Developer Update | Player Intent System
Last week, we hosted a Reddit AMA and on top of having a blast answering your questions, we noticed some topics really got you talking. One of those was the “chat wheel” system we’re working on to help Survivors coordinate and communicate their intentions in-game. So, what better time than the present to share some more details about it with you (including one way your feedback’s already impacted it)!
The system in question is – aptly – called Player Intent. With it, you’ll be able to communicate a range of preset messages to your fellow Survivors at the press of a button, using a radial menu. From thanking them for a heal, to saying you’re going to work on gens, to suggesting you split up, messages focus on the on-the-fly actions that are most useful during a Trial.
When a message is chosen using the Player Intent wheel, other Survivors will see it next to your name in the game HUD, keeping your general view clear of distractions while you’re in the middle of looping or hunting for an objective. To help combat message spam, you can expect a cooldown between messages, which will increase if too many messages are sent in a short period.
We want this comms wheel to suit different players’ specific needs, so you’ll be able to customize which messages you take into your Trials from the Options menu.
Of course, one piece of feedback we’ve seen is that a system like this isn’t for everyone. We’ve already discussed this as a team and have a solution for that. If you’d rather not use the Player Intent system, you will be able to disable it from this same menu. Once disabled, you will not be able to send messages to players and will not see the messages they send.
We’ve also added the ability to mute individual players so you have more control over the comms you see (and don’t see). If you're finding a certain player’s messages distracting, muting them will block any further Player Intent messages from popping up on your end.
While this system is meant for everybody who plays Survivor, its value will be a bit different depending on how you play. Just like how your feedback from the AMA helped inform the addition of an opt-out option, we're dying to know your thoughts! Even better, it would be massively helpful if you could also share a little about how you play to give context to that feedback. For instance, do you tend to play soloq, prefer SWF, or identify as a Killer main? How would you define your experience level in the game; a newer player? A veteran?
Let us know in the comments below, as we’ll be watching your feedback closely as the team continues to work on this system ahead of its release this Fall!
Until next time...
The Dead by Daylight Team
Comments
Yeah it 100% shouldn't be able to be completely turned off.
It defeats the whole purpose of why they said they wanted to add the system. meanwhile adding to frustrations as people will load into lobbies and eye-roll at the sable with the whole system disabled.
Its always fine to have everything thats just niche und not a necessity to be an option to toggle on or off by personal means.
this is not a niche system. this is a system the devs have stated they are adding to try to bridge the information gap and have a easier time balancing killers, which it isn't going to do if they allow people to toggle it on and off.
As i stated sure let people turn it off, but they need to only be put into lobbies with others who want to toggle it off.
So you just want to worsen the queue times again for such a trivial matter?
this isnt a trvial matter.
It wont make que times worse the only people it will potientaly make it worse for is people who want to turn off comm wheel. (oh no 30 second ques rather then 5 second ones)
And you can always turn it back on if its such a trival system. why is it such a big deal if its on if its so trivial.
Thank god it can be disabled. I know for a fact that i'm not gonna use this system whatsoever. And even if it couldn't be disabled, i would still just ignore the feature's existence altogether.
finally! One of the most obviously missing features!
good to see the copied OW 1-1 they by far are the best in the business when conveying information to your team
I think this is great (always solo when I play survivor). I love that we can customise it, as i prefer a quick crouch to say thanks than scroll a wheel lol
Yeah, I would prefer to have base kit kindred and bond, such things that make SWF extremely good, they do call outs and have these perks without using them.
This system seems to be gimmicky for soloq and probably will be used to annoy teammates.
I am happy for those who like it.
But this one I will turn off I can already see players constantly spamming it and completely ignore it.
This wont solve soloq problem I would rather get kindred as base kit again which SWF has free with constant callouts
I also think we shouldn't have the option to disable it, as that would defeat the purpose of having it in the first place. If people don't want it, nothing's forcing them to use it, and the messages from teammates are non-intrusive, so I don't see the issue with it.
Also, looking at the screenshots, some of those messages look redundant. For example, I don't know why we need a "healing" message when we already have the indicator on the HUD.
That's going to help Survivors use their time much more efficiently by wasting less time—for example, leaving a Generator to go for an unhook on the other side of the map because you thought no one else was going for the save, among many other scenarios. You can also tell your team to focus more on Generators. Really good, healthy feature overall :)
However, it should be noted that wasting less time through communication will affect Killers negatively, as Survivors will use the saved time to progress objectives more, such as repairing Generators and healing, resulting in faster Gen progress and shorter games. QoL features are welcome, but Killers should get something too, especially already weak killers if it affects them negatively.
Edit: Looks like survivor mains aren't happy about this XD
Based on some comments in this thread saying that they'll basically refuse to use this for no real reason, I'm beginning to think that a global opt-out feature is a bad idea. Almost as if you're giving people permission to play the team role without taking teamwork into consideration. If they hate it that much they can mute everyone every time they start a new trial.
Also it'd be nice to know if someone does have you muted. Like an Ear icon with a slash through it or something.
I was thinking this as well. Like, why put call outs on the HUD where (some of) my teammates are unlikely to see it anyway? Some of my teammates are clearly not using the current info on the HUD as it is. Could lead to even more frustration if your messages aren't getting through to the team.
I'm also a little bit concerned about the potential for information overload, especially among newer players. 8 commands on the wheel seems a bit much to me, but I guess we'll see. I'm also not looking forward to bossy players telling everyone else how they think we should be playing the game. That will get old pretty quickly.
I don't see the point of a "chasing me" call out. I'm gonna be way too busy trying my best not to die to be able to use it in chase and we already have the entity claws so yeah, it seems pointless to me.
I still have misgivings about the efforts to close the gap between SWF and Solo and balancing the game in that direction, because that road will probably lead to sweatier games. If Killers start to feel like every game they play is against a SWF, then I expect to see stronger builds and more camping, tunnelling and slugging on average. But then again, perhaps we're already there and this is just making things more even. I also think some Killers may need some huge buffs if Survivors become a lot more efficient. All of this is "good" if you want the game to become sweatier and more competitive. Maybe that's what the community wants, I dunno…
How about waiting if this actually affects Killers? I mean, I know that some people want to jump on global Killer Buffs right away, I have seen some people already say that all SoloQ Teams will now play like highly coordinated SWFs (lol). In the end, the impact will probably be minimal.
It is good and since it is not mandatory to use and it cannot be used to spam, it is only positive. But it will not change that the Meghead is inefficient as hell. Or that one dude is only running after the Killer with a Flashlight (while failing every Save). Or similar things.
I made a post about this actually 4 years ago. 90% of the suggestions I made got implemented :)
Seeing this post today made me smile a bit. Though 4 years…..could've been faster :)
https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/329026/quality-of-life-ui-features-needed#latest
This Player intent wheel should only work in proximity. I shouldn't be allowed to communicate with someone on the other side of the map.
If you want the game to be non stop SWF style play than add VOIP to your game..
Edit: Downvote all you want, its the truth
it couldnt be further from the truth..
Proximity wouldnt help to bridge the gap between soloq and swf and be kinda unnecessary for shoutouts like ‚i am going to hook‘ or ‚i am going to work on the gen‘ etc
but neither this nor full voip could bring soloq to swf style play - swf is stronger because they are not randoms, they will/can always work as a team and know more about their teammates and playstyles without explizit verbal/written communications.
Also, voice chat will just not always work, be it language barrier, missing Hardware, unwillingness to use the mechanics (already seeing people that wont use the chat wheel for whatever reasons), background noises, toxicity, not easy to be moderated, etc.
I loveeeeeee this!!
I am devotion 23, so I played a lot to the game.
I sometime play SoloQ, but no communication at all is hard. That would help a lot.
The thing is even when I play SwF, I can't communicate on my side with other players. I hear them talking, on discord, so it's still better for them then SoloQ, but I can't tell them all I could want to say.
This update is a biggggg UP for people in the same situation as me!! If you can't communicate for any reason (mute irl, problem with the pc, playing in place where you can't talk, etc.) .
I will sure use this as much as I can to let players feel like I am talking with them! That they don't think I am an handicap to the team because I can't communicate!
It's been years I haven't been hyped like this! Thank you so much! This will improve : the game, the experience for people like me + the experience for everyone playing with people like me!
Also, thank you for making it appear on the HUD and not be proximity only! That way, we are as useful as others who can tell what they want to the team using discord!
I have two main concerns with this system that could make it just as detrimental as it could be beneficial, and also a suggestion that I believe is an exceptionally better alternative to this idea.
First, are survivors going to be able to activate this “intent/chat” wheel WHILE running and moving their character around… or is it going to be something that you have to stop and be stationary to do? If you have to be completely motionless while activating this wheel and putting in your “intent” command, that leaves the survivor completely vulnerable and takes away valuable time that the survivor could be using. For example, if I’m working on a gen and the killer comes toward me to pressure the gen and chase me… am I going to be able to immediately start running and activate the chat wheel to communicate to my teammates that the killer is with me WHILE I’m moving, or am I going to have to literally stand in place while I put in the command and not only lose significant distance that could be gained but also potentially give the killer a free hit because I can’t move for 2-3 seconds while I bring up this chat wheel and communicate to the other survivors that the killer is chasing me? Survivors need to be able to input these communications WHILE moving and performing interactions so that they aren’t having to sacrifice time or opportunity in order to do so.
The second concern is, it’s also going to be very distracting to the survivor who is trying to use the system and make playing much more difficult. I’ll use the same scenario to demonstrate. Currently, if I’m working on a gen and the killer comes to pressure it and chase me… I can focus all my attention on making distance and trying to loop the killer. Adding in this chat/communication wheel means I have more things to worry about. Now I have to worry about pulling up this wheel and communicating to my teammates that I’m being chased, AND trying to make distance, AND playing effectively at loops, AND pay attention to my surroundings, AND watch the killer to see if they’re mind-gaming or committing, AND look around for possible places to run to next to continue the chase… it’s just a lot to do and manage all at the same time and having to worry about bringing up a chat wheel to communicate with my teammates just makes it that much more stressful and chaotic and takes my attention away from the things that matter, especially when there are better options which I’ll go into next.
My suggestion, and what I believe would be a significantly more beneficial system… would be to implement a team-based voice chat. One voice chat for survivors, one voice chat for killers (which would be helpful for people who play 2v8 killer solo queue as well). There are countless other games such as Call of Duty or Fortnite that use this feature and it is extremely helpful without diverting attention or focus away from gameplay and imposing potentially harmful or detrimental side effects to the player’s efficiency. All of these other games have a “Game Chat” option, where if someone joins your lobby or is on the same team as you… you can speak to them directly via your mic/headset. If DbD had a “Game Chat” option that worked the same way, whenever a survivor joined a lobby they would have the ability to use voice communications with the other survivors in that particular lobby who were also using that game chat. Then they could communicate anything they needed to during the trial without having to distract themselves or waste time or opportunity bringing up a “chat wheel” to issue commands or their “intents”. It would be much easier, much faster, much more simple, and much more effective because they could just talk. It also wouldn’t interrupt gameplay, complicate controls and key bindings, or add unnecessary difficulty and confusion either. You could even still keep the option to mute other players who were being disruptive or the option to turn game chat off completely, the same as you intend to do with the chat wheel… but for those that chose to use the game chat it would be an exponentially better and more beneficial system than a chat wheel which has the potential to be harmful and detrimental, complicate things and make them more stressful and difficult, be extremely distracting, and add more unnecessary steps to take when players have more than enough to focus on during a trial as it is.
For the chase, maybe they could replace it by "killer is on me", because sometime, either you are on a chase, but too far ahead of the killer, so no more claws and people are wondering where the killer is or they get in front of you not knowing you need to run because the killer is coming.
Or the killer is not in a chase, but he is searching around for you, so people are wondering. At least, they know what is happening!
It'll be funny during EGC. 2 survivors escape thru the door, killer is camping.
Last survivor: "Please unhook." 🥹
Can we get a list of the options to give feedback on? Looking at the pictures shared "going for unhook" and "split up" are good adds but "healing" and "chasing me" seem unnecessary when the HUD already gives that information. I worry maybe some options will be left out in favor of ones that are already currently in the HUD.
If people are able to toggle the chatwheel off can there be something to let the others in the lobby know? Something like maybe a mic with cross through it, similar to what other games have both in the lobby and in game to let you know you have a teammate not participating in communication. This will help players avoid wasting time using the chat wheel if they end out in a lobby with others who have toggled it off. No need to send "help" when the others have chat toggled off and won't see it.
Regarding “I’m being chased”, there are scenarios where the chase indicator wouldn’t appear, but the players could still be considered in-chase. Like with certain stealth killers, or a Pig trying to moonwalk for a headpop, for example.
Adding on to that, if you prerun early enough chase doesn't mechanically trigger even though both you and the killer would regard yourself as being in a chase. There's definitely enough edge cases for that one to be worthwhile, in my opinion.
I would love to be able to bind specific perk slots to the chat wheel. It would only need to display the perk icon next to may name to convey what I'm trying to do.
I think a good message to be able to send is one that lets others know what perks you have, can be in the form of "I have (insert perk name here)". It could also let people know that you're about to use certain perks, such as Head On for a save, or Inner Strength to heal yourself.
To follow up on my initial thoughts, I've been discussing this with friends who play and thinking over this all week, reading over online discussions since the announcement (such as the suggestions that people who opt out of a system to avoid harassment need to be put into a separate queue) and a pal put our biggest concerns plainly:
This makes me worried it's only going to lead to more end game chat toxicity if you didn't engage in the intent wheel enough in the eyes of other players.For this reason, to help curb endgame fingerpointing and harassment and toxicity, I am re-asserting that I think it would be very important for the game to indicate players who have opted out of the chat wheel.
As someone else said, it would be greatly frustrating if I were frantically sending out "Help!" with no way to know that my cries for help were not being received by anyone else in the lobby because everyone else has the chat wheel muted.
This would greatly relieve stress and miscommunication between players who think that their Intent Wheel chats are being received by teammates, who in reality see nothing of what they're communicating to the team. This will prevent players from relying on players who have opted out of the Intent Wheel to act around their communicated Intents, and this will also help people from accosting each other in endgame chat.
I can already see the fights:
"I said I was going to go do this! Why didn't you do anything? Useless teammate *insert expletive here*"
But here is the thing you use "Help" on this system, your teammates still has no idea where are you so essentially the feature without coordinates highly questionable because we already has HUD and need heal can be signaled with crounching up and down etc. You are chased again useless, you are on gen again useless, and who goes for hook saving again obvious we dont need this thing as it is now
welcomed change. :) gap between swf and solo will be much smaller and killers can see some bigger buffs.
is better a chat or voice in game for survivors, but this also can work
both Chat and Voice have limitations though, especially language barrier but also just basic accessibility
You always have the option to find a swf and use some third party tool for voice chat however if you really prefer that.
The impact might be minimal in low-MMR matches, but in mid/high MMR, I doubt it won't have a significant positive impact on skilled survivors who know how to manage their time efficiently.
It's a great feature, and I'm all for it. All I'm pointing to is killers need some attention, especially weaker, less mobile ones like Ghost Face and Trapper for example. They could get some buffs or even QoL changes and nerf other OP killers .since it will become even harder to manage the map with the current pallet density, large maps, and gen rushing as immobile weak ones. If killers keep getting weaker, the game will gradually lose its horror and survival feel, because killers are supposed to be scary and powerful (I'm not a killer main. I play both roles equally and just sharing my opinion <3)
Ive comment before but one thing that came to mind that im curious about.
Are bots able to read the callouts? like if someone says they are going for the save, will the bot prioritize the gens since someone called out for save? I understand bots not using callouts but would be nice if they could read the callout.
praying there is an option for boons too - I sometimes sigh in resignation seeing someone in touching distance from my boon exponential but not crawl to it (*u_u)
While I already believe the HUD visuals are sufficient as they are, if the developers determine—based on these new features—that the four survivors are able to keep track of who is doing what (such as repairs, rescues, and chases) and are coordinating effectively, I would like them to use that as a basis for adjusting low-tier Killers (Killers that move at 4.6 m/s and lack warp or high-speed movement abilities).
I personally only ever play solo queue so that's where my feedback is coming from. I play about half and half killer and survivor but lately have been leaning survivor because of queue times.
The sort of commands and callouts that exist on a chat wheel are really not going to tilt game balance in any sort of direction. This isn't going to be bridging any sort of SWF - Solo Queue gap if that's what people are thinking.
SWFs with comms can call out where the killer is chasing them, not just THAT the killer is chasing them (something the HUD already says anyway).
Asking for a heal doesn't mean anything if I don't know where you are and asking for a heal right in front of me can already be accomplished by being wounded and tbagging at me a couple of times. Want to thank me? Tbag. Apologize for blowing a skill check? Tbag. It's a multi-functional, universal emote.
I'm not even sure what to do with things like 'Help!'. Help with what? Where are you?
Things like 'Split Up!' or 'Repair' are going to have me rolling my eyes and wondering why some random I'm never going to see again thinks they're the boss of me.
'Going for Unhook' might be handy if someone isn't running kindred.
Personally, the only things I wish I could communicate to teammates that I can't already that are simple(ish) enough for a chat wheel are things like 'Killer is camping and I won't be upset if you don't bother trying to unhook me'.
A hotkey or button to quickly enable/disable the whole thing mid game (maybe in the tab menu) would be great. I understand why people would not want their soloq teammates to opt out of it, but the problem is: many soloq players don't know what clean comms are.
I really don't need to hear "killer is chasing me" when I SEE that on the hud.
Or "I go unhook", 5 seconds before unhooking, followed by the unhooked and unhooking survivor having a conversation like "heal me" - "let's heal" - "thank you" - "let's split up" - "searching for a gen".
All that maybe while I try to focus on not getting downed by the killer. I don't need constant messages popping up on my screen while… preferably not dying.
In most situations an intend system wouldn't tell me anything new, bc the HUD right now and a bit situational awareness already tells me what is going on.
But! There are situations were I GLADLY would turn on that system. Were I need input from my teammates and expect them to try and reach me.
I'm not against this system at all. I also don't have my mind set on disabling it always. But a QUICK way to turn it on and off mid match would be great.
Not just when someone tries to spam, but also when you have 3 very… chatty teammates that commentate their game for me.
Maybe I'm a burnt child from other games that had such a wheel and didn't do a great job and making it unintrusive.
Exactly.
"Killer is close to me" or "Killer searching for me" might be more helpful then "Killer is chasing me". Chase I can see on the HUD. If a killer is on someones scratchmarks or interrupted a survivor that wanted to rotate for the unhook so that survivor now has to hide and can't make it, that's something I need to know.
"Unhook late" or "don't unhook yet" might also be helpful, when the killer is proxycamping / tunneling. Though I guess you can work around that with "do gens" or something like that.
"Play it slow" or something similar could work, especially in a 3v1. When you and a second teammate reset somewhere safe and the 3rd survivor is not spotted by the killer, you could ask them to stay hidden until the reset is done and then tackle the gens together.
But yes. Heal me, Help, etc will probably not really do anything. And "Let's split up" is something I just do. You only tell that teammates when they follow you around for some reason or when they insist on tripple repair an early gen against legion…. in both cases telling them to split up might not solve the main problem at hand ^^''
This sums up a lot of my feelings as well. If they really want to close the gap between SoloQ and SWF, a system like this ideally needs a way to help you find teammates (or for you to tell your teammates exactly where you are). SoloQ players have some means of doing this already with various aura perks but they have to use at least 1 perk slot on a fraction of the communication power that a SWFs has, since they essentially get every teammate/info Survivor aura perk for free. That's the real power of a SWF and unless that is addressed, SoloQ will keep losing out due to lack of info on where their team is. I think maybe giving SoloQ an extra 5th perk slot solely for aura perks might be a way to close the information gap at least a little (and not totally ruin the game in the effort).
I've said many times, I don't think this is a healthy direction for the game but if we're gonna be heading this way, we should at least go all in on it. This feels more like throwing SoloQ a bone than genuinely bringing us up to par with SWFs. Though it could just be a first step of many that BHVR have planned, too.
Do not know if this has been said already, but please make it so we can bind the comms wheel to whatever button we like, along with individual callouts to certain buttons. (such as dpad on controller)
After playing this a bit on the PTB, I want to say I think the biggest suggestion I have for the Player Intent System is to add something specifically to tell people NOT to do a generator, or something about 3-genning, etc. A "Stop/Don't Do that" or something along those lines, perhaps.
I do not think we need modifier callouts to call out our positions, that's getting to be pretty wieldy, for one, and two, I frankly do not think every Killer needs to have to go against SWF level teams constantly in every match. That level of call-out might be getting just a smidge too precise with info. And yeah, I get that's what SWFs do, but not every single match is against a full stack or even a partial one, despite everyone's widespread belief every single good team they go against must "obviously" be a SWF.
Nah I think it's pretty good the way it is overall, but I do think something to ask people to "stop" might be useful.