So, the notes for the patch that was foretold in the dev blog last week are released. And I have to admit I’m pretty miffed, all things considered, about this confirmation of the direction of Darktide’s design. In addition to the patch notes, both @Aqshy and @Fatshark_Hedge have also engaged with the community and acknowledged and replied to some of the community feedback. In particular the point that the chance of getting any good gear is quite low was commented upon, and it was said that FS is now internally discussing this. In one post on this forum Hedge has also commented the following regarding FS’s design philosophy of the itemisation system of Darktide:
But the reason the current system is bad isn’t because it doesn’t give out perfect weapons quickly and freely, but because there is no player agency involved in whether you eventually get good / near perfect weapons. It’s not as much a “hunt” or a “grind” as much as it is a karking lottery. And - to stay with this comparison - you can’t even do anything to buy extra lottery tickets or to improve your chances otherwise. You either get a really good base item and you get lucky with RNG-upgrading it, or you don’t. The fact that the lottery also has really shïtty odds is another bad thing, but it’s only adding insult to injury. The main issue is that loot is something that passively happens to you instead of something you work for. In near all of its aspects.
And all the dev blogs, design choices so far including this next patch, and everything else FS has communicated so far does not even acknowledge this point. It’s nice that FS recognises that the chances of getting good stuff is unreasonably low, but FS doesn’t seem to understand that the complete reliance - nay; dependance - on RNG is the main issue here. And the fact that FS doesn’t acknowledge this, makes it look like FS doesn’t understand it. And if they don’t understand it, it means that they absolutely aren’t listening to the ample feedback the playerbase is giving, even in just the last few days as a reaction to the dev blog last week. The fact that the intended “crafting” recipe for re-rolling one perk which will lock the other one in place will be implemented without further comment after the massive negative feedback over all channels on that intended change is another reason why it seems that FS really doesn’t give a kark about community feedback.
If the design philosophy really was just that players needed to have an effectively endless hunt for perfect gear to entice them to stick with the game, there would be no need for the egregious RNG-aspect there is now. And the ubiquitious RNG could have easily been toned down, or even acknowledged. Just to spitball a few suggestions: The restriction where one weapon perk gets locked in place when re-rolling the other one would not be nescessary, as it does nothing but build in another layer of RNG-restriction. A way to increase or re-roll weapon stat bars could be introduced, so there would still be some RNG but a part of the grind would at least be active instead of passive. Or whatever else; there’s a thousand other possible changes. You want a perfect weapon to be a rare thing: Fine. But there’s no need to make it fully random. And nothing FS is saying or doing is pointing towards them even intending to reduce RNG. So we have to conclude is that FS’s design philosophy is something else entirely. And it sure looks like that philosophy is: Trap the players with a glorified slot machine.
I mean, everything sure is pointing in that direction. From the way gear is aquired, to the way it is upgraded with a heavy emphasis on RNG which can easily work in players’ detriment, to the selection (or lack thereof) of the maps and difficulty you play: It’s all RNG, RNG, RNG, with only the bare minimum of player agency to it. And that agency basically comes down to the choice to “take it or leave it”.
Cynical voices in the playerbase have already repeatedly stated that the game is designed as it is because layers upon layers of RNG is known by game developers to be a good way of increasing the “time spent in the game” metric as much as possible (because the only thing you can do if you want specific or better gear is checking the shop every hour), as market research is said to show that that metric correlates to the “money spent” metric. Now, off course I can’t claim to actually know what FS’s motivations for the design of Darktide are, but from everything we know so far this explananation is sure is more likely than FS designing a karking skinner box by accident and just “missing” all the feedback the community has given so far.
Especially because the latest communications by FS seem to show that the layers of RNG will be piled up further without any comment, and instead people are distracted with promises / allusions that the slot machine payout rates will maybe be increased…
So yeah. I’m out of patience, mainly because the core of the problems with Darktide’s systems aren’t even being acknowledged, and with the appearance that it’s all done deliberately as well. Even if the slot machine spits out only 380+ weapons; It’s still a shït system. I know it won’t mean much in the grand scheme of things, but this is one negative review that won’t be changed until these things at least get adressed. Until then FS can stuff it with their karking “DeSiGn PhIlOsOpHy” of a mobile game.