Non-functional items (add-ons, etc.) should be killswitched

nivomi
nivomi Member Posts: 15
edited May 2022 in Feedback and Suggestions

A suggestion that, I think, would improve the player experience for people who don't keep up with the "known issues" (especially since they aren't shown in the in-game news feed, at least for this patch):

If an add-on or other item doesn't have an effect due to a technical issue, it should be killswitched. For any player who isn't familiar with what's not working in the current patch, items not doing what they say they should can be incredibly confusing.

It's a huge negative player experience - they use the item, they have no idea whether it's working or not, they can't tell if it just doesn't benefit them as they expected or if it's not working at all, and so they might assume that the add-on just isn't useful, and continue thinking this long after it's fixed.

A smaller, secondary benefit is that people wouldn't be able to waste items that are currently useless.

For example, the "Driver's License" for The Ghost Face currently has no effect. If you're looking at the inventory screen, though, it's perfectly usable, and players could easily end up selecting it and having a confusing, negative gameplay experience as a result.

There's absolutely no benefit to leaving them accessible that I can think of, either. Nobody's going out and using nonfunctional add-ons on purpose, right?

I know the current philosophy is "we only killswitch things if they break the game", but I think this ignores the negative impact of these experiences, and that preventing these experiences can be achieved with little-to-no cost. (I mean, I'm sure you're not being charged by the killswitch, right?)