Hello from Arrowhead, Helldivers!
Our latest game update, Update 7.2, has been out for a few weeks now as well as hotfixes. As part of our continued commitment to improved transparency, here are the team’s latest reflections and our next steps for development based on this update.
We poured a lot of work into the features you’ve been playing this Fall, some of which you’re actively discovering in-game over the last week (and which hit late compared to our content roadmap - more on this below). Since August you’ve collectively invaded and collapsed the Void, fought Illuminate Crushers and Wretches, activated the Terminid Control System+, celebrated Liberty Day, adopted a SEAF, provided a tank in every Super Earth citizen's driveway and more: not bad for three months!
While Helldivers have plenty to celebrate recently, you’ve raised very valid concerns that some changes haven’t landed as well as we wanted, including the timing of features announced in our roadmap and the impact the move to Easy Anti-Cheat had on unsupported mods.
We hear your feedback on these topics and more and we want to outline our plans for what actions we’re taking with your collective experiences in mind.
Improved Roadmap Accuracy
We built the second roadmap around HELLDIVERS 2 patch release dates rather than when the content in those updates would be available in the game. Our patches run roughly six weeks apart meaning Update 7.2 came on October 20 and the content is due to unfold over the next six weeks until Update 8.0 in early December. This wasn’t clear in the roadmap graphic and understandably created confusion, which was never our goal. Moving forward, we will present a clearer schedule of when content is slated to go live while preserving the mystery of the Galactic War’s trajectory, its surprises, and its plot twists.
Additionally, let’s discuss the new biome listed in the October section of the roadmap. Update 7.2 expanded on the caves first previewed with Into The Unjust and adapted this feature to work across more biomes. Advanced by the Galactic War events involving the Terminid Control System+ that spread the Gloom, subterranean Terminid infestations can now occur on all non-ice planets which can lead to them becoming new hive worlds if they aren’t swiftly liberated. These procedurally generated caves now retain features of their planet’s biome and are thematic to the world they spawn in. This is a new instrument available to our Game Masters in how they conduct the Galactic War and weave storylines in HELLDIVERS 2. However, we are aware that our phrasing of “new biome” in the roadmap sets a certain expectation that this addition does not fully meet - we apologize for the miscommunication and will be more prescriptive with future announcements.
Your input matters and we’re sorry this roadmap wasn’t as accurate as it should have been, Helldivers. While we aren’t announcing a date for it in this article, our next roadmap will demonstrate the impact of your feedback.
Hellpod Steering and Stratagem Bouncing Fixes
Real talk. We said in a blog earlier this year that we set up a strike team to work on addressing Hellpod steering behaviour and Stratagem ball targeting and bouncing. Their new designs have been in active development since the release of Devoid of Liberty, and are actively being playtested internally and need more iterations before they’re released.
As these fixes required substantial adjustments to both mechanics while taking into account all edge cases, we plan for a few more rounds of playtesting to ensure they’re ready to go live. This does mean these fixes will likely not go live with HELLDIVERS 2’s next major update. However, the team’s confidence in these adjustments is high so you should hopefully not have to wait that much longer to see these much-requested feature updates in action. Thanks for your patience!
About Easy Anti-Cheat
There has been a lot of discussion around Easy Anti-Cheat. You can read our intention for switching to this anti-cheat solution here. We added Easy Anti-Cheat for one reason: to reduce the number of cheaters joining your missions and ruining the experience. On that front, we think we’re taking steps in the right direction.
However, we do see that this change means that some PC players lost the use of fan-made game mods. While all mods are not officially supported, we have been reviewing how the code changes disabled cosmetic non-gameplay mods. This has resulted in adjustments that should allow some cosmetic mods to be functional with our next hotfix.
As for gameplay mods, these adjustments alter the game code or game memory in a way that can impact game stability for yourself and the others in your lobby, generating client crashes and unexpected match outcomes. While mods can seem innocuous, anything that touches the game code or game memory can have major impacts on the gameplay experience. Running any mod that affects the game itself presents a risk to your account and, from a technical perspective, is indistinguishable from an attempt to cheat. These mods will continue to be prohibited in an ongoing effort to eradicate cheating and game-breaking modifications. Accounts determined to be using such gameplay mods may be banned from HELLDIVERS 2.
To determine whether a mod affects gameplay on PC and should not be used, start by validating your installation’s Steam files which will verify your installation is aligned with the official version of the game. If you choose to utilize non-gameplay mods at this point, please know they are not officially supported and may cause game crashes or poor performance.
We have outlined the following steps to check that a cosmetic mod is functional AFTER the hotfix is published.
We’re also tracking reports that virtual machines can no longer access the game since the last update. For those who are affected and have raised customer support tickets, we are looking to update on next steps as soon as possible.
Looking Ahead, What’s Coming Next
The teams are currently deep in planning mode for the next year of HELLDIVERS 2 with several major updates and intense campaigns taking shape.
Part of this process is evaluating the top community topics to inform which existing features should be refined for quality-of-life improvements as well as keep expanding the core of the game.
What’s sooner than 2027? Our next major update in early December! Here are some of the changes on the way, already locked in for in this upcoming release:
While the above changes are slated for next month, the next hotfix will arrive this week. It will address fire not behaving correctly in caves and resolve an EAC-related client crash in addition to the fix for cosmetic mods mentioned earlier. More details on all of that in the hotfix patch notes.
Thanks for your continued support, Helldivers!
Continue reading...
Our latest game update, Update 7.2, has been out for a few weeks now as well as hotfixes. As part of our continued commitment to improved transparency, here are the team’s latest reflections and our next steps for development based on this update.
We poured a lot of work into the features you’ve been playing this Fall, some of which you’re actively discovering in-game over the last week (and which hit late compared to our content roadmap - more on this below). Since August you’ve collectively invaded and collapsed the Void, fought Illuminate Crushers and Wretches, activated the Terminid Control System+, celebrated Liberty Day, adopted a SEAF, provided a tank in every Super Earth citizen's driveway and more: not bad for three months!
While Helldivers have plenty to celebrate recently, you’ve raised very valid concerns that some changes haven’t landed as well as we wanted, including the timing of features announced in our roadmap and the impact the move to Easy Anti-Cheat had on unsupported mods.
We hear your feedback on these topics and more and we want to outline our plans for what actions we’re taking with your collective experiences in mind.
Improved Roadmap Accuracy
We built the second roadmap around HELLDIVERS 2 patch release dates rather than when the content in those updates would be available in the game. Our patches run roughly six weeks apart meaning Update 7.2 came on October 20 and the content is due to unfold over the next six weeks until Update 8.0 in early December. This wasn’t clear in the roadmap graphic and understandably created confusion, which was never our goal. Moving forward, we will present a clearer schedule of when content is slated to go live while preserving the mystery of the Galactic War’s trajectory, its surprises, and its plot twists.
Additionally, let’s discuss the new biome listed in the October section of the roadmap. Update 7.2 expanded on the caves first previewed with Into The Unjust and adapted this feature to work across more biomes. Advanced by the Galactic War events involving the Terminid Control System+ that spread the Gloom, subterranean Terminid infestations can now occur on all non-ice planets which can lead to them becoming new hive worlds if they aren’t swiftly liberated. These procedurally generated caves now retain features of their planet’s biome and are thematic to the world they spawn in. This is a new instrument available to our Game Masters in how they conduct the Galactic War and weave storylines in HELLDIVERS 2. However, we are aware that our phrasing of “new biome” in the roadmap sets a certain expectation that this addition does not fully meet - we apologize for the miscommunication and will be more prescriptive with future announcements.
Your input matters and we’re sorry this roadmap wasn’t as accurate as it should have been, Helldivers. While we aren’t announcing a date for it in this article, our next roadmap will demonstrate the impact of your feedback.
Hellpod Steering and Stratagem Bouncing Fixes
Real talk. We said in a blog earlier this year that we set up a strike team to work on addressing Hellpod steering behaviour and Stratagem ball targeting and bouncing. Their new designs have been in active development since the release of Devoid of Liberty, and are actively being playtested internally and need more iterations before they’re released.
As these fixes required substantial adjustments to both mechanics while taking into account all edge cases, we plan for a few more rounds of playtesting to ensure they’re ready to go live. This does mean these fixes will likely not go live with HELLDIVERS 2’s next major update. However, the team’s confidence in these adjustments is high so you should hopefully not have to wait that much longer to see these much-requested feature updates in action. Thanks for your patience!
About Easy Anti-Cheat
There has been a lot of discussion around Easy Anti-Cheat. You can read our intention for switching to this anti-cheat solution here. We added Easy Anti-Cheat for one reason: to reduce the number of cheaters joining your missions and ruining the experience. On that front, we think we’re taking steps in the right direction.
However, we do see that this change means that some PC players lost the use of fan-made game mods. While all mods are not officially supported, we have been reviewing how the code changes disabled cosmetic non-gameplay mods. This has resulted in adjustments that should allow some cosmetic mods to be functional with our next hotfix.
As for gameplay mods, these adjustments alter the game code or game memory in a way that can impact game stability for yourself and the others in your lobby, generating client crashes and unexpected match outcomes. While mods can seem innocuous, anything that touches the game code or game memory can have major impacts on the gameplay experience. Running any mod that affects the game itself presents a risk to your account and, from a technical perspective, is indistinguishable from an attempt to cheat. These mods will continue to be prohibited in an ongoing effort to eradicate cheating and game-breaking modifications. Accounts determined to be using such gameplay mods may be banned from HELLDIVERS 2.
To determine whether a mod affects gameplay on PC and should not be used, start by validating your installation’s Steam files which will verify your installation is aligned with the official version of the game. If you choose to utilize non-gameplay mods at this point, please know they are not officially supported and may cause game crashes or poor performance.
We have outlined the following steps to check that a cosmetic mod is functional AFTER the hotfix is published.
If mods were previously installed, please reinstall the game.
Verify game file integrity by following these instructions from Steam.
Start the game and confirm it's running as intended.
Incrementally add cosmetic mods and reverify game file integrity to validate which ones are functional.
We’re also tracking reports that virtual machines can no longer access the game since the last update. For those who are affected and have raised customer support tickets, we are looking to update on next steps as soon as possible.
Looking Ahead, What’s Coming Next
The teams are currently deep in planning mode for the next year of HELLDIVERS 2 with several major updates and intense campaigns taking shape.
Part of this process is evaluating the top community topics to inform which existing features should be refined for quality-of-life improvements as well as keep expanding the core of the game.
What’s sooner than 2027? Our next major update in early December! Here are some of the changes on the way, already locked in for in this upcoming release:
Jump, Hover, and Warp packs will be usable while carrying two-handed items, introducing lots of new loadout combinations.
The Hellbomb backpack will be able to be armed or picked up from the ground using long-press interact.
All gas clouds will no longer slow the march of the Helldivers.
Helldivers will soon be sporting a new utility belt! This smart accessory lets you carry small handheld items like remotes and detonators alongside your support weapon, meaning they no longer occupy your hands or backpack. This makes the Solo Silo and the C4 much easier to use (and yes, you can still throw your sample pouch).
New terminal puzzles are being added! Super Earth’s foes were starting to learn by watching Helldivers solve them, so get ready for some fresh challenges while the enemy masses flank you.
Also, SEAF will now be able to open bunkers with you!
While the above changes are slated for next month, the next hotfix will arrive this week. It will address fire not behaving correctly in caves and resolve an EAC-related client crash in addition to the fix for cosmetic mods mentioned earlier. More details on all of that in the hotfix patch notes.
Thanks for your continued support, Helldivers!
Continue reading...