There’s stuff that was released and earned good will but then put back in the sitting there status (cough modifiers cough) for…what reason?
i just completely forgot. was going to, but then got busy with stuff and forgot to respond. also just didn’t read it all because it’s a god damn book.
I’m surprised that a very limited assortment of maps and missions, and their boring structure (just one possible secondary objective which isn’t worth completing anyway) isn’t mentioned as a grudge. Am I the only one who sees it as a problem? I don’t even see a point in buying a new class - as I’ll still have to play it on the same maps, in same missions, what is boring as hell.
Also new factions? Just two of them 2 years since release? Should be 4 as of now.
You make a good point, but it tends to be folded under ‘Fatshark isn’t making enough output’ in general.
It wasn’t so bad in late 2023 with new skill tree. At that time people were discovering and trying out new skill nodes to overcome lack of map variety for few months. It made the mission runs “different” according to your build creativity.
Now mandatory nodes and optimal nodes with what blessings for synergy maximising. All discovered.
Same builds, same maps, same quickplay dog modifiers (when no event on), same biomes.
It was really the skill tree that gave biggest spike in player count for a while, more so than DLC class even.
Just needs another step in innovation to the game.
Weapon attachments (without installing mods), or go as far as ammo type
Given enough time (about a month tops) players will optimize the fun out of a game. It doesn’t matter how much build tweaking opportunities you give someone.
Yep, the only way to get more build diversity is to have enough options that there’s not really a truly meta option. For example, there are approximately 1,000 skills in Guild Wars 1 across all professions, a Primary Profession can be paired with any other profession as a secondary profession with only what armor you can wear and what your primary attribute being tied to the primary profession (so a Dervish/Warrior and a Warrior/Dervish can use identical builds but their armor rating and appearance will be different and Dervish/Warrior gets Mysticism instead of Strength as a primary attribute.)
This lead to there being, as of right now, 7 Warrior Builds listed as “Great” for “General Use” on their community builds site with 6 more listed as “Good”. Of these 13 builds: 5 have a required secondary profession (2 Dervish, 2 Assassin, and 1 Paragon) with the other 8 having “any” listed with open “Optional” skill slots depending on your secondary of choice. There’s some similarities between these builds, for example two “Great” builds use the Elite Skill “Warrior’s Endurance” one with axes and the other with Daggers and two other “Great” builds use the Elite Skill “Seven Weapons Stance” with both using hammers but one suggesting a Scythe for it’s AoE cleave to take advantage of the skills that don’t require a specific weapon type.
Due to the sheer number of options, while builds do float to the top and become “meta” builds, no one primary class has only one build option.
In Tide Games, over 1000 options for the build isn’t exactly feasible, but by making more options “generally viable” you’ll have more people making choices like Shade players do in Vermintide 2 (“Do I go Shimmer Strike for patrols with it’s maintained stealth on Elite kill, or do I go Cloak of Pain for burst damage against monsters?”) where you pick the option that fits your playstyle rather than the singular best option available
Deep Rock Galactic has very few truly non-viable weapons or builds. The last time I played, the only thing considered meme-tier was the Driller’s Subata pistol, everything else was reasonably effective, even with “suboptimal” builds or overclocks.
In contrast, Darktide feels punishing if you’re not running a top-tier build. Anything outside the top stuff often makes you feel like you’re actively dragging the team down to less or worse degrees.
DRG is a good example of a well-balanced and varied toolkit for sure. Every time I play there’s always someone else rocking something I’ve never seen before.
That said, I think the Plasma Rifle sucks. Feels awful every time I use it and doesn’t kill anything. Long live the garand.
can’t really fault the players for choosing the stronger builds. it’s on the developers to make options balanced. and here, updates are infrequent, so players get accustomed to OP stuff, and when there’s an update, then there’s this tendency to overbuff / nerf instead of just +/- 5% or so and then see again in 1-2 weeks.
If you go to the steam forums for darktide, it gets requested several times every single day. Absolutely boggles the mind that they think this is not a highly desired feature.
I think the opposite. They do a lot of +/- 5% nerfs/buffs, but then see again in 6 months where they probably already forgot what they did.
I completely agree. Not sure where I may have implied the players are at fault
In DRG? I have one build with the plasma rifle which I really like.
On Haz 5 (pre-modifiers so just the base variant) I found that it deals pitiful damage even against trash mobs and is bad at crowd control even with the splash damage upgrade or rebound overclock. I kept running out of ammo without killing many things, which I never had a problem with the garand.
That’s more because DRG is an incredibly easy game. It’s fun for what it is but its leagues easier than Darktide is.
I’ve been following dev diaries updates for DRG Rogue Core.
It is objective based repairing mining facilities but does look just like as before mining with axe involved, so hoping less M1 spam chipping rocks and more action focused like DRG escort mission. Very early days.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2605790/Deep_Rock_Galactic_Rogue_Core/
Battlefield 6 playtest. Followed a rage hacker on my team take on enemy team solo and shooting through walls, filled screen with killfeed notification. Wasn’t one off either, another game, another person. This is 2 months before official release, cheats ready for sale…
Haz 5, especially with modifiers can be really intense. Positioning becomes very important when a simple grunt can take a lot of your health.
It’s a very different game, but if FS could take courses at GSG, Darktide would have been so much better.
The cadence of updates and small balance tweaks, the approach to cosmetics. GSG blows FS out of the water on every comparison.
For me, the Plasma Rifle is by far my favorite Scout weapon. Damage isn’t high, but huge RoF, good repeatable accuracy with little spread (particularly next to the other Scout weapons) and immense ammo capacity make up for a lot, especially when you leave the big stuff to the rest of the team. Definitely not the greatest point blank close quarters weapon, but when you can use the Scout’s mobility to pop around and keeping enemies at a little bit of distance, it really shines.
Saying DRG is “easy” doesn’t justify Darktide having underperforming weapons. A hard game should challenge players through mechanics and encounters, not by forcing them into narrow meta builds. Difficulty should reward mastery, not punish creativity.
Also, current QP difficulties in darktide are far from hard, I have sweat more in DRG Deep dives than current auric maelstroms.