Why Penances are horrible

[Static VoiD]

Why are Penances bad?

Penances/Achievements shouldn't be free. And higher levels should be hard to get. But they should reward skill, encourage a good playstyle and not turn you into a detriment to your team. Also they shouldn't depend on RNG.
But there are some Penances in this game, which force a horrible playstyle on players, leading to toxicity, esp. in public matches. Which is plain bad gamedesign.

Examples for good Penances:

Zealot: Finish a mission without using your ranged weapon on T3.
I see a lot of Zealots, even on Heresy+, who seem unable to properly engage enemies in melee. They actually spend 80% of the match using their ranged weapons, turning themselves into a discount-Vet. If people would take this Penance more seriously, they would develop a much better playstyle before entering T4+.

Psyker: Kill a jumping Pox Hound with a Brain Bust.
This encourages players to use their BB on dodgy specials, which is exactly what this thing is for.

Veteran: Kill 5 Elite enemies with headshots within a single use of Volley Fire on T4.
This encourages players to quickly target down multiple Elites, which is exactly what they should be doing. It is good, because it doesn't require CONSECUTIVE headshots, so it encourages to quickly kill multiple targets, instead of slowing the player down artificially and turning him into a detriment to the team (see below).

Examples for meh Penances:

Psyker: Knock 7 enemies off a cliff.
Pretty map dependant, no skill required. Just something you might even pick up by accident. Rightfully patched after Beta, because the requirement of 20 enemies was bonkers.

Veteran: Kill 3 enemies with a grenade without it bouncing.
Also very map dependant. Nothing gained for your team, but at least not detrimental.

Examples for horrible Penances:

1) Veteran: Finish a mission on T4 with 100% accuracy and zero ammo remaining.
Absolute BS. It basically guts the class, because it heavily disencourages the use of the ranged weapon. If somebody seriously attemps this challenge, he will rather let teammates die, than take an unsafe shot. On top of that, the Vet class REGENERATES ammo on Elite/Special kill. Even on melee kill. So you might even not attack a Special threatening your teammates with a melee weapon, because it would give you more ammo, you'd need to get rid off.

2) Veteran: Don't get hit by a single melee attack on T3.
Also absolute BS. You will not helped downed or surrounded teammates. You will actually hide far behind the team, spending most of the match looking around, instead of attacking targets. Also way too punishing.

3) Ogryn: Knock down 6 Ogryns with a single charge on T4.
Not hard by itself, but pure RNG. Stupid lottery. You not only need 6 Ogryns to spawn in the same location, which is rare af, even on T5. But you also need to have them spawn in a location, where you can access all 6 of em in a straight line, without height differences or props in the way. On top of that, it encourages the frontline-stagger-tank, to peace out and leave the rest of the team to itself, while putting himself into a tight spot at the other end of the horde.

4) Psyker: Kill a Boss with BB, after dealing 90% of the damage with BB on T4.
Not hard, just tiresome, because it takes ages to kill the thing. On the other hand, it encourages toxicity, since other players might damage it by accident, to grief the psyker or because they just don't care about other ppls Penances and want to finish asap.

5) Psyker: Blow yourself up to kill 3 Elites on T3.
Also horrendous. It encourages players to overheat themselves, which - ofc - they usually should avoid at all cost. It even incentivizes to blow yourself up right when a horde attacks, so you have the highest chance of getting something. Which means that your team doesn't only need to fight the encounter without you, they even have to safe you.

...

So FS really needs to spend some work here. And inb4 ppl say: "yOU ArE suPPosed To dO tHosE in A pRiVaTe ParTy!",... Maybe. But we know how people are, so...

[Katz Chambers]

I fully agree. Penances are intended to be self punishments, not punishments that hurt the entire team along with them AND promote bad teamplay/sportsmanship and the horrible ones do exactly that.

Veterans abandoning a team so they can reque to keep trying 'Make every shot count' over and over, pulling their punches with their ranged weapon to avoid missing, than turning into a melee bot should they actually run out of ammo legitimately. Only for it to still possibly fail because the team goes down anyway.

[Eagle_I_am | .tv/eagle_i_am]

Fatshark 3 games in a row made horrble achievments. Nothing new. They never learn.

Penances are not for everyone. Only for chosen players who going to chease it. All these games made of cheese holes, and it is appreciated a lot.

They made once Grail Knight champion, paid cosmetics for which was walled by such achievents. Literally everyone hated this. So next time all cosmetics was given as it is, without a little effort.

[HFG]

These penances are raw garbage and are just another blatant attempt to push players towards the microtransaction shop in an unfinished game.

Some penances were made even more stupid than before, like the ogryn one for plowing through 6 ogryn used to be 4, but then they changed it. I straight up give up on that one, and I'm not gonna' buy anything else until they finish the game and make this crap reasonable.

[Doxorn]

I had no problems with Psyker challanges, even got a public group to do the Monstrosity challange (they were nice people)
However the most stuipid penance is the "Pick 'n Mix", I can't seem to kill 5 enemies on here with BB within 12seconds. Either my team just shoots the last enemy down or my BB targets trash enemy that is next to my target. It is just annoying and it encourages me to be a subpar Psyker. I could do horde/elite/special control while defending the Veteran who is much faster at killing these enemies.

[Orpheus Damocles]

Originally posted by Thunder:

These penances are raw garbage and are just another blatant attempt to push players towards the microtransaction shop in an unfinished game.

Some penances were made even more stupid than before, like the ogryn one for plowing through 6 ogryn used to be 4, but then they changed it. I straight up give up on that one, and I'm not gonna' buy anything else until they finish the game and make this crap reasonable.

I did a double take and swore it said 4 before. Nice to know I was gaslighting myself on that.

Originally posted by Doxorn:

I had no problems with Psyker challanges, even got a public group to do the Monstrosity challange (they were nice people)
However the most stuipid penance is the "Pick 'n Mix", I can't seem to kill 5 enemies on here with BB within 12seconds. Either my team just shoots the last enemy down or my BB targets trash enemy that is next to my target. It is just annoying and it encourages me to be a subpar Psyker. I could do horde/elite/special control while defending the Veteran who is much faster at killing these enemies.

Keeping it real, that is get on your knees and pray to RNGesus (and hopefully don't get executed for heresy) to get it. I got lucky with the last head pop I could do was on a weakened Reaper. Your best bet is going to be a firing squad of gunners though.