There is plenty of problems and missed opportunities in Darktide which will be never addressed. What’s your personal wishlist of features you would see in the next Tide game?
My list:
A very early focus on the game optimalisation so a wider range of PC players can play the game with very good frames, and with no stutter. No more reliance on upscaling and fake frames for stable frame rates
Higher field of view values. This is a PC game, stop introducing these console born half measures we are forced to suffer now, because you are unwilling to optimise your games
Stylised art style with focus on picture clarity. No more VFX overload, and no more “100s shades of yellow and grey” as the colour pallet. I want to see, Fatshark
A very early focus on audio clarity. No more “we introduced so much unnecessary SFX that the game engine maxes out audio channels and/or struggles to prioritise important audio cues” problems
Higher level of map biomes for variety: hive cities, forests, jungles, arctic, orbital stations, derelict space hulks
A “Chaos Wastes” style game mode which uses procedurally generated maps
Player agency from top to bottom of the game experience. Manual map, difficulty and difficulty modifier selection. No more RNG based crafting and reward systems
Class build / playstyle variety. Something which is not driven by crazy, incremental power gains, but mainly by extra layers of utility and gameplay options
Free cosmetics of far higher quality, and no more cheap, purposefully chosen for being bad recolours as it is now with a lot of of free cosmetics
Premium cosmetic shop not driven by some of the most vile practices the gaming market has managed to come up with. Instead high quality, more unique cosmetics, no more lazy recolours. Stock always available, no more FOMO, reasonable priced ALWAYS displayed in local currency
Better social system: far better integration with Steam friend list, better reporting / personal block list experience
True Solo mode, so I no longer get a headache every time I look at the Darktide’s Steam page and this forum
For Fatshark to actually learn from their mistakes and actually release a finished game, or at the very least mark their initially unfinished game as Early Access like so many indie developers do. Will either of those actually happen? Probably not.
Change focus from “classes instead of content” to “content, plus some classes”. Literally no fun and no point in replaying the same missions with same foes in them for 1000th time, just with another class that already feels redundant and similar to others anyway. Employ RNG and roguelike approaches more extensively, make an engine that is capable of generating new maps out of dozens (hundreds?) of pre-existing blocks, with modular, randomly generated objectives on them.
And I won’t forgive the promises not fulfilled. Or they give what they announced, or I won’t buy an other game from Fatshark.
I am serious. Also, when I see what they did with this game release… I am not confident for the next one. Fatshark doesn’t listen at all the players.
Also, I plan to switch to Linux in the next years… And Fatshark seems to not be ready for that.
There are companies, like that, I try to avoid. Paradox interactive is one of them, as an example. Just because they developed a toxic DLC policy. Loved their games but, now, if I see their name, I close the steam page immediately (just to be sure to not be tempted). I know what it will be… and I won’t support their way to handle business.
-For devs to have a proper vision and balls to nerf things.
-Addressing fundamental design mistakes, instead of bandaid fixes.
However, dude that designed tide combat left FS, Tencent owns a major part of FS iirc. I have no hope for V3 or DT2 to be any pro customer product made by competent people.
Also agree… but even more. Even if what I said about solo game is something that I cannot forgive.
What we had to do to get a decent crafting system should have never happened. And it shows how much Fatshark can be blind.
I’m not buying the next Fatshark game unless I see some significant improvements in this one on… pretty much all axes. Functionality, not ripping people off, finishing the game, coherent vision, faster updates, etc
the very fact I enjoy 40k as a theme above almost any other is why I deal with people in a coop environment in the first place.
if simple fast paced shooter action would do the trick alone, doom 2016 and eternal got me covered and playing solo.
if it had a first person mode…. space marine 2 is some nice 40k as well when a lack of options should arise. though darktide’s combat mechanic still feels better, more responsive and having more mass to it by a mile.
so stars would align to put these two core components together and get me playing for 2k hours since.
don’t see many other non 40k games having me do that.
as for a next darktide game ? solo with configurable bots. period
And knowing how GW is in general (ie. not helpful), I’d very much would rather see FS do a game without being tied to it. Hell even comparing VT2 to DT, one being a much more flex setting due to being “over”, and getting semi-frequent lore notes and such.
And so they need to create weapons, enemies, locations without any lore working as a vector be it for the narrative, balance (lmao), visuals. Not even talking about having existing audience with already established IP.
There is a reason we see tones of remakes and remasters, and new IP’s is a prerogative for a AAA studios, and even they most of the time relies on some ttrpg or book series.
My wishlist is fairly simple - keep the same combat but tighten the shizzle out of it and make it ORKS and other xenos. In jungle maps and fungal forests and other landscapes that are not just grey buildings.
This. Darktide is far from being finished. Btw, it doesn’t even have a solo mode.
Now the next game would likely run on UE5, so that’s without many current bugs, but much higher hardware demands.
As I posted earlier, darktide came at the perfect moment, I even built a new PC to play it, but i doubt I’d ever have that much patience with a similarly unfinished game, and especially if it’s riddled with “retention mechanics”.
So give the game a single player campaign and keep it free from RNG bullshittery and casino nonsense. Just let people play what they want, when they want.
And now look at the year each of them were created. Most new IP’s were created like before ~2014-2017. The golden age of gaming when almost every new game was a start for the new franchise - take Bioware alone for example.
Now it’s mostly eastern studios creating new IP’s. Or pixel indie stuff.
Counter Point: The next tide game should release with only a solo campaign and a promise that multiplayer will be ready within a month, then 3 months later they’ll say “we’re not quite happy with it, but it’s coming!” and then a month after that they’ll repeat “not a priority” ad nauseum, assuming they respond at all.
Whenever anyone brings up how multiplayer still isn’t in the game after 3 years, they’ll just get links to mods that don’t offer any progression and don’t work on consoles and told to stop complaining because it’s a single-player focused game.
Man, that would be a really great business plan for Fatshark.
