"Bit of a troubling one for you. Seems we've had a bloody great meteor make a mess. Sort it out, would you?"
Q: Why is the download so large?
A: With the release of 2.0 (the patch that accompanies Winds of Magic) we made the decision to remaster the game. Whilst this requires one hefty download upon updating to the latest version, it comes with it some benefits which include both faster load times when playing, as well as a smaller overall file size on your computer.
All available difficulties use the same scale and settings: 0%, 20% or 40% damage increase per stagger count by default. Stagger count is how many times an enemy have been staggered in succession (hit once for 1, hit again during that stagger for 2, further hits cap out at 2).
Pushes and heavy tank attacks (2h hammer heavies for instance) will put stagger count to 2 on first hit because they’re better.
Stagger is any reaction that interrupts an attack (which is every single attack on any weapon against horde enemies or Clan rats/Gors, only elites and since last week Marauders have a level of stagger reduction and resistance that makes them ignore a hit).
There are three default animation categories of stagger;
- Light: a flinch in place (fencing sword vs Clan rat),
- Medium: a stepback (sword vs Clan rat,
- Heavy: a throw and fall over (big hammer vs face of Clan rat)
We also made a slight slight change so that pushes against unstaggered enemies in particular and staggers in general will favour Medium stagger (raising the threshold for heavy staggers), not displacing enemies so badly and help set them up for further hits.
Further, the talent choices introduced towards the stagger damage dynamic have been tweaked to allow better control of how players interact with the mechanic. Smiter (a flat ”count everything as stagger count 1, or flat 20% dmg bonus” on first target) and Assassin (a nice ”count headshots and crits as full stagger count", or 40% dmg bonus) gives and option to bypass the system and hit breakpoints but with limitations or skill requirements. Both Bulwark (add an extra 10% dmg taken buff to all enemies staggered by you for 2 seconds on top of any stagger-damage bonuses) and Mainstay (add 0%, 40% or 60% dmg per stagger count instead) had their effects increased for those who like to play towards the mechanic.
Ranged attacks use the stagger damage and get bonuses against staggered targets But count all targets as stagger count 1, or 20% extra damage (basically all ranged attacks have the Smiter talent, but for all targets hit). This is to align them with breakpoints.
All difficulties have the same dodge settings to ensure learnability and provide a good balance between chaotic gameplay with client lag and requiring skilled timing and choice of defence. Final setting after Beta rounds is 0.5s dodge extension (delay for enemies to start tracking after you end a dodge move) across all difficulties.
"We have no plans at this time to branch out in to a PvP mode for Vermintide 2. At it's core the design is co-op - you and yours VS the bad guys - and we don't want to split our focus away from what really makes Vermintide special. We feel we hit the nail on the head when it comes to a truly rewarding melee-co-op-romp, and we want to continue down that path." - Vermintide 2 Steam FAQ from 2017Why the u-turn?