I’m not sure who thought this format would be a good idea, but the way this has been done is so mind numbingly awful that this one factor alone could lead to a big player drop off in the not too distant future.
I cannot fathom a reason why, as a player, we cannot choose what we want to play.
The menus in the Morningstar are all pretty awful. Melk’s shop is tedious and unfun. The weekly grind is uninspired and dull. The Shop and it’s awful RNG are another issue as well, but also terrible.
But the Mission board takes the cake. It actively makes Melk’s shop even more depressing and sucks fun out of the game.
Random mission selections are not fun. There are 13 missions in the game, and at least 4 warzone conditions that I’ve seen (Vent Purge, lights out, high and low intensity). On top of that, there’s a chance to get Scriptures/Grims as well.
Let’s say I enjoy playing the game at Damnation level. Well, if I want to boot up DT and play Damnation with my buddies, I might be lucky and have 2 options to choose from. But wait, what if I need Scriptures for my weekly chores from Melk? Well, sorry neither option has those. Also one of them is high intensity and my group doesn’t feel that confident about beating that.
So now, as a Damnation enjoyer, I have 0 good choices to choose from if I want to play Damnation and get Scriptures.
Who the hell thought this was a good idea? How did we regress so heavily from VT2? VT2 had this figured out perfectly - if I wanted a random mission I could QP on any difficulty and get any mission. If I wanted a challenge with extra loot as a reward I could do a deed. If I felt like running a specific level I could choose to do that.
With this pile of garbage RNG system there is every chance that I may not get to play the maps I want to play at the difficulty I want to play at for days. Whats more, if I want to complete Melk’s weekly chores, I might actually have to choose a 2 or 3 difficulty map just to tick those boxes, despite the fact I presumably would find very little enjoyment in that.
It’s truly awful design, Fatshark. It’s got to go and get replaced with something that gives more player agency, and fast. I do not get excited when I boot up the mission board. I actually get deflated. No one I’ve spoken to about this likes it.
I can only imagine its in this state because the game had to be released before it was finished and there was no time to hone the system. I’ve heard whispers that it’s to ‘make the game more thematic’ as we, the operatives are repsonding to crises as they break out. Well, I don’t get that feeling at all. It does not feel dynamic. It feels stale and crap. Rather than responding to crises, I feel like I’m window shopping at the world’s saddest charity shop.
Please do something about this. Make it a priority.