Hello Test Subjects!
As we talked about in our last post, we’re building a major gameplay update for Deceit based on all of your games and feedback since our December update.
Last weekend we ran our first beta: thank you to everyone who joined us in playing on the test servers and filled out our feedback survey! If you were unable to make it, a list of the patch notes can be found here.
We had set a goal of achieving 70%+ positive or neutral player feedback before we’ll be happy to move forward with pushing these changes into live. The results of the survey showed that we achieved this with 72% of players responding positive or neutral to the overall beta changes. This also correlates with the end of game ‘smiley face’ survey of which 79% of responses were rated at least 3 out of 5.
The Next Beta
We’re very happy with the positive feedback, but we’ve also looked through many suggested improvements, and we have a few more changes we think are worth testing before we release everything into live. This means we’ll be running one more beta since we want to make sure nothing is rushed into the live game. We are working on the following areas for the second beta (though some may be subject to change):
Generators
There were many concerned comments about being locked into looking at a generator whilst it is being taken. In the second beta we will introduce an interactive animation for turning on a generator (similarly to opening the escape door), to make this feel smoother. In addition to this, we’re going to investigate allowing you to look around a limited amount whilst you are performing this interaction.
Secondly, there was a balancing problem in this beta where Terrors were often able to camp the last two generators that the innocents are trying to take to complete the night period. We’ll be addressing this twofold: tweaking the positioning of vents and generators to improve the map design to make the terrors weaker in this case, and adding one additional generator on the ground floor, so the terrors will have to defend three generators before the first night period ends.
Running To The Next Floor
One of the most common pieces of feedback we get from people who miss the classic game mode is the immersion of running to the next floor after a night period is over. For the next beta, we’ll be adding in a new transition feature that mixes the old with the new. Once the night period ends, terrors will be de-transformed and the gas will start. Players won’t be able to talk and will still be in their ghost character form. All players must then run to an escape door for that area which will, when entered, transition them to a linked entrance door on the next floor. If a player takes too long to move to the next floor, the gas will knock them out and they’ll automatically spawn at one of the entrance doors in the next area.
In addition to this, if all of the terrors are eliminated before the end of the first or second night, the escape door on that floor will end the game and the innocents will win there, instead of having to proceed to the very end of the game.
Terror Abilities
With the changes to combat that have been made in the first beta, the Yeti and Vampire’s abilities need to be reworked to be aligned with the new combat system. Please note: these are still very early in development and highly subject to change.
‘Frozen Fury’ gives the Yeti a damage shield that decays over a period of time. Note: this shield is strong enough to stop the Yeti from being downed by a trap.
‘Swarm’ throws out a bat which marks a spot on the map for a period of time. Whilst the marker is still active, the vampire has a slight movement speed buff, and re-activating ‘Swarm’ will teleport you back to that spot on the map.
Terror Senses
The current terror ESP outline system interferes with the day time gunplay too much. We are going to improve the visuals and re-work the “making noise” system for the next beta.
Blood
We think that we can improve the visual clarity of the blood bar, and of the blood bags in the map for the benefit of new players. We are also investigating ways that we can make the blood system work better when you are the last infected player left alive (e.g. a buff if you collect enough blood for two executions).
Objectives
There was mixed feedback on the change to the lethal injection (to be on a single-player objective). We want to test this more, since we have seen it introduce some very engaging gameplay. We are looking to introduce shoot-to-disable on crates (similar to the way you could shoot the levers in the classic game mode).
And of course, in addition to all of these updates above there will be a variety of miscellaneous polish, bug fixes, balancing changes, further performance optimisations, and a new first person pistol animation set. We’ll also be adding The Forest to the map rotation, which will include various lighting improvements.
Want to take part? Similarly to the first, the second beta will run 2 play sessions as follows:
Friday 4th June - 8-11pm BST
Saturday 5th June - 12-3pm BST
Be sure to keep an eye on our socials where we’ll be posting more information between now and then!