I watched the most recent Dev Stream (with permission this time!) so you don't have to.

Hey, it's me not @Fibijean here, with another developer stream summary. This is a quicker one for people who want the information in a place they can access ASAP, Fibi's will naturally be a lot more in-depth. You can expect (maybe) that one within "a few days", depending on their schedule.

But don't worry, this time I have permission to make it!

This stream was from the 22nd October, 2020.

Disclaimer

The following contains official information, unofficially worded. Unless it's in quotation marks ("like this") please do not look too far into the wording of a particular question. That would be my bad in getting something lost in translation, not the bad of the developers. Thanks! Please note I will try my best to stay as true as possible to all information said on-stream, however, and apply more context where needed, which will be in italics.

If you want to find the stream yourself, you can do so here (timestamped to the start of it, so you don't need to sit through 20 mins of waiting for it to properly start). The first link is to the Twich VOD (likely to be deleted after 7 days), the second to a more permanent YouTube Video:

Featured

Featured in the stream were:

Mathieu Cote (Game Directions), @Mcote_BHVR

Ethan (Game Designer), @Almo

Peanits (Community Manager), @Peanits

Opening messages

To open the stream were the following messages:

• The midchaper released on Tuesday (20-10-20). There are issues, specifically on the PS4, with severe framerate drops. This is being looked into, and they're hoping to have a fix Soon™.
• Use the code "ETERNALBLIGHT" for the Blighted Jack charm.
• The Fog Whisperers will be giving out codes for the Dwightcrow charm on streams and videos. These have 10 uses per code. Please don't spam people for codes; they'll advertise if they're giving them out in stream titles and give them out throughout the stream in whichever way they like.
• There will be a bloodhunt from October 29th - November 2nd. This means a double bloodhunt event; save your streamers guys.
• The Halloween Contest is now closed. They're now looking through all the entries and will reveal the winners at a later date.
• The complaints about the halloween event have been heard! They've heard the comments and will do "something"; no details as of yet but there is "stuff coming". Mathieu has asked his team for more details, but none arrived by the end of the stream.

QNA

Yeah, here's the fun stuff everyone's been waiting for.

These questions were taken from the Forums and Twitter. If you want your question answered in the next one, the only way is to ask. Keep your eyes peeled for the next annoucement.

@Dwight_Fairfield: "Are you planning on giving Myers any updates?"

They've taken a look at Mikey's performance, in all ranks and red ranks alone, and he is in the top half. He's not the best killer, but he's not the worst either, in terms of performance. He has a very unique playstyle, and people often tell them Myer's is "a perfect killer", due to his unique gameplay, and he's fun to play as and against. This means any major updates/buffs are unlikely, but they know some add-ons are problematic. Therefore if he gets anything soon, it'll be an add-on pass, not a full kit rework.

@SnakeSound222: "When can we see more details about the Key and Mori changes?"

These are systems they're interested in giving changes too but cannot give details about due to the current stage in the design process. Nothing they do, or could reveal now, would be confirmed to make it into the final game. Changes to moris and keys are fundamental changes, and will change everything, and are very deep in the games performance as a whole. They have to be extra careful, not just an ordinary amount of careful, due to the fundamental impact this would have on DBD. For example, archive challenges requiring keys, and achievements that need keys and moris.

"We don't want to, like, announce something that might not happen, and get everybody's hopes up, so..." (Peanits)

"Sometimes we announce things, and then- things change. I mean, it's the same with the PTB; we've shown things on the PTB that then got changed before release. I think there's a line there, where we wanna share with you our creative process and where we wanna take things, and we wanna have feedback on that. But we also know these things can create waves of conversation and, people get really upset about things that we're just discussing." (Mathieu)

@gfed: "Will Object of Obsession get a rework or change?"

"Yeah that's a significant perk." Mathieu

OOO is one of those really thematic perks, that works well with the chapter they were released with (Myers and Strode). Looking at the stats alone, it's not used very often, and those people that do use it don't exactly escape very often, so it doesn't seem like an amazingly effective perk. But, like Lightborne, it's a perk where you pick something for it to do, and make it do it well. Having a high escape rate is less important than it being functional and fills a particular gameplay niche. Plus, OOO paired with Sole Survivor has a really nice syngergy too.

This means it's a perk that will probably be left as-is, unless some statistics appear otherwise to make them believe otherwise that there's a deep problem with it. The complaints from the forums are that OOO is overpowered whilst the stats say underpowered, so the team is inclined to believe that it's a perception issue, more than with the perk itself.

However, remember that the devs do take fun into consideration too. Whilst the experience of the devs may be different to yours, they do take on feedback. Make sure it's civil and constructive, because that is valued significantly more than scathing insults, and head to this hyperlink to provide the feedback. It is looked at by the dev team, and forwarded by mods, contrary to what many people may believe.

@Kebek: "Why can't we start custom games with only one player?"

Ah, an old, on-going question.

This is something the devs have been looking at for a while, and is on TheList™. They understand why it's wanted, but there's nothing solid to reveal just yet.

@Mooks: "Will Blight's POV get adjusted?"

Blight is a short killer, like the Hag or the Leg. However, it turns out the height of the camera is too low for what it should be. They are aware, it's on the list. But, fixing this means all first person animations must be adjusted accordingly, which takes up a lot of time and resources.

The reason it all must be changed is due to a dfference in how you see a character. The first person model has the arms scrunched up so you can see them, same with all of their animations (vaulting, breaking, etc), and a survivor sees it completely differently. This means all the animations have to be changed, and it's not that they don't want to fix it, but they don't have the resources right now due to other things in the pipeline. Once the animation team have the bandwith, they'll start working on it.

For example, a survivor would see Demogorgon with his arms out like this:

Whilst the killer sees the arms like this:

Source for picture one and picture two. The lovely fuscia circles were drawn by yours truly.

@MasterGrit: "Will we see advanced graphics options in the future?"

"Yes, we are exploring some new graphics options." (Peanits)

No mention on what they'll be, but they can confirm they won't all roll-out at once when they're added.

"It's not the greatest answer, I'm sorry, but uh- we would love to, basically." (Peanits).

@Maxwell: "Any other perk reworks/buffs coming?"

This is a weird question, and they could just say 'yes' but there's gonna be some insight into what's next don't worry.

Ethan looked at TheList™ of what's supposed to be releasing in the next few updates. Nothing is confirmed to be receiving an update Soon™, but these perks are on TheList™:

• Iron Maiden
• Fixated
• Dead Hard
• Lucky Break
• Gearhead
• Blood Echo

Remember, Soon™ means the next 3-6 months!

"It's also worth mentioning, this could be pushed back if something more important crops up in the meantime." (Ethan)

People like to joke about Dead Hard being Dead (exhausted on the ground lol), the reason being it was built at a time where the killer was always the server, and so you could always assume 0 ping between the killer and what was happening. All of the code from Dead Hard is designed with a set amount of ping from the Survivor's client to the server, and when the server recieves it so does the killer. Naturally, this isn't the case anymore thanks to the release of Dedicated Servers back in 2019/early 2020, so they're looking to rework the network code from the ground up. That's why it's taking so long to be updated. They'll also be making some updates to it's function.

Don't worry, Peanits confirmed in an older thread that grabs and Dead Hard suffer from incredibly similar issues. Grabs are also being worked on.

@Szarman: "Are you going to change The Legion in the near future?"

Once again, stats were mentioned (it's almost like they were foreshadowing something, hmm). Ethan is excited to do more work on LeLeg, since he enjoyed his work on the killer the first time round. He's directly in the middle in terms of both kill rate and pick rate. He's performing okay. He's not the most- nor least- popular. This means he's not on the priority list at the moment. The most he'd get is a tweak to one or two add-ons at most for now. This doesn't mean he's exempt from any changes in the future, just none of them now, as at the moment there are more pressing issues to look at.

Again though please remember community feedback is taken into account and if enough people ask it can shift priorities.

@jisp3r: "Any plans to add personal statistics?"

That's something they've wanted to do for a long time, and it'd be great to be able to do that, but there are a few hurdles. The biggest one is that it wouldn't be retrospective- it could only track stats from the moment it's implemented, which could cause some frustration for players with 5k plus hours who'd check their stats and see nothing. They're still playing around with the idea, so it's not completely off the table, but it's not likely to be coming anytime soon even though it'd be "really really cool".

@Crypticghoul: "Are there any plans on looking at killers who are add-on dependent?"

That is one of the things considered when killer updates are done. For example, there's a Clown update soon (@TheClownIsKing time to celebrate!!) and this is something they're looking into heavily. Another example is Trapper; pretty much everybody uses a bag with Trapper, so when they get around to Trapper they'll take into account if he should start with multiple traps. They understand that this is an issue.

It's a bit of a weird thing; how can you tell which add-ons killers are dependent on and which aren't? Obviously there are stronger and weaker add-ons, but knowing exactly which ones are the key ones is difficult, and just saying "x is dependent on y!" is a bit of a bold statement. (Mathieu)

@Tatariu: "Are you satisfied with Deep Wounds?"

Deep Wounds is an interesting one, since it's been changed so that the timer doesn't go down whilst running, the 30 seconds is way too long. They're looking into shortening the timer, to give it a bit more punch, however they have to be really, really careful due to certain things that prevent you mending (Snap Out Of It, for example. It's 10 seconds minimum, so if the Deep Wounds timer was 8 seconds you physically couldn't do anything to prevent yourself going down excpt find a teammate. Thanks Doctor), and also due to Legion just kinda existing. So, yes, they're looking into changing it, but they have to be really careful with how it interacts with everything else in the game.

@Cabbage: "Could we get some game stats?"

It's almost like they were foreshadowing this!

Before ANY stats were shown, the devs wanted to remind people that these were AVERAGES. Sometimes they don't match up at all with experiences, and there's a LOT of different factors that influence a match. DO NOT use these stats as the SOLE basis for your argument (otherwise @MusicNerd_TC will be having a field day telling you all to buff the nurse). When looking at possible changes, there are 3 very important factors that are taken into account:

• Stats
• Community Feedback
• Personal Gut Feelings

So, hey, here are the stats guys. Kill rate is on the top, pick rate is on the bottom, all ranks first, followed by red-ranks only. These include all platforms. If pictures are low-quality, it's because my actual monitor is and I had to use Snipping Tool to get these:

Some things may not be exactly where expected. For example, Nurse has a 40% killrate but she's arguably the strongest killer in DBD. Spirit has a kill rate of 60%, 6% less than Freddy, and yet nobody is saying she's worse than he is. Blight has been out for 6 weeks, so take his stats with a pinch (or handful) of salt. Other factors must be taken into account. (The numbers for this paragraph were taken from the "all ranks" screenshot).

Ethan has also agreed we should buff nurse.

@Deadeye: "Was Surge forgotten?" (since Demo's other 2 perks got changed but not Surge):

Surge isn't in that bad of a spot, to be fair, when looking at the stats. It has a decent success-to-usage rate (and some kick-ass synergy with Surveillance), but there's another reason too. The update to Cruel Limits and Mindbreaker weren't specifically for Demo's perks, moreso perks that stood out as incredibly weak or underused. Surge didn't stand out like that, and thus it wasn't changed when the other two were. If Demo gets a full update, then all the perks will get changed again.

Furthermore, it's technically be shadowbuffed (if you squint), due to the recent clarification on how it works with blocked and regressing generators (ie. it's interaction with Dead Man's Switch, Repressed Alliance, Thrilling Tremours, and everyone's favourite Hex: Ruin).

@TruthTheDeceiver: "How often do you use ideas from the forums?"

"That's a good question." (Ethan)

It's true that they don't just copy/paste an idea from the forums into the game. For example, if someone comes up with a great rework to NOED, they won't just steal it and plop it into DBD. This does not mean they don't listen to feedback, nor does it mean they don't want your feedback. Many posts on the forums have gotten the design teams talking about issues, and people's experiences with specific perks and scenarios have influenced exactly how these things have been changed. Even if nothing is directly implemented, it does have an impact.

"So keep it up, we like reading that stuff." (Ethan)

Can I again remind people, though, to keep feedback civil and constructive. Bashing the development team makes your feedback less likely to be looked at, not more likely. Giving a calm, reasoned explanation as to why you, personally, think Wraith is underpowered is a lot more likely to start a conversation than "WRAITH IS SO WEAK BUFF HIM YOU INCOMPETENT FOOOOOOOLS11!1".

(It's worth noting Mathieu's cat made a guest appearance here, only to be dragged off-screen once more. He just wanted to say hi guys.)

@selflessnea: "Can we see some changes to killer adept achievements?"

It's not very likely, due to the requirements on different platforms in terms of achievements. If something is still possible, it's highly unlikely it'll be changed since that's unfair to those who earned it fair and square before.

@ToxicMyers: "Will you tell us which killers are getting changes next?"

Clown, as mentioned earlier. No ETA yet but Clown is getting the next update.

@Ramxenoc445: "Will luck be reworked?"

Eventually, yes. Luck is a really tricky thing, and DBD is not an esports competitive game. Luck elements in the game (as in, in the trials) are kept to a minimum, and they enjoy that. Sure, you can find a key in a chest or get that sweet sweet kobe, but it's not like luck plays a substantial part once the map has been generated (before someone tries telling me map generation). They're aware luck is in a bad place, and needs an update, but there are some bigger things first, for example Keys and Moris. It's on TheList™ though, don't worry.

The most recent perk that had something to do with luck was Up The Ante, from Ace Visconti in 2016. They're slowly working away from luck too, since it no longer affects Trapper's Bear Traps.

(Mathieu also apologises for getting your name wrong)

@PassarinoT: "Are character models being reworked?"

Yes, but there's no ETA on them yet, nor on the exact changes. However, you can expect some more word about it coming in early 2021.

@Cancan71: "Are you going to review recently changed perks as well?"

Yes. Ethan talks about two cases here, recent released perks (for example, perks from Descend Beyond) and recently changed perks (for example, Technician). Every chapter they do a review on those perks (for example, the Silent Hill review). Every time other perks are changed, they set specific targets for what they want those perks to achieve. They come back and check on these once in a while (after a month or two) to see if these targets have been met, and if not then further adjustments are made.

@FilledPizza: "How long will it take to see cross-progression on Switch and other platforms?"

Switch cross-progression is coming soon. No ETA yet (however we can assume it'll be when they've ironed out the kinks in their current systems). Other platforms have no confirmation on if it's possible or not, and the devs don't want to say "yes" to get your hopes up only to have them crushed. But, they are aware that it's a highly requested feature and so will continue working to get it working.

PaulieEsther (Twitter): "Can you share you plans for past Rift cosmetics?"

Worth noting this question was asked before the update, since now it's kinda obvious.

They added the Fluid Nightingale skin from The Nurse into the store recently, and it's something they'll continue to do, so keep your eyes peeled, but cannot say exactly what will appear when.

HoboChris93 (Twitter): "Any news on bringing Freddy to Switch, Stadia, or Windows Store?"

Yeah, there's been no announcements but, rejoyce everyone, for he will be coming!

"I should've made a bigger moment of this..." (Mathieu).

TheYoonz (Twitter): "Due to significant map changes, isn't it time for Bloodlust to be retired?"

There's some testing soon planned for Bloodlust, going to be soon but no ETA. Depending on the outcome of this test depends on the fate of bloodlust. (Originally here it said, 'depending on the outcome of this test depends on the outcome of this experiment' which makes absolutely no sense, so here's a sneaky ninja edit.) At the moment, it still serves a purpose, and they don't want to remove Bloodlust and find out that doing so has re-created an infinite.

Miligloo (Twitter): "Why haven't you released shirtless Felix yet?"

"..." (Mathieu, Ethan, Peanits)

(Wraith > Felix)

"Moving on." (Peanits)

Notjonhoff (Twitter): "Will we see blood around hook wounds?"

This is something they're not specifically looking to do, but if you remember in the 4.2.0 PTB there were extra blood effects added. This is something they're looking to do; make you more bloody over the course of the match. (Peanits)

Aatroxesq (Twitter): "What was the story of getting Silent Hill into the game?"

The inclusion of Silent Hill is basically the story of a Dream's progression into a possibility, into a reality. Due to Silent Hill's legacy in video game history, it was always a bit of a dream, and they finally made it happen. It was a pretty humbling, thrilling experience and they loved it all. They tried to take as much from it as possible- hence why Midwhich is from Game 1, Pyramid Head from Game 2, and Cheryl/Heather from Game 3. Cheryl and Pyramid Head never interacted in Silent Hill, yet they can in DBD (and in the devs' words, that's really cool). They tried to get the most iconic characters from it all.

Bazzickles (Twitter): "Will we see more chapters based on games like the SIlent Hill chapter?"

Thing is, video games are also a great source for amazing horror story storytelling. If it fits, they could make it happen. They're open to any medium; video games, films, books, even anime. If there's a cool horror story to tell, they're open to it.

TheHorrorMantis (Twitter): "What's the process of planning a chapter?"

There's a prepared answer from Ethan because it's really important, and he doesn't want to be misquoted. Therefore, I'll try my best to copy it here word for word.

"Generally speaking, we start with the killer concept first, and only a very high-level concept of what the power could be. From there, the design team defines the killer power in more detail. For example, the Deathslinger came from the core idea of 'How can we give a killer a gun?'. From there, the general character concept was created- spooky cowboy- and the power itself went through several revisions before we found something that worked. Of course, this is just the general flow; each killer presents their own unique challenges and vary in development flow. So, that's pretty much it; I mean it's a- we don't tend to always do power first, then killer. We'll have a high-level concept and go through a bunch of iterations until we find something that works."

THIS CONCLUDLES THE QNA SECTION FOR 22ND OCTOBER, 2020. THE REMAINDER OF THE STREAM WAS A SUMMARY OF THE ANNOUNCEMENTS.

aNNOUNCEMENTS SUMMARY

• They know with the mid-chapter that released Tuesday there were severe PS4 performance issues. They're well aware of it, and will be patching it as soon as is physically possible.
• There are some halloween surprises. Code "ETERNALBLIGHT" for a Blighted Jack charm, and tune into streams or videos from Fog Whisperers to get the Dwightcrow charm. Remember, each code has 10 uses.
• There is a Bloodhunt on the 29th October - 2nd November 2020.
• They have heard your feedback on the halloween event and will be making changes to it. No information appeared by the end of the stream.
• Remember to call your mother and tell her that you love her, if you can (or your father, or anyone you really care about). Words of wisdom from Mathieu.

This concludes the Developer QNA From Home, from 22nd October 2020. Stay safe everyone.