Crafting and item acquisition that’s not pure RNG-gambling #1. On top of all the issues with resource imbalances and drop rates and Hadron-bricking and general frustration, the whole thing just feels hamfisted and forced into this game at a deep fundamental level by a Dev or C-Suite who doesn’t actually play the game and really isn’t interested in hearing feedback but is deeply devoted to the Gacha-model for a reason nobody is able to understand (and that Fatshark clearly has 0 desire to share).
There’s also a lot of “waste” in itemization and crafting. Right now we’ve got 4 different item acquisition methods (Melk, Mission Rewards, Armory Exchange, Brunt), and most of what players receive or are offered is essentially junk, stuff that will never be selected or purchased or used, and if rewarded is simply destroyed. None of that is necessary, it’s all trash just designed to set up the hook into gambling psychology for engagement purposes when the same thing could be accomplished by just…letting people grind weapons and upgrades with XP and in-game resources like DRG or a gazillion other games. But instead Fatshark chose to invest a huge amount of development time and features into building and maintaining what is effectively a large e-waste generator, just to hose-blast players with a stream of literal digital garbage, which then has to be managed and picked through and disposed of by the user like an internet hobo.
#2 We still need another repass at blessings and perks. There’s a large grip of blessings that still aren’t functioning correctly, and many that just aren’t ever terribly useful or that are damn near mandatory, while many of the Perks are total wastes just in general and many more are pointless on specific weapons. The fact that I can just slap “+25% Flak” on the overwhelmingly vast majority of weapons and have it at least be an A if not S tier perk is a problem while “+X% Ranged Damage Groaners/Poxwalkers” is gonna get ripped off every time, and you don’t see anyone using a Power Sword without Power Cycler.
#3 Gear aside, some talent adjustments as well. There’s lots of dead or waste nodes/talents, some that have way too many support nodes (wtf does Volley Fire need 4 nodes for? Why does Warp Siphon have 6?), while others are basically mandatory. We have a number of Keystones that just aren’t very good or that seemingly are designed for a different type of game altogether, and just don’t work terribly well or don’t really match their intended philosophy like Disrupt Destiny, Marksman’s Focus, etc.
This stuff all feels like it’s finally in a “release” state, but very definitely “early release”. We’ve moved out of the “unfinished beta” feel that was the first year of the game’s existence of these fronts, but there’s clearly a lot of work to be done.
If these can be addressed, I think Darktide is on solid footing for the future and ready for truly new content. They’re not trivial changes, but they’re certainly not the hardest things for Fatshark to address either.
