One of the main features of Helldivers 2, outside of its fantastic third-person shooter gameplay, is its community-driven, real-time strategy map where all missions actively take place—known as the Galactic Map/War. This system is fun not only in terms of adding lore and greater meaning to why you are playing, but also in terms of what you have access to play at any given time. As Helldivers 2 remains on the market longer, some cracks in this system and its current implementation are starting to show. This petition aims to address these issues. Note: We are aware of the technological limitations of the current engine, and as such, there will obviously be areas where, even if the developers listen to our petition, there is a chance that they will be impossible to implement on the current engine.

Feature for change #1: Liberation/Percentage Cap

Currently, there is a system in place where, across all battlefields on the map, a set maximum percentage of progress can be made, regardless of the number of players or their efficiency in working on multiple planets simultaneously. This limitation renders their efforts somewhat futile. This feature needs to be one of the first things addressed for several reasons:

Reason 1: Split fronts

Helldivers 2 places players in a two-front war, potentially expanding to three fronts in the future. While developers dictate the flow of this strategy mode—acting as our enemies, determining where fights occur, and the toughness of those fights—they also issue orders that guide player actions across the map. However, these orders do not enforce player distribution, leading to frequent problems when the player base splits during major orders. This results in too many planets accumulating progress simultaneously, bottlenecking at the cap. This not only jeopardizes order success but has also bred factionalism and toxicity among players.

Reason 2: Game Master strategy conflicting with progression

The game masters (GMs), in addition to managing major orders, also move planets not involved in these orders to set up future events and provide variety to players. However, this can exacerbate the bottleneck issue by spreading progress across too many planets simultaneously, making it impossible to defend sectors after they have just been liberated or defended in major orders.

There are two potential solutions to this liberation cap problem. The first is to remove the cap entirely, given that player counts have stabilized since the game's launch. The second option is to maintain the cap but apply it separately to each front, allowing each front to contribute towards objectives without hindrance.

Feature for change #2: Visible Decay and Liberation Rates

Each planet in the Galactic War/Map has a hidden decay rate, representing its fortification level. This rate affects the progress made by players. Both the total liberation percentage and the decay rate of each planet should be visible in the UI, either through lore descriptions ("high enemy numbers") or specific numerical values. All information should be accessible directly within the game to ensure that even casual players can understand these core mechanics without additional research.

Addendum

These are the two major changes that I would like to see implemented to enhance this core mechanic of the game, making it more enjoyable and understandable for the majority of players, not just hardcore fans.

Some additional changes that would be personally nice to see, though not essential for the game's success, include:

1: Greater incentives (e.g., XP, samples) for participating in major orders, encouraging greater player involvement in narrative-driven events.

2: Increased involvement from game masters, such as creating more lore, adding flavor dispatches, or providing temporary strategems during orders. So far they have been great, but more can always be done to create an even more interactive world

3: An expanded social system that includes guild-like functionality for organizing squads and community play, with in-game recognition based on collective achievements, such as with customization options, unique titles, or leaderboards

4: A codex for tracking encountered enemies, detailing their models, weak spots, and kill counts—a feature akin to what is seen in games like Deep Rock Galactic.

These additional suggestions are not the primary focus of this petition. If you are considering signing, please do so for the changes outlined in the first two bolded paragraphs. Thank you to everyone who has read this far, and special thanks to those who choose to sign. May you have the strength and courage to be free.