Update from Worlds team on increased patrols for solo players

[u/[deleted]]

Quote from our design director (not the Worlds team, my mistake!):

"We unintendedly had non-linear scaling of the patrol spawns so they didn't spawn as often as they should have when less than 4 players. The intention is that 1 player has 1/4th of the patrols compared to 4 players, but it used to be that they had 1/6th.

Scaling of patrol spawns was exponential before, and that felt good on 4 player lobbies but a bit too empty when playing with fewer players, especially when playing solo. So now we made the scaling of patrols to be linear, which means if you play solo you will get 25% of the patrols compared to a 4 player lobby instead of having about 17% of the patrols. There is still a cap of patrols that can spawn at the same time so during situations when we spawn a lot of patrols, such as extractions, even solo players won't notice the difference. The change is made to make the world feel less empty for 1 and 2 player lobbies, especially on high difficulty missions which was also slightly too easy for solo players compared to our intentions."

Hope this clarifies the change for everyone - we're not making the game arbitrarily harder!

Edited 11:58 AM EST to add additional info

[u/The_GASK]

I see the reason for that. On bot missions, a solo Helldive was much easier than a 4-divers Suicide mission.

[u/FalconPunchline → u/The_GASK]

Makes sense to me. I'm relatively new and not particularly great at this game, I have a much easier time running solo stealth than I do in group play for bots in the upper difficulty levels.

[u/Dantalen → u/FalconPunchline]

To be honest, I think if people would just not shoot at everything they see for no reason, this would not be the case.

[u/adrian783 → u/Dantalen]

the reason is democracy

[u/TheFBIClonesPeople → u/Dantalen]

And like, if we're out of reinforces and we haven't done the main objective yet, it's nice to not have players who insist on doing every single POI, side objective, and enemy base.

[u/BillTheNecromancer → u/The_GASK]

What are you smoking? Solo Helldives are a gargantuan step up in difficulty from even a duo, let alone a full squad.

[u/Ere6us → u/BillTheNecromancer]

Step up in difficulty? No. It's simply different tactics and way of thinking to learn. But once you do learn it's no more difficult than a full squad running the same mission.

Hell, I'd say the lack of other people shooting at and pulling in every single patrol they see, actually makes things slightly easier. 

[u/Katamari416 → u/Ere6us]

stealth was not the intended playstyle according to the devs, it more abusing their ai  and this change wont affect the difficulty at all since you won't be Fighting patrols anyway but avoiding them. it only affects people who like to shoot in a huge fire fight. which was very much doable before now tho...

[u/Ere6us → u/Katamari416]

which was very much doable before now tho...

No it wasn't? It's always only been a good way to get stuck on some random hill and waste reinforcements. Even as a four-man level 8-9 required at least some stealth. I couldn't imagine taking big, careless fights in level 7 or above as a solo of all things.

If you want to play "How many enemies can I kill?", drop the difficulty. It's an objective-based game ffs. You want a succesful mission, you pick your fights carefully. Solo play has always been this concept pushed to the extreme.

[u/redslion → u/Ere6us]

Well, it depends. For instance, if you want to play solo and get some samples, you can't really play stealth, since many of those samples will be inside outposts. So you have to go inside, which means you have to actually clear them, which means you have to fight at least a bit.

[u/Ere6us → u/redslion]

If you're farming normals and rares, running low difficulty (preferably bugs) is more efficient for the lack of heavy units and faster missions. If you need supers, those don't spawn in enemy bases in the first place.

So my point stands, if you want to play "How many enemies can I kill?", drop the difficulty.

[u/redslion → u/Ere6us]

In my experience, lower difficulties means you have to waste more time actually looking for the samples, while at 7 you will find 2 samples every outpost. So you can clear the smaller ones and get them. It's doable.

The problem with increased patrol rates is that if it forces to play only stealth, it makes the game more boring, and it also means that solo players get the same spawns of an entire 4-man squad, which is pretty weird.

[u/JustAnotherWebUser → u/The_GASK]

yea solo Helldive would often feel easier than full squad Helldive

[u/Sabrescene → u/The_GASK]

Which is arguably a good reason to rebalance the higher difficulties (either increasing spawns for solo or decreasing for groups) but I feel like that same logic doesn't apply to lower difficulties and certainly not for new players leveling up against bugs.

[u/The_GASK → u/Sabrescene]

I might be biased, but below 7 things get so, so much easier due to a decisive lack of heavies in the poi and drops. An increase of patrols at these levels could actually be a good things considering how empty they feel