As the Helldivers 2 area discovers an entire brand-new meta following a significant equilibrium spot that took a hammer to faves like the railgun and individual guard, one equilibrium lead from programmer Arrowhead has actually encouraged gamers to discover to accept nerfs instead of continuously asking solely for aficionados.
“I have since the game released seen many who say ‘Don’t Nerf, only Buff’ and other similar ideas,” writes head of item screening Patrik Lasota, that’s responsible for comments and game equilibrium. “However, as a designer I can tell you this is not a great idea, but I understand where the sentiment comes from. All too often in the games industry the core fantasy, and what makes a weapon feel good and fun, is ignored for the sake of Balance.
“I think gamers are terrified of nerfs, since it will certainly wreck the dream of a tool, destroy their enjoyable,” Lasota adds. “It is added essential to us to step thoroughly to ensure that we don’t wreck dream and enjoyable when we do nerfs. We wish you, our gamers, will certainly inform us when we go across that line accidentally.”
Has this patch crossed that line? It’s too early to say, but at first blush, it doesn’t seem like it. A lot of the doom and gloom feels like normal knee-jerk nerf reactions, which are totally fair and expected, but I’m already seeing a lot of people eagerly embrace the new and realize that their nerfed favorites can still get the job done. In my experience weathering nerfs across many games over many years, that’s a very good sign.
This message echoes what another dev from Arrowhead said immediately following the release of the patch: “Having your favored plaything nerfed definitely draws.” The point, Arrowhead has reiterated, is “to offer you a variety of tool selections, where each weapon has its function and none is purely far better than one more.” When everyone is railgunning everything into next week because the gun is, to put it mildly, nucking futs, that’s hard to manage. And to Lasota’s point, a never-ending stream of buffs will inevitably make every gun feel functionally the same – with no bespoke disadvantages to balance their strengths – and eventually power-creep the game to oblivion.
The good news is this patch has seen some interesting winners which have shaken up gameplay in fun ways. This patch buffed the flamethrower by a democracy-spreading 50% and now it’s a monster that cooks Chargers right in their shells. The overlooked arc thrower, regarded by some as the best gun in the game, also quietly eked out a win of its own simply by not getting nerfed.
Just in case you were finding it too easy, Helldivers 2 has now added “global risks”, including fire tornadoes, meteor showers and “much more.”
Source: gamesradar.com
