Weekly Event Mode - Potential changes

Wanted to make a Weekly Event Mode thread for a while. And what better time could I choose then now where this thread will be buried in a day by the twentiest “GK totally new feedback” thread?

Act 0 - Preface

Currently we have three additional modes beside the main adventure mode. All of these have their function and personally I am against mixing them or taking parts of one and put it into another. Winds for example should never be part of the adventure mode or Deeds. They introduce new mechanics and increased challenges for those seeking it. It is consistent it is own lore.
Deeds themselves are the same game/adventure mode just a bit harder mainly by number tinkering. They are so far by any means complying with lore and should stay so.
Twitch Mode is just messy for people who want warnings of what thread is coming up next. Lore here is more unrestricted due to the wild mixing of modifiers. But the mode is not for everyone. Personally, I find it not interesting.

This leaves us with the Weekly Mode which has its own modifier. Personally, it seems to me that similar to Twitch Mode it is not restricted by lore, however can be used for a much more defined less messy experience. This is something which should be build upon.

Act I - Existing Modifiers

First, it should be worked over the existing modifiers. This should be looking at slight changes like adding a counter for the Curse of Comraderie before it nukes away the team or similar. Mainly, it should be adjusting the map pool for some of the modifiers. The bomb modifier is the best example as it can easily wipe you on a map like Into the Nest due to a long non-optional transport section. You could kill your whole team before to circumvent that but … Just reduce the map pool for certain modifiers if they pose a problem for said map.

Act II - Be promotional

A thing I never understood is why the Weekly Event mode is not used for promoting Vermintides own DLC content. Every four weeks the weekly Event could be about some of your DLCs in a very restricted manner. It would be long enough to make people still buy the DLC but is a chance for people to test out stuff and make them interested. Examples could be:

  • Map promotion: The Weekly Event is on one of the DLC maps like Bögenhafen, accessible for all players for one week
  • Weapon promotion: Playing the Weekly Event would automatically equip a DLC weapon (either BtU or WoM, not necessarily in the same week) for the character chosen. This would also lead to some interesting team compositions if each character is using a DLC weapon. However, you would need to program a function to override the users loadout.
  • Character promotion: Only interesting later down the line, but you could make promo weeks where playing Weekly Event automatically gives you the DLC careers with a predetermined set of equipment and talents (or completely randomized). Would give people a chance to get a feeling for the classes but without the freedom to chose their own loadouts and it would still be only one week every three months or something like this
  • Weave promotion: Give out some random Weaves, however with your maind adventure loadout. So people can get a feeling for the new modifiers and the difficulty of the Weaves

Act III - Be experimental

Another thing I don’t understand is why FS is not more experimental with the Weekly Mode. Just try out different stuff. You probably have done some yourself in your experimental week which you do not seem fleshed out enough. Doesn’t matter, just give a warning that the experience may be imbalance or could even crash. However, you would have to change the Weekly Quest from completing the Weekly Event to take part in the Weekly Event (three times or something like that). Also experiment on preset restrictions and with removing lore restrictions. Examples of all the thing mentioned above could be:

  • Hammertime 1 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9J_19J3257A . This is explaning itself
  • Hammertime 2: Every character starts with a hammer weapon. The character doesn’t have a hammer? Now, just for this weekly event they have! May result in some odd animations when Kerillian or Sienna hammer their way through everything. Moveset could be copied from other characters but you would probably need new animations.
  • Getting Axed: Same as above, just that every character is using an axe. Not much to add.
  • Fight Club: We know from Vermintide 1 that you have previously programmed fist fight animations (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2IBtsnkiq8). Make a Weekly Event where everyone is fighting just with their fists. Makes for a very personal experience
  • Extreme Weather: With Season 3 you have created the pre-conditions for such a mode. Build up on it. Increase extreme weather and give it modifiers. Example would be a blizzard which reduces your (and your enemies) movement and also sight. If you stand still you will slowly taking damage so keep in constant movement. Another example would be extreme sun where you have to spend some time in the shadow here and there or your Stamina and Dodge counter would constantly be drained.
  • Character Twins: This would break balance hard, but would probably amount to one of the most interesting modifiers. Allow a weekly event where a character can be chosen mutliple times (or even has to). Granted, 4 Shades, 4 Sienna Conflags, 4 IB Flamethrowers, 4 Handmaiden Bleed Build, 4 Ranger Shotgun Builds, 4 Waystalker Hagbane/Trueflight or many similar set-ups would create unstoppable havoc. But once every week would deliver an interesting experience. You could make weeks focussing on different characters like a Saltzpyre week, a Sienna week etc to ensure maximum havoc.
  • Balanced: This one would be a death to meta mod. Basic idea is that you give every weapon (and/or maybe hero/talent) a multiplier. Then you will look at your telemetry data from the last month and create a distribution file which you compare with a theoretical evenly distribution. Depending on the result the weapon would then receive a penalty or bonus multiplier. Example: You have six weapons, meaning in a balanced world every weapon should be used in a sixth of all games (16.6667 %). However, one weapon is used in 30 % of the games while two other weapons are only used in 5 % of the games. Result of the mod would be that the 30 % meta weapon would receive a penalty multiplier on damage/stagger etc while the sub-presented weapons would receive a bonus multiplier on damage/cleave etc…
  • No range/range only: Limit access to range or melee, making previously easy encounters more challenging. Would need unlimited ammo for one mode though.
  • Monster Festival: to lazy to search a better video, so here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPw6-CrvOKk Due to the mechanics in Vermintide this cant be carbon copied. However something similar could be done. For example at every time on the map 4 to 5 monsters are active, ambients are still there but specials and horde are deactivated. To not make this a Handmaiden Dash party, we would need monster barriers. Since every killed monster will be instantly replaced by a new monster, you would nominate one Monster King for every section which has to be killed in order to remove the barrier.
  • Last man standing: Basically a solo mode which could come in different flavours like making all horde but no specials or only disablers but no horde. However, as this is a coop game it is a less interesting modifier.
  • Modding Madness: I am very much in agreement to keep every gameplay changing or cheat-like QoL (like Health bar special radar) mods out of the official realm. But truth is that modders are not very motivated to do something as their work will always just be tackled by the minorty on the modded realm (which shows that interest in mods is limited but at least existent). A compromise could be that once in a while one of the gameplay changing mods would be implemented as Weekly Event.
  • FSs result from their own experimental weeks: Not sure what they came up with, but there are probably some interesting ideas which have been shelved temporarily or permanently for various reasons. They could be tested out here with a warning if necessary.

There are probably a lot more potential modifiers you could do. There is a serious of pitfalls to regard (aside from the work to make singular Weekly Events work) like adjusting rewards depending on difficulty of the Weekly Event (low for Character Twins, high for Extreme Weather or No melee), adjusting map pool, adjusting Weekly Quests from completing to participating. Another “problem” would be that it makes Deeds and Twitch Mode even more of a niche phenomena. However, for getting an interesting and varied Weekly Event Mode I think this problem is neglible. An additional problem is that depending on the number of modifiers it will take a long time before more popular modifiers return. This could be circumvented by adding a Weekly Event 1 and Weekly Event 2 choice in the lobby browser.

Overall, I think the Weekly Event is FSs freeest mode and the one with most interesting potential aside from the adventure mode. Bonus is that FS could slowly expand on the Weekly Event by adding a new modifier every (two weeks) instead of other niche modes like Deeds which would need an overhaul which is much more instant work in comparison to a work in progress for expanding on Weekly.

So yea Fatshark, be promotional, be experimental.

3 Likes

Weekly Events are 90% trash and poorly implemented (the exploding elevator deaths, etc). They should be replaced with either a Weekly Twitch game or a Daily Deed (so people can actually QuickPay into deeds and make progress on the deed portraits).

Yes, putting resources into 4 different game modes, splitting the community is so much better, than having one mode that potentially combines the good from all 4.
Where is the telemetry data NOW, to see which one is popular enough to be actually worked on?

My biggest issue with the current weekly events are how often they simply repeat or are just not as interesting as say twins. Yeah sure i really want to play that run where i’m swarmed by exploding rats for the 100th time or some other absurdly annoying one.
Something simple as say tweaking gravity might be lot more fun for those few weeks and really simple mechanics wise but might open lots of hilarious possibilities.

2 Likes

Then you should support the implementation of additional different modifiers. Just give FS some ideas and they might add it. Weekly Event mode is the simplest and freeest and can be worked on at the sideline in comparison to unpopular deeds which would need an overhaul or the dead-end of Twitch Mode.

As for the rest. I agree that FS should just look at the telemetry data and drop support for the less popular modes. So be it, let Deeds and Twitch be canned, I don’t bother to much about it.

Deeds are fun. The only flaws are 1) they are way too rare (drop rate needs to be increased or you should be able to craft them with salvaged materials), 2) there is no matchmaking for deeds; so, if you aren’t in a pre-made team, you have to run with bots.

Fatshark have already stated that they are actively reworking the deed system. It’ll be interesting to see what they come up with.

I personally think twitch mode is awesome. The sheer variation it adds to the game makes it so much more fun and increases the replayibility of the same old maps. But, much like deeds, it needs a proper matchmaking quickplay option so players can filter twitch games in the lobby browser. Fatshark should also add twitch frames and a twitchplay bonus for loot so we don’t need to pick up books - decreased health and equipment slots are boring mechanics that don’t really add to game variation and replayibility: twitch mode does. Also, by adding a few new twitch/deed modifiers every season Fatshark would freshen up the gameplay on every map.

I agree that there are too many modes. They should replace deeds with twitch (they are the same thing but the modifiers have different duration), eliminate all books, and keep weaves for pre-made groups that enjoy it. You’re left with standard mode, twitch mode if you want better loot, and ranked weaves if you are in a pre-made group and enjoy scripted content.

Ideally, Deeds, the Weekly, and Twitch could all be combined into a single “Superdeed” gamemode, where you have the freedom to compose your modifiers, spawn rates, etc., and then introduce a sort of matchmaking system for it. Rewards should be better the more and the more crazy modifiers you pile on. That way it’s accessable to all, the playerbase is split as little as possible, and you have a way for even the most veteran players to challenge themselves.

There are some pretty creative ideas for game modifiers in these posts, and some of those could then be added to this new gamemode. With it, FS has the liberty to tweak and add to it as much as they please.

The weekly could then simply be a custom “Superdeed” designed by FS to challenge the community. I also really like the ideas about stuff with fixed characters or weapons ro highlight stuff.

In that case, we can can Weekly too, I don’t like the idea of being restricted to one thing for an entire week.

Sure, let the telemetry data decide which modes are worth putting ressources in it. Okay?

As much as I appreciate the compromise sought in the post. I believe that this comment

and this comment

are mutally exclusive. Because the modifiers you like are different from the modifiers I like. Like this we still have dozen of different games which only appease to a small part of the community while still being all summarized under one banner. Honestly, I think we should finally drop the argument of “splitting the community”. As most often it is only used to trying to get rid of stuff person xyz personally doesn’t like.

We should discuss every mode for itself without looking left and right at other modes.

Don’t you smell your own hypocrisy?

Like I said

If you have just 1 mode, and a matchmaking system for it, you could form groups and duscuss which modifiers you want to put on. That’s a lot better than the current situation where some are playing deeds privately, some are playing weekly, some twitch, etc… Less split. And less split is not the reason for combining gamemodes, but just one postive aspect of it.

1 Like

You would still have the same problem. The entry level. Because our current system does not allow to open a lobby without specifying what you want to play. So in order to get a group to discuss which modifiers you want to put in, you either have a premade group already or the people joined because your prior chosen modifiers are in their interest. Or you go the roundabout way and open a normal game to change it then to Deeds and discuss. However personally, I would be … disappointed if I join a PUG and the host would then change it to Deeds because it is not what I wanted to play in that moment. It is more or less the exact same problem Weaves have at the moment.

And like I said in the OP. Every mode has its function. Under the assumption we could unify all those functions under one super mode, what do we really win? Let Twitch be Twitch and Weekly be Weekly both with their strengths and weaknesses. At least I know what I’m getting into then (ignoring that the lobby browser does show me event games in the difficulty tabs as well).

But yea, I would have loved some more ideas from other community members T_T Because I really think that Weekly is the most flexible and the easiest to improve by adding new modifiers from time to time. And the promotional thingy should be literally programmed in about a week.
Also I really want to play Hammertime :stuck_out_tongue: