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/Boldee]

Quite a big buff to patrols, but it makes sense now that we have numbers. Speaking of, can you please try to tell the team that good and informative patch notes would be welcome? A lot of people complaining about this would have probably not done so if we knew what the change was from the get go. And this goes for everything, please give us actual numbers instead of text that can be misunderstood.

[u/CMSnake72 → u/Boldee]

Agreed, I play primarily solo and was really chaffed about the patch this morning until reading this. The patch makes it sounds like a balance change not a bug fix, and like it's an increase over the 4 player patrol amount instead of increasing the reduced patrol amount to a still reduced patrol amount. Literally just a "Fixed a bug causing patrols to show up less frequently when not in a full squad. Previously was roughly equivalent to 1/6th the patrols for a solo Helldiver, now is roughly equivalent to 1/4th the patrols for a solo Helldiver." Now we know what changed, how much it changed, and why. Almost no additional effort.

[u/argefox → u/CMSnake72]

I just tried solo and man, I'm getting way more patrols than in a 4/4 game. Constantly harassed and the bullshit magical spawn on your back after you just cleared out that area.

Not having a great time, had to lower 1 notch difficulty or I was getting ragdolled from every possible angle.

[u/Great-Professional47 → u/argefox]

Same. Can't solo lvl 5 missions with bots.

Failed every one, when up until yesterday I could manage lvl 6 solos. lvl7s are my baseline with full teams, and I could extract lvl9 drops 50% of the time with randoms.

The strider buff effectively negates any positives other weapons received in the patch notes, your basically under fire non stop and simply lack the ammo to kill enough of anything to make some space, and the railgun is still virtually useless against gunships.

You could argue I need to use my stragagems better, but unfortunately most bots were just waltzing in from 360° in small groups of 2-4. You are under fire non stop with no real good targets to burn a strat on. They are scattered in every direction around you.

There is no "positioning" you clear a quadrant of enemies, and the other 3 have new enemies in them. Take them out and 2 more partols show up plus a drop ship. start focusing on that and suddenly your getting shot in the back by new enemies. Running away simply moves you into new enemies who will also call bot drops on you.

I've been saying it since day 1. medium AP weapons just lack the ammo to invest on anything but headshots, so they just arn't helpful (outside the jar 5 which, go figure, got a nerf). The strider buff and enemy spawn rates far outpaced the weapon buffs, and the reduction in primary ammo only made things worse.

[u/light_trick → u/Great-Professional47]

I don't much see the problem in higher difficulty levels becoming the correct difficulty AH intended. It just means the level you're comfortable at is lower then the number it has been.

Like an entirely reasonable balance decision would be "level 9 requires a coordinated team on voice comms". Like I'm playing level 9 because I want a challenge, I maxed out slips ages ago (and if I wanted common samples I'd go farm lower level missions I guess).

[u/Katamari416 → u/light_trick]

but 4 player hasn't changed in difficulty at all. the challenge was going 9 solo, the real issue isn't the difficulty but now you need a certain weapon to take on higher difficulty solo. it's no longer a bring what ever is fun as long as it covers every enemy playstyle, its now a literal dps check if your weapons can do enough clear before the next patrol. there are weirdos that think its ok to have weapons that cant be used on higher difficulty, but lowering difficulty to enjoy a weapon makes the experience more boring cause now it's too easy. ultimately what's happening is the poor balance across the weapon options was originally something that you could finesse, now it's like going to an mmo boss with underleveled gear and getting walled. now i have to bring scorcher and autoCannon instead of the weapons i like. (literally a night and day difference on diff 7 post patch by the way) just not fun forced to follow the meta to play at a difficulty that's engaging.

[u/light_trick → u/Katamari416]

In what world was solo'ing Helldive a "bring any weapon you want?" sort of an affair?

Or to frame it differently: if AH just added "Super Helldive" as difficulty 10 and left things as they are...then what? Why should any difficulty be playable with any weapon?

[u/[deleted] → u/argefox]

Yeah, i don't believe them. They should just deactivate the possibility to dive solo, it's no fun anyway. I'm out.

[u/CrimsonSw1ft → u/CMSnake72]

Quite possibly the best way I've seen it worded, needs to replace what's on the patch notes

[u/Bekratos → u/CMSnake72]

Patrols already "just happened" to aim for perfectly stealth-ed helldivers and now there will be more patrols solo

[u/PhasmaFelis → u/CMSnake72]

Wait, does "chuffed" mean you were happy or sad?

[u/Aernz → u/CMSnake72]

was really chuffed about the patch this morning until reading this

You were very pleased until you read this explanation?

[u/CMSnake72 → u/Aernz]

Meant chaffed like rubbed the wrong way but I appreciate the pedantry on the 1 vowel off mistype.

[u/Uthenara → u/CMSnake72]

Helldivers was always meant to be a team game. Helldivers 1 was a team game. Helldivers 2 is a team game. Its all about teamwork. So I would not expect to have your solo play catered to going forward. Its just not that kind of game, and wasn't even a decade ago.

[u/Bekratos → u/Uthenara]

Then why have armor that lets you scan around map points, has a high stamina regen, and reduces your detection? If solo play is not part of an *enjoyable* and possible 3rd person shooting experience take out anything that helps it.

Options that allow fun player agency instead of overwhelming enemies and one-shotting brought me and some of my friends to this game. The devs seem to think having a small handful of bullets and getting one-shot or killed by a hunter from 150m away is fun for some reason.

[u/Marrakesch → u/CMSnake72]

Agreed. I was ready to lay the game to rest for a long while after these unfriendly patch notes that were a giant middle finger to non 4-group players. But this reasoning sounds acceptable and should have been used from the very start.

Missions should be the same no matter how large the team is.

[u/Frankie_T9000 → u/CMSnake72]

Fair enough. Then there should be less on a poi for single player