Dear DBD Devs
I'm not going to fill this with a big message of ridicule, insults, mocking the dev's competence, or anything. It would be easy to join in on the hate train, but no, that's not my goal. We have a major problem that needs to be addressed.
BHVR, there needs to be something done about communication.
There's the colorblind issue that people had been hounding the devs on for years, barely getting more than "we are aware." It's not until the incident with Almo that we're told that a colorblind mode had been in the works and demonstrations were shared.
Why? Why was this hidden? This is the type of thing that should be shared. It would both quell the anger of the fan base, give them something to look forward to, and even give a chance for feedback based on the demonstrations given.
Speaking of feedback, there are the UI changes from the PTB. Now, it's no secret that these changes are wildly unpopular and I imagine that is very demoralizing. It's something you put countless hours into designing, coding, testing—it's your creation that you take pride in, and hearing it being rejected hurts.
But why is the UI being changed? I have no idea. Why is it necessary? Did the UI have old code that was a hassle to work with? Did you feel that its style was outdated?
There's no communication going on! In fact, a better idea would be to share ideas/examples with the community and gather feedback during the process. Does the Community want a hook counter? Yes? Should both sides see it? What do they think?
Instead, an entirely new UI was made with all we're told is "big changes are coming!" and then get a PTB. No little prototype examples are given, questions what the community would like to see, or ANYHING despite this being a massive change that affects the entire playerbase.
Of course, there are the feedback and suggestion forums and I know opinions have been shared, but... I honestly do not feel like it matters. I don't and I shouldn't. I know there are times PTB feedback has made a difference yet I still feel like our voices aren't really heard and are ignored in favor of whatever vision the developers have, so changes are made despite the player base rather than because/for the player base.
Pop nerf - unpopular but still went through.
Aura change - disliked but still went through, leading to ANOTHER massive outcry until those got changed.
Billy rework - massively unpopular but still went through.
There are also examples of Killers who the community widely has a low opinion of such as Legion or Pig, but we're always told, "according to the statistics." Seemingly no effort is made to investigate why these low opinions even exist and wonder if there are any external factors.
Example: Nurse has a very low kill rate but everyone knows she's the best killer and also the hardest to play.
Are these factors considered? Which ones and how much? Are factors such as how enjoyable a killer is to play/verse considered even because I know many Legions who have multiple gripes with his power and survivors who hate versing a Spirit or Deathslinger yet both are untouched.
It can feel like talking to a wall! Are we heard? If so, can we get more updates? Which suggestions have you read, and of them, which ones are infeasible?
For example: I recommended Snap Out of It pause the DW timer, allowing more freedom to change the timer and help survivors not be in a situation where they bled out because they couldn't mend in time. I only learned recently that this was intended and not planned to change.
it was intended? What's the reasoning? I don't know! I don't know because there's so little communication going on! We don't understand anything, so people eventually start harassing the devs until they answer, or in some cases get frustrated and end up having something taken out of context causing horrible misaimed backlash.
Decisive Strike - a controversial perk that is being looked into. What are some ideas? Can any be shared with the community? Perhaps we could have an opinion?
Otherwise, we get things like Cruel Limits where the perk is "buffed" yet the main issue with the perk is unaddressed so it's still in the same state as before, making the change pointless.
Now look, I know you're trying. Really, I do. I get angry sometimes, say a few choice things in frustration—but I know you care about the game. We all do. It's why we're so passionate about it—players and developers alike. But after this? Improving communication needs to be a top priority.
Thank you for reading this and I hope you have a nice day. <3
Comments
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Yea, I think the biggest problem is the devs aren't communicating in a good way, i hope they learn from this and succeed, because i want to see this games true potential.
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To be fair, the only update they can do to Deathslinger and spirit that the survivors would be happy with are making them simple loopable killers with a power that is determined by the survivors or their mistakes with no real input from the killer.
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This is extremely well said. I really must commend you, you've remained respectful and unbiased whilst still getting your point across.
As a long-time player, I agree with 100% of what you've said here. I understand that sometimes there isn't anything meaningful to share and that a lot of times, the Community is...opinionated and not always nice. But the colorblind fiasco could have been avoided with proper communication.
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The problem is that it seems like an outcry is the only thing working. I think they use other feedback but the devs make it look like a outcry is the only thing working. And this communication is not healthy.
A roadmap for a year would be nice. Weekly short dev statements.
I know some players hate it when a idea doesnt make it to the live game and it makes it easier for the devs when they only announce something when its ready.
But could it be really worse then now?
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Unless they show some actual data and not pictures of gens in different colours and say it took them months to do it when in reality it does NOT take nearly that long to do something like that... they only posted that for damage control.... kinda changed my perspective and opinion on BHVR tbh
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I have to agree. A lot of changes they make just show how out of touch with the community they are.
Billy change? He was fine, no one asked for it.
Pop change? No one was complaining about it either.
UI change? It was fine. no one asked for.
New animations? They could have been improved sure... but what the hell are these new ones?
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I absolutely love your post and it's 100% true.
One of the biggest problems with BHVR is the lack of communication and transparency.
We never really know if our feedback is ever really important.Most of the time it just seems like the devs just force their changes no matter the feedback (as you already explained).Naturally this leads to a lot of built up anger and frustration towards BHVR.
If they truly want to make this game the best then they have to realize that it does not only need the company for it but the community as well.Both need to work together hand in hand.
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What I don't understand is instead of fixing what needs to be fixed they actually took time to make new animations for everything that was working just fine beforehand
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Really well said mate.
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Some very valid points.
COMMUNICATION, that’s it, not just from BHVR to the player base but in many aspects of life.
Covid 19, made worse because of communication. Failing marriage, friendships falling apart, work issues, again there is high chance again of a communication breakdown.
BHVR make changes to the game with what I believe are good intentions, doesn’t mean they are right for us, or that we actually want them.
They need an independent company to send out a survey or agree to my suggestion of letting the community provide their own survey / suggestions.
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They should literally hire devs that have over 1000 hours of experience at LEAST on DBD.
I think if an experienced player (for both sides of course) was on the dev team, they could come up with even better suggestions. For example, fog whisperers. They may not be a dev, but they could sure give some really good insight and info to the devs.
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Like it seems most of the time they never announce anything until it's almost done because it's like they are afraid they cant/wont or don't know if they will actually deliver. Literally half of the answers of Q&A is either No, or maybe 9-36 Months tentative. only about 10% of subjects talked about are actually a solid answer/confirmed.
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Okay but can we talk about the fact that they just dropped a massive fire bomb with this new matchmaking/rank system? Where we will all be reset to 20 EVERY 30 DAYS?!?! And if you make it from rank 20 to rank 1, amidst all the camping, tunneling, sweatiness, toxicity, etc., you get 250k bloodpoints. L O L. ELL. OH. ELL. If you move from a rank 20 to a rank 16, you get 30k bloodpoints. So one game. So ONE GAME of DBD = 4 rank movements?!?!
Guys, WHAT? Who is making these decisions? And why, in all the surveys I've seen and participated in, was this not addressed? Sure, it would be nice to get rewarded for your rank if you're going to reset it every 30 days which is unlike any game I've ever played, tbh. But now?! What's the point?! If this new system actually goes through as stated in the new update, I will immediately and aggressively uninstall. I just can't take this BS anymore.
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Yeah, I was hoping for the red rank achievements but I can barely go up 4 pips a month, let alone 20. They just want people to play their game 24/7 I guess.
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All deathslinger needs is a slight reduction in ads speed and movement speed coming out of his ads. That way he can't spam ads and get free hit because people are dodging while he gains distance. A slow down would make him need to take the shot or lose distance. A small reduction in ads speed (maybe .5 seconds at most) would allow him to still quick scope without it being so fast that survivors have no time to react. The glitch spirit had where you could hear her directionally based off her husk moans while she's phasing ACTUALLY MADE HER FUN TO PLAY AGAINST WITHOUT MAKING HER LESS STRONG. I kinda wish they left it because I loved playing spirit then. I actually felt like I was outplaying her and not just "Cool she read me wrong". She would at least have something to work with on the survivor end and that's really all I want.
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