As Helldivers 2's new Democracy Space Station guns down the divers who helped build it, one dev says Arrowhead need to "own that and adapt" but warns that "things are rarely crap or fantastic" at first

As Helldivers 2 players cower in fear from the friendly fire bombardment brought on by the newly-completed Democracy Space Station, one dev admits that its rollout has been "a step down."

The difficulties being caused by the DSS - which was completed last week but then immediately forced Arrowhead to start offering out extra shields when it started blowing players to smithereens - seem appropriate for Helldivers lore, but very frustrating for those facing its bombardment. That frustration caused one player on Discord to question whether ongoing reworks to new features are evidence that Arrowhead isn't entirely in touch with its community.

That prompted a response from community manager Twinbeard, who said that "the idea of the DSS and what it can become in future is awesome." He admitted, however, that "the testing process and comms surrounding the development cycle has been a step down compared to the recent heights we've seen for Helldivers 2."

"We need to own that and adapt," Twinbeard continued, but he also said that "things are rarely either crap or fantastic. The launch of the DSS was flawed, but it can be tweaked and evolved in many different ways."

Those "recent heights" likely to refer to the 60-day turnaround plan that Arrowhead pledged would help realign the players with the developers. Despite a last-minute calendar-based delay, that plan seemed to work, with a boost to both player counts and recent reviews. That, however, is likely to mean that frustrations are running higher than they might have done over the DSS. Twinbeard suggests that the roving space station is still likely to bring a lot of overall good to Helldivers 2, but perhaps its targeting systems still need a little work.

If you give a ship enough Death Star-style power to take out "a small moon," you've got to be ready for it to take out some ground troops in the process.