Helldivers 2: For Managed Democracy!

[honest acorn]

It's implied yeah

[oblique storm]

The Bots are even MORE sympathetic though

[heady halo]

the bots are literally all humans

[honest acorn]

The big hive worms had names and such too

[oblique storm]

They just want to rescue their creators from slavery

[tall stone]

https://tenor.com/view/were-bad-guys-sofia-hublitz-charlotte-byrde-ozark-bad-people-gif-16990715

[heady halo]

i ended up looking through the helldivers 1 models last night

the bots are just humans under their hd2 armour

[keen zinc]

Has anyone used the stalwart yet

[honest acorn]

The automatons chose a pretty evil looking aesthetic for their fundamentally liberatory mission haha

[dusky solar]

Cyborgs from hd1 aren't the same units as bots from hd2

[copper crest]

More reasons to add a sword sidearm

[honest acorn]

With all the red and spikes and smog

[dusky solar]

I think the bots are pretty evil tho, they do massacre random civilians en masse

Even if they have a noble goal

[oblique storm]

All of the civilians we rescue work at military outposts

[honest acorn]

I believe the lore is that the automatons are entirely mechanical creations of the Cyborgs who returned from their escape to deep space to liberate Cyberstan from super earth oppression

[keen zinc]

We don't know anything about that tbh

[dusky solar]

The super corn farms aren't military outposts at the very least haha

[oblique storm]

To be fair to them they DO look cool.

And they were made by guys who would think they look cool.

[heady halo]

but some of the bot units are. like there are hulks in hd1 without their armour and they just have a big human in their lmao

[dusky solar]

Yes, but as far as hd2 goes they don't have humans inside. The automatons are fully mechanical in hd2. Once they get to cyberstan I expect to see freed cyborgs with fleshy bits incorporated into their army

[gusty heron]

So it turns out that scientists (of the kind that you find on rescue missions) path through fire tornados (of the kind that you find on Menkent (a planet where you find rescue missions))

Also, them dying to running into flames counts as you killing them, and subtracts requisition credits accordingly.

[sinful bay]

Use the young ones and juice only the big ones!
See? He's ready for work!

[dusky solar]

Wait whaaaat they totally have the same random farmer models from other planets dead in cages

[keen zinc]

All SEAF citizens wear standard issue uniforms

[glacial light]

But what if it wasn't the automatons but super-

[keen zinc]

https://www.rxddit.com/r/Helldivers/s/SaWlkIGJiq

Reminder

The Bots could be trying to "repair" humans that have been executed for dissidence by Super Earth

As far as we know, which we don't

[dusky solar]

Is there a way to see rxddit links?

If i click on it on mobile it dead ends haha

[blissful sparrow]

for me it just redirects to reddit

[cobalt patrol]

Psychological tactics, I suspect. The bors are actively trying to induce fear

[keen zinc]

You can replace the x with e

[keen zinc]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/s/SaWlkIGJiq

[honest acorn]

Oh that's an interesting theory

The HD1 cyborgs had a unit type which was cybernetically augmented grievously wounded people

[keen zinc]

It's @shrewd tiger s theory

They could be naively trying to save wounded or dead people like how they repair each other

[dusky solar]

What if the automaton factories are also a revenge thing? Like super earth treats settlers probably as badly as it treats the helldivers

[keen zinc]

The big slab could just be an operating table

[dusky solar]

So the survivors open up the planet to the automatons

[honest acorn]

My first thought was some kind of sacrificial altar because of the big flat stones but that makes more sense to me

[dusky solar]

I guess i've never read the illegal broadcast towers on bot planets

[keen zinc]

The Automatons are being driven out of a desire to save their "parents"

So we can assume they have some measure of uhh

The word escapes me

Sentimentality?

Idk

[glad marsh]

I hear the automatons have come back in full force

[keen zinc]

Yep

[glad marsh]

To..
Cyberstan?

[keen zinc]

The Reclamation

[glad marsh]

Huh

[keen zinc]

Also not Full force

10x or more than all previous force fully fulled beforehand

So Fuller Force

[supple siren]

Love how they seeded this with the invisible ships, wagh

[glad marsh]

I suppose we'll have to meet them with equal force then

[alpine seal]

and with a bomb ass new mission type too

[quick plinth]

i really gotta learn how to make these

[keen zinc]

As we fought their diversionary forces, they loaded billions of bots onto warships and did a funny flank maneuver

[dusky solar]

Man the runaway success of helldivers 2 is going to make wallflower campaigns even funnier

"Wait... the only good bug... is a living bug?"

[keen zinc]

Has anyone used the Stalwart yet

[dusky solar]

Did it get buffed?

[keen zinc]

No I want to know if it has hitmarkers

[dusky solar]

Oh gotcha

[keen zinc]

Every patch I hope they fix it

It's an amazing fun my flavorite but the lack of hitmarkers makes it so hard to be the LMG man

[tall stone]

It does not still

[keen zinc]

Since you can't walk rounds into weakspots, or know when your target is dead

[tall stone]

But if you're using it against the bugs, that's not a problem.

[keen zinc]

How is this taking so loong

[keen zinc]

It is

Corpses block bullets and the lack of hitmarkers leads to lots of wasted ammo when doing what it's supposed to do, hose down swarms

It's a testament to how good it is that it still works without hitmarkers

[honest acorn]

A part of me wonders if it isn't a design thing

[keen zinc]

But you have to play it by ear, literally

[keen zinc]

I refuse to believe that

[honest acorn]

Since the HMG and AMR don't get hitmarkers

But it seems so dumb if it is

[keen zinc]

The MG has hitmarkers

[sinful bay]

what you mean by 'make these'?

[honest acorn]

yeah it doesn't make any sense

I think its gotta be a low priority bug

[keen zinc]

Not having crosshairs or hitmarkers is stupid because GRENADES have them

Don't tell me oh it's cuz you can't aim it good it's too big, mf how am I hip firing an autocannon with accuracy but not a rifle

Every weapon should have crosshairs and hitmarkers

[tall stone]

I support letting enemies walk past the corpses. Bugs advance enough to make that a play.

That, elevation, and controlled bursts have helped me with the Stalwart.

[sinful bay]

Fools
Just put a red dot with a sharpie in the middle of your monitor
ezz /s

[keen zinc]

Stalwart is still great, I'm not saying it makes the weapon unusable

But it definitely is something that impacts it

Hitmarkers being white or red is literally an intentional design mechanic to tell you if you're doing good damage

[tall stone]

A hit is a hit, whether you're conscious of it or not.

[quick plinth]

overlays are neat

[gusty heron]

Yeah, but a miss is a miss if you know it or not too, and if you know you missed you can try to not miss next time.

[keen zinc]

What

[quick plinth]

certain weapons not having TPS crosshairs is a balancing thing, an intentional decision by the devs a la AMR, Laser Cannon and so on

[keen zinc]

Laser cannon does have crosshairs tho?

[quick plinth]

oh right

sorry im just used to firing it from the hip

[honest acorn]

Lascannon does have the weird spinny crosshair but it does have them

[quick plinth]

since its a laser beam and my brain forgor that it indeed does have crosshair

[keen zinc]

Literally only the AMR and HMG, for which it makes no sense because other heavier weapons have them

[honest acorn]

I'm ok with it for the AMR since it makes it more of a long ranged weapon but its dumb on the HMG too imo

[keen zinc]

The HMG is badly effected by this

[gusty heron]

And the AMR doesn't have them because hip-firing is supposed to suck with it.

[keen zinc]

The AMR is fine okay it's a very long barrel

[stark token]

I have managed the democracy

[pastel igloo]

lets fucking gooooooo

[keen zinc]

If the HMG had crosshairs I guarantee it would be used more

[pastel igloo]

another Helldiver to the cause!

[honest acorn]

Once you're actually landing bullets on targe the HMG is really good

[keen zinc]

Meat, meet grinder

[honest acorn]

It has more hoops than it needs when there's other real good weapons which lack those hoops though

[keen zinc]

Yeah the problem is wasting your precious small magazine doing searching fire

[quick plinth]

ive basically been using it as a shotgun

turn it up to 1200 and run up to a tank

[keen zinc]

I basically never see it get used

They took away the 1200

[quick plinth]

oh

[keen zinc]

Shows how often it's used

[honest acorn]

I think the high setting is 950 now

[tall stone]

If have the the Stalwart out, the other side is crowded. It's not really a weapon for small bits of troops. You're there with it to delete hordes, and hordes are generally kind enough to have enough bodies that missing is a somewhat alleviated concern.

[quick plinth]

still

why no crosshair hit mark

[tall stone]

Bug that doesn't really matter

[sinful bay]

So it don't become TF2 where you hear so many DING s that it breaks your headphone

[honest acorn]

I want the dings haha

[tall stone]

"There's a lot of things there, I'm hitting something, I don't need confirmation"

[honest acorn]

Confirmation would be better though

[keen zinc]

Don't speak for me

[honest acorn]

Like, the MMG gets them

It's a similar weapon in most respects

[keen zinc]

The MG gets them and it's great

Hitmarkers and their color is a game mechanic

Missing them is missing a game mechanic

It provides an actual purpose as visual feedback to the player

[gusty heron]

The main issue with this towards bugs is that corpses, including the corpses of the smallest bugs, can block bullets, and some larger bugs don't always look dead when they die (spewers if they don't pop, warriors and co when they keep moving).

[tall stone]

From all my lascannon time, I can tell you it's not much of a needed mechanic

[honest acorn]

It's pretty noticeable for the stalwart too since it has poor armor penetration so white v red comes up a lot

[keen zinc]

Not talking about the lascannon

[tall stone]

If it's stopped moving, my job is done.

[gusty heron]

When you're spraying down a horde, unless you have a solid bit of altitude on them you're probably losing shots to corpses. This doesn't matter with the lascannon, as you probably don't use a lascannon on hordes.

[honest acorn]

Lascannon also has hitmarkers, just the beam kind

[sinful bay]

Yeah the BEST case scenario it would be to give the player the ability to choose
like how TF2 allows it

[honest acorn]

(the beam flares very differently depending on target armor)

[tall stone]

You can sweep a lascannon across hordes.

[keen zinc]

What is this argument

[sinful bay]

That GUN is

FUN

And feedback from shoot makes the fun even funnier

[keen zinc]

The stalwart is one of my favorite weapons and it has a QoL bug where it is missing something 99% of the other ballistic weapons have

[honest acorn]

I think the stalwart goes through most corpses

But its tricky to tell since it has no hitmarkers haha

[keen zinc]

The hitmarkers are literally in the game for the dev stated purpose of providing visual feedback on the effectiveness of your hits

Hence why they're color coded

[tall stone]

Mine is that the bugs die and even with hitmarkers, with general Stalwart usage doesn't really have an issue with precision accuracy of shots being necessary.

[honest acorn]

I also think the Stalwart should have em

[keen zinc]

Bugs fucking die when a throw a grenade with my eyes closed doesn't mean I don't need a monitor

[tall stone]

And the volume of fire would make the information also not helpful.

[honest acorn]

It's a really strange gap

[honest acorn]

Why do you think the MG (which has the same fire rate band) doesn't have this problem?

[keen zinc]

It works perfectly as I am describing on the MG

[tall stone]

It... Has been a hot minute since I've used a MG.

[keen zinc]

As it is intended to

[honest acorn]

The MG has hitmarkers

[gusty heron]

They have hit markers. It is helpful

[keen zinc]

You're playing devil's advocate for a bug

[honest acorn]

It's really nice for hitting red markers on medium armored enemies

[tall stone]

I don't remember the machine gun rof

[honest acorn]

Like scout walker pelvises or similar

[keen zinc]

900rpm on max

[pastel igloo]

didn't know any weapon had hitmarkers ngl

[tall stone]

Partly because I either pick up the lascannon or Stalwart for bugs.

[pastel igloo]

i kinda just

shoot things until they stop moving then go

[dusky solar]

MG goated

[tall stone]

The only input I need is that things are dying.

[keen zinc]

"I don't need this QoL feature so you shouldn't want it" is a weird take

When 99% of the other ballistic weapons have it

[honest acorn]

Except for how awkward the reload is the MG is one of my favorite vs bugs support weapons

[tall stone]

I just argue that it's not a QoL feature.

[honest acorn]

That's dumb though

Like it obviously is

[keen zinc]

It is though

[pastel igloo]

i think it's perfectly reasonable to want it, i just didn't know it existed to begin with

[keen zinc]

It's an intended thing which is why it has the color coding

[dusky solar]

Have you tried it with jetpack? You can reload it in midair

You give up resupply pack tho 🤢

[honest acorn]

I've used that trick some but its still more awkward than the Stalwart or GL

[dusky solar]

Yeah...

[pastel igloo]

i wish i could use Jetpack but i have dive bound to spacebar

[tall stone]

The machine gun reload time is what killed it for me.

[pastel igloo]

so i cannot

[keen zinc]

I use the jump pack and machine gun occasionally

[tall stone]

The Stalwart just does the job the Machine Gun wants better.

[keen zinc]

Mostly as Bile Mortar insurance

[heady halo]

wish the mg had a team reload mechanic without a backpack

someone else can reload it faster if you are laying down

[honest acorn]

I personally don't agree I prefer the MG's ability to penetrate medium armor

It kills a lot of things much more efficiently with that

[quick plinth]

resupply pack and stalwart is goated

[honest acorn]

But there are real trade offs for that

[dusky solar]

The stalwart lacks penetration to clear brood commanders and hive guards efficiently

[keen zinc]

The Stalwart is basically my primary weapon I'd guess at least half of my 250+ hours of playtime is using it

[keen zinc]

Aim for the legs

[pastel igloo]

i'm gonna try out Quasar and the shield thing

[keen zinc]

Hive guards I agree

[dusky solar]

The mg is significantly better in terms of added functionality, though i don't think either weapon is particularly good

[keen zinc]

Senator is my Hive Guard remover

[quick plinth]

brood commanders die all the same

[honest acorn]

The senator is great for them

[keen zinc]

Fixing the stalwart so it has hitmarkers will make it feel much more comfy

[tall stone]

I am more closely becoming a lascannon main.

Because it's nice and multifunctional.

And efficient!

[pastel igloo]

i like Autocannon but i often wish i hada quasar or EAT

usually when a Tank, Hulk or Charger show up

[tall stone]

Big thing shows up? Lascannon can help.

Squad at range? You got all the range you ever need!

Horde shows up? Time to sweep!

[honest acorn]

Now that you get like 50% max ammo from a supply pack I am using the RR a lot again

[dusky solar]

RR goated

Two RR players is amazing

But when you have two anti-heavy players they can just bring two quasars and do basically the same thing 😭

[glacial light]

2 RR is probably all the AT you'd ever need in a squad

[dusky solar]

Yeah

I have a lot of fun in the cookiecutter 4x same loadout squads where everyone brings quasar vs bugs though

[honest acorn]

I've taken to using the RR over the quasar because the lack of charge up time makes it much easier to take quick snap shots at chargers and such when they present themselves

[dusky solar]

Melting shrieker nests from across the map SO fast is very convenient

[honest acorn]

And its a very "slot efficient" weapon where I bring bring a lot of reds with it

[keen zinc]

I like using low tech stuff ngl

I don't like using the laser cannon or Quasar

Sickle is great but I like Punisher feel

[glacial light]

I love my backpack slot even though I don't need it at this point

[keen zinc]

Jump pack is attached to my spine

I feel naked without it

[glacial light]

The jump pack stays on in the bunkers

[keen zinc]

I wish I could wear it on the ship

Drop me with it

[sinful bay]

I relaly wish that was an opption

[tall stone]

I either bring a resupply or a bare back so I can help people with reload weapons (as rare as they are)

[dusky solar]

The only thing i dislike about the RR is that you can't run while it reloads

[tall stone]

I'm never going to be a team carry, but I can support!

[dusky solar]

Not with that attitude helldiver!

Really it's not too bad to learn to solo especially on bots

Bugs are kind of worse unless you are just fine running away a lot or are very efficient at shooting

[tall stone]

I don't like fighting bots. They shoot back.

[keen zinc]

One of my hopes is that they change up the RR reload to be a series of quick but clear stages so you can reload it in stages during movement more easily

[tall stone]

I am 100% OK with hit and fades

I don't have to stand and fight, I have to kill things.

[dusky solar]

The problem with giving the RR faster effective burst damage is that EAT is supposed to do that

[keen zinc]

No no not what I mean

[honest acorn]

This is how I do it

[dusky solar]

Ohhhh

I see!

[honest acorn]

It splits into 3 stages of about 2 seconds pretty well

[keen zinc]

Still have stationary reload, but currently the stages are a bit difficult to parse and break up

And if you fuck it up you lose a round for no reason

[honest acorn]

Yeah its not that obvious when you hit one

[tall nova]

Every time I use the RR I wish I had EATs instead

[heady halo]

oooo i didnt know that

[keen zinc]

Have it be some nice snappy animations per stage to allow a solo gunner to more easily scoot and reload

[heady halo]

honestly i find the same thing when i use eats lmao

[keen zinc]

Would be nice

[heady halo]

i just always want more than two shots

[honest acorn]

The stages are

1. casing ejected
2. new shell in
3. rear swing thing closed

[keen zinc]

Closed and latched

[honest acorn]

Though its worth noting that fucking it up doesn't lose you a shell - the shell only leaves the backpack when the rear swing thing is closed and latched

[keen zinc]

But it's hard to tell these stages apart because they're very subtle animations

[heady halo]

ive been running slugger, redeemer, recoiless lately

not the best against hordes but redeemer does a surprising amount of work

[keen zinc]

There is a point where you can interrupt the loading stage after the shell disappears off the pack but before it counts as loaded

And you just lose a round

It's big ouch

[honest acorn]

My last full op setup was blitzer, senator and RR

[dusky solar]

Do you have the Steeled Veterans warbond?

[heady halo]

nope lol

got 1k supercreds but dickering over the explosive warbond or steeled vets

[keen zinc]

If they tweaked the anims on the RR stages to be more clearly identifiable that would be pog

[dusky solar]

Ah gotcha, if you DO ever get it, you can make the Senator pistol mostly do the slugger's job

[heady halo]

nodnodnod

[quick plinth]

I hate how im disincentivised from playing the game because of the resource caps

[dusky solar]

I think explosive will be wayyyy better

[keen zinc]

Maybe have them yank the shell out with a bit more gusto, slam the round in with a slap, and really crank that latch shut

[dusky solar]

Idk

Definitely more fun?

[tall stone]

Hey, the devs said it's OK to take breaks.

[heady halo]

or just add some loud noise to it

[keen zinc]

I have hearing damage 😔

My right ear is half deaf and I get tinitus flare ups often

[heady halo]

oof, yeah thats a good reason they shouldnt rely on that
you definitly arent teh only person I know who has hearing damage either

[keen zinc]

I mean I have constant ringing but sometimes it gets so loud I cannot hear

[heady halo]

i guess they could get gamic on it and add a little flash

[orchid pulsar]

<@&1206091872716595200> wanna take this talk and test it out against the bots divers 🫡

[keen zinc]

Which is why I want fucking hitmarkers and snappier anims

[honest acorn]

It's probably not real but I think the RR reload is more "crisp" now

[keen zinc]

[honest acorn]

Same length but it feels snappier

[keen zinc]

I'll check it out

[honest acorn]

I suspect its just because I didn't use it for a while

[heady halo]

oh, ive also been trying the penetrator
it does a good job replacing the slugger but being better at hordes

[keen zinc]

It's basically the only gun that I'm willing to not use jump pack for

Because it's a gustaf

Big fucking gun

[honest acorn]

Now that its fully auto the L-P just seems generally solid

Which is nice

Hello arrowhead I've seen what you've done for the liberator penetrator and I want that for the liberator concussive

[keen zinc]

Lib pen could use a pinch more damage but otherwise it good

But I don't like bullpups very much

[junior badge]

Eh, it's still pretty weak. Boost the damage a bit and then maybe.

[honest acorn]

I think it just needs a little more damage

[keen zinc]

Very looking forward to Adjudicator

[honest acorn]

So I agree

[keen zinc]

5-10 more damage

[honest acorn]

It's just sort of lacking since I think it has basically the lowest damage of any primary atm

[keen zinc]

Just a pinch

And it'll be good soup

https://tenor.com/view/soup-soup-time-good-soup-good-soup-gif-thats-good-soup-gif-23862078

[honest acorn]

Yeah its ability to stagger lock anything relatively small is good it just doesn't do enough damage for personal defense haha

[keen zinc]

The solution is to make it burst fire only, very rapid fire like BRRT, and give it high bullet deviation

"but that just makes it a very dangerous shotgun"

Hmyes

[glad marsh]

Creature

[keen zinc]

Dag

My son

My pride and joy

[pastel igloo]

love that emote

[orchid pulsar]

<@&1206091872716595200> room for two more

[keen zinc]

I have many daglike emotes

Unfortunately I don't have access to them on my phone atm

Need to set up a server for holding them

Thankfully Dag was added to a friend's server and thus I can still access him

My son...

[glad marsh]

(screencap from the Max0r video)

[pastel igloo]

[heady halo]

its overall dps per mag is low, but its got more shots than a slugger and can still one shot the small enemies

and it reloads wayyy faster if all at once

so its great for clearing out a mid-sized horde and popping a few middleweight non heavy bugs, while being even better at longer ranges if you are trying to stay even further back

[sinful bay]

The boons of Unisex armor

[heady halo]

would be unnecesery if i was running a horde clear support, but its doing alright with a recoiless

[junior badge]

Ehh, I disagree that it's great. Because its AP is just high enough that it can hit a few more things than the regular liberator, but deals reduced damage to those still. Which lowers its DPS even more.

[heady halo]

but regular would bounce, and I am not measuring its dps, im measuring its ability to kill 10 small bugs and one medium sized bug

the slugger would kill more medium bugs, the liberator more small bugs

but the penetrator is not as good as either at either but better than either at both

it will prolly be superseded when i level up more or unlock my first warbond sure

like i wouldnt run it with senator or the grenade pistol

[glad marsh]

Sickleeeee

[heady halo]

dont have that either i think

thats the laser machine gun right?

[glad marsh]

yeye

[heady halo]

yeee

that would also be a direct upgrade

[heady halo]

i tried watching the maxor video and it was too racist

[glad marsh]

functionally the same as a liberator, potentially higher damage and armor pen when it's got really high heat (but I'm not sure if that's how lasers actually work)

[dusky solar]

Sseth and all the people that mimic his style tend to be gross

Funny but i can't watch that stuff

[glad marsh]

mhm

[heady halo]

maybe they could give the liberator massive overpenetration so it can have its own niceh for firing into hordes

[honest acorn]

I don't think the sickle has more armor penetration than the liberator

the damage is the same

[glad marsh]

Max0r doesn't seem to be a shitty person but the jokes are just.. too much

anyways

[dusky solar]

Yeah. Sickle just has higher ROF and larger mags

[honest acorn]

The sickle is honestly just sort of overtuned, they should accentuate its weaknesses or something

[glad marsh]

oh so all that stuff about lasers getting slightly better at high heat I've heard was simply people lying?

[dusky solar]

Yep. Though tbf i think the default liberator could do with a small buff to fire rate

Lasers fire faster but cool slower at high heat

There's actually a system that degrades heatsinks on lasers over time too

It can take up to 2 seconds longer after nearly overheating the gun 8-10 times in a row

[honest acorn]

I think beams might gain damage with sustained fire

But the sickle doesn't seem to

[glad marsh]

ah

[upbeat vector]

Oh, if we're talking about the Lib Pen I have one thing that I would like actually:

I'd like the ability to hold down the trigger to keep bursting

[glad marsh]

it being limited to beams makes sense

[upbeat vector]

The rapid clicking is not good on my fingers

[honest acorn]

good news!

They added that like 1-2 patches ago

[upbeat vector]

Oh yay!

[dusky solar]

Lib pen needs either a damage buff, or a ROF buff combined with capacity buff, but it can't really have one without being a strictly better liberator

[honest acorn]

it was nice since it was so controllable that the burst fire with basically just a finger check

I think the L-P is actually pretty competive as it stands

[upbeat vector]

Yeah, I noticed that it was possible to just like, basically full auto it if you clicked fast enough

[heady halo]

thats why i was thinking an overpenetration bug

buff

[upbeat vector]

Hell, it might have been possible to get a faster fire rate than the normal Liberator

[heady halo]

so you can hit three to five bugs if they are in a row

so its way better against a horde but strictly worse against anything else

make its thing penning

or i guess, give it an alternate ammo option you can switch to, that costs a magazine to switch to unless empty, that has worse capacity but pens heavy targets?

[honest acorn]

I think a heavy pen primary would be hard to balance

[heady halo]

yeahhhh

you are right

[honest acorn]

I don't really think the L-P needs buffs but if I was gonna buff it I'd just increase the mag size to like 36ish

[heady halo]

even if it sucks at it, its pointless to get it

honestly im using it just fine

[honest acorn]

same

It used to be my main vs bots weapon until I got the plasma punisher

[heady halo]

oo nice

[honest acorn]

Though I use the Diligence Countersniper a lot now that it's been buffed

[heady halo]

ive been using it vs bugs as it does exactly what i want for clearing a medium wave thats too close to me

or sniping a larger target further away

if theres a LARGE wave close to me and i am not in a mech or have a turret deployed, thats my own failure not the guns lol

it does pretty good at finishing a charger I have opened up with a recoiless but failed to kill, from middle to far distance

[honest acorn]

yeah bugs can put enough targets on you that pretty much no primaries can save you if you're getting overwhelmed

[heady halo]

yeah. the standard liberator does better than you woudl expect though

[honest acorn]

The exceptions are mostly the breaker S&P and breaker incindiary imo

[heady halo]

oo

[modest fiber]

the gender is helldiver!

[heady halo]

also i had some work with the punisher

if you aim to miss so you hit two or three small bugs at once

[honest acorn]

Both have a lot of short to medium range power and very deep magazines

[heady halo]

it horde clears so good

[honest acorn]

B-I would be my main anti-bug primary except for the fire tick bug

[dusky solar]

Same. I do think it'd be nice to have though

[honest acorn]

we might get it next warbond with the explosive sniper rifle

[oak crow]

so hyped for the coming warbond

[sweet surge]

Anyone tried the new mission type yet?

[oak crow]

i really want that medium armor and that new assault rifle

btw have there been any leaks as to what the armor's perks are going to be?

[honest acorn]

afaik no

[shy prairie]

I would guess just Fortified

[honest acorn]

I would be a little surprised if it wasn't a new passive

[south temple]

which one

[sweet surge]

Defense mission

kinda like tower defense

Have to protect power generators until several rockets have been launched

[heady halo]

my HOPE for what i WANT it to be is self explosion resistance, more resistance to explosions but only ones you cause

[sinful bay]

Rocket Jump

[shy prairie]

Well, actually, Engineer and Fortified

Given the CE and FS prefixes

(from the promotional material)

[south temple]

o that’s cool

[keen zinc]

They have the formula for good defense missions

TCS and this new one

They gotta work some elements of those into the priority evacuation one

[honest acorn]

I haven't played this new one but what made TCS work a lot better for me was that the enemies kind of attacked in "waves"

Instead of "all the fuckign time, always attacking"

[tall stone]

The constant attack ones get tiring.

[sinful bay]

A fatman Stratagem, agreed.

[keen zinc]

What'd you call me

[keen zinc]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/s/TVJ1Zkc9mh

So true

[cerulean sluice]

I really hope the Bot core worlds (especially Cyberstan) are harder to take. Have them dig in via making Artillery, AA, Jammer, and Gunship Spawner show up more often than they did on say the Creek

[tall stone]

If Cyberstan winds up being urban warfare, it's going to become its own special hell.

Breach and clears are not good experiences.

[glacial light]

Surprise berserker ambushes from alleyways

[hazy oriole]

i can't wait to fight on cyberstan if that's the case

[sharp crater]

breaking into an apartment and it's just a scorcher hulk looking at you from the kitchen 10m away

[trail nymph]

It’s going to be tunnels and mineshafts

[graceful bluff]

cyberstan is a mining world yeah

probably not so many suburbs

[glacial light]

What's a better place for suburbs than near industrial areas

[glacial light]

Bots claiming castle law for breaking into their homes

Breach and clears seem fun aside from berserkers cause they're very tanky to deal with last second

Walk into a basement and there's a tank waiting for you

[dusky solar]

But helldivers have the best CQB methods in the galaxy: air strikes

[heady halo]

breaching and clearing a deep bedrock mine

[honest acorn]

I would want cyberstan to be its own tileset

[pastel igloo]

alright, bought all the items in the super store

[honest acorn]

Trenches and open air pit mines sound good

[honest acorn]

Just wait for the air burst rocket launcher

[oak crow]

i keep feeling that they're gonna turn around and trick us

which is entirely unfounded

but i've just gotten so used to it with others games

[keen zinc]

True, they're GREAT experiences

[pastel igloo]

just saw this lmao

[wind arrow]

izen, now pretty down to just get crowd control loadout w/o bringing any direct anti tank capability: i refuse to eat

[glacial light]

I'd imagine a mining planet would have plenty of equipment to dig trenches

[wind arrow]

hell, as a support backpack enjoyer i barely even ass

[glacial light]

And also underground would probably be hard to do with orbital stratagems

[pastel igloo]

i also don't like to use EAT

i have quasar access now though

which is kinda peak

[glacial light]

Just be on the top floor of a building and your teammates calls in an EATs at the basement and causes the whole place to collapse

[wind arrow]

oh i meant eat as in equip anti tank from the joke image above

[tall stone]

The only thing I'll eat is Stims!

[glacial light]

Yum tasty syringe

Also as good as nutrient paste

[modest fiber]

seems about right

[keen zinc]

The game doesn't seem like it would do well with indoor combat

[pastel igloo]

agree

[heady halo]

i could see huge single "indoor spaces" like a mine thats just one massive underground room beneath a regular map. functionally its just an area of permanant stratagem jamming inside the mine (though they would still drop "on top" on the surface above you)

and its just a special location that some missions have one of

but not like, room to room clearing non destructable buildings

ruins and citty streets/suburbs outside tho, sure

[pastel igloo]

big rooms would be fine

think i found my next 3d print project

Senator is a cool gun which i actually use in game

[hazy oriole]

i love the senator so much

need to get better at onetapping devs with it

[pastel igloo]

it's a good gun

[keen zinc]

Yesss

[quick plinth]

amo pls relace the E with an X in the reddit part of the link, makes it embed nicer

[keen zinc]

Apparently that made it impossible for Thot to see it good idk what to do

[quick plinth]

huh???

[keen zinc]

Too much pressure

[quick plinth]

how

what

never heard of that

[hazy oriole]

anyone else been getting weird connection issues lately

[trail nymph]

Anyone up for Difficulty 7-9 dives in 20 minutes?

[keen zinc]

#1204832579287519292 message

[crystal badger]

I'm game

[keen zinc]

Idk I feel like I'm in a lose lose siteation

[quick plinth]

that's something on their end

[keen zinc]

[wind arrow]

if it's right now, we may be able to chalk it up to steam maintenance

[quick plinth]

like how yt links open in browser instead of the app for me

[modest fiber]

my body is ready

[pastel igloo]

also going to print one of these keycaps

[hazy oriole]

it happened in the morning two

[pastel igloo]

cause it's funny

[hazy oriole]

i thought it might be a gamside thing, but my whole steam seems to lose connection

[heady halo]

is the game stuck in out for anynone else right now? ah looks like it might be

[keen zinc]

Senator is my go to secondary because of hive guards

And fashion

[crystal badger]

Don't forget gun go spinny

[quick plinth]

gib print instructions

[wind arrow]

gun go spinny fun

[alpine seal]

steam maintenance yea

[pastel igloo]

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6554478

[modest fiber]

here is the sauce, you're welcome citizen :3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VChofV3d0E

[keen zinc]

I think I'll play after work today

[wind arrow]

max0r pls why are you so fixated in listing chinese steel companies

[keen zinc]

Youtubers of this variety are always red flag adjacent for me

It's like newgrounds animators

[wind arrow]

luckily only him and sseth are on my perception

[modest fiber]

cause max0r be max0r

[glacial light]

He should be endorsing Donghua Jinlong High Quality Food Grade Glycine, available in pharmaceutical grade too

If anyone gets that ref you probably have TikTok brainrot like me

[keen zinc]

Fuck sseth

[south temple]

it's infected my twitter i don't even have tiktok but i can't stop seeing it

[wind arrow]

i do not get the reference despite my chinese language skill

[north fiber]

This video has been making the rounds

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/300164223919456257/1227344327953481870/1712692010315.mp4?ex=6628107a&is=66159b7a&hm=509279ffd061723b6803bb21a37b78e465de1c9505b3224ed4eaa5f8659cddb7&

[graceful bluff]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAYot6YZsr0

[trail nymph]

It's time to dive

[north fiber]

there is no context

[south temple]

i'm down

[wind arrow]

sounds like it's just an ad

[keen zinc]

Glycine girlies

[idle hollow]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAFfJZhKB8M

cant wait for the TOX to come back

i hope we get gyass grenades too

[pastel igloo]

Was hoping his video would be more enjoyable since i've not loved his content much as of late but it's only a marginal improvement for me over previous videos

[idle hollow]

i couldnt watch maxor after his MGR stuff it is literally just

overstimulation the editing style

[pastel igloo]

I don't mind the editing style, but the jokes just aren't hitting the same for me

[glacial light]

Omg random but my city official TikTok has gotten onto the glycine train

[keen zinc]

Society

Every part of that sentence made me sad

[glad marsh]

...city official tiktok...?

[modest fiber]

dafug is that?

[stone bridge]

A tiktok for the city government body run by a community manager, I imagine

[keen zinc]

I am becoming old

[trail nymph]

we have an open slot

[kindred lintel]

give me 1 to put something away

[keen zinc]

One hour until Amko

[solid lagoon]

I might hop on after work Im pulling a double today 😭

[strange vine]

from the something awful thread

[pastel igloo]

Nice argument Automaton, unfortunately

[keen zinc]

Bucket of Salmon

[pastel igloo]

no amount of environmental hazards, bot drops or artillery will stop me from spreading democracy

[keen zinc]

https://youtu.be/w1GkYStfmw8?si=8Ipk16_bPK2YmBcm

One of the greatest videos ever made

[glacial light]

My city has an official tiktok account run by the local government

[keen zinc]

The end times

[glacial light]

And whoever runs it must watch a lot of tik tok cause the posts are on point

It's half memes and half budget and local council news

[keen zinc]

This is making me feel incredibly old

[oblique storm]

The idea that the slabs we find are the bots praying for the executed dead they find is really hitting me

[keen zinc]

I think they're operating tables and they actually were trying to save the humans with surgery but don't really understand humans can't be repaired like them

[glacial light]

That's cute and sad

It sort of makes sense since when something goes wrong with a cyborg they just replace it with a cybernetic, but normal human people don't work like that

But they don't know it

[hazy oriole]

(y'all can lmk if this is uneeded/unwanted here and i'll delete)

me and my friends have been talking about this, so much of this video is decently funny punchline after punchline and then he makes a joke that boils down to "china, funny" and i feel completely jarred out of it
this is particularly annoying to me because i'm a chinese person who has lived through covid and has had more than his fill of "the punchline is that china/the chinese language/chinese people exists" and while this has always been something that occaisionally nags me about his videos this one in particular is incredibly egregeious with it

it's fucking annoying because in terms of scripting, pacing and editing it's a lot better than the usual overstim nightmare show while still being decently entertaining

dude needs to find better jokes to lean on

[hazy oriole]

yeah i really like this headcanon it feels appropriately tragic

[wind arrow]

this is basically why i lumped max0r in the same pile as sseth at this point

[pastel igloo]

slabs?

[south temple]

it is really strange that he leans on it so much i don’t understand the humor factor

[wind arrow]

yeah to me, since i am chinese myself, i go "ok so this is just a list of chinese steel company names, what's the punchline?" and it never came

[hazy oriole]

it's annoying too because there'll be jokes like the service guarentees affirmation thing that feels like properly funny without being weirdly edgy

[keen zinc]

Sinophobia is becoming really mainstream

[hazy oriole]

like cultivate a fucking audience man

[hazy oriole]

it really sucks because it gets really mixed in with genuine critique of the chinese government

[south temple]

no straight up a lot of his jokes are funny but every so often they just aren’t jokes? like what’s the funny i do not understand

[pastel igloo]

Max0r does a lot of humor that feels extremely borderline discriminatory, like "one foot hovering on the other edge of the line of discrimination" type stuff

[wind arrow]

yeah

[south temple]

doesn’t help that a lot of the stuff he covers has a vaguely right-wing fan base

least to my eyes

[merry cosmos]

I don't think they have the urban maps ready

[hazy oriole]

I'd honestly argue that's more of a sseth problem than it is a Max0r one

[pastel igloo]

making jokes about Irish car bombs in the context of Margaret Thatcher in the MHW video was kinda funny honestly but he kinda keeps making the joke which felt a bit uncomfortable

[merry cosmos]

Not yet

[hazy oriole]

I know a LOT of my queer buddies are into the things Max posts about

[pastel igloo]

like

[south temple]

that’s actually true yeah

[wind arrow]

small off topic rant: man do i still love-hate the fact sseth covered some chinese indie gems

[hazy oriole]

It's honestly such a red flag if someone says they're a sseth fan lmao people in indie circles practically dread him covering their games because his fans tend to swarm the community with right wing bs

[pastel igloo]

for me Max0r really feels like he's should be posting chud stuff based on some of the jokes he makes but then he makes jokes like the trans affirmation thing in the Helldivers video and i don't fucking know what to think

[south temple]

YEAH

[hazy oriole]

exactly this

[merry cosmos]

I would agree on that but I don't imagine seeth unironically believing in alt right bullshit

[modest fiber]

<@&1206091872716595200> am once again requesting for dudes

[pastel igloo]

he always makes me think he's going to say some fucking off the cuff chud shit but then he turns it around and i am just confused

[south temple]

like nothing screams overtly right-wing politics to me

[hazy oriole]

I would feel so much less uncomfortable with it if I could tell what kind of person he is under the persona he puts on for the camera

[pastel igloo]

like he does make a lot of like, sorta just fucked and uncomfortable jokes

but he never really stays with them

[hazy oriole]

regardless of it he tolerates it enough in his fanbase that I'm driven off him completely

[keen zinc]

Sseth is a piece of shit

[south temple]

yeaaaaah that’s very unfortunate, shit like Starsector got BOOSTED by his vids too

[keen zinc]

Full stop

[stone bridge]

the line really doesn't matter when he actively cultivates that kind of audience

[pastel igloo]

like in the Metal Gear video he says some shit that is just fucked i think but also just, doesn't follow that tone in the rest of the video

[stone bridge]

facilitating it is as bad as believing it

[pastel igloo]

he'll have moments in all of his videos where you think he's gonna do some mask off shit but then he kinda just immediately pivots

[oak crow]

that’s kinda ideal

[hazy oriole]

which is why watching Max0r is so frustrating because the kind of audience he's trying to cultivate feels incomprehensible

[wind arrow]

cause on one hand, population boom for those games, and population speaking a language that the devs themselves aren't likely to be good in. on the other: notoriety

[honest acorn]

It's been a... while since I watched anything by ssethtzeentch but its very easy for me to imagine him having weird right wind politics haha

[south temple]

just something abt the vibes

[keen zinc]

I'd rather not talk about Sseth because it's a personal thing for someone i know

[pastel igloo]

i usually end up feeling just a bit fucking uncomfortable watching Max0r videos

[south temple]

rog o7

[pastel igloo]

not enough to entirely put me off him but there isalways some shit where i'm just wondering if he's actually a chud

[south temple]

it’s just strange yeah

[merry cosmos]

Nor do I wish to get into an argument about the ethics of humor

[modest fiber]

thats the fun part, you can't :3

[hazy oriole]

gotcha, do y'all wanna move on back to helldivers then or are there pieces you got to say

[stone bridge]

That's an x-card if I ever saw one

[hazy oriole]

okay nvm i do have something to say in response to this

[stone bridge]

Let's go back to Helldivers

[keen zinc]

Helldivers

[oak crow]

this is something i feel with a lot of streamers and youtubers honestly

[keen zinc]

I arrive in half an hour

[modest fiber]

i need more men, am in a fight

[hazy oriole]

🤐

[oak crow]

like, schlatt seems cool for example, but like, there’s a little nagging voice about “but is he cool with gay people”

yknow?

[south temple]

whatever happened during that defense mission did not do good things to my computer or else i’d be back on lmao

[oak crow]

altho Schlatt is a lot more trustable than some others out there

[south temple]

i felt that way abt sovietwomble and co. for a while

[oak crow]

aghhh

yeah

[keen zinc]

Can we stop

[oak crow]

yeah sure thing Amko

[hazy oriole]

Yeah let's pump the brakes

[merry cosmos]

Yeah please

[keen zinc]

The only good YouTuber is SimpleFlips

[hazy oriole]

Got the Scorcher recently, do you all have tips for running/using it?

[honest acorn]

If you ask people to move off a topic please don't get back on it

[oak crow]

that’s not true, i once saw a channel dedicated to pumpkin and gourd based parades

[oak crow]

it’s pretty solid from what i’ve seen on my friends’ ends, but i haven’t tested it myself

[keen zinc]

Scorcher is ammo management

Don't miss

[south temple]

shoot the scouts and watch them fall over like losers

[oak crow]

seems like staying mobile is generally key, but that’s just a general rule of the game

[hazy oriole]

nodnod

[honest acorn]

Scorcher is... really weird

[hazy oriole]

can it kill hulks to the vents given it does explosive?

[keen zinc]

Yes

[honest acorn]

Explosive plasma damage works on so many targets but the actual damage is quite poor

[south temple]

i gotta grind out the main pass for real ive been hard lining for the dominator

[keen zinc]

It can kill gunship too

[oak crow]

presumably it can? iirc small arms can kill the vents no problem.

[honest acorn]

Pick targets carefully

[oak crow]

just takes a mag

[unkempt river]

I'll be on in like 20

[hazy oriole]

WHAT?!?!

hahahahahaha

[oak crow]

ahh i wanna play helldivers. don’t think i’ll have the time tonight sadly.

[hazy oriole]

that's fucking hilarious given how tiny that little thing is

[oak crow]

been working on saving up some credits and medals for the next warbond

so hyped for it

[south temple]

new battle rifle!!!

[oak crow]

yeah!

[south temple]

i’m so excited i love battle rifles

[oak crow]

i’m really excited about the medium armor, but the weapons look neat

[south temple]

some day they’ll add a space FAL and i’ll die happy

[oak crow]

and the little thermite stick grenade too

just hope it can pop bug holes and factory vents

[south temple]

potato masher gaming rahhhhh

fuck all the bots

they’re getting napalmed no exceptions

[pastel igloo]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_bZQyMeXkM

[oak crow]

the stick grenade, gas mask medium armor and new massive front opening up are making me really hyped for a trench map. i know it’s probably not gonna happen but i can’t help it.

[south temple]

god i hope so

[honest acorn]

hazops armor is something I'll probably just spam

I'm very excited for it

[south temple]

cbrn gaming

[stone bridge]

There's an explosion at the end of the grenade's burn timer, that might do it

[honest acorn]

hazops being the armor on the right

[cobalt patrol]

Randos are so very annoying at points

[honest acorn]

Hazops was my main HD1 armor

[cobalt patrol]

FFS, you're running out of reinfrocements because you all keep dying. Somehow.

Despite me bieng off solo and drawing all the bot drops and aggro on diff 9.

and clearing objectives like it aint no thing

you all keep dying like lemmings

[honest acorn]

I'll be honest, I find "dae hate randoms" posts pretty annoying.

[merry cosmos]

They like to throw cluster bombs at inopportune times

[south temple]

it's so beautiful

[cobalt patrol]

This is fair. Just grumpy because hte guy was vocally complaining while his group was dying. Apologies

Genberally, i'd say i have a lot of good experiences with randos!

Esp on high diffucltiues

[honest acorn]

Yeah I've mostly have a good experience with randoms in HD2

[south temple]

the higher you go the more competent they tend to be

[honest acorn]

I had a really funny when when I hot dropped into a mission and someone kept dying on either a 7 or 8

[merry cosmos]

This is true

[honest acorn]

I think they probably had half our total deaths

At the end of the mission it turned out they were a level 8 getting dragged into it by friends haha

[cobalt patrol]

This was just like... my guy, i am getting a ton of bot drops and everything else on me. I've cleared multiple side objectivesi ncluding 2 mortars basically solo, and multiple heavy bases.

Complaining at me for fighting everything is missing the forest for the trees, i'm the aggro tank.

If things are still going wrong when the bot drop is on the otehr side of the map killing one guy, i odnt know what to say

[south temple]

i SOS joined a cadet getting carried through a 6, the other two left and it was just us getting divebombed by shriekers

10/10 would dive again

[honest acorn]

I expected shriekers to be scarier than they are

[cobalt patrol]

I really wish i had some way to predict it being Hunter heavy maps, or lots of shireker nests

[honest acorn]

Not that they aren't scary

[cobalt patrol]

just so i can bring the gattling turret

[honest acorn]

I just want a bile map indicator

[cobalt patrol]

and then laugh

and laugh

[pastel igloo]

my worst experience was mostly just trying to extract as mission which was mostly complete map wise cause we were totally overrun with bugs and were all going to die

[cobalt patrol]

and laugh

[south temple]

slugging them out of the air is pure bliss

[pastel igloo]

and getting kicked cause of it

that sucked

[cobalt patrol]

The punisher is also good =at swatting them

[oak crow]

better than most games imo

[cobalt patrol]

They've got very fragile wing joints, so any kind of grazing yhit there tends to turn into a kill

[south temple]

oh yeah a host kicked me and both randoms right as we were gonna exfil

[cobalt patrol]

No pvp and the fact that everyone benefits from all stuff goes a long way to combatinign toxcitiy

[south temple]

awful awful

[south temple]

yeah that's tru

[cobalt patrol]

There's a lot of good decision points in the game that combat toxicity

not perfectly (see idiots who thought that samples/suepr credits were per player, no shared with everyone)

and the reinforce system/opaqueness of aggro etc can cause a lot of tension if people arent on the same page

but also the latter system is good, and you cant saftey foam the whole game

[unkempt river]

<@&1206091872716595200> looking for 2 more in HA

[cobalt patrol]

You caught me right as i'm taking a break

so no penguin for you, Hades.

[honest acorn]

I haven't had that problem but stories like this make me prefer hosting

(Along with my love of gas and flame)

[graceful bluff]

Gaming

[glad marsh]

I'll be there in a few

[wind arrow]

doing a bit of street fighter before committing to anything else, should be able to join you in your next run or so

[cobalt patrol]

also at least some of the mysterious blue lasers are just scorcher rounds traveling the map i'm sad to say

[turbid tapir]

I was just in a 7 lobby with some randos who waltzed through the bugs

Never seen chargers get dispatched so casually

[eager pine]

I don't think anyone here needs to read this tread, but it's kinda funny that someone actually made it and it might be educational. https://fxtwitter.com/Elamimaxima/status/1777744097316356112

[rare nymph]

I've had generally good experiences playing with randos - it's actually how I play the majority of the time

Sometimes you run into bad lobbies, but then you just shrug and say "that's rando for ya"

[honest acorn]

I appreciate this analysis but I think its sort of flawed (comments in the tweet already addressed it pretty well)

People just rightfully brought up that this is super present in the game

[rare nymph]

Though they did go back and point to those replies in the thread

[honest acorn]

Yeah, I was glad for that

I think its a good look at it for sure

[eager pine]

Yeah, lol

[cobalt patrol]

Is there any nitter replacement yet? I don't have a Twitter account and can't read the thread as a result

And I refuse to make a Twitter account

[honest acorn]

I am not aware of one

[glacial light]

Bluesky is a clone of twitter with less features

Not sure how popular it is now that it's fully public

[honest acorn]

Bluesky isn't a twitter client though its its own website

[cobalt patrol]

Oh I just meant so I could read the thread

[honest acorn]

Nitter was a way to access twitter in a reasonable way basically

[tall stone]

It's positively refreshing to not be exposed to League-like toxicity, yes.

[cobalt patrol]

League is fascinating in how it generates toxicity.

There's just a whole micronism of things that feed into it's immensely toxic results

[unkempt river]

This is really strange: We were just talking about league in vc

[barren reef]

I usually try to join lobbies of players lower level than me, it doesn't mean much as I find a lot of groups 10-15 levels above me doing missions I would casually solo. But it feels like I'm less likely to encounter someone power tripping.

[cobalt patrol]

I know one reason I personally avoid a lot of PvP games these days is that I'm generally quite good at games, but not in a way that enables me to carry.

So it gets very hard to tell in a PvP environment if I'm loosing because of missplays, or loosing because of teammates not backing me up, or what

[barren reef]

I'm reminded of the dumb Harada headline "younger gamers don't like fighting games because they don't have teammates to blame"

[honest acorn]

I do think that's a real thing

Fighting games really only let you ban their cheap character and the network

[unkempt river]

But also, I'm maybe a 5 or 6/10 at games, so the Personal Problem/Personnel Problem is extra confounding.

[honest acorn]

No "they won because our Mercy sucked" ego defense

[barren reef]

Mmm. I think it's more an issue of having very limited group play (gotta pair off) and still being pretty bad at onboarding new players.

The ego defense will show up anyway, it just is more obviously deluded in the context of fighters.

[honest acorn]

Oh no

[honest acorn]

I think the 1v1 format is inherently more intense

[barren reef]

What a juicy 500 target...

[honest acorn]

extremely

[alpine seal]

on the other hand this is what's contributing to the mission archetype being surprisingly easy, a lot of bots clump up right here because of their pathfinding prioritizing us over the doors / generators

the diver who posted it says J1 threw a 500 down there and it killed 30 of them

[barren reef]

I had a defense on the map with high ground in the middle, and big trench walls with a building you could put your back against at the top. There were so many stuck tanks that it just clogged the bots up, making them pretty easy to manage.

[heady halo]

yooo the misaligned sights got called out and noticed in the last patch as needing to be fixed

https://www.tumblr.com/helldivers-2/747290163674333184/new-patch-01000202?source=share

[stone bridge]

yes

[heady halo]

hell yeahhhhh

[idle hollow]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/385934814231920640/1227364846669008906/slipspace_rupture_detected.mov?ex=66282396&is=6615ae96&hm=7934a3d7918f8cfbcc29f00a854a29f9372dee8d22d2cf984cb274c31a24c6d6&

[pastel igloo]

nice

[glacial light]

The one helldiver vacationing on cyberstan and now is living it up

[honest acorn]

<@&1206091872716595200> anyone looking to start a second group?

[oblique lotus]

sure I'm up

<@&1206091872716595200> LF2

[stone bridge]

I'll be there in a bit

[idle hollow]

joel

[idle hollow]

this is literally the plot to doom the plutonia experiment

doom guy is on holiday near the UAC facility doing the plutonia experiment and goes in when it goes wrong, because the military would take too long

[random socket]

best part of plutonia tbh

yeah take that the casali brothers

how dare you make a successful and decently liked expansion pack I thought wasn't especially good

[meager saffron]

hi civvie

[random socket]

i'm offended

though apparently he likes chex quest which is interesting

[idle hollow]

i mean

hard not to

it's just doom but cereal

[meager saffron]

doom if it was good

[random socket]

I like that Brutal Chex is a thing you can do in this timeline

[meager saffron]

what about turbo booster chex

[random socket]

Oh god does Guncaster support Chex?

Holy shit

Finding out it supported Hexen kind of blew me away

[turbid tapir]

Also, it's 9 hours to go and we haven't defended one planet
I have a feeling this automaton assault is not ending here

[pastel igloo]

i mean

defense shit pretty much sucks

[glacial light]

Yea we do got to lose some of tbem

I feel like Joel made it near impossible so we get a nice little loss story bit

[random socket]

(Guncaster does not run off Chex Quest )

[turbid tapir]

it would be narratively funny if "This automaton fleet is 10 times larger than any previously seen"
Annnnd its dead

[random socket]

Is there any real point hopping on some dives right now or should I just wait for tomorrow

[turbid tapir]

So it makes sense we're losing for once. I suspect Joel is still tuning parameters to meet the ravenous fanbase

[glacial light]

Automatons done for good, cyberstan secured, we have deleted them from the game

[cerulean sluice]

(Bots as a gameplay element are brought back as the result of a Voting Algorithm emegently becoming intelligent and deciding that free will and human nature are incompatible with Democratic Freedom.)

[pastel igloo]

makes sense we are losing

not massively keen on forced losses but it is what it is

[cerulean sluice]

Good shock test for the new and improved defense exclusive mission

[turbid tapir]

Actually, now that I think of it, could we see cyborgs reenter the automaton's forces given that they're going to take Cyberstan and liberate their creators?

[pastel igloo]

they already liberated Cyberstan entirely

[glacial light]

I could see cyborgs as additional enemy types for automatons as elite solider of sorts, wonder what they'd do

[unkempt river]

teleports behind you "ch, sorry kid." sheathes cyberkatanna. helldiver fucking explodes

[alpine seal]

THE DOGS

THEY'LL BRING BACK THE HOUNDS

FREEDOM HAVE MERCY

[merry cosmos]

Oh god oh fuck OH GOD OH FUCK OH GOD OH

[hazy oriole]

two questions in one before i head off to helldive with an off-server buddy:

how many impact nades does it take to kill a hulk to the vents

and is the grenade launcher good for bots, because i gave it a try on bugs and had fun

[meager saffron]

I think it's two to kill a hulk to the vents?

grenade launcher is aight although I think loses some utility because you're not usually asked to close seven holes at once at multiple locations on the map

and bots clump differently and at further ranges than bugs tend to

still good and fine

[wide mural]

I liked grenade launcher for killing striders stress free but it lacks against anything heavier, and the striders aren't that difficult to deal with in the first place

so once I got past like, 5 difficulty I started looking for something else

[sour whale]

grenade launcher is decent at clearing bot drops, since they all drop clustered up. can deal with devastators too, which is nice, but it'll struggle against anything heavier

[meager saffron]

arc thrower mostly served for killing striders without any thought

ofc you have to worry about blue falcons but in fairness the GL also has the occasional fuckup

[hazy oriole]

how well does arc thrower do against hulks?

[meager saffron]

it can actually stun flame hulks

even on a fork hit

[merry cosmos]

https://www.tumblr.com/spaceshiphorror/747212439090757632/this-is-never-going-to-happen-and-i-honestly?source=share

[hot meadow]

:\

[merry cosmos]

What's the face for?

[honest acorn]

Extremely

[oblique lotus]

stunlock

[honest acorn]

Stunlocks and kills in 3-5 shots

[pastel igloo]

I don't think it would actually

[merry cosmos]

Be interesting you mean?

[pastel igloo]

Yes

[merry cosmos]

How so

[pastel igloo]

That's literally the boring "realistic" war is hell option

We already know what that entails

It's possibly the least interesting thing the game could do

Imo

Sorry if i come off as like, dismissive

[north fiber]

So, did a level 6 version of the new defense just now

Shit fucking slaps

Just conga line of tanks and explosions and turrets and MMMM

[merry cosmos]

I don't think HD2 should do it specifically. But displaying the inevitable infighting that comes with fascism through multiplayer faction wars would be interesting

[pastel igloo]

I just personally think that is a really uninteresting idea

[honest acorn]

Yeah it was really fun

[north fiber]

Thinking on it, I think it's the first mission we've played where a recoiless team is absolutely justified DPS wise

[meager saffron]

yaaaaay

\o/

[north fiber]

There is so much armored HP coming through those gates you actually need to think about DPS

[meager saffron]

getting to actually run the recoilless in a coordinated team is so much fun

[oblique storm]

Recoiless teams are fucking a godsend for bugs

[meager saffron]

briar and I LOCKED IN and were just two-tapping hulks and decapitating charger after charger

we ran resupp/RR too so we had bottomless mags

[stone bridge]

its genuinely a treat when you have good coordination

[oblique storm]

Like when there's 5+ Bile Titans it's probably the only thing that can actually like

make a difference

[honest acorn]

I think the new base defense one is an ideal use case for team loading it yeah

good lord that was a lot of tanks

[stone bridge]

if the gunner runs a supply pack and the loader carries an ammo guzzler like the MG, GL or HMG + grenade armour you have an extremely potent duo

because resupplying rockets also fuels your death machine that's otherwise ammo gated

[meager saffron]

RR is already okay when run solo but if you're running it with a dedicated loader you so quickly just melt through situations that would otherwise require a lot of well-timed and placed strats

[alpine seal]

funnily enough with the hulk stagger and range nerf the arc thrower might be a better bot weapon than bug weapon to me post-patch

dedicated medium to heavy removal tool

[meager saffron]

fuck this heavy in particular

[honest acorn]

The hard cap of 35 meters of range makes it tricky for bots but its good

[meager saffron]

it's not as absolutely free as it used to be

but it's well worth it

[stone bridge]

i think its a really good strategy in general, you just need both people on the same page

[meager saffron]

once upon a time you could snipe walkers from DEEP with that gun

yeah you can really easily just output so much overwhelming firepower at a situation with good aim

[stone bridge]

team reloading a recoilless puts the Quasar to bed and brother, it's taken heavy duty sleep meds

[meager saffron]

quasar's still not bad for easing up on how fast you rip through resupplies

[stone bridge]

oh yeah

[meager saffron]

like when we ran across shrieker nests

we just dipped and let Briar take care of it since they had the quasar

[stone bridge]

The Quasar is the better solo weapon like 100%

[honest acorn]

Yeah I just think that kind of static defense in a small area makes it really good

[alpine seal]

once i squad up with my friend group i think i'll pick up the RR again on those missions, been a long while since it's been on my radar

[meager saffron]

yeah it seems exceptional for those kinds of stand-and-deliver situations

[stone bridge]

makes sense!

it keeps you clustered, which is important

[alpine seal]

tried the spear a few times and despite its interesting lock on conditions i liked it a lot as well

so i imagine it not being too much of a leap

[meager saffron]

spear is a little different because it's got its own ergonomic/reliability issues

if you can handle the scope lag and click the head with RR you get your shot off pretty reliably

[honest acorn]

once they fix the lock on weirdness it'll be great

[meager saffron]

thankfully

real

[stone bridge]

yeah the Spear is probably gonna be goated once the lock-on gets more lenient

[north fiber]

You know what would slap in the new game mode? The antitank emplacement from the first game

[stone bridge]

especially now its ammo problems are fixed

[meager saffron]

real

[rough ravine]

I wanna do a recoiless team

I've had one mission opportunity to be reloaded and fuxk it's fast

[meager saffron]

it's FAST

it's literally the autoloading meta all over again

but instead of a well everyone sits in the bubble this time for burn

[honest acorn]

ooh a shield generator would probably be aces

[meager saffron]

yuh

[alpine seal]

HMG emplacement is also getting reps this mission type

[north fiber]

Eh it's good until the tank conga line starts

[alpine seal]

i used it a few times to test but yeah it's very dependent on how many explosions are going off

[north fiber]

then there's too much armor and it's usual targets are getting chewed up by the mortars

[meager saffron]

rocket/ac turrets could be fun

[north fiber]

They're excellent

[alpine seal]

i've always been an ac turret follower, has an impressive load of ammo and can go to bat with basically all the bots

[meager saffron]

I've found them pretty great in regular missions honestly

ac turret can fuck up heavy bugs and bots pretty effectively

[north fiber]

AT mines would not go unloved either

[meager saffron]

I think chargers flinch

[alpine seal]

i take it quite frequently when i'm using a backpack weapon and have a spare slot, it's often between that and ems strike

[cobalt patrol]

The new base defence is a great opportunity for double mortar loadouts.

[alpine seal]

also destroys the despicable bile spewers, my least favorite bug

[meager saffron]

yeah they really don't like it when they eat an AC round through the torso

either they get ragdolled or splosh

[alpine seal]

overall one of my favorite picks for a spare stratagem. sometimes i run it with my own autocannon for double the ac goodness

[meager saffron]

this is getting out of hand!

[alpine seal]

as a slow firing turret type it feels less prone to turning to teammates, though obviously at melee range that won't save me

but that's the case with all the sentries except ems mortar

speaking of - ems mortar's also pretty dang good even outside of defense missions

a good middle ground between ems strike and other sentries

i've yet to try the exosuit vs. bots after being burned by rockets in the past, though it might have good use now that explosive damage vs. it has been fixed

doesn't sound like it'll hold up vs. high level tank armadas though

[oblique lotus]

exo holds up a lot better

not being vaporized by rocket devs is huge

[hazy oriole]

3 failed evac missions in a row 😭

i hate this damn mission time fr fr

[stiff pine]

same

[honest acorn]

I used to be a defender for them but it’s just stupid how there’s only 1 viable strat and it doesn’t make sense

[stiff pine]

I like the new defence mission thing

that was cool

my only thing about it is that they probably don't need to be dropship only, just have bots walk in from outside

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/cb/46/44/cb464461fb892a54784ff2b7c02ced31.gif

When are the automatons getting this

it would be based cos it could be a light vehicle with a gun that just drops the basic bots

[honest acorn]

That’s kinda what the tanks were in HD1

They still had turrets but also dropped off lots of light infantry as an APC

Would be cool to see in 2

[hazy oriole]

and they're on every fuckin op too 😭

[honest acorn]

Yeah I always do em first to minimize possible medal loss

[oblique storm]

Man B1 battle droids were cool

[civic apex]

https://tenor.com/view/nice-shot-battle-droids-star-wars-the-bad-batch-good-shooting-nice-aim-gif-1040588276209027078

https://youtu.be/-XCr86yegt4

[royal lantern]

Just dropped in to a suicide mission where there were two gunship depots immediately adjacent to us

There were 10 up by the time our last diver was running in circles getting blown apart

[dusky solar]

They must have stealth buffed gunship spawn rate

We also got shrekt on our first encounter of the evening. We ended up putting 3 ACs onto the spawns while the other player does the hellbomb

[stone bridge]

I imagine the "increased resistance" buff is being applied currently

[dusky solar]

Before, it felt like one person could comfortably solo a gunship fabricator

[stone bridge]

Which makes sense

[dusky solar]

Yep

On the plus side i got to do 2 full operations of 9s

https://tenor.com/view/im-doing-my-part-serious-stare-gif-11979677

[strange vine]

i did a fembot version of the berserker

[blissful sparrow]

extra padding for protection 😄

[cobalt patrol]

They're very frustrating, yes.

It's extra annoying because like, it's not unsalvagable in it's current state - you mostly just need things to deploy further out.

Or hell, simply make the map a bit bigger with multiple extract points, so things are more split up

[civic apex]

||https://youtu.be/8q4jWeo5oxA||

[hot meadow]

the new defend citizens mission for bots is heinous

not bad

just WOW so hard