I Watched The Dev Stream at 4AM So You Don't Have To!

... And then I was exhausted the entire weekend, which is why this summary is so late. So, sorry about that. I probably won't be watching the stream live again.

Still, I went back and typed up notes on it afterwards since I know there are still people out there who can't or don't want to watch the streams themselves, for whatever reason.

It should go without saying at this point, but I'd rather all complaints are directed to the appropriate party, so the usual disclaimers still apply: The below is official information, unofficially worded. I have done my best to be as accurate to the spirit of what was said on stream as possible, but these are my words, not the developers', so if you're going to get mad at someone over the particular wording of an answer, get mad at me. The only exception is if something is in quotation marks " " , in which case it is a direct quote from one of the developers on stream. Anything in square brackets [ ] is my own note or conjecture, which I have included for the sake of clarity but should not be taken as official information.

If you would like to watch the stream for yourself, you can find it at the below links.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/H7Q_2tNL6fQ

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/600389920

This stream featured the following members of the development team:

@not_Queen (Lead Community Manager), running the stream and making opening and closing announcements.

@Almo (AKA Ethan, Game Designer), answering questions on the Chains of Hate update and the upcoming Mid-Chapter patch. Many of these answers, particularly those regarding The Deathslinger, were passed on from Guillaume, another Game Designer who works primarily on Killers.

Patrick Harris (Game Designer), answering questions on the upcoming map changes (filling in for Level Designer Matt Walker) and matchmaking changes (as himself).

(This is just so that everyone understands what roles each of these developers play in shaping the game and where their respective areas of expertise lie. Devs, please let me know if any of this information is wrong or misleading and I'll happily fix it.)

Announcements

The Mid-Chapter update will be released next Tuesday (28 April) and the new Archive (Tome and Rift) will launch the following day (29 April).

There is currently a contest ongoing to design your own in-game cosmetic, for which there have already been over 800 submissions. If you would like to participate and/or check out the entries so far, you can do so at this link: https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/categories/submission-design-your-in-game-cosmetic

The forums now have a new Bug Reporting section up and running (https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/categories/bugs). There is a set template for anyone reporting a bug to follow, which is designed to provide the developers with as much information as possible. You can also upvote someone else’s bug report if you are having the same issue, instead of creating multiple threads for the same bug. Members of the development team will filter through these reports and mark those that have been acknowledged or fixed, or those that are not bugs but intended gameplay.

DBD Mobile released last week, and there have been a lot of questions asked about it on the forum. Unfortunately, the core team (developers for PC and console) are unable to answer most of these, so it is strongly suggested that anyone with questions about DBD Mobile go to the DBD Mobile official channels: Twitter (https://twitter.com/DbDMobile), Discord (discord.gg/dbdmobile) or their official website (https://mobile.deadbydaylight.com/) for information.

Q&A

Questions about Maps

What are your plans for adding breakable walls to older maps? (from @Slaughterhouse3)

The plan is to eventually implement breakable walls into every map. However, there are a lot of maps (around 30), and manually adding the walls to each one will take some time. No estimated date was given for when this might be achievable, but it is confirmed to be on ‘The List’ – in other words, they are working on it.

Why hasn’t the Asylum window been changed in this update? (from @Thatbrownmonster)

“TIME CONSTRAINTS!” is the answer.

It takes a lot more time than many players think to fix such things. They have to decide what to prioritise of all the different issues on various maps based on which changes would give “the most bang for your buck” [that is, which would be the most rewarding compared to the time and resources spent to make them happen]. Whenever changes to maps are made, assets also need to be updated by the art team, the change needs to be tested by the QA team, etc. So there is a lot of work that goes into something like that. It's not that they don’t care or don’t want to fix these things, they just don’t have time to do everything all at once, and this particular issue just isn’t one they have been able to find the time to fix yet.

How come you didn’t make any size changes to Mother’s Dwelling? (from @xGodSendDeath)

There were a few factors that contributed to this decision. First, the maze tiles on Mother’s Dwelling were respaced, so the map designers wanted to see what effects a smaller change like that would have before making larger changes to the map. They consider it best not to change too many things at once, to first ensure that everything is working as intended.

Secondly, stats show that Mother’s Dwelling is roughly in the middle in terms of the rate of kills to escapes. The fact that, statistically speaking, it doesn’t appear to be in a particularly unbalanced place means that it isn’t “the squeaky wheel that needs the grease”. [In other words, it doesn’t appear to be in as dire need of fixes as some other maps may be, so with limited resources available it may therefore be lower priority.]

Again, they don’t want to make too many changes too quickly. This is just good game design – they need to be able to observe how certain changes affect stats and gameplay, and if they make too many changes at once and throw the balance off, it can be difficult to figure out which of the changes was the problem.

They can always make further adjustments later, once they have had a chance to observe the effects of these changes. The level designers are very busy, but they will get around to making all necessary alterations once those reach the top of the priority list. Remember that Dead by Daylight is a live game, and everything in it is open to change.

What’s the target for map sizes? (from @Rezblaze)

The aim with map sizes is that all maps should be fun and balanced, but at the same time the designers want to maintain a certain level of diversity between them. If every map were the same size and layout, gameplay would get stale very quickly. They want every map to look and feel different, in terms of both aesthetics and gameplay.

With this update, they are beginning to test smaller map sizes, and they will be watching the stats for the resized maps to see how they perform, as well as listening to feedback from players.

Are you going to address the ‘dead zones’ (spaces between maze tiles where players don’t have anything to interact with)? (from @Vampirox)

The short answer is yes. As with many of the other map changes, it’s something that the map designers want to look into at some point, but have been unable to thus far due to time constraints. The current tile diversity system used on newer maps “to keep things fresh and exciting” is not in place on older maps, meaning that the dead zones on those older maps tend to be less consistent. They would like to implement the same tile diversity system on the older maps at some stage, but again, it’s just something they haven’t yet been able to find time for.

Are more map changes planned? (from @Tunnel_Me_Please)

These changes are “definitely not a one-and-done thing”. As mentioned, Dead by Daylight is a live game, and the developers are continually monitoring feedback from the community as well as their own internal data to see what needs changing. This will not be the last time that we see balance changes being made to maps. There will definitely be more map adjustments in the future, but they cannot confirm any details regarding when this will happen or how big said adjustments will be.

Why change so many maps at once? (from @Sziosis)

After the release of the Stranger Things chapter, they identified an opportunity to do something about the ‘infinite loops’ in the game, and they fixed as many as possible. They decided to release some experimental map tweaks at the same time to see how such changes were received by players, so that they could decide what types of changes to prioritise in the future. Players are encouraged to be vocal in their feedback if they like the changes, as this will encourage the developers to make more changes along the same lines in the future.

Why do you add holes next to strong windows instead of breakable walls? (from @Alify)

“THAT IS GONNA BE THE NEXT STEP!”, apparently. The developers want to see how having holes in those locations affects the balance of the maps before adding breakable walls, partly because the breakable walls are still a new and relatively unfamiliar feature. [The implication seems to be that those holes are where breakable walls will be placed if all goes well, once they get to the point of adding breakable walls to all maps.]

Will there be more map reworks? (from @Marcus)

“REDACTED”.

In other words, this is not something that they can answer, as they are unable to release information about what they may or may not change in future patches.

Do you look at community feedback, or statistics when changing maps? (from @Ivaldi)

Both. The developers do listen to community feedback to understand how their players feel about certain changes, but they also take statistics into account. This is just good game design – you have to look at both, because sometimes the community will hate a change, but it will seem perfectly balanced statistically.

At the same time, however, if the players don’t enjoy the game, regardless of how balanced it is, it’s still a failure, and vice versa – if everyone has a great time but the game is enormously unbalanced, it may still be necessary to make some balance adjustments while maintaining the same level of player enjoyment. So there needs to be a balance between the two.

Questions about chapter 15 (Chains of Hate)

Why was Gearhead changed between the PTB and live? (from @CheersTC)

They felt that the active durations on the perk were too long and therefore gave too much information. They also wanted to provide the survivors with a way to counter the perk by hitting great skill checks.

Will The Deathslinger get any changes soon? (from @Demonl3y)

The developers are unable to comment on any changes to the game beyond the current release. However, they will be keeping an eye on things like statistics, and if they see anything that appears to need changing, they will make the necessary adjustments.

Are there any plans to increase The Deathslinger’s movement speed? (from @Swiftblade131)

One of the issues with ranged killers like Deathslinger and Huntress is that Dead by Daylight is “fundamentally a melee game”. Ranged killers have a much wider “effective radius” [that is, the radius around the killer themselves within which they can directly interact with survivors]. The developers believe that a lower movement speed is necessary in the case of Deathslinger and Huntress to compensate for this.

They believe that Deathslinger’s speed is where it needs to be, “considering the strength of his power, the range, the absence of delay when shooting, and having infinite inventory”. In early playtesting, they also discovered that increasing Deathslinger’s speed meant players were less likely to choose to use his power rather than simply chase survivors down. With the movement speed as it is, the killer now has a more “meaningful” choice to make when chasing a survivor.

Can we get a new option for aiming sensitivity? (from @CasualConsolePlayer)

The sensitivity while Aiming Down Sights as Deathslinger was not working as intended when the killer was first released. This is being changed in the upcoming update to better reflect how Deathslinger’s power was meant to function. It is unlikely that users will be given the option to adjust this on their own, although there are some on the development team in favour of such a change.

What was the thought process behind the Add-on retention change? (from @Aven_Fallen)

Add-ons were always supposed to be consumable items for both roles. When the change was made to allow players to keep items that ran out of charges, it happened that many more add-ons were also being kept. It was more in line with the original design intent that players should lose their add-ons at the end of the match regardless, as it was never intended that players of either role should have enough add-ons available that they would be able to bring a full set every match.

Why did you change the aura reading of Hangman’s Trick after the PTB? (from @Bjario)

The purpose of Hangman’s Trick is to reveal when a survivor is hiding near a hook, for example, in preparation for a sabotage or bodyblock. 16 metres away does not really qualify as “near” the hook in this sense, and the effect of Hangman’s Trick on the PTB was effectively to give the killer blanket aura reading abilities across the map. This was not in line with the intention behind the perk’s design, hence its range reduction.

What was the inspiration behind The Deathslinger? (from @Mikey4Hire)

The idea of having a killer with a gun was something that had been under internal consideration for years. An opportunity to make this a reality eventually presented itself, and the idea of a Western-themed character developed naturally from there. Deathslinger, of course, is not a typical “western” character, and there was some concern initially that he wouldn’t fit into the game, but ultimately the team are very happy with the way he, and particularly his power, turned out.

Will each killer eventually get their own unique wall breaking animation? (from @Dr_Trauts)

Some of the killers have already received a unique wall-breaking animation and/or animation fixes in the upcoming mid-chapter patch. As time goes on, this is something that they are hoping to implement for each of the killers on the roster.

Was there any inspiration for The Deathslinger’s weapon? (from @TheShape13_TDZ)

Firstly, they wanted to create something that looked and felt like a firearm, not like a crossbow or something spring mounted. Secondly, they wanted to give the killer the ability to reel survivors in toward them. The idea was to show off the chain as much as possible, and it was decided that the manual cranking of the chain had a much better “feel” to it than an automatic weapon might have, so the focus is not just on the harpoon head but on the chain itself.

Are breakable walls showing up on Windows of Opportunity by design? (from @Supernaut)

Yes, this is intended functionality.

Are there any plans to change the bushes on Dead Dawg Saloon? (from @MrDardon)

The developers are aware of the issue of survivors being able to hide extremely well in these bushes. They will be collecting both internal data and external feedback about the new map over the next few months, to see what changes will be necessary. For the time being, they are still gathering information, to ensure that they make informed and correct balance decisions when they do get to the point of making adjustments to the map.

Why are survivors notified when Dead Man’s Switch is active? (from @Spannungsstoß)

Survivors are supposed to be notified that this perk is in play when they let go of a generator and it gets blocked by the perk, to let them know why the generator has been blocked. If they are notified of the perk’s presence at any other time, that is not intended and therefore should be reported as a bug.

How long had you guys been planning a killer like The Deathslinger? (from @Doc_W__HOLLIDAY)

The Deathslinger was always intended to be wielding a gun of his own invention. The idea of him being “half-cowboy, half-engineer with a dark past” naturally arose from this. The entire team found this theme inspiring, and they knew the players would also be pleased.

Any hint for the golden toolbox on Dead Dawg Saloon? (from @Rattman)

“The what?”

Questions about the Mid-Chapter Patch

Why does the game end when everyone is in the struggle phase? (from @Nicholas)

The intention was to avoid games ending with all remaining survivors struggling on the hook while the killer waits around for them to die. The outcome of the match is already decided and no one really has anything else to do at that point, so there is no reason not to just end the game and let everyone move on to the next match. Of course, the survivors won’t get struggle points in this case, but neither does the last survivor remaining in a trial, so the logic in both scenarios is essentially the same.

What encouraged you to nerf repair efficiency instead of increasing repair times? (from @MrPeterPFL)

The developers wanted to make repair times more consistent, but they didn’t feel that increasing the default time of 80 seconds was necessary. Instead, they implemented other methods to achieve a similar effect of preventing generators from being repaired too fast without making direct adjustments to the time it takes for a generator to be repaired by default.

Lowering the great skill check bonus narrows the gap between survivors who constantly hit great skill checks and those who never do. It also has the effect of stabilising repair times, since it was found that on occasions where a good player was randomly given a lot of skill checks in quick succession, they could save an enormous amount of time on repairs by consistently hitting great skill checks.

The changes to cooperative repair penalties were intended to have a similar effect of indirectly increasing generator repair times by controlling the minimum repair time. These changes also help to prevent cases where all four survivors spawn together and are thus able to cooperatively repair the first generator unreasonably quickly. These adjustments are not huge, they are merely intended as a “slight tweak” to help control the infamous ‘genrush’.

What is the difference between repair efficiency and repair time? (from the live chat)

“Time” is how long it takes to do the generator, which is 80 seconds by default. “Efficiency” refers to how many charges per second are being consumed. By default, survivors repair generators at a rate of one charge per second. If, for example, Thanatophobia is in play, which reduces survivors’ repair efficiency, the rate of repair will decrease to less than one charge per second. If a survivor is using a toolbox, their efficiency will be increased to more than one charge per second.

In the case of item consumption efficiency (which is affected by perks like Overwhelming Presence), reduced item efficiency means that a survivor will consume more of a toolbox’s power per repair charge, and vice versa.

Will you consider removing Bloodlust anytime soon? (from @xChrisx)

There are currently no plans to remove Bloodlust from the game, since the feature is still working well and as intended. Although some may say that a killer who can’t catch up to a survivor without Bloodlust simply needs to get better at the game, the developers believe Bloodlust is a necessary mechanic to give survivors some sense of mounting pressure during a chase regardless.

Additionally, if a killer needs to wait for Bloodlust to activate in order to catch a survivor, they’re unlikely to be playing efficiently enough to do well in that match, so the effect that the mechanic actually has on the outcome of a match is fairly minimal. According to statistics, most chase-ending hits occur around the same time that Bloodlust 1 activates, so it’s quite rare for Bloodlust to have a substantial effect on the chase. [In other words, it’s an insurance mechanic which is primarily intended to make chases feel more intense the longer they go on] – as Patrick jokes, Bloodlust is “a metaphor for the inevitability of death”.

What do you guys wish you could have added to the update, but didn’t have time for? (from @Elk)

There were some map and perk changes which they were hoping to include but didn’t ultimately manage to fit into the patch as a matter of priority. Unfortunately, since they weren’t included in the upcoming patch, the developers can’t go into detail as to what exactly those changes were.

The team have a huge backlog of suggestions and ideas that they really want to implement into the game at some stage, but simply haven’t had the time to make happen yet. Sometimes, they might spend a long time coming up with fantastic design ideas, only to realise that they can’t do anything about them because there are other, higher-priority matters that need to be dealt with first. Because resources are limited, they are constantly forced to pick and choose which changes or additions they believe will ultimately provide the best value for players, so often, things they would like to add get shafted in favour of fixing existing issues with the game.

Common Questions about Matchmaking

Where are you at with the matchmaking changes?

There is a lot going on behind the scenes, much of which they are not yet at liberty to publicly discuss. Most of what they are able to talk about has already been revealed in this blog post: https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/124795/status-update-matchmaking-changes. Essentially, they are planning to use a new metric for matchmaking purposes instead of the current ranking system. They like ranks as a mechanic, but have deemed it inadequate as a method for accurately measuring player skill and, therefore, for creating balanced matches. For example, under the current system, players who have existing skills in the game (perhaps from playing on a different account or platform) are matched with brand new players because everyone begins at rank 20 regardless of their starting skill level, which is neither fair nor fun for either party. The new system is designed to be a more accurate reflector of player skill in order to facilitate more balanced matchmaking.

They have been doing a lot of data monitoring on how the matchmaking system works, and progress is going well on the new system, particularly on the mathematical side of things. Small, unannounced tests on selected servers are also ongoing at times to see how the new system is affecting things like match times. We should expect changes to matchmaking to be coming in the “not-so-distant future”, although no dates are confirmed yet.

They are also testing a new technology which should allow them to roll out these updates entirely on the backend, meaning that players will not have to download an update in order to enable the new changes. In theory, the developers will simply issue an announcement when the new matchmaking goes live, and from that point onward players will begin being matched using the new system. Once this happens, they plan to look into expanding on the current rank system, but for now the top priority is improving the speed and quality of the matchmaking experience for all players.

Why do I still see ‘rainbow ranks’ when playing the game?

There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, they are always trying to find an appropriate middle ground between balanced matchmaking and fast matchmaking. Given that DBD is a relatively casual game, the devs consider it acceptable for players of a wide range of skill levels to be matched together if the payoff for this is shorter queue times. They have expanded the maximum rank range for matchmaking over the past year, because they consider matchmaking speed more important overall than skill balance.

Secondly, there are certain fringe cases which can cause rank disparities in matches. For example, if a player abandons a full lobby, the system “massively” increases the acceptable rank range when trying to fill their spot, so that the remaining players, having almost made it into a game only to be held back at the last second, don’t have to wait very long for a second chance.

Again, most of the details regarding the matchmaking system can be found in the January blog post on the topic [linked above]. The new system is still in its testing phase, but when it goes live, ranks will no longer be used for matchmaking purposes.

It is also worth bearing in mind that things like the asymmetry of the game (ratio of killers to survivors in the queue), the time of day and the player’s region can also have an impact on matchmaking time and quality. Even if there are a lot of players currently online, for example, most of those may be playing outside your region, and different regions also tend to have different ratios of killers to survivors online at any given time.

Questions about the Rank Update Error

There have been many questions asked about the Rank Update Error. The issue is very complicated, far beyond simply fixing a single bug, and the team are still working on a solution.

Questions about Optimisation

There were also many questions received about game optimisation. There is a special subcategory on the forum for reporting optimisation-related bugs (https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/categories/optimization). The more specific information, such as platform and in-game circumstances surrounding the issue, that can be provided when reporting these bugs, the easier it is for the team to identify and fix them.