The trapper out of all the specials is the one I have the most problems with, and it needs some serious reworks cause in it’s current state it is an infuriating enemy to fight.
They are able to shoot through walls, other enemies, geometry and obstacles
They are very quite and hard to discern from a crowd or in the middle of a large shootout
They can trap multiple players in a short space of time leading to a wipe even on the lowest difficulty, they have no limit on how many they can trap
Trapped players are completely reliant on their team to help them out even though they may be caught in the middle of their own problems, we have no way of escaping the net ourselves should out team be unware or unable to help
Points 1 & 2 have been mentioned multiple times before but felt they needed further mention to get across to the developers they should not be able to shoot through walls or other enemies and should stand out more from the trash mobs.
Points 3 & 4 are what I have a biggest problem with and what makes the trapper the most infuriating thing to fight in the game, nothing ruins the very end of a run than a trapper that nets multiple teammates in quick succession and the last gets downed normally and we have to watch for a minute for the game over screen.
My suggestion for points 3 & 4 are have a limit on the number of players a trapper can net or increase the cooldown timer to increase the time between trapping a player and the next. The devs could also include a quick button mashing or a hold to break free button so we can free ourselves if we have been netted for a while, they can balance it so we can’t free ourselves if we are being attacked while netted. These I feel could result in less annoyance for the players if they know the trapper can’t just ruin a run by trapping a one or two players.
I wouldn’t mind if the trapper was removed entirely from the game as the hound and mutant already fill the role the trapper occupies but do it much better, they both can only pin or grab one team mate and both are easily spotted amongst a crowd and give off a loud audio que when they appear so you cant miss them. But if the devs want to keep it in the game it needs some work to make it more balanced and more fun to fight.
Essay over, sorry for the wall of text but I needed to explain my points on why the trapper needs a rework.
I agree trappers are a bit BS right now, but I think the main issues are that they are sometimes too quiet (specifically the male variant), and that their ability needs a bit longer of a telegraph because it’s quite hard to time the dodges right now.
Another issue with trappers (in the closed beta) was if a player got really unlucky they could get trapped on top of a ledge after the rest of the team jumped down with no way for them to get back up to rescue them. The guy was on a shipping container maybe 1 meter away from us but we couldn’t get close enough to release them so they had to wait. It felt so cheap and terrible.
Time to throw my own wall of text here. After thousands of hours across the various coop horde shooters, I’m 40 hours deep into Darktide so far and really enjoying it. At this point, with an awkward Beast of Nurgle spawn on stairs as the only exception, every single wipe I’ve been a part of featured at least two people getting hit by trappers. Their design and niche eludes me. Some of how they operate strikes me as a bug that will get sorted out in the next few days (namely points 1 & 2 in the OP), but there are greater questions of design I have about them.
So typically in horde shooters such as this, you have the trash that’s fun to kill, the occasional beefy boi (clowns and mudmen in L4D, elites in VT2, shotgunners and ragers in DT), big monster bosses, and global audio queue specials that either force splits (L4D spitters, VT2 gas rats & stormers, DT bombers & mutants), capitalize on splits (hunters, sneak rats, hounds), or both (jockey, packmaster, ???). The trapper in concept seems like it would be perfect for filing the packmaster niche, but instead fills a spot-or-die niche similar to the flies in boss fights in VT2 but with guaranteed lockdown instead of a slow-moving limited-duration-stun that can be punched away by an ally. If you know the trapper is around, its net can be dodged and it is pretty easy to kill, but in the middle of a firefight it gets weird, especially with the netcode we have where hit detection and visuals don’t always line up when framerates get low or latency gets high. Yeah, they have a global shoot noise, but that’s to telegraph a half-second windup and is also confusing because it doesn’t telegraph direction so you might dodge straight into the net or dodge when you didn’t need to. Ultimately we have the worst of both worlds between packmasters and flies, and someone spotting the silent enemy and shooting it fast as the only counterplay.
What I’m agreeing is that something’s gotta give when it comes to these guys. Their design simply isn’t healthy. Here’s some suggestions based on Fatshark’s previous work.
Give them a global spawn noise. I assume every permanent disabler is supposed to have one of these and it’s just a bug that it isn’t happening so this is suggestion 0.
Reinforce the packmaster, smoker, lifeleech, etc. niche by having the trapper hurt the operative instead of running away, or drag the operative away while hurting. Honestly it’s kind of weird that there’s only one special (hound) that fills the disable-and-maul-to-death niche in this game.
Have the trapper run away but reinforce the flies niche by having the net able to be slapped, give it a timer, or both. Giving a QTE could work too. This establishes the trapper as a disruptor rather than a finisher, whereas right now it is both which is not ideal.
Remove the trapper. Everything else is fun to fight. These guys need work.
Thank you for coming to my Theodore Chat.
Long live our Beneficient God Emperor. Time to gather some more skulls for His Golden Throne.
I personally dont have an issue with Trapper, but if I were to make a simple change just make him shoot a “single” net that catches an enemy and then drags them like its the packmaster grab in VMT 2.
I thought they were annoying at first, but after playing for awhile now, they’re pretty easy to dodge. The real issue, imo, is that they can shoot their net through a horde and ruin your day.
I agree with most every point here judt being another voice!
A loud maybe higher pich version of the net zapping noise would make a great addition to the start of its spawn audio queue. In my opinion a very noticble non verbal sound is best for specials because, i tune out in game voices in combat because our characters ramble and I am in discord comming with the squad.
I get way more annoyed at dogs than I do trappers. At least their nets are quick to remove and the trappers are weak. Dogs in my experience tend to be stronger, faster, do damage, borderline impossible to hit before they’re already on you, way buggier than trappers.
I’m not adverse to enemies that can ruin solo players and require teamwork to solve, but the trapper and dog are just busted.
Mentioning as well mutants, although less annoying than trappers, is mostly just an issue to ogryns ironically. Most other classes can do enough damage quick enough to kill the thing before it gets to you, but if you’re an ogryn by yourself you do too little damage to kill the thing each time it tosses you around, effectively stunlocking you. Very annoying, but not busted.
Trappers have a very loud audio que in my experience. That windup toy/springbox sound they make when they get ready to fire is very noticeable, and I just dodge left or right when I hear it and have successfully dodged nets without even seeing the trapper in question.
That’s not to say I always dodge the nets, but I do manage to dodge them this way about 80% of the time. The other times, I’ll dodge into a wall or an enemy and just get netted.
And I only play an ogryn so its definitely not a hitbox thing.