Below is a list of things that im having a failure to understand. The thought process behind some of the design choices is mind boggling, and is ruining the game experience. Logging into darktide feels more like a chore than anything else at this point, and I would love some explanation or reworks on some of the following systems that seem to be added for no other reason than arbitrary gating.
Why is the training facility gated on level, you are only able to test weapon types against certain enemies until reaching max level, this to me defeats half the purpose of even having a training room, if new players or people leveling are unable to experience it. This is a huge problem for me, because I cannot fathom a reason why this exists in its current capacity.
Weapon Type gating. Again, another super arbitrary feature im already having to wait for an RNG based shop to MAYBE have something i want to use and maybe have it be good, why do (for example) I have to play zealot like a worse sharpshooter till level 20, so that I can finally MAYBE get weapons that differentiate my class and allow me to fill a different role.
The shops / Weekly RNG. Why is this all time gated, the game wants me to log on every hour and log off just to see if items have decent rolls, pointless… im sitting on over 1 million, of the base ingame currency with nothing to spend it on. The weekly shop is also useless, 99% of the time its junk and rotates slowly, the weekly objevtives feel pointless after hitting cap because its 1000% more efficient just to upgrade a weapon you like than tempt another layer of RNG, and participate in pointlessly large grinds. Also, it goes without saying that FOMO is garbage and it feels dumb, that I have to just sit on my 2500 imperial addition aquillas till maybe something interesting pops up on a near 2 week long rotation.
Map RNG is awful, especially after Malice difficulty was nerfed. Most people want to target 1-2 difficulties and being forced to potentially play the same maps over and over again, due to RNG is really obnoxious. Or, for example after completing a specific Intel map, I never really want to do that map again, because scanning 100 objects 5 times isnt very engaging, but… im SOL if thats the only heresy or damnation map available, so im stuck waiting an hour till maybe something fun pops up. Fun fact, im not going to wait an hour, im going to go play a different game that values my time.
Crafting. Sure the crafting system will help mitigate some issues with gearing, but even after reading the breakdown of how it will operate, its going to be a cluster. Why are we so sold on RNG and actively introducing unfun, unrewarding, time wasting mechanics to a horde shooter. My time sink should revolve around killing heretics, not playing slots to try and get a single decent trait or weapon, which wont even be fully addressed with crafting. Weapon caps are around 560, and after 200 hours the best thing i’ve RNGed into is 490 @ orange, now im not saying getting the best weapons in game (whatever reds are when they show up) should be a trivial feat, but this is just asinine.
Just going to gloss over this one because otherwise its beating a dead horse but pennaces are mostly fine, just a few need to be reworked so you arent actively trolling your team. Cosmetic rewards for challenges are good in theory but not at the expense of other player experience.
Im honestly just bored a lot of the time in this game, im waiting for maps, or waiting for shop to recycle, or waiting for players to join a damnation game (they wont!) The endgame really needs to be more than just a waiting room simulator.
Let us choose map difficulty and even choose modifiers, maybe even multiple modifiers on a single map, and reward accordingly for it (such as bonus crafting materials?). Fix the loot progression system, make the cash shop not FOMO, Make crafting remotely impactful. Then this game will be great and have value for another 1000 hours. RN, it feels like more of a grind than playing World of Warcraft, but with significantly less incentive.
It makes sense if you don’t think of it from a “good game” point of view. I think it’s a tactic to inflate player retention over time, as well as increase chances of people buying cosmetics. After all, every time someone loads into the hub, they walk past other random players who might have the cosmetics, past the cash shop, and to the weapon shop every hour. Statistically, the more people see other people with cosmetics, and the more they walk past the cash shop, the more people are likely to buy them.
That’s my opinion on why all of these important mechanics are weirdly time gated - to keep people around for longer to feel tempted to buy more stuff. I guess they’re worried people won’t stick around as long if you could just buy the weapon type you want or play the mission type you want whenever you want to
as someone with a cumulative 4000+ hours in V1+V2, im 150 hours into darktide, and bored enough i’ll prolly wait for the first content patch to play again unfortunately, unless some issues are addressed of course.
This is definitely spot on because its 100% the reason all of these choices were put in. Its sad that they went this route and hopefully after reading that basically every single person is complaining about it they change it into something that is more enjoyable.
Good suggestions here and they line up with all my complaints about the game as well. Hopefully Fatshark listens
its going to have the opposite effect, every person I started playing Darktide with is just playing MW2 till they dont feel gated on progression or mission select.
It will be nice to see a statement from Fatshark because as I scan the forums and hold back from being increasingly pessimistic and critical because I love 40k and like the game. THEY ARE SILENT. People are talking on the forums dont get me wrong alot is trash but if you keep seeing the same thing over and over at some point shouldnt we see a FS post somewhere.
At the very (very) least, the weekly contract “complete X secondaries on Y map” should gtfo. Not being able to choose missions is almost alright, but that contract is beyond ridiculous to complete with the current system.
Excellent post. Everything you described is why Darktide has become such a disappointment for many of us. Such amazing gameplay overshadowed by all the issues listed in this post.
If you didnt love the game you wouldnt have taken the time and effort to write all this up. I hope Fatshark is listening, because i want this game to be awesome, but for now it’s going to be sitting on the backburner until we get some serious change.
Yeah I see some posts making fun of people with criticism despite the fact that they’ve played like 200+ hours, but the truth is that anybody who plays that much is probably the most invested in seeing the game succeed.
This isn’t the WORST managed game I’ve ever seen but I do wish it could be better. What worries me is that they will make enough money with what they’re doing now to ignore all the feedback that people have and run the game into an early grave.
