Did everyone forget that scratch marks have already been changed?
I wasn't going to start a discussion just because of this, but I can't get over how almost everyone, including the developers, seems to have either forgotten or not realized (even though I saw some people commenting it during the Tomb Raider PTB) that scratch marks have already been updated with patch 8.1.0.
Take a look at the following clips. They'll start playing at the relevant timestamp.
This one was posted the day the patch came out but it's a recording of the previous day (so patch 8.0.2):
And this one is from the next day (so patch 8.1.0):
Also I just took a screenshot inside the theater in Greenville Square, like in yesterday's dev update:
Scratch marks are very noticeably brighter already, so I'm very confused by the dev update and the subsequent community reaction. Is the current iteration just a work in progress and they're still getting tweaked in the next update, or is there something else I'm missing?
Comments
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You're not crazy! This update comes in two parts.
The changes you noticed in 8.1.0 are more of a technical implementation which make scratch marks look better and prevent them from stretching when they appear on certain objects. It also added the ability for us to adjust their brightness behind the scenes so they appear equally visible on each map regardless of lighting conditions.
In 8.2.0, we have gone through each map and adjusted their brightness appropriately. This is more noticeable in bright areas or places like the red floor of the theatre in Greenville Square where scratch marks previously didn't stand out very well. We waited for this to be implemented to show them off because it's likely where you'll notice the biggest improvement.
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BHVR has been nerfing scratchmarks over and over, for a long time. The current scratchmarks are still not anywhere near as good as they used to be.
And we never get the full story. We might get told things like "we haven't changed the scratchmarks for a while", but we aren't told if the newer environmental objects just aren't properly working with scratchmarks, which means there is a major loophole where "the scratchmark rules weren't changed" but "yeah, the scratchmarks are definitely worse now". And it doesn't matter what the semantics are. There are definitely videos and screenshots out there, of what the scratchmarks used to look like.
The same thing happens with sound occlusion, where BHVR will secretly change sound occlusion, and not make it public knowledge. Did you know that Spirit's directional phasing audio originally respected sound occlusion? But later BHVR secretly changed it so it doesn't respect sound occlusion at all? There are still videos out there, of Spirit's directional phasing audio getting muffled or deleted when there is an object between the survivor and killer, so we do have proof it used to respect sound occlusion.
It's the same thing with the forced short M1 attack bug, that can steal hits from the killer. BHVR refuses to comment on it, even though it can steal hits from the killer in every single game that happens.
The killer side is full of secret mechanics and changes, to secretly balance the killer side.
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Thanks for this change, even if not so many people talked about it. I don't know why, but recently scratch marks are horrible. They disappear mid running, stop near edges and stairs and very inconsistent overall right now.
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I see, thanks for clarifying! I haven't paid too much attention to the new scratch marks yet apart from their brightness, but I hope the new implementation has allowed/will allow you to fix those "dead zones" where sometimes there's a chunk of marks missing, and also reduce the delay betweeen survivors running and the marks spawning.
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I appreciate the team working on this issue and providing what sounds like a much more flexible, easier-to-tune solution. Thank you!
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