[2020] Live Q&A Recap | January 23rd, 2020

This post is a written recap of our Q&A livestream. If you'd prefer to watch the stream itself, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Aoe1H282oY

News & ANNOUNCEMENTS

We will be at PAX East. There will be no booth, but we will have a DBD party.

The Lunar New Year event is on now. Log in this week for some exclusive charms, and next week for some exclusive cosmetics.

A hotfix is coming soon.

Known issues:

• Decisive Strike is not working with madness skill checks against The Doctor.
• Rank achievements unlock at random (you will not be banned if this happens).
• We have seen an increase in the rank update error.
• The Badham Preschool map has been disabled temporarily due to collision issues.
• Matchmaking is being looked into; we will have a detailed blogpost explaining the situation shortly.
• Sound issues are being investigated.

Dedicated servers and optimization are constantly being worked on. These changes are very technical, so they tend not to appear in patch notes.

Question & Answers

The Archives

"What were the takeaways from the first Tome and Rift?"

We have learned a lot from the first Tome and Rift:

1. Completion time was a lot harder/longer than we anticipated. The goal was to have players complete the Rift by the time they complete the Tome. Matchmaking and changes to the Tome caused this to fall out of line with our plans.
2. Challenge difficulty turned out to be harder than we had hoped. We've reduced the difficulty of challenges for the latter parts of the first Tome, and have extended this to Tome II as well. The overall difficulty increase in Tome II is much lower between levels.
3. We've made changes to the layout of Tome II. Some of the harder challenges are now out of the way and optional, so reaching the end of a level of the Tome is now easier. This also means that you aren't blocked from finishing a level in the Tome if you don't have a given character unlocked.

"How were the characters chosen for Tome II?”

For Tome I, we tried to pick some of our oldest characters. For Tome II, we picked a mix of characters that we felt had some interesting stories to tell. Going forward, we'll be picking characters that have something players want to know about.

If these characters are DLC characters, we want to make sure that they are easily obtainable during the Rift. Any DLC characters required for this Tome are currently on sale, and can alternatively be purchased with Iridescent Shards.

"Will future Tomes be focused around four characters as well?"

Our plans for the time being is to continue focusing on four characters, although this is not a hard set rule and is subject to change.

From a gameplay perspective, this also means that there aren't as many people playing one specific character for their Rift progress, as there's a greater variety of challenges.

“Will The Archives ever focus on maps like they do characters?”

A lot of maps have a bunch of small details scattered around them that already tell a story. Additionally, the characters that these maps are released with tend to be heavily tied to their killers, so a lot of the map's lore is covered in the killer's backstory. We aren't strongly against giving lore about the maps in the future, but for the time being, we'll be focusing on the story of killers and survivors.

Hex: Ruin & Generators

"What was the thought process behind the Ruin change?”

It started back in July of 2019. We realized that the old version of Ruin had very passive gameplay. If you ran the perk, you didn't have to do anything; just having the perk equipped made the effect active. The old Ruin was also very consistent from moment to moment due to the random nature of skill checks. If you did a generator and had no skill checks, Ruin would have no effect. Meanwhile if you got unlucky and had a bunch of skill checks, it could be very punishing. We also wanted to help with the on-boarding of new players, and we also noticed the expert players would just work through it as if it wasn't there.

We looked into a bunch of different possibilities, but we knew we wanted to keep the perk generator related hex. The original version that was tested was the same as new version of Ruin, but also contain a flat reduction to repair speed. After more testing, we found this to be too much.

“Will other slowdown perks see changes as well?”

Over time, we would like these perks to be less effective when combined together, but instead more effective when run on their own. The new version of Hex: Ruin is a good example of this. When Ruin is active, you cannot kick generators, so a perk like Pop Goes The Weasel or Overcharge would be less appealing. If you are concerned that Ruin may be cleansed, you can take them as a backup, although they won't be active at the same time.

"Have you considered making Ruin a non-hex perk?”

Since Hex: Ruin is a Hag perk and all of the Hag's perks are Hex perks, it didn't seem right to make it a non-Hex perk. Additionally, if it was not a Hex perk, the effect would have to be lower since you would not be able to stop it.

“Have you thought about keeping the ‘no great skill check progress’ part of Ruin?”

This is something we've considered, but we can't commit to this just yet. If we find that the new Ruin does need some improvement, this is one of the things we would like to try. We want to wait and see how the new Ruin plays out first, though.

"Can you remove the notification survivors get when Ruin is active?"

The Hex perk system as a whole gives the survivor a notification whenever a Hex perk has a noticeable effect, so removing this notification would be inconsistent with other Hex perks. Additionally, an experienced player would know that Hex: Ruin is active when the generator immediately starts regressing after they let go of the generator.

Since you only get the notification when there is a visible effect, removing the notification would likely only make the game more confusing for newer players while having no effect on veterans.

"Are you looking into changing the base generator repair time?"

We are looking at possible changes to toolboxes at the moment, but the base generator time is not likely to increase. The amount of time survivors spend holding M1 on a generator is already fairly long, and we believe there are other things we can do to increase match length rather than just making generators take longer.

Rest assured, we are aware of concerns over map size and early game pressure.

"Will toolboxes be changing in the near future?"

Yes, we are looking into changing toolboxes at the moment. We can't give any details since the changes aren't set in stone just yet, but we look forward to sharing more details as soon as we can.

"Are there any plans to adjust survivor generator perks accordingly?"

There are very few perks that affect generator repairs for survivors; Resilience, This Is Not Happening and Prove Thyself. In spite of all of these perks being free in the base game, their usage rates still remain very low, so we are not looking to change them at the moment. We've been sure to be careful to not make survivor perks affect generator repair speeds, which is why we're currently focusing on toolboxes instead.

"Are there plans for a secondary objective?"

In the short term, it's unlikely that we'll see a brand new side objective appear. What's more likely is that we'd put more focus on the existing side objectives that we have, such as totems. Right now there's a lot of emphasis on totems due to the increased use of No One Escapes Death, and we'd like to play into that sort of gameplay if anything. For now, we cannot promise anything.

"Are you looking to improve some of the weaker perks?"

Yes, we are looking to change some of the weaker lesser used perks. Here's a short list of perks that we're looking to change in the near future:

• Small Game
• Cruel Limits
• Any Means Necessary
• Slippery Meat
• Vigil
• This Is Not Happening
• Technician

We also have many more perks that we'd like to review when we get the chance.

"Will commonly used survivor perks receive the same treatment?"

Fun fact: Self Care is actually the most used survivor perk.

Some of these perks, while they are quite common, are not used nearly as much as Hex: Ruin. Decisive Strike has already received a substantial cutback, but we have read your concern over the more abusive uses for it and we are considering what can be done to combat that. Surprisingly, Lithe is actually used more than Decisive Strike, Borrowed Time, and Adrenaline. Please keep in mind that the meta may be different between different platforms, so this may not reflect your personal experiences.

This doesn't mean that nothing will ever happen to these perks, but they are not going to be changed in the same initiative as Hex: Ruin. While Self Care is still the most used perk, it is not causing issues in the game so we are not looking to change it at this time.

"Will hex totems ever get some sort of respawn mechanic?"

It's not very likely. The concept behind Hex perks is that they have a very powerful effect, but can be destroyed. Devour Hope, for example, allows you to mori people. If Hex perks were to respawn, they would have to have their power toned down to compensate.

"Will there be other generator slowdown perks in the future?"

It's not impossible that there will be more slowdown perks, but we are going to be very careful when it comes to creating new ones. Our goal is for loadouts of four slowdown perks to not be the meta anymore. For example, Ruin doesn't work with Pop Goes The Weasel very well since you can't kick generators while Ruin is active. We would like to see diverse loadouts rather than loadouts solely focused on slowing generators.

We expect that in the first few minutes of a match, roughly two generators will be done. It was never intended for all five generators to remain up for the first four minutes of a match. Sometimes you may want to let one or two very far away generators go and instead protect a tight cluster of generators.

The Doctor Update

"Why does Snapping Out Of It reduce you to Madness 1 now?"

During testing, we found that with the new Static Blast, it was very easy to get survivors into madness tier 3. By the time you could get somewhere safe and snap out of it, The Doctor's Static Blast would be nearly off cooldown. This would leave you in an almost never ending cycle of Snapping Out of It.

"Is there any chance Snap Out Of It could be considered healing again?"

This is not something we're looking to do for now. Since there's so many perks that affect healing, these perks would directly affect your power, making it very unreliable. The time taken to Snap Out of It could very easily become way too long or way too short depending on the perks being used.

"Why does Snap Out Of It take priority over mending?"

The Snap Out Of It interaction is meant to prevent any charging interaction, such as healing or repairing a generator. This was actually a question that came up with the team early on. We ultimately decided that it should, but it's still open for debate.

"Could a survivor’s madness tier be made more clear to the killer?"

This is a good question and something we're still considering internally. The survivor's madness tier is shown on the status bar, but it can be hard to tell the difference between madness tiers 2 and 3 at the moment. We can't make any promises, but it is something we are considering.

"Why was Exhaustion removed from the Doctor’s add-ons?"

We wanted to add reverse skill checks to the Doctor's kit, but that meant we would have to remove on of the existing afflictions to make room for it. When we reviewed the different add-ons that were available, we realized that the Exhaustion add-ons were the ones we liked the least.

"What was the motivation behind adding a cooldown to Shock Therapy?"

Shock Therapy has always had a two second cooldown between shocks, although there was no delay before you could switch stances. Now that stances are no longer a thing, the cooldown may be a little more noticeable. The current cooldown (1.5 seconds) is longer than the 1 second it took to switch stances, although your movement speed isn't slowed like it was before to compensate. The result should feel much better to play.

Lery's Update & Maps

"How was Lery’s decided as the next map update?"

The Lery's update happened to coincide nicely with The Doctor update, as it is his realm, but the map team has had their eyes on Lery's for a while now. It was our first indoor map.

"Will other maps be seeing changes in the near future?"

Yes, we are continuing our initiative to update maps and address map balance issues. We are aware of the major culprits and are working to remove those lamentable configurations from the entity’s realm forever. There is quite a lot of content to review and we want to make sure we do it right so it will take a little while to get to all the “bad seeds” but trust us, we are on it.

"Will the old version of the Treatment Theatre still exist?"

No, all of the assets have been completely redone and replaced, with the exception of Moo Moo the cow. Moo Moo is safe and still with us, she's just sleeping.

"Was there ever plans to add a second floor to the Treatment Theatre?"

We already have a completely two-floor indoor map(The Game) and we already have an indoor map that has a lot of height variation(Hawkins) so we want to preserve the diversity already established and keep Lery’s as a mostly flat interior level. We may visit other floors of Lery’s in future map releases in this realm. 

"Is there any chance some of the totem spawns will be revisited?"

Yes, we are continuing our initiative to update maps and address map balance issues. Those more open outdoor maps traditionally don’t exhibit signs of major imbalances, so they haven’t been a priority, but we are absolutely planning to better hide totems whenever we create a new map or update an old one.

"Is the Treatment Theatre bigger or smaller than before?"

The map did not change in overall size (number of tiles) but the shape of the map has changed. The original map was essentially a stubby rectangle of 5x6, but the new map is 4x7. This was done to make it easier for players to orient themselves in the map and get less lost as a result. If the base game doesn’t change, we will be aiming at reducing map sizes overall. Although it leads to less map diversity, we can easily conclude that our game does not scale well with respects to map size. 

Miscellaneous

"What was the hardest part of this update?"

This is a tricky one to answer since different teams worked on different parts of the update. The Doctor, for example, was rebuilt from the ground up using more efficient methods, while the map update required the art team to remake a bunch of different assets.

"Will anything be done about the new “Hook Tech”?"

Yes, we are looking to fix the Hook Tech.

"Has Dead Hard been changed on the PTB?" / "Why was moonwalking removed in the PTB?"

Both of these are related to the movement extrapolation change which we tested on the PTB. This change is pretty technically, but it basically makes movement feel better and better reflect the positions of players with latency. Removing moonwalking was not an intention of that change, it was just a side effect.

"Will other killers be receiving secondary powers?"

We may add secondary powers to killers when we update them if it's fitting, but it's not something we're planning to do across the board. For The Doctor, changing the Static Field into Static Blast felt right and gave The Doctor a lot more control over his power. Meanwhile a killer like The Wraith has a very simple power and having a secondary ability wouldn't make much sense.

"Are there plans to increase base generator regression?"

The current base regression amount is about where we'd like it for now, but it's always possible that other things may affect how quickly generators regress in the future.

"Can killers spawn closer to their hex totems?"

This wouldn't be possible with the way maps are generator. The current map generator spawns the killer, spawns the survivors a certain distance away, then tries to place the totems in locations the survivors can't see. From there, the Hex perk picks a random totem. Using the totem closest to the killer would only work if the killer has only one Hex perk, otherwise the further totems would eventually have to be used. Additionally, if you knew that the Hex spawned close to the killer, the survivors would know to check the area that the killer came from to find their Hex.

"When will other killers receive new chase music?"

We are looking to add new chase music to killer as we update specific killers.

"What was the inspiration behind the Doctor’s new chase music?"

The theme of The Doctor's chase music was based around emergency sounds and electricity.

"Are the Gatekeeper changes working out as intended?"

It's too early to say for sure as we only have two days worth of data.

Please note: The current text on the Gatekeeper Emblem in-game does not reflect the new change. We are planning to fix this in an upcoming hotfix.