PAYDAY 3: Blog Update #50 – Peer-to-Peer Playtest Retrospective

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]Hello Heisters![/p][p]Last weekend we hosted a public beta containing the Peer-to-Peer system, quality of life changes and some changes to gunplay. A lot of you chose to participate, so let’s have a look at what we’ve learned.[/p][p]In summary, we’re thrilled with the results, but see the need to make some improvements before we completely transition to peer-to-peer. Let’s look at the results together![/p][hr][/hr][h2]Statistics[/h2][p]We had mostly positive feedback across the board. Let’s look at the graphs![/p][p]
This is a high priority for us, and you. So having only 9.1% reporting worse ping is a great starting point. We’ll do what we can to ensure these instances are as few as possible.[/p][hr][/hr][p]This one is also great. We want there to be as much green or yellow on this one as possible.[/p][hr][/hr][p]Also great, while this one is hard to measure anecdotally and over a weekend, these responses give us confidence that there are no major issues.[/p][p]That is great! We’re very happy with those numbers, but see that we have a few items we have to polish before the feature goes fully live. [/p][hr][/hr][h2]Data[/h2][p]We also tracked some general statistics about participation and connection quality:[/p]

[p]Connections within the same country generally showed excellent performance, typically staying under 30ms.[/p]
[p]Connections within the same region or continent showed acceptable ping at between 50-150ms [/p]
[p]Going between continents saw worse performance. Asia Pacific to the Americas averaged about 250ms, and went higher the further the connection went.[/p]

[p]Not bad! Obviously, the longer the distance in connection the higher the ping, but that’s something we are looking to mitigate. [/p][hr][/hr][h2]Positives[/h2][p]Two questions had free-text fields, even though the questions differed, “Did you notice any gameplay that felt different on P2P?” and “Did you experience any new defects with the enemies?”, we’ve bundled the top recurring answers together for the purposes of this blog.[/p][h3]Performance[/h3]

[p]Most mentioned on the positive side were, by far, that you experienced the game as significantly smoother, more responsive. With less occurrences of lag, stuttering and rubberbanding, and less latency on interactions.[/p]

[h3]Loading Times[/h3]

[p]A good amount of people experienced considerably improved loading times when creating lobbies or loading in to games.[/p]

[h3]Quality of Life Changes[/h3]

[p]Lockpicking and safecracking received resounding praise, many saying it felt both faster and more satisfying than before.[/p]
[p]Hitmarkers also got positive feedback, mentioning color-coding and audio feedback feeling rewarding.[/p]
[p]The removal of WiFi circles was overwhelmingly positively received.[/p]

[h3]Enemies and Gunplay[/h3]

[p]Many reported guns feeling better, with enemies feeling more responsive, aggressive or alert. Some noted that the new enemy “intelligence” made the game harder.[/p]
[p]Movement was generally reported as feeling smoother.[/p]

[hr][/hr][p]We’re very pleased with these results. We saw more positive feedback than negative by far, showing us that we’re moving in the right direction. [/p][p]Peer-to-peer will still be included in a future update, but will keep the game primarily running on servers until we can be certain the feature won’t give players a worse experience than they have today. We’ll be able to switch the P2P feature on or off from our end, enabling us to run tests in the “live” game, we’ll announce any such tests ahead of time and provide a feedback form for those who choose to participate.[/p][p]Speaking of, a huge thank you to everyone who participated in the peer-to-peer playtest. Your participation makes all the difference![/p]