Rejects,
We have just finished our first full weekend of the pre-order beta of Warhammer 40,000: Darktide and, frankly, have been both excited and overwhelmed by the sheer volume of players jumping in. It’s a great opportunity for many of you to play, but it also helps us shape the game leading into the launch on November 30th
As many of you may have also seen, we truly are using this time to pressure test the systems and beta the game. Some of this isn’t without hiccups, and we have had our share of them, but some of it can deepen players' experience. A good example of that is our “Ventilation Purge” event. It was one of the many conditions we can add to the game, keeping your stay in Tertium fun and ever-changing.
But we have work to do.
We entered this pre-order beta with the idea that it was a great opportunity to continue improving the experience, and in some areas, we are ahead of the game - but in others, we are behind.
In particular, below are the top issues we observed, our current state, and what we hope to address in the 1.0.7 Update, along with future updates.
Online Services & Matchmaking
We made every attempt to scale our services for launch through both a technical and closed beta, but the truth is that there is no good way for us to simulate a real-world environment at this scale. This weekend served as yet another test. Unfortunately, we did encounter a few bugs which negatively impacted players, and the ability to play. So, if many of you were bounced out of a game or no longer could connect due to a “backend error,” know that throughout the weekend, the team worked through many of these issues, which should help improve the service. That isn’t to say it is where we want it to be.
Stability & Performance
We are far from happy and seeing more crashes than we had hoped. At the same time, we also expected some of this and are looking to the pre-launch beta to test and help address many of these issues. So far, we have identified and fixed many of the current issues causing crashes in the recent and upcoming patches, but there are also a few remaining. In particular, there is one big category of crashes manifested as “GPU-hangs”, that probably still will show its ugly face at times. That said, we are on a good trajectory to have a stable game at the time of release due in large part to the many players that are helping provide us with the required data to help address these issues.
In terms of performance, it is safe to assume that we see a high variance between players with seemingly similar hardware. Given the wide range of configurability in the game, it's difficult to automatically find the best parameters for every player. That said, the more data collected, the more we believe we improve in the detection and automation of configurability. At the same time, we will continue to adjust the presets and encourage all of you to visit the Performance blog in the event that you don’t believe you are getting the best performance in the game. Finally, we will continue working on further optimization, especially regarding ray tracing.
Gameplay Balancing & New Features
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We have also continued to work on balancing our classes.
The Zealot class has had a balance pass, some fixes, specifically on the toughness feats side, and updated player-facing texts. The aim is to make the choice between the three options a bit more interesting whilst establishing Zealots' survivability as an engaging challenge with sensible power. The bleed functionality has also been overhauled to provide proper stacking, opening up the viability and synergy of Zealot, Ogryn, and Veteran talent options.
We included the missing piece of the initial Psyker balancing, namely the Force Sword push. We’ve removed the peril cost of pushing along with a slight range nerf. Peril cost is still there on the push follow-up, though, which should help to balance its ability to ignore the stagger reduction.
We’ve taken the opportunity to bump Infantry Autoguns, Shredder Autopistols and Ogryn Bully Club to see if they can enrich the gameplay. At the same time, we reviewed some of the challenge outliers, higher-difficulty spawns, and events as part of our effort to present a fun but challenging experience. Locking the forces of chaos in melee should be a bit smoother while clamping down some of the more insane spikes in the pacing.
Look to us to keep an eye on rebalancing our classes. It is something that we will do regularly throughout the pre-launch period - and continue into launch as we respond to player feedback.
1.0.7 UPDATE SUMMARY
The 1.0.7 update offers many improvements and fixes to issues identified over the past few days. In particular, there is a focus on improving the stability of the game, game rebalancing, and deepening customization. This is a summary below, with more detailed patch notes to follow in the Fatshark forums.
Stability/Bugs/Fixes
- Fixed a significant amount of crashes - matchmaking crashes both on server and client.
- Fixed “stuck in position 1” queuing issue
- Addressed many of the lack of XP in progression issues
- Fixed crashes that could occur when tabbing out while watching a cinematic
- Fixed crashes when a player fell out of bounds
- Fixed issues in the credit store where it was impossible to buy things with in-game currency
- Fixed issues where the third-person camera would follow the player when falling out of bounds.
- Fixed issues where the Tigrus Mk II Heavy Eviscerator damage stat did not work as intended, damage defaulted to 50%. Now should scale damage properly.
- Fixed issues where the start animation of a heavy attack with the Thunder Hammer could get stuck.
- Fixed multiple crashes caused by the Beast of Nurgle.
- Fixed crashes that could occur when leaving the Mourningstar to head on a mission when having a specific trait equipped.
- Fixed crashes that could occur with certain weapon traits.
- Fixed issues where a player could complete the 'Up Close and Personal' Penance without meeting the appropriate criteria.
- Fixed issues where Veteran Sharpshooter's 'Covering Fire' did not work correctly.
- Fixed issues with Zealot's talent descriptions not matching what they actually do.
- Fixed various issues where if you look straight down, the third-person character's head will twist and rotate 180 degrees.
- Fixed an issue where players would sometimes spawn with both weapons in hand.
- Fixed an issue where the Ogryn's Grenade Box collides with the primary weapon on block.
- Fixed an issue with the Armory where the stock may occasionally be refreshed prematurely before the timer should have elapsed.
- Added codes to be displayed alongside errors.
- Fixed an issue where "Toughness damage reduction" effects didn't work vs. melee damage. (both talents and coherency effects)
- Fixed an issue where Zealots "Regain toughness while in melee" talent didn't trigger properly.
Rebalancing/Gameplay tweaks
- Veteran talent balance pass, bleeding.
- Zealot talent balance pass, toughness, and bleeding updates.
- Ogryn balance pass and grenade amounts adjusted.
- Ogryn club, attack combo adjusted. Damage values increased against certain enemy types.
- Ogryn shovel increased mobility
- Adjusted pacing w/ enemy characters, hordes, and spawns
- Additional Psyker gameplay adjustments, including removal of a 'push' charge cost for the Force Sword
- Bump up for autoguns and autopistols
- Ranged Minions attack attributes adjusted
Player Interactions
- Changed revive/rescue/pullup states to be 3rd person
Deepening Customization
- Added Chirurgeon of the Mourningstar
Go on. Spend some time with the Chirurgeon. We challenge you to share your best new looks - and feedback.
Thank you.
The Darktide Team
ADDITIONAL FAQ:
When does the pre-order beta end?
The pre-order beta will end November 29th.
Will I still have access to the beta if I pre-order now?
All pre-orders will have access to the beta until it ends, so long as the game was purchased before the close of the beta.
I received the game as a gift, will I be able to access the pre-order beta?
So long as you have a normal game key, you will be able to access the pre-order beta.
I recently bought an NVIDIA GPU, where is my promotional Darktide key?
NVIDIA is currently hosting a promotion where new purchases of qualifying RTX cards will also receive a key for the Darktide Imperial Edition.
If you have not received your key for the Darktide Imperial Edition, please contact NVIDIA directly.
The easiest way to do this is by using the 'Ask us a question' or 'Live chat' buttons at the bottom of NVIDIA's Support page here:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/support/consumer/
More information on this promotion can be seen on NVIDIA's website:
https://www.nvidia.com/en-gb/geforce/campaigns/pc-game-bundle-warhammer-40000-darktide-imperial-edition/
When will more detailed weapon stats be available?
We understand the way information is presented for weapons stats is unclear.
We hear you, and are working on changes we will be implementing post-release.
When will I be able to access my pre-order bonus items? When will I be able to access the Devoted Rejects cosmetics?
Players will be able to access these items when we launch the full game November 30.
Will crossplay and cross-save be available?
We see the value in cross-play and cross-save and fully intend to support cross-play shortly after launch. Cross-save is more complex to execute and still being investigated.
When is Darktide coming to consoles?
We know this is one of the top questions console players have.
We will have more news on the release date for Xbox Series X|S as soon as possible and likely immediately after the release on PC.
At this time, Darktide has only been announced for PC and the Xbox Series X|S.
Will progression persist between the pre-order beta the full game on launch?
Our goal is to ensure all progression will carry over from the moment you start playing through full release - but we cannot fully guarantee at this moment. The reason is that we are still using this period to test our progression systems, and we want to reserve the opportunity to change or reset things in the event something unforeseen or critical happens.
But we assure you that we will do our best to ensure all your characters and progression carry over!
Will I be able to refund the game on Steam if I play the pre-order beta?
Yes, we believe you will have the ability to refund with the same refund rules applying once Darktide launches and after November 30th. Please contact Steam support for further details or additional clarification.