So, Diminishing Returns

Tamo
Tamo Member Posts: 161

When are we reverting or tweaking this?

Ever since diminishing returns I've just been getting bored of running the same builds because there's been no point experimenting or just running stacking builds.

It's just lame knowing after the second perk in the stack chain no matter how small the numbers it still gets wrecked by diminishing returns. Even if it's less than 10% to things. It's wild.

I've not seen any mention of it since it was just slapped into the live game & it's still the worst thing to have come from the last update. I argued that it is a healthy thing for the game but not the way it's been done, it affects even the weakest perks & has ruined build crafting which in my opinion wasn't a problem anyway but also shouldn't be something we're trying to destroy. I still remember it being said we were trying to encourage the use of the other perks in the library yet here we are.

So, any news or any mention of addressing this awful change?

Comments

  • jesterkind
    jesterkind Member Posts: 9,898

    I promise, Diminishing Returns has had very little impact on build crafting.

    Some of the more interesting and useful synergies don't involve stacking the same % effect, and the way the DR system works you can still very reasonably stack two in the same build if there's some reason you'd want to do that. I'm a big believer in build crafting, I think it's one of the most interesting and compelling parts of the game, and while some of my builds are affected on a strictly literal level absolutely none of them have been killed.

    What kind of builds do you like, what's your playstyle? I'm more than willing to pitch some builds and synergies that still exist if you do really want to run something other than the meta.

  • jesterkind
    jesterkind Member Posts: 9,898

    Some builds are affected, I wouldn't claim otherwise.

    However, it's really relevant here that stacking the same effect is NOT the entirety of buildcrafting. There are a lot more ways of finding synergies than just using the same modifier more than once, and using the same modifier more than twice has always been either a silly gimmick or something people did because the combo ended up broken.

  • Abbzy
    Abbzy Member Posts: 3,539

    Idk what builds you mean but when I watched vid from mintskull where he had math and like only differece on like breaking/vaulting build was few % change like from 1,2 seconds to 1,4 seconds or something like that or strongest/fastest healing build heals instead 3,3 seconds or what was it now in 5 seconds yeah deffinitely world ending situation for stacking builds.

  • Abbzy
    Abbzy Member Posts: 3,539

    Idk what they created it for some claim to make perks stronger to be good alone but not abuseable when stacked.

    All I know is that the numbers arent so hard nerfed into oblivion as some people claim, theres that video on Yt from mintskull and he has many facts and exsamples there so go watch it for more because right now I dont remember these facts from devs he used there.

  • brewingtea
    brewingtea Member Posts: 806

    DR doesn't have to have a huge affect during this PTB in order to be a great idea.

    It allows them more room to maneuver in the future, knowing that they don't have to worry about stacking as much.

    You don't have to like it, but "If it's not doing anything, then why implement it at all?" is a very easy question to answer.

  • jesterkind
    jesterkind Member Posts: 9,898

    My understanding is that it's meant to stabilise the baseline, to stop any future stacking from becoming a problem. It's happened before, with healing speed or repair speed penalties, so it's worth protecting against I think.

    It also isn't really affecting individual perks that much. Leader's still in the same "this is a fine perk but hardly a top tier" position it's always been in, BTN is exactly as bad as it was before, Fire Up still isn't worth bringing… the DR system just isn't moving the needle at all here.

  • Brimp
    Brimp Member Posts: 3,694
    edited June 2

    This only really affected haste stacking long term which is fine. People did tests and full healing builds were nerfed at most 15%. And even then you could just run botany + auto didact and that's 2 separate healing sources so diminishing returns wont affect that. As for gen speeds…. We really don't need more gen progression to be in the game.

  • Abbzy
    Abbzy Member Posts: 3,539

    Like when mintskull tested it and strongest healing build that healts at 3,xx some seconds is now like 5 seconds then I dont see problem and as you say autodidact is underated it takes time to build up but then it rocks and with some increased healing speed its pretty good.

  • AGM
    AGM Member Posts: 932

    I'm all for trying to future-proof perk stacking, and while I think they could have been less heavy handed, I brought up those perks specifically because they get especially screwed over by DR. They needed buffs before DR, and they need bigger buffs after. I could list more perks, but I think you get the idea.

    Imo, the dust has settled from DR, and it's time for them to give more attention to old perks that don't make sense in modern DBD, whether it's just number changes, additional effects, or full blown perk reworks.

  • Goblin_BHVR
    Goblin_BHVR Dev, Community Manager Posts: 63

    Hello!!

    Thanks for taking the time to write out your thoughts, even the criticism are always appreciated!

    We'd be interested in hearing more about what people think - which perks would you like to see changed due to Diminishing Returns? What builds do you feel it has affected? Anything else you can think of that's relevant, please please feel free to let us know!

    Thanks!

  • Chapero
    Chapero Member Posts: 14

    Exactly. The thread itself is basically a complaint asking when people will be able to abuse it again. It really shows how little some people care about balance, the game itself, or the rest of the players.

    If it was removed, there was probably a reason for it, just like the old mori after the first hook or the syringe that could heal two health states.

  • Rokku_Rorru
    Rokku_Rorru Member Posts: 3,550

    I think we'll see it in the Midchapter, I'm looking forward to the live balance updates

  • Rogue11
    Rogue11 Member Posts: 2,147
    edited June 3

    Then maybe they should stop doing things that people hate.

    Also, I don't remember them ever testing hard caps. I only remember them removing haste perks from stacking with each other at all.

  • Smoe
    Smoe Member Posts: 3,484
    edited June 3

    Or maybe people should learn to accept that some changes are necessary for the health of the game (not haste stacking removal specifically, just in general), instead of throwing a fit and proclaiming that ''nobody asked for this'' whenever something gets added or gets changed that they don't personally like.

    Also i guarantee you, the people who hated haste stacking removal will also hate hard caps too.

  • Smoe
    Smoe Member Posts: 3,484
    edited June 3

    Except some of said niche builds were also overtuned and unhealthy for the game, stacking 4 of the same effects together to a ridiculous amount is not good for neither the balance nor the health of the game, no matter how subjectively fun you may think they are.

    Also at least i'm not a reactionary with a hostile attitude to others who don't agree with me.

  • EEP
    EEP Member Posts: 62

    Some impacted builds I used are,

    Speed build, power of two and blood pact some pair with hope, boon dark theory. (Very niche build hard to pull off and keeps two people within arms reach and off gens, blood lust will bring a down. Countered by dash killers, range killers, teleport, hinder and strategic zoning.)

    Medic builds: like- botany, desperate measures, empathetic, solidarity

    End game hero builds- no one left behind, resilience and desperate measures, spine chill...for those end game hook stand offs

    Borrowed time and babysitter

    Reactive healing tank builds, Reactive healing, desperate measures, botany, self care, again two people off gens in close proximity same counters as haste build and general double hits

    Any Healing assistance for self care

    No Mither builds, boon exponential, unbreakable, plot twist,

    Hex cleansing builds, resilience, counter force, spine chill, leader, boon illumination, flow state

    Sabo builds, Sabo, resilience, tool box ( hooks already spawn every 5 ft all over the map and are no longer permanently broken on death, tool boxe chargs are limited)

    NO I don't play killer very often but my

    Speed vault gimmick build is affected

    Super lunge Michael build is

    My fast pig build- Play with your food, batteries, rapid brutality

  • Rock_KBob
    Rock_KBob Member Posts: 86

    I think most here have already given examples I would've mentioned myself, but what I don't see is something I really wish would be added so I understand more how much diminishing returns is impacting me.

    1. Something in lobby to indicate equipped perks will be affected by diminishing returns. Much like how various perks in the bloodmoon event highlighted they wouldn't be compatible with that event, I want my perks to update once I've equipped them to show that they will be affected
    2. An actual number in-game to show how much my build is benefiting me. Yes, I can sit down and figure out the math for my own perks, but that doesn't take my team into account. I have run for about a year now the same build (Bond, Empathic Connection, WGLF, and Adrenaline). My duo very often runs Leader. I want a number somewhere showing me what I'm getting out of my build in real time that also takes into account your team so I can determine whether I want to try something else. Something similar for haste is used during 2v8 for killer that pops up briefly on screen showing both the percentage haste being applied and the time. Can this not be worked out for diminishing returns too?
  • jesterkind
    jesterkind Member Posts: 9,898

    While nothing's being directly and dramatically affected (outside of stacking four of the same modifier, which was the point anyway), there are a few things I'd personally think are worth looking at, which I'll put in a bulletin list for convenience:

    • Power of Two and Blood Pact. Specifically together; it's the only time anyone ran these two perks that I'm aware of, and even then it was a gimmick thing. It's one of the few instances where I think the lessened stacking actually matters for just two perks, but what I'd recommend is slightly buffing Power of Two then reworking Blood Pact, there's no reason for both to be in the game at once.
    • Fire Up. While this perk's main draw - the pickup speed - isn't affected that much, it is one of those instances where you'd want to pair it with something else for the other effects (think Brutal Strength for the break speed, or Bamboozle for the vault speed) but the new system makes that not really worth it. This isn't catastrophic for Fire Up because it does multiple things at once, so one thing being lowered is less relevant proportionally, but it's still worth looking at.
    • Babysitter. Now I might be wrong about this, I haven't had this perk used on me so I can't test, but I believe Babysitter's Haste effect is just immediately and inherently reduced by the off-hook Haste you get by default. Again, not a catastrophic deal because Babysitter does more things + the Haste lasts longer than the basekit Haste anyway, but worth looking at.
    • Champion of Light and Fixated. Specifically together, the two are fine individually with other strong use cases, but I think the combo's worth evaluating. Could be a reasonable thing to accept as collateral, could warrant changes.
    • Better Than New. This isn't a perk that's actually affected by the DR system itself, but I want to highlight that the DR system opens up a new buff for this perk to allow it to give a chase buff- if you give it vault speed now, stacking with Finesse is less scary, and then the perk can fully realise its potential as "you're now buffed for anything you do except repair".
    • In general, small percentage Haste perks like Batteries Included and Undone can safely be made a bit better than they currently are. This probably applies to survivor too but the only one I can think of off the top of my head is Dark Theory which I don't think necessarily should be buffed that way, it needs a secondary effect more than a numbers buff.

    I wouldn't consider this list a rundown of perks that need changes because of the DR system, at least not all of them, but I do think these are among the best potential candidates for the DR system allowing more robust buffs.

    Overall this system was implemented pretty smoothly. It does what it's meant to without significant collateral damage. However, at the same time, a huge amount of this system's potential value is in the future changes it allows, so I'd really love to see those changes happen sometime soon.

  • Yippiekiyah
    Yippiekiyah Member Posts: 594

    I'm fine with perks not stacking but I don't think killer powers should. Always loved Bamboozle on Myers or Rapid Brutality on Dracula coz it stacked with the wolf. I've just reverted to using 4 slowdowns on those killers now which is boring for everyone

  • Brokenbones
    Brokenbones Member Posts: 5,719

    I think if they wanted to 'fix' babysitter, they could rework it to behave like 'No one Left Behind' where it doesn't give the survivor haste, it INCREASES their basekit haste by the % instead.

    Maybe some would think that's too strong but that's how babysitter worked pre-diminishing returns so it can't have been too bad.

  • jesterkind
    jesterkind Member Posts: 9,898

    Yeah, I had a similar thing in mind, something like that would neatly fix this particular issue.

  • CosmicScarab
    CosmicScarab Member Posts: 266

    Any haste/hinder with Clown feels awful now. You have two entire categories of perks cut off from you. Really any killer that hinders or gets haste feels bad with these perks due to them being negatively affected by their basekit abilities. The same goes for haste perks interacting with basekit haste on survivor from being unhooked. There should be no interaction with basekit features or powers.

  • AGM
    AGM Member Posts: 932

    Here's a list of what I consider to be perks most affected by DR:

    Survivors:

    • Better than New
    • Blood Pact
    • Boon: Dark Theory
    • Desperate Measures
    • Do No Harm
    • Empathic Connection
    • Flow State
    • Friendly Competition
    • Leader
    • Quick Gambit
    • Teamwork: Full Circuit (repair speed increase)
    • Teamwork: Power of Two
    • Teamwork: Soft-Spoken (repair speed increase)

    Killer:

    • All-Shaking Thunder (when used with Coup de Grâce)
    • Bamboozle (vault speed)
    • Coulrophobia
    • Dying Light/Cull the Weak
    • Dark Arrogance
    • Fire Up
    • Knock Out
    • Leverage
    • Overcharge
    • Scourge Hook: Weeping Wounds/Scourge Hook: Gift of Pain
    • Thanatophobia

    Keep in mind these are just the perks that seem especially affected by DR to me, not all perks that I believe need changes; otherwise this list would be quite long.

  • Drumbeat
    Drumbeat Member Posts: 28

    Devs made no efforts in buffing perks that were already useless and adding in Diminishing returns to make them even more worthless

    Right now this system needs to be scrapped unless they are guaranteed to be buffing at least 20 perks a patch going forwarded

  • Tamo
    Tamo Member Posts: 161

    This is literally my whole point. I appreciate that so many here actually understand what I mean.

    The builds most affected are the ones that made use of the weaker perks in our line up which is something I assumed we were trying to encourage but here we are with diminishing returns only affecting those said perks. The usual strong perks or the basic meta is unaffected & therefore means games are getting boring just using the same stuff over & over because why run the fun stuff when it's not even fun because two of the perks are basically doing nothing for it now anyway.?

  • Tamo
    Tamo Member Posts: 161

    I agree completely. This was nearly my whole point in the post, I feel survivors were affected greater than Killers due to the fact the most notable stacking affects killers use is just haste, whereas survivors focus gen speed, heal speed, haste also. Anyone focusing only one of these has a glaring flaw that being if they can't utilise it their perks are redundant, but that's the nature of crafting a build entirely around a sole purpose. It can be fun & can absolutely backfire.

    What diminishing returns has done is made it painfully obvious 2 perks can stack but then the last two slots may as well be meta based perks because the rest of the stacks are near useless & likely by that point are so low percentages already that diminishing returns makes them redundant anyway. It makes for very boring samey builds, again more so on survivor side than killer. But the point stands though that even a killer focusing one stacking effect likely won't have anything to combat something else & if exploited could lose a game horribly. But why do that when those builds suck even more now. Just run the same meta all killers run & have at it.

    Again I wouldn't hate a tweak to the diminishing returns system but it also feels like it'd just be easier to revert it. What should be a healthy idea for the game just hasn't been helped by the fact it has been done kind of poorly & has affected an entirely different issue making that worse instead, that being the fact niche perks are now even worse than before.

  • Firellius
    Firellius Member Posts: 5,646

    While that's true, it also risks making the system feel even more arbitrary, and it's already on thin ice.

  • Skitten56
    Skitten56 Member Posts: 571

    I hate Diminishing Returns. Like many others are saying here, it basically killed all the fun builds I liked to run but does nothing to hurt meta builds. So I just run meta now instead.

    Also some perks work together but function differently and thus don't hurt each other with diminishing returns. So these combos are more powerful which makes them just better than the rest.

    Diminishing Returns just constraints and limits gameplay builds. It also makes me feel like the game is pressuring me into running specific builds instead of just letting me run what I want. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth as a result. By forcing less build variety, playing the game becomes more boring and stale faster as well.

    Knowing we'll likely have to wait years for BHVR to remove Diminishing Returns or finally buff all the perks it made absolute garbage with the update is just frustrating.

  • Mr_K
    Mr_K Member Posts: 10,556
    edited June 5

    What you see here is just a typical reaction when you take something away from a child.

    Diminishing Returns purpose was to remove extreme edge cases from occuring. Healing was the first complaint after you post, but is the very reason the system should exist. Stacking perks so a survivor can heal as fast as the original Self Care / We'll Make It combo is not healthy. This system will prevent such combos from appearing in the future as the every increasing pool of perks continues.

  • Brokenbones
    Brokenbones Member Posts: 5,719

    That's a completely unfair conclusion.

    Comparing niche altruistic healing builds to old self care + we'll make it makes absolutely no sense. The strongest healing perks in the game were unchanged by the system and survivors can already be healed super fast with either resurgence or medkits + botany.

    How is someone wanting to run something like desperate measures + botany to heal their teammates quickly the same as what you said, please elaborate

  • UnicornMedal
    UnicornMedal Member Posts: 2,039

    No Mither is one of my favorite perks but I tend not to run it much anymore. The overall trajectory of the game has been the biggest culprit on that front, but now the threat of not being able to have wiggle room with it because of a balancing system working against me (when the perk balances itself) doesn't exactly encourage me to jump back on it. And that sucks.

  • terumisan
    terumisan Member Posts: 2,449

    funny thing is hyperfocus stakeout isn't affected fir gen progression it didn't affect it much if at all but gen regression was affected on top of the 8 kick limit still being a thing

  • terumisan
    terumisan Member Posts: 2,449

    they tried around the kaneki patch i think where they were trying to kneecap haste and hinder stacking

  • Drumbeat
    Drumbeat Member Posts: 28

    Exactly the Meta needs to be affected by Diminishing returns and these weak perks actually affected bufded

  • Yippiekiyah
    Yippiekiyah Member Posts: 594

    Folk need to stop obsessing about balance.I’d rather go against a killer with a haste build than losing 20% of my gen with pain res and then getting kicked off it for 35 seconds with dms

  • Smoe
    Smoe Member Posts: 3,484
    edited June 6