It's that time again where I watched the Dev Stream that one time, so you didn't have to.

May I please request that people do not use the quote feature on this post, nor should they paste it's link to these forums in any form other than a hyperlink, because if you do you'll get a rich post error and nobody wants those.

So, hi. For people who don't know, I'm GoodBoyKaru, and today (and, whenever you decide to look at this post) I'll be summarising the most recent developer stream instead of revising for my economics test tomorrow that's actually pretty important. This post was started at around 20:28 my time, but please keep in mind it'll be finished much later (it's currently 23:16 as I finish this), so please excuse any grammatical or spelling errors. If I spot them, I'll go back through and edit them out, so if you see some edits in the coming days then that'd be what it is. And remember, I stopped playing Paladins for this.

This stream is from February 4th, 2021.

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, or just add in my own opinion or jokes which will be in italics.

If you want to find the stream yourself, you can do so here:

I've found the YouTube link.

featured

Featured on this stream were:

not_Queen (Lead Community Manager), @not_Queen

Patrick (Lead Game Designer)

McLean (Gameplay programmer), @McLean

McLean's cat and not_Queen's cat.

opening messages

• The Mid-chapter patch will be releasing next week! Based on usual update schedules we can infer it'll be February 9th.
• Alongside the mid-chapter will be the new Rift (February 10th) and Lunar New Year event.

Qna

Now we come to Scenes We'd Like To See- just kidding it's the QnA section.

Questions were collected from the forums as well as on Twitter; if you want a question answered, look out for the next time they say they're open, because you'll never get an answer if it's never asked. Some questions with higher upvotes could not be answered for various reasons, one of which is that the topic in question was too early in development/conceptualisation for a proper answer, and so if you see a question asked but not answered that may be what happened. Furthermore, some were just plain insults. Don't do that guys. Not cool.

CramperCandy- "Is the team looking into FPS drops when playing Killer on the Switch?"

Yes, the team is looking into FPS drops on all platforms, usually. They've recently added in some new metrics that'll help them figure out what exactly is causing the framerate drops, and hopefully then be able to solve them. Small optimisations come in each patch, so hopefully the performance will slowly begin to improve again (or at the very least, not get worse).

Everyone, ever- "Switch cross-progression when?"

Good news! It's currently going to be "Early Q2", or early within the second quater of 2021. This means around April/June time, and they're aiming for April.

What about PS4/Xbox? As they've said before, they want to add it into DBD however at the moment there is nothing to announce on that front.

Oganpars- "Any chance for new variations of the Backwater Swamp realm?"

They want to give a lot of the maps as much love as they can, however right now they're focusing on reworks instead of new content. In other words, don't expect any new maps for any realm within the immidiate future. But don't worry; it'll still get the rework treatment ("determined by a magic 8 ball that they shake up at least once a week" /s)

@Mudzkip1221 - "Are there any plans to rework Haddonfield?"

Oh I hope so.

Yeah, they'll be getting the same type of graphical update that each map has been getting (and the reason they've been going so slowly is because they want to attempt to ensure that it all looks and plays good). "Haddonfield will recieve just as much love as the others." Hopefully this means they'll do a Badham and fix, or at least improve, the House Of Pain.

@flosik - "Will we ever see ultrawide support?"

All they can say at the moment is that it's not on the immiidate plan- it's not that it doesn't matter but it's not something in the works.

@madminer95 - "Why do Survivors get more hook info in the new UI than killers?"

Just to be clear- this was done intentionally by both the design and UI team. They considered giving the full information to the killer, though the concern they had was that this would encourage tunneling a bit too much. Sure, tunneling is a strategy, but it's not the most fun thing to do, nor to face. However, they want to leave this as part of the challenge and decision making as killer. It's specifically practical for solo players (so rejoice because finally, finally, we've gotten a solo buff).

You'll still get the overall hook counter to give you an idea of overall progress, however they didn't want to give too much specific information and take the gameplay challenge away.

@Shuzi - "Is there a possibility for HUD customisation?"

For example, being able to customise where each widget would appear on screen.

It sounds like a really cool idea, so it's been discussed internally. It's not simple, and in both testing and programming it's actually incredibly complex. It's not planned for the future, but it's not ruled out either.

interruption

We interrupt your regularly scheduled programming to deliver more news on the new UI. There was a lot, and I mean a lot, of feedback from the PTB, however not that much has changed for the live release. The plan is to go in and look at focused feedback for a few weeks after release too, after everyone (and they mean everyone, not just Steam PTB players) can get a feel for it.

However, one thing they wanted to address is the whole colourblind issue. They have fixed at least the injured issues for the live version of the game, and although proper colourblind settings have yet to be released, they're aiming to have this released in the next major Chapter update.

Please keep in mind, though, that there's not that much time between releasing a PTB and the patch having to be locked in for certification. This is why a lot of the changes suggested on the PTB don't go live immidiately, but instead will arrive in the following hotfixes, or major updates (be them mid-chapter patches or major Chapter releases). Why do them at all? They do PTBs in order to get 3-4 weeks advance notice for fixing things in the hotfixes.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

Qna (part 2)

@Moshinoki - "Are there any plans to change the hook struggle mechanic?"

They get it- smashing the same key is boring and not exactly accessible. They've been looking for an improvement for a while now- something that feels like fighting against the Entity but also being significantly better than a game of "How quickly can I ruin my keyboard or controller whilst praying that FPS drops don't ruin my day". Work is being done on this, however no ETA can be given just yet.

Santzuz - "Can you address the longer [survivor] queues during nighttime?"

The biggest limiting factor in terms of DBD isn't actually the system, it's the lack of players. Throughout the day, the ratio of survior:killer fluctuates pretty wildly. In a perfect world, for every 4 survivors there'd be 1 killer, however this isn't the case. Generally speaking during nighttime, the number of survivor players vastly outmates the number of killer players, and the complete opposite often happens during a new chapter release because everyone wants to play the new killer. There's some "cool, really interesting" background work being done right now. This could also explain the rather... questionable, let's say, matchmaking that people have been experiencing recently (good old rainbow ranks).

@Maxit - "With the upcoming MMR system, can you give more details on how the skill rating is being calculated?"

Short answer, no.

They're a little bit hesitent to explain every single detail, because they don't want to change how people play the game. They don't want people to change how they play to increase/decrease their rating on purpose; it should adapt to how you play, rather than vice-versa. Furthermore, it's not set in stone; and since the original test of MMR they've added in more and more ways of calculating the skill rating, and these things are still being added to.

IT IS NOT BASED PURELY ON KILLS/ESCAPES. THIS WAS TESTED INTERNALLY AND IMMIDIATELY DECIDED IT WAS NOT IT CHIEF.

@Zesty - "Will all killers eventually be getting their own custom chase music?"

They do want to give killers their own chase music when they update their changes. They can't promise that every single killer will be getting changes however they want to do this.

@kaoraku - "When can we expect a key rework?"

The mori change was a small change, in terms of coding. It was easy to make.

They know keys can be equally frustrating however during some research they found that keys were less of an issue than moris; despite how common they feel, key hatch escapes aren't always common (though this might be because of everyone running Franklin's and facecamping anyone with a key) so they weren't targeted in the same initiative as moris. In conversations, they'd usually come up as 2 sides of the same coin however the devs see these as completely seperate issues. They're just two things that get talked about at the same time a lot of the time.

They do have a plan for keys.

Both systems will be getting bigger changes- it's still far too early in the process to get more precice but it's a much larger change than the one given to moris, and will be given to both now.

JeremyKessler20- "Why can killers camp, slug, and tunnel, and end match so quickly for survivors?"

I promise that's exactly as it was read out.

Obviously they don't want to remove these choices from the players. In certain situations all 3 of these options could be the best choice; if someone's hook-bombing then camp the survivor, if you need lategame pressure and there's no DS then tunnel, etc. A large part of DBD is about decision making based on the decisions made of other players in the game based on decisions you made which were based off of decisions made from decisions made, which were made on the decisions of a decision- you get the idea. Giving people only a single "correct" way to play each match would be incredibly boring.

Now, being camped or slugged ot tunneled sucks. However there are lots of perks against that (for example, No Mither, Unbreakable, Soul Guard, or WGLF to deal with slugging, and BT and Kindred help with campers).

It's here to stay, and from a design perspective if the first 5 minutes of every game you played was identical, then why would you play the game? Plus, slugging/tunneling isn't the only way to end a game incredibly quickly nudge nudge wink wink. There needs to be a threat for something to happen right from the beginning of the match.

That said, they're looking to make sure that it isn't totally unbalanced or totally frustrating, however trust their judgement that a game without any of this would be incredibly boring.

Johnnyblaze1971 - "Will we ever get Bloodpoints if someone disconnects before the match starts?"

This is what happens when the match gets cancelled, just for the record.

"Bloodpoints without playing the game?"

They're looking to constantly improve the systems of the game, and included in this are the disconnect systems and penalties. It's important to keep in mind, however, that these systems need to not be... exploitable, by 'bad actors'- people who look to do something low effort (and maybe even run a script) just to farm bloodpoints would be included in this group of people.

For the record, they've considered adding in disconnect penalties for people who leave pre-game lobbies (also known as "lobby dodging"), and the logic is actually already in the game and can be turned on by a switch (which it isn't). There are a lot of cases where people crash loading into a game (PC instability, a crash, a cat deciding your ethernet cable was a new toy, something burning three rooms away that needs your immidiate attention, a hamster climbing on top of your head and sitting there for so long you forget that it's there until it bites your eat causing you to jump up and knock your chair backwards, unplugging your entire setup and flinging said hamster across the room by accident and thankfully having it land the bed before returning it to it's cage). Lots of reasons, these things happen.

The answer to the question is probably not- a very low chanced "maybe". They're more focused on the issues of why matchmaking takes so long and why people crash, in order to stop these things from happening, rather than rewarding people for experiencing that.

@2060 - "Will there ever be an option to save custom perk sets, or randomise your perks?"

It's a common request that's definite heard, and they do have a (mile-long) UI and QOL list. It's on said list, though there's no ETA or any details yet as they have to prioritise certain things first (like, for example, the colourblind settings). Not any time soon, basically.

@Cam0 - "Any plans for buffing The Pig (and other weaker killers)?"

Yeah, they've been slowly doing gameplay and add-on passes for the weaker killers. To reiterate, the next three killers who will be getting a pass are The Nightmare, The Demogorgon, and The Huntress- they can't say if it's an add-on pass, a gameplay pass, or both, but those three killers are next on the plan.

And, as shown in a previous stream summary of yours truly which you can see here, Demogorgon should be the next killer.

Pig is actually one of the better performing killers (probably thanks to Scorpionz himself), but this doesn't mean she's exempt from changes. In fact even when excluding PC or red ranks, or both, she still continues to perform well. So yes for other weaker killers (and nerfs to stronger ones) but nothing yet for The Pig.

@Inferattus - "Will there ever be other gamemodes added to DBD?"

Easy answer: no plans right now. It's been talked about, but no high-priotiy plan.

@foomongus - "Are there any changes planned to Object of Obsession?"

Yes! Yes! Yes! Rejoice!!

Usually they wouldn't reveal something so early but because the perk is so- let's say controversial- because the perk is so controversial they're letting us see the new WIP design of it.

This is very early design but it's survived at least one round of internal discussion so they thought "why not?" and here it is. Any and all feedback is welcomed and appreciated.

"Just a note on this one- if y'all nice and we can have actual discussions about this, actual back and forth discussions, this might be something we do more in the future. Where we show you an early design and ask for feedback."

What not_Queen is saying here is, basically, KEEP IT CIVIL. Don't resort to petty insults or cry like a toddler who's just lost their favourite stuffed animal, and by lost I mean they sat on it. If we as a community can have actual, genuine, constructive discussion and debate about this they may decide to do things like this more often. And that's what we want right- more communication?

Something else to keep in mind, as highlighted in bright red down the bottom, THIS IS NOT FINAL. In 6 months time if they decided to go for a different concept, they don't want to hear anything about this design of the perk. No promises, just a small concept.

For those who don't know, here's the current Object Of Obsession (source):

What they wanted to keep about this perk is the peek-a-boo gameplay style it has. What they didn't want to keep with the perk is the incredibly antagonistic gameplay style it can promote, and just because it isn't the best perk doesn't mean it isn't one of the most obnoxious. Plus it currently completely demolishes stealth killers.

This is a way to retain the aspect of "I see you and you see me", keep the obsession power involved (only one person at a time will get the little 3 second peek every 30 seconds), but now it's on a timer so both players can prepare for it and even if you're not the obsession, being able to see the killer when the killer sees you seems pretty strong by itself.

When would the change happen? No idea! This is being brought up so much earlier than normal, but there is a change being brought up soon.

DID SOMEBODY SAY DECISIVE STRIKE?

Expect this change not in the mid-chapter, but the major Chapter release following it!!

That's right lads, Decisive Strike is being changed again to make it significantly less abusable (and you all thought I was mad when I said they were considering DS changes during my previous summary).

The way they handled this was to disable the perk when you've done something to progress the game. If you're actually being tunneled, DS them. If you're not actually being tunneled, and instead repairing a generator in the vicinity, then you can no longer do so. Tragic.

The main question- can you still use a locker to force a pickup? The answer is yes, for the moment.. They wanted to keep this in as a sort of way to help avoid being slugged out of the DS timer and force a conclusion to the chase. They feel like this is okay to stay but please feel free to give feedback.

Personally, I feel like this fine.

Bradjoe110 - "How do you plan to make the community happy with perk changes?"

The actual title of this question was "How do you plan to deal with making the community happy with perks and the devs happy with perks at the same time to reduce controversy?" so thanks Brad I didn't need my brain to work anyway.

You can't ever please everyone- there's too many different people to do this. Knowing this however, they do try their best.

And the good news is that they don't plan to stop making perks, or make them "safer". They're exciting for survivors, for killers, and even for the devs. Sometimes perk synergy, expected or not, can be absolute broken (think DS/UB) and sometimes it can be just... fine. They track stats, feedback, and combined decades of experience (which they call the "secret sauce") in order to make changes. Furthermore, they're trying to update perks a lot more efficiently than they were before. Previously it took a very, very, very long time to get a perk changed, but they're trying to improve on this, and get the pace of these adjustments higher so you don't need to wait 6-12 months to see the obviously broken perk nerfed.

@tHisGaMeISBaLAnCED - "Elodie's Scream is super loud- is this something that will get changed?"

Here they played a clip of Elodie's scream on Switch and if you haven't heard this yet do I pity you. If you want to see what it sounds like I suggest turning the volume wayyyyyyyyyyyyy down:

Cheers for the video Yerv. Gameplay by @TheMikeOTR

It's a bug, and it'll hopefully be addressed soon.

Ow.

@EdenGarden - "Is it possible to get a notification during a match of when a Challenge is completed?"

Quick answer- that is definitely something on the list and a lot of the devs would love it. The same list with the perk loadouts. No timeline, though. It's also not necesarily on just the difficulty of what to program each thing on this list but the sheer volume of things on the list that makes it difficult to prioritise.

@Zesty - "Will there be a game health Chapter any time soon?"

'Grats man you made it twice.

Not in the way you'd think, with dedicating an entire chapter just to this. They want to be clear about this.

However larger volume of QOL and game health changes will be aimed for the mid-chapter patches. Not that there won't be any changes in the major Chapter released (like the earlier discussed DS changes) but they'll be majorly focused into the mid-chapters. They won't stop making new content and just focus on the game health however.

@Madcaptn - "Will there be changes to Daily Rituals?"

Recently they did a small change (though blame Patrick for not being able to remember if it was in a dev build or if it's actually gone to live yet) to Rituals to normalise bloodpoint gains and lesser the difficulties of some rather awful ones. They're still looking at the system but don't expect any major overhaul in the immidiate future- there are more pressing concerns.

Prepare for a lightning round of quick-fire answers now!

@EdenGarden - "Can we expect new killer animations?"

Sure, so the survivor animations were a lot better value because they just had to update 2 types of animations- male and female- and boom every survivor is done. For killers there are a lot of killers to overhaul so expect no major absolute overhaul to change everything, however there are some visual errors or animations that aren't functioning quite as hoped so they'll be changed. For example, Hilbilly's animation issues.

Lecruidant - "When will hits be improved?"

They'd love to direct you to their YouTube where they had a whole stream discussing hitboxes and hit validation.

I couldn't find the actual stream in question so take this forum post instead:

Unknown - "When will we see improvements to server movement?"

They're constantly working on improving their servers to ensure movement remains fluid and consistent but it takes a lot of time and effort. It isn't just a single number value tweak but changing some of the very core mechanics of the game. It needs an entire overhaul of underlying systems which then internally cause an entire knock-on effect of other bugs and issues that need to be fixed, each of which then cause more bugs, etc etc. It's a lot of work but they're slowly improving the servers day by day.

Also I'm sure someone asked the question but they didn't update the question on screen and it hurts me inside.

@Falkner09 - "Is the early game rework still coming?"

This was mentioned breifly about a year ago and has since evolved into something completely, entire different. It's no longer really an early-game phase but instead is something different they'll talk about later.

@IAmDeer - "Are there plans to reduce the grind?"

It's being looked at but there's no concrete plan. They want to maintain the fun of grinding but not make it like an unscalable mountain of pain.

Person from chat- "Blight POV?"

Changes were made internally to Blight to make him feel a lot taller, and by that I mean how he should've been from release. This change is not in the mid-chapter but the following major Chapter.

Also Legion's accelaration during the Frenzy attack that bugged out (and made you miss so many swings omg did I hate it) will be fixed during the first hotfix of the mid-chapter patch. So before the chapter, after the mid-chapter.

Shoutout to the community for this from the team for still insisting something was wrong with Legion's Frenzy because they never would've noticed otherwise. H*ck yeah team!!

@DoctorCarly - Could you release some more stats in the future?

This question was rather unfortuantely left unanswered, alongside a couple more. These should be answered in an upcoming forum post which I'll be sure to link here too, after it's done.

There was no answer to your question; sorry Carly.

You do not know how quick my damn fingers were typing these answers trying to keep up omg.

Closing messages

• The mid-chapter patch will be releasing next week, probably Tuesday 9th February 2021. Mark your calanders.
• The new Rift (featuring The Nurse and Yui Kimura) will release Wednesday 10th February 2021, as well as the Lunar New Year event happening sometime after the update.

From me, thanks for reading this far, I really appreciate it!! Remember to stay safe, stay inside, stay warm, wear a mask, and take care of yourselves. You're all important to at least one person and you need to stay safe for them!!

If you read this far I dare you to put the word Eichhörnchen (and yes I'd suggest copy/pasting) that somewhere in a comment. At the start, end, middle, a random bracket, doesn't matter.)

GoodBoyKaru, out. <3