Beyond the individual Weaves,
Fatshark is also planning a
leaderboard that tracks how many
Weaves you’ve completed in total.
Thanks to the difficulty scaling, the
gauntlet can be essentially infinite.
“Each of these Weaves is going to
be hand tailored because we’re
removing the randomness from
them,” says Batsford. “We’re going to
need to set spawns for these and
make sure they work for each one.
But we’re obviously not going to be
able to do that endlessly. So we need
to do that for a set amount, and then
we’ll probably repeat them with a
higher difficulty.”
I’m intrigued by the idea, and –
even at this early stage – Fatshark is
doing some cool things with the look
of the Weaves. Metal stages are a
bathed in rusty yellow. Veins of ore
grow out of the ground like tree
roots, and fields of giant swords
appear off in the background. “The
one I’m looking forward to the most
is Fire,” says Batsford, “because the
idea right now is to get it so you can
feel like you’re walking through a
forest fire. So it’s like everything is
burning, the sky
is on fire, ash
everywhere. It’s
the perfect
excuse to get
some Sienna
voice lines going.
She’s loving it.”
The key for
Fatshark, I feel,
will be nailing the mutators for each
Wind – ensuring that each is fun to
tackle and scales clearly – and
offering a wide enough variety of
objectives and scenarios. Something
that may help, and that the team is
currently considering as a possibility,
is making the Weaves seasonal. That
could potentially lead to new
mutators being added each season, as
well as a reshuffling of the order so
that players get to experience Weaves
they couldn’t previously reach.
In addition to the new mode,
Fatshark aims to shake up the base
game as well. As you’ll have noticed
from our cover art, Winds of Magic is
bringing Beastmen to the game. “We
have this duality in the game,” says
Mats Andersson, head of Vermintide
II’s action team. “We have a lot of
players who are into it because of the
feeling and the lore and the
immersion, so the Beastmen are a
huge part of that, because they’re
cool and scary and it’s cool to play
against them. And then we have that
other set of challenge-based players,
who really go in-depth to master the
combat loop. We really want theFATSHARK IS ALSO
EXPERIMENTING
WITH GIVING
UNGORS BOWSABOVE: A typical
Gold Wind level. Bring
a pickaxe.
BELOW:
Coincidentally, this is
what I look like when
I’m writing captions.Beastmen to target both of those
types – similar to what we’re doing
with the Winds of Magic mode.”
The bulk of the Beastman force
will be made up of Gors – the grunts
analogous to the Skaven’s Clanrats or
Rotblood’s Raiders. But it’s the
secondary units that make the
Beastmen such interesting enemies.
Smaller Ungors will rush players in
great numbers – similar to the
Skavenslaves – but will also fight in
conjunction with Gors. “The thing
we’re experimenting with now is
adding Ungors that use spears,” says
Andersson, “so we get enemies with a
bit more distance ... you can have that
thing where you’re swinging the
weapon and it’s kind of nice, and all
of a sudden I have guys that keep a
bit more distance. I’m swinging my
weapon and I’m not hitting it.”
Fatshark is also experimenting
with giving Ungors bows –
potentially in large groups, making
them difficult to take out at range.
“One of the things these guys are
supposed to be doing is giving one of
your team members a problem to
solve while fighting,” says Andersson.
“Because, for the
higher difficulties,
I want more
problems to be
able to throw at
the players, and
have them clearly
and distinctly
provide different
gameplay. This is
not something that will disable you,
but it is something that will require
you clear a path to get at them.”KNOW WHAT’S BEST
Creating more problems to throw at
the players is something of a mantra
for the Beastmen design. The
Bestigor – the elite unit of the
Beastmen – is a large, armoured
brute that charges headlong into
players. “What you have is a 250 kilo,
huge-ass armoured goat with a
halberd running at you and throwing
your ass to the ground,” enthuses
Andersson. “And that really helps to
create a separate combat loop for the
Beastmen.” Pleasingly, the Bestigor
will also flatten any other enemy
units that are standing between him
and his target – something players
can potentially use as a tactic.
Bestigors have no chill.
Those are the standard units- what Fatshark calls the roaming set
- but, as with Skaven and the
Rotblood Tribe, the Beastmen are
also bringing new specials and
monster units. Take the beefcake on
our cover, the Minotaur. “He’s going
Warhammer Vermintide II: Winds of Magic
COVER FEATURE