Dev Update - January 2024 #2
Developer Update | January 2024 PTB - BHVR
Developer Update | January 2024 PTB
By PeanitsLast Updated: 3:58 pm
We’re a few weeks into the new year, and that can only mean two things: 1) Most of us have broken our resolutions already, and 2) It’s time for us to recap our first PTB of the year. In this Developer Update, we’ll discuss the feedback we’ve received from the most recent Public Test Build (PTB) and the changes we’ll be making before the update goes live.
The Onryō
In this update, we aimed to restore the gameplay longtime Onryō players missed while also maintaining some of the more recent quality of life improvements. We were glad to see such a positive reaction to these changes on the PTB. However, there are a few rough edges we’d like to iron out before this update releases.
Locked-In Condemned
With your current Condemned progress becoming permanent when you were hooked, Survivors who were hooked with several stacks became a clear target for The Onryō; it would only take a few more stacks of Condemned to secure a quick and early kill. This indirectly encouraged the Killer to seek out and chase the same Survivor after they were unhooked (or “tunnelling” for short).
To tone this down, hooking a Survivor will now lock in a maximum of 2 stacks of Condemned. Any additional Condemned will remain but can be removed by the Survivor as normal. This can happen again when the Survivor is hooked for a second time for a maximum of 4 locked-in stacks.
This will give Survivors an opportunity to remove some of their Condemned after they are unhooked while keeping Condemned kills as a far more prominent threat later in the match.
Projection Spamming
One of the awkward playstyles we wanted to address with this update was the dominant strategy of teleporting as much as possible to quickly spread Condemned. We had hoped that limiting the range of Condemned to powered TVs would address this and allow us to remove the projection cooldown. However, some crafty Onryō players discovered that they could intentionally teleport to the wrong TVs first in order to spread more than one stack of Condemned to Survivors near/heading towards a powered one. Clever!
We’ve read a lot of positive comments saying that she feels better to play without a cooldown on teleporting, so we do not want to bring it back. Instead, we have made the following change.
The power meter recharges over the course of 10 seconds.
- If the power meter is full, projecting will inflict one stack of Condemned to any Survivor near a powered TV and empty the power meter.
- If the power meter is not full, projecting will not inflict Condemned and the power meter will not be reset.
This will allow The Onryō to move around the map freely (so long as there are powered TVs to project to) but prevent quickly building Condemned by repeatedly teleporting to multiple TVs.
The Blight
The Blight received a bunch of Add-On changes during the PTB. After watching them closely and reviewing feedback, we’ve identified a few troublemaking Add-Ons which we’d like to address before the update releases.
Compound Thirty-Three
On the PTB, this Add-On increased The Blight’s turn rate by 33% for each consecutive rush. This effect ended up being stronger than we’d like and made rush attacks very difficult for Survivors to avoid.
We have reduced the turn rate bonus to 11% per consecutive rush (was 33%). We have also reduced the required rush distance to 3 meters (was 4 meters). This effect can stack up to 3 times.
Iridescent Blight Tag
On the PTB, this Add-On gave The Blight an endless supply of rushes in exchange for putting his Power on cooldown after a successful Rush attack. It turned out this downside was not enough to keep this Add-On under control, so we’ve made a few adjustments.
A Rush attack (successful or missed), failing to slam, or breaking a pallet with Iridescent Blight Tag equipped will now cause The Blight’s Power to be put on cooldown for 20 seconds.
This will cause the Power to go on cooldown more often, creating more opportunities for the Survivors to evade the Killer.
Adrenaline Vial
Originally, this Add-On provided many positive effects, making it a “jack of all trades”. On the PTB, we simplified the Add-On by removing some of the effects. This left the Add-On weaker than we’d like, so we’ve made the following changes.
We have removed the turn rate penalty (was -55%). We have also reintroduced a 5% Rush speed bonus (was 10%).
The Hillbilly
Start your chainsaws! We were pleased to see such a positive response to The Hillbilly on the PTB. For the release, we’d like to take the opportunity to improve a few more Add-Ons and offer as many viable choices as possible.
Greased Throttle & The Thompson’s Mix
On the PTB, these Add-Ons reduced the recovery time for successful Chainsaw hits. This understandably didn’t provide much benefit in most cases.
They now reduce recovery time after using the Chainsaw- not just successful hits- by 8% and 12% respectively (was 10% and 15%).
Thermal Casing & Ragged Engine
Simple number tweaks for these: Thermal Casing & Ragged Engine now decreases the speed at which heat dissipates when not using the Chainsaw by 20% and 30% respectively (was 10% and 15%). Keep it warm!
Discarded Air Filter & High-Speed Idler Screw
These two Add-Ons increase the time it takes before Overdrive starts dissipating. We’ve also increased the numbers on these to 20% and 30% respectively (was 15% and 20%).
Perks
Lastly, we’ve got a pair of tweaks for two of the Perks which were updated in this past PTB.
Save the Best for Last (STBFL)
During the PTB, STBFL would lose tokens whenever the Obsession lost a health state by any means. This allowed the Obsession to do silly things, such as intentionally allowing themselves to bleed out from Deep Wounds, in order to reduce the Killer’s STBFL tokens.
Save the Best for Last will now lose 2 tokens whenever the Obsession is hit by a Basic Attack or a Special Attack.
This way, the Obsession will need to put themselves in harms way in order to reduce the Killer’s accumulated tokens.
Quick Gambit
The PTB featured a change for Quick Gambit which increased its effective range and simultaneously lowered the repair speed bonus. Many felt as if this lowered repair speed bonus was not worth the added risk of potentially leading the Killer to your repairing teammates. Therefore, we have reverted the repair bonus: Quick Gambit now provides a 6/7/8% repair speed bonus to Survivors within 36m.
Watch List
Before we leave off, we wanted to try something new: The Watch List.
We do our best to make informed decisions with each update. Sometimes we need to take a closer look and see how something plays out in a real setting before we commit to making changes. However, we don’t want to leave you in the dark in the meantime. This is where the Watch List comes in. The items on this list are things we’ll be keeping an extra close eye on once the update goes live before determining if further changes are necessary.
Please note: Just because something is featured on this list does not guarantee that it will be changed. Likewise, things not on this list are also subject to change as needed. The purpose of this list is to provide visibility on what we’re monitoring and acknowledge the feedback we’ve been given.
Grim Embrace + Dead Man’s Switch
This Perk combo was reported to be potentially problematic on the PTB. When Grim Embrace activates, Survivors are forced to stop repairing the Generator, causing Dead Man’s Switch to activate and block the Generator for an even longer period of time. This gives the Killer a consistent way to activate Dead Man’s Switch on all Generators and take advantage of nearly the entire duration.
Though this combo requires two Perk slots, this can cause the Generators to be blocked for quite a while. We will keep an eye on this build and make sure it does not get out of hand.
Generator Changes
Generators are at the core of every trial, so any changes we make to them must be monitored closely. Unfortunately, due to an error, this system was temporarily disabled when the PTB went live, limiting the amount of feedback we were able to collect. We’d like to gather more info on how this system plays out in real matches before drawing any conclusions.
The regression event system is not intended to impact a typical match, but instead to help bring an end to excessively long stalemates. We’ve received some concerns that the system may in fact impact matches where several regression Perks are used at once. This didn’t seem to happen often on the PTB, but it’s possible this may be more common on the live game where matches are much closer.
The Onryō
The Onryō has gone through quite a few changes lately, and that can make it difficult to predict where she’ll fall in terms of strength. We feel pretty confident with this version, but we will be watching carefully to see if any dominant strategies or shortcomings emerge and reassess as needed.
The Hillbilly
The Hillbilly has a lot of potential, but a steep learning curve. A good Hillbilly can be scary as is, but the Overdrive mechanic can make them ever scarier. It may take some time for Hillbilly players to get used to the way the Chainsaw controls during Overdrive and manage their heat effectively. We will continue to watch The Hillbilly as players master the Chainsaw (or shake off the rust) to determine if some fine tuning is needed down the line.
With that, we’ve reached the end of this Developer Update. Each of the changes mentioned in this post will be available when the update goes live January 30th. We look forward to hearing what you think!
Until next time…
The Dead by Daylight team
Comments
100% agree!
I hope they are friend. I hope they are...
Until i havent seen the "adjustments" im not getting my hopes up. Im super sorry.
Boon:Illumination needs a major buff. If it releases as is, it may be the worst perk in the entire game.
Thank you so much. I agree 💯 💕
Until i see the "adjustments" im staying sceptical. I have no reason to get my hopes up. Sorry to say. Its a step forward though. Small steps....
Same. I’m accepting the news with a very, very large pinch of salt.
Im looking forward to that specific update. My anticipation of the patch is gone however.
I really hope that thinks will turn out for the better but seeing how everything we said got ignored and stuff got added that nobody asked for makes me frightened.
Its good to see though that they finally recognize the importance of the matter. Guess we screamed loud enough.
And out of all the killers Blight is probably the one to need a compesation buff.
It’s a little tiring watching BHVR make the same mistakes over and over and over and over and over and over and over
And you're absolutely correct, my friend. We know for sure things will change now, but we still have to wait and see what exactly those changes are.
After the tiny handful of Onryo mains were positive about the changes, they have decided to nerf her again. I cannot believe they have given her a power cooldown basically making her condemn unviable. Just adding cooldowns is absolutely ridiculous, its overheat for onryo. All the survivors need to do is take a tape if they are working on a gen, its not difficult honestly. They also added the ability to see the aura of TVs, so survivors can find tapes easier which gives them no excuse to just sit on a gen right next to a powered TV. If people sit on gens without taking the tape and don't know why condemn is building is this a problem with the killer design or with survivors not bothering to understand how to interact with the killers power?
The cooldown on power also completely removes the ability to build condemn during chase, without making the chase last a ridiculous amount of time. She is now in a weaker state than she was to begin with, as TVs have auras, and it only takes 1 second to put a tape away - these new changes bring back the old problem that survivors have no incentive to take tapes again.
Also the whole point of adding lock in mechanic was encourage hooking over slugging, now slugging them is more viable again which is ridiculous. It seems BHVR don't want any onryo mains to utilise her power effectively, might as well remove condemn completely at this point. She is literally less powerful than she has ever been, and I now can't go back to playing her after all this wait. So so sad honestly.
Outside sadako pretty ok changes i would say
C33 - pretty much not worth running, It's slightly better than double turn rate after 3 rushes which was never ever worth running. With umbra salts it'll be kinda fun but not good which I guess is fine.
iri tag - Should have gone with my suggestion of making it go by normal cool down standards when breaking a pallet or missing. Wasn't going to use it much anyway but def not now. It'll feel bad to play against but on a good blight it's just a self nerf.
Adren - is definitely the big winner. Not as strong as before but probably his strongest add-on now, not sure how I feel about that.
Back to alch ring/green speed and adren/green speed and now ring/adren
good luck explaining to the tryhards why tunneling is now not the most viable strategy somehow with these nerfs. i mean, if there's a maximum lock of 2 stacks, and the extra can be cleared, then the onryo player is going to tunnel that survivor before they can clear the stacks. you cannot discourage tunneling by making not tunneling seem more efficient without actually rewarding it because tunneling has an inherent reward for every single killer
It's disappointing that it feels like BHVR gave us the absolute bare minimum for the FoV slider, instead of giving us an actual FoV range, that went up to something decent like 110 Horizontal FoV... and it's unlikely to change because there wasn't enough outrage on it.
Did BHVR really give us their best effort, to give us a good FoV slider, or did they purposely give us the bare minimum, to see if there was any outrage? If the intended Onryo changes can get reversed (or at least partially reversed), does that mean the FoV slider could have gotten better if enough people had complained about it?
This might literally be the only major quality of life or accessibility feature planned for killers for a very very long time, and it's really just going to be the very bare minimum possible? We can't test out a better FoV range, to see if it affects the kill rate too much? We can't just have a better FoV range, and balance the game accordingly if the kill rate moves too much?
That goes to call of brine. If left completely alone it shaves off 4 seconds of a gen for a whole perk slot.
The anti-facecamping system has a range of 16m, it sounds like a lot but it's less than 5 seconds for a 4,6m Killer without mobility (those with mobility can close the distance in less than 3 seconds and projectile Killers don't care).
When a Survivor enters that 16m, the Killer can enter that range without fear of the system doing anything.
In any open maps (which is almost every map) the Killer can easily stay just outside 16m and have a clear view of the hook (which is what most Killers do when they are on the backfoot or just feeling like it), which means the moment a Survivor is spotted going for the unhook they go right back to hook to either force a trade or tunnel.
With STBFL, attacking non-obsession Survivors off the hook was not only powerful but encouraged because the perk works on the Basekit BT hit which means tunneling is even more efficient as not only can you force a trade but the unhooked Survivor can't get very far.
Instead of keeping the perk strong but limiting it's power in camping/tunneling they just double-nerfed the perk by removing synergy with some powers and weakening it's chase potential that weak/M1 Killers used but that the powerhouses (Nurse, Blight) can't really use that much.
Also I had to re-read your comment a few times because did you really say there's no tunneling problem because it's an assym?!
By it's very assymetrical design, Survivors are at a massive disadvantage when they lose one person quickly. Tunneling one Survivor as quick as possible is literally the easiest way to win as Killer since one less Survivor equals one less people on gens and available to do saves, it's the strongest form of slowdown and utterly boring and unfun for the player that spent more time in lobby than playing the game. Tunneling is probably the most complained-about thing in this game.
I am deeply disappointed that there were no changes to the 3-Gen system.
Once the regression event occur, cool survivers can repeatly repair 4.9%. Therefore, it will never comes the chance of regression event again. In other word, the Perks that depends on gen-kick lose there ability.
God's in his heaven, all's right with the world!
I am in complete shock. I said no way they could mess Sadoko up again. They proved me wrong. I still prefer this power to the one we had pre PTB. At least Billys got what they wanted. Sadly Sadoko is probably near the bottom of the list again unless the devs do Freddy mains dirty.
They should at least #Nerf pig, so that Sadako is above her XD.
Another proof that majority here do not advocate fair changes, but simply want insane nerfs for everything that causes them at least some difficulties.
Adrenaline Vial was one of Blight's worst addons on PTB, which literally had a ton of downsides with 7 tokens, and thanks a lot, BHVR, for not just throwing it in the trash of history, where no one would use it.
People seem to forget that with this addon Blight will also have a much bigger cooldown, so I think it's absolutely in the right place. I really hope that you won't gut him just because of whines.
Also, C33 probably is not bad (need testing), but not with limitation in 3 stuck ups. Remove it and leave it for Iri Tag.
Iri Tag is overnerfed, but number changes is all it needs. 10 seconds for miss and pallet brake, 20 seconds after successful hit. 20 seconds after every action worth only as meme brown addon, even strong side of this addon won't compensate it.
Devs, please consider ask of almost every Blight player and make Rat 3% and Crow 4%. They are overnerfed.
Quick Gambit on the Game will be insanely stupid against m1 killers, but well, seems like another buff to SWF and barely someone will bring it in solo.
Rip STBFL, most pointless and messy nerf in years.
Seems like Champ of Light is another perk we will force to wait nerfs for another half of year. Well, i was ready for it, marketing, understandable.
And no buff to Boon is kinda joke.
That's something that is being addressed, not likely for release but I'm hopeful of one of the patches that we put out in the following weeks.
Do not even joke about that (though i do find it funny given that they would do that) the devs might actually go through with another unjustified change about that if I still find Sadoko to be boring when I am able to play her. I need Pig as my main. Its a shame if the devs had not changed Sadoko in the first place she wouldn't be where she is now and her two rework slots could have gone to someone who needed them. I have no idea why the gave her the first rework nobody asked for and then on the second rework they had it pretty much bang on and then screwed it up for the live version. I actually think we should make a union for Sadoko she has been done dirty.
Completely agree, she was fine in the first place and now they refuse to give us her good old version back. They said they wanted to bring her more to the original for the old Sadako mains.
I kinda find the #Nerf pig funny even if she is too weak. I don‘t think the live update for pig will be a buff, they wouldn‘t dare to fight that meme.
If i lose Pig too, im quitting.
Punishing players for using their brain when playing Sadako which requires some thinking.
Current Sadako tp logic requires no thinking, upcoming Sadako tp logic restricts thinking.
The counterplay to teleporting to the “wrong tv” from Survivors is either leave the vicinity of the powered tv or grab the tape from said powered tv. Is this counterplay too hard for the average Survivor?
Putting a cap on Condemn lock in will just encourage players to slug.
Ok devs
No changes to the regression logic also means that Survivors can 4.9% gens to deny the Killer from using pop or even kick high progress generators.
I'm really glad the Onryo changes are being re-evaluated, but it's still astonishing how little BHVR seems to understand their own game sometimes.
With Billy and Onryo here, it's gold in one hand and poop in the other.
Onryo is my favorite killer (and highest prestige killer), and I stopped using her as much after the last major change (because it was unhealthy), and was really excited to see what they would do this time. The changes were good (but nor everything I'd hoped for), but then they decided to essentially neuter the best part (locking in condemned) of the rework because they don't seem to understand tunneling? Madness.
I'll just keep her on the bench for a while longer, I guess.
My one additional request would be that please, for the love of god, give her something to help her in chase. It doesn't have to be busted, but anything would help.
Guessing I'm passing on the Alan Wake chapter. For a supposed survivor chapter we haven't really gotten much.
No buffs for Alan Wake perks?..... Okay BHVR.....
So they nerfed Onryo even more even though she clearly was on the lower end of the killers in the ptb? Huh? What? Why?
They nerfed Blights iri tag and compound 33 which is understandable though I'm pretty sure no one is gonna run compound 33 anymore cause it's too weak now, but why is adrenaline vial buffed again?
The changes to the hillbilly's addons feel kinda pointless. In the Ptb at no point did I think that overdrive was going away too fast or I couldn't keep the meter up.
STBFL change I'm really glad that they changed that, but it still doesn''t actually fix the issue with camping/tunneling with it. All this did is just reduce how many people will use it outside of tunneling. Quick Gambit is still kinda not good. You could run bond with it and see the survivors so that you can force value, but you could also just be in area where they're are no pallets which causes you to go down and potentially given less time/gen progression for the other survivors by trying to force Quick Gambit.
Overall really weird and bad changes from the PTB. I think the only real good one in all of this is the iri tag change and somewhat the STBFL change.
Yeah it's just a flat out NERF at this point. I know OPW is sad about this!
True, every single add-on is nerfed/changed now. The Vial change is a bit weird, but still a nerf. At least they gave us a new playsytle to learn with Vial+Ring. Ngl, the PTB C33 looked so fun, but I completely understand the nerf. The whole 20 seconds CD on Blight Tag after breaking a palette or missing an attack is a bit much, but no cd was also a joke. I don't see myself using an Iri add-on ever. We will see the same 4 add-ons over and over again
I never played Sadako, and never will be, but I feel so bad for her.
The John Wick skin looks cool, but his perks are super garbage.
How did they not remove the regression tech? They're really gonna allow survivors to prevent the killer from ever kicking gens in live? Yikes.
Grim embrace+Dead man's switch=
I'm not playing survivor.
"We heard you didn't want a cooldown on Sadako's power, but some killer players were using her power with some semblance of tactics or planning, so we gave her one anyway."
Agreed. It is actually getting ridiculous at this stage
The Hillbilly
Hillbilly deserved all buffs he got in this PTB. He is extremely fun to play as and against. That's important. Players can have fun with him and use his Chainsaw and don't worry about 50 kilometers distance for missed Chainsaw Attack. I have played Old 2016-2020 Hillbilly and the new Hillbilly really reminds me of old one. That's really good. Old Billy was perfect balanced. Current new Billy will be perfect balanced at current state of Dead By Daylight. I really like his addons. We can play bump addons, cooldown addons, engravings, overdrive duration / generation, turn rate addons, lopro, carburetor & more. Finally Billy doesn't need to run the same addons every match, because his base kit is strong now and he has more interesting addons.
The Blight
Interesting changes. We will see...
Adrenaline Vial seems not bad. Only 5% speed (was 10% before). Okay, he got 7 Tokens, but he doesn't have recharge buff. If Blight uses all 7 Tokens he needs so much time to recharge it. Alchemist's Ring will be better than Adrenaline Vial in my opinion and nobody complains about it and it really suprise me.
huh?
+7 rush tokens
normal turn rate (-55 turn rate penalty removed)
+5% speed instead of 10 (8% with crow)
20 degree turn angle
and you think ring will be better than adren vial..?
ring + vial is gonna be silly..
It's 5% flat bonus, not stackable for each Token used like a Crow. That's your first mistake.
Normal turn rate is a deal, but for good blights it never matter to be honest.
+2 Tokens not +7 Tokens - he needs much time to recharge it...
Yes, 5+2= 7, +7 rush tokens
Crow is still going to stack with Vial? what
Much time? You forget he has 7 rushes.. 7
Normal turn rate with a 20 degree turn angle bonus, which is even sillier than how Vial currently is. This isn’t nerfing how free and strong this add-on was. It deserved to be nerfed into the ground. Good Blights also don’t run Vial because they know how strong it is.
Blighted tag got the wrong change. Now it will be a worthless iri ( make the cooldown 10 seconds on a pallt break or miss ) . Sure it was to strong on ptb but then you guys gutted it entirelly. Why are things 8 or 80 ?
can't we have a middle ground . Same with sadako . Why not try small changes instead of bringing something from busted to trash . Ruin and ds could be 4s and 150% regression. So many changes just cut values in half instead or making small tweaks to see how it lands.