Remember the blog last month with the updated Skill 2.0 preview? You know, the one that had a survey attached to it. Well almost 1000 of you do since that’s how many responses we received, thanks for that!
The feedback that you gave through the survey has helped the team to better understand what you are looking for in the new system, and how we can best evolve it with time.
ːpd3ː 23 skills are changing as a result of this exercise
That’s right, your feedback alone has had a direct impact on 23 skills! These changes will be seen in the next update for Skills 2.0 (2.1?).
Skill | Old | New |
|---|---|---|
Human Resources (base) | For every 40 hostages you trade, including bonus hostages from other skills, gain 1 deployable bag from your current loadout. This does not include Sentry Turrets. | Your throwables do not affect hostages. |
Human Resources (aced) | For every 20 hostages you trade, including bonus hostages from other skills, gain 1 deployable bag from your current loadout. This does not include Sentry Turrets. | Your throwables do not affect any civilians. |
Electrical Interference (base) | While your ECM Jammer is active, enemies become stunned for 5 seconds after anyone in your crew shoots them. This does not apply to Dozers. | While your ECM Jammer is active, enemies become stunned for 5 seconds after anyone in your crew shoots them. |
Bounty Hunter (base) | Whenever you kill a marked special enemy with a Handgun, receive a bounty. Zapper: Restore one tool. Nader: Restore one throwable. Cloaker: Heal for 20% of your maximum health. Techie: Restore one broken armor chunk. Dozer: Restore one down. | Whenever you kill these marked special enemies with a Handgun, receive a bounty. Zapper: Restore one tool. Nader: Restore one throwable. Techie: Restore one broken armor layer. |
Bounty Hunter (aced) | Bounties from killing marked special enemies are doubled. | Add these marked special enemies to your bounty list. Cloaker: Heal for 20% of your maximum health. Dozer: Restore one down. |
SMGenius (base) | When you reload an empty magazine from your SMG, gain a buff that increases SMG damage by 5%, for 10 seconds. This buff can stack up to 10 times, and its duration refreshes when you reload another empty magazine from your SMG. Once the buff reaches its maximum stacks, it can no longer refresh and will expire after 10 seconds. | When you reload an empty magazine from your SMG, increase damage with SMGs by 8%. This buff can stack up to 5 times. Once the buff reaches its maximum stacks, it will expire after 10 seconds. |
SMGenius (aced) | The duration of this SMG damage bonus refreshes whenever you break an enemy’s armor layer. The buff now stacks up to 20 times. | The duration of this SMG damage bonus refreshes whenever you break an enemy’s armor layer. The buff now stacks up to 10 times. |
Pain Tolerance (base) | Any damage inflicted on your Adrenaline is reduced by 10% for each down you have suffered. You also gain 20 Adrenaline when you steal loose cash, perform a takedown, kill an enemy with a Throwing Knife, revive a crewmate, or when a crewmate uses your Medic Bag. You must be at full health to gain Adrenaline. | Any damage inflicted on your Adrenaline is reduced by 25%. You must be at full health to gain Adrenaline. |
Pain Tolerance (aced) | This skill counts half the points in the Pill Pusher line towards your number of downs. | While at full health, you gain 20 Adrenaline when you steal loose cash, perform a takedown, kill an enemy with a Throwing Knife, revive a crewmate, or when a crewmate uses your Medic Bag. |
Bastion (base) | Disengage from Zapper and Cloaker stun attacks.This ability has a 45 second cooldown. | Automatically deflect the Dozer’s melee and Bull Rush attacks. You also face no movement penalty from the Nader’s gas cloud. |
Bastion (aced) | Automatically deflect the Dozer’s Bull Rush attack and face no movement penalty from the Nader’s gas cloud. | Disengage from Zapper and Cloaker stun attacks. This ability has a 60 second cooldown. |
Focus Fire (base) | Each hit with an Assault Rifle or LMG grants a 2% accuracy boost until you reload, swap weapons, or miss a shot. | Each hit with an Assault Rifle or LMG boosts your accuracy by 2%, while each miss decreases it by 2%. This accuracy modifier resets when you reload or swap weapons. |
Focus Fire (aced) | This accuracy bonus no longer ends from missing a shot. Instead, the bonus decreases by 2% per shot missed. | Each hit with an Assault Rifle or LMG also boosts your stability by 3%, while each miss decreases it by 1%. |
Berserker (base) | While reloading a Shotgun, and for 1 second afterward, you take 50% less damage from enemies within 5 meters. | While reloading a Shotgun, and for 1 second afterward, you take 50% less damage from enemies within 8 meters. |
Berserker (aced) | Reload and fire Shotguns while sprinting. | Reload and fire Shotguns while sprinting. You now take 50% less damage for 2.5 seconds after reloading a Shotgun. |
Escape Artist (base) | If you become downed with any Smoke Grenades in your possession, deploy a Smoke Grenade instead and gain a fixed 100% chance to Dodge for 6 seconds. This ability refreshes after 120 seconds, and costs 1 down. No other modifiers affect this Dodge chance. It does not apply to fall damage or Zapper stuns. | If you become downed with any Smoke Grenades in your possession, deploy a Smoke Grenade instead and gain a fixed 100% chance to Dodge for 5 seconds. This ability refreshes after 180 seconds, and costs 1 down. No other modifiers affect this Dodge chance. It does not apply to fall damage or Zapper stuns. |
Playback (aced) | Spend one Runtime to make a hacked camera automatically mark all guards or law enforcement within range. Targets stay marked for 5 seconds after leaving the camera’s field of view. | Spend one Runtime to make a hacked camera automatically mark all guards or law enforcement within range. Targets stay marked for 12 seconds after leaving the camera’s field of view. |
Repair Job (base) | Perform a quick melee on your Sentry Turret to reduce its heat buildup by 5%. | Perform a quick melee on your Sentry Turret to reduce its heat buildup by 10%. |
Point Blank (base) | Shotguns deal 20% additional damage to enemies within 3 meters. | Shotguns deal 20% additional damage to enemies within 5 meters. |
There were a lot of strong patterns. Some indicated that even on paper there was a balance issue, some indications of skills being outright not valued, and a few where we saw we could ‘kill 2 birds with 1 stone’ by replacing functionality that was clearly being missed as is.
Take for example the ‘Human Resources’ skill. Whilst valued by some, there was a strong sentiment that there could be toxicity in crew members trading hostages at times where players would have conflicting interests. There was also a glaring sentiment that the Puppet Master tree as a whole lives and dies on players being able to keep hostages close by, and there were no skills to have that not be ruined by a carelessly thrown grenade.
Note that a number of skills were also changed prior to receiving your responses, so if you were expecting other skills not in this list to be changed, we might have already done so!
With that out of the way, let’s present some highlights from the survey so you get an idea of why we asked certain things.
To no one’s surprise the majority are playing on Overkill difficulty, with Very Hard coming in second. Meaning that of those who responded there is a clear winner on how you’d like your heists to go.
0-200 is the number of votes in percent, and 1-10 is the scale ranking of how much they enjoy the system.
Some reasons for the rating amongst players included:
A lack of build variety and specialization – Builds often felt the same, especially on higher difficulty. This also meant that players often cherry-picked the “best” skills and continued with that for all of their heists.
The Edge, Grit, and Rush System having issues – Players described the system as frustrating, boring, tedious, and restrictive. Many felt that they were forced to perform specific actions or take “must-have” skills to maintain these buffs.
Skills lack impact and excitement – Some skills felt too niche, filler, or too minor to have an effect on a player’s playstyle.
These are all items that we identified with the current system that we are now looking to change.
0-30 is the number of votes in percent, and 1-10 is the scale ranking of how much they feel about the new system.
Now this is great to see, as it would seem that many of you agree with the changes that we are making! Especially as you haven’t had the chance to even get your hands on the system yet,
As you may understand, we wanted to give you the opportunity to fully see Skills 2.0 and to provide feedback before it even released as it is important to us that we are evolving this system together with you as the player.
Overall, we’re hoping this new system will help players to better customize their builds which will shape each heist into something unique. It will also eliminate the need for players to grind one skill tree to unlock a specific skill, then feel burnt out to even bother testing any of the other skill trees.
You love your right to bear arms, as well as the idea of being able to protect yourself while doing so!
As mentioned previously, the feedback that was collected from this survey has helped us make changes to 23 skills alone. These improvements will be reflected in the next version of the system, so the one coming out in December will be the version that was seen with the blog post in October.
So get ready, as we now look forward to Skills 2.0 launching on the 2nd of December!
Overall, we’d like to thank all of those that took the time to respond to this survey! It helps us shape the game, and gives us valuable information about what you as the player are looking for. So keep your eyes open for future surveys, because we’ll continue to collect information in this way for all things PAYDAY!