Spending a lot of time building PVP in a game with significant content droughts and a focus on four-player COOP against AI does not seem like the best use of resources to me.
Vermintide 2 PVP wasn’t exactly engaging to play, and Fatshark is a small game studio with limited resources.
Personally, I think that Darktide would not benefit from the addition of any new game modes right now.
Developers that understand and actually play their game.
It seems like you think VT2’s bad net code means these things are impossible. I really don’t think that is necessarily a massive problem just something that would need to be overcame with better net code.
I did say multiple times here that this isn’t something that I expect to be added any time soon. It’s really at the bottom of my list overall. I’m just against people saying it’s impossible or something.
You realize darktide is pretty high up on the AA side of things. I mean Fatshark has earned around ~200 million from just game sales (idk the exact number that is a decent low ball. Just from ownership estimates) probably plus another ~20+ million from cosmetics as a roughly low ball.
The division was developed by Massive games a Swedish company with ~300 employees at the time. So reasonably similar scale to Fatshark. Idk the exact budget but it was around ~70 million. So Fatshark definitely is in a similar ballpark.
Same with fortnite the the base game was developed as a relatively small project by a relatively small team and the battle royal was thrown together in 3 months.
Dark souls 3 was also made on a pretty small budget for the AAA side of things.
Destiny is the main outlier but honestly I think that is mostly because Bungie isn’t very good at the budgeting things or the developing thing, and they had unlimited money at the time regardless.
Yeah. As I said darktide could easily do that. All the shooting mechanics, movement, assets, various abilities. They are all already in the game. They just need to be tweaked to work with a arena PvP mode.
Okay enjoy being extremely negative for no reason. If you don’t think it’s possible that’s up to you. Personally I like to have some optimism and assume the best in people. If you want to assume the worst and think Fatshark is so incompetent… why are you here? Just to complain?
Sure.
Even if they were minor, the class-agnostic support traits from trinket in VT1 and 2 had helped encourage co-op factor.
so are blessings/perks/talents/ults and other bloating and skill-substitute bullcrap.
pvp is for 
measuring and if I want to prove I got the longest I play a balanced pvp game where every weapon is valid and every player has the same base conditions.
you wonder why so few people play arena shooters like quake live or (to an extend) champions?
cause 99%suck ass and want to hide the fact behind neat “talents and effects”
getting roflstomped for 5 years + before even being somewhat considered ladder material worked in the late 90s.
with all that instant gratification crap and “achievements” soft-washing, no one sticks to a game he gets his ass kicked on a daily basis for hours on end and months down the line.
hence “hero shooters” and asynchronous pvp modes rose to fame cause you get the illusion of skill after a few 100 hours instead of years.
Idk it works pretty good in SM2
No you wouldn’t. Are you expecting to play as equally matched enemies? If so that is obviously ridiculous if mixed in with thousands of AI enemies and not the game-mode I’m envisioning.
Says you. I think it does. Also it wouldn’t strictly be “as-is” as extensive tweaks/work would obviously need to happen for such a mode.
You seem to be the only person here who thinks it works. I’ve not played it but it’s also a different game so I don’t give a flying **** if it works or not. It’s a different game. I’m not sure why everyone who plays VT2 thinks it’s relevant here. It’s not. Everyone else is complaining that VT2 PvP sucks so all it is is a bunch of personal preferences getting in the way of discussing a mode. You’re just overlaying a mode from a different game directly into DT and saying “see it doesn’t work!”. Luckily that is not how Games Design works. They don’t just lift a carbon copy of a mode from another game and plonk it in and say there ya go. Incredibly naïve to think so.
RE ranged - to say that “is why” an entire game mode works is also crazy. Games Design is Games Design. There are near infinite options and a lack of imagination from gamers who are not designers, doesn’t change that.
How original.
Not at all. It could easily be 4 vs 4. There are enemy spawn points EVERWHERE and more could be added. The game would still be spewing out thousands of AI enemies per mission but the odd human player would be mixed in. This is just a mode I imagined would be fun. I didn’t come to the forum with a goddamn presentation deck of 7 months of deep research and development. It’s just an idea I suggested in reply to a bluesky thread and I assure you any of the problems people have imagined here could easily be navigated. That’s how games are made.
This thread is about larger scope wish list items as far as I understood the OP.
I have made it very clear over many threads that I want nothing (nothing!) until we have had at least 6 new full sized missions. That hasn’t changed.
I would be spitting fire if we got VS mode before 6 new full sized missions.
Are you f*cking joking? What a pathetic response. Grow up.
Feel free to traverse the forums at your leisure to see poo-pooing at a level that should make it to the Guinness Book of Records, most of which are nothing to do with me or my suggestions. You can disagree with this all you want and I don’t care. I know what I have seen. Just look at this thread for example. hell, just look at my quotes FFS.
people like you only think about negatives immediately. Then you hard lock into them and apparently have no problem solving ability whatsoever.
A common stance on the forum goes: “I can’t imagine an entirely fleshed-out, perfectly working mechanic/mode in my singular head therefor it will never work”. Do I need to explain why that is absurd?
Do you want a medal?
For like the 20th time - I DO NOT CARE ABOUT VT2 SO STFU about it. I didn’t even enjoy the game at all compared to DT. It is beyond irrelevant here. The games feel really different to each other.
Awww did you not solve the issue instantly in your head on a forum? Bless. I guess we had better shut down the whole idea guys. Vror couldn’t create an entire game mode with perfect mechanics in his head within 3 hours. It’s obviously doomed. JFC. *facepalm
*
FYI
IN CASE IT WASN’T CLEAR - THIS IS BLUESKY WISHLIST STUFF. I WANT MORE MISSIONS BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE.
ALSO BECAUSE YOU CAN’T IMAGINE A PERFECT GAME MODE IN AN HOUR AFTER SOMEONE SUGGESTED AN IDEA ON A FORUM - IT MEANS NOTHING! To think that if you can’t imagine it in a few hours then it’s a write-off (something I see A LOT on these forums) is such an embarrassing level of overinflated self worth that it beggars belief.
The difference between a forum poo-pooer and a Games Designer is a poo-pooer will just say “it won’t work” and a Games Designer will say “let’s figure out how to make it work”.
This philosophy could really benefit the forums. really sick and tired of people shooting ideas down in flames because they had a bad experience in a different game etc. It’s damn lazy and short-sighted.
I am not interested in Solo mode AT ALL so perhaps I should start replying to threads about it with “it won’t work because it didn’t work in a different game” and “I can’t imagine it working therefor there is no way it will ever work”. No? Would that be a crappy thing to do? Huh?
No, you will not be able to make an entire game mode in your head within hours. Please accept that. It takes a team of talented and experienced Designers to bang heads for many solid months and throw **** at a whiteboard until something sticks, then same process for prototyping.
Start thinking about how to improve an idea or how to fix it.
iT wOnT wOrK.
it works but there’s a big gap between the “absolute-solo runs” and me thinking, yeah that dude got some serious skills and a mild yawn seeing people popping abilities against each other and calling it “pvp” rather than rock paper scissors for that it actually is.
plus third person corner camping… nah thanks I’m good
sadly the early ones that set the foundation (and correct me if I’m wrong) have since wandered off and what came in balance wise hasn’t had my hopes up in a long time.
there are certainly ways it could work, but given the current power level of our characters I’d find it odd and detrimental for the pace to suddenly have “special trappers/bombers” etc spawn with a health pool and attributes that don’t match their peers cause them would be player controlled.
so in my opinion we need new not-ai enemies from scratch such as plague bearers, that are then from the very point of their introduction player controlled.
you see the model and switch your mode of engaging them.
The bait is supreme here
I say VT2 versus works because its fundamentals work. It can be easily fixed from its current status with balance changes (just changing numbers on some talents and weapons) and making sure high level players can’t queue together into quickplay
Most people who say VT2 versus doesn’t work it’s simply cuz they don’t have experience or don’t like the idea itself of versus and are angry at FS for making the mode rather than other content. So You can trust me when I say I would like a functional DT versus mode, but it has so many issues that can’t be fixed without making it a whole new game (and this is the main thing I want you to solve to prove DT versus could work)
VT2 already was fine for making it PVP, as it nearly mimics everything that is relevant on L4D2 to make it work
You’d need to address those issues with DT to convince anyone that versus would be a good idea here
So I ask again
How do you solve the issue of Knife being the indisputable meta? How do you solve the issue of 4 Arbites with dogs essentially tagging you once as special and you die? How do you solve classes like ogryn being extremely bad no matter what you do in this mode?
If you call me names because I myself can’t think of solutions for these instead of thinking them yourself, that doesn’t help your argument but it makes you look like a baby
It’s funny you mention this because if You actually were arguing in good faith, you’d see how I made 5000 VT2 versus posts in their respective forums in ways to improve this gamemode
And this is exactly why I keep making the questions I do regarding DT versus, how would the issues I panned out be resolved?
You’re doing exactly the same thing you’re complaining that others do (saying “shut up” instead of proving them wrong). I’m giving you clear issues in the forms of questions, if you want to convince me or anyone else, it’d be better to answer them instead of calling them a forum poo-pooer
The retention system was ill-conceived at launch and counter-productive to encouraging people to play because it was so random and RNG based. Despite fixing the worst aspects of that, it meant that implementing better systems from the get go is difficult.
Honestly, look no further than Deep Rock Galactic. Which until very recently basically had a steadily increasing base player count (ie the average players in between each spike was going up and up).
The approach to earning cosmetics through the season system and tree was one big part of DRGs success. And they have nice features like being able to toggle back to an old season for a while to pick up things you missed.
For Darktide, having a consistent source of earnable aquallias, for instance having events on a two or three week rotation that always has Aquila’s as a final reward, would help drive people to play to get a reward for a tangible cosmetic. This would require expanding the shop and reducing the FOMO approach, as the incentive doesn’t work as well if what’s in the shop right now isn’t to your liking or if you can’t grind enough event Aquila’s before the thing you want goes out of Rotation. Instead of rotating what cosmetics are available, they should list everything and rotate what’s on sale for a slight discount.
On the gameplay front, FS needs to stop layering on new modes. The play experience could be significantly more diversified if all the mission mutator effects were in one pool that was intelligently drawn from. Maelstrom and Havoc could just be additional difficulty modes that allow more Mutators than normal to be in effect in a logical way. The pool of secondary objectives and the incentives for accomplishing them should be ramped up. VT2 a mid-tier play had a nice risk-reward dynamic in collecting books for full legend runs to try and farm red items. That chase and dynamic carried a lot of play time.
The mission board needs to be revamped. Could have a token system where you can earn a token (or spend melk bucks to buy one?) that lets you customize a mission to your liking. People get discouraged when they want to play X but only have the choice of playing Y. Let people play what they want and they might actually play more! Along the same lines, implement solo mode. There are people waiting on the sidelines to play and spend money on the game, but won’t because of no solo mode. Solo mode lets others practice and tinker with certain builds, all of which drives playtime.
Lastly - working towards a system and mission type that procedurally randomizes the levels would amazing. You fall in the routine of running the same routes through the same maps over and over and there needs something keep things fresh on a regular basis. Adding more static maps helps short-term, but isn’t a long term solution really.
It’s no secret: Darktide is moving into its fourth year since launch (or third, by some counts). The player count tells the story, having fallen from the initial 100,000 peak to a consistent sub-10,000.
If we judge it as a typical live-service title with a 3-year lifecycle, its operational performance earns a failing F grade—it hasn’t sustained interest. Viewed through the lens of a slower-burning “decade game,” it might scrape by with a D grade, but that’s being generous.
Every player surge has directly coincided with a sale or promotion. And every time the promotion ends, the numbers reliably dip again. This pattern makes it clear: new players aren’t sticking around.
That poor retention points to deeper issues: the content lacks long-term depth and fails to keep players engaged. The core gameplay loop is solid, but there’s simply not enough substantial post-launch support to build a lasting community.
Right now, it feels like Fatshark’s focus has drifted away from meaningful development and toward other ventures. If this continues, once the remaining player base dissipates, the game will likely be shelved in favor of the next project.
Several patches to fix the mess they made with No Man’s Land
Some display of development competences
People that can work and have enough work ethics to not break things before leaving for a month long vacation
About 5 new maps
The ability to repaint your armor
Staff special attacks
Backgrounds having any in game meaning
Interesting modifiers for auric
An updated social UI with messaging etc
Weapon customization for flashlights etc
Not a bad idea at all. I personally don’t see a problem with players controlling existing enemies (I don’t think they need drastically different hp or anything) but your suggestion would be a good thing to try out in either case.
I think they just need to play with their schedule a bit tbh. ie not planning a release a week before holiday.
Instead have it ready but release it as soon as they get back to work. Just makes sense that way.