GamesThird Person ShooterHelldivers 2Helldivers 2 dev says patrol spawn rates are busted and that Arrowhead’s walking its changes back, but ‘we want to give it proper testing’ to ‘see that it works this time’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

GamesThird Person ShooterHelldivers 2Helldivers 2 dev says patrol spawn rates are busted and that Arrowhead’s walking its changes back, but ‘we want to give it proper testing’ to ‘see that it works this time’When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Arrowhead Games)

A helldiver stands, patriotic in front of a Super Earth flag, while holding a helmet in Helldivers 2.

Helldivers 2’s patrol rates have been a little wonky for a while. After a patch angled at making patrol spawnsequitable for solo players(in other words,harder), it was revealed that said update actually just made solo diver’s lives just as much of a living hell as asquad of four. Which didn’t seem like the intended effect.

“As many of you have noticed, something has been off with patrols and spawn rate for some time now. This primarily leads to more enemies rearing their ugly heads than they’re supposed to, indirectly to players feeling overrun, kiting, and subsequently less fun gameplay. This has been the case for all players, but predominantly for smaller teams and solo playing.”

However, Twinbeard writes, the developer team has been distracted—mainly from the recent PSN controversies. As I noted yesterday, it does rightly seem like the development team’sburning the candle at both ends.

“We’ve been aware,” Twinbeard adds, “but frankly, the past couple of weeks have been so hectic that we haven’t been able to give this the TLC that it required. We now have, and we’ve concluded that it’s not working as intended and we’re changing it … overall we’re reverting back to how patrols and spawn rate worked before the patch that changed them a few weeks ago. We believe that this is more or less how you currently want them to be.”

However, it might take a while, since Arrowhead wants to make sure it gets the spawn rate changes right—in hopes of avoiding another fiasco. This comes from a growing community sentiment that theblistering pace of Helldivers 2’s patch cadenceis putting quantity over quality, if arecent community pollis to be believed.

“We also know you want us to do things and changes properly instead of rushing them, and we do as well. Therefore, implementing this will take some time. We want to give it proper testing and review it … ah heck, simply see that it works this time.”

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(Image credit: Helldivers 2 Discord)

A discord message that reads: “Helldivers! As many of you have noticed, something has been off with patrols and spawn rate for some time now. This primarily leads to more enemies rearing their ugly heads than they’re supposed to, indirectly to players feeling overrun, kiting, and subsequently less fun gameplay. This has been the case for all players, but predominantly for smaller teams and solo playing. We’ve been aware, but frankly, the past couple of weeks have been so hectic that we haven’t been able to give this the TLC that it required. We now have, and we’ve concluded that it’s not working as intended and we’re changing it. There might be some minor tweaks, but overall we’re reverting back to how patrols and spawn rate worked before the patch that changed them a few weeks ago. We believe that this is more or less how you currently want them to be. We also know you want us to do things and changes properly instead of rushing them, and we do as well. Therefore, implementing this will take some time. We want to give it proper testing and review it … ah heck, simply see that it works this time. Even if this means we’re faced with more bugs and bots than even the bravest of citizens would deem realistic for a while longer, we hope you’re happy with us fixing the problem. Onwards and upwards!"

I don’t know if I’d say Arrowhead Games has been reckless, but I have observed—through my persistent coverage of this unexpected games industry goliath—that Arrowhead has always struggled with trimming down its “known issues” list. Here’shoping that changes in development attitudesalso include a slower, and steadier, attitude when it comes to tweaking the code of Helldivers 2 in the future.

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