re: Helldivers 2 has lost 90% of its players

Picked it up last night. So far it's a blast, and I love the easy pick up-put down nature of it. I've only fought the Illuminate and the bots so far, will have to jump on a bug mission soon.

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That is what brought me back. I can do a run or two and walk away. It is tough for me to put hours into something

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Agreed, very nice quick 30 min chillout after work before doing other things.

Anyone still playing on here?

Got back into it about a month ago and think it's in a nice spot right now with the latest updates and some new tweaks.
The Gloom Terminids was a very chaotic yet fun change of pace. Also feel like quickplay/SOS/matchmaking has gotten much better. Weapon balance feels pretty good now especially if you can communicate well with the squad. Robots can still be a bitch.

Got a group of 3 that play so happy to add one more. Trying to run level 7-9 usually.

I’ve been playing pretty much daily since the Illuminate update and the game is as fun as it’s ever been for me.

The Gloom Terminids actually made the bugs scary again, and the Illuminate missions are always a fun blend of bots tactics and bugs horde. As you said, bots are bitches on all difficulties.

Would be down to link up with a regular group as opposed to dropping in with randos. That can sometimes be a coin flip between “fun as hell” or “complete disaster.”

I have not played in months, but I'd be willing to play again if we can get a regular group together.

You'd have to bare with me as I relearn the game though.

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When devs find people are having fun with one weapon or class, the answer isn't to nerf it.

The answer is to find ways to make the other guns/classes fun, also.

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100%. The Helldivers devs began going into a spiraling descent of nerfs as they would determine something was too powerful, nerf it, then look at what they had measured it against and say "well now THIS is too powerful so we have to nerf it", rinse and repeat until the game is too difficult for most to enjoy.

Another aspect was their understanding of difficulty vs fun. The core of the game is to blow the shite out of your enemies, meaning there has to be some scaling of mission levels which eventually lead to a well-geared and experienced player being able to solo a decent bit. Building skills and gear up to the point where challenge and fun balance is the point, but challenge in and of itself isn't the whole of fun. Making it so even the best teams had trouble completing a Helldive map, is a turnoff once the players realize there's no magic strat or gear combo that makes a decisive win possible. One can find joy from being the only player to barely crawl into the ship in time to leave only so often before it begins to feel like a chore.

What's everyone (who's still playing) think about the new updates? Newest updates have been awesome in my opinion. Battle for Super Earth, Illuminate back and tough as shite, gun customization.

For a lot of the mistakes they made early on (I definitely stepped away for a solid 3 months before the first illuminate introduction), they are coming out with some great content now. Fighting on Super Earth against the illuminate is fresh and engaging.

Pulled 200k concurrent divers at one point on Super Earth. Democracy, baby.

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gun customization

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Was watching someone on Twitch play last night and I was shocked to see this. Very cool feature.

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It's nothing too robust, but for some of the guns, it makes a huge difference

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I was wondering how big a difference the scopes/grips made, so appreciate the info

There's still no way to reload ammo on mechs, right? Basically once you're out of ammo, that's it?

When they started nerfing guns because they were popular, rather than for balance was when I bolted

Just before the Sony nonsense

That was a rough time and I was really critical of the game at that point. All these developers have this mindset that games have to be impossible to be good, games have to be eSports, etc.

Arrowhead's CEO actually stepped down and hired another guy as CEO while he became the creative director. Outside of a couple mis steps here and there with micro transactions since then, the press for the game has been overwhelmingly positive. There is a core player base that plays a lot and then there are people who return for events. Pretty healthy dynamic right now and the game is way more fun than those 6 months or so that they were struggling after release.

I would give it a shot again and see what you think if you abandoned it. For most people it will get a little same-ey feeling and you'll take breaks and play other stuff until a new major order or expansion comes out, but it's in my permanent rotation of games for the foreseeable future.