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[Men_in_Boxes]

(Time stamped for your pleasure)


Here's a short conversation about the validity of a Helldivers 3. Apparently some can't picture what it would look like, or how it would be fundamentally better than Helldivers 2. Personally, I think it's insane that someone who plays games can't picture what a Helldivers 3 could do that would fundamentally make for a more interesting game.

Do people simply lack imagination or is Men_in_Boxes the Steve Jobs of message board GAAS?

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

(Time stamped for your pleasure)


Here's a short conversation about the validity of a Helldivers 3. Apparently some can't picture what it would look like, or how it would be fundamentally better than Helldivers 2. Personally, I think it's insane that someone who plays games can't picture what a Helldivers 3 could do that would fundamentally make for a more interesting game.

Do people simply lack imagination or is Men_in_Boxes the Steve Jobs of message board GAAS?

There’s so much potential for this game to up the ante when it comes to world building, tools of destruction, and sheer spectacle

These guys are not visionaries

 

[diffusionx]

Just keep it off UE5

 

[Dr_Ifto]

An improved game, where HD2 is the first concept. Just take it the the Nth degree higher, with a larger team. But he is sort of right, but they cant charge for expansions, due to their statement of not charging for new content, just the season passes

 

[Three]

They need to move away from Bitsquid/Stingray. That's the only reason a 3 would make sense.

 

[Lokaum D+]

single player campaign

 

[Bumblebeetuna]

It’s a horde co-op game. You dont need to reinvent the wheel. The same core gameplay with new weapons, worlds, and enemies is enough for a sequel.

 

[poppabk]

Other than an improved engine - what exactly could they add to a new game that couldn't be added to the current one?

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

There’s so much potential for this game to up the ante when it comes to world building, tools of destruction, and sheer spectacle

These guys are not visionaries

To me, the idea that any gamer can't think of what a Helldivers 3 could look like makes no sense. Like if Phineus Gage can't, I get it, but a regular moderately healthy gamer? A preposterous notion that Chris and Colin seemingly agree to.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Other than an improved engine - what exactly could they add to a new game that couldn't be added to the current one?

World building features, like fortifying planets over time with loot you gain from the game

Imagine if you get some in game currency to fortify planets with structures, weapons, buildings, etc to help you take on the hordes? Would be absolutely
awesome

Kind of borrows from some Death Stranding online themes

 

[coachmcguirk91]

Helldivers 3 isn't happening, imo. If it does, it will just be a continuation of HD2, like what Overwatch 2 became

I'm actually slightly concerned about the future of Helldivers. I'm not sure if Arrowhead wants to spend an enormous amount of resources on a game where they don't own the IP. Sony probably takes the majority of the profits, as they funded the game. And Arrowhead has stated that they want to be the next Bungie. They've already began pre-production on their next IP, which they will surely own

I'm sure HD2 will get plenty of major updates for next few years, but after that, idk

 

[a multicultural team of v]

World building features, like fortifying planets over time with loot you gain from the game

Imagine if you get some in game currency to fortify planets with structures, weapons, buildings, etc to help you take on the hordes? Would be absolutely
awesome

Kind of borrows from some Death Stranding online themes

Why wouldn't any of this just be an update to Helldivers 2? They can add this stuff in right now.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Other than an improved engine - what exactly could they add to a new game that couldn't be added to the current one?

Way more complex map geometry.
AI settlements with significantly more life to them.
More intesting / complex AI behavior.
Completely rework the progression system.
More compelling objectives that can be completed in a variety of ways.

Helldivers 2 is a good (not great) sandbox that has an engine that is seemingly bursting at the seams.

 

[panda-zebra]

For me, Helldivers 2 was only enjoyable while I was unlocking stuff in the ship. When I was supposed to just carry on playing with all that stuff I saw no point. The warbonds were pretty shit, gave stuff that felt mostly pointless, samey or too situational - did the first 3 drops IIRC. So a Helldivers 3 that has better incentives to play that work for me in ways adding boring stuff to 2 does not.

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Why wouldn't any of this just be an update to Helldivers 2? They can add this stuff in right now.

Possibly technical limitations

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

For me, Helldivers 2 was only enjoyable while I was unlocking stuff in the ship. When I was supposed to just carry on playing with all that stuff I saw no point. The warbonds were pretty shit, gave stuff that felt mostly pointless, samey or too situational - did the first 3 drops IIRC. So a Helldivers 3 that has better incentives to play that work for me in ways adding boring stuff to 2 does not.

Ditto, that’s why the progression system needs to be longer and include world building aspects

Makes for a much longer tail

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

For me, Helldivers 2 was only enjoyable while I was unlocking stuff in the ship. When I was supposed to just carry on playing with all that stuff I saw no point. The warbonds were pretty shit, gave stuff that felt mostly pointless, samey or too situational - did the first 3 drops IIRC. So a Helldivers 3 that has better incentives to play that work for me in ways adding boring stuff to 2 does not.

Huge issue that, if fixed, could make for a significantly more compelling game.

 

[a multicultural team of v]

Possibly technical limitations

Kind of interesting that because they chose an inflexible engine, we have to buy another game. Like... if they chose a good engine, would we get all of that for free?

Videogames are weird.

 

[SABRE220]

I think helldivers 3 would only make sense at the launch of the new generation of consoles. Its a gaas title which needs to maintain goodwill and nurture its relationship with its customer base as the first game. They need to keep adding and improving the game for the ps5 generation. As the ps6 launches there is a case for them making a sequel which would struggle to run on the ps5 (increased ai complexity/number, geometry, physics and more players). Even then though im pretty sure with a good engine the game could scale across both consoles.

 

[mdkirby]

feels dumb, just keep building on it like no mans sky do

 

[Hudo]

They should just get the Starship Troopers license and make a proper fucking game, for God's sake.

 

[GateofD]

so I don't know much about how the online works, but i saw at launch there were like planets as like a % of clear where it was everyone online taking part.
so what happens when a planet clears. is it just gone and no new players get to do it, or does it all reset seach season

 

[cinnamonandgravy]

couch coop

 

[bitbydeath]

feels dumb, just keep building on it like no mans sky do

Exactly. Fortnite also does this and is nearly unrecognisable from when it first released.

 

[mayham2199]

We don't need Hell Divers 3 any time soon but to act like it should never happen is weird. Go ahead and make another game but they would be stupid to never come back for HD3.

 

[Imtjnotu]

I think a direct mission structure would be a nice change.

 

[LordCBH]

Eventually, you have to stop bolting things onto an already released product. Helldivers 3 will eventually happen to they want to continue Helldivers a few years down the line

Continuing to bolt onto a title afternoon passes its expiration date is how you get things like Destiny 2 removing shit tons of content people paid for.

 

[GateofD]

people are getting too used to live service games dying in 6 months to less than a year, they forget these things used to survive for many years before a sequel is even a thought.

 

[diffusionx]

Eventually, you have to stop bolting things onto an already released product. Helldivers 3 will eventually happen to they want to continue Helldivers a few years down the line

Continuing to bolt onto a title afternoon passes its expiration date is how you get things like Destiny 2 removing shit tons of content people paid for.

The biggest problem is when the new live game has none of the lessons that the live team learned with the old game, and for the first couple years, all the patches are just like "yea we're making this game like the old one you liked". That was Destiny 2 and Division 2.

I think the simplicity of Helldivers 2 has a lot of appeal. Hell the game is basically a third person remake of a Vita game.

 

[simpatico]

Not until you ride HD2 until the wheels fall off. You could easily fuck up both.

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Holy crap at those poll results...

Anyway, here's a much more interesting discussion about the idea of Helldivers 3...

 

[Not_A-Cop_Maybe]

Way more complex map geometry.
AI settlements with significantly more life to them.
More intesting / complex AI behavior.
Completely rework the progression system.
More compelling objectives that can be completed in a variety of ways.

Helldivers 2 is a good (not great) sandbox that has an engine that is seemingly bursting at the seams.

Perfectly said.

The game is fun; and that fun is multiplied tenfold when playing with others or friends.
That being said, the game is shallow as shit with the maps all eventually devolving into just different biomes with the same kind of geometry and even with all the enemy types, its just them overwhelming you repeatedly until you die.
The progression is so ass, that even playing a shit ton guarantees you nothing concrete, unless you can play at the highest difficulty and that only gets to happen when you unlock enough high level stratagems- which ironically you need to keep grinding for. Its such a frustrating system for how decently modeled the "battle pass" / warbond stuff works where you can hop into a random war bond after.

my main complaint is that the world always feels so empty and even the save/escort/protect citizens is the only real time you see any actual proof that there is a earth presence on the planet. The new faction that most of the maps that take place in civilian centers are the same copy pasted building to make it look like a town or city.

 

[ByWatterson]

They'll likely need a engine switch in the future, so a sequel would make sense at that time.

 

[BennyBlanco]

I want better destructible environments.

 

[Mibu no ookami]

feels dumb, just keep building on it like no mans sky do

Exactly. Fortnite also does this and is nearly unrecognisable from when it first released.

No Man's Sky uses a proprietary engine and Fornite uses Unreal Engine... Fortnite currently runs on Unreal Engine 5.5.

Helldivers 2 using a deprecated 3rd party engine. There's no future in using this engine.

 

[clarky]

If they iterate and best what came before then yes, obviously.

 

[Yoboman]

Same concept but 200+ players in every instance

Or instead of Helldivers 3, how about the same idea but it's WW2 and you are dropped in to conflicts all over Europe and Asia. The battle lines evolve over the course of the live service life cycle. You can opt in to Marines, Navy, Airforce roles etc

 

[Men_in_Boxes]

Same concept but 200+ players in every instance

Or instead of Helldivers 3, how about the same idea but it's WW2 and you are dropped in to conflicts all over Europe and Asia. The battle lines evolve over the course of the live service life cycle. You can opt in to Marines, Navy, Airforce roles etc

They should improve the reinforcement mechanic so you have to capture objectives in order to pull new players into your lobby (a form of matchmaking).

This would make choosing your objectives much more interesting / rewarding.

 

[Dafegamer]

Not sure cause it doesn't exist yet.

 

[Wildebeest]

It is true that a lot of focus is put on competitive games because they are the low-hanging fruit, since they don't like big changes or big new content drops that much, they do just want to play the same thing over and over. With enough changes to make things fresh. You can make a sequel for them, and they are happy to have it if it is 95% exactly the same game again.

But if you get a game that is basically a fantasy larping game with social elements, then do people want to buy basically 95% exactly the same game every year when they can just load up the old one when they feel like it? Would they want to say, today on game night we want to be pirates so we play Sea of Thieves, next week Helldivers. If there is a new game we want it to be something different, like maybe a Mad Max game, a dinosaur game, or a game about Rock Stars.

 

[Paltheos]

It's a Risk of Rain 2 situation. The game we got doesn't need another iteration - There's nothing really missing from the gameplay loop. Helldivers 2 isn't quite as complete by comparison but we don't need a sequel. It's great just the way it is.

It's also kinda early? Helldivers 2 is only a year old.

 

[Zannegan]

I'd wait a generation, but sure.

 

[yurinka]

Helldivers 2 has been a huge success, they could do a lot of great things with Hellldivers 3

 

[N30RYU]

H3lldiVRs

 

[Sooner]

Of course, Helldivers 3 makes sense. 1 was a surprise success, and 2 was a mega hit. But, not anytime soon. Likely next generation sometime.

 

[genesisblock]

I can see HD3 evolving to a base building game where you have to defend it constantly. My guess is that current gen can't handle that much complexity at the moment.

 

[Come On Tars]

They would need to wait a while for a meaningful graphical change.

 

[nnytk]

I'm thinking physics based destruction, more environments that have places to enter (caves, underground, buildings, etc).

I'm thinking flying, not very high up or so, but a flying mechanic, extended jetpack and little hover machinery.

I can also see more complex and different enemy types. With more complicated AI.

Helldivers 3 could also implement shaders like Destiny 2 does, to amplify customization.

Keep it simple. But expand, evolve.

Move on from Helldivers 2 imho. Heck, we haven't talked about improved progression systems and talent trees?

 

[Principal]

Just add a coop story mode for 3 and better AI, and more weapons, perhaps flight.

 

[xrnzaaas]

Releasing a sequel to a gaas game that's (still) doing fine is a horrible idea. They should wait like a decade before releasing HD3.