Why does Fatshark keep buffing enemies? Don’t they realize peak concurrent player numbers happen when combat feels satisfying and fun for us?

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Gameplay Feedback
1

Some people will definitely argue that this game is supposed to be hard, but my point is that most maxed-out weapon builds should dominate Difficulty 3 and 4 effortlessly. For players who seek a real challenge, isn’t clearing Havoc Rank 40 with just two teammates difficult enough? What’s the logic behind cranking up difficulty on mid-tier missions?

The newly added shield troops in this patch completely ruin the fun of mowing down hordes of grunts. Previous updates buffed the health pools and spawn rates of Carapace Ogryns, while Plasma Gunners now have ridiculously thick head carapace armor. Let’s face it: most underpowered, unusable weapons simply lack armor penetration. All these balance adjustments make it clear Fatshark wants weapons with poor armor pen to see even less playtime.

Even armor-piercing staples like the Power Sword and Duelist Sword received nerfs. This tells me what Fatshark really wants to reduce is the player count itself. Steam’s concurrent player numbers kept dropping after all these updates. Players only flooded back when new DLC launched, yet many quickly quit due to the clunky, unrewarding gameplay of the Skitarii class—and I’m one of them.

After a long day at work, I boot up this game just to unwind and enjoy satisfying hack-and-slash combat. When I’m having a good time, I’ll even buy cosmetic skins as a treat for myself; casual players like me form the core paying audience. Difficulty 1 and 2 spawn far too few enemies, and these tiers should be reserved solely for new players to learn the basics.

We already have tons of endgame challenging content: Difficulty 5, Auric Maelstroms, Havoc Ranks 1 through 40, plus duo or trio playthrough restrictions. There are so many high-challenge options available. Why keep ramping up the difficulty for mid-level missions? Don’t players who want harder content have full access to the Havoc menu?

Difficulty 3 and 4 ought to let players blast through hordes with nearly all max-level weapon builds, while Difficulty 5 should feel rewarding when using powerful optimized loadouts.

2

It’s almost like combat is most satisfying when your opponents can actually challenge you and fight back.

3

They HAVE to buff enemies because they don’t know how to balance their game and tend to buff buff buff players…

4

Yeah throwing in an overtuned enemy, which behaves like an Elite while its not one, which is just a Moebian Steel block in every horde is so unfun.

5

If you feel that your enemies aren’t truly challenging enough and the process of fighting back isn’t satisfying enough, you should just increase the difficulty. Go try Havoc 40—surely no one is arrogant enough to claim they can solo that. Besides, vanguards—those damage sponges—aren’t there to ‘challenge’ you; they just drain your positive feedback through trash-mob numbers, elite-level health bars, and the same toughness as shielded Chaos Warriors.

6

I mean, there are a LOT of videos on YouTube of people doing just that.

Regardless, Havoc 40 is full of artificial Difficulty and has barely any Player agency.

They’re there to prevent you from bullying hordes and they rightfully do a damn good job.

7

But that’s exactly how it is!
1 - Sedition (too easy for modern characters and therefore no longer available)
2 - Uprising
3 - Malice
4 - Heresy

Or do you need some incredibly powerful weapon to play on Heresy difficulty?

8

I haven’t seen many videos, actually. Come to think of it, I only recall two: one with the Arbites back when he was OP, and one with the Scum back when he was OP. The rest were either speedruns or cheese

9

I highly doubt that last conclusion. This year, Duelist Sword, Uncanny Strike and Hive Scum (ranged builds) have all been nerfed significantly, to the point where their gameplay experience has changed a lot. The newly introduced Skitarii also perform mediocrely in high-level Havoc, even being relatively weak. So could you explain why you think Fatshark is still all about buffing players?

10

If you feel the enemies are too hard — lower the difficulty. And yes, Vanguards are excellent; we should strip all elites (maybe except Ogryns, Maulers, and Scab Ragers [if rotten armour]) of their elite status so they don’t feed player power with their deaths. I played Mass Effect 3 multiplayer, and just imagine — killing enemies, no matter how skillfully done, gave the players no buffs whatsoever

11

If you think Havoc 40’s difficulty is unreasonable, I could just as easily see it as still acceptable—while the difficulty of Vanguards is the one that feels off. I’m not trying to be contrarian here; it’s just that everyone’s perception of difficulty has subtle differences. TBH my real complaint is with Vanguards in Havoc 40 (or similar high-level Havoc, and sometimes Maelstrom). On lower difficulties, I don’t really care. If they got some targeted nerfs that only apply in high-difficulty modes, I’d be fine with that. And I don’t think most players would have a problem with it, would they?

12

I have another option: just pick the Ogryn. These Vanguards only trouble players running regular weapons. They turn into squishy meat when hit by explosives, and Fatshark keeps buffing the Ogryn’s firepower on top of that.

I’m confused. Is Fatshark pushing everyone to main Ogryn so they hog all the fun of clearing enemies that other classes should get to enjoy?

As for your Mass Effect 3 example: these Vanguards are like beefing up the health of Husks, Cannibals and Marauders, then slapping a collector crab’s shield on top. (what is its real name? just forgot it) There’s no word to describe them other than outright annoying. And yeah, cannibals and marauders are more dangerous in platinum than vanguards do in havoc 40, these bastards.

13

They do

14

We want more difficulty from playing the game, not fighting menu UIs and lack of player population.

So, you get FS to remove the barriers in front of me playing Havoc easily and quickly and I’ll leave you to your end-of-day, wind down power creep.

Alternatively, you can turn the difficulty down if you feel your enemies are truly too challenging and they fight back too much.

16

I don’t really get the point about fighting menu UIs, but I support you on that. On the Hong Kong server, the time it takes me to set up a Havoc party, find teammates, and get into a match isn’t any longer than my queue time in Overwatch. So I don’t know what it’s like on your server, but adding a matchmaking system for Havoc would be a good thing—hope Fatshark implements it soon. As for the difficulty issue, I’ve already discussed it above, covering both ‘Ogryn beating Vanguards is too easy while other classes struggle’ and ‘suggesting targeted patches for Vanguards in high-difficulty content.’ If you have any thoughts, feel free to chime in.

17

wrote a reply above but failed to direct it to yours. Still a little bit confused about this forum.

18

2 years of complaints later…

19

It’s especially funny when you also happens to play Space Marine 2, it took months for Sabre Interactive to realise that the Tzaangor w/ shield was too tanky for a mob, and now Fatshark is repeating the same mistake again - they just never learn, huh?

20

Because Fatshark has handled game balance worse than amateurs. Years of short-sighted, band-aid fixes have gradually destroyed the game’s overall balance.

One of the biggest problems is the complete lack of consistency in how they approach balancing. Normally, before introducing a new game mode or higher difficulty, developers analyze things like player distribution across difficulties, build and weapon usage, completion rates, and a wide range of other data to establish a healthy baseline. Fatshark has done none of that. Instead, they’ve left overpowered builds untouched while continuously adding Havoc and a stream of unfun modifiers.

After reducing the number of Crushers, they’ve now reduced Bulwarks as well. Yet they still refuse to address the player power creep that they themselves have acknowledged. Instead, for some reason, they decided to buff the already OP Inferno.

At this point, I honestly can’t tell whether the devs are simply incompetent or if they’re deliberately trying to frustrate their players.

21

the what?!?
duo leveling the class cause for no money in the world would i play with randoms through these levels, but unrewarding isnt a word id use for it

plenty clutches and satisfying encounters so far with absolute solo potential.

but instead of the other two cheapskate classes one has to put in some effort at least.

that being said, no claw or arc rifle for the time be cause both feel on the easy side.

the nerfs so far are necessary and long overdue cause at some point it feels pretty stale seeing the ever same onetrick ponies pretending they got something else going for them than doing their prance once every 30 seconds, pushing one button and using the same op weapons.

didnt even notice the new shield enemies while leveling the skitarius that much, they drop reliably and fast given proper methods and not just mindlessly whacking on the front, clicking m1.

back at release hordes actually where a worthy engagement, good direction its going right now, no one should be able to just breeze through one.

no cause the ever same, boring hard counters to stuff that doesnt reward mechanical skill but number adjustments isnt something the game was when there was only auric maelstrom, and never should have come to in the first place.

this isnt a damn mmo where one would bother with talents or perks first before his bodily abilities come into play.

it was a sweetspot of quake style fps game that demanded fast reflexes, good aim and a knowledge of the map to prove your skill.

power creep happened and softened this approach, its time we get back there asap.

besides why should one artificially bloated mode be “enough” when spare-time gamers got 5 other difficulties to chose from, depending on how “effortlessly” they want to pass.

i guess 4/5 being heresy/damnation, something that was the upper area at release and histg damnation the be all end all.

no amount of power creep should have made those “effortless” when malice and below are a thing, they’d be totally obsolete otherwise :man_shrugging: