My Feedback on the Developer Update

Valik

Let me preface this by saying, I understand that the developers are working hard and have an extreme passion for the game. There are tons of moving parts and it takes a great deal of professionalism and focus as a coherent team to keep Dead By Daylight in a good state.

However, I am extremely disappointed with the announcement. I personally disagree with the direction that many of these changes are taking the game into, but moreover - I find the prospect of such an omnibus shift to be extremely questionable - especially with a developer team that has encountered difficulty with rolling back controversial or unhealthy changes.

While it will take time to see exactly how everything looks when the changes are rolled out, I thought it apt to share my feedback with the community.

• Unlocking Perks - This itself is not a bad change. I appreciate the further rewards for prestiging a character. While it may potentially mess with a few people who are trying to skim their favorite perks off the bottom of a bloodweb, this change - as ever - is eloquent, streamlined, and ideal. A highly welcome change that can save players thousands of bloodpoints.
• No More Resets - An interesting change if not a welcome one. It's an absolute boon to be able to prestige without losing progress, but I do think it's part of the appeal to some - and the bragging rights to many. In a way, this de-fangs the experience for better and for worse. While players need not grind their character a whopping 4 times to accomplish their builds - prestige officially has no bragging rights, which is hilariously and tragically addressed later on. I wish there was a way to have out cake and eat it too - you can either tie basic progression to prestige and make it a harmless addition to the base experience - or toy can use it as a means for hardcore players to show off. While it was the latter, it will soon become the former. A bold change with its positives and negatives. Some are bound to disagree, but I'm sure than just as many will appreciate as much.
• Endless Prestige - Oh no. The game's ability to be completed just got a lot worse. It used to take 200 webs to max out a character, now it's going to take upwards of 500. For completionists like me, the game just got doubly grindy. And, worse off, the end screen has the prestige locked to the side - which I find to be a very misguided place to put it. While it's very nice to include prestige, I personally think that player-model portraits should be placed there instead to add additional clarity to the post-game lobby. Moreover, I assure you this: the ranking system will be repeated. While you disabled ranks in the lobby (And rightfully so) the reason people were complaining was not simply that they misunderstood ranking, it is because in the absence of knowing the precise MMR value of players - your users are going to deduce the balance/lack-of-balance from the numbers they see at that end screen. Get ready to be bombarded by killers at P1 going up against P9 survivors and complaining. I understand that by removing the teeth of the prestige system, you have to make it more worthwhile for the hardcore players - but please understand, this just made everything a lot worse. Hardcore players are not going to be happy that they now must grind 150% more. Killer mains used to have to chew through 5,600 blood-webs to get all killers completed. Now, that's about 14,000 blood webs. Ouch. Not fun.
• Shrine Of Secrets - A hand-in-hand update with the new perk system. I have no real problems with this, even though it throws a wrench in my personal strategy of using Shards to buy bloodppoints. (Seriously, why don't you guys sell BP boosters already?)
• Transitioning to The New System - I absolutely appreciate giving out little rewards to those who have accomplished much in the previous systems. While I wish these were in the forms of character cosmetics (Because I personally would like that!) The prestige icon is more than enough to show the gravity of one's accomplishments - provided it actually looks neat... but there's never a doubt on appeal when it comes to Behavior artists. Top notch.
• Matchmaking Incentives - Finally! I cannot wait for this to role out. This is especially going to be fun for those who play both sides equally, and will hopefully drive down a lot of negative community experiences that stem from a lack of empathy for the 'other' player type.
• Generator Speeds - This is highly controversial. I firmly believe that adding 10 seconds flat to generator time (+12.5%) is going to be a healthy balance mechanic. In many, many cases it will not be nearly enough to stem the tide of powerful survivor gameplay - adding less than 30 seconds on optimal survivor gameplay... but likewise will be a profound nail in the coffin for many tightly balanced match-ups, and provide a crushing blow to survivor teams that struggle to get a head start. You will likely see a vast increase in survivor DCs as they find this change far too tedious. The 'Mini-Pop' on kick is a bit much as well... it would have been far more eloquent to simply increase generator regression by 50% (1c/3s instead of 1c/4s) to make kicking a generator more effective. While the 2.5% kick can potentially aid to killers more effectively discouraging bold survivors from touching generators, it also means that killers can effectively remove over 4 seconds of survivor progress with just 2 kicks - if a killer camps a generator and baits out 3 additional touches, they can remove 9 seconds of progress instantly. One of the primary benefits to the new design philosophies influencing the development team is dynamic variables - contextual activations and evolving interactions - Generators demand a dynamic and malleable system to make generators more difficult when survivors are at their highest, while making them easier when survivors are at their lowest. Heaping static values like this into the game will likely harbor unforeseen and deleterious options. As it stands, while the 12.5% increase in total generator time is blissful to killer mains, it also means that regression perks are 12.5% stronger by rote - which extends beyond the few perks that are being addressed. This change itself is massive and deserves its own rollout with carefully monitored values that should be changed in hotfixes during PTB testing - as it can change the fabric of the game's precious time economy. I do not believe such a massive and potentially harmful change should be implemented lightly.
• General Killer Improvements - I think that these things are generally good, but also shadow-nerfs to some bad perks while also being a bit hard handed with killer balance. Brutal Strength is going to be a thing of the past, no reason to take Fire Up - with their effective benefits cut by a whipping 10:1 on the percentage. While I appreciate that survivors should travel a bit less (I'd like to see 0.4-0.6s less boost time) I firmly believe that this should cause Overcome by an equal amount (0.4-0.6s to offset) and may have an unintended shadow buff to some killers over others. While I appreciate the Bloodlust changes, as it will allow killers to more effectively pressure survivors to trade Pallets and health states - I worry that in concert with other changes, it may prove to be much for survivors to contend with. I hope it does not make every map feel similar or rote. In the notes, it is stated that these changes are mild - but I firmly believe that, when taken in concert, they are extremely profound.
• Camping & Tunneling - Endurance and Haste on Unhook is good, but I believe 5s is a bit much, I'd rather see 4s. 7% Haste is also strong - and eats Babysitter/Guardian's lunch all day and night. Having either a stronger effect for less as long (10% Haste/Endurance for 2.5s) or a lessened effect for a moderate time (5% Haste/Endurance for 4s) would be fine. I also worry of the implications this has on perks. While BT will no longer be a must-have to counter tunnelers, I firmly do not believe this is a strong coercion against tunneling - as the vast majority of face-campers will have little to no issue waiting through the 5s timer to effectuate a hit, while survivor players will still have the ability to abuse it in extreme cases. Suffice to say, I think lessened bloodpoint rewards would be a better deterrance to face-camping than BT basekit, and I find that giving 'BT Guardian Jr.' to all survivors is not going to make the problem go away - but it is going to change the dynamics of the game in an unforseen way.
• BBQ & Chili - Removing the BP was not the greatest move, IMO. People like having fun. By the Dev Update's own admission, it is only being brought to help administer fun. By this logic, the developers should see fit to remove Bloody Party Streamers as well. It turns out, players really, really, REALLY like bloodpoints - and the fact that players will need to eat up 150% more webs to complete a character isn't helped at all by this choice. Not only do I disagree with this on a for-fun level, but I'm firmly disappointed that there was no other change to the perk. Aura of survivors far away from a hook is not a profoundly impactful perk on its lonesome. Not only have you removed a good incentive to have killers leave their hooks, but you crashed the party for no reason. People love developers when they're handing out masks and flans - but you will find the player base turn when they see developers take those things away for no good reason at all - especially when nothing additional has been added.
• Hex: Ruin - RIP. Worse than useless now. At Tier 1 it looks like it's going to cause generators to regress at 1c/4s and still be deactivated. Far, far, far too harsh of a nerf. There were more eloquent ways to make the perk less as powerful - starting but not limited to having it only begin automatic regression when a generator is untouched for a set amount of time. However, I do not believe this will set the perk down to the desired B tier, I think this is a harsh C- tier nerf... with it going to D tier when out of tier 3. Perks are supposed to add value even at tier 1 and 2. I find this to be a betrayal not to players, but to core design philosophy.
• Pop Goes The Weasel - This is a simple change that should have been made a long, long, long time ago. I believe that adding a cooldown or deny a refresh timer on consecutive hooks would also have been significant enough to staunch its momentum and put it back into a healthy state.
• Corrupt Intervention - A fair trade, although I'm unsure if it truly addresses the perk's strengths. This is not a redesign that will put it to a healthy A or B tier perk - this is just a hard nerf to an S tier perk.
• Tinkerer - This perk change is a very poor implementation of perk philosophy. With Merciless Storm, it at least made sense that newer players would struggle with the checks, but the stunted potential of the perk is one of the primary detractors from its appeal. Limiting Tinkerer to procing 7 times a match at maximum is a highly, highly, highly questionable approach to the perk. It would be better if the Undetectable status effect became locational in context or something along those lines. Placing a hard limit of 1nce per generator will likely prove to be extreme. You want perks to be equally strong, not all equally useless or unfun.
• Hex: No One Escapes Death - A very poor nerf. "We don't want to discourage people from doing dull totems, so we're just going to let them see the totem location for free" is a self defeating statement. Putting an expiration date on the perk is not going to make it any less cheap, any less frustrating, or any less detrimental to survivors in the situations that hamper them the most. It is, however, going to prove to be a perk of diminishing returns. This may dethrone it from the A tier listing, but for the wrong reason. Not because it's balanced, but because it's equally unfun and frustrating to both sides. This is the Boil Over approach to perk balance. I don't think anybody is going to be happy after this rolls out.
• Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance - Thank you. Removing the information from the perk finally brings balance to the force. Great job, young Padawan. Sand is course and gets everywhere. Star Wars reference.
• Dead Hard - "This is a broken perk, so instead of balancing its use and making it a tradeoff - we are simply going to make it unfun." That's going to be a Dead Hard pass from me. Not only does this not un-break the perk, but simply makes it broken in another way, it shows a quantifiable misallocation of effort. Dead Hard is a powerful perk, and survivors should have to be strategic with its employment, landing themselves in trouble if they are incapable of navigating its demands. But this incarnation of the perk, instead of balancing it, merely doubles down on the 'haha, I win' aspect of it. While difficult to pull off, you will see body blockers use this perk to initiate stalemates and pull off the same broken stunts, albeit without the flash or fun. Once again - removed the fun, used a bandaid fix to keep the broken. Not ideal, not at all a professional approach. It's the RPD 3rd floor hook problem all over again.
• Decisive Strike - I both love and hate this change. On one hand, I love it because it prevents those cringe-educing standoffs at the very end of a match. However, I find it frustrating, because this means that the perk is useless on survivors that play conservative, or who are lucky/unlucky. Hilariously enough, it is extremely useless against an Obsession build - which means it's a poor match for The Shape whom it was released beside. It's a tradeoff, I'm looking forward to seeing how it works in practice.
• Borrowed Time - The hilarious factor to this is how this is intended to be a balance update, and you straight up buff a meta perk. The most humorous factor is how in the update itself, it is written "While the overall duration with Borrowed Time is longer than before, we expect that having a lighter version in the base kit will cause the usage rates to drop.". You could do standup with that one. You buffed a meta perk and the excuse is 'Well, we gave everyone a little taste of it, so it probably won't be as good'. A very, very, very poor approach. It absolutely should be lowered to 4/6/8 seconds at the very least.
• Iron Will - Iron Will is no longer Iron Will. Okay. Not sure why you buffed it a bit back only to break its knees here. The Exhausted debuff is an interesting, but it would be better if you reworked the perk to separate grunts of pain and breathing separately. You just took a fun thing and made it unfun. Ouch.
• Self-Care - "You want to spend 32 seconds healing yourself? No. Spend an entire minute healing yourself. This will not at all adversely effect new players." Not the right move, chief. You already have a medkit epidemic.
• Spine Chill - No longer works against stealth killers and now is only usable when you and the killer are making eye contact. No vault bonus. Glad we're on the same page for the 0.5s wind-up for consistency, though.
• Overcharge - It is inadvisable to commit such regicide against Hex: Ruin when you're going to repeat mistakes of the past like this and elevate another perk to the same levels of frustration. This is going to be the new meta perk in no time flat. It's funny how Ruin got not only cut to half strength, but has a built in self-destruct... but Overcharge now can regress a generator as fast as survivors can repair at 1c/1s in addition to its basic effects? That's a bit over-loaded - pun intended.
• Eruption - A nice change that may elevate it, yes. However, I firmly believe that its primary drawback is its cooldown, not in the potency of its numeric; which is especially true now that kicking generators causes instant regression, giving a passive attraction to this perk. It's a bit depressing to see meta perks get necessary cuts - but the Overcahrge and Eruption - perks that are getting buffs from the innate regression buffs themselves, are also getting incredibly powerful buffs. It's Animal Farm all over again.
• Knockout - A step in the right direction, I hope this is a first installment in a long lineage of careful tweaks to the perk.
• Coulrophobia - I feel that this is a step in the wrong direction. If there's a perk that should have been given this property, it is Unnerving Presence, not this one. There are ways to buff this perk, but I cannot help that this is both misplaced and narrow sighted. Coulrophobia is the third in a trio of garbage perks: Unnerving Presence, Overwhelming Presence, and Coulrophobia. I don't see the point in taking a look at one and not the others.
• Dark Devotion - Not the change I anticipated, but all the while - a worthwhile one. Hopefully this will create more interest - although the meager benefits alone will likely keep it in relative balance. It's a good QoL change, but I'm not sure if it will shake it up all that much.
• Jolt - Exactly what the doctor ordered! I love this change!
• Lethal Pursuer - I like the effect, although I would have preferred to see it on Deerstalker, who needs it much more than this. As it stands, the perk should probably push into a different territory - but that's more of a creative difference than a functional one. It's a good pick-me-up to make the perk relevant further into the match, but I was hoping to see something a bit robust.
• Scourge Hook: Gift Of Pain - I appreciate the change. While not outstanding in its own right, it may be just enough to make the perk effective in its goals. Good job - let's see how it works on release!
• Thanatophobia - I really, really, really disagree with this approach - especially as the game is trying to lean away from slowdown perks. Increasing the slowdown the perk gives is not how this problem is solved because - and I cannot stress this enough - the perk has great imbalance within the killer subcommunity. Killers such as Plague, Legion, and Huntress can extract heightened value from this perk by keeping survivors injured - while the vast majority of other killers struggle to retain value in the healing meta. Thanatophobia is downright oppressive when used on a Legion, but is downright useless on killers with slower starts like Meyers or Ghostface. Simply increasing the number is going to make the perk a little bit more attractive for the average killer, but it's going to increase the frustration survivors feel when a Legion is able to utilize it to its fullest ability without much in the way of recourse. This number change may help average killers, but it will make matches a lot less fun for many without doing all too much to make it competitive for those precious 4 perk slots.
• Scourge Hook: Monstrous Shrine - I'm glad to see that you guys are spying on my notepad - either that or we are all simply on the same wavelength. I love this change and think it turns a D/F tier perk into a viable and equitable one. Major props for this.
• Calm Spirit - This change does not address the perk's shortcomings, nor make it overall attractive for perk slots. It manages to eat Pharmacy's lunch, but at the cost of increased time - which is never fun. Worse still, the problems of niche viability and other players disturbing nearby crows still persists. I find this to be a very poor approach, one that I hope gets revised. Technician and older perks that have starkly negative side effects to its bonuses have never been attractive to survivor players, and tend to be sidelined instantly. I think the usage of Calm Spirit will sharply increase for a week or two as players experiment with it - but the increased time is going to pummel this perk's potential into the ground all the same. If you have to make survivor interactions unfun (Slower, less effective, etc.) in order to balance the ability - it probably needs to be taken back to the drawing board. I believe, unlike most perks, the community would likely provide sage direction on what would make this perk fun and viable - this itself is not it, chief.
• Saboteur - This is a neat little update - but I have reservations as to its increased effectiveness. All for it, but I hope nobody thinks this is going to increase its pick rate much if any.
• Botany Knowledge - I appreciate this increase in order to make the perk a bit more viable - although I believe this makes it drastically overshadow other healing perks such as Desperate Measures and further discourages use of perks like Autodidact and Empathic Connection. I believe 40% would have been enough, this may exacerbate the already difficult balance of healing that the game has entered since last year. It is likely that Sloppy Butcher will climb in prominence as the new meta will likely become slowdown of heals - between this change and the almighty Circle Of Healing - it is likely that the slowdown meta will simply shift away from objectives and to healing.
• Off The Record - Drastic change incoming. This is possibly one of the most broken-on-arrival propositions I've ever seen. Not only will this turn into body-block central and likely embolden survivors to fly in the face of killers even more so than before... but it also goes against the primary philosophy of the perk. The perk simply does not make anything 'off the record' - it merely grants a hybrid of Decisive Strike and Borrowed Time. This is profoundly powerful and is a giant leap into a chasm of imbalance that will surely rule the meta. Bully Squads are going to have a very easy time abusing this - and it more than eats Borrowed Time's lunch, which is sad, because until now there was very little effective overlap in the area. This is possibly the worst proposed change in the entire update - I doubt anyone will be happy with the state of play once it goes into effect. I cannot imagine what strange considerations were discussed about this clearly precarious shift in design.
• Lucky Break - An eloquent solution. While I'd personally speak to a 50% increase in base time - I can see the stark appeal of gaining more time the more healing is procured, however I think this changes the dynamic greatly. The crucial timing of this perk's activation is at the foremost end, by even allowing a tiny amount of renewal - it increases the perk's effectiveness by a multiple. I'm unsure how much this will escalate the perk, but it may turn the C tier effect into an S tier pick - especially in concert with the already heavy handed nature of the healing meta that currently dominates the games these days.
• Pharmacy - I both like and dislike this change. It makes the perk better, granted, but it guarantees a fast and discretionary heal. The amount of value added by this perk in the healing meta is obscene at its root - which will make it eat the lunch of the now-obsolete Self-Care. While Average players are competing for med-kits, though, the perk will languish at higher levels of play where players will bring powerful medkits. It forces the perk even deeper into a already strange niche without bringing balance to it. Instead of bringing balance, this change will likely force the perk into a less healthy place where it can be abused to extract several powerful heals - but also to the degree where it is veritably useless and remains in its lackluster state.
• Sole Survivor - Okay, so we're just making it old Left Behind? A bit of a strange approach. While it's certainly an improvement over its prior incarnation, it isn't much of a help. Like many of these propositions, it cannibalizes other perks and pushes them down without elevating the desired perk much better. While the trigger is a bit more demanding - but it completely wipes the floor with the now pathetic Wake Up!
• Distortion - Gaining tokens is incredibly good for this niche perk, but it will not elevate it above the rest, as its utility is highly limited. In my opinion, it would be better to have a stronger effect that is more consistently beneficial and as a finite resource than it is to have an infinite ability to counter particular perks. In addition, it also makes several killer perks frustrating overall - as the correct utilization of this perk would ostensibly nullify the vast majority of information perks. Creative difference, here, but I find this to be more precarious than needed.
• Lightweight - The text itself is not revealing much, I'm going to have to see what this looks like in practice.
• Deja Vu - I see you read my comments and posts! . . . Or we both had the same exact ideas!
• No One Left Behind - Guys... I appreciate that the perk activates once the gens are done - but do you guys remember that Guardian exists? Now you have this perk eating Babysitter/Guardian's lunch and calling it quits. You just made a completely redundant perk. Not sure why. Although I hope this gets addressed and changed to something more tasteful and suiting for the perk.
• Dark Sense - A strange choice to say the least. While any change is better than the D tier perk we had previously - this isn't much better. By simply having it trigger when the killer is close is not often useful. It is a particularly eerie and strange happenstance that Spine Chill has its basic utility stripped from it as this perk steps in to be a quantifiably inferior version of that very same utility. While having the perk limit its use to this is potentially beneficial, the effort put into this change is completely misplaced, in my opinion. It's still a D tier perk, without a doubt - especially with the 24m radius.
• Tenacity - Maybe you aren't reading my notes. Maybe I'm just psychic.
• Hope - A solid buff, very welcome. Although I believe the perk needs a lot more love to elevate it from C tier where it has been neglected for so long.
• Overzealous - Good change, I actually love this one!
• We're Gonna Live Forever - Nobody likes playing the fun police. It's better to have a community of happy players with pockets lined with bp - waiting to pour them into a new character - than it is to keep up the grind. Removing the 'I'm here to play properly and have fun' perks from the game through this and BBQ, I believe, is a step in the wrong direction. This is the antithesis of showing the community love and appreciation, and I'm certain that many will be very upset by the changes to these perks. I understand the choice from a design perspective - that slashing the base grind by 75%, players may find themselves wanting for not and perhaps disengage. Although, I do not think that's how it will work in practice. What adds insult to injury is that the perks are not made to be especially powerful... BBQ has not received a massive buff to offset the lack of BP gain - and We're Gonna Live Forever does not seem like it's slotted for a major update that will elevate its power and usefulness as a perk devoid of BP rewards. If the perk was changed in some way to make it different, or at the very least stronger, players may understand the new direction. Stripping the harmless for-fun aspect from the perk with no other change is not a move that I personally agree with, and I worry that this trend may gain momentum. What's next - no more Bloody Party Streamers? Survivor Pudding and Escape Cake give the user 7% Haste until chase begins? Forget I said that, I don't want to give ideas.

All in all, this looks like an incredibly mixed bag. Some of these changes are ideal and wonderful - some are lackluster or confusing - and others are terrifying and concerning in precedent if not execution at the very least.

I am deeply afraid that many of these changes go through and there's a repeat of last year. After the horrible MMR update and Boon rollout made in absence of community input - there was a very dark time between late 2021 and early 2022. Now that killers have received QoL updates, CoH has been nerfed to an acceptable degree, and the MMR tests have made some positive changes, things are finally looking good again. I really do not want to see yet another broken state of this game where playing it feels like punishment. I firmly suggest taking these changes and searching for compromises within the community, as there are certainly a few that may be catastrophic to the game's balance if they are implemented as stated.

Thank you for reading all of this. I love this game, and I value this community.

Valik

To clarify, I read the We're Gonna Live Forever prompt before the Endurance secondary Effect was added to the post - which it seems confused a lot of people, me included.

It's a nice addition - so it's not at all like BBQ, which is going to have no real addition to its viability.

However, I do think this eats Soul Guard's lunch by creating firm Overlap. Soul Guard looks a lot less attractive if people are running around with the ability to give it to you for free - and the demand to act in an aggressive and selfless behavior doesn't seem overall rewarding, and more circumstantial. People jump in front of the killer for 25% increase in BP, but they certainly won't do it for the potential to possibly get a secondary effect that may or may not be useful in the uncertain future. This change seems very last-moment and haphazard. I do not agree with it at all from a creative or production side - but I understand that it's veritably harmless as an addition to the perk. However, you're going to see Soul Guard fade over night when this rolls out - no reason to protect yourself with a cooldown if friends are going to pick you up fast and give this to you for free.