Don’t worry, Helldivers – developer Arrowhead has a solution for unscrupulous hosts who are kicking fireteam members from the lobby just before they secure their rewards.
Asked if players could “keep 50 percent of the samples collected if [they] get kicked by an arsehole lobby leader when the dropship has been called” – a fair question given griefing does happen in Helldivers 2 – community manager Twinbeard stressed that a “solution” is on the way.
“We’re actually working on a solution to mitigate problems with, well, ‘getting kicked by an arsehole lobby leader’ as someone once eloquently put it,” Twinbeard responded in the game’s Discord community. “No ETA on that, but it’s coming.”
The inspiration for the suggestion seemingly comes from Deep Rock Galactic, which similarly ensures a player receives 25 per cent of the XP and materials they accrue in the mission, even if they get kicked.
Other suggestions include a reputation system where the Helldivers 2 community itself gives out reputational awards at the end of matches, so good citizens can be matched together and trolls and griefers are forced to played together, too (thanks, VG.com).
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Helldivers 2 may be PlayStation’s fastest-selling game ever, but despite its initial success, player numbers have declined.
A look at the game’s Steam charts shows a steady drop since February, when the game launched. According to SteamDB, at its peak in February shortly after launch, there were 458,709 concurrent players. In comparison, its peak over the last 30 days is 166,305. That’s a drop of 64 percent.
The most notable explanation as why this has happened could be the infamous PSN debacle that kicked off earlier this month. At the start of May, Helldivers 2 publisher Sony announced players on Steam would soon be required to link a PlayStation Network (PSN) account to keep playing. This not only resulted in swathes of negative reviews from a very disappointed community, but the game was also pulled from sale in 177 countries where PSN was not available, forcing Sony to backtrack on its plans.