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Perk Description Update Feedback

Balrog
Balrog Mod, Co-ordinator Posts: 914
edited March 26 in Feedback and Suggestions

Please leave your feedback for 9.5.0's perk wording updates here. Thank you!

Post edited by Balrog on

Comments

  • ThatRyanB
    ThatRyanB Member, Administrator, Community Manager Posts: 689

    Are there any specific examples where you feel the updated perk descriptions are harder to understand?

  • OnryosTapeRentals
    OnryosTapeRentals Member Posts: 1,914

    It's one of the best changes the game has ever made for player onboarding. It's understandable to be upset that some lore text was lost, but a unified approach to describing perk function using consistent formatting and terminology is indescribably helpful for new players getting into the game. There's no more confusion caused by perks using different terms to describe the same things.

    Aside from some lore text being lost, the change is entirely positive.

  • OnryosTapeRentals
    OnryosTapeRentals Member Posts: 1,914

    A couple of perks having some additional details that could use further clarification does not make the entire framework bad, IMO.

    Also the Dead Hard description is accurate. The perk doesn't work "once per hook stage". If you reach second stage on your first hook then you won't get two uses of the perk as "per hook stage" would imply. It activates upon being unhooked, which the new description appropriately reflects.

  • indieeden7
    indieeden7 Member Posts: 3,663

    Can we please bring back the flavour text that these used to have? I'm all for the description of their effects being standardised but the removal of flavour text achieves nothing but removing a sense of charm from the game.

    The fact that perks felt as though they had character was something that really struck me about dbd when I started playing back in 2017 and to see that aspect removed is really devastating to see.

  • Emeal
    Emeal Member Posts: 6,865

    I'm glad every perk does not come with a thesaurus of text, now do it to Killer Powers. The Doctor will see you now…

    Now that all perk texts are more manageable should should make an optional splash screen appear at the start of a match to inform the player what their perks do, this would also be great for Chaos Shuffle.

  • ThatRyanB
    ThatRyanB Member, Administrator, Community Manager Posts: 689
  • Defnotmeghead
    Defnotmeghead Member Posts: 399

    Once per hookstage doesnt work linguistically, because that implies if you've been on the hook for 2 states in a row, you get 2 Dead Hards.

    Whenever you are unhooked implies whenever you are pulled off the hook. The only muddies things around Pyramidhead's Cages.

    Whenever you are unhooked is simply that it doesnt matter when you get unhooked. Not that you can use the effect whenever. That is consistent through all perks.

  • Defnotmeghead
    Defnotmeghead Member Posts: 399

    I haven't tested it out yet, but unless Deception got altered between release(which isnt in the patch notes, hence me not testing), the text is not accurate:
    It says whenever you try to fast-enter a locker. But there are 2 ways to fast-enter a locker:
    1. While running.
    2. While standing still and holding shift.

    1 lets you use deception. 2 lets you fast-enter the locker without using deception.

    That might be bugged, but before that's reported to be a bug, I must add that 2 as a seperate functionality is key on how you can actually use Deception to Decept killers. Killers who know how Deception works can still be tricked by standing still while holding shift and fast-entering a locker normally. It's also crucial to still fast-enter a locker like that when facing Doctor and while running that perk.

    So, the request would be to add "Whenever you attempt to fast-enter a Locker while running:" rather than to change the functionality to fit the words

  • jerzey077
    jerzey077 Member Posts: 10

    I wholeheartedly agree to everything you said. This change removes so much of the flair and personality from the game. I know it sounds insane, but it really does. Going off your other comments, the special-break, basic-break, etc., just sound rushed and poorly worded. Breaking by any means was perfectly fine and understood before. I do agree that some of the perks needed to be reworded because they were difficult to understand even by veteran players. But 75% of the perks already made complete perfect sense how they were before the changes. Now they just feel even more convoluted and simplified for no reason other than to make them more confusing and remove all of the flair and DBDness of them. The removal of the flavour text was also insane. It added so much to the perks. To the game. So many people are upset over this change, and I am so confused why it was still pushed forward. I am also genuinely distraught by the perk rewordings, they feel rushed, meaningless, convoluted, and beyond oversimplified to the point of utter confusion now.

  • jerzey077
    jerzey077 Member Posts: 10

    I agree, it's genuinely devastating. I feel like the rewording of the perks AND the removal of the flavour text literally just sucked so much personality out of the game. Simplifying some of the perk descriptions is a good idea and makes sense, but the way that it was done just is incredibly rushed, poorly worded, and even more confusing for some perks than before. 75% of the perks made perfect sense before the change. Only a few needed to be changed.

    Also, BHVR really needs to focus on catering to their current 60M+ playerbase rather than the potential of newer players coming in. If people really want to continue to play the game as a beginner, they will take the time to learn what everything does rather than needing it simplified into easy-to-read descriptions. That's just not how the game is or should be.

  • Muropakkaus
    Muropakkaus Member Posts: 23

    The changes were un-needed and horribly executed. Take Open Handed for example. The flavor texts are gone, important information is removed ("does not stack" is missing), and the overall clarity has gone worse. It's very vague and hard to understand what the perk does. Or to a non native English speaker, like me, it is. To me it seems like you (BHVR) didn't even check the outcome of these changes. Please make a human understandable senteces and revert these changes.

    NEW: "All Survivors see Auras that have a range from 16m farther."

    OLD: "Strengthens the potential in your and your team's Aura-reading
    abilities.

    - Extends all Survivor-based Aura-reading abilities by 8/12/16
    metres.

    Open-Handed does not stack with other instances of itself."

    PS. The character texts for Ellen Ripley and Trevor Belmont have been "bugged" since their releases, they are not in two paragraphs, like all other survivors' and killers' character texts are. I have reported this many time in Reddit and got even reply from you, but nothing has changed for over a year now.

  • Lei
    Lei Unconfirmed, Member Posts: 1

    we need the lore pieces back,it gave us some idea about the characters we care about and overall about the perk itself
    the actual descriptions doesnt affect me that much,whether in the old style or in this new shorter one
    but the lore?I loved them,and i will keep loving them and I dont think I'm alone in that matter

  • CuteDwight
    CuteDwight Member Posts: 15

    Yup, those perks that requires an action to activate should write something like this:

    "This perk activates when you …"

    "This perk requires … to activate."

  • CuteDwight
    CuteDwight Member Posts: 15

    We need favor texts on the begining back! Please don't take them away from us!

  • CuteDwight
    CuteDwight Member Posts: 15

    Oh just forgot to mention it

    Just forgot to mention, and those perks like Leader, Resilience, Vigil, etc, which shares one value in effects, they looked so terrible cause Behavior just repeated that value in all effects! Oh dear.

  • Watcher_Prime
    Watcher_Prime Member Posts: 1

    Killswitch Fast Track. Survivors should not be getting another resource to aid them for failing to play the game properly.

  • Memesis
    Memesis Member Posts: 748

    Awful, and unnecessary. Took away charm, put hard to read white coloring over the values and made every YouTube video on perks horrifically outdated. The old style for the perk descriptions is part of dbds 10 year identity. Why change it?

  • Wezqu
    Wezqu Member Posts: 1,512
    edited March 22

    Bring back the flavor text on those that are missing them otherwise its good.

    Post edited by Wezqu on
  • DNet89
    DNet89 Member Posts: 252

    Knowhere in the perk description for Boons say it has a range of 24 meters.

    Also no Hex Perk says "The Hex Effects persist until the Hex Totem is either blessed or cleansed by a Survivor, disabling it for the remainder of the Trial."

  • Blaconia
    Blaconia Member Posts: 74

    To add to the DH conversation, I agree it's not clear it's once per being unhooked. One suggestion to improve:

    • One time after being unhooked, while injured and running, use E:

    Perks that list the same number many times (Vigil, Resilience, Leader, Fire Up) are clunky. One suggestion for example for Vigil:

    • All survivors within 16m of you recover 66% faster from:
    • Blindness, Broken, Exhausted, etc…

    Prove Thyself is still missing its old clarification that only one instance of it applies at a time (ie. doesn't stack).

    There is still no ingame explanation for "conspicuous actions".

    There is still a typo of "it's aura" in two perks, Left Behind and Hex: Plaything.

    The starting flavour text was nice as it added, well, flavour, but I don't mind them being gone.

  • NotJared
    NotJared Member Posts: 786

    In a continued effort to clarify game language, the term "Conspicuous Action" is an ambiguous nothing-burger of a term for ANYBODY reading it, without doing more research or first-hand experimentation.

    Even after almost 10 years and 6,500 hours of playing and actively following updates, I often forget what it means! What the heck is a "Conspicuous Action" in game language? Does touching an Exit Gate count? What about Killer Objects? The term is never defined anywhere and it means nothing to anyone without external research.

    I strongly believe that "Conspicuous Action" should be defined in-game somewhere, and in perk descriptions would be an excellent place to do so.

    image.png
  • ThatRyanB
    ThatRyanB Member, Administrator, Community Manager Posts: 689

    This is a great flag and something I can raise to the team. Thanks!

  • NotJared
    NotJared Member Posts: 786
    edited March 24

    I also strongly feel that placing the Extra Info windows on Killer Powers would be an excellent idea.

    For example, The Twins inflict Killer Instinct, Broken, Oblivious, and Incapacitated. For new players, it would be useful to understand what these effects mean, as well!

    Ever since the Eruption rework, Incapacitated does not appear anywhere in perks - therefore, this status effect has no definition anywhere!

    image.png

    Additionally, the Deafened Status Effect is not defined anywhere, either, as Add-Ons also do not have the Extra Info tab.

    image.png

    The "Endurance" status effect still does NOT define to players that it cannot be used while Deep Wounded. Its current wording gives the implication that it can be infinitely used Deep Wound would be re-applied, which is not correct.

    image.png

    Also, +1 to everyone saying that the intro Flavor Text makes the game feel more lifeless.
    The Flavor Text would not have been visual overload if it simply had consistent formatting along with the quote perks - italicized and in a different color - instead of everything up until the Alien chapter being written in white plaintext as if it was part of the perk functionality.

    That's to say, bring back the intro flavor text and format the flavor text like this:

    image.png

    Not like this, which was how you used to do it:

    image.png
  • NotJared
    NotJared Member Posts: 786

    Additionally, perks that describe a keybind MUST have the keybind be more visually distinct, because putting a random letter in a totally different font in the middle of a perk description actually makes the perk MUCH harder to read and understand, and it's very easy to glaze over the keybind in this formatting.

    image.png

    Use an icon, encapsulate the keybind in a key-shaped image, put it in a different color (like the old Yellow) to highlight that it's an actionable command that the Player can input and not simply perk functionality or a typo.

  • NotJared
    NotJared Member Posts: 786
    edited March 24

    Ignore this post, I was editing a post and somehow an empty post got sent

  • SoGo
    SoGo Member Posts: 4,551

    With the first bugfix out, there are still no changes to this.

    Even thoigh the system has several glaring flaws that should be fixed.

  • NotJared
    NotJared Member Posts: 786

    I think that it is also worth mentioning that Hex Perks no longer indicate in their description that the perk is active only as long as the totem is lit. New players no longer have any way of knowing they can deactivate Hex perks anymore unless via first-hand experimentation.

  • kit_mason
    kit_mason Member Posts: 753
    edited April 20

    hopefully yall are still taking additions to this post to heart? bc im cracking my knuckles as i go through this - killer perks only becuase this took ages and honestly idk if i'll want to do this with how many more perks survivors have lmao

    General Formatting

    Move the Cooldown of a perk to its own line. The fact that its just appended to the end of whatever the perk already does is a little jarring to read.

    Use the word "becomes" rather than "is" or "are" on cause-and-effect perks. This includes Help Wanted ("becomes Compromised" instead of "is compromised"; Machine Learning already uses this wording) and some Hexes (such as Face The Darkness or the blocking effect of Pentimento). This is especially important on Hexes, I feel, as it usually pertains to "Cursed" - a condition imparted on Survivors that interacts with perks like Soul Guard.

    Whilst on the topic, replace "is Hexed" with "becomes Cursed". Again, Cursed is the status effect being imparted, and the perk should reflect that. Additionally, Hexes should specify that they are applying Cursed to survivors subject to their effects somehow.

    Even further on the topic of Hexes, the perk descriptions should explain how Hexes work. Currently it is not detailed that they can be cleansed, even. As such, add "a Dull Totem ignites and becomes a Hex Totem, activating this perk." to the first line of hex perks and "If the associated Hex Totem is Cleansed or Blessed, this perk deactivates." to the end of hex perks (including "for the rest of the trial" where applicable). This explains how they work without a new player needing to trial-by-fire an entire category of perks without explanation. An explanation was included in old perk descriptions, so I don't see why it would be excluded now.

    All perks that use "you are alerted" should specify the kind of alert it's going to give you - almost always this seems to be the new wording for a Loud Noise Notification, but some perks do other things - Call of Brine changes the aura color of the generator if memory serves, for example.

    Scourge Hooks should specify that the 4 Scourge Hooks granted at the start of the trial are to a maximum of four, as adding additional Scourge Hook perks does not increase the amount of Scourge Hooks created (outside of Monstrous Shrine and Jagged Compass, for which adding the word "additionally" to their extra scourge hook creaction effects would make clear it is an exception).

    Specific Perks

    Change the wording of Bamboozle to clarify "Only 1 Window can be blocked at a time from this perk." The wording implies that the effect does not work when paired with other window blocking effects, when it in fact does.

    Change the wording of Beast of Prey to clarify "Whenever you gain Bloodlust Level I", as the Undetectable duration is not refreshed upon gaining Bloodlust Level 2 or 3.

    Change the wording of Eruption significantly. The wording changes are clumsy in places and worse yet leaves unclear if marking a gen with eruption persists between downs (which it of course doesn't).

    Elaborate on Hex: No One Escapes Death to properly reflect the activation condition for the aura reveal part of the perk - the aura is only shown after survivors can tell they have been Exposed, so the description should reflect that.

    Merciless Storm and No Quarter should specify how the Skill Checks are special. The old description utilized "a continuous stream of Skill Checks" which I think works well, but you could still say they're "Special Skill Checks" if you want to set them apart from the normal good+great skill checks we have normally.

    Surveillance should specify that the Aura granted from a gen no longer regressing is of a unique color, as you can, by default, see the Auras of Generators as Killer.

    Terminus would read better if its deactivation condition read as "This ends 45 seconds after an exit gate is opened."

    Unrelenting should specify that "missing" does not include a basic attack colliding with anything. How you would word this I don't know, but given the perk's effects don't apply in that case even though you didn't hit a survivor, it's still important to specify.