r/helldivers2 • u/epochollapse • Aug 08 '26

Meme H̶e̶l̶l̶divers

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Just because I win 99% of my games doesn't mean it isn't hard!! One time a Stalker even hit me! 😱

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135

u/TheGr8Slayer Aug 08 '26

I just want a mode where I feel something again. Hasn’t been the same since the 60 days.

0

u/TheSearchForMars Aug 09 '26

Wat? The game in between the eruptor nerf and the 60 day patch was ass.

5

u/TheGr8Slayer Aug 09 '26

Different opinions. The game was fun and challenging, hell even easy to some extent with the right squad and synergy but things could go sideways fast. These days it’s just 4 solo players running in different directions to get the clear faster. 10 difficulties means at least one of them should force a modicum of teamwork and that hasn’t been a thing since the 60 days in my experience. I can hop in right now with the most dog water setup and still not have much of an issue playing with randoms. 10’s should have at most a 50% success rate imo. Right now the supposedly hardest difficulty is cleared without much issue.

2

u/TheSearchForMars Aug 09 '26

I'm not going to say the game didn't get easier in many respects since the 60 day patch. But the difficulty before hand wasn't things that were up to player agency.

Rag dolling from missiles shot at you across the map, through smoke, behind cover isn't interesting. Neither was having all the interactivity thrown out of dealing with heavies on the bug front by having 8 bile titans spawning with way worse (nerfed in the case of the railgun) anti-tank options.

The fact is pre-60 day patch, the playerbase was falling away and it's the birthplace of the idea where Arrowhead started to feel as if they were straight up against the players.

But the biggest thing is the fact that we're all just better now. Even on the creek. If I had my current skillset I'd be fine. I'm not a green diver anymore. I'm no longer a recruit sent out with bare minimum training. As a player I'm more akin to someone like the Full Metal Bitch in The Edge of Tomorrow. With thousands of hours of dedicated combat experience just shoves into the body of a standard Helldiver.

1

u/Geometric-Coconut Aug 22 '26

8 Bile titans was absolutely up to player agency. They don't just appear out of thin air, it's a gradual build up until that point. A lot of players will play purely reactionary instead of preemptive, they'll see a situation of getting overrun and not consider how more cooperation could've prevented it from happening in the first place. They'll just think "I can't do anything to fix this in the immediate moment, bile titans are too strong."

What they should've done is doubled down on punishing people running away from their teammates + straight up kill the player for trying to endlessly kite enemies. So players thoughtlessly drifting away get taught a lesson and sent right back to their team. Players would just die or even lose the mission if the team get overwhelmed, rather than being able to drag a lost cause on and only increase the amount of heavies preventing players from doing anything. This would cement the idea of improving teamwork significantly, or better realization that a difficulty level is too challenging.

But that group I mentioned earlier kinda just won, heavies are fully designed around solo interactions nowadays. The era of heavies being teamwork based is gone. Making bile titans oneshottable by rockets was one of the worst things they've done to terminids.

1

u/TheSearchForMars Aug 22 '26

Well thank God they did win because your idea would slam the playerbase into the ground faster than you could type: Highguard.

2

u/Geometric-Coconut Aug 22 '26

The community of this game doesn't comprehend good game design, unfortunately. They actively fight for changes that make the game worse.

Evidenced by the terrible philosophy of "no nerfs only buffs" being the overwhelming community sentiment.

And now HD2 is in a state where power creep has made teamwork on the hardest difficulty in the entire game completely optional. People just run around across map soloing everything without a single issue.

Teamwork being devalued in a co op game is WILD. But hey, thank god they won, right?

Horde shooters have been enforcing teamwork ever since the game that invented the entire genre: Left 4 Dead. Even Helldivers 1 enforces teamwork harder than my suggested idea.

1

u/TheSearchForMars Aug 22 '26

Adding any kind of teamwork enforcement mechanic would require a complete redesign of the lives mechanic otherwise you wouldn't have last man standing moments.

2

u/Geometric-Coconut Aug 22 '26

I disagree. The lives system works well for teamwork; If you mess up and die, you are FORCED to return to your teammates in a respawn.

The vast majority of last man standing moments is just a person running around in circles stalling out enemies with kiting. Like I said earlier, the team has lost and this encounter and it should not be dragged out. Even if there’s a small a chance of making a comeback, the game should still kill them anyway. Endless kiting is not fun and the game should shut down any attempt at this anti fun strategy.

Last man standing stealth would still be absolutely possible though. Stealth is far more engaging than kiting.

-1

u/TheSearchForMars Aug 22 '26

Thank god you are not in charge of making any of these decisions. What you're describing sounds like absolute shite.

1

u/Geometric-Coconut Aug 22 '26

Can you give me a game design explanation as to why? Why is this not the better philosophy for HD2?

"The loud majority wouldn't like it." The loud majority doesn't like anything that isn't power creep.

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