In the wake of yet another blowup amongst the Helldivers 2 community over an unpopular balance patch, game director Mikael Eriksson says Arrowhead "didn't hit our target with the latest update," and laid out the studio's plan to do a better job with future patches.
The problem is the Escalation of Freedom update released earlier this month, which among many other things nerfed a fan-favorite flamethrower, making it far less effective than it was against Chargers. Arrowhead CEO Shams Jorjani quickly waded into the fray, doing his best to mollify the masses with a brave face; "We need to do better" with future updates, he said after a few days, adding that "just talking about it isn't enough. Actions matter."
Now we've got an idea as to what sort of actions the studio plans to take. In a message posted on Reddit, Steam, and the Helldivers Discord, Eriksson laid out Arrowhead's goals for the next 60 days:
- Continue to re-examine our approach to balance. Our intention is that balance should be fun, not “balanced” for the sake of balance.
- Update how the fire damage mechanic works to tweak how the flamethrower serves as a close range support weapon. (A quick straight revert won’t work, as it would break other things)
- Rework gameplay to prevent excessive ragdolling
- Re-think our design approach to primary weapons and create a plan for making combat more engaging
- Re-prioritize bug fixes so that the more immediate gameplay-impacting bugs are prioritized.
- Improve game performance (frame rate is a focus)
- Rework Chargers
He also shared a "bigger picture perspective":
- Exploring creation of an opt-in beta-test environment to improve our testing processes and we consider this a high-priority.
- Post regular player surveys to gather more insights and feedback from the community.
- Improve our process for patch/release notes - providing more context and reasoning behind changes.
- More blog posts and streams where we expand on these topics for those interested.
"We’ve spent the last week listening to feedback, reflecting about the path ahead for Helldivers 2 and how we want to continue developing the game," Eriksson wrote. "In short, we didn’t hit our target with the latest update. Some things we just didn’t get right—and other more fundamental inconsistencies in our approach to game balance and game direction.
"All of that is on us and we are going to own that. As many of you have pointed out, and we agree, what matters most now is action. Not talk."
This isn't the first time the Helldivers 2 community has flipped out over a balance patch, nor is it the first time Arrowhead has tried to chill everyone out about it: In May, for instance, former CEO and current chief creative officer Johan Pilestedt said the studio had "gone too far" in some of its earlier efforts to balance the game, and promised to "talk to the team about the approach to balance."
I think, though, that this is the first time Arrowhead has laid out its plan in such specific detail. Will it be enough to satisfy vocal Helldivers 2 critics? That remains to be seen, but the good news for Arrowhead is that despite the seemingly endless uproar, plenty of people are still happy to dive in and blast away at bugs and 'bots: There are currently more than 36,000 people playing Helldivers 2 on Steam, and while that's a far cry from the heady days of February when the game first launched, it's still a healthy number, and more than enough to make it one of the most-played games on Steam.
