Suppression Not Working Correctly In Some (All?) Cases, Such as Dregs w/ Video Evidence

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Bugs
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Issue Description:
As per the title. I will admit, I don’t fully understand the issue here and the complexities therein. But this issue has 2 general aspects:

  • Suppression seems not to be working

Pretty straightforward. Suppression sometimes makes enemies run, sometimes they freeze and cower there for a while. There seems to be no rhyme or reason for it.

  • Dreg ranged units ignore, or otherwise immediately recover from, suppression.

Dregs seem to be the cause of a lot of issues, I’ve found, when it comes to enemies. The Scabs function overall quite well, but Dregs not so much.

I’m not sure if Dregs are meant to take cover, but it’s extremely rare that they do.

As Scab Shotgunners and Gunners readily enter melee, but Dreg Shotgunners and Gunners do not, as well as their standard ranged chaff standing out in the open uncoordinated, I assume this is intentional.

However, suppression working on them is extremely inconsistent. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t; but it’s always the case that they recover instantly.

Steps to Reproduce:
Please see the attached video.

Notes:

  • It was hard to get in-practice footage, but I did manage one clip wherein there was absolutely no suppression from the bolter. Against Scabs this would be the case
  • Timestamps located beneath the video and in the link
  • It seems that higher suppression value weapons, such as the Flamer, are not properly suppressing. However weapons like the autopistol, which have a lower value are. I have not tested this with every weapon, I just chose a broad array.
  • Semi-related, but Dregs seem to be far more threatening that Scabs across the board. Higher difficulties are easier in many cases due to having more Scabs than Dregs, and Scabs being easier to deal with due to their tendency to take cover, whereas Dregs often stand out in the open and gun you down aggressively. This leads me to believe there may be a number of unintended aspects of Dregs, and is why I believe this is a bug and not an intentional design choice. That, and the inconsistency of what weapons actually cause a Dreg to be suppressed.
    • It can be hard to understand what is an intended mechanic working correctly, an intended mechanic working incorrectly, and non-functional mechanic at times. I apologise if this is not actually a bug, but I’m making these posts erring on the side of caution.

Platform:
[Steam]

Player ID:
[heytherecorn]

Approx. Time of Issue & Timezone:
[11/24/2022, 11:43PM] [GMT]

Reproduction Rate:
Often (<75%) / Constant (100%) - It’s difficult to determine

Upload Supporting Evidence:

0:00 - Flamer
2:16 - Autopistol MKIII
3:05 - Kantrael Lasgun MG la
3:50 - Bolter
4:22 - Live Example (Bolter)

6 Likes
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Of note, and I’ll make another post on this later, but Dregs are also still being weird with entering melee. It’s really hard to get footage of it, but it’s very clear in gameplay when compared to the Scabs. It feels like they’re prioritising ranged heavily, I can’t figure out how or why.

Scab shotgunners will enter melee at close range. Scab Gunners are the same. Dreg gunners and shotgunners, however, will not.

It could be tied to this issue? Considering if they’re prioritizing ranged over any other state, it may explain both of these behaviours.

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Got confirmation from devs that this all seems to be working correctly. Thank you for your report either way, the behaviour of these enemies can still be tweaked based on performance data and feedback if there seems to be a need for it.

1 Like
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How is it literally intentional to have an enemy barely flinch when 15 bolter shells fly past their face? What is the purpose of having a mechanic called “suppression” if it does not apply to an entire class of ranged enemy?

3 Likes
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could you get an explanation as to why its like this? Suppression is most important against ranged units yet they are the ones just ignoring it.

are the ones in brown clothes maniacs?

2 Likes
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@FatsharkQuickpaw Huh, I will be honest, that’s extremely surprising. The way they act is so… Janky and off-seeming.

If I may, why is it that high suppression weapons such as the Bolter and Flamer aren’t suppressing them, but weapons like the Autopistol are?

Is it a case of it not being a bug, but instead values are tuned a bit strangely? Or is this behaviour fully intended?

I get you’re busy, so no huge pressure here, but it’d be nice to have some closure on the issue!

2 Likes
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OK this is flat out not working ‘as intended’

I tested this in the meat grinder.

if you start and stop shooting the flamer (shooting a stream) you can get the shooter to be suppressed while the stream is on just like the rest of the units. However it does not happen all the time like the other units. Sometimes his animation resets

He is the ONLY shooter in the game that behaves with this glitchy animation switching

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I’m just equally confused as to why they run away from the autopistol but not the Bolter or Flamer.

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Im uploading a video proving they do get suppressed by it sometimes and other times clearly glitch back into another animation

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I noticed that in this post. YOu’ll notice they something just… Snap back to standing upright.

Hopefully your post can shed some extra light on what’s going on here.

If nothing else, there is a bug, but it’s the animations.

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Ill make a new bug post, it seems they are just plain ignoring this thread now that its marked ‘not-a-bug’

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Yeah, I’d say there’s a need for it. :laughing:

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Not saying the following is accurate, these have been my findings thus far.

Their appear to be 4 enemy groups each visually respond differently to suppression.
-Infested, they don’t show any sign of response to suppression fire. (They don’t even flinch)
-Half-infested, they respond to suppression fire, but most commonly its a flinch or duck down and stay in place, I don’t see them disperse much, until casualties take place among their ranks. (?More resilient?)
-Still Human, those who visually appear to be still human flinch, duck and disperse much easier.
-Specials, Elites and Monstrosities, with the exception of the scab/dreg gunners and the reaper, everything else doesn’t respond to suppression.

When does suppression get applied.
-Near hits, a shot that misses by an inch. (Rapid fire weapons, most obvious with the bullet type, lasgun don’t appear to suppress on misses)
-Killing an enemy, with in a group affect surrounding enemies, causing ‘suppression’ and dispersion. (Killing with a lasgun, causes dispersion)
-The effect of a burning enemy, has a suppression affect on nearby ‘non’ burning enemies.

The following enemies can’t and don’t appear to respond to any kind of suppression.
Dreg Bruiser
Poxwalker
Scab Bruiser

(specials)
Pox Hound
Mutant
Scab Trapper
Scab Bomber
Scab Sniper
Scab Flamer
Scab Shotgunner
Dreg Tox Flamer
Dreg Shotgunner
Poxburster
(Elites)
Scab Mauler
Crusher
Bulwark
Dreg Rager
Scab Rager

The following enemies can be suppressed, but might have some form of resistance.
Dreg Stalker
Groaner
Scab Shooter
Scab Stalker
(Specials)
Scab Gunner
Dreg Gunner
(Elite)
Reaper

14

We seem to have a new relevant video on it:

1 Like
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Got confirmation from devs that this all seems to be working correctly

…That makes zero sense. In the gameplay video provided, it’s the Dreg combatants that seem to not suffer from any suppression effects - while Scab combatants do. And Scab combatants are former Guardsmen that were infected, correct?

So how does a civilian infected combatant have more willpower to not flinch when being fired at by weapons that can literally blow them in half with a single round whereas the hardened military veterans are scrambling for cover and panicking?

…I don’t see how this is working as intended.

1 Like
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This is 100% buggy. look at his wierd animation cancelling. no other enemy does this (most visible at the end)

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I see… it’s the “sorry but we cannot deal with this right now” standard Fatshark stance :slight_smile: fair enough! Hope you will get around to tweak this soon tho <3

1 Like
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Wow yeah, kinda obvious… thx for taking the time

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Please consider tweaking it, or at least giving us an explanation why some units behave differently when they seem like they should be functionally the same. Same goes with the Scab “Stalkers” not being considered a shooter unit and not getting highlighted by counterfire. There’s no explanation why this is the case, so it seems like its a bug.

2 Likes
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Make them less health and less accurate and fire less if theyre suplosed to be poorly trained cultists