Hey everyone,
As we’re headed toward the end of the season it’s a great time for a community update, starting with some upcoming changes to Deceit. Over the next few releases we’re going to be introducing a fresh perk tree, fixing up a few more hitches, and gradually phasing in some brand-new mechanics – topping it off with an additional item based on the Terror’s weakness to light.
It’s worth mentioning as a sort of disclaimer **this is a preview and only partially indicative of final gameplay**, some of this stuff may change though we’re pretty confident in how it’s working out in internal play testing.
Blackout changes
A prevailing thought in community feedback has been that the Terror doesn’t quite feel like the superhuman killing machine it was engineered to be. Our bogeyman may be at home in the dark but with defensive strategy from the opposing side it can be difficult to achieve much against the coordination and positioning innocent players often utilise. In the current version of Deceit, the blackout phase can be shortened by innocents collecting fuses, prematurely restarting the lights to force the Terrors back into their human form and ensure their own safety, but if they choose not to the lights just come back on anyway and their escape continues mostly unhindered.
Our next patch aims to shake this up a bit, introducing part one of our light and darkness gameplay changes: Unending Darkness. During the blackout, innocents can collect fuses and the infected can use their strength to transform, executing players as they did before but with one major change; if the test subjects choose not to complete the sinister Game Master’s objective, the Terror’s will gain strength from their time in the darkness, powering up into an early enrage period. This enrage period only ends if the fuses are placed inside the fuse box, bringing the lights back on and continuing the game as normal.
The goals for this change are to not only sharpen up the game thematically but to increase the value of each item as innocents will find their use crucial for fighting towards their objective and surviving in the darkness
Light changes
Alongside changes to the darkness in Deceit we’re going to be revamping the way that terrors interact with light; we’re removing the physical damage component caused by items such as the camera and trap and adding an entirely new stat: Light damage. Light damage will only affect terrors in terror form and works separately from their normal health, the more light damage inflicted on a terror the slower the terror will move, allowing innocents to make their escape. If a terror takes enough light damage they’ll be temporarily stunned and immune to receiving any further light damage until they’ve fully recovered so don’t stick around for long!
In line with the light changes we’re also tweaking the camera to have a clearer targeting reticule allowing users to see if the terror is in range and require a short charge up before use to reign in the so-called paparazzi plays.
Terror Luminescence
Rounding out our list of new mechanics, light damage also has a secondary effect called Terror Luminescence, when a terror takes light damage they’ll also light up making it easier for innocent players to coordinate in an attempt to bring them down. Once they’re back in the dark (or if they’re shot until they respawn) the glow gradually fades until they’re back to their normal stealthy look.
New Item: Flashlight
Marking the introduction of a horror movie classic, the flashlight will be a new source of light damage, projecting a cone of light which can be aimed at an incoming terror to help keep them at bay. In our current test build, as with the camera, it’s damage is based on range and increases the closer the terror is to the light source making for some hair raising escapes so long as it doesn’t run out of batteries…
Stay up to date!
Whether you’re itching to read the follow up post full of numbers and bullet points, can’t wait to see the latest videos from our staff talking about upcoming changes or want to share your favourite Deceit moments with us and the rest of our fans – be sure to stay up to date by following us on Twitter, Facebook and Twitch TV for all of the latest news.
Sam Hills
Community Manager