The Arena (PvE Waves, PvP Squad, Practice Mode) - Using the Psykhanium (Tutorial Arena)

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide General Discussion
1

Hey,

Throwing out a suggestion, I think it would be pretty awesome if they enabled us to use the Psykhanium as a practice Arena of sorts.

Allowing us to enter it in either a PvE, PvP or Practice Mode.

This offers a lot in terms of potential for practice, testing out weapons, and fine-tuning group play before jumping into a mission, and enable this area which the devs spent time on to have legs and grow past simply being a tutorial area.

Entry:
You should be able to enter solo or in a pre-formed team and spawned elements should scale appropriately.

PvE:
This could simply be a wave clear version where infinite waves of NPCā€™s spawn with increasing difficulty, and players clear the waves. As was shown in the tutorial this could even feature map diversity like spawning the chasm in the middle, different barracades for providing cover, or explosive barrels etc. This offers players a place to practice, train and have a quick form of gameplay, in case they didnt have time to play out a full mission at the time.

PvP:
This could be the same as the PvE mode featuring map diversity like spawning the chasm in the middle, different barracades for providing cover, or explosive barrels etc. However would spawn the player in 1v1, 2v2, 3v3, 4v4. etc and provide a space for players to mess around have fund and prove their mettle as a squad of rejects.

Rewards:
Rewards could be offered through using these systems; however personally I dont think its required, but could allow for some emergant gameplay. e.g

In PvE mode you gamble your odds and each wave cleared get an increasingly slightly more powerful random item, and the player must choose if they want to risk another wave and try and get the next tier of upgrade, or potentially lose all their progress if they fail the wave. This seems fun.

In PvP mode its simply you win the match you get rewarded random gear, if you lose the match maybe you get less powerful random gear.

Practice Mode:
In this mode target dummy npcā€™s are spawned maybe with them starting to attack back once you engage them, enabling players to test out weapons, practice dodging, and try out new ideas before entering a mission.

Final Thoughts:
I think this could offer a method to reuse an existing space and provide a new type of gameplay, which offers a different style of gameplay allowing players to test out their skills and even offering quick-play modes if players dont have time to sit down for an entire mission, I think this could be done fairly easily since most of what I was suggesting seems to be already present in the tutorial space, aside from the PvP and would mix things up giving a fun new flavour to the game.

Thoughts?

Opinions?

Ideas?

Cheers for reading.

4 Likes
2

I was just having this same idea!
I just need a place to test out different weapons or faff around with friends and kill things. Minus the PvP, I love this idea.

1 Like
3

PvP is a needless can of worms. Even if they say upfront the game wonā€™t be balanced for PvP, overtime they will end up spending more and more hours working on PvP balance. Iā€™d rather they spend their time on PvE content. Thereā€™s plenty of other PvP games out there.

8 Likes
4

I think you didnt read the post, the idea suggests 3 different modes not 1. If you dont want to use one of them dont use it, but many many many people would want that as a feature, easy to see by the many many many posts surrounding the topic and the vermintide development.

5

I read it. I stand by my reply.

5 Likes
6

bad reply then :person_shrugging:

7

ā€œplease give me opinions on my post but only if theyā€™re what I want to hearā€ Classic

5 Likes
8

ā€œplease give me opinions on my post but only if theyā€™re what I want to hearā€ what? not sure who your quoting, given that I never said or implied thatā€¦

The reason I think its a bad reply is because the post suggests 3 things and you ignore 90% of the post and just complain about one aspect, I dont really feel thats a constructive or good responseā€¦

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I could take or leave the rest of it. I commented on the part I didnā€™t care for, thanks for asking.

10

Wave shooter survivals are definitely a big thing. After the massive success of Call of Duty: Zombies there were wave defence gamemodes everywhere and not without a reason. First mods to come in moddable fps games? Quality of life mods and also custom wave defence gamemodes vs AI. It was a huge thing back then. The formula is easy and always fun when there are no critical design flaws.

Iā€™d definitely try a wave defence mode. Maybe if Fatshark released it as an event then with enough positive feedback and insight they might be able to turn it into actual gamemode later down the road.

About PvPā€¦ Iā€™m against it. Developing a PvP game needs systems built from scratch and itā€™s even harder to build them on the foundations of a PvE co-op experience. Itā€™s just not happening.

4 Likes
11

Mmm I like the idea of having a leveraged reward for the waves as well, it offers player agency meaning that the player has to decide whether or not they want to ā€œrisk it for the biscuitā€ and go for the next reward level or whether they will take their winnings and go home, meaning they will feel really attached to their choices and feel the pressure when they just barely scraped past the last wave by the edge of their seat and the next potential upgrade could be huge.

2 Likes
12

Testing grounds - yes, definitely
Wave defense - sure, why not
PvP - no thank you. Itā€™ll take time a resources away from PvE, itā€™ll still influence PvE regardless of how separated they try to make it. If you have it not have rewards then no one will do it and if you do have rewards PvE people will be missing out.

8 Likes
13

Testing Grounds:
That would be great. I donā€™t think anyone would complain about that.

For the other two modes:
As others have said already, implementing a mode is a long-term task. You have to keep it balanced and if you donā€™t deliver new content in a mode the people who prefer that mode will feel left behind. That means implementing a (permanent) mode is a commitment until the game dies. And it will siphon resources all the way. So when requesting new modes the question is not ā€¦
ā€˜Do you think that would be a cool idea?ā€™
and instead ā€¦
ā€˜If you could implement one single additional mode - which one would it be?ā€™.
And if that mode works and they still have capacities - then they can ask that same question again.

Neither of the two modes you mentioned would be my first choice. The Chaos Wastes mode from Vermintide 2 is overall superior in my opinion. In addition they have proven that they are able to execute it well. Because having an idea for a mode and implementing it so it works and feels great are two different things. So every other mode that gets suggested would have to beat Chaos Wastes decisively to be considered imo.

2 Likes
14

If they do map with a Wave scenario, they should do it on part of the already existing maps, like the Forge, having stuff you can repair/build, and an objective to take care of

Thatā€™s not really PvP, it would be much easier to simply have a Ranked system, where you and your team get points for clearing waves, speed it took you to do it and such. That way you can create a ranked competition, where the enemy are the same for everyone and spawn from the same gates or something and each season (6 month for weave iirc) it change a bit the Monster and how they appear.

In addition, they have talked about Npc helper in missions before, we could get stuff that we can build (Kinda like the Horde mode in GoW) by using Teleporter beacon to bring either units, fortification or shield generators

1 Like
15

Iā€™d really like to be able to use the Psykhanium to test new weapons, talents, and such and itā€™d be a huge missed opportunity if they donā€™t use it that way. Whether itā€™s against enemies with AI turned off or on (as you can do with creature spawner in the modded realm) I donā€™t really care but itā€™d be nice to have control over that for ease of testing.

As far as an Endless Horde mode or even a PvP mode for it, I donā€™t know. I mean, I could see it but itā€™d be a bit weird to justify in the setting. I mean the Interrogator isnā€™t running an illegal cage-fighting circuit for his Tertium Spire buddies. (I mean, he isnā€™t, right?) So, at best itā€™d just be for practice and I suppose being in some sort of mind-space is a good justification for it. Win or lose, nobody dies and everyone learns something and gets better. But there should also be no reward for it other than the skill you gain from it. They wonā€™t pay dockets or whatever the contract currency is called or anything else for your performance there because that isnā€™t saving Tertium. Trouncing your fellow acolytes back on the Mourningstar doesnā€™t advance the mission, itā€™s just a sort of ego-pumping thing. So instead, I donā€™t know, maybe, at most, you get portrait frames for 1, 10, and 100 wins and thatā€™s it. You want money for cosmetics, or new weapons, or upgrades, or crafting? You still have to run missions and fight the actual baddies.

3 Likes
16

I agree with the practice mode but the other twoā€¦nope

as mentioned before, pvp is no focus of this game and they should clearly leave it at that

and for wave shooter - donā€™t we have that kind of in some objectives anyway? it works a little different but while doing certain map objectives we already get zap branniganā€™d

2 Likes
17

what is the point of PvE when itā€™sā€¦all the game?
even in the beta when you have to defend the ā€œskullā€ it was against waves already

18

It isolates and creates easier access to a key aspect of the game that some people want to play without having to go through an entire mission to get to and adds a testing ground for weapons.

Simple as.

19

PvP is just a balance mess waiting to happen. Minus that, the use of this sort of virtual space for things other than training is a good idea.

20

Maybe, but itā€™s a neat idea.