Perk Design Talk
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Quick-Read: Please skip the first three topics within this thread.
- Prologue — Perk Design Talk
- Perk Design
- Perk Design Rules
PROLOGUE — Perk Design Talk
With there being seeminglessly endless amount of perks in Dead by Daylight, and even more to come with the future chapters, I really want to talk about perk design with the community.
Perk Design
Perks can be strong, offering game changing effects, then you have weak perks that have minor effects in the game.
Just give a few examples of both:
Strong Perks — H: Devour Hope, Adrenaline
Weak Perks — Thanatophobia, Botany Knowledge
We can see a difference between the two perks, one set have powerful effects, while the other have minor effects. Both of which have either a strong or weak effect if you can get them to activate.
Perk Design Rules
If you look closely, we can see a pattern:
- Stronger perks have more demanding prerequisites, since they are more game changing.
- Weak perks that have either no prerequisites or relaxed prerequisites, since they aren't as game changing compared to strong perks.
While Adrenaline might have a extreme effect, it's limited to the endgame with one use.
Botany Knowledge may provide a mediocre effect, it can be used on demand to heal unlike other perks.
Strong Perk Rules / Weak Perk Rules
It seems like strong perks have either one or multiple reasons to be strong attached to them:
- Demanding prerequisites — Mettle of Man
- Endgame perk — Adrenaline
- Obsession perk — Save The Best For Last
- Hex perk — H: Ruin
- Encourages fun gameplay — BBQ and Chili
- Discourages anti-fun gameplay — Unbreakable
- Initially harmful — Autodidact
- Heavy activation consequences — For The People
Some perks might meet multiple categories, making them even stronger:
- [Hex perk], [Endgame Perk], and [Encourages fun gameplay] — No One Escapes Death
Any perk that doesn't meet the conditions to being a strong perk, should be a weak perk with minor effects
Closing — Perk Design
What's your thoughts on perk design? Do you think there's a flaw in how they are designed or believe they are being designed properly? Any comments on this topic would be greatly appreciated!