Agents,
With our last update we rolled out one of the most significant gameplay changes yet: Suspicion. Our intent with the rollout of this feature was clear: We wanted to roll a significant change in a basic state to gather feedback and see what the overall feeling of the community is around it.
To help us gauge this reception, we made a poll available on the subject. Today, we want to look at the results with you and talk about where suspicion is going from there. Without further ado, let's look at the tally.
How do you feel about the Suspicion Mechanic
- It should be removed: 13.9%
- It should remain the way it is: 13.3%
- It should continue development: 72.8%
For the people that answered that it should continue development, the trends were pretty clear. (Multiple answers could be picked):
- Make a wider array of actions feed into the suspicion system 78.2%
- Make Suspicion build dynamic based on npc activity 71.1%
We also want to thank players that wish it would be removed for taking the time to tell us why they think so. Here are some of the overarching points coming from them:
- It punishes running away from fights too much.
- It feels too restrictive, fighting the sandbox appeal of the game
- Too punitive for doing the last vault terminal for instance, putting you at a disadvantage for reaching the vault.
- It feels very weird that it fills when no NPCs are around.
So, what’s next?
As you might have guessed from the results, Suspicion is staying, but it’s also going to evolve quite a bit starting with our next update. We are actively working on major changes to all aspects to make it a more robust system overall.
Feel Seen
Suspicion will no longer rise when no npc is around to see you. This will make suspicion feel more thematically appropriate but also add a whole new layer of using situations where you are not watched to move faster and slowing down when watched.
Jumping
A big chunk of feedback is that more elements should feed into the system. We will be adding jumping to the suspicion system starting next update. Like running, jumping will only generate suspicion if you are watched by a NPC doing it.
Additionally, suspicion will no longer build continuously when jumping from a running start. The suspicion bar will simply stay at its current level without decreasing instead of rising the entire time.
Playing the part
We want to actively reward players from playing the role of their npc correctly. To do so, we are adding a new system that will give you feedback on the state of your disguise. Players will be able to see that their NPC is currently scared or aggro-ed and will generate no suspicion during that time, allowing them to run like a npc would in this state.
This is something we want to expand further down the line to reward players fully leveraging their cover’s behavior.
Additionally, we are also working on changes to vault terminals that put the advantage more in the hands of whoever disabled them instead of being a disadvantage. While this is not directly related to suspicion, it’s meant to address the feedback we received on suspicion widening the negatives from disabling the last vault terminal.
A huge thanks to everyone that took the time to answer and give their feedback, we’ll be working hard to make suspicion a more interesting mechanic and we can’t wait to share more about our progress soon. See you all on the field!