Helldivers 2

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/14672985

The young padawans will soon understand the pain...

A few new people from The Gamer’s Tavern just joined us in the fight for Democracy in Helldivers 2. They too shall soon experience the pain of dropping your stratagem!

Hear me out guys. I feel like a movie for Helldiver's has some potential. Arrowhead could build a Helldiver's universe and dive into Managed Democracy or it could just be a series of weird dystopian events involving bugs and automatons. Either way with the right care it could make Starship Troopers look like the original Blade Runner. I'm not an advocate for this kind of thing but if they made it feel like Managed Democracy propaganda I feel like it would be great. Imagine General Brasch on the silver screen.

I've been playing since about a month after release and have since reached lvl 81 (just to show I put in quite a lot of game time since I started). In my first month of play I came across ONE single griefer who TK'd people on purpose. Considering I'd played hundreds of games I thought this game was a shining example of a great community.

However.

The last three(ish) weeks or so, I feel like I'm playing a whole different game. About 1/3rd to a quarter of my games involve randoms with really toxic behaviour. Training mobs on you, throwing barrages on the group for fun, destroying our own sentries in defense missions...

But there's one thing that is apparently suddenly a "fad", I guess? That is kicking someone from the game right before extraction. Seriously, I've run several full 40 minute rounds, usually on decently high difficulties (7-8), with no real communication with any players whatsoever, let alone tk's or toxic shit, and then you suddenly get kicked as soon as the Pelican is on the ground.

WTF gives? I don't know if it's a reportable thing, I doubt it, but I sincerely hope it's just players getting somewhat bored while waiting for more content and that it'll pass, because if this is going to be my regular experience from here on out, I'm going to look for something else to play. Not the devs' fault in any way.

Large major orders like defend 10 planets over a week should have stated degrees of success and failure. It would be similar to failing a check by 1 or a rolling a crit in a tabletop rpg. There can also be hidden penalties and rewards.

It could be done within the observed toolset Joel has.

Number of planets successfully defended

0-2: Automaton forces are building on recent victories. 4 Super Earth planets immediately get a Defence campaign. Include below penalty.

3-4: -1 stratagem slot modifier on bot planets for 24 hours. High Command has reallocated funds to other areas of the war in order to find opportunities.

5-6: no bonus or penalty. Average success state.

7-8: 2 bot planets set to 50% liberated. Automaton forces were spread thin due to the failed attack.

9: +380mm barrage mission stratagem on all all planets. The Helldivers have halted the bot surge with acceptable loses. High command has increased funding to Automaton front to build off the recent victory

10: No bot defence campaigns for a week. The bot attack has failed. They depleted their combat power and will not be able to launch another offensive in a while.

I didn't even know they existed outside of the tutorial, I stumbled upon one on LVL 2 and solo'd it - I can only imagine how stupidly chaotic and fun it'd be to do one with a full group on the higher difficulties.

And if you disagree with any of my answers, you're just wrong.

I saw new FTL lanes were opened up and now the bots are on Mort. At this point, they will take Tien Kwan and Malevelon Creek by the end of next week.

Automatons that transform... That make large groups interesting...

On my last mission, I encountered a purple questionmark on the map. It was a 3D object. However, I don't know if the rest of the team could see it as well, as it was right before extraction.

Have you ever encountered something like that?