The perk system is absolutely terrible, and Valve figured this out years ago.
For all the annoyances that come from the random drop system from TF2, it's pretty much the best middle ground any company can get, play for 20 mins and you get a random item, you can then take this item, turn into scrap/tokens, and use the crafting system to get the items you actually want, add onto this the fact that (most of the time) the stock option is viable and (most of the time) the weapons are not direct upgrades from stock, there's incentive to purchase the weapons you want outright, but even if you don't, you can still get everything you want in a reasonable amount of time.
Now let's compare this to DBD: If you want some perks without spending money, then oh boy is there a grind waiting for you, first of all, it takes straight up 3-4 days of time in order to get one character, let me repeat that, 3-4 days, not including the fact that you have to sleep, so in reality it would be more like 6-7 if you spent every waking moment playing DBD. Then, once you have your character, you need to level them up till they're prestiged, costing about 1 million bloodpoints and taking several minutes of time. Oh yeah, and let me remind you: this is for 1 character, so if you want let's say 3 different characters perks, then oh boy, get ready to grind for a really long time, god bless you if you want more than that, and you're gonna need a greater blessing from god if you actually have a life.
Now here's the best part: You can't outright buy the perks for licensed characters, and BHVR has this really nasty habit of giving licensed characters the best perks(Decisive Strike was meta was 5 years straight), which means that you have to use the shrine system, which is obviously rigged to not give perks away for 1-2 years after the character they came with is released. I'm still waiting for Call of Brine, Floods of Rage, and Terminus to come out, and let me remind you, I've been playing this game for years, but some people just booted up the game for the first time a few hours, which means they'll have to wait a VERY long time before they can use some of the best perks in the game.
This system sucks period. And using the system TF2 uses would be an extremely simple solution, but obviously this is never gonna happen, this is a semi-rant, I know this system is never gonna change, you gotta screw the consumer in some way to keep the people at the top happy, hopefully DBD competitors keep arising until we get a good one to whip this game back into shape.
Comments
-
It makes me wonder how many players try DbD, realize how bad the grind is and leave never to return.
1 -
Pretty much why none of my friends will touch DBD.
They have a 1,000 hour grind to get the perks they want ahead of them. Or like $100.
4 -
1000 hours? Come on now, thats a bit generous
1 -
Ha, thank god I finished that grind long ago. All I gotta do is p3 new characters.
0 -
It's not great, but it's also not terrible - especially compared to what it once was.
Eh...your numbers seem off.
I leveled Vito during the event, and it took me less than a day. P2. Granted, that was with the event bonus, but there's an event running at most times. P1 is...what? A million BP? And you've got some pretty solid base perks on both sides now too, plus the perks of whoever you are playing.
The answer is to make more terrible perks better.
Here's the other thing - yes, some licensed characters are only available for real $. But you don't need their perks to be viable. This is honestly the first time I can remember in ages where the top meta perk for killer is licensed. Before that, it was Ruin+Undying or PR+DMS.
The only sore spot for a lot of people was BBQ.
- DS was in the shrine constantly though.
- New players (those grinding up) don't need to be running full meta load-outs. Because their opponents won't be either.
- Perks pop up in the shrine all the time. I recently snagged one of the few licensed survivor perks I needed from the shrine.
- A killer/survivor pack costs less than the price of a hamburger and fries. This isn't a loot box situation, you can basically buy them if you need to.
You're exaggerating mate. I've just passed 1000 hours, and I've had all killer perks unlocked and most of the survivor perks I wanted for a while now. For just the perks you want...maybe a few hundred? That was under the old system too. And that's with a lot of different combinations.
$100...yeah, I guess if you're buying every bit of DLC - but one or two packs should cover you for the essentials, if you want to go that route. But chasing meta forever is pointless, because it can turn on a dime.
0 -
If you spend no Shards on anything and have perfect Shard games (ie, you don't get tunneled out or camped) it would be a MINIMUM of over 700 hours.
Adding in, ya know, realistic scenarios would push this much closer to 1000 just to UNLOCK those characters, let alone actually getting their perks, which adds another grind on top of it.
1 -
The general Shard rate is usually about 300 per hour of gameplay.
0 -
Isn't that like 1 shard sale character per 15 hours of play?(at 300 per hour)
That seems very generous, if you're actually enjoying the game.
This game has a lot of issues, but I'm not feeling like the DLC earned per effort, or even the real cash characters at half price are an issue. I don't begrudge them the income from impulsive players. I see your point about it being a barrier to recruitment at advanced play.0
1 -
Yup. But there are also pretty frequent events that basically vomit shards at you. I know that I've spent...maybe $130 on this game since I bought it, and I have all the licensed killers and a bunch of fun skins.
In that, I think the only non-licensed killers I bought were Knight (more fool me, but I wanted Fogwise and NTH) and Blight way back when.
I've also bought a lot from the shrine over the years.
0 -
I can't account for events. New players aren't gonna stick around 6 months for those either.
I think I've spent a total of $60 on the game. 40 to buy it, I think and 20 for Steve skins. Everything else has been gifted to me.
The more the years go on, the more DBD's model seems like a F2P game.
0 -
Well...it is, sort of. I mean, it's on deep special for maybe 4 months of the year, and even outside of that it's what...$15?
For a game that'll last you potentially thousands of hours, even factoring in spending the same as two AAA games in total, you've done pretty well.
My point is that you'd have to math shards out differently, because I know I'm swimming in the things most of the time from login rewards, events and the like. Aside from...maybe my first 40 hours, I've generally had enough to get what I needed - the only mandatory 'buy in' was Bubba for BBQ, and that changed.
0 -
The new player is not going to look at it the same way the veteran is.
I think it would certainly be daunting to look at the wall of characters and perks. Especially for a completionist. And the new player doesn't know all the tricks like how often and when sales and events happen. Once they start trying to figure out how long they have to grind or how much money they have to spend on DbD, it quickly adds up to "holy sh."
I definitely think the grind and the price contributes to DbD's player retention problem.
0 -
You don't need all the Perks to play the game, you wanting a perk is something you can grind for if you want.
If a Perk increased your survival rate by too much then bHVR would nerf it anyway.
People say Dead Hard is required to play, if that is so, it will get nerfed. So dont worry about it.
0 -
Im of the same opinion and I think BHVR would get a lot more player retention and cosmetic sales if they made their DLCs base up to Oni or Deathslinger (or all except Twins, Twins should never be base, auric cells only and their cost increased to 1000€).
0
