Suppression in its current state feels like a core gameplay mechanic that was rushed and feels unfinished. The effect of suppression on enemies needs to be buffed. The player shouldn’t feel more suppressed by random enemy trash mobs with guns. The effect of suppression doesn’t last long enough and the area of effect is too small, especially when it comes to braced autoguns or heavy stubbers. As a matter of fact, suppression barely seems to have any effect on them at all. The reason why ranged trash mobs are so dangerous is because there’s no way to effectively mitigate their damage. I’m pretty sure the suppression mechanic was intended for this purpose, but completely fails.
5 Likes
There was a very good post talking about why the current “meta” is to play like a boring discount cover shooter where melee mobs and suppression are basically ignored. Worth a read if you haven’t seen it already, although who knows when any of that will register on Fatshark’s long list of shet they need to fix.
It is their only attempt at an innovation in the FPS genre and it is unequivocally trash. Frankly this is one of the worst implemented shooter mechanics I have ever seen, but that is because ALL ranged combat needs across-the-board adjustments.
2 Likes
It’s similar to how stagger in melee works as far as I can tell and it has tiers of effect based on how much suppression you build up on a target. My observations:
Tier 1 interrupts their behavior and makes them seek cover
Tier 2 causes them to stand still and shield their faces
Tier 3 is full panic as they crouch in place and flail a bit
They recover faster from tier 2 than tier 3.
I think the system works alright, braced auto guns and the heavy stubber could maybe use a wider suppression area of affect from though.
Im actually getting suppressed by enemies that are not even shooting at me, and for some reason they decided that when you get suppression flinch it should flinch downwards which honestly just messed with years of built up muscle memory.
They didn’t even thought of shot accuracy and bullet spread with distance. So you guys can imagine how much thinking they put in their sole new game mechanic.
At this point I’m not sure there’s even a word to qualify this game design.
1 Like
These are all mechanics that have to be implemented because they are a part of the tabletop game. In vermintide they don’t exist because it is medieval combat.
If you’ve watched any medieval/fantasymovies, fights are always one side runs at the other, or both at same time.
In military/war movies, both sides shoot at each other till they find an opening and assault, take a position, regroup and continue advance.
And on suppression/stagger:
Suppression and stagger are 2 different things.
-Stagger is a short interrupt.
-Suppression forces enemies to cower for a few secs.
Collateral is the stat on range, crowd control for melee. If you check the value on your weapon it gives a bunch of numbers.
For ranged weapons, with them being ranged the area is rather small, but can be enhanced if you plan on shooting in close range, by using the blessing that adds suppression in x radius to enemies on close range kill. If you are getting horded, this can stop a bunch in there tracks and have them cower for a sec or 2, and if you are flanking to assault a bunch in cover, it can cause them to cower and stop shooting.
I know exactly how it works, I use a ripper gun with the same blessing. I’m saying it’s ineffective. However, it’s way more effective to sit in cover and pick them off rather than waste ammo trying to suppress them, even with rapid fire guns.
That has been, and always will be, a valid debate. Stagger/Suppress vs damage to just kill a target.