Preach, brother. As if The Holy Emperor was to say it himself. Fatshark has unknowingly (sometimes I wonder if it is actually rather KNOWINGLY) become world champions of showing their playerbase that they are completely and utterly out of touch with reality.
I can literally say “to pull a Fatshark” - and any of my gamer friends understand that it means radio silence, pointless promises, missing self-created deadlines, focusing on all the wrong aspects of a game that sorely needs substantial patches and content and so on and so on…
The worst part is that they just keep doing it. Over and over and over. They are the definition of insanity, truly. Insanity reincarnate. Because they do not seem to try to change their extremely poor approach to the development, nor try to show their playerbase that they are LISTENING.
Fatshark likes to show us that they care every so often, but mostly they just show us that they actively work towards killing the game altogether through their inactions over downright uncalled-for-long-periods-of-time.
I think the only way this changes is if they have their next game, or their attempts at supporting their games, wither and die. It took several sharp shocks to get CA to unf*ck themselves at least partially - it’s going to take a lot more to dislodge the idiots at the helm of Fatshark.
And it is very transparently a leadership and management problem at Fatshark. It’s the only way the problems we’ve seen are explicable.
Sure, sure, pivot to bad faith strawmen and accusations again. Your playbook is already known and your particular breed of toxic positivity is wearing thin.
That said, with the state the title launched in and currently is at, I dont know anyone that would have touched it if it wasn’t a Warhammer/40k IP.
Of everyone I’ve ever played this game with across gaming groups from an array of different places, I don’t know a single one that wasnt already a fan of the universe, or at least well acquainted with it. Regardless of how tuned the gameplay is, the immersion in the universe is just as important, and I don’t know anyone personally who would have picked up the game if it were titled “Battlesmasher 40 Million: Blackwave” instead all else being equal. The game is basically Warhammerland Online, where one goes to E-cosplay while riding attractions such as Hab Dreyko and Archivum Sychorax.
I know that several wait for itemization changes…
perso, I just wait for new content. I already have every weapon I wanted and I stock plasteel / ordos and diamantine…
This patch could have changed a lot to the game last year… but now…
I’d put my grubby paws all over whatever the next iteration of the Tide series is. I wish they went fully-original IP. The design team is so solid, the core gameplay is so solid, the diffuse storytelling approach of the Tide series still feels so fresh to me, it’d be a dream!
I like the GW stuff fine, but I really don’t care about it. I care about the tide and the rush and the skill ceiling and the variety of gameplay/builds.
They just need to abandon the make your own character concept. The story telling and characters in Darktide are such a step back from VT, and I am convinced a large part of that is due to player avatars.
I am very partial to it. I love Warhammer Fantasy and 40k. And personally, I don’t believe FS unshackling themselves from GW would fix much.
But at the very least I would be open to trying and playing whatever FS made independently. Darktide/Vermintide have some of if not the best coop gameplay in the action shooter genre (in my humble opinion of course), and even if I only got half the amount of time in an independent IP game that I got in DT, it would still be significantly more than the majority of games I play.
A Tide game set in Age of Sigmar would be a negative selling point however, lol.
Assuming what I have heard is true about things like GW getting in the way of shirtless or sister of thorns needing to be more of a support class and stuff I do think there are a lot of limitations. A CM mentioned communication and such things need a pass from GW.
I would be totally fine if they went with an original IP. I do think it’s a large contributor to the sales though. In an alternative timeline where Darktide released with no RNG, the class rework we got later, solo mode, selectable maps, and etc. and that initial inertia of sales carried it forward I think they would have become big enough to make a game with their own IP.
I disagree! I think the same approach works great for Remnant and would work just fine in an original Tide game. I actually really like the dynamic of being practically a nobody in a fantastic, changing world. It gives us different levels of chatter…so much potential for telling the story from various viewpoints.
Do I think there are limitations? Certainly. Working with GW is never a good thing. Do I think that not working with GW would fix FS’s worst problems? No.
Also part of it is I don’t neccesarily trust FS to make a good independent IP. Not even talking about something engaging or interesting, but just something that isn’t cringe.
I hope alternate timeline dragomusic is enjoying that as much as I wish I could.
I haven’t played Remnant but they are very different types of games…
If it’s just down to potential again? Maybe. I still don’t think it works for a mission based game like the Tide ones are. But Darktide shows that concept falling absolutely flat on it’s face, with the only people who care about the characters being those who project their own story onto them.
I know customizable characters is a big selling point. One person I convinced to buy it only bought it when she heard you could do this. She wasn’t even a fan of 40k or prior tide games.
But I have to say in terms of dialogue and quips and characters I found the VT2 characters and writing significantly more interesting than the ones in Darktide. They have their moments and jokes, and it’s better than other 4 player co-op ones but it lacks the same sort of history and comradery due to the overarching narrative of these characters probably never interacting ever again. A lot less development.
Remnant 2 the world was interesting (It’s all a simulation!) but the character you play as is as bland as can be, kept generic enough for anyone to feel they could be them.
I know I wouldn’t have ever gone on the forums in such a timeline. So a silver lining there.
Who/whomever they had do the writing for VT2 characters and their dialogue I would trust personally. Not even the world, just the character interactions and backstory.
I think the characters you’re supposed to care about are the ones with names that aren’t JohnDarktide420 and GapeTutorial.
It’s different from VT2, obviously, but I think it works quite well and will continue to as things keep chugging along. I think the mission chatter from the incredibly-voiced cast of important characters, along with our reject flavor foils, is super effective.
And that’s bad and boring imo. It’s fine if the character isn’t super important to the overall story but they should still be interesting. And is an objective downgrade from VT.
I think you and Jackal are the only ones who thinks this. I don’t know anyone else who is, and haven’t heard of anyone else who is.
The only time I see people talking about it is when they mention how much they hate the narrators.
I relish every new interaction, even the ones with the normal rejects. I love hearing a new Ogryn joke. Crazy I still am after so many hours. I can’t imagine not liking this stuff…would make the game pretty unbearable!
and then they turned the servers off.