HOT TAKE: differentiate strategem slots and let us take more of them

[IconianCat]

since the devs seem to want players to rely on stratagems more and now with the exosuit launching and even just taking a preliminary look at its stats and some testing in game, im going to attempt to play devils advocate for both sides.

the devs dislike one size fits all stratagems and to that end have nerfed the railgun and shieldpack, fine. they tell us to rely on stratagems more. okay... im with you so far. but then we have a problem devs. orbital fluctuations. modifiers that make stratagems ineffective or outright unavailable. like the scatter from atmospheric interference.

now im not asking for the game to be made "easier". i actually want the game to be difficult. challenging to a point. but within REASON. and im approaching this from both a player perspective of meta knowledge and ability and a lore perspective of what and who the helldivers are. and when approaching the issue from that point i run into the same problem on both fronts.

as a helldiver and as a player both in lore and out of lore there is a clear weighed benefit and downfall to every stratagem. ill use an obvious example, if you take supply pack and a guard dog oyu are wasting a strata slot. you cant use both at the same time, the only way to make this worthwhile is youre the "backpack guy" for the team, you call in an extra backpack for a teammate and they take an extra orbital.

and now we come to the issue. you have 4 strata slots. period. you have 4 slots to use 16 in a team to handle every situation. 4 of those slots immediately are being taken up by a support weapon. so you have 12 to handle everything else. you have shieldpack, supply pack, and the guard dogs, so if everyone takes railgun 4 more slots are used up for backpack options for utility. assuming you dont have 4 railguns, your backpack slots are now taken up by supply pack, and whatever support weapon backpacks you call in.

which leaves 8 strata slots for orbitals and damage, on helldiver difficulty 500kg/oribtal railcannon are staples due to their "delete massive" power. so you have 4 flexible slots. even with maxxed out eagles at most you can get 8 eagle airstrikes out of that for all purpose trash or heavy clear.

this in and of itself is a massive downfall of what the devs evidently intend players to do. because now your flex slot would be taken up by a mech if a player wants to use a mech, which locks out a stratagem slot so you can get TWO call ins in a mission for a mech with 1000 rounds and 14 rockets per call in. thats a BIG ask and the tradeoff of trading an unlimited horde clearer strata for a 2 time call in with SOME ammo is too big of an ask. 4 stratagem slots in itself is part of the reason why railgun became so popular because.

if the devs want us to rely on stratagems more we need to be able to take more of them so we can afford to take a subpar weapon or call in to have fun with it instead of needing to maximize cost vs risk for all of them.

i dont ultimately know what the end answer is. but it feels a little silly that my support weapon (a slot that is arguably REQUIRED to handle some enemy types) takes a slot away from my orbital call ins for damage and horde clear. stratagems are not all made equal and when you're pulling all of them into the same pool of slots there will always be a "meta" and if the devs want to stomp meta's to stop number crunching more power to them but part of the issue is the extreme limitations on stratagems compared to how many are in the game when some very clearly outperform others.

[ItzPress]

I could see us getting one more stratagem slot at most. Can't get too many else it defeats the point of trying to build to your style while also being aware of what your team is bringing to deal with things. A support weapon stratagem basically competes with the others in that it's more of a prolonged power boost over a duration of time rather than an immediate burst of power like an orbital does.

It'd be nice if we could also more easily identify these. Both in loadout selection menu prior to dropping in as well as in-game (currently we see if our allies' stratagems are on cooldown but I'd like the information to be more readable). Game needs a lot of memorization of icons. At least let us click or hover over what our allies choose in loadout selection menu to get more familiar with it.

New mechs are cool but from what I'm reading are basically walking sentries (which is apt as actual tanks have always needed infantry supervision), but that brings to mind that maybe sentries themselves are in need of looking at? Against bugs at least they're often just taken down by chargers.

[Tenebris]

It'd be nice if we had a dedicated Support Weapon slot, leaving us with 4 slots to take whatever else we want (including more support weapons, if we choose, but this 5th slot would be able to ONLY equip a support weapon). Not too overpowered

[Murasaki]

This is true and false at the same time.

The game is hard because you need to choose right build for right situation. If you are playing in team with your friends, or really cooperative randoms - it works as intended. But is is a rare ocasion

If you have in team someone who places turrets, someone who uses eagle, someone that rocks airstrikes/artillery - it works as intended. You dont need support weapon for everyone, you dont need backpack for every of soldiers. You gotta play in team, horde-control in team, stay together and play your role... But at the same time it wont work with randoms, who tend to run somewhere by themselves using all reinforcements

Feels like there supposed to be a team-building possibility, like proper role-search for the game. Right now game just punishes you for trying to fit the certain role, and forces you to search for solo-efficiency, while it definetely should'nt

Sry for bad eng, not first language, too bored to use Google Translate

[Murasaki]

Even existing of different perks of armor suggests that there supposed to be role-management, for one player to be scout, one tank, one medic and one marksman/grenader

[Murasaki]

Tho armor fix didnt really do anything, because you still getting torn appart by anything or explode by every damn projectile robots use from 100 km away, so there is no real use for heavy armor still

[IconianCat]

Originally posted by Murasaki:

This is true and false at the same time.

The game is hard because you need to choose right build for right situation. If you are playing in team with your friends, or really cooperative randoms - it works as intended. But is is a rare ocasion

If you have in team someone who places turrets, someone who uses eagle, someone that rocks airstrikes/artillery - it works as intended. You dont need support weapon for everyone, you dont need backpack for every of soldiers. You gotta play in team, horde-control in team, stay together and play your role... But at the same time it wont work with randoms, who tend to run somewhere by themselves using all reinforcements

Feels like there supposed to be a team-building possibility, like proper role-search for the game. Right now game just punishes you for trying to fit the certain role, and forces you to search for solo-efficiency, while it definetely should'nt

Sry for bad eng, not first language, too bored to use Google Translate

this is also a good point but while it proves the system works it also highlights why this problem exists in the first place. in a properly coordinated team, IE a premade of 4 friends who communicate readily and know each others strategies and playstyles and unlocks the system works as intended. that expectation is unrealistic for pug matches with random player lobbies. the devs are trying to shoehorn random lobbies into the ideal scenario of a 4 man premade. it doesnt work.

and youre still stuck with the issue of diversity for strata slots. for things like the autocannon for handling medium and large enemies you get a persistent power boost for having the weapon and you can re-arm it with ammo pickups. something thats necessary for endurance fights with lots of enemies or bases you cant instagib with a well placed eagle airstrike.