Helldivers 2’s Developers Are Disappointed

Sources:

[ryojimata]

I find it hilarious that they nerfed everything fire based on the fire based content patch.

[catpawscarves]

I'd be... somewhat okay with slight nerfs to some weapons if all weapons were viable in some way, but that's not what Arrowhead gave us. As I've seen one person say, "If Arrowhead ran an automotive repair shop and a car came in with three flat tires, they'd deflate the one good tire so they're all flat."

When the first round of weapon nerfs came, my example at the time was "Arrowhead is a kingdom that asked us to slay a dragon, and they gave us the choice of a sword and shield or a pile of sticks and stones. Arrowhead then got so mad about people only choosing the sword and shield that they blunted our blades and shattered our shields."

[Legather]

AH: "Our game was so unexpectedly big it's tough to figure out what the playerbase wants."
Players: "Stop nerfing the guns."
AH: "It's really new territory for us, we need to discover how to make the players happy."
Players: "We just told you, stop nerfing the guns."
AH: "It really is a big unknown how to cater to these different groups of players."
Casual and blaster players in unison: "Stop. Nerfing. The. Guns."
AH: "Yeah, it's a mystery but we promise we're listening."

[kinomanssky]

You can maybe thinking about nerfing when most of your weapons are well balanced. The problem with HD2 is that most of the guns are worthless.

[HAL-OOO]

Helldivers 2 is quickly becoming the first ever PvD game (players vs developers)

[BunnyTheOverlord]

17:27 You forgot one thing here. They buffed the enemies multiple times while nerfing the players. Nothing really changed on our end and things were being done well enough when suddenly they started nerfing guns off of usage rate alone. The CEO has gone on record to say that one of the guns nerfed was balanced pretty well and they nerfed it just cause it was being used too much.

[fowlWarDog]

Let's not be overly verbose here:
> They literally advertised an "overpowered" arsenal.
> They say that weapons need a nerf when they have a pick rate, rather than buffing weapons with no pick rate.
> I fail to see how a hoard shooter is ever anything but a power fantasy.
> The cherry on top: "oh no a bug is killing itself, give it DR!" Nerfed weapons/buffed enemies in response to bugs/unintended behavior is a real shitty thing to do, fix the damn bug.

[Jovisstfan]

The problem with the nerfs isn't that weapons are melting enemies. AH are looking at user statistics rather than game feel. So people congregate around certain weapons because they're better than most other weapons. And then AH nerfs the popular weapons, leaving people with even fewer choices. The devs are essentially on the wrong end of survivorship bias, killing the things that survive but not counting the weapons that weren't even picked.

[wahcriminal]

The problem is Arrowhead's balance devs seem to have no clue what they're doing. It's like they're trying to balance an Excel spreadsheet instead of a game.
They see a weapon with an abnormally high pick rate and immediately assume that weapon must be OP, when in reality every other weapon feels like a peashooter. Like, there is a reason why the term "bulletsponge" is considered a negative descriptor.

Not to even mention the completely absurd reasonings they've given to justify some of their changes. Oh no the slug shotgun is outperforming snipers? Better nerf its damage and stagger power, instead of doing the sensible thing of ramping up the damage dropoff. And don't get me started on the "realism" argument.

[cagthetism]

HD2 could have been a great game with staying power but they fumbled the ball too many times. The psn account issue. The blocking of 180+ countries. The constant balanace screw ups. They had a golden opportunity and the just didnt follow through.

[rrc]

Their community management team is killing their company. The bad communication between players and developers is just one facet of it.

[kommandantvhs]

Tell me especially the community managers should stop trying to antagonize the player base and how do you balance a PVE game and say it's not competitive?

[Dany-zs]

The problem is that Arrowhead has said the exact same thing multiple times, promised to do better multiple times and their actions have never been in line with their promises.

Now they’ve replied with “DM me” to a tweet from a company that deals in AI to understand feedback. What is there to understand when they don’t listen and make the game just frustrating?

[GamerDoctrine]

I stopped playing a while back because the nerfs took the fun away. After each nerf I’d grow to love a certain gun or loadout, and then I’d have to revise everything after the next nerf. Also, the new guns in each new pack didn’t seem to really wow me. Disappointing nerfs, disappointing new additions, I’m tired of playing.

[nilskuttkat]

No weapon was overpowered, so the nerfs where uncalled-for. The game has much bigger issues. They really need to work on the old bugs and the annoying ragdolling. I cannot understand what makes them think that excessive ragdolling is a fun game mechanic.

[foxs]

Regarding the comment about player numbers commonly decreasing to about 10 percent of their height

I don't doubt its normal for that to happen over time, but i do doubt that's normal for a Live service to crater their player base month over month.

Also regarding your points on the fact that nerfs are important. Yes they are, if something actually needs a nerf. The unfortunate truth is almost none of the options in the game are actually viable choices, but they choose to nerf the usable stuff *BEFORE* making the other stuff viable.

[RemyBeast]

The meme at 14:28 is actually not really accurate. The game released as what players wanted. But in any case the game was advertised as having "overpowered weapons". If they didn't want to create a power fantasy, they shouldn't have advertised it as one.

[SageOfLimitlessHands]

Just stop nerfing. No one is asking for it. No one. If AH wants other things to be talked about stop doing the things EVERYONE says stop doing

[HAL-OOO]

The thing that you're not understanding, is that people playing on higher difficulties aren't actually asking for Doomslayer levels of power, but rather just for:
Running away shouldn't be a more reliable strategy than using your weaponry, as this both takes away the viability of heavy armor, and also isn't very fun.

Nerfing our weaponry further cements 'running away' as the most viable strategy, whereas buffing our weaponry supports those who want to fight rather than run away.

To add on to why Arrowhead's nerfs are bad and people never want their nerfs:
Arrowhead has shown time and time again that they are completely disconnected from those who play on higher difficulties, and their reasons for nerfing various weapons aren't based on experience with weapons being too powerful, but rather that many people use them.
We call this "spreadsheet nerfs".

To even further add to why Arrowhead should only buff, never nerf:
The Flam-40 flamethrower and the current state that it is in, is completely unjustified.
It is a support weapon that is only viable, and used against the bugs because of it's requirements. You have to spend a stratagem slot on it (meaning it competes for viability with the likes of the autocannon), you have to get within 20 meters of your target, this adds significant potential for danger against the wielder, it's a flamethrower and so adds potential danger to not only the wielder but also any nearby teammates.

The Flam-40 flamethrower is a weapon with a VERY specific niche, and the recent nerf it got completely removed it's viability within that niche, and then to top it off; AH also switched out its previous HIGLY REALISTIC fire-spewing animation, for something that can only be described as dogshit. The new animation isn't only unrealistic, but it's also ugly, and adds EVEN MORE potential danger to the wielder by blocking their view of the battlefield.

This situation with the flamethrower is a MASSIVE fuck-up, that they justified by saying "the flamethrower couldn't shoot through fences, because of its animation, and so we changed it". Not only did NO ONE complain about the problem with the fences, but later after massive backlash did the devs come out and say that this change is irreversible.

THIS IS WHY PEOPLE DON'T WANT THEIR NERFS! They make changes that aren't wanted, and sometimes when they screw up can't even reverse the unwanted changes.

I'm mad at AH, just like a lot of other players, however, unlike many others I'm still playing, because somehow I'm still having fun, and I still have a sliver of hope that their design philosophy will change for the better, and Pilestedt does seem to understand the playerbase. Maybe Pilestedt can lead the charge towards change.

Rant over
I hope someone listens

[christophermiller]

You're wrong about nerfs. Of the non-stratagem weapons, there are only like 4 that are usable at a difficulty above 6. ESPECIALLY after quadrupling the amount of chargers in each match. 4 usable weapons out of 33 is NOT reasonable. "We want to prevent a meta from forming." Really now?