Versus - Dev Blog #2

Vermintide 2 - Versus is a new player vs. player game mode for Warhammer: Vermintide 2. It will be 4 vs. 4 gameplay, and you will be able to play as characters from both the Skaven and Chaos, as well as the Heroes of Ubersreik. Take turns playing on the Hero or the Pactsworn side.

In this Dev Blog we will take a slightly closer look at the technical side of Versus. Looking briefly at game format, how objectives will work, levels and enemy spawning. We are as always super excited to share more details about Versus with you.

Game Format

A full game of Versus is played with eight players, with each team consisting of four players. The two teams, team A and B play a mission where team A starts playing on the Hero side and team B starts on the Pactsworn side. 

Playing a Hero is much like playing a regular mission in Vermintide 2 with a slight twist, Heroes must fight off hordes of enemies, complete an important objective and progress through to the end to get home safely while also fighting the Pactsworn team. In Versus there is also a round timer to keep the Hero team moving forward.

Playing on the Pactsworn side your goal is to stop the Hero side from progressing through the mission. When Team A has finished their round on the Hero side, the teams will swap sides and play the mission again.

To win a match of Versus your team must complete more objectives than the opposing team. 

Objectives

Reaching a new area or progressing through the level in other ways like interacting with an elevator or completing a puzzle can be used as objectives in Versus. Objectives grant extra time for the round timer.

Some objectives also contain sub-objectives, they are usually increments of progress that can be made. An example of this is fitting three explosive barrels to a door, where each of those barrels is a sub-objective to blowing up the door. Sub-objectives can be used to determine a winner, but they do not grant extra round time.

Levels

Vermintide 2: Versus uses familiar Vermintide 2 missions and their locations with some modifications. As mentioned in a previous blog post we are more selective of where Pactsworn can climb and move around the map. We are trying to create interesting spots for engagement to always have some options when ambushing the Hero team.

Pickup placement will be different from the main game. Having them randomized did not feel great and at times created an unfair advantage. We have tried several different solutions and currently, the best one is having the pickups placed without any randomization on each mission. This is something we’re trying out and may change.

Enemy Spawning

The amount of AI-controlled enemies is being tested as well as their difficulty settings. We want the main obstacle for the Hero team to be the opposing Pactsworn team, but there is an important factor in the AI-controlled enemies, distraction and added pressure. Having very few enemies on the map makes it less Vermintide while having too many enemies makes Pactsworn players feel less impactful. This is something we will have to constantly monitor to keep the matches interesting. Currently, the density of AI in the missions is somewhere between Recruit and Champion difficulties, and their hit points and attack damage settings are closer to Veteran.

In the current build, we are using randomized seeds persistent through the rounds of a match. Unlike pickups, this doesn’t feel very unfair between the rounds, and it is a very important part of making Vermintide 2 - Versus an interesting experience.