Long time player (1,000+ hours), first time poster. I wrote this on Discord, and was referred to repost here:
Looking at steamcharts, after release, KF2 peaked average player numbers with the Monster Masquerade and Twisted Christmas updates. These added the DJ Hanz in Monsterball and Bad Santa, respectively. Everyone was pretty impressed with Santa's Workshop level, in particular. I know that these updates added guns—Monster Masquerade added the MKB, and Twisted Christmas added the MGL, but I don't remember more than that. But that comes to the point:
This game has long since moved past the point that adding new guns, is meaningfully adding to the game. I don't think player numbers peaked at Masquerade and Christmas because of the guns, Tripwire. I think it was because these events had inventive levels and new (or revised) characters.
You could, I'm sure, draw lots of players with more character-led levels, like Bad Santa's, with your existing characters: Foster's Home for Imaginary Zeds, for another Halloween event. Stand-your-ground in Rae Higgin's beachouse in Australia, complete with bikinis and swimtrunks and summer gear items. A trip inside Hayato Tanaka's mind, full of demons and yakuza from his insane theatre life. A Tom Banner level where you need to restore his LARP collection, and defeat a King Fleshpound in shining armor.
You could take a note from Left 4 Dead's past success, and make levels that move from stage to stage, instead of claustrophobic descents. You could move your efforts towards some kind of narrative, new character voice lines, a new (human, please) trader, that sort of thing. Destructible level elements, like drywall and plywood, from zed and survivor alike. Go crazy. Add a vehicle level if you're inspired. Heck, you could take 6 months devote to level optimization bugfixing, mod support, balance, etc, to significantly improve the game without dumping another elemental HRG gun or yet another $1100 rifle that most players will skip in favor of the tier 4s. I'm just spitballing here, but there is a lot you could do, with existing assets, no less.
Killing Floor 2 has little real estate left for new guns to find a home. Your game has a lot of life in it; you're still averaging about 5,000 players on PC. But you simply can't keep improving the game by adding new guns. There is a point where it becomes bloat, no pun in intended, and we may have already crossed that point.
Good luck in your development
Looking at steamcharts, after release, KF2 peaked average player numbers with the Monster Masquerade and Twisted Christmas updates. These added the DJ Hanz in Monsterball and Bad Santa, respectively. Everyone was pretty impressed with Santa's Workshop level, in particular. I know that these updates added guns—Monster Masquerade added the MKB, and Twisted Christmas added the MGL, but I don't remember more than that. But that comes to the point:
This game has long since moved past the point that adding new guns, is meaningfully adding to the game. I don't think player numbers peaked at Masquerade and Christmas because of the guns, Tripwire. I think it was because these events had inventive levels and new (or revised) characters.
You could, I'm sure, draw lots of players with more character-led levels, like Bad Santa's, with your existing characters: Foster's Home for Imaginary Zeds, for another Halloween event. Stand-your-ground in Rae Higgin's beachouse in Australia, complete with bikinis and swimtrunks and summer gear items. A trip inside Hayato Tanaka's mind, full of demons and yakuza from his insane theatre life. A Tom Banner level where you need to restore his LARP collection, and defeat a King Fleshpound in shining armor.
You could take a note from Left 4 Dead's past success, and make levels that move from stage to stage, instead of claustrophobic descents. You could move your efforts towards some kind of narrative, new character voice lines, a new (human, please) trader, that sort of thing. Destructible level elements, like drywall and plywood, from zed and survivor alike. Go crazy. Add a vehicle level if you're inspired. Heck, you could take 6 months devote to level optimization bugfixing, mod support, balance, etc, to significantly improve the game without dumping another elemental HRG gun or yet another $1100 rifle that most players will skip in favor of the tier 4s. I'm just spitballing here, but there is a lot you could do, with existing assets, no less.
Killing Floor 2 has little real estate left for new guns to find a home. Your game has a lot of life in it; you're still averaging about 5,000 players on PC. But you simply can't keep improving the game by adding new guns. There is a point where it becomes bloat, no pun in intended, and we may have already crossed that point.
Good luck in your development
