PAYDAY 2/RAID/OVERKILL's The Walking Dead v14: Safehouse RAIDed
148 replies, posted
Costs associated to making the console version are like the primary reason they're struggling, the licensing alone was obscene. Shouldn't have even tried in the first place
Looks to be a delay and not a cancellation entirely
https://twitter.com/505_Games/status/1098355375290675200
Man, in light of the recent trashfire at Starbreeze the last pic you posted really hits hard, dude :/
Hopefully we'll still get our paydaythree
Starbreeze is restructuring so it maybe a while before we get Payday 3
and the walking dead game is dead
https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/the-walking-dead-creators-kill-overkills-the-walking-dead-game-1203150365/
they really can't catch a break
I honestly feel bad for Rob Kirkman. He hyped the game so much, he was genuinely really excited for it.
I really do think the game itself was alright, I blame the licensing costs for the IP and console editions they wanted to make. The numbers I saw were obscene as hell. Wonder if that has anything to do with the reasoning for Walking Dead having a history of having games made by devs that died during/after?
I think this was a case of being too married to the Walking Dead, they probably should've tried to come up with a new IP. Shame we'll likely not see that weird chinese counter-strike connected payday-with-swat game and any other formula clones they had in mind.
Somebody remind me what happened with Valhalla. I remember they acquired an engine that made it seem like it'd be useful for future projects, but then it seems like they didn't use it for anything?
I think the extent of our knowledge is that they were going to use it for TWD then ended up using Unreal
I believe it turned out they were sold a bill of goods. The actual engine was basically non-functional when they got it.
based on the long interview that was posted by eurogamer i think? it dident even came with an import asset button / functionality
store page is gone. RIP
My understanding iirc was that Valhalla did some new and potentially very appealing things specifically with the asset pipeline. However, that set of asset/rendering functions were the sum of its parts. It basically wasn't built out as a game engine at all.
https://www.starbreeze.com/2015/07/starbreeze-completes-valhalla-acquisition/
The situation, like a lot of things at Starbreeze, reads like Bo Andersson saying yes to someone's pitch with no consideration for the ramifications on several scales of operations.
Wish I had bought it before it was pulled
From what I remember, the asset pipeline was the best part about it. Super easy to work with in that sense. The rest? Well, they switched to Unreal in the end, so, yknow.
This render of Bodhi, which was used for promotional artwork, was done with Valhalla.
https://i.imgur.com/SokdwYI.png
You can still probably get it from one of those sites that sells Steam keys. I would've gotten it if they ever sold it under 20$.
I am pleased to announce the release of the Crackdown Maximum Force Update!
http://crackdownmod.com/
This update brings with it the complete balancing of all enemy units on all difficulties, including hand-tailored spawngroups, damage, AI tactics, health, and much more. The update also brings with it new and improved visual assets for many enemies, enhanced enemy speech behaviors, and a large number of other bugfixes and quality of life improvements. I'm heavily indebted to the entire team, especially EvilBobarino, who did the lion's share of asset work this time around.
A full changelog and direct download is available at the release page.
The game should now be infinitely more enjoyable and balanced across every difficulty. Our testers are enjoying runs on Overkill, even! If you've hung up your mask over the end of support and late game balance issues, this is a good opportunity to come back to payday 2 and give it another chance.
I am also pleased to announce our new Crackdown Development Roadmap. Taking a cue from such incredibly successful projects as Deep Rock Galactic and Overkill's The Walking Dead, we've now got a site to roughly show what we've done so far, and what we've got in the hopper.
I'd be happy to answer questions from y'all about all the hard work that's gone into the mod at this point. We've also gained a lot of inside info about the good and bad of how Payday 2's set up; I'm happy to answer questions about that, too (though some things must remain secret).
I'm going to post some faction profile materials that got scrapped. I don't want all this beautiful fluff I wrote to go to waste.
DC Police (Normal & Hard)
We hand-tooled all their stats and behavior, but the beat police visuals are unchanged, so no fancy promo image.
"Underprepared and uncoordinated, DC's finest are used to helping tourists, not fighting a criminal gang with military tech and training. DC police will usually charge you head on one at a time, only rarely forming improvised groups. Don't underestimate them, though- their weapons still pack a punch, and a nearby police medic may give them a second chance to land that one critical shot."
Like the fancy PR material says, most police enemies spawn one at a time and rush the player. They can spawn in teams, but even there, they're pretty uncoordinated. The big example of this is a group that is a Medic and three other police- but the police all have pistols, and the Medic is the leader out in front. I should note that we did tailor stats for all the police units for every difficulty, to handle scripted spawns. This avoids the base game problem where on Mayhem and up, shotgun cops are suddenly dealing 500 damage and bronco cops are topping 100 damage at any range.
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/237422/8708422c-8856-462d-ac6e-7a0fefcb1f04/SWATHeavyARShield.png
SWAT (Normal & Hard)
Nobody liked the old yellow, blue and white "heavy SWAT", so EvilBobarino gave it a great new coat of paint and a better helmet. Light SWAT units are unchanged, though the Medic has slight palette variances depending on what faction you're fighting.
"DC's SWAT teams serve as first line response to protests and riot events, as well as to stop violent crime. The "blues and whites" will move in with coordinated groups, pushing forward behind shields when they are available, and occasionally attempting to flank their targets. SWAT will also send in tasers in an attempt to incapacitate isolated criminals, and deploy medics with their reconnaissance teams."
The lowest tier of SWAT have AI that is only a bit smarter than Payday 2's. On the other hand, we balanced out their spawns so that there are more heavies and tasers, and they can spawn with Medics, so even the easiest difficulties aren't a total cakewalk.
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/237422/8baa88d5-3e72-4157-b27d-7dc0af3f7451/FBIHeavyAR.png
FBI (Very Hard & Overkill)
Most FBI assets were just fine, but we wanted to bring back the classic helmet shattering from Payday the Heist, so tans got an upgrade.
"DC is the FBI's home turf, and they're not going to give it up lightly - the FBI offers more coordinated, diverse opposition than local law enforcement. The FBI will deploy a full range of shields, cloakers, tasers, medics and bulldozers medics, who can be embedded with conventional FBI forces. FBI Heavy Response units, the "greens", will also stack up behind the tan Maximum Force Response units, who wear bulletproof torso armor. FBI units will attack from every angle and range, so stay on your toes."
FBI units start to deploy with the full range of conventional tactics, like flanking and long range groups, and are actually competent to move in full groups with heavy units taking the lead. They're more of a threat than enemies from the base game's overkill difficulty, while being a lot less spammy; which is exactly what we were aiming for.
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/237422/ae6a9a2a-fe0d-433f-a0fa-688745a92aa9/GensecHeavyShot.png
Gensec Elites (Mayhem & Death Wish)
It's really hard to make a faction stand out when their palette is grey camo. EvilBobarino did an incredible job making the Gensecs look less like a series of blobs. Since the Gensec are capitalist scum, we had a small contest for people to design advertisements to stick on Gensec armor. The Gensec Shield is practically a billboard.
"The best security forces corrupt law enforcement privatization budgets can buy, the Gensec Elites are a whole new level of crony capitalist crimestopper. Don't let the embedded advertising and logos fool you- Gensec elites hit harder and work smarter than even the FBI. In particular these corporate goons have thought outside the "embedded special unit" paradigm. Instead, Gensec special units deploy in dedicated teams, with specialized, reactive tactics that attempt to pinch or draw out the payday gang."
The Gensec squads are the first ones to use a sort of "break and enfold" tactic logic, whereby if the leading units are killed, followers will split off and flank the target. They also start to have really nasty special combos, like White Paladin, a Dozer that hides behind a shield, followed by a pocket Medic.
https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/237422/fd3f6b35-0225-488a-b8b2-3ba4333c2565/Promo1.png
ZEAL (Crackdown difficulty)
A sample of the endgame enemies we added at launch. The ZEAL units were originally made by interns; the replacement assets in patch 183 were, in some ways, even worse. We cleaned them up and did everything we could to improve enemy recognition, which is crucial on Crackdown. Not shown: the new Grenadier enemy, appearing courtesy of Restoration Mod.
"No one knows where they come from, and no one knows where they go. The ZEAL are a mysterious paramilitary force that will challenge even the most hardened heister. Every member of the ZEAL force, from the explosive-resistant Z-Dozers to the supercharged ZEAL Tasers, is loaded with new tricks, equipment and tactics designed to wipe out the Payday team. Even Zeal Medics are packing armor-piercing magnums! ZEAL special teams border on the sadistic, forcing players out of defensive zones and into ambushes, flanking and ambushing players even in between assault waves. Regular Zulu forces move faster, hit harder, dodge more, and are unnaturally resistant to coercion. Maybe they aren't even human..."
Many Zeal enemies have unique, qualitative changes intended to defeat overly cheesy strategies. For example, heavy Zeal enemies are now very difficult to convert, Cloakers will kick the last player standing, and Bulldozers have really amped up explosive resistance. This is where we put the spawngroups that are closest to "dick moves", though a coordinated team can still beat them reliably. The most infamous of these is probably Styx: instead of being an innovative prog rock band, a group of four freaking cloakers can spawn in between assault waves to nail players trying to recover.
Good to see even in their dying breaths that Overkill still has it in them to pull out another April Fools joke.
I thought Almir had quit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oc0MpTGaWI&t=0s
While there's some new attention, here's something that's not an April Fool's joke:
The Crackdown Rebalance Roadmap is now public:
http://tinyurl.com/CrackdownRoadmap
This document describes every planned change to the optional "heavy" rebalance of player side mechanics in Payday 2.
We've gotten an experienced game balance modder to come in and propose a rebalance that significantly adjusts almost all player systems- not to change Payday 2 gameplay, but to enhance and preserve its underlying strengths. This is a google document with pretty much every planned change we're looking at for the heavier version of our player side rebalance. The Roadmap and all related, internally linked documents have comments enabled.
Please, please please click the link, read the document, and give us feedback on the player side balance. We're desperate for feedback on a rebalance that's been more than a year in the making. I am happy to pass any questions you have along to the lead designer on this part of the mod.
Absolutely wonderul, more focused skills is something I've been wanting in PD2 for long. Rename Mercenary into Charmer.
This is looking super promising. I really like the idea of ammo pickups being shared, and the rebalances all look interesting.
I'm not really good at interpreting stats as far as armours go, so forgive me if this is obvious, but are you going to somehow make all the armours worthwhile? In the base game your options are essentially Suit, LBV and ICTV, and you mentioned buffing the Flak Jacket in the Armours Doc, but are you going to be addressing other armours like the CTV or the other Ballistic Vests?
As a side note, would you consider having one of the grenade options be able to be shot out of the air by design? Maybe the dynamite or something. It's pretty fun to toss a grenade and shoot it yourself in midair, since it's a bit quicker and feels cool, so long as the cops don't shoot it before you do.
Thanks for your comments! To clarify, I'm not the author of this document, I was approached by an experienced game design personguy, Kith, who tackled it and is taking a well-earned vacation while feedback and comments accrue.
I will try to pass your feedback along, but the strongest way to get it in is to put comments on the document itself.
On armors:
The armor doc is here. My understanding is this tries to semi-equalize the utility of the armors, but we're going to have to keep tweaking values to try to make it work. The dodge-armor gap is a very unpleasant thing to try to bridge.
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