Prestige Rewards and the Void effect

Dear People of the Fog,

there has been a huge discussion on many different platforms about the new Void cosmetics or the Void Effect being a suitable P100 reward.

• First of all, why should there be general prestige rewards in the first place?

The answer is very complex, but it can be condensed to 2 major reasons. First, the players need something they can aim for so they continue to play. Many online games have similar progression systems where you get a new weapon skin every time you archieve a specific milestone with it. Giving players a reward for playing yor game keeps the game alive in the long run. In the case of DBD, this could be a charm you unlock on a specific character once you reach the prestige milestones 25/50/75/100. It would be reasonable for this to be the same charm on every character, which is only usable once you get that specific level. It could always be visible but greyed out saying "unlock this charm on (this character) by reaching PXXX" (or hide it as a surprise). For these charms I could imagine using the Prestige icons of those specific levels in 3D.

And second: people like to show off.

• Should there be a specific P100 reward?

The short answer is YES, but the long answer is again very complex. There have been multiple discussions in favour and against a P100 reward. The main argument in favour of a reward is that players want something back for their time (and money) they invest into the game and they want to show off. The main argument against a P100 reward was FOMO, that people think that they have to invest the massive playtime to do this or else miss out on this cosmetic. There was a huge backlash against this argument, which was, that the devs use FOMO themselves for seasonal cosmetics which cost real money. In addition, most people are very aware that they can't get everything. There is Legacy, old Items you can't get enymore (anniversary items from 3rd-5th year), Prime rewards which were not added to the store, old Rift cosmetics and charms which are completely exclusive nowadays and many more. This is worse than any P100 reward coud ever be, because the P100 reward will always be there for you to get. Not like the cosmetics I mentioned before.

• What P100 rewards are reasonably possible?

P100 rewards do not need to be full cosmetics like bloody or legacy prestige. Doing a full cosmetic would result in over 70 cosmetics to be needed which will give the devs no money and might be difficult with licensed characters. This "lost" money would then probably result in DLCs being more expensive, which nobody wants. As we already used the idea of charms earlier, another type of reward needs to be used here: an EFFECT that can be turned on and off.

• How does the Void effect fit a P100 reward?

The Void effect is an effect which is layered on top of your cosmetics or any other in-game effect there is (vomit, infection, static etc), which makes it universally usable. It is nothing as significant as a complete cosmetic and nothing as insignificant as a charm. It is visible for everyone to see and looks amazing as well. In addition we have the lore about the Void, which also fits the theme of a P100 reward. Characters who were "sucked dry" by the Entity are thrown into the Void. Reaching P100 could be interpreted as that character being "completed". There is nothing more to get, the icon does not change anymore, they have been "sucked dry" by the player.

There is also the advantage, that this is an effect which is already in the game for this Halloween event, which cuts the work a bit to create something completely new for every single character.

• How do we combat lobby dodging and targetting of people with a P100 reward?

Lobby dodging or targeting P100 players is a problem in the current game, which makes implementing a P100 reward undesirable as it would incentivise this behaviour even more. Currently there are tests running where some players cannot see prestiges anymore except during end game. The easiest solution would be to make the Void effect only to be visible during the end game screen. But this is problematic as this effect could only be seen by the other members of your team, which means, nobody but the killer themselves would be able to see their effect. Which goes against the reason why many people want P100 rewards: to show off.

If the effect is applied in the pre-game lobby, killers will lobby dodge again, which we do not want to make matchmaking as fair as possible. A solution to this could be to only apply the effect during the match. Therefore killers don't lobby dodge and survivors who want to use the effect don't need to "toxic switch" during the last couple of seconds in the lobby.

To combat the targetting of high prestige players and finally clear up all the misconceptiones about prestige (prestige=skill, prestige is used for matchmaking etc), an in-game notification would be helpful. Also a statement wether targetting P100 specifically is counted as harassment and therefore is a bannable offense or not.

• Summary:

Prestige rewards reward players who invest their time into the game and let them keep playing which helps the game to stay alive. Small charms of the prestige crests (lvl 25/50/75/100) are reasonable for this. The Void effect is suitable as a specific P100 as it goes on top of other effects and can be used with cosmetics. Hiding this effect until the match starts prevents lobby dodging.

Stay safe

LapisInfernalis