Helldivers 2 Players Suggest Voting and a "Hardcore" Mode to Solve Kicking Problem

Helldivers 2 devs ask for players' thoughts on kicking teammates.

By Tanner Dedmon

Since Helldivers 2 released, players discussed and debated the ins and outs of the meta and quickly identified a go-to loadout for missions on higher difficulties. That kit consisted of the SG-225 Breaker Shotgun, Railgun, and a Shield Generator Pack. So long as  you brought those, anything else in your kit was up to you depending on the mission at hand. But even after the first Helldivers 2 balance update tweaked the meta and nerfed things like the Railgun, players still find themselves in situations where they might be kicked from public lobbies for not bringing equipment lobby leaders deem necessary or OP.

This scenario is one that's "very hard to solve," according to Helldivers 2 boss and Arrowhead Game Studios CEO Johan Pilestedt. Addressing the situation on Twitter, Pilestedt acknowledged the kicking kerfuffle as a difficult and unfortunate problem for players to deal with before opening up the question the community and asking Helldivers 2 players what they think should be done about people who kick others for questionable reasons.

Helldivers 2's Kicking Problem

The player in question who Pilestedt responded to recounted an anecdote that's probably familiar to some Helldivers 2 players. It's not a common enough experience to the point that everyone will encounter those who frequently kick people for lobbies for sub-optimal loadouts, but the Helldivers 2 player in question said that "people will kick for the tiniest reason."

So, what are players' suggestions? Some went straight to the "hardcore" mode suggestion where players tick a box to indicate whether they wanted their experience to be a casual one or harder, more objective-focused missions. That seems to already be the divide between the two types of Helldivers 2 players, but it doesn't really solve the problem of players from kicking others if they perceive a loadout to be inferior. Pilestedt was open to the idea, however.

Other solutions targeted the people kicking others rather than those kicked from lobbies. Suggestions included a voting system where players weighed in on whether or not someone should be removed or kept in the game, but even that has its own issues. It'd likely have to require a unanimous, three-person vote, for example, or else a Helldivers 2 duo could decide to kick someone even if a third person voted otherwise. Like most of the other suggestions, Pilestedt acknowledged one take on a vote-to-kick system calling it "interesting and innovative."

After receiving a bunch of responses, some good and some bad, Pilestedt wrapped things up by thanking the community for their suggestions and saying that the devs will explore the issue further.

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"Thank you everyone for your suggestions! I will ask the team to look at this thread and draw inspiration," Pilestedt said. "This is a pretty cool thing, the entire community coming together to discuss a hard to solve problem. Even though vote kick is the easiest, it has some downsides and there is always a better solution."

While that solution is worked on, Helldivers 2 players have a new update to check out which was released today, one that should make it so that Chargers aren't so bothersome anymore.

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