Hello everyone!
This is one of several developer blogs centered around different aspects of the recently announced upcoming class, the Arbites! This dev blog will focus on the class’ talent tree!
We’ve interviewed Design Director Victor and Game Designer Gunnar to get their insight into its design, and the three distinct styles that can be found in it.
“I’m Victor, I’m the Design Director at Darktide. I’ve been at Fatshark for 16 years, working as a designer in different ways.” - Victor
“My name is Gunnar and I am currently a Game Designer, but I started at Fatshark in 2018 as a Gameplay Coder on Vermintide, and a few years ago I switched to become a Designer instead.” - Gunnar
What was the process for making the Arbites’ talent tree?
The class rework from Patch #13 was our first dive into the style of talent tree that we now have, with plenty of choices and flexibility but also a defined design goal behind it. We’ve learned a lot since then, and we hope that reflects on the Arbites’ tree.
We looked at the existing talent trees and we considered what worked and what was necessary to build the core skeleton of the tree. Once that was done, we built from that foundation into the various talents and choices you’ll have available. We purposely aimed to not overextend with the amount of nodes available and tried to focus on making each node meaningful and impactful.
“As you’re going through the tree you’re not just looking at stat bonuses, you’re looking at ‘what would your Arbites in the Warhammer: 40,000 universe do or be good at.” - Gunnar
A key aspect that guided the design of the tree is enabling different Player Fantasies, the cool thing that each individual player is seeking to do while playing Arbites. This is what resulted in the three distinct gameplay styles mentioned earlier, but it also made us focus on enabling anything in between. The system is meant to be flexible and players are encouraged to come up with their own variation of a build, and that goes for all of the existing talent trees.
“It’s up to the players to figure out and come up with their own sort of playstyle of fantasy of how THEY think their dream Arbites (in this case) functions.” - Victor
The Three Paths
Due to the nature of the talent trees, players are free to mix and match whatever talents they wish, provided they have the points and can path their way down the tree. However, as with our existing classes, there are three distinct gameplay & combat styles that the main branches of the tree embody, and players can focus on these paths to specialize in these styles.
While they don’t have an official name, for this dev blog we can refer to them as Subjugator, Exterminator, and Investigator.
Subjugator
Following the right side of the talent tree you will find talents that will allow you to dive into the thick of combat to break apart the formations of the criminal scum, tapping into an identity akin to riot police. These talents focus heavily on melee, staggering enemies and tanking.
Sneak peak at some of the talents:
Hammer of Judgement: Increased Attack Speed when hitting multiple enemies with a single Melee Attack.
Suppression Protocols: Hitting multiple enemies with a single Melee Attack grants Toughness Damage reduction.
Target the Weak: Enemies staggered by your Melee Attacks take more damage from Melee.
Exterminator
“Then we’ve also always been keen on fulfilling the shotgun fantasy of being this unstoppable force… walking down a corridor… just blasting everything that gets within range.” - Gunnar
Relevant talents for shotgun gunplay can be found all over the talent tree, but it is the middle branch that has the most focus on it. This gameplay style focuses on high firepower at close range, blasting enemies of the Law with unflinching and implacable impunity.
Sneak peak at some of the talents:
Withering Fire: Improved Ranged Damage after Reloading.
Up Close: Replenish toughness on Close Kill.
March: Increased Movement Speed on Ranged Hit.
Investigator
Found on the left side of the tree, this playstyle focuses on eliminating high priority targets. Elites, Specials, even Monsters. It’s about being ‘on the chase’, relentlessly hunting down a perp and bringing them the Emperor’s Justice.
The talents here are quite varied and flexible. There’s a mix of melee and ranged talents, as well as some support nodes. This is also where most (but not all!) of the talents related to the Cyber Mastiff are (although you can easily build into the Investigator branch without picking them!)
Sneak peak at some of the talents:
No Escape: Improved Damage and Movement Speed after killing a Special or Elite.
Canine Morale: Killing enemies Pounced by your Cyber Mastiff grants Toughness and Toughness Damage Reduction to Allies in Coherency.
Serrated Maw: Your Cyber Mastiff applies Brittleness on attack.
“That was also an important point [...] We wanted to make sure that no matter if you went left, right or middle, you could always create a build that interacted with your Mastiff - So that you didn’t lock yourself out of playing with your Mastiff just because you also wanted to be melee focused, or because you wanted to do well with the shotgun.” - Gunnar
While there’s three distinct identities to be found for the Arbites if you focus on a particular talent tree path, it’s important for us that the tree itself remains flexible and allows players to combine talents as they wish and develop the playstyle that best suits them.
For that reason, we took great care in making sure that any of the three options for your Combat Ability, your Blitz and your Coherency aura are easily accessible regardless of what path you’re going down, and easily connect to any of the three paths. You can then think of them as independent of those three playstyles, even if there’s a niche that they fit best into.
Coherency Aura
Base Coherency Aura: Ruthless Efficiency
Simple, but effective: this is the initial Aura for the Arbites and it gives you and your Allies in Coherency a bonus to reload speed.
Part of the Squad
For those focusing on the Cyber Mastiff, this option makes your loyal companion count as an Ally for the purposes of Coherency. Additionally, this talent also gives every Ally in Coherency a small bonus to Toughness Damage Reduction.
Breaking Dissent
This Coherency Aura increases the damage dealt by you and Allies in Coherency against enemies that are currently Staggered.
Blitz
Base Blitz: Arbites Grenade
The default Blitz that all Arbites players start with is a standard issue Arbites Grenade. Compared to the Veteran’s frag grenades, it packs a stronger punch but has a smaller radius and explodes on impact rather than after a delay.
Remote Detonation
The Remote Detonation Blitz requires some coordination with your loyal companion! Upon activating it, an electric discharge will burst from your Cyber Mastiff’s position, dealing damage and heavy stagger impact.
“It has quite a powerful stagger as well, so if your Mastiff is in the middle of attacking a Monster, like on the Plague Ogryn’s back, and you use it, the Plague Ogryn will stagger forward, disrupting its attacks. So it’s a lot about timing and keeping track of where your Mastiff is to get the most benefit out of it.” - Gunnar
This Blitz also recharges on a cooldown, rather than by picking up a Grenade Box.
Voltaic Shock Mine
Choosing Voltaic Shock Mines as your Blitz will allow you to set up proximity mines on the ground at spots of your choosing. As enemies draw close to it, it will activate and shock anything that comes near it for a sustained duration. Compared to the Zealot’s Shock Grenade, it has a smaller radius but lasts a lot longer.
“It’s one of the first Blitzes that we have that allow you to actually prepare for what’s to come. So if you come into an event area and you know that they’re gonna come from that door, or that direction, you can set up before engaging with the event.” - Victor
Combat Abilities
Base Combat Ability: Nuncio-Aquila
The default Combat Ability for the Arbites is Nuncio-Aquila, which brings forth a booming loudspeaker on a specific point you aim it at. It will blast the word of the Imperial Law at full blast, empowering nearby allies and debilitating nearby enemies.
“It’s like that scene in a movie, where the bad guys are hiding in a house and the police turn on the speakers and start telling them ‘You better give up, you’re surrounded.’, so they start freaking out.” ~ Victor
Castigator’s Stance
This Ability turns you into an unstoppable juggernaut, unleashing the Emperor’s Judgement on the enemy as you walk menacingly forward, unflinching and unphased. Entering the stance removes your ability to sprint, but increases your base movement speed and massively reduces your damage taken for a time.
Break the Line
This Ability makes your Arbites perform a short lunge forwards and then bash every enemy in front of you with your equipped Melee weapon, staggering enemies in a wide area in front of you but without dealing any damage.
This Ability is on a very short cooldown (the shortest in the game!) so make sure to use it often to clear the way and subjugate the criminal mob!
Design and Development
Were there any noteworthy changes in design that happened during development?
Originally, the base Combat Ability was going to be the Castigator’s Stance! However, during playtesting we found that it was very unintuitive for players just starting out, as visually it doesn’t really convey all of the effects that it has and it’s hard to tell how it’s meant to be used or what it’s doing for you. Nuncio-Aquila is far more straightforward and easier to understand without having to read its description, while still being sufficiently iconic for the Arbites, so we ended up changing the default Ability to that one.
Another thing is that at one point, a chunk of the tree was dedicated to talents about picking your Arbites’ armour, based on various options from the lore or tabletop. So you’d pick things like what kind of visor your Arbites wore, or from what areas was the gear made, and so on. In the end we weren’t happy with how that was turning out in practice, but it was an interesting aspect that we explored.
At the time of writing, the talent tree was on version #16, so it’s definitely been through its fair share of iteration and polishing! Granted, as we approach the end development, the later versions involved less drastic changes and more fine-tuning and adjustments.
What was the most fun part of designing the talent tree for you?
“It’s just very fun to path down a talent tree. [...] I think it’s even more fun to build it yourself; it’s a creative process of mixing and matching nodes or creating these crazy structures […] I just think it’s a lot of fun to create a tree, in itself.” - Gunnar
“This goes for pretty much all of them: the first time most of the nodes are working and you can for the first time actually start theory-crafting in the game. Like actually making your first build, not just in theory. [...] That’s the most fun I think, ‘cause that’s very exciting.” - Victor.
Of all the talents, what’s your personal favorite?
“I really like the shock mine. It allows you to sort of pre-emptively strike, which I think is really cool. I also really like the Nuncio-Aquila; it allows you to ‘place’ a buff and then you can move in and out of it and you can be tactical about where you place it. - Victor
“One that is quite interesting is the Coherency - the aura - that is related to the Cyber Mastiff [...]. As one of its effects it will make your Mastiff count as one in the coherency pool, so it more easily chains and you get the increased regeneration… and, if you have four Arbites with that aura, you can up to a total eight in your Coherency pool.” - Gunnar
That’s all we have for today! Stay tuned for the next Dev Blog on the Arbites!
This is the Will of the Lex.
We’ll see you on the Mourningstar.
Wishlist the Arbites Class today on Steam.
View game page– The Darktide Team