smoke nades I will take smoke nades any day. At least they don’t remove the game from the game. I have no problem with smoke obscuring vision, its smoke.
I have a problem with game design and game art design leadership signing off on yellow over brown, over grey colour pallet, VFX effects which blind you, and darkness effects (like Lights Out or even some dark spots on the maps) which cannot be overridden by such a simple thing like a working torch. There is a reason why VFX removing mods, on the top of FOV improving mods, are one of the most populat category of mods with people who play this game a lot.
The game simply has too many effects which obscure vision and add NOTHING to the gameplay.
the smoke itself aint that much of a deal if anything.
its just by the time the rest decides to leave their turtle shell, we could be 4 rooms further and actually kill something in the process.
again havoc stupidity with blue gunners and whatnot, sure smoke/smurf condom/yellow shower and whatnot is “efficient”
in a maelstrom match i wanna be done in a decent time to feel any combat flow nowadays
While I rather have someone spam smite than smokes, I do agree smite is a problem as well, but in a different way. I did not want to mention it and derail the topic.
And I agree with the rest of your post, but smokes are my #1 enemy haha
