Could the Perk Inventory be improved to not sort perks by rarity?

APoipleTurtle

One of the goals with this most recent update was to make it easier for players to find specific perks by standardizing rarities. Some snippets from the 4.3.0 Developer Update to this extent:

"Currently, tier 3 perks can either be rare or very rare. This can make it difficult to find the perk you’re looking for since the perk list is sorted not just alphabetically, but also divided across two different rarities"

"Going forward, perk rarity will match the tier of the perk"

"This makes it easier to find the perks you’re looking for in your perk list, and also makes it easier to tell what tier a perk is at a glance"

--

All fine in theory, but there's one big snag: this is only effective when ALL available perks are at at the same tier. Otherwise the Perk Inventory is just as messy as ever and the only way to see which perks are missing from a character is to check that they aren't hidden somewhere in the jumble. As happy as I am with the intention behind this step to improve UI quality of life, I don't ultimately feel that this effort has succeeded in its goal... yet.

I'd like to propose that a tweak be made to the Perk Inventory to disable its "sort by rarity" function entirely. With a change like this, all perks would show up in alphabetical order regardless of their tier/rarity.

Obviously this would take time and care to be implemented so that it doesn't break the other inventories within the loadout menu, but I think this would be an important addition to the perk rarity change which would fully realize the original goal of improving loadout navigation.

Additionally, I think that a greyed-out "Locked Rarity" might be useful. This would be for perks that have not been acquired from that character's Bloodweb yet. These would indicate to players at a glance which perks are still missing from their character, would allow players (especially newer ones) to skim all the perk descriptions and see if there are certain perks or teachables that they want to aim for, and would act as placeholders for that perk's spot in the inventory.

I'm no image editing wiz, but I whipped up a very rough example of what a "Locked Perk" might look like (I tried to make the grey a little darker so that it wouldn't get confused with the Legendary rarity).

Thoughts? Any other features you'd like to see added to the inventory/loadout menu?

Kind_Lemon

I mean, yeah, it would definitely be better than what we have now.

But speaking of locked rarities, I thought I'd link this here because I do have a picture of something perhaps like what you mean (and yes, ik it's in the context of something else):

@Kind_Lemon said:

(for bloodweb and perk leveling, skip past the spoiler/italics)

Spoiler Spoiler Warning ▲ ▼

First and foremost, I think a White Ward should prevent add-ons from being lost upon an escape if the devs do go through with this change. I personally dislike it given that I have very few clean rags or rubber grips despite having upwards of one hundred of brown bloodpoint offerings each. Keeping these add-ons after a successful escape is the only way they can compete with the amount of bloodpoint offerings without burning through tens of bloodwebs worth 50,000 points each.

About killers keeping add-ons: I think considering adding the rule that killers lose their add-ons only if a survivor escapes would be an intriguing idea even if only for the sake of lore (eg. the Entity rewards killers for doing well). However, before considering this, the issue of bloodpoint gain, the cheapness of bloodwebs, and perk acquisition needs to be addressed.

Perks and Bloodweb leveling

As it stands now, perks can only be obtained through the bloodweb, and the sheer number of perks in the game requires an inordinate amount of bloodpoints to be spent and bloodwebs to be run through in order to acquire most (if not all). The developers decided to make the bloodweb cheaper to combat (among other things such as 8k common bloodpoint offerings) the grind to acquire all the perks. In doing so, the developers allowed players to breeze through bloodwebs and accumulate hundreds of add-ons and offerings that can't be used in enough games before the player reaches the bloodpoint cap and has to start leveling again or waste the points.

The BEST solution (not the easiest) is to add another menu in the bloodweb tab that is designed solely for upgrading perks and then increase the prices of items on the bloodweb. I have incomplete drawings I may edit in later, but for now, imagine it as similar to the UI structure of the loadout tab (add-on choosing, offering choosing, etc.). There is a bloodweb section and then a perk section that can be switched between with ease.

How it functions:

• The bloodweb no longer spawns perks higher than the first tier and teachable perks, so once a player has purchased a perk in the bloodweb, he/she will have to travel to the perk upgrade menu.
• In the perk upgrade menu, players will be able to see the perks they have purchased off the bloodweb. All perks (other than the first tier of teachable perks) not purchased from the bloodweb will not appear. If a player clicks on a perk, a prompt will show up asking the player if he or she would like to upgrade the perk a tier (or downgrade, but I'm still not sure about having this option) and will show a price twice that of the next level's rarity (eg. upgrading from common to uncommon will be 8,000 and upgrading from Very Rare to Ultra Rare will be 14,000).
• Purchasing a perk on the bloodweb does not immediately consume another perk node. Instead, The Entity will first consume the highest rarity node in the furthest ring.

I think this solution is best because it removes the problem part of the grind from the bloodweb, the sole way for killers to get items and add-ons and the only way for anyone to get offerings. It gives the developers more flexibility in the future to play with prices and the numbers of rarities of nodes on any given bloodweb. Even perhaps more crucially, it allows players more agency in deciding which perks to be able to upgrade, avoiding (for the most part) unwanted perks and giving players more of an option to plan out builds and strategies without relying on chance to such a degree.

https://us.v-cdn.net/6030815/uploads/YQKFIWTIZGMM/perk-leveling-282-29.png

https://us.v-cdn.net/6030815/uploads/LLMYBPPJFFWX/perk-leveling-286-29.png

(ik the amount is inconsistent with what the above post states. Follow the post and treat the pictures as rough drafts.)

(P.S. This also brings back Ultra Rare and Common perks)