Introduction to the End Transmission Chapter
Last week, the upcoming End Transmission Chapter was released in the Public Test Build (PTB). Since then, we have been closely monitoring your feedback. We were pleased to see that many of you are enjoying the new content, but we have also identified some weaknesses that we want to address before the chapter's release on June 13th.
In this post, we want to share our findings and introduce the changes that you can expect in the update.
The Singularity
First up, let's talk about the new killer, The Singularity. This AI-controlled android deploys Biopods across the map, which not only provide surveillance of the area, but also add a Temporal Slipstream to survivors, allowing The Singularity to teleport to them. Survivors can fight back with EMPs scattered throughout the map, which remove Temporal Slipstreams and temporarily disable Biopods.
We found that while EMPs were effective against The Singularity's abilities, too many of them caused frustrating matches for the killer. Many felt that their Biopods were being disabled too often and survivors almost always had an EMP at the ready.
To keep EMPs meaningful for survivors, we are instead reducing the number of available EMPs through the following changes:
- Reducing the number of Supply Boxes to 5 (previously 7).
- Supply Boxes now take 90 seconds to passively print an EMP (previously 80 seconds). Interacting with the Supply Box will print an EMP four times faster.
In addition, survivors currently holding an EMP will no longer see the auras of Supply Boxes to reduce visual clutter and make chaining EMPs more difficult.
We also received feedback that it was unclear when Biopods were disabled. In the PTB, the only way to tell was through the color of the crosshairs. To make this clearer, we have reworked the visualizations:
The Executioner
During the PTB, we made a change that allowed The Executioner's Punishment of the Damned attack to inflict Torment. The goal of this change was to give the killer more options to consistently apply Torment to cautious survivors.
While this had the desired effect and spread more Torment, there were concerns about camping and tunneling. Since Punishment of the Damned can hit multiple survivors and an unhook leaves both survivors open to unavoidable Torment, we have decided to revert this change for now. We may revisit The Executioner's Torment in a future update.
Perks
Scavenger
We received a lot of feedback about Gabriel Soma's Scavenger perk. This perk allows for replenishing charges of a toolbox by hitting Great Skill Checks and guarantees a toolbox when rummaging through an open chest.
Many expressed concerns about how powerful this effect can be when combined with a strong toolbox. For release, we have made some changes to this perk to make it less attractive:
- Increasing the number of required Great Skill Checks to 5 (previously 4).
- After activation, generator repair speed is reduced by 50% for 40/35/30 seconds.
- Scavenger can now be used more than once per trial.
With these adjustments, Scavenger is more effective when used to repair generators in quick succession, but strongly discourages continuous repair of a generator after activation.
Machine Learning
This perk allows the killer to compromise a generator by kicking it. When the compromised generator is activated, the killer gains Haste for a period of time.
Since some generators will inevitably be activated, we want to add a risk to completing a recently damaged generator with this perk. For release, we have increased the Haste effect to 10% (previously 7%). In practice, this means a killer will catch up to a sprinting survivor 66% faster!
Forced Hesitation
Forced Hesitation prevents nearby survivors from moving when a survivor is put into the dying state.
In the PTB, this perk had fairly safe values to ensure it didn't get out of control. After further consideration, we've decided to give the perk some love before release:
- Increasing the Hindered effect to 20% (previously 15%).
- Reducing the cooldown to 40/35/30 seconds (previously 60/50/40 seconds).
This makes Forced Hesitation very risky for nearby survivors when a survivor is put into the dying state.
We want to thank everyone who took the time to give feedback on the PTB. You can expect all of these adjustments when the End Transmission Chapter releases on June 13th. As always, we'll be keeping an eye on your feedback once these changes go live.
Until next time...
The Dead by Daylight Team
PS: Don't forget to grab your Dead by Daylight - End Transmission Chapter Key from Keyfuchs!
