Payday 3 Is Dead - Can It Be Saved
It has been almost 6 months since Payday 3 was released, and in these 6 months, things have only gotten lower and lower and quieter and quieter. Community spirits have gotten so low, in fact, that the game on Subreddit has devolved into discussions about tables. Jesus Christ, there's a lot of it. Sure, the developers haven't stopped talking about the game.
Hey, they even got out a single obligatory DLC that was overpriced and featured power creep in the first weapon pack, and that's one mediumsized DLC. In almost 6 months, okay, their release schedule is pretty bad, and in Li of them trying to finally save this mess, I need to speak one more time. At least there are so many ways this can go down.
A lot of them are really bad, but I want to try getting in touch with the developer heads to see how or even if they'll fix it. I want to go back to the start and guide you through the last couple of months. When this game launched, it was also clear from day one that it was absolutely not ready, not just because the game lacked content.
Lack of content is only one piece of the puzzle. When you get down to it, what this game lacked and still lacks is replayability and diversity in its gameplay. You may or may not know this, but almost two weeks ago, as a recording, the developers published a blog post that's the saving the game thing I was talking about.
In this blog post, they've outlined some of their plans to basically overhaul a lot of the core systems in the game. I want to spend some time talking about some of these plans one by one, but first, what the hell is his name? You think you're funny, don't you? Your game's about to die. Allir, it's rising in pain right in front of you, and you're just laughing at it.
Hey, are you going to do anything? This shit's actually about to die, Progression. For progression, the developers have this to say: the challenges will be removed, and the infamy progression will be tied to Heist completion. As part of this, we will revisit all the current Heist payout values. Add scaling per bag secured for infam points, and also add a new bonus that rewards Loud Play Styles: The existing challenge framework will be repurposed to give cosmetic rewards for hard-core accomplishments instead.
Okay, I didn't want you to remove challenges completely, guys. I already went through this in my previous article, but challenges in Pay the Heist worked as an addition to the progression system; they're fun because they're added on top. This solution makes them just cosmetic rewards, which is infinitely lamer.
The worst part is that now this has an analog in Payday 2. There are several achievements in Payday 2 that unlock cosmetic rewards and things such as Continental coins; they're all over the new Safe House. In that game, we have fixed a problem by introducing another problem-making system, Superfluous, which is not good.
The rest of this rework is fine. I'm just disappointed it doesn't do more; there's no mention of currency being fixed, though at this point it's permanently broken unless you reset inventories. Good job, guys. Also, there's nothing about weapon levels or anything else. Cool, very cool. Let's move on to something else: stability, matchmaking, and the server browser.
The developers have this to say on the topic of cooperative play: our matchmaking isn't doing a good job of bringing people together. We have a number of social and cooperative features planned for the year, as well as rebuilding our matchmaking functionality into a much more robust system. Until those features are implemented, the current matchmaking will be supported by quickplay functionality, ensuring you can reliably play with other players later in the year.
We're looking to bring back a crime-style server browser. I have literally nothing negative to say. This is it. This is exactly what we needed. two thumbs up, Honestly, okay, well, I can still find a way to disappoint myself. The wording here clearly states that the whole thing isn't being done at once, which is bad, but we get to enjoy part of it early, which is good aside from the awful progression.
The matchmaking is the thing hampering this game the most. The thing I have hated the most about this game is that I can't just cue for high-difficulty lobbies and public games since everything is so spread out you will never find anyone, and that's so demotivating. Also, sometimes I just don't care about what I play, so making me pick one is also demotivating.
Quick play alone solves both of these issues. This means that if I just want to hop on and play some public matches, I can do that. This should theoretically create a positive feedback loop, causing more people to stay in the game for longer. And guess what you like about Halo 3, the best game ever made?
Well, guess what we got? Party merging man How I have missed you! Look, I could sit here all day praising this loan. It's really what we needed and needed months ago, but I got to move on. Solo SL offline mode I'm not reading this because it's too long to pause if you want to see it. I don't think solo mode is as crucial as fixing core game design problems, but it is ultimately necessary for the longevity of this game.
Ensuring that you'll be able to play no matter if the servers are down or not is a pro-consumer move that gives everybody more confidence and especially benefits moderators. Unfortunately, this doesn't seem to do that. Sure, you'll be able to start matches locally, but your progression is still going to be tied to a server.
This is stupid. If you're going to give people offline mode, don't do it halfway; don't do it 75% of the way; go 100%. Your stupid ass. The cloud progression system has zero benefits. It has no reason to exist, no matter the situation; people have already been hacking it for months. Get this stupid [__] out of here; if people want to hack their saves, they're going to do it, and honestly, who cares?
This isn't Counter Strike; this isn't Call of Duty; we don't have millions of people who can click cops heads the fastest; if you want to do things right, then do them right, no have measures, okay? Sorry to end on a negative note there, but there's really not much else notable in the blog post they made look I know some of you are really excited for the innovative, unready button feature, and PayDay players will eat up absolutely anything, but I'm not going to sit here talking about the left-over sandwich crumbs and Amir's beard in this last part of the article.
I want to do some speculation, some theory crafting if you will, because as you've seen, there's a lot good coming, but this stuff does nothing in isolation; we have to know what's all coming with it. Now, in my very speculative, unintelligent opinion, I think they're planning to make March or April their months for the comeback tour.
