Warband,
We are very close to showing off our new game mode, Expeditions, to the world. The trailer will be live tomorrow, but before that we wanted to take the opportunity and talk to all of you about what will go down in this new mode.
It’s called Expeditions for a reason. It’s time to leave the protection of Hive Tertium and venture outside! There have been reports that the enemy is gathering Tech-Remnants for unknown, but surely nefarious purposes out there. This is something quite unheard of as we thought that the only thing that awaited us outside the Hive City was a swift death to radiation (or worse!).
This seems to be quite untrue, and as the Mourningstar’s forces prepare to venture out and fight the enemy and take these Tech-Remnants for themselves, it will fall on you and your team to take on this new challenge.
With us today we have gathered a sage council of game developers to talk us through what this game mode is all about. Without further ado, let’s introduce our level artists Roberto and Kaneda, our game designer Rafał and last, but not least, Victor our Design Director.
Take it away guys!
Expeditions overview
“I’ll say this. Expeditions is the biggest injection of new content in the game since launch”
- Victor
In this new game mode you and your team will go outside Hive Tertium to retrieve important Tech-Remnants. When you play the Expeditions game mode you will do it through several runs, with each run using a set of randomised variables that make up the map you will play on.
A run will most likely be between ten to thirty minutes, depending on how far you will go. Being outside of the protection of Tertium is nasty business, and the radiation and pollution means you can’t stay there for too long. So you will either reach the end of the run and extract in a Valkyrie, or you might opt to leave early and take what Tech-Remnants you secured with you to safety. If time runs out and you die, you get nothing. It’s a high risk, high reward.
After a run is done you will unlock new parts of a map depending on how much Tech-Remnants you bring back. And the more you unlock the more interesting missions you can embark on.
The outside of Tertium
Making a map set truly outside the Hive is something we thought about for a while now. We played around with areas close to the edge before, but this is the first time we are truly outside.
This new setting lets us do plenty of cool things for the game. First and foremost is the vast open space that lends itself perfect for the new mission structure. The Valkyrie will land in what we chose to call a “Scavenge Zone”, and the moment you exit you can use a new feature on the Auspex, letting you find several Sites of Interest.
“There will be spaces that you wouldn't see inside the hive, cool tunnels through mountain sides and sneaky paths and such. We want to reward players for exploring the map”
- Rafał
There is no set path like in the other game modes in Darktide, so it will be up to you and the team to decide how to traverse the zone, and in what order to get to the different Sites. As you move around the map you will then scavenge for both the Tech-Remnants and Salvage.
A run can, and most often will, cover several “Scavenge Zones”, and in-between them you will find Sanctuaries that let you spend the Salvage you’ve found to heal up, resupply and get your hand on some new toys. Here we have some really cool new explosives, and an item that even let you call in the Valkyrie for supporting fire!
The Sanctuaries will also be the place where you will meet the Deadsiders, people living in the badlands outside the Hive. They might be a bit wary of new faces, but we thankfully have Swagger here too, and he will help smooth things over.
After you are done preparing in the Sanctuary, you continue into a new zone and keep going until you either opt to extract early, or you get to the final zone and the Valkyrie that ends the run.
The nature of the Sites of Interest will be different too. Sometimes it’s based on defeating enemies and other times they can be quite puzzle-like. Collaboration will be key to solve these sites quickly, but sometimes you might even want to split up. However, that can also backfire if you all of a sudden need to run back to save someone from your team, that will eat up a lot of precious time.
While the Auspex will show you all the major Sites of Interest as you start the mission, you should still keep your eyes open. There will be smaller things not showing up in your scan that might very well be worth your time.
Spicing up the randomness!
We also wanted this game mode to be very replayable. This really comes into play with how these maps are created. While not truly procedurally generated, they are very randomized in their composition.
Different Sites of Interest can show up in different spots with different enemies. The runs themselves can also have different modifiers and effects. So it should feel quite unique every time you go for a new run outside Tertium.
We wanted to take the randomness of combat in Darktide and apply it on the entire play experience really. To add to this we also changed what we call the “main path”, one of the core systems of Darktide.
This is the system that normally checks how far the players are into a mission and adjusts enemy spawns accordingly.
“The more you fight, the more you will attract the enemies attention, and the harder the run becomes”
- Roberto
For Expeditions we had to rethink this completely as you can now decide in what order you want to tackle objectives. Normally in Darktide we have what we call the “main path”, a system that tracks the linear progression of the player, and spawn enemies accordingly. But due to the open nature of Expeditions’ mission structure we had to think outside of the box.
This was quite the challenge, but we have built a new system that takes into account the actions taken by the player, and sets the challenge accordingly. Your decisions matter a lot as the system will track how long the run has been active and how many things you have done, among other things. We really wanted each run to feel different.
Breaking away from the “main path” is quite exciting for us, since this system has been in place since the first Vermintide. We are used to thinking in a very linear sense when designing combat encounters, with enemies usually spawning either in front of or behind the players.
When playing Expeditions, this is also changed!
The enemies
“Unlike the traditional missions inside Tertium, the more open map lets us have enemies that attack from all directions, both on long and short range”
- Victor
Enemies will not just spawn and attack the players in waves, but they can be found roaming around and this adds tactical depth to the missions set out here. Are you in a hurry but clearly see that a monstrosity is lurking around between you and the objective you’ve set your eyes on? Maybe it's better to run around it. But that will eat away at your precious time.
One of these roaming threats will be the new Ogryn Pack Master we introduced you to last week! He and his Armoured Pox Hounds will do their debut in Expeditions.
Open terrain also changes how to tackle enemies. All of a sudden, enemies with long range weapons in a good position can be quite tricky, sniping away at you.
This new environment will also mean that you might want to tinker with your setup. The loadout you’ve come to love for fighting hordes in cramped spaces inside the Hive City might not be the best way to fight enemies in open spaces. And the enemies with long range weapons might prove harder to face outside when a good sniper position is very advantageous.
“If players end up with new loadouts saved specially for Expeditions, then we have succeeded”
- Rafał
Wrapping it all up
Runs are also part of a bigger mechanic. Before you embark on a run, you will be in front of an Expedition map with Grid Points. Bringing back Tech-Remnants will unlock more and more for you to explore. Unlocking more also lets you get to crazier modifiers.
We wanted a game mode with a degree of success during missions. Even if you opt to extract early, the Tech-Remnants you bring back will count towards unlocking new Grid Points.
“The nature of this setup also makes this game mode very good for those of us that have a busy schedule. If you find yourself in a position where you need to round off a run quickly, you can leave with the Tech-Remnants you have!”
- Victor
The climate outside of the Hive is very volatile and unstable, causing the long range sensors of the Mourningstar to struggle with updated information about enemy movement and the general lay of the land. This means that the Expedition Map will update on a regular basis, presenting new challenges and setups to explore.
“The risk vs rewards is something we really wanted to push greatly. It’s up to the players to decide how far they want to take it. It’s up to them not really up to us like in a normal mission”
- Kaneda
Expeditions is something you will start playing halfway through the progression journey with a character. They are challenging so getting some good gear and talents will help a lot in these runs.
We see this game mode as something you play in parallel with the rest of the game, it is not replacing Adventure mode. In addition, Expeditions come with its own Penances, and we cooked up some really cool cosmetic sets for you to unlock too!
All in all, from the layout of the more open maps, to the nature of the run and with the progression layer, we hope that this will prove a fun way to experience Darktide.
There are way more things in Expeditions, but we can’t cover them all in this blog. You will be able to play this new game mode yourself very soon, so stay tuned on our social media channels for more information!
In the meantime, as always, thank you for reading this dev blog.
See you on the Mourningstar!
- The Darktide Team
