Two concerns about randoms joining

[CCShad]

At this point in the game, while it’s new and fresh, I want to exclusively play with friends and maybe some solo games to try out all the cool new weaponry I’m unlocking, however, the game REALLY seems to hate that I want to play that way:

The first issue is technically user error, but it’s user error that happens because of poor design: Why is the Reinforce Stratagem ONE input away from the SOS beacon that turns your lobby into a public game? Seriously, the only difference is that Reinforce has one additional arrow, meaning that if you try to reinforce quickly (which I assume is encouraged in some cases) and slip, failing to input the last arrow before tossing it, oops! Here comes randoms. This has happened to me 5 times so far, from now on I’ll slow down and reinforce slower but… that just feels really bad, man.

Now, the second concern seems to be an actual bug. When playing solo, you’d think you wouldn’t have the issue stated above with randoms because you never need the Reinforce stratagem, right? Well… twice so far, while playing solo, people seem to randomly be able to join? Both times it’s happened in the middle of the mission, usually with about 15 minutes remaining, and both times it happened so fast that 3 randoms joined within about 15 seconds. They aren’t from my friends list, and it’s happened while none of my Steam friends are even online Helldivers 2. Before kicking them I verified my settings: Lobby was set to private, no SOS beacon was thrown, how on super earth did randoms join my private, solo game?

I understand that random matchmaking is a big part of the game and that a lot of people use it, but atm, it’s feeling a bit forced and leaking into games that are supposed to be private.

[Dredd]

You really seem to not want to play the game the way it was intended to be played. That's fine and all but just remember that you're meant to play with people you don't know, that's the whole point of what Helldivers are and do, so don't go so hard on expecting that the game will cater to that.

As for the non-friends joining your game that seems to be a bug or a glitch of some kind that's going around right now. There's probably some way that people are backdooring into your games without meaning to or realizing that they're doing it.

Lastly, I don't believe the SOS strat is the same as the reinforce. I'm not looking at it but I'm all but certain that it's completely different inputs.

[Thermococcus gammatolerans]

Hmm yeah seems bugged, I think what originally broke their matchmaking was some filtering issues on their server, so perhaps they just gutted it and in effect, there is no such thing as a private lobby anymore.

[Amaranth]

Originally posted by thedreddnought:

Lastly, I don't believe the SOS strat is the same as the reinforce. I'm not looking at it but I'm all but certain that it's completely different inputs.

Reinforce is Up Down Right Left Up
SOS is Up Down Right Up

So close, but not the same. If you skip the "Left", you get SOS

That being said, I have never thrown a SOS instead of a Reinforce, I had to look it up.

[CCShad]

Originally posted by thedreddnought:

You really seem to not want to play the game the way it was intended to be played. That's fine and all but just remember that you're meant to play with people you don't know, that's the whole point of what Helldivers are and do, so don't go so hard on expecting that the game will cater to that.

As for the non-friends joining your game that seems to be a bug or a glitch of some kind that's going around right now. There's probably some way that people are backdooring into your games without meaning to or realizing that they're doing it.

Lastly, I don't believe the SOS strat is the same as the reinforce. I'm not looking at it but I'm all but certain that it's completely different inputs.

I’m pretty sure the devs intended you to be able to play with friends considering there’s a setting dedicated to making your lobby private, and solo has clearly been deliberately made balanced by the devs because of the lower spawn rates. Nevertheless, flawed design should never be dismissed as “well it doesn’t need to be fixed because thats not how most people play!”

Reinforce is UDRLU
SOS is UDRU

Making SOS the longer of the two would fix this, or keeping it the same except change the first arrow in the SOS code to something else.

[Smug Anime Squid]

Literally just don't throw the wrong thing. It tells you what is in your hand before you throw it out. This isn't "Bad design" it's way too specific to you. Literally just pay attention it isn't hard, I've never once accidentally called in an SOS

[ImHelping]

People can join your game while you are still on your ship browsing the shop or equipment screen before going on your first mission, but having set it.

Don't blame people "Throwing the SOS beacon on mistake" because even if you didn't, that won't change randoms joining you.

While I don't kick the people who end up thrown in with me when I am just attempting a sleepy solo idiot run? ESPECIALLY after the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hell of the servers being on fire?

I can certainly understand the eye rolling of "Jesus I was just trying to do wacky solo ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ here. Work with me here" (more so because most of my solo runs are stuff like "okay time to give the counter sniper another chance.... it does not, in fact, have secret medium penetration welp" I don't want to curse another host with. and it being a long string of apology for to the randoms joining me that too many weapons are garbage)

[CCShad]

Originally posted by Smug Anime Squid:

Literally just don't throw the wrong thing. It tells you what is in your hand before you throw it out. This isn't "Bad design" it's way too specific to you. Literally just pay attention it isn't hard, I've never once accidentally called in an SOS

I’ve seen 2 other people do it by mistake in 40 or so hours of playing (well, subtract a few hours from the long queues), so sure it’s not super common, and is probably just us inputting the code too fast for our own good, but being able to throw out stratagems in less than half a second is a skill that’s rewarded, especially in the final 3 difficulties.
It’s only fair that you should be punished for an incorrect input, but by opening the game for people to join? All that’s going to lead to is people getting kicked “””for no reason”””, lowering the game’s reputation.

So give me a break, it’s a SINGLE INPUT difference on a system that rewards going as fast as possible. I’d much rather it instantly blow my character up than it make my lobby permanently public.

At the very least they should add a way to cancel an SOS that you’ve thrown. Can’t imagine anyone having an issue with that option existing.

[Bigamo]

Originally posted by ImHelping:

People can join your game while you are still on your ship browsing the shop or equipment screen before going on your first mission, but having set it.

Don't blame people "Throwing the SOS beacon on mistake" because even if you didn't, that won't change randoms joining you.

While I don't kick the people who end up thrown in with me when I am just attempting a sleepy solo idiot run? ESPECIALLY after the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ hell of the servers being on fire?

I can certainly understand the eye rolling of "Jesus I was just trying to do wacky solo ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ here. Work with me here" (more so because most of my solo runs are stuff like "okay time to give the counter sniper another chance.... it does not, in fact, have secret medium penetration welp" I don't want to curse another host with. and it being a long string of apology for to the randoms joining me that too many weapons are garbage)

Just select private session on the options.

[jester]

Weird. When I set the lobby to friends, I have never had a pub join it.

I am pretty sure you are just forgetting to do so or something.

[Adhock]

Set your game to 'Private' in the options. Problem solved.

[CCShad]

Originally posted by Adhock:

Set your game to 'Private' in the options. Problem solved.

Yup, verified it was set to Private, even when the randoms joined, I checked and it was still on Private.

[Darx]

This might not be related but I saw, let's call them 'lingering' sessions on a planet for a while. I was playing with friends and we finished up for the night. The host left, went offline, which I could confirm on my steam friends list too. When I was taking a look at the planet, according to the game, he was playing a session on the planet we played before.

That said, it wouldn't surprise me too much if these lingering sessions or maybe even the list of recent players, would allow you to bypass session configuration like private games.