Helldivers 2's CEO has reaffirmed the game's commitment to friendly fire, confirming that the ability to completely one-shot your allies "will never change."
07.03.2024 - 17:27 / rockpapershotgun.com / Johan Pilestedt
Arrowhead's CEO Johan Pilestedt has apologised for some spicy developer responses to players complaining about Helldivers 2's first major balancing patch, which made certain Helldivers 2 guns and equipment pieces significantly less powerful alongside other adjustments to the new shooter's armor system, maps and missions.
Much of the player anger has to do with the softening of three particular favourites - the railgun, "Breaker" shotgun and portable shield generator. Arrowhead have commented and blogged at great length about the reasoning behind the tweaks. One designer commented yesterday that "we strongly believe that the changes won't ruin this build, but rather help the affected items find their place among the other options and stay effective in capable hands."
Some Helldivers 2 players agree with this justification and some do not, to put it mildly. Senior animator Fredrik Eriksson has been responding to the latter on Reddit, perhaps not in the most constructive fashion. "I'm feeding the rage a little for my own entertainment here, just so you know," he wrote in one thread. "We haven't nerfed anything into the ground, I just think it's a little too early to pretend like the game is figured out. We made two of the most brainless playstyles less viable, and brought the guns that are under/overperforming more into line with the rest.
"The game is only a couple of weeks old, so before we start making sweeping changes we want everything roughly where we intended from the start," Eriksson went on. "That doesn't mean we won't bring things up when we know more about how people play the game."
As is the way of fandoms scorned, Helldiver redditors have screencapped the "feeding the rage" and "brainless" quotes and shared them around. Now, Pilestedt has stepped in, apologising for Eriksson's cheeky remarks and commenting that Arrowhead are still learning how to communicate with the unexpectedly gigantic Helldivers 2 community.
"[S}ince I am a heavy subscriber of a communicative studio it means that I encourage developers to engage with the community," he wrote. "However this also exposes us to risks of miscommunication or heated arguments and it's something that we actively discuss internally at the studio to improve on. While I understand that it reflects on the studio as a whole, it is not our intention that this should be the behavior from us. We want to ensure that you all have the best time possible in this game and in this community.
"As for the balance patch and the opinions surrounding it, we actively read as much as we possibly can and take what is said into consideration when we discuss things internally. Right now, the hot topic is your guys' feedback and response to the balance adjustments and
Helldivers 2's CEO has reaffirmed the game's commitment to friendly fire, confirming that the ability to completely one-shot your allies "will never change."
Helldivers 2 has sold over 8 million copies.
Helldivers 2's Cutting Edge Premium warbond, aka DLC battle pass, is now available to buy in-game, and it is chock-full of oddball gadgetry such as lightning shotguns, burst-fire laser rifles and experimental armour. As with the Arc Thrower stratagem, the lightning shotgun fires arcs of electricity that conduct between players and enemies alike, but there's a fresh armour perk, Electrical Conduit, which reduces arc damage by 95%, allowing close-knit teams of Helldivers to roll around the battlefield frazzling themselves without much penalty.
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While continues to dominate the video game industry, one star is eager for a crossover with the game his film inspired. It doesn't take a lot to recognize that Arrowhead Studios' game and Paul Verhoeven's cult-classic sci-fi have a great deal in the company especially given that both act as satirical comments on the modern military-industrial complex and the influence of propaganda on society. Despite these heavy themes, there's still a great amount of fun to be had in either given that they also spotlight soldiers firing big weapons at giant alien bugs.
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Several players have insisted that they've encountered a new type of flying Terminid but in keeping with the game's satirical tone,Arrowhead Studios' CEO Johan Pilestedt believes it's all nonsense. In the weeks after the game's launch, the community has been hard and working trying to figure out exactly what could be causing the Terminids to spread so rapidly among the stars. Some are speculating that Super Earth itself could be creating the «aliens» but the game's director is trying to throw everyone off the scent.
presents players with an abundance of different tools to eliminate the deadly armies of the Terminids and Automatons and Arrowhead Studios is giving fans some insight into how those Stratagems are created. One of the core components of the popular co-op shooter is the ability to call down equipment and support from the skies, most of which take the form of explosive air strikes or precision missile launches. They're undoubtedly one of the most fun aspects of and director Johan Pilestedt wants everyone to know how the team creates them.
makes a point of throwing droves of enemies at players but those who do their best to avoid combat may be shocked to learn that enemies have a few extra tools in their arsenals to detect sneaky players. During some of the game's larger open-world missions, Helldivers have the option to engage with roving bands of foes or, if they're careful, sneak past without raising the alarm. That's easier said than done, especially when the Terminids can use more than one of their sense to track their prey.
The game director for Helldivers 2 has confirmed a horrifying detail about Terminids, revealing that the bug-like aliens are able to smell players. As one of two enemy factions in Helldivers 2, Terminids can be difficult to sneak by, and there's now confirmation as to why that is.
Helldivers 2 is an early 2024 smash hit, with critical and commercial acclaim following its explosive launch on PlayStation 5 and PC. But there are some aspects of the co-op shooter that can result in a frustrating experience, and one of them has to do with the behavior of your teammates.