Stage hazards have the potential to be amazing - but they're not. And I don't really see that mentioned too much here

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Gameplay Feedback
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I know a lot of people don’t like them at the moment, and it’s fair not to. But man, I really feel they could have so much more potential because they’re not implemented well and they are severely underused atm.

Right now there’s basically no reason to want to play them - even though in theory they’re a good thing. Variety keeps things alive. But right now why would I want to deal with the absolute buggy mess of more dogs, for maybe what, 700 extra gold? Absolutely not worth it - I’ll pick a different map. Even though, having more dogs creates a more unique experience that could be interesting…if I was given a reason to want to take on that challenge. At least with lights out it creates amazing atmosphere.

So there has to be a reason for people to want to take on the extra challenge outside of sake of challenge itself - most people respond well to the concept of risk/reward. (This is also conveniently the same issue why there’s a huge drop-off of players on Heresy+, but that has been talked a bunch here)

They need to have such a wider variety. I liked the idea of them adding an assault one (what happened to that, btw?) - Much more ammo, less health. That’s cool - you could also do the opposite. You could do anything, right? No med stations. Endless Hordes (not increased) - more specials of a certain kind. More gunners, less gunners, Tougher hordes, higher damage hordes, faster hordes, etc etc. The possibilities are pretty much endless and would add a ton of variety and force you to adapt your playstyle - Maybe even adjust your loadouts depending on the challenge. Gives you a reason to have a multitude of weapons instead of just the 1-2 sets you like.

I think the Hazards are a great way to break up the formula more and keep things more interesting for retention - I like the idea that some days I may have to lean in more on ranged or Melee. Or some days I’ll have to focus far more on defense, offence, or crowd control. But we just don’t have that variety right now and it’s a shame. And, to be fair, even if we did, the current way they’re implemented makes it more of a nuisance than variety - because really doing these for a tiny bit of extra gold just isn’t compelling enough. How about giving Ordo Dockets as well? Extra crafting materials? Guaranteed weapon drop? I know it wouldn’t happen, but dropping a couple aquillas to be able to slowly work towards new cosmetics for taking on the challenges would be great.

Just thought I’d throw my thoughts on that out there - interested in hearing what others think.

5 Likes
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Never got to play the fog modifier in the beta and im still disappoint. Also havent seen lights out in a few days. The modifiers have been pretty meaningless considering they ditched mission and difficulty selection partially for them.

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If you’re still leveling up your character, it’s a huge XP boost, my friends and I always look for maps with modifiers because it helps to completely skip levels once in a while.

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I’m still disappointed they didn’t bother to subdivise the intensity modifiers from the start. We’ve got +everything or -everything, instead of the more logical +hordes, +elites, +specials, +bosses.

Or they could have gone for spicier ones like +infested, +maniacs or +armored units. I mean, seriously, who asked for more poxhounds and only that ? The buggiest, most difficult to dodge disabler ? This was one of their first ideas ?

(I will not suggest +gunners because only Veterans and masochists would want to play that)

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I agree there’s a problem with the current conditions. More hounds sounds interesting in theory, but they’re too buggy. Lights out adds amazing atmosphere, but 3-5 daemonhosts per map saps the fun out of them. Even high intensity loses some enjoyment due to how much of a performance drop the game sees, input delay in particular skyrockets.

1 Like
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I always pick levels with modifiers if I can. The foggy levels helped me level up very quickly during the preorder beta.

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Even if they did implement them properly, what’s the point when we can’t actually obtain enough gear frequently enough to tailor our loadouts to the challenges we’re supposed to face? Why implement something like this and then hamstring it?