As Helldivers 2’s creative director steps down as CEO, he agrees guns are too weak, armor is too boring, and planets are too repetitive

Johan Pilestedt wants to get his hands dirtier in game design again

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Helldivers 2developerArrowhead Game Studios has a new CEO: Paradox veteran Shams Jorjani is replacing Johan Pilestedt. As Pilestedt becomes fully immersed in his continued position as Helldivers 2’s creative director, he agrees that the game is in need of a shakeup, especially when it comes to armor, weapons, and general variety.

Pilestedt said he’d be more active in the Helldivers 2 community after this change of hats, and he wasn’t kidding. The former CEO has been tweeting a mile a minute, and several comments stand out as he becomes fully focused on game design again.

Echoing much of the player base, one HelldiverreckonedPilestedt could start by “making armors have actual interesting stats,” improving on the “meh or bad” guns in the latest Warbond, and having “bots or bugs attack other planets instead of moving in a straight line.” The latest Warbond wasoverwhelmingly unpopular in a player poll, and with the Galactic War –sorry, the Second Galactic War– spinning its wheels across a small pool of familiar planets, similar complaints have been piling up recently.

“Agree on all points,” Pilestedt replied.

Another player helpfully advised that “you need to ensure more content to retain [the] player base.” Pilestedtagreedhere as well, and zeroed in on “longer lasting content as well.”

More generally, Pilestedtsaysthe “first thing we got to do is ensure we get more dev time playing the game. It’s hard to make the right decisions if the eyes aren’t on the road.

“Secondly, I want to ensure we actively look at the sentiment and create a holistic view of why feedback is given,” he continues. “And my working theory is that TTK is too high.” If the TTK (time to kill) is too high, then either guns are too weak or enemies are too tanky – but practically speaking, both problems mean that gunsfeeltoo weak, which certainly reflects the nerf-battered community’s sentiments. This also lines up with Pilestedt’s previous comment about underwhelming weapons, and reinforceshis belief that recent balance patches have gone too farand hit a point where “every time someone finds something fun, the fun is removed.”

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