Things V1 Does Better
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Quality Control/Balanced Difficulty: Instead of relying on the AI Director to provide heavily randomized encounters the player might find enjoyable, V1 seems to be better tuned to ensure an overall, consistent level of difficulty that helps keep things fun at all times. In V2, the director randomness can yield levels that are way too easy, therefore boring, or it can sometimes yield levels that are a nonstop slog of hordes and specials, which can still be easy but even more boring because itâs so much slower, or sometimes it can just decide to delete you, which is only fun if it happens so infrequently that itâs a novel and hilarious occurrence (as was the case earlier on in V2). Very rarely does V2âs director hit the nail on the head and achieve a balance on par with V1âs. Further, V1 levels build and build until you reach the end-level event, which is where you are most at risk of dying. In V2, the event is usually the easiest/safest part of the level because of how unhinged the ai director is the rest of the time. This is immersion-breaking and it doesnât lend itself to a fun experience. The end-events should be the best and most exciting parts of each level.
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Lore/Immersion: From the lorebooks, to the character callouts, to the random elevator conversations, to the level design, to the Red Moon Inn, V1 just does lore better in pretty much every way. It makes for a much more immersive experience overall.
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Crafting: No contest whatsoever, V1âs crafting system destroys V2âs overall. âOfferâ allows us to reroll traits just like in V2 but Invocation allows us to improve traits without having to re-roll them . This gives us a lot more control and therefore more enjoyment. Dust is used intelligently as well. The green dust situation in V2 is a travesty.
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Level Design/Variety: For the most part, levels in V1 are distinctly different, each having their own unique flavour, objectives, lore callouts, events, lengths, etc. They feel considerably less linear. There are very few points in V2 where you donât feel like youâre on rails. The âfork in the roadâ in War Camp really highlights this shortcoming in V2: There are character callouts making it sound like thereâs this decision to be made about which way to go, but weâre talking about like⌠<100m of forkage. In V1, a lot of levels have multiple points where they sprawl off into different directions either laterally or vertically, helping to ensure the experience is a little different every time. V2 attempts to do this but the branches are just smaller and the director more punishing, so the rails feel considerably more binding.
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Bosses (ie. Roger): Despite V1 only having the Rat Ogre as a mid-level boss, heâs a lot more fun. Specifically, once youâve achieved end-game status, he isnât such a goddamn slog to kill, regardless of difficulty. Heâs still a threat just not a, âsweet⌠guess weâll drop everything and spend the next lil bit dealing with this annoying bs (eye roll)â kinda threat. Heâs squishier, which means you can fight multiple at the same time to create an actually fun situation where you have more control and RNG isnât so much of a factor (eg. Last Stand, fighting 2-3 at once). V2âs bosses are awesome but they make most classes feel too weak in comparison. Itâs immersion-breaking and unfun when you can empty 100% of your ammo into something and barely make a dent. Also, the current post 1.0.6 system of -always- having to deal with a boss + horde + specials is bland, and results in events that are more RNG dependent than quality control would typically permit. If you want to do this, assign extremely specific instances where it can happen and do a better job of shackling the director for the event. You can achieve the effect youâre after by having a few stragglers of slave rats run in⌠you donât need a full horde + specials every⌠single⌠time⌠Itâs so gd boring and unfun. Thereâs nothing more satisfying in V1, for example, than seeing all of your hard earned progression at work when you absolutely demolish roger. Itâs empowering. V2 is the opposite of that and it breaks the lore.
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Balance: Characters in V1 are extremely well balanced. Anyone can top the boards in any category and no one feels over/underpowered. Properly geared, you can have a blast with everyone. In V2, there are drastic differences between classes and characters and certain classes just simply do not have the same DPS potential as others, whether it be against a single target or a horde. Some characters just need a buff, specifically in the ranged department.
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Rewards/Progression: V1 makes you feel like youâre earning your progression. V2 makes you feel like it rolls a dice then slaps you in the face.
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Overall experience: Thanks to the more even ai director, V1 remains fun even after youâve gotten all of the achievements and maxed out your characters. V2 feels like a constant slog through a pre-beta director thatâs not even close to being properly tuned.
Equipment Traits (Equivalent of Properties in V2) Are Better Balanced: The values attainable for properties in V1 are better. This is especially true for damage prevention equipment, eg. Gas dmg -60% in V1 vs -lol10% in V2.
Things V2 Does Better
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Class Diversity: What it lacks in balance, it makes up for in variety. V2âs character system is extremely fun and ensures there are playstyles to suit everyoneâs needs. There are a lot of changes that need to be made still but this has potential.
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Speed: Thanks to the addition of powerful classes with unique abilities, V2 allows for much faster action. This is great, and extremely fun when youâre not getting dicked by the gameâs bugs or the ai directorâs RNG bs.
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Epicness: While the levels and lore may be blander than V1âs, the increased horde sizes and enemy variety makes for an epic battlefield experience. This is only possible because of how much more powerful the characters are, so I very much hope they buff weaker characters up when balancing, instead of continuing to nerf powerful characters. More power = better potential for epic encounters.
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Lord Fight Variety: V1 really only has the one Lord encounter, in Reaching Out. Arguably, the White Rat and the pre-V2 level could be considered Lord fights but not quite the same. That being said, the quality of Lord fights in V2 is all over the place. Skaven lord is too tanky when not exploited, Bubblebuttâs splooge is a lil too thick, and War Camp is too easy/boring but the arena is too small to allow for many changes. Skittergate is perfect, though.
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Availability of Weapons: Being able to craft the exact weapon loadout you want is a godsend, and the only thing V2 does better in the crafting department.
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Better Equipment Trait/Property Variety: V1âs traits/properties can be annoying (eg. Swift Slaying (Normal Attack) vs Swift Slaying (Charged Attack). V2âs trait/properties make life easier and allow for more powerful combinations in a lot of slot. Since values are screwy though, some slots still need work/balancing.
How to Improve V2
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Give the AI Director (a lot) more rules and boundaries. I get that you want it to be able to always do something zany and unexpected but the problem is that thereâs zero quality control in that. Itâs not always fun. Sometimes itâs boring, sometimes itâs outright unfun, and sometimes it can just delete your team. Right now it has Cate Blanchett to just do w/e the hell it wants. It needs better guidance to let it know what it should/shouldnât do to ensure a match is fun every time. It can still, occasionally, be given Cate Blanchett to go full ham but the probability of this needs to be low enough that itâs hilarious and exciting when it happens, not âoh⌠this againâŚâ
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Buff the weak ranged weapons. Eg. Kruberâs entire arsenal.
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Stop nerfing/reducing power. More power = we can handle more crazy stuff (ie. the exact stuff you want to throw at us). Instead of weakening classes/weapons/characters, set the strongest characters as the standard and bring the weaker classes/weapons/characters up to meat that standard. The game is at itâs best when we are decimating the enemy. The game is often boring/unfun right now because it can feel like a non-stop war of attrition.
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Fix crafting. Add the invocation option from V1.
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Kill the RNG with fire in general. Give us more control over our own progression and destiny. Right now, the game plays us. Itâs a slot machine. Let us feel like weâre earning/building/progressing. Bounty should help with this but please make sure it gives us complete control over what equipment/cosmetic weâre progressing towards.
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Tone down the mid-level bosses a bit so theyâre more in line with V1. The current system is boring and we know exactly what to expect every time. Also, the bosses are too tanky to make fighting multiples at once a fun or balanced prospect right now. Make it so a perfectly geared out group of end-game characters can down them better and youâll eventually be able to give us content where weâre taking out multiple bosses at the same time. The hordes + specials during bosses just adds an additional unfun layer of RNG when it happens every single time. If you want to do this, you need to tell the AI Director -exactly- when and where to do it. No more Cate Blanchett. Any character should be able to solo a boss without much difficulty.
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Balance the damage taken by armoured lords better. A lot of weapons just hit them like a wet noodle and itâs boring af.
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Record/add more lore conversations and character development. This should be happening every time weâre on an elevator, for example. Re-add all of Bardinâs Okri comments and add new/original ones. Let us keep getting to know the characters.
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Quality control. Everywhere. Always. A lot of what Iâm seeing in the game right now feels like a shot in the dark. Like youâre throwing things at the wall to see what sticks. You already know from V1 what works, for the most part.
