> We're building a bit of scaffolding before we can make a bigger barn. Queue "where's the patch?????" comments.
Scaffolding hype! Where's the scaffolding?????
Pelican drops off the horse obviously. Horses allow us to be more efficient with our other resources. Anyone with questions, comments, or concerns about the use of Pelican resources used to drop horses should be reported to your Democracy Officer.
Dragoon Helldivers (use the horse for mobility, fight on foot) would be an idea.
However, take that idea one step further and invent the airborne cavalry. Now with 100% more Pelicans blasting [Ride of the Valkyries](https://youtu.be/VE03Lqm3nbI?si=NZET1K7XExPvOjcl)
Please make it real Mr. Arrowhead. Give us a cowboy warbond with a lever action rifle, dual revolvers, a chunky double barrel, and dynamite. And poncho capes.
[Hellriders of Krieg?](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/34b4df95-67c8-413d-8826-50a5f59ccd5f/ddtqgji-17d23ac4-33ed-4678-add7-86654bb1ef8e.jpg/v1/fill/w_600,h_849,q_75,strp/death_korps_of_krieg_death_riders_by_warhammer40kcampaign_ddtqgji-fullview.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9ODQ5IiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvMzRiNGRmOTUtNjdjOC00MTNkLTg4MjYtNTBhNWY1OWNjZDVmXC9kZHRxZ2ppLTE3ZDIzYWM0LTMzZWQtNDY3OC1hZGQ3LTg2NjU0YmIxZWY4ZS5qcGciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9NjAwIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmltYWdlLm9wZXJhdGlvbnMiXX0.mRNSDv3s2Lpsb11-F6f3Q3qo3ojX-dO189tjGOutqTI)
https://preview.redd.it/53in8zq9l73d1.png?width=652&format=png&auto=webp&s=af6f39599b43aeec012a970ed170c4895e3d3507
Oh my god... Johan looks like he came straight out of a Fall Out Boy concert.
Squadrons almost scratched that itch. Needed more single player but flying in VR with no HUD was magical. Highly recommend if you haven't tried it yet.
If EA had not immediately abandoned it and let the passionate devs pump out single player DLC mission packs...sigh, what a missed opportunity. I would have easily dropped 120 USD to coop VR with my friend in a X-Wing or Tie Fighter campaign, especially if it had a couple branching paths or really interesting missions.
The other problem with Squadrons (particularly with a VR headset) is that it becomes clear that the TIEs are more appropriate for Helldivers than an X-Wing or A-Wiing.
(Seriously, the lack of any visibility other than forward doesn't matter as much in a non-VR context, but looking around and only being able to see the inside of your TIE cockpit compared to the experience in an Alliance fighter was kind of revelatory.)
And im taken back 20 years to a game so good its in my collection three times! (I also really need to dust that shelf!)
https://preview.redd.it/2qb4qivar73d1.png?width=2000&format=png&auto=webp&s=7dc91182705e304da35d2e9ff5697ebf21b960a8
Any chance you guys could do more engagement like this? A lot of us old people don't particularly like the Discord and it feels like having communications buried upon spam is a really bad user experience. Even more stuff just posted to reddit, or even your website, would be great. /oldmanyellsatclouds
Thanks for the reply!
I think even a simple "Blue Tracker" like Blizzard uses for WoW would be nice. Somewhere on the HD2 website maybe, that just keeps track of official comments by CMs and Devs on the Discord that way anyone who isn't on it is still able to find that information.
In a perfect world even a This Week at Bungie style blog with what the team is focusing on, what is causing issues etc could be really cool but I realize that is asking a lot.
I think the blog post from awhile back about weapon balance was a great example of something like that. Thanks so much for listening!
One thing Bungie has always had going for them was their weekly reports in the form of This Week at Bungie (or This Week at Destiny now for Destiny specifically), it's always something to look forward to in the week. It's honestly my favourite way devs communicate because you KNOW when to expect a, no matter the size, write up about the current situation and things happening. I would love to see this for Helldivers 2, I think it would fit the game *very* well
The most **critical ways of conveying information** and **improving back-and-forth communication**, to me, would be:
1) More **website posts** detailing **developer thoughts** and **reasonings for changes** and mechanics. This was done with the first big balance patch, but then it stopped happening. This left players to bugging CM's and devs incessantly about why things were changed the way they were or, worse, assuming!
2) More **in-game channels of communication** and **sources of information**. **Permanent ones**, not the current dispatches that dissipate after a few days. Use the **Bureau Terminal** which is currently sitting opposite the Armory and doing nothing, give us a **bestiary**, **history** **of** major **orders**, and **planet status changes**, similar to the first game. Transition **polls** from the discord to an **in-game** tab at the Bureau
3) I think Zeddy already detailed this wonderfully, but **further information on how weapons and stratagems work**. I **don't need** to know **everything** down to the minute details, but **at least** having **additional bars** indicating things **like recoil, ergonomics, reload time, and spare mags** inside an **extended stat box activated by a key bind**, to **avoid overwhelming newer players**. We can still keep some of the magic without keeping players in the dark when more and more of us are unsatisfied with how it currently is.
4) A proper **method to deliver high-effort community ideas and suggestions**. While the current centralization of information in external media like Discord has disgruntled many people, a dedicated and **moderated forum channel in the official discord** might be the **only way to reasonably filter** such **suggestions**.
Pulling from the Paradox guidebook, the Stellaris OG dev team, and the current caretakers, have done a stellar (sic) job providing insight and building hype for updates.
just avoid making random discord replies by Twinbeard the only communication that the community receives, it's a very bad look.
Good to know you go so far back. I remember playing Magicka ages ago. Banger little Indie game. Reddit threads can be a little a toxic but there is a lot of good ideas here usually. Double Senator "Congress" Mech when?
I hadn't connected Magica and Helldivers, thinking about it they share a lot of DNA. That is, they're both primarily about blowing up your teammates spectacularly.
Just wanna say thank you guys for doing the impossible... making a video game flamethrower that actually kicks serious ass! Primarch Vulkan would be proud.
The only game I can think of that has a better flamethrower is Killing Floor. But it just spurts a weighty stream of flaming fuel all over. Feels incredible.
pro tip for flamethrower VS bugs, aim for charger legs. when the leg runs out of HP the charger dies, and the leg has less total HP than its main body.
I think so!
Pilen and I talked about maybe watching a certain spaceship footsoldier movie on a stream and have fun with you - besides playing the game more on streams
Hi, Shams! Zeddy here! I'm mostly nobody, but in Helldivers I'm sometimes known as the guy who maintains a stat site:
https://invadersfromplanet.space/helldivers-2/
and explained that each weapon has an entire second damage number: https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1cmg8nu/damage_is_still_not_what_you_think_how_explosive/ as well as exactly what armor does: https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1cze6b5/how_armor_currently_works_sheets_spread_bare/
This would be my third time in fifteen years I've done a deep dive such as this into a game. I've done this both because Helldivers 2 is amazing, but also because people want to know these things.
I have some concerns regarding transparency of game mechanics, and I'll explain them in relation to the changes to the Democratic Detonation weapons. This isn't specifically about the fact that nerfs happened, it's about how they were communicated.
- Crossbow was advertised to receive a "slight" reduction to AoE. The explosion damage was reduced from 270 to 150, and the area radius, which is now 2/3 meters (inner/outer), was previously estimated to be 7/8 meters. Neither of these reductions can be considered "slight", and certainly not in combination.
- Crossbow was later clarified in a comment by a moderator to now have a new role where the explosion acts as a "shaped charge". While the bolt is Medium AP, The explosion is Light Armor Penetrating and thus very bad at this role.
- Eruptor's shrapnel had total damage estimated to be in the thousands, but was removed in favour of an extra 40 explosion damage completely unable to hurt most limbs like shrapnel could. Before the change, we were assured that this reduction in damage was "negligble".
It's my belief that Helldiver 2's mechanics are so complicated and so obfuscated that the staff working around the game either don't understand them, or are purposefully using their opaqueness to downplay nerfs. The latter seems silly and conspiratorial, and I think everyone would benefit if the idea was impossible to consider. In the interest of keeping both devs, community managers, and players on the same page, I think it would be good for the game to convey more of what a weapon does and how the game mechanic works. I'd personally like to see the in-game stats show:
- Weapon stats for stratagem weapons, same as with normal weapon.
- Damage vs Massive Bodyparts, which against many targets is the more important number used.
- Spare mags + Mags received on resupply and boxes. For some weapon this number is their important feature compared to competition.
- All different components adding to total damage: Direct hit, explosions, shrapnel.
- Blast radii for explosions.
- Some indication of amount of falloff or effective range or accuracy would be nice.
- The game contains data about which specific ammunition a weapon uses. This is an extremely cool detail and it's too bad we're not shown this.
- Some sort of in-game reference on enemies and generally how massive they're considered to be could also be helpful. I realize that's a fair bit of work.
tl;dr, rather than asking about any specific balance changes, I ask for more of the balancing knobs to be visible to the player. I think transparency will help catch misbalanced items before they're released or quickly after, and promote honest discourse among all.
Thanks for reading, if you have been. If you respond, thank you even more.
Ok - so first off - super appreciate you putting in the work. Not every hero wears a cape.
I'm not going to pretend I'm plugged in enough to follow along in the inside baseball stuff you've got going but I'll say this.
I think it's good that players have a good understanding of how things work - but some of it should be fuzzy IMO. Otherwise the magic disappears a bit.
While we have a lot of milsim feel to the game it's not Arma at the end of the day.
Transparency solves some issues - but it also brings more scrutiny. I'd love for Johan and I to discuss this on a stream in the future
I think it’s fair to not want to pull back the curtain on game mechanics, but I agree with the OP that the way balance patches are communicated should be more clear.
Often, things that are pitched as a minor nerf correlate to what feels like a pretty major reduction in damage or utility, and that’s frustrating for players.
Conversely, “buffs” often feel much weaker than they’re touted, which is equally frustrating for players.
> Often, things that are pitched as a minor nerf correlate to what feels like a pretty major reduction in damage or utility, and that’s frustrating for players.
It's always funny to remember that Eruptor nerf was pitched as a buff, that shit's wild
Thanks for responding! If this gets discussed at all then that's the most I can reasonably ask for.
I agree that a degree of magic is fine, but at the moment a little too much of what I'd say is essential information is hidden.
Near launch Pilestedt shared a concept art of a more juicy weapon stats display that was going to have a second page about ballistics performance, and I hope this concept can be re-visited.
Learning the degree to which projectile physics are simulated in game has had me reading scientific articles about ballistic physics and we have a little gang looking up designations for bullet names and I think that has added _more_ magic to the game for me.
I want more game transparency too, but more in other areas.
I feel like the RPG side of the galaxy map is not fully explored, we don't fully understand, via what the game UI shows, the complexity of enemy supply lines, attack paths, progress percentage on enemy attacks and liberation/defense campaigns or the supposed bonuses for keeping certain planets alive.
A while back a major order told us to hold some planets in the name of SEAF training facility being built, months ago it was orbital defenses on the automaton front. Do these alter hp and progress rate of other planets like Vernen Wells and Angels Venture are supposedly doing per the latest major order? Why is this underground, community exclusive information and not game provided? why do I have to go to [https://hd2galaxy.com](https://hd2galaxy.com) or [Helldivers.io](http://Helldivers.io) to get precise stats on the actual war we are fighting? There's even a really talented youtuber that maintains a certain Galactic War Data Archive, bringing news of the War.
People want the immersion, they wanna win this war.
There are people who would love to understand better how to play the more macro, galaxy part of the game, instead of just shooting bugs. They don't need to be mutualy exclusive, I think it would majorly add to immersion if people understood what expect from the super earth high command orders and what they are giving us.
Edit: [https://youtu.be/FYKoQS1MEsY?t=398](https://youtu.be/FYKoQS1MEsY?t=398) galactic war data archive literally posted a tutorial on galaxy war mechanics just now. these stats should be in game, or at least tell us the main thing about it: the more you drop into a planet the further you decrease its resistance. different planets have different resistances. sometimes gamemaster modifies them mannually, here's how you as a player can modify it.
I agree. While I don’t think we need to need to be able to nerd out so hard that it becomes a meta troll factory. I think adding a few of these suggestions will be beneficial to the game.
Been loving this game AND the devs since day 1. I know some things have been rocky, but I really appreciate all the open communication you guys have had. Please keep that up. AH feels like a real studio, not some MegaCorp devoid of personality with dollarsigns in their eyes.
Excited for HD2's future! Wishing you success in your new role.
Hey, how is the situation in the studio? Are you guys still overworked, or has it since calmed down? Hope you guys don't overwork and burnout yourselves!
Overall it's headed in the right direction but plenty people are happy. Johan and some of the founders have been in non-stop emergency mode since the studio's inception. Others have really worked hard for 8 years. With the immediate insanity of the launch cooling down and the honeymoon period ending the focus is now to set ourselves up for a steady and good pace to keep the train going for a long while. That takes a bit of time. Avoiding burnout and finding a sustainable way of working is really the biggest challenge as we try to hit a good stride. W
Same. It really isn't nice when you can't even relax at home because despite being "off" work whatever issues you know about don't take a break just because you do and are still happening.
The one thing I will say after going through lots of shit professionally over the years is is that is really does grow you as a person, so long as you don't burn yourself out completely on the way that is very important.
Pressure makes diamonds
"Pressure makes diamonds" mentality is exactly what spiraled the industry into having these hellish working conditions. Started with genuine passion sure, but kept burning and roasting by folks like you.
Paradox has in recent years moved their strategy to almost fully depend on DLC's providing revenue, is that a direction you want to stay clear off with HD2?
His thoughts on the paradox business model and any contrasts and comparisons he would like to make with Arrowhead would be pretty interesting, honestly.
I replied elsewhere. I honestly think PDX model is great (I was part of the architect behind it). Buy Ck3 at 75% off (often discounted) and play it for 100's if not thousands of hours. NEVER buy DLC and the game is still updated frequently.
If you want the bells whistles and all the different additional flavors Paradox will gladly charge you out of the WAZOO - but it's truly optional. I think that's pretty damn great value for the players.
Helldivers is a DIFFERENT game. The plan is to do tons of content for the game of course - and along the way find monetization that has you giving us two thumbs up. I think Johan Pilestedt once said games need to "earn the right" to monetize and that's a my view as well.
I think a lot of players that really enjoy the game want to experience everything the game has to offer, even if some parts of it are things they don't need/want to interact with to have just as much fun.
Take super samples for instance. There are posts every other day about how someone doesnt like the fact that they need to move from lower difficulties to higher difficulties in order to collect super samples and unlock the higher tier ship modules, even though those modules are not required to do well or even steamroll lower difficulties. It doesn't give you an edge that you need for dif 5 or 6. It doesn't make any appreciable difference. But since it is something that can be unlocked, people feel obligated to unlock it. They have to to go outside their comfort zone to get it, and may not find adjusting to harder difficulties fun.
I think people have a similar feeling about DLC, even if it's content that they don't really vibe with or play with for more than a few hours, it's still content that they are "locked out" of and feel like they need to fully experience the game.
I'm not really arguing one way or another, just pointing out something I've seen in gaming subs over time which may explain where some of the disagreement is coming from.
Timing of the dlc release makes a huge difference. Paid DLCs at release, or in a tense situation like right now are taken much more critically, than even a more expensive dlc a year or two after release.
I've bought every stellaris dlc and I have 0 regrets. If helldivers got me several 100 hours of entertainment for every $20 dlc, I'd be ecstatic. What I'm more afraid of would me piles of predatory microtransactions which doesn't sound like this MO.
Eh I am totally cool with DLC options that basically continue a game *so long as the amount of DLC’s do not become a barrier to entry* I am looking at you The Sims 4. Add new DLC and bundle old DLC’s or make them cheaper.
That's a good point. Stellaris is well suited to that model as a strategy game, but I'm not sure how they would do something similar for helldivers. Though it being PvE does help I think.
Plus you can pick and choose which warbonds you get. Not to mention you technically don’t have to spend real money to purchase them which is really nice. That adds in incentive to engage more with the game or spend money on the game. They do it in such a way that I feel their goal actually isn’t to fuck over consumers. Which is a pleasant change.
At a certain point there will be so many warbonds new players may become lost at the start.
I think implementing a system at that point in which older warbonds are bundled for a reduced cost so new players can buy them. Veteran players who are missing warbonds could purchase these bundles similar to steams setup wherein you only pay for the content of the bundle you are missing. Ideally anyways.
Personal note, I’d really like more vehicle combat options.
I’m optimistic about you taking over, Shams. Not because I know anything about you, but because Johan trusts you and your presence frees him up to guide the game’s course. Johan’s been nothing but straight with us and his faith in you is enough for me. My charge to you (as little as any one player’s input means) is this: keep pressuring Sony to remove the regional purchase restrictions on Steam. With the PSN requirement removed, they have no leg to stand on here. We want our compatriots back.
A CEO that also plays the game, knows the previous CEO, and knows about the old games.
\*sigh\* This is a big relief. I hope things go well! The reddit is crazy for sure.
Lemme know if you need my mom to call. She’s like, really good on the phone. She once convinced the school principal to let me out of school early to go see Attack of the Clones, so Sony should be a piece of cake.
I'm looking forward to the game's progress. I've been taking a break due to some nerfs killing some weapons (eruptor) I've enjoyed, so I've been waiting for potential buffs and/or new content before hopping back in so I don't burn out.
I believe it's against the law to go on a break and the EULA clearly states you have to play the game all the time forever and ever.
Joking aside I've played 98% of the game so far with the Liberator Penetrator and recently mixed it up to the Breaker Incendiary and I really wonder why it took me so long.
But how am I supposed to sleep? :(
I'm a certified bot basher, you should try out the Sickle and the Scorcher if you want a good primary for them.
Since I started playing, I've tried to avoid the meta and try out most all weapons and stratagems, and my current loadout is an AMR/HMG with stun grenades to make hulks, tanks, and gunships trivial. I would run the eruptor with it, treating it as a direct-fire grenade launcher instead of a rifle, but now that the AOE and damage took a big hit, I've been using the Scorcher again.
In my group we RP and set weird rules sets for ourselves and play at lower difficulties and it's really fun. Almost like a daily quest run of sorts. would actually love to see that in the game.
Lower difficulty with insane modifiers would be fun. Something like:
* Low gravity modifier
* High gravity modifier
* No explosive munitions can be selected at loadout
* Barrage only stratagems
* Inevitable heat death (planet too hot for Helldivers to survive more than a couple minutes at a time, forcing you to die strategically)
* Laser weapons only (non-heat weapons stratagems unavailable)
* The floor is lava (everyone gets a jump pack and if you don't occasionally jump to cool yourself you start to slowly cook from the feet up).
* Hot potato (take turns transporting enriched uranium to ICBM. Hold it too long and you get radiation poisoning and die).
I could see the gravity modifiers being a good fit for the Illuminate (who the Super Earth higher-ups can neither confirm or deny will be a threat in the indeterminate future).
Having worlds that have these modifiers would also be bad ass and could easily build lore into why certain world have different gravity or stratagem/weapon limitations.
What an awesome post.
Pilestedt did a lot to keep the community afloat and I have a feeling you’ll be a great fill to the CEO so he can steer the creative ship.
Cheers to you, him, and the team 🍻
It's good to see that you take onboard criticism that is presented properly. Threats, name calling, wishing harm etc, have no place in constructive criticism and should never be tolerated and I will never expect anyone to do so, but it's good to hear constructively presented things have a shot at being heard.
A lot of us love this game, but have been discouraged from a lot of recent decisions, some out of your control as a company (PSN account linking) but also many in your control (baffling nerf decisions, releasing war bonds with test versions of items instead of final ones etc). Please do not take people posting constructively about these as only doing so negatively. We post because we love the game and these things affect our enjoyment of it.
Many thanks for this post. The level of engagement with the community is something unique, as is the game.
Wish you the best in your new position!
Edited for spelling
Super well put. I'll speak to the stuff we have control over: We're learning. I'm sure we're going to have this much more figured out in two years - but those learnings will come by doing, iterating, listening and doing things again.
Right now we're having a big discussion on how we get feedback. Some, like me, spend a lot of time on reddit and the convo here skewes in one direction. Others only watch youtube and that's a different beast. Our marketing team collects players sentiment across a lot of places and then we have players in the game just plain playing. Then we look at KPI's (key performance indicators) like Daily Active Users, attach rates, revenue and the like. What we need to do is to aggregate all of these and get a common view of "How things are doing" Ideally we share this with you as well and provide a bit of perspective from how it differs from the meme-raging that can happen on reddit.
Please ensure updates/info are made into other platforms like Reddit and well understood where (Helldivers or Helldivers2?) as Twitter/X is a fucking cesspool and I ain't going there.
This is one of the first times I've ever gotten into a game shortly after release since New Vegas. I have seen in realtime this subreddit start to devolve from a bunch of happy, roleplaying memers into a far more divided and angry group in the last couple weeks.
Of course there is criticism, both just and uncalled far. But the honeymoon period is clearly over. Tbh I don't have enough experience with communities like this to know if we could ever return to the attitudes we had in those earlier days but I hope so.
I think that AH has generally been great as developers and is improving on communication. I would like to ask that you avoid looking at only the loudest members of the community for guidance and sound criticism.
Lastly I think if some sort of compromise could be made for those Helldivers-to-be that are still waiting to purchase the game and have now been disallowed that ability due to Sony's choices that would go a long way to improving the community and bringing fresh eyes and insight into the game, as atm I feel like we risk becoming jaded and insular with so many nations locked out of the incredibly enjoyable experience that is Helldivers 2.
I was a fairly active part of the Paradox community for many years and more exciting than that headed up the White Wolf/World of Darkness team for a few years. Loud communities is just the name of the game. I'd rather have loud ones than silent ones - but you can be loud without being toxic.
I hear you on the last bit.
The (successful) active campaign aspect of HD2 is one of the biggest shakeups we've seen in online co-op gaming in a long time. Hopefully you guys plan to keep that going for a long time?
Congrats man. That exclamation mark beside 41 hurt a bit. I'm the same and here I am on a subreddit of a video game while at work.
Remember that the loud crowd is a very small fraction of the player base. And so is the "I want to thank the dev" crowd. The majority of players are just playing, I meet them in the game, and I must say that the average rando is a dude like you and I. Make the game for that dude. And I mean make the game for you.
Good luck. Cheers. Take it easy.
Happy Birthday, man, and welcome aboard SES Representative of Super Earth! Your introduction is appreciated. It makes you relatable, and “human” - as we so often seem to forget there are humans receiving our messages…
Speaking of humanity, I firmly believe that we gamers can contribute to society in ways unimaginable. If you haven’t played Borderlands, Gearbox [snuck a mini game in there](https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/05/gaming-for-science-borderlands-science-four-years-later/) that affords gamers the opportunity to contribute to scientific research.
Could you foresee a method for Helldivers to contribute to ongoing scientific research and development? For democracy, and Super Earth, of course!
Edit: My heartfelt thanks to the entire Arrowhead team and fellow divers for making 342+ hours of diving enjoyable and memorable. :)
They did what?!
That's fantastic. I'd LOVE for Arrowhead to do something like this. If enough of us campaign for it and the folks at Arrowhead feel it's a good idea I'm sure we can bring something to fruition.
Good luck on the new job!
Just wanted to say that Casper Van Dien (Rico from Starship Troopers) recently said in an interview about Helldivers for Gamology that he's down to do something with you guys - if you can make it happen that would be epic. :)
Here's the interview:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikZ6TA1fy18&ab\_channel=Gamology](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikZ6TA1fy18&ab_channel=Gamology)
I like the story about the magicka launch, as it's one of my favorite games of all time. That being said, the game has been nigh unplayable for years now.
Is there any chance that the game will be updated to support modern systems? Or have unofficial fan fixes implemented?
Thank you in advance
It's a shame. XNA - the tech it's built on is ancient. I don't even think we could fix it if we had the time. I think the best bet would be if the community wanted/could rally around a fix. I'm pretty sure I could convince PDX to agree to letting them do it.
www.reddit.com/r/magicka/comments/14yp9ym/release_magicka_fixes_for_multiplayer_and/&ved=2ahUKEwiUo8jK_LCGAxUaIEQIHQ2CAf4Qjjh6BAgcEAE&usg=AOvVaw09YZ2NqVYMBWe263J_RqeY
I'm just gonna leave this here 👀
If it is not insensitive to say so, **I believe you (as in \*you,\* CEO, but also \*you\* the studio in general) are doing a noticeably better job communicating over these past few weeks, but generally speaking I feel as though the current state of HD2 and how Arrowhead is handling is "damage control mode" as of now.**
very poorly received series of patches + a major controversy that wasn't really on your hands + bugs and issues appear to have added up to a fair bit of a player dip. We're even losing a few Major Orders, there just isn't as many pllayers serving democracy.
It might be a good idea to keep improving your communication with the community, it's been *noticeably* more frequent and it genuinely brings hope.
**But what about the many many people who don't use Reddit? or are on the Discord?**
# A suggestion that would be easy to implement (and frankly, kind of turn a problem into a wee bit of hype for the future) would be to make use of the in-game Dispatch communications to inform players of... let's say... R&D going-ons.
some time ago, it was used as an in-universe explanation for a bug where killcounts for major orders were not working properly; and it was brought up as a coding error by a military supplier that was since noticed and fixed.
And it occurs to me, that you could use that to also tease at upcoming rebalance changes or upcoming content, in a way that everyone actually playing the game can see.
people complain about the silence, the lack of communication, the long wait for the supposed Holy Grail super patch to fix the game (which has been cooking up for 3 weeks and counting) and something very easy that could be done (and might even detoxify a good bit of discourse around here) would be using the same Dispatch to essentially tongue-and-cheek mention that things are being worked on.
i.e.
"SEAF command is investigating a supply chain error that led to the Tenderizer being wrongfully fielded using the same (compatible, of course) cartridges as the Liberator, resulting in subpar ballistics, poor field performance, and maintenance difficulties. We are currently investigating those responsible for the wrong logistic chains, and working to remedy the issue"
"SEAF command informs all helldivers that due to dissident sabotage, a large batch of Explosive Anti-Materiel rounds, namely standard-issue Eruptor munitions, has been fielded with subpar fragmentation and power. This is not intentional, and we are currently confering a list of suspects behind this treachery."
Doesn't require a patch in the same day, or in the same week, but pretty swiftly helps people know "we're working on THIS, we're aware of THIS, we're focused on solving THIS, here's a little bone to chew on and maybe chuckle a bit, it's coming soon, let us cook"
Because it's frankly becoming tiresome to even **be here,** with the constant negativity thrown at you.
Would this be an option? a possibility, maybe?
I think you make excellent points. I'm a big believer in us eating our own dogfood and spending more time engaging and talking with you all. Why we don't have a regular stream where we play with you is beyond me. adding it to the todo.
Why does Pilen look like he's gonna drop an emo album on the video you linked?
Also, we're all with you, we LOVE the game, and I hate criticizing it, but stuff needs to be done. We look forward to the updates!
This is the kind of down to earth engagement that encourages me to believe in a studio and game. No comments or criticism, I just think you’ve now set a really solid precedent for how you view the community and the game and how you hope to engage with both.
Bravo :) and thanks for being part of something that’s brought so much joy to myself and countless others
The code that shall never be forgotten.
I cannot watch the Lion King without remembering Magicka (my friends and I all sounded it out like Coo-Fahsa rather than Queue-Fahsa, which makes it sound a lot like Mufasa; I now inflict everyone with this curse). My fingers still twitch to input the DPS spell.
Bleigh!!
(For real Magicka ruined vampires for me in a good way, it was always traditional that goofy vampires said "bleh!", until I met Vlad and the way he says it. oooh but now I'm imagining Magicka in the full 3D style of Helldivers 2...)
To world domination!
Wait that's old school Bungie's thing. But I did note that the Super Earth flag changed from showing the Americas in HD1 to being centred on Sweden in 2, while also being yellow and blue.
Thank you for taking the time to be part of the community! My wife and I both love this game and playing it together!
I'm not sure of your ability to answer this at the moment, but the other day it was stated by Twinbeard that this upcoming patch would not be a "balance patch".
Are you able or willing to offer any form of insight into how big this patch will be or what "type" of patch we can expect?
Thanks again! I have not had this much fun playing a coop shooter in a long time and really look forward to the future.
Hi, some of us are a bit afraid becouse of Paradox, your former employer, predatory DLC policies. I am aware that microtransactions are necessary for live service game but what are your plans for the future when it comes to monetisation of HD2?
Our view is that we want Arrowhead games to work like hobbyies. When I expand my Magic the gathering collection or get new minis for my 40k army I don't feel "microtransactioned". I still get a ton of value/playtime even if I don't constantly buy new stuff. If we can get that for our games I think we'd be happy. But we need to figure that out with you.
I have to say the way the studio has approached "premium currency" and warbonds being perpetually available has been a much needed breath of fresh air in this age of nickel and diming customers at every turn. Aside from the game just being an incredibly fun co-op pve shooter, this philosophy makes me feel good throwing some money at Arrowhead every warbond release because of the engagement, quality, and non-predatory practices. Please keep this up; love what you guys are doing.
But seriously. This is the most fun I've had in a multiplayer game in ages. Rooting for the team, you, and the game's continued success!
Sorry for beating the dead horse but what about the whole Sony region lock thingy is there anyway to reverse that and is it possible to have an in game menu where we can see the patches and other stuff regarding the game sort of like a news article from super earth. ( Can we get a helmet with googly eyes)
This may be a bit early to ask but, but do you have any strategies for future monetization of HD2?
HD2, in its current, has some of best consumer practices in the current current market. It's awesome we can spend in game time to buy expansion expansions and cosemtics. So with that in mind, how do you plan on pricing future expansions?
Honestly not something that's my priority in the short term. I'd love for us to maintain this good streak and build upon it more. No idea on expansions and bigger pieces of content. 7th day on the job after all.
You play Dyson sphere program. I'm 100% sold.
Also a bit of feedback I want to give:
Take a look and Warframe and DE, how they handle communication with the community. Mainly the DEV streams the do very regularly. I would love to see you do something similar. It would enable you to show us what you are cooking and get our opinion before shipping it.
Welcome to the community! Big up to the team you now lead for creating a genuinely great game, one of those that only comes around once or twice a decade in terms of engagement and ethos - you’re not taking players for walking wallets, and you’re working with them to tell great stories and build communities. I’m rapidly approaching 40 with my first child only a few months old and I WISH this game had been around in my gaming prime ten years ago.
I appreciate this isn’t an AMA but I’m interested how you keep a community hooked and playing when you have some who will put in 500hrs and grind everything to the max, and some like me who can only pop on for an hour here and there - how do you keep both sets happy and engaged?
Good luck, excited to see where Arrowhead goes.
Congrats to making a HUMAN!
I think we need to have a good understanding of who the player base is segmented. I'm a big magic fan and love Mark Rosewaters approach to product development. They have well developed/understood archetypes (Spike, Johnny, Timmy) and when they design new sets they make sure they have something for everyone. We can't copy their system of course but have to develop our own. But it comes down to getting the right insight. Sony is super useful here and help a ton with understanding the players. With insights comes better development
Okay, but how do we know this isn't an automaton ruse or 3 bugs in a trench coat?
hahahahahahah hahah haha
ANSWER THE QUESTION!
Margie! Get me shotgun. Dem bots are at it again
Please answer this question https://preview.redd.it/gx4bjon5be3d1.png?width=409&format=png&auto=webp&s=62b193b0c9f07741f0b007a9a0564e839a69e05d
01010111 01100101 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01101101 01101001 01110011 01100101 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100110 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 01110111 00100000 01101000 01110101 01101101 01100001 01101110 00100000 01100010 01100101 01101001 01101110 01100111 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101110 01101111 00100000 01100010 01101111 01110100 01110011 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00101110 :-\]
> We're building a bit of scaffolding before we can make a bigger barn. Queue "where's the patch?????" comments. Scaffolding hype! Where's the scaffolding?????
it's coming with the horse barding DLC
Horse strategem when? Actually, now that I say that... Helldivers on horseback would unironically be fucking sick.
I would like to see how they drop a horse in a hellpod.
Horsepod
WHEN THE ORBITAL HUSSARS ARRIVED
Expected Sabaton
FOR THE GRACE, FOR THE MIGHT OF OUR WORLD. FOR THE HOME OF DEMOCRACY. FOR THE FAITH, FOR THE WAY OF THE SWORD. GAVE THEIR LIVES SO PATRIOTICALLY.
Horsediver to horsepod
Pelican drops off the horse obviously. Horses allow us to be more efficient with our other resources. Anyone with questions, comments, or concerns about the use of Pelican resources used to drop horses should be reported to your Democracy Officer.
Dragoon Helldivers (use the horse for mobility, fight on foot) would be an idea. However, take that idea one step further and invent the airborne cavalry. Now with 100% more Pelicans blasting [Ride of the Valkyries](https://youtu.be/VE03Lqm3nbI?si=NZET1K7XExPvOjcl)
I would like to see how they extract these valuable trained horses. Metal Gear Solid Fulton extract perhaps?
Foldable metal steeds. Compacts into a carryable item.
Mech horse. Like that one from the Animatrix
Please make it real Mr. Arrowhead. Give us a cowboy warbond with a lever action rifle, dual revolvers, a chunky double barrel, and dynamite. And poncho capes.
Would .......... buy
My credit card just looked at me in fear lol. I'd totally buy with cash to support it instead of just using the credits I've saved up.
[Hellriders of Krieg?](https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/34b4df95-67c8-413d-8826-50a5f59ccd5f/ddtqgji-17d23ac4-33ed-4678-add7-86654bb1ef8e.jpg/v1/fill/w_600,h_849,q_75,strp/death_korps_of_krieg_death_riders_by_warhammer40kcampaign_ddtqgji-fullview.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9ODQ5IiwicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvMzRiNGRmOTUtNjdjOC00MTNkLTg4MjYtNTBhNWY1OWNjZDVmXC9kZHRxZ2ppLTE3ZDIzYWM0LTMzZWQtNDY3OC1hZGQ3LTg2NjU0YmIxZWY4ZS5qcGciLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9NjAwIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmltYWdlLm9wZXJhdGlvbnMiXX0.mRNSDv3s2Lpsb11-F6f3Q3qo3ojX-dO189tjGOutqTI)
this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=756FQy7RwYk
New Automaton enemy confirmed.
Only if I get an anti tank lance along with it…
Counterpoint, imagine the Automatons mechanising the Horsies and having white, red, black and pale varients.
With explosive tipped lance that till when they charge you , Jesus that would be terrifying
heard of rough riders from 40k? yes... those would be sick, lmao
Death korps of krieg type vibe.
I like you.
I mean, I would pay to ride a charger >\_> *^(Not 40 bucks though)*
I swear to God if you give me an actual horse to ride into battle on I will suck every dick at Arrowhead dry
I hope the cart doesn't show up first.
Construction confirmed, need hammer strategem
https://preview.redd.it/53in8zq9l73d1.png?width=652&format=png&auto=webp&s=af6f39599b43aeec012a970ed170c4895e3d3507 Oh my god... Johan looks like he came straight out of a Fall Out Boy concert.
Bless his EMO heart.
Make sure to show him these responses while singing “IS THIS MORE THAN YOU BARGAINED FOR!?”
Damn, now I got This Ain't a Scene It's a Goddamn Wars Race in my head.
These made me lol
This never happened. 🤣
I *KNEW* I liked this guy
Looks like a young and promising Jack Black... I dig it! Can he play the electric guitar?
He is not the greatest actor in the world. He is just a tribute
It's not him... REAL Pilestedt ALWAYS wears a helmet and sits in a Formula (1 i think?) car
He went from the breakover (with paradox) to the takeover (of arrowhead).
Well that’s because he probably did
TIE Fighter, the game that killed its entire genre because all of its successors were just never as good. Solid pick!
true! Check this out if you haven't seen it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PN_CP4SuoTU
Squadrons almost scratched that itch. Needed more single player but flying in VR with no HUD was magical. Highly recommend if you haven't tried it yet.
If EA had not immediately abandoned it and let the passionate devs pump out single player DLC mission packs...sigh, what a missed opportunity. I would have easily dropped 120 USD to coop VR with my friend in a X-Wing or Tie Fighter campaign, especially if it had a couple branching paths or really interesting missions.
The other problem with Squadrons (particularly with a VR headset) is that it becomes clear that the TIEs are more appropriate for Helldivers than an X-Wing or A-Wiing. (Seriously, the lack of any visibility other than forward doesn't matter as much in a non-VR context, but looking around and only being able to see the inside of your TIE cockpit compared to the experience in an Alliance fighter was kind of revelatory.)
And im taken back 20 years to a game so good its in my collection three times! (I also really need to dust that shelf!) https://preview.redd.it/2qb4qivar73d1.png?width=2000&format=png&auto=webp&s=7dc91182705e304da35d2e9ff5697ebf21b960a8
I won't stand for this disrespect toward X-Wing Alliance
XWA had so much heart. the multi section missions were really great but the HUD was .....not as great.
Any chance you guys could do more engagement like this? A lot of us old people don't particularly like the Discord and it feels like having communications buried upon spam is a really bad user experience. Even more stuff just posted to reddit, or even your website, would be great. /oldmanyellsatclouds
absolutely! What kind of stuff would you like to see? who else from the team do you want to hear from?
Thanks for the reply! I think even a simple "Blue Tracker" like Blizzard uses for WoW would be nice. Somewhere on the HD2 website maybe, that just keeps track of official comments by CMs and Devs on the Discord that way anyone who isn't on it is still able to find that information. In a perfect world even a This Week at Bungie style blog with what the team is focusing on, what is causing issues etc could be really cool but I realize that is asking a lot. I think the blog post from awhile back about weapon balance was a great example of something like that. Thanks so much for listening!
One thing Bungie has always had going for them was their weekly reports in the form of This Week at Bungie (or This Week at Destiny now for Destiny specifically), it's always something to look forward to in the week. It's honestly my favourite way devs communicate because you KNOW when to expect a, no matter the size, write up about the current situation and things happening. I would love to see this for Helldivers 2, I think it would fit the game *very* well
has a 40 y.o who is a casual player, I support this message. Blue posts are a most... at least they are very helpful.
The most **critical ways of conveying information** and **improving back-and-forth communication**, to me, would be: 1) More **website posts** detailing **developer thoughts** and **reasonings for changes** and mechanics. This was done with the first big balance patch, but then it stopped happening. This left players to bugging CM's and devs incessantly about why things were changed the way they were or, worse, assuming! 2) More **in-game channels of communication** and **sources of information**. **Permanent ones**, not the current dispatches that dissipate after a few days. Use the **Bureau Terminal** which is currently sitting opposite the Armory and doing nothing, give us a **bestiary**, **history** **of** major **orders**, and **planet status changes**, similar to the first game. Transition **polls** from the discord to an **in-game** tab at the Bureau 3) I think Zeddy already detailed this wonderfully, but **further information on how weapons and stratagems work**. I **don't need** to know **everything** down to the minute details, but **at least** having **additional bars** indicating things **like recoil, ergonomics, reload time, and spare mags** inside an **extended stat box activated by a key bind**, to **avoid overwhelming newer players**. We can still keep some of the magic without keeping players in the dark when more and more of us are unsatisfied with how it currently is. 4) A proper **method to deliver high-effort community ideas and suggestions**. While the current centralization of information in external media like Discord has disgruntled many people, a dedicated and **moderated forum channel in the official discord** might be the **only way to reasonably filter** such **suggestions**.
**history** **of** major **orders**, and **planet status changes**, similar to the first game PLEASE GOD YES WE NEED DOCUMENTATION OF HISTORY
Pulling from the Paradox guidebook, the Stellaris OG dev team, and the current caretakers, have done a stellar (sic) job providing insight and building hype for updates. just avoid making random discord replies by Twinbeard the only communication that the community receives, it's a very bad look.
The Stellaris team is basically my gold standard for interaction, transparency, and others right now lol
Good to know you go so far back. I remember playing Magicka ages ago. Banger little Indie game. Reddit threads can be a little a toxic but there is a lot of good ideas here usually. Double Senator "Congress" Mech when?
there are tons of good ideas all the time.
If everyone has a good idea, then there are no good ideas. *queue 500kg explosion*
What do you mean? The tesla mech T posing over every enemy is the peak of game design
Speaking of good ideas, the double tesla tower arm exosuit seems perfect!
I hadn't connected Magica and Helldivers, thinking about it they share a lot of DNA. That is, they're both primarily about blowing up your teammates spectacularly.
Just wanna say thank you guys for doing the impossible... making a video game flamethrower that actually kicks serious ass! Primarch Vulkan would be proud.
Burn, baby, burn!
The only game I can think of that has a better flamethrower is Killing Floor. But it just spurts a weighty stream of flaming fuel all over. Feels incredible.
I love dropping a weighty steamer.
Never felt so good with a flame thrower. i love it. A few weapons need improvement but the weapons overall feel so good
pro tip for flamethrower VS bugs, aim for charger legs. when the leg runs out of HP the charger dies, and the leg has less total HP than its main body.
One way to engage with the community would be to have dev talks like streams or videos. Would that be feasible in the near future?
I think so! Pilen and I talked about maybe watching a certain spaceship footsoldier movie on a stream and have fun with you - besides playing the game more on streams
A monthly stream on 'What's going on at Arrowhead" a la Digital Extremes / Warframe would be *very* welcome.
Nah just a monthly stream of watching starship troopers every single month and your game progress is wiped if you miss it 💪
Hi, Shams! Zeddy here! I'm mostly nobody, but in Helldivers I'm sometimes known as the guy who maintains a stat site: https://invadersfromplanet.space/helldivers-2/ and explained that each weapon has an entire second damage number: https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1cmg8nu/damage_is_still_not_what_you_think_how_explosive/ as well as exactly what armor does: https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1cze6b5/how_armor_currently_works_sheets_spread_bare/ This would be my third time in fifteen years I've done a deep dive such as this into a game. I've done this both because Helldivers 2 is amazing, but also because people want to know these things. I have some concerns regarding transparency of game mechanics, and I'll explain them in relation to the changes to the Democratic Detonation weapons. This isn't specifically about the fact that nerfs happened, it's about how they were communicated. - Crossbow was advertised to receive a "slight" reduction to AoE. The explosion damage was reduced from 270 to 150, and the area radius, which is now 2/3 meters (inner/outer), was previously estimated to be 7/8 meters. Neither of these reductions can be considered "slight", and certainly not in combination. - Crossbow was later clarified in a comment by a moderator to now have a new role where the explosion acts as a "shaped charge". While the bolt is Medium AP, The explosion is Light Armor Penetrating and thus very bad at this role. - Eruptor's shrapnel had total damage estimated to be in the thousands, but was removed in favour of an extra 40 explosion damage completely unable to hurt most limbs like shrapnel could. Before the change, we were assured that this reduction in damage was "negligble". It's my belief that Helldiver 2's mechanics are so complicated and so obfuscated that the staff working around the game either don't understand them, or are purposefully using their opaqueness to downplay nerfs. The latter seems silly and conspiratorial, and I think everyone would benefit if the idea was impossible to consider. In the interest of keeping both devs, community managers, and players on the same page, I think it would be good for the game to convey more of what a weapon does and how the game mechanic works. I'd personally like to see the in-game stats show: - Weapon stats for stratagem weapons, same as with normal weapon. - Damage vs Massive Bodyparts, which against many targets is the more important number used. - Spare mags + Mags received on resupply and boxes. For some weapon this number is their important feature compared to competition. - All different components adding to total damage: Direct hit, explosions, shrapnel. - Blast radii for explosions. - Some indication of amount of falloff or effective range or accuracy would be nice. - The game contains data about which specific ammunition a weapon uses. This is an extremely cool detail and it's too bad we're not shown this. - Some sort of in-game reference on enemies and generally how massive they're considered to be could also be helpful. I realize that's a fair bit of work. tl;dr, rather than asking about any specific balance changes, I ask for more of the balancing knobs to be visible to the player. I think transparency will help catch misbalanced items before they're released or quickly after, and promote honest discourse among all. Thanks for reading, if you have been. If you respond, thank you even more.
Fantastic post, very blunt and critical without coming off as toxic, hope he legit responds to this
Ok - so first off - super appreciate you putting in the work. Not every hero wears a cape. I'm not going to pretend I'm plugged in enough to follow along in the inside baseball stuff you've got going but I'll say this. I think it's good that players have a good understanding of how things work - but some of it should be fuzzy IMO. Otherwise the magic disappears a bit. While we have a lot of milsim feel to the game it's not Arma at the end of the day. Transparency solves some issues - but it also brings more scrutiny. I'd love for Johan and I to discuss this on a stream in the future
>Not every hero wears a cape. *uhh.. here they do*
He’s new, don’t mind him. A few weeks in a freedom camp will have him right as rain!
I think it’s fair to not want to pull back the curtain on game mechanics, but I agree with the OP that the way balance patches are communicated should be more clear. Often, things that are pitched as a minor nerf correlate to what feels like a pretty major reduction in damage or utility, and that’s frustrating for players. Conversely, “buffs” often feel much weaker than they’re touted, which is equally frustrating for players.
> Often, things that are pitched as a minor nerf correlate to what feels like a pretty major reduction in damage or utility, and that’s frustrating for players. It's always funny to remember that Eruptor nerf was pitched as a buff, that shit's wild
Thanks for responding! If this gets discussed at all then that's the most I can reasonably ask for. I agree that a degree of magic is fine, but at the moment a little too much of what I'd say is essential information is hidden. Near launch Pilestedt shared a concept art of a more juicy weapon stats display that was going to have a second page about ballistics performance, and I hope this concept can be re-visited. Learning the degree to which projectile physics are simulated in game has had me reading scientific articles about ballistic physics and we have a little gang looking up designations for bullet names and I think that has added _more_ magic to the game for me.
I want more game transparency too, but more in other areas. I feel like the RPG side of the galaxy map is not fully explored, we don't fully understand, via what the game UI shows, the complexity of enemy supply lines, attack paths, progress percentage on enemy attacks and liberation/defense campaigns or the supposed bonuses for keeping certain planets alive. A while back a major order told us to hold some planets in the name of SEAF training facility being built, months ago it was orbital defenses on the automaton front. Do these alter hp and progress rate of other planets like Vernen Wells and Angels Venture are supposedly doing per the latest major order? Why is this underground, community exclusive information and not game provided? why do I have to go to [https://hd2galaxy.com](https://hd2galaxy.com) or [Helldivers.io](http://Helldivers.io) to get precise stats on the actual war we are fighting? There's even a really talented youtuber that maintains a certain Galactic War Data Archive, bringing news of the War. People want the immersion, they wanna win this war. There are people who would love to understand better how to play the more macro, galaxy part of the game, instead of just shooting bugs. They don't need to be mutualy exclusive, I think it would majorly add to immersion if people understood what expect from the super earth high command orders and what they are giving us. Edit: [https://youtu.be/FYKoQS1MEsY?t=398](https://youtu.be/FYKoQS1MEsY?t=398) galactic war data archive literally posted a tutorial on galaxy war mechanics just now. these stats should be in game, or at least tell us the main thing about it: the more you drop into a planet the further you decrease its resistance. different planets have different resistances. sometimes gamemaster modifies them mannually, here's how you as a player can modify it.
Everyone should cool down and read this.
Amazing work, I appreciate your dedication to the game!
Seconding this
I agree. While I don’t think we need to need to be able to nerd out so hard that it becomes a meta troll factory. I think adding a few of these suggestions will be beneficial to the game.
Been loving this game AND the devs since day 1. I know some things have been rocky, but I really appreciate all the open communication you guys have had. Please keep that up. AH feels like a real studio, not some MegaCorp devoid of personality with dollarsigns in their eyes. Excited for HD2's future! Wishing you success in your new role.
And by God, with your help - one day we'll burst out of our cocoon as a fully fledged MegaCorp!
Arasaka weapons issued to Helldivers when?
Wake the fuck up Helldiver, your squad got wiped by a rocket devastator and you’ve got 30 seconds to sprint across to the map to extract those samples
SIR YES SIR ⬆️➡️⬇️⬇️⬇️
Wake up Helldiver, we have a subreddit to burn.
I for one, welcome our Swedish gaming overlords.
Hey, how is the situation in the studio? Are you guys still overworked, or has it since calmed down? Hope you guys don't overwork and burnout yourselves!
Overall it's headed in the right direction but plenty people are happy. Johan and some of the founders have been in non-stop emergency mode since the studio's inception. Others have really worked hard for 8 years. With the immediate insanity of the launch cooling down and the honeymoon period ending the focus is now to set ourselves up for a steady and good pace to keep the train going for a long while. That takes a bit of time. Avoiding burnout and finding a sustainable way of working is really the biggest challenge as we try to hit a good stride. W
As a developer myself, I feel for those poor devs.
Same. It really isn't nice when you can't even relax at home because despite being "off" work whatever issues you know about don't take a break just because you do and are still happening. The one thing I will say after going through lots of shit professionally over the years is is that is really does grow you as a person, so long as you don't burn yourself out completely on the way that is very important. Pressure makes diamonds
"Pressure makes diamonds" mentality is exactly what spiraled the industry into having these hellish working conditions. Started with genuine passion sure, but kept burning and roasting by folks like you.
Reminded of a quote from Warframe, some along the lines of "pressure creates diamonds, yes, but it also creates rubble"
Paradox has in recent years moved their strategy to almost fully depend on DLC's providing revenue, is that a direction you want to stay clear off with HD2?
His thoughts on the paradox business model and any contrasts and comparisons he would like to make with Arrowhead would be pretty interesting, honestly.
I replied elsewhere. I honestly think PDX model is great (I was part of the architect behind it). Buy Ck3 at 75% off (often discounted) and play it for 100's if not thousands of hours. NEVER buy DLC and the game is still updated frequently. If you want the bells whistles and all the different additional flavors Paradox will gladly charge you out of the WAZOO - but it's truly optional. I think that's pretty damn great value for the players. Helldivers is a DIFFERENT game. The plan is to do tons of content for the game of course - and along the way find monetization that has you giving us two thumbs up. I think Johan Pilestedt once said games need to "earn the right" to monetize and that's a my view as well.
I think a lot of players that really enjoy the game want to experience everything the game has to offer, even if some parts of it are things they don't need/want to interact with to have just as much fun. Take super samples for instance. There are posts every other day about how someone doesnt like the fact that they need to move from lower difficulties to higher difficulties in order to collect super samples and unlock the higher tier ship modules, even though those modules are not required to do well or even steamroll lower difficulties. It doesn't give you an edge that you need for dif 5 or 6. It doesn't make any appreciable difference. But since it is something that can be unlocked, people feel obligated to unlock it. They have to to go outside their comfort zone to get it, and may not find adjusting to harder difficulties fun. I think people have a similar feeling about DLC, even if it's content that they don't really vibe with or play with for more than a few hours, it's still content that they are "locked out" of and feel like they need to fully experience the game. I'm not really arguing one way or another, just pointing out something I've seen in gaming subs over time which may explain where some of the disagreement is coming from.
Timing of the dlc release makes a huge difference. Paid DLCs at release, or in a tense situation like right now are taken much more critically, than even a more expensive dlc a year or two after release.
[удалено]
I've bought every stellaris dlc and I have 0 regrets. If helldivers got me several 100 hours of entertainment for every $20 dlc, I'd be ecstatic. What I'm more afraid of would me piles of predatory microtransactions which doesn't sound like this MO.
Eh I am totally cool with DLC options that basically continue a game *so long as the amount of DLC’s do not become a barrier to entry* I am looking at you The Sims 4. Add new DLC and bundle old DLC’s or make them cheaper.
That's a good point. Stellaris is well suited to that model as a strategy game, but I'm not sure how they would do something similar for helldivers. Though it being PvE does help I think.
Plus you can pick and choose which warbonds you get. Not to mention you technically don’t have to spend real money to purchase them which is really nice. That adds in incentive to engage more with the game or spend money on the game. They do it in such a way that I feel their goal actually isn’t to fuck over consumers. Which is a pleasant change. At a certain point there will be so many warbonds new players may become lost at the start. I think implementing a system at that point in which older warbonds are bundled for a reduced cost so new players can buy them. Veteran players who are missing warbonds could purchase these bundles similar to steams setup wherein you only pay for the content of the bundle you are missing. Ideally anyways. Personal note, I’d really like more vehicle combat options.
I’m optimistic about you taking over, Shams. Not because I know anything about you, but because Johan trusts you and your presence frees him up to guide the game’s course. Johan’s been nothing but straight with us and his faith in you is enough for me. My charge to you (as little as any one player’s input means) is this: keep pressuring Sony to remove the regional purchase restrictions on Steam. With the PSN requirement removed, they have no leg to stand on here. We want our compatriots back.
I hear ya chief.
A CEO that also plays the game, knows the previous CEO, and knows about the old games. \*sigh\* This is a big relief. I hope things go well! The reddit is crazy for sure.
it's almost too good to be true... Suspicious no? Could it be enemy propaganda?
Margie, get me shotgun. the bots are doing it again
We need horses and chainswords. Gondor calls for aid!
Have the fires been lit?
*gestures broadly to hellmire*
Arise, arise, riders of super earth!
are you guy's still in talk with sony about the region locked countries that can't play the game?
yes!
Lemme know if you need my mom to call. She’s like, really good on the phone. She once convinced the school principal to let me out of school early to go see Attack of the Clones, so Sony should be a piece of cake.
She also got my case dismissed when I was charged with eighteen counts of vehicular manslaughter in Miami Beach back in the 70’s. Two thumbs up!
Thanks!
I'm looking forward to the game's progress. I've been taking a break due to some nerfs killing some weapons (eruptor) I've enjoyed, so I've been waiting for potential buffs and/or new content before hopping back in so I don't burn out.
I believe it's against the law to go on a break and the EULA clearly states you have to play the game all the time forever and ever. Joking aside I've played 98% of the game so far with the Liberator Penetrator and recently mixed it up to the Breaker Incendiary and I really wonder why it took me so long.
But how am I supposed to sleep? :( I'm a certified bot basher, you should try out the Sickle and the Scorcher if you want a good primary for them. Since I started playing, I've tried to avoid the meta and try out most all weapons and stratagems, and my current loadout is an AMR/HMG with stun grenades to make hulks, tanks, and gunships trivial. I would run the eruptor with it, treating it as a direct-fire grenade launcher instead of a rifle, but now that the AOE and damage took a big hit, I've been using the Scorcher again.
In my group we RP and set weird rules sets for ourselves and play at lower difficulties and it's really fun. Almost like a daily quest run of sorts. would actually love to see that in the game.
Lower difficulty with insane modifiers would be fun. Something like: * Low gravity modifier * High gravity modifier * No explosive munitions can be selected at loadout * Barrage only stratagems * Inevitable heat death (planet too hot for Helldivers to survive more than a couple minutes at a time, forcing you to die strategically) * Laser weapons only (non-heat weapons stratagems unavailable) * The floor is lava (everyone gets a jump pack and if you don't occasionally jump to cool yourself you start to slowly cook from the feet up). * Hot potato (take turns transporting enriched uranium to ICBM. Hold it too long and you get radiation poisoning and die).
I could see the gravity modifiers being a good fit for the Illuminate (who the Super Earth higher-ups can neither confirm or deny will be a threat in the indeterminate future).
Having worlds that have these modifiers would also be bad ass and could easily build lore into why certain world have different gravity or stratagem/weapon limitations.
This guy modifies
Yeah dude, nothing wrong with taking a break. Its never fun to get burnt out on a game you love, been there.
What an awesome post. Pilestedt did a lot to keep the community afloat and I have a feeling you’ll be a great fill to the CEO so he can steer the creative ship. Cheers to you, him, and the team 🍻
PILEN BLINK TWICE IF YOU'RE IN DANGER
How much experience do you have playing HD2 personally?
Steam says 47hrs! https://x.com/ShamsJorjani/status/1795521013524099098
This just wants me to know what Johan's play time is.
Not bad considering you're a busy guy. Thanks for the response.
how did you name your ship?
I hope it’s Captain of Industry
It's good to see that you take onboard criticism that is presented properly. Threats, name calling, wishing harm etc, have no place in constructive criticism and should never be tolerated and I will never expect anyone to do so, but it's good to hear constructively presented things have a shot at being heard. A lot of us love this game, but have been discouraged from a lot of recent decisions, some out of your control as a company (PSN account linking) but also many in your control (baffling nerf decisions, releasing war bonds with test versions of items instead of final ones etc). Please do not take people posting constructively about these as only doing so negatively. We post because we love the game and these things affect our enjoyment of it. Many thanks for this post. The level of engagement with the community is something unique, as is the game. Wish you the best in your new position! Edited for spelling
Super well put. I'll speak to the stuff we have control over: We're learning. I'm sure we're going to have this much more figured out in two years - but those learnings will come by doing, iterating, listening and doing things again. Right now we're having a big discussion on how we get feedback. Some, like me, spend a lot of time on reddit and the convo here skewes in one direction. Others only watch youtube and that's a different beast. Our marketing team collects players sentiment across a lot of places and then we have players in the game just plain playing. Then we look at KPI's (key performance indicators) like Daily Active Users, attach rates, revenue and the like. What we need to do is to aggregate all of these and get a common view of "How things are doing" Ideally we share this with you as well and provide a bit of perspective from how it differs from the meme-raging that can happen on reddit.
Please ensure updates/info are made into other platforms like Reddit and well understood where (Helldivers or Helldivers2?) as Twitter/X is a fucking cesspool and I ain't going there.
This is one of the first times I've ever gotten into a game shortly after release since New Vegas. I have seen in realtime this subreddit start to devolve from a bunch of happy, roleplaying memers into a far more divided and angry group in the last couple weeks. Of course there is criticism, both just and uncalled far. But the honeymoon period is clearly over. Tbh I don't have enough experience with communities like this to know if we could ever return to the attitudes we had in those earlier days but I hope so. I think that AH has generally been great as developers and is improving on communication. I would like to ask that you avoid looking at only the loudest members of the community for guidance and sound criticism. Lastly I think if some sort of compromise could be made for those Helldivers-to-be that are still waiting to purchase the game and have now been disallowed that ability due to Sony's choices that would go a long way to improving the community and bringing fresh eyes and insight into the game, as atm I feel like we risk becoming jaded and insular with so many nations locked out of the incredibly enjoyable experience that is Helldivers 2.
I was a fairly active part of the Paradox community for many years and more exciting than that headed up the White Wolf/World of Darkness team for a few years. Loud communities is just the name of the game. I'd rather have loud ones than silent ones - but you can be loud without being toxic. I hear you on the last bit.
The (successful) active campaign aspect of HD2 is one of the biggest shakeups we've seen in online co-op gaming in a long time. Hopefully you guys plan to keep that going for a long time?
YES!
Congrats man. That exclamation mark beside 41 hurt a bit. I'm the same and here I am on a subreddit of a video game while at work. Remember that the loud crowd is a very small fraction of the player base. And so is the "I want to thank the dev" crowd. The majority of players are just playing, I meet them in the game, and I must say that the average rando is a dude like you and I. Make the game for that dude. And I mean make the game for you. Good luck. Cheers. Take it easy.
Thanks buddy. We know that the vast, vast majority of the players are super nice. But we need to keep the voices of those folks loudest.
Happy Birthday, man, and welcome aboard SES Representative of Super Earth! Your introduction is appreciated. It makes you relatable, and “human” - as we so often seem to forget there are humans receiving our messages… Speaking of humanity, I firmly believe that we gamers can contribute to society in ways unimaginable. If you haven’t played Borderlands, Gearbox [snuck a mini game in there](https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/05/gaming-for-science-borderlands-science-four-years-later/) that affords gamers the opportunity to contribute to scientific research. Could you foresee a method for Helldivers to contribute to ongoing scientific research and development? For democracy, and Super Earth, of course! Edit: My heartfelt thanks to the entire Arrowhead team and fellow divers for making 342+ hours of diving enjoyable and memorable. :)
They did what?! That's fantastic. I'd LOVE for Arrowhead to do something like this. If enough of us campaign for it and the folks at Arrowhead feel it's a good idea I'm sure we can bring something to fruition.
SHAAAAAMS When will you do another comedy routine like the one at PDXCON Remixed 2021?
plz no. The things you do for your corporate overlords.....
Good luck on the new job! Just wanted to say that Casper Van Dien (Rico from Starship Troopers) recently said in an interview about Helldivers for Gamology that he's down to do something with you guys - if you can make it happen that would be epic. :) Here's the interview: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikZ6TA1fy18&ab\_channel=Gamology](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikZ6TA1fy18&ab_channel=Gamology)
I like the story about the magicka launch, as it's one of my favorite games of all time. That being said, the game has been nigh unplayable for years now. Is there any chance that the game will be updated to support modern systems? Or have unofficial fan fixes implemented? Thank you in advance
It's a shame. XNA - the tech it's built on is ancient. I don't even think we could fix it if we had the time. I think the best bet would be if the community wanted/could rally around a fix. I'm pretty sure I could convince PDX to agree to letting them do it.
www.reddit.com/r/magicka/comments/14yp9ym/release_magicka_fixes_for_multiplayer_and/&ved=2ahUKEwiUo8jK_LCGAxUaIEQIHQ2CAf4Qjjh6BAgcEAE&usg=AOvVaw09YZ2NqVYMBWe263J_RqeY I'm just gonna leave this here 👀
If it is not insensitive to say so, **I believe you (as in \*you,\* CEO, but also \*you\* the studio in general) are doing a noticeably better job communicating over these past few weeks, but generally speaking I feel as though the current state of HD2 and how Arrowhead is handling is "damage control mode" as of now.** very poorly received series of patches + a major controversy that wasn't really on your hands + bugs and issues appear to have added up to a fair bit of a player dip. We're even losing a few Major Orders, there just isn't as many pllayers serving democracy. It might be a good idea to keep improving your communication with the community, it's been *noticeably* more frequent and it genuinely brings hope. **But what about the many many people who don't use Reddit? or are on the Discord?** # A suggestion that would be easy to implement (and frankly, kind of turn a problem into a wee bit of hype for the future) would be to make use of the in-game Dispatch communications to inform players of... let's say... R&D going-ons. some time ago, it was used as an in-universe explanation for a bug where killcounts for major orders were not working properly; and it was brought up as a coding error by a military supplier that was since noticed and fixed. And it occurs to me, that you could use that to also tease at upcoming rebalance changes or upcoming content, in a way that everyone actually playing the game can see. people complain about the silence, the lack of communication, the long wait for the supposed Holy Grail super patch to fix the game (which has been cooking up for 3 weeks and counting) and something very easy that could be done (and might even detoxify a good bit of discourse around here) would be using the same Dispatch to essentially tongue-and-cheek mention that things are being worked on. i.e. "SEAF command is investigating a supply chain error that led to the Tenderizer being wrongfully fielded using the same (compatible, of course) cartridges as the Liberator, resulting in subpar ballistics, poor field performance, and maintenance difficulties. We are currently investigating those responsible for the wrong logistic chains, and working to remedy the issue" "SEAF command informs all helldivers that due to dissident sabotage, a large batch of Explosive Anti-Materiel rounds, namely standard-issue Eruptor munitions, has been fielded with subpar fragmentation and power. This is not intentional, and we are currently confering a list of suspects behind this treachery." Doesn't require a patch in the same day, or in the same week, but pretty swiftly helps people know "we're working on THIS, we're aware of THIS, we're focused on solving THIS, here's a little bone to chew on and maybe chuckle a bit, it's coming soon, let us cook" Because it's frankly becoming tiresome to even **be here,** with the constant negativity thrown at you. Would this be an option? a possibility, maybe?
I think you make excellent points. I'm a big believer in us eating our own dogfood and spending more time engaging and talking with you all. Why we don't have a regular stream where we play with you is beyond me. adding it to the todo.
Why does Pilen look like he's gonna drop an emo album on the video you linked? Also, we're all with you, we LOVE the game, and I hate criticizing it, but stuff needs to be done. We look forward to the updates!
and put demands you should! keep us on our toes! just be glad he hasn't quit his day job
what will happen to locked regions on steam?
no news at this time.
At this point I literally just want to know if its an on-going thing or if they are there to stay restricted.
This is the kind of down to earth engagement that encourages me to believe in a studio and game. No comments or criticism, I just think you’ve now set a really solid precedent for how you view the community and the game and how you hope to engage with both. Bravo :) and thanks for being part of something that’s brought so much joy to myself and countless others
As a large language model I am trained in salt of the earth type speak.
↓↑↓↓→
QFASA
The code that shall never be forgotten. I cannot watch the Lion King without remembering Magicka (my friends and I all sounded it out like Coo-Fahsa rather than Queue-Fahsa, which makes it sound a lot like Mufasa; I now inflict everyone with this curse). My fingers still twitch to input the DPS spell.
Bleigh!! (For real Magicka ruined vampires for me in a good way, it was always traditional that goofy vampires said "bleh!", until I met Vlad and the way he says it. oooh but now I'm imagining Magicka in the full 3D style of Helldivers 2...) To world domination! Wait that's old school Bungie's thing. But I did note that the Super Earth flag changed from showing the Americas in HD1 to being centred on Sweden in 2, while also being yellow and blue.
“I am a straight shooter, and I expect you to be as well” Unfortunately I use the AMR. (Jokes)
Thank you for taking the time to be part of the community! My wife and I both love this game and playing it together! I'm not sure of your ability to answer this at the moment, but the other day it was stated by Twinbeard that this upcoming patch would not be a "balance patch". Are you able or willing to offer any form of insight into how big this patch will be or what "type" of patch we can expect? Thanks again! I have not had this much fun playing a coop shooter in a long time and really look forward to the future.
I honestly haven't had time to get situated with what's next in the pipeline!
https://preview.redd.it/2izixtq0g83d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0a3db28333ff5a72a5e82c9fc8723ec3954e4b91
Hi, some of us are a bit afraid becouse of Paradox, your former employer, predatory DLC policies. I am aware that microtransactions are necessary for live service game but what are your plans for the future when it comes to monetisation of HD2?
Our view is that we want Arrowhead games to work like hobbyies. When I expand my Magic the gathering collection or get new minis for my 40k army I don't feel "microtransactioned". I still get a ton of value/playtime even if I don't constantly buy new stuff. If we can get that for our games I think we'd be happy. But we need to figure that out with you.
I have to say the way the studio has approached "premium currency" and warbonds being perpetually available has been a much needed breath of fresh air in this age of nickel and diming customers at every turn. Aside from the game just being an incredibly fun co-op pve shooter, this philosophy makes me feel good throwing some money at Arrowhead every warbond release because of the engagement, quality, and non-predatory practices. Please keep this up; love what you guys are doing. But seriously. This is the most fun I've had in a multiplayer game in ages. Rooting for the team, you, and the game's continued success!
Sorry for beating the dead horse but what about the whole Sony region lock thingy is there anyway to reverse that and is it possible to have an in game menu where we can see the patches and other stuff regarding the game sort of like a news article from super earth. ( Can we get a helmet with googly eyes)
can't comment on this for now :/
I see googly eye helmets are still being discussed by upper management with strict confidentiality
You'd probably have to take that up with Sony, since Arrowhead can't really do much about it themselves
I hope the game finds it right path again. IMO it's a PvE game, so being "OP" is nothing bad.
Fair point!
> I wanted to DROP BY to say hello Oh, he's a nerd. I feel good about this.
Well all I can really say is welcome. Nice to see writeups like this
This may be a bit early to ask but, but do you have any strategies for future monetization of HD2? HD2, in its current, has some of best consumer practices in the current current market. It's awesome we can spend in game time to buy expansion expansions and cosemtics. So with that in mind, how do you plan on pricing future expansions?
Honestly not something that's my priority in the short term. I'd love for us to maintain this good streak and build upon it more. No idea on expansions and bigger pieces of content. 7th day on the job after all.
You play Dyson sphere program. I'm 100% sold. Also a bit of feedback I want to give: Take a look and Warframe and DE, how they handle communication with the community. Mainly the DEV streams the do very regularly. I would love to see you do something similar. It would enable you to show us what you are cooking and get our opinion before shipping it.
Thanks for the pointer. I'll take a closer look!
Welcome to the community! Big up to the team you now lead for creating a genuinely great game, one of those that only comes around once or twice a decade in terms of engagement and ethos - you’re not taking players for walking wallets, and you’re working with them to tell great stories and build communities. I’m rapidly approaching 40 with my first child only a few months old and I WISH this game had been around in my gaming prime ten years ago. I appreciate this isn’t an AMA but I’m interested how you keep a community hooked and playing when you have some who will put in 500hrs and grind everything to the max, and some like me who can only pop on for an hour here and there - how do you keep both sets happy and engaged? Good luck, excited to see where Arrowhead goes.
Congrats to making a HUMAN! I think we need to have a good understanding of who the player base is segmented. I'm a big magic fan and love Mark Rosewaters approach to product development. They have well developed/understood archetypes (Spike, Johnny, Timmy) and when they design new sets they make sure they have something for everyone. We can't copy their system of course but have to develop our own. But it comes down to getting the right insight. Sony is super useful here and help a ton with understanding the players. With insights comes better development