WARNING: this became even more massive than my previous similar thread, Suggestions - from small tweaks to large features. Salute to the brave warriors who trudge through this!

(Surely to be filed under wishful thinking, but I had fun writing this).

As mentioned on a previous thread, I'd be thrilled if Martyr got a Director's Cut treatment at some point, as I find it an excellent game were few adjustments would grant great dividends, as the core systems are very robust and well thought out (even if many were kind of abandoned on the way).

Reasons Martyr has become one of my favorite ARPGs, if not my favorite:

• Fun enemy behavior: enemies have complex behavior patterns that have personality and bring the world alive, which is unusual in an ARPG. They convincingly react to noise, take cover, throw grenades, have patrols, lay mines, retreat, try to surround you, or pursue you relentlessly. The best part is that enemies interact with the most of the mechanics the player does (e.g. cover objects, suppression, etc.), making them real entities of the world and not doodads.
• Interactive Environment: the environment is interactive – it is destructible, offers covers spots, traps, obstacles, etc. and is not just a painted blank space as typical in the genre.
• Suppression system and interplay with debuffs: the suppression mechanic and its relation to the two-tier debuff system is great. For the player, it gives tangible feedback of overwhelming opposition, and a more "realistic" feel to combat. For enemies, it gives a tactical dimension to countering opponents (suppress/debuff vs. outright damage).
• Active defenses (Cover and Shielding/Dodge): the suppression system ties with the varied defensive mechanics available for ranged and melee. In particular, the underappreciated (and unsupported) Cover System is fun and responsive (if you turn off single keypress mode, anyway).
• Weapon related skills: having weapons being a source of unique attacks instead of "stat sticks" sets Martyr well above other ARPGs. Not to mention the addition of distinctive utility items (Belts). The variety achieved by this choice is huge (especially since one-hand weapons can be dual wielded or combined with other types). Characters with different weapon/belt sets have truly unique flavors.
• Skill tag system (“Demolisher”, “Fleshbane”, etc.): this is another piece of elegant design that helps to give varied roles to skills, beyond "damage" and "more damage".
• Sensible progression system: the cleverly designed passives trees are unassumingly powerful, attribute keystones and specially perks offer a lot of hard choices and bring a lot of distinction between characters. It’s subtler than other ARPGs, but really enjoyable.
  Attention to detail: difficult to categorize little details, such as having detailed information / numbers in a configurable “tactical View” instead of cramping the view by default.
• Excellent Art Direction: the art design of this game is exceptional (I include graphics, sound design, animation, etc.) and reflects the atmosphere of WH40K like no other. Even the script is true to the setting.
• I like the game engine (in looks and features), and I appreciate developers using in-house engines.

As you can see, most interesting things about the game for me come from the original "real time tactics" concept, and not the later, Diablo-like elements which you can gather I'm not a fan of. In fact, you’ll note that many things I like are invalidated by progressively introduced features: large damage multipliers, insta-kill mechanics/auras, prevalence of passive recovery against active defense, excessive speed, movement skills that ignore obstacles, barrage of speedy actions with no opportunity cost or commitment.

With this in mind, I’d been mulling about a much deserved Final Edition / Director’s Cut that not only polishes the game’s systems and bring the best of the game to bear, but gives designers a new opportunity to end the project in a personally satisfying note. Read on for the lengthy, tiered proposal (with more ambitious elements further on).

Bugfixes

• Priority Assignments are utterly bugged: all missions are of the Purge type (regardless of contradicting introductory texts), and investigation conclusion doesn't grant and evaluation screen making "Success Level" and "Collaterall Damage" moot. The new "reward" is also rather insulting (e.g. one green item at level 100). They used to work Ok before.
• Fix all bugs listed here: Hierophant - Bugs and Suggestions. At the very least, fix the Hierophant Cover bug.
• Also, consider fixing the bugs reported on Frat's excellent Martyr Game Guide.
• Enemy Grenades: DoT from grenades occurs even when grenade impact point is avoided by the player. Also, enemy grenade DoT is eliminated by killing the enemy who threw the grenade. Both bugs together mean that instead of avoiding a grenade, a vulnerable player needs to “eat it” and immediately charge the enemy, which is the opposite of what should be encouraged.

New compatibility/sale features

These will help the game get extra exposition and sales, while being beneficial to players.

• Steam Deck support - it's already most of the way there, but the final certification, if properly advertised, will certainly boost sales.
• GOG release: a DRM-free release will grant extra sales and exposition, not to mention being a good industry practice.
• Mod support (e.g., via Steam Workshop), probably only for Offline mode.

Housekeeping and Quality of Life

Taking stock of the existing game elements and balancing them in relation to one another is the first step to an ultimate release. It’s easier than it sounds.

• Tutorials: some features are either not documented or obscure when they could simply have an in-game tutorial.
  • Debuff icon Legend: bring the debuff icon explanations from the pause menu (few people know it's there) to a Tutorial screen.
  • Combat States icon Legend: update the Combat States Tutorial to include correct effects (Berserk is outdated) and show the icons associated with each state.
  • Massacre effects: a list of all possible “Massacre” events (e.g., “Tactical Strike”, “Unbreakable”) with their icons and effects.
  • Aimed Shots: specify the effects of each Body Part shot on the existing Tutorial.
  • Chat screen: add a Tutorial for the Chat Screen describing undocumented features such as: channel switching with "Tab" key, item linking with "Shift" key.
  • Weekly buffs: include in the Compendium new unlisted ones such as "Week of the Warp Surge" (describe Warp Fleck effects), "Week of the Void", etc.
  • Enemy Health Bar legend: showing their suppression states, debuffs, properties, how to tell if an enemy is armoured (I understand this relates to the text property and NOT the suppression bar), etc. I still get confused to this day because it’s not properly documented.
• Information available on a mission:
  • Allow to view the tooltips of the player and enemy icons (buffs/debuffs) while on the pause menu (as is already possible in Gamepad control mode).
  • Combat states (Enraged/Focused/Berserk/...): change the colors of the icons for the states so that they're readily visible. Add a small "highlight heartbeat" effect to the corresponding icon on achieving the state or additional token.
  • Show the mission modifiers on the pause menu. Often players find unexpected challenges or unexplained effects and can't know if they're due to misunderstood/forgotten modifiers.
  • Bring back the old large killstreak banners (e.g., “Unbreakable”) as an Option in the menu. Add some states to the banner: Enraged, Berserk.
• Stats Screen: in general this is very robust, but some stats (including build defining ones) are not included or lack information. Some omissions to be addressed:
  • "Critical Chance" Tooltip doesn't reflect soft/hard caps.
  • Execution-related stats ("Execution Chance", "Execution Duration", "Execution Damage Bonus", etc.) don't show up anywhere.
• Have normal (non-Relic) item appearances (armour and weapons) available randomly for Relic/Archeotech/Ancient/Morality items as well. Many characters look the same though there are many additional appearances that are rarely used. This also includes Signums.
• Mark (highlight) newly acquired recipes in the crafting screen until clicked.
• More exhaustive and systematic display of buff/debuff icons for the game effects.
  • Make a pass and add an icon for all (or most) temporary/state effects, including those from passives and perks. Examples of missing ones: "Attack Anchor" and "Urban Warfare" passive skills.
  • States granted with passives or perks: shown with their corresponding icon.
  • States granted by Psalm effects (e.g. "damage resist on kill"): shown with the appropriate psalm icon.
  • Combat States (Focused, Enraged, Berserk): differently colored icons, icon highlight effect on activation / token gain.
  • Show icons for debuffs (including DOTs) applied on the character. May use red border to differentiate from regular buffs.
  • Consider displaying icons on two rows for better readability. E.g., states and major effects on top, debuffs, minor effects and psalm effects on second row.
• Add icon or border graphic to distinguish Holy and Daemonforged Morality Items.
• Reward rebalance for different activities (Story Investigations, Priority Assignments, Planetary Influence, etc.). Currently Void Crusades are the be-all and end-all and the other game modes are unrewarding and mostly abandoned (and even bugged - see Priority Assignments). It's a shame since the game has such varied systems and funnels everyone to the same activity. Originally the concept was that different activities yielded different rewards, but this was left behind. Some measures:
  • Void Crusades: they are the baseline to measure the rest of the changes. The guideline is: would I feel like I'm wasting my time by doing this instead of a Void Crusade? If the answer is yes in ALL scenarios (e.g., VC offers well-rounded rewards but maybe some activity is better for Leveling, another for Glory, another for Favour, etc.) the balance is wrong (which is the case now).
  • Story Investigations: Improve the Fate Rewards and greatly increase the experience rewards, so that finishing all investigations (that's a LOT of missions) gets you to a high level (85+?) and ready to pounce on the rest of the activities.
  • Priority Assignments: currently they grant no reward at all (see bug section above). Reinstate the Results Evaluation and give you a potential "Glory" Reward competitive to finishing a Void Crusade (the Glory penalties should be moderate but relevant - add a warning in RED for easily frustrated fellows). Also, reinstate different mission types according to the introductory description (Rescue, Hunt, etc.). Finally, you could add internal CYOA events that grant you unique rewards (e.g. item packs, consumables) or just fun choices.
  • Warzone: either scale missions to player level, or scale Warzone to be an endgame activity again (say, from Mission Levels 90 to 110).
  • Planetary Influence: some influence rewards are outdated (exception: Tarot Cards and Inoculator components). Change them generously, as they're one-time rewards. Example: material rewards changed to generous amounts of "Machine God's Spark" and "Sparks of Glory", item rewards changed to special packs comparable to Void chests, etc.
  • Intels: they are rewarding, but also redundant and isolated from the rest of the game. Change their behavior, as an item that can be applied (as in Tarot cards) to an existing Planetary Map mission to bring them to player level+X and apply random Intel modifiers. This makes them more targeted, relevant for Planetary Influence, and also brings the Star Map missions a purpose.
  • Star Map Missions: bring their level range to player level +/-X and/or integrate them with Intels as described above.
  • Ordo Missions: they are cool and rewarding as they are. Retain their behavior and limited number.
• Seasonal Journey and Offline Mode:
  • Add option to "retire" Seasonal character, i.e., the character rejoins the main character pool with his items and progress intact, exactly as when a true Season ended before.
  • Add option to transfer characters from Online to Offline (with identical transfer behavior as season endings.
  • Add option to have a Seasonal Offline character.
  • Consider option for LAN based multiplayer co-op on Offline mode.
• Small details:
  • Ordo Inquisitor fortresses on the Starmap/Mission list give an option to open their stores, receive missions and review your progress, as from the bridge.
  • Allow Signum appearance change at Omicron.

Tweaks and changes

The purpose of these is to add playstyle variety and fun by: balancing different choices so that they are not so clear-cut, highlighting unique mechanics of the game, bringing underpowered mechanics up to snuff.

• Revert/reform Tech Fragment system: see this thread "Tech Fragment System is godawful, it's not too late to remove it!" for details.
• Mission Level modifiers should be tweaked to grant enemies more resistance and less damage modifiers. Currently, all out offense is the only way, as killing enemies in one shot is both viable and imperative for survival. Also, there’s little player/enemy attrition. This limits viable mechanics.
• Less Inoculator charges from destructibles and lower % values for "free inoculator charge on kill" Secondary Enchant). The Inoculator Charges/Cooldown mechanic (and thus the Support Tree and many enchants) are trivialized by this. Add "additional inoculator charges from destructibles" Enchantment to bring the current status for those who wish to specialize on that.
• (Option Defaults) Disable “Single Keypress Cover Mode”. This makes cover flow much better.
• (Option Defaults) Disable “Character Pointlight” and enable “Character Flashlight” by default. This showcases the graphics better.
• Combat States:
  • As I see them, they should cater and boost different playstyles, but currently they either bring systems-breaking orders-of-magnitude multipliers at no cost, or are negligible. Conceptually I see the basic states as follows:
    • Berserk: your character takes damage and risks death, but dishes tremendous punishment.
    • Enraged: your character uses few but strong attacks.
    • Focused: you character is methodical, safe and slow, but proceeds with deadly efficiency.
  • Enrage and Berserk States: their current implementation brings the game down since: a) the advantage they provide is out of proportion with the rest of the choices available, b) they require setting all your items to support them, locking your character to a single build with no variety and c) MOST IMPORTANT - the multipliers are so big they trivialize the content of the game as enemies dissolve away before any interaction (especially when combined with exploitable effects as aura+debuff+explosion). They really need to be brought a peg down. Cap the tokens lower (e.g., 50 for Berserk, 10/+10 Wrath Implant for Enrage), GREATLY reduce per-token enchant values, or both.
  • Focused State: the state itself and supporting enchantments are a joke compared to the above states, though they'd be decent in a more sensible system. Combine the changes above with tweaks to the state:
    • Change base effect so that it rewards players who keep the effect up for long times, e.g., “Focused State: +50% HP and Suppression Regeneration / +3.5 Critical Hit Strength per second (stacks 60 times)”.
    • Improve the related damage enchants (e.g., from +30% to +50%, from 60% to 100% aimed/sniper skills).
  • Safe Warp Heat State (Psyker): the rewards for staying in this state vs. Unhinged are somewhat dubious. I'd think Unhinged should get a Suppression Damage Resist malus (-N%), on top of the anomalies.
• Level Scaling:
  • Reduce Damage over Time effects by enemies scaling. Currently it seems bugged - the damage gets much higher than that from other source of damage. While it's Ok for them to scale at a greater rate than discrete damage to avoid neutralization via regen, the current state makes them disproportionately dangerous for the player and makes non player entities (environment objects, summons such as Tarantulas and Imperial Guards, etc.) die extremely quickly.
  • Scale (up) cover/structural object HP/resistances. They are instantly destroyed on high level missions making Cover unreliable and rendering item tags such as "Demolisher" obsolete. (Also, it’s silly seeing a regular Soldier far tougher than a two-foot concrete wall).
  • Scale (up) damage on enemies from exploding containers and falling structures.
  • Scale (up) damage on players from environmental effects and traps: mines, exploding containers, Nurgle poison cloud, nerve gas trap, ground flame traps, etc.
  • Scale (up) Security Door (nerve gas event) HP/resistances (so that it doesn't open in one shot and poses some risk).
  • Scale (up) Weapon Emplacement damage when used by player (e.g. use enemy damage modifiers) so that using them is a nice bonus.
  • Tarantula Turret (from Sentinel Armour): improve scalability/survivability on high levels a bit by e.g., sharing player resistances partially or having more DoT resistance (e.g., immunity to bleed and poison). In offense they remain decent but it’d be great if they were treated as a player skill (thus benefitting from modifiers as "Damage against X" and applying effects - Vulnerability / Concussive Trauma).
• Items and Enchantments:
  • Ancient Items: they are actually pretty decent though underrated since Enrage/Berserk take up all slots in optimal builds. Still, to cement their status you could add: higher roll ranges to variable enchants (e.g. +20%), one extra (thematically appropriate) secondary enchant to those with a poor Relic enchant.
  • See comments on mechanics section about aura enchants (e.g. Fear/Shock aura on Enraged state).
  • Stun Mines are currently regarded as strictly inferior to Stun Grenades. Add the "Vulnerability (General)" tag, to apply Vulnerability stacks as per the rules in the "Mechanics" section.
  • Enchants with bonuses on reaching Exposed, Overwhelmed states should be greatly increased (x5…) to make them viable, albeit niche, choices.
  • Add Ancient Types on Grenades to Mines too.
  • Aether Blade Teleport is too spammable. Add Cooldown or some additional cost (e.g. Suppression).
  • Morality Nurgling summon enchantment: increase summon limit to at least 10, to at least offer a diversion.
• Psalm Doctrines / Shards: some should be moderated a bit.
  • Explode on Shock Psalm Doctrine: gives rise to dubious mechanics when combined with auras. See mechanics section to reform this. Otherwise, remove the effect.
  • Heat Aura: the effect application on tick must be reduced as explained elsewhere.
  • Some are underappreciated and could use a boost (e.g. Grenade & Mine Damage), but in general the balance is correct.
• Passives Trees and Perks:
  • Support Tree:
    • Battle Sister and Hierophant get better use out of inoculators (extra yellow Boost duration) through easily accessible skills than a character who fully invests in this passive Tree. The bonuses these classes get should be reduced (e.g.. 75% to 50% extra duration), and a comparable skill should be added to the Support Tree for those who specialize in inoculators (e.g., “Add 50% to the duration of Booster and Salves”).
    • "Divine Visions" (Crusader/Assassin/Adept) is a very poor for a capstone of a niche tree, and should improve (e.g., add 50% of current missing or 25% of total Focus/Adrenaline/Data-flux).
    • Basic skill (+4 Focus/Adrenaline/Warp Heat/Data Flux) and Assassin/Crusader/Adept "Perpetual Prayer" (+0.25 Resource Regeneration) are not scaled for their massive resource gains per level; it'd be better to change them to e.g., “+0.1 Resource Regeneration” and "+25% Total Resource Regeneration", respectively.
  • Melee Combat Tree:
    • "Weapon Mastery" grants bonus for Combo Skills on classes which don't have access to them (e.g., Hierophant/Psyker). For those classes, substitute by class-appropriate skills (e.g. for Hierophant "Melee attacks grant +5% damage bonus to Retinue Members for 4 seconds"). For Assassin, make sure "Death Cult Combos" are affected (and change description accordingly).
    • "Dueling Stance" change damage bonus to +20% or more.
  • Radical Path Tree: is still pretty poor, but cool in concept. Some suggestions:
    • “Radical Istvaanism” from +0.5% to +2% extra damage for missing HP%.
    • “Oblationist Penance” from 3% to +10% at least (very situational).
    • "Forbidden Knowledge” from +15% experience to "double experience bonus for Massacre effects", or change to different thematic effect (e.g. "+50 Item Quality" or "applying Warp damage gives +50% damage for the next 3 attacks of a different type").
  • Aimed Shots Tree: it's decent but too stingy for a specialized field. Example of minimal improvements:
    • +2% damage passive: change to at least 5%-10% (compare with Ranged Combat 3% bonus for ALL ranged attacks).
    • "Master Executor" capstone: change from +5% to +10-15% execution chance.
    • "Gaping Wounds: from +8 to +10 or more Critical Hit Strength.
  • Defence Tree:
    • "Optimal Concealment" to grant Supreme Damage Reduction in cover instead of normal DR. Otherwise it's wasted on high levels (since you want to max you uncovered DR if possible, taking cover would grant no benefit). Alternative effect: +10% Supreme DR and 10% Supreme Dodge/Deflect.
  • Execution Tree: a niche choice, but surprisingly decent. No changes here for now.
  • In general, the exclusive Passive trees for Battle Sister and Hierophant are clearly more powerful than for those of the initial batch of classes. I prefer the original design. Some tweaks would be welcome.
• Classes:
  • The attribute keystone effects are clearly more powerful for DLC classes that the initial roster. Some measures are welcome, e.g.: Change resistances in Crusader Toughness (Salamandra/Fortitude) to Supreme.
  • See "Passive Trees" section above for Battle Sister and Hierophant inoculator skills vs. Support Tree.
  • Assassin/Crusader get too much Adrenaline/Focus per level up, compared with the supposedly restrictive resources. I’d either improve the Support Tree passives (see above) or restrict the resource gain.
• General mechanics:
  • Effects with "stacks" such as DOTs and Vulnerabilities, should be applied in multiple stacks by skills with higher base/unmodified cooldowns (according to the cooldown, e.g.: x2 stacks for 1-1.9s CD, x3 for 2s-4.9s, x5 for 5s+).
  • Aimed/Sniper shots should have increased DOT/Vulnerability Stack efficiency as described above.
  • Weapons with a "Vulnerability" or "DoT (Burning/Bleed/Poison/etc.) should have an additional multiplier (x2) to the above amount, making them the optimal way to apply Vulnerability.
  • IMPORTANT: auras apply effects (including Vulnerability, DOTs and Debuffs such as Shock/Fear) at a 10% efficiency rate (that is, if you got 100% shock on hit, you shock on 10% of "ticks"). This is still insanely powerful for a passive effect, but doesn't make auras the debuff machine they are.
  • Aura effects: some aura effects break the game balance by making a no-input, insta-kill playstyle without disadvantages the optimal one. The current optimal way to play is not to engage with any game system but simply run through the map and pick up items (it's so bad that players complain that the items drop too slow for them to pick up!). The fix is not too difficult:
    • Gordian-knot solution: simply remove Psalm Heat Aura doctrine and Fear/Shock on Enraged state enchantments. They add nothing good to the game. Note that much weaker modifiers were "nerfed" or removed before, and they actually required clicking to activate.
    • Mechanics solution: see the change stated above - auras apply effects (including Vulnerability, DOTs and Debuffs such as Shock/Fear) at a 10% efficiency rate.
  • Energy Shields: their defensive strength is poor at high levels, but you’d not want them so effective as to be mandatory. I'd recommend a Psalm Doctrine (3, 4 or 5 slots) for those who specialize, e.g., "Energy Shields inherit 50% of your Damage Resistances".
  • Aimed Shots: Body Part effects are not documented anywhere (see note above on tutorial), but it feels like their debuffs should be more reliable, so that you could trust different shots for different situations or builds (e.g., "I always shoot the feet because I get bonus effects for Slow", etc.).

Hardcore Mode

Also could be called "Tactical Mode", as I described on the thread: Suggestions - from small tweaks to large features and justified on the threads: Neocore, please stop "steamlining" and Before 2.0... and beyond (some thoughts on gameplay).

This mode is a way to bring the original "Real Time Tactics" concept of the game to the forefront again, as an option for players who want a different, fresh experience. Also, it's a way to include mechanics that were removed (or simply not considered) to avoid player frustration, but would have added interesting choices and personality to the game. Basically, anything you thought was cool but discarded it in favor of "let's make this more like Diablo", you can bring back in this mode.

The idea is to have this entirely optional - you can even add a dedicated menu tab to allow the player to tailor the experience to his liking!

In an ideal world, this would also involve the original development team to grant them a personally satisfying capstone to the game - a mode they find interesting design-wise and cool in gameplay, regardless of Focus Groups, social network comments and so on. See Hardcore mode from Kingdom Come Deliverance as a reference.

Some specific features/limitations that can be included:

• CORE CONCEPT: skills take time to execute, with an animation time reasonably proportional to the depicted action, and concurrent incompatible actions are not possible. Some cooldowns may also increase. I’d start by restoring animation times, cooldowns, more scarce instant-cast and concurrent skills, etc. from the original release (before “Combat 2.0”). Bring back opportunity cost, commitment to action and other lost concepts! The work, in a way, is already done...
• To actually implement this, you could start by restoring the original classes’ skill parameters wholesale as a template, and then work on a proportional formula for new item skills/spells (the Sister of Battle will of course be a challenge, but I think it’s a fun project for the systems guys). THEN tweak, if needed.
• Mark stats affected by Hardcore mode (see below) in another font color (ideally, retain unaffected values between parenthesis).
• More limited stat ranges (example/reference values):
  • Cooldown reduction efficiency at around 50% (that is, the actual effect Cooldown modifiers is halved).
  • Cooldown reduction cap at e.g. 20% (40% with Supreme effects).
  • Movement speed increase efficiency at around 50%.
  • Movement speed cap at 100%.
  • Critical Hit Chance hard cap at 75%.
• Enemies: in general, they’re more resilient than in vanilla.
  • More enemy types get a Suppression Bar (including pseudo Champions such as guard captains). They could get a new category, “Veteran”.
  • Commanders get an aura granting Suppression bar to Regular enemies.
  • (Re?)Introduce Enemy Resistances (Heat/Burning, Physical, Warp, Poison and Bleed). They are tiered (e.g., Resilient 50%, Impervious 80), are applied to some thematically-appropriate enemies (e.g., Nurgling: Impervious to Poison), and shown on health bars (e.g. with colored dots – one concentric Resistant, two Impervious). They shouldn’t be insurmountable but encourage a smart approach from the player (weapon set switching, asymmetric dual wielding, resistance reducing Psalm-doctrine, etc.).
  • Horde enemies in particular get higher resistance/damage.
• Lower achievable damage multipliers. Tighter stat ranges – more variety in stat arrangements, not stat ranges.
  • Much stricter cap on Berserk and Enrage tokens (if not implemented in vanilla too as recommended).
  • Aura effects revised as specified above so that they don't trigger effects that efficiently (if not implemented in vanilla as well).
  • Psalm Doctrines revision. Heat aura revised as specified above (if not implemented in vanilla as well). Others (e.g. Triple Shot Doctrine, Explosion on Shock) get reduced effects. Lower damage multipliers across the board, except maybe for specialized doctrines (grenade and mines, constructs, etc.).
• Reduce effectiveness of low-investment passive “sustain” mechanics.
  • Life Drain effectiveness at 50% (includes HP on Hit, on Crit, etc.)
• Mission Level modifiers adjusted to grant enemies more resistance bonuses in relation to damage bonuses (if not done in vanilla as recommended), and maybe compressed to account for the tighter design + multiplier ranges.
• Mission types without “streamlining”: remove changes made to appease for player looking for faster “clear times” (Hardcore mode is not tuned for “farming”, but for actually playing!).
  • Datahunt / Secure the Artifact: restore original mechanic of holding the terminal to advance. Slightly fortify enemy waves.
  • Sabotage: restore the different target object shapes and general location marker. I loved the fact that you needed to check the shape of the object you wished to destroy; a rare moment where an ARPG required to pay a modicum of attention to the environment.
  • Nurgle Infestation: more dangerous poison ground effects.
• Environmental damage and traps: if not done in vanilla (see Tweaks/Scaling section above), increase (scale with difficulty) the damage done by those threats so that you can’t just ignore them at some point (unless your build is set up for it).
• Restore explosion on death for Rogue Psykers.
• Disable Tarot Card Removal.
• Disable in-mission equipment changes.
• No Area Attack nor Enemy Charge markers.
• No Belt Item last charge regeneration (except for maybe Fabricatus Field).
• No Inoculator Charges from destructibles.
• (Small detail) No Shortcut Keys to character spell/skill shrines (must select in bridge).
• Ancient weapons/signums must be equipped to be unlocked.
• (Optional) Suppression Resistance penalty when moving on combat. Nullified by shields.
• Goal: tighter control of stat ranges and parameters, so that the interactions are always mediated by the games systems (e.g. Shields won't become obsolete because extreme damage ranges).
• Design guideline: no build should be able to defeat +10 missions (vanilla modifiers) by stats alone - it should require hard fighting and tricks/tactics (at the very least, click and use more than one skill!).

(Continues...)