Operation Medic Bag: Blog Update #16 – Solo Mode, Double Cash, and Donuts
Hello Heisters!
This week, we’ll go into a bit of detail on the upcoming solo mode feature. We’ve previously mentioned it, but the information is split between blogs, livestream snippets, and FAQ comments. So, let’s collect our thoughts and posts in one place and explain what we’re doing and what we hope this feature will accomplish, as well as how we imagine the v2 of the feature will look later on.
To begin with, “What the heck is Solo Mode?” [deep breath] Some time during the launch campaign of PAYDAY 3, we announced the game would be online only. The community was right in lacking enthusiasm for this decision because at launch we had massive server issues, making the game unplayable for large periods of time, understandably souring people’s perception of our online solution. We were ill-prepared and a hard lesson was learned.
This leads us to what we do to remedy this problem. Back in February, we put out the entirety of the Operation Medic Bag plan. It included both Solo and Offline modes as features that are to be implemented as part of the initiative. Solo mode is a required first step to take for Offline Mode’s features, so this is where we begin!
Going It Alone
Given the size of this feature, we decided to split it into two steps (at least). The first step is Solo Mode (beta). What it does is skip the matchmaking step, meaning you’ll still have to log in and have access to the internet, but only for the initial identification and start up.
What we’re actually testing is how the game runs on your computer instead of on our servers—aka without going through or being partially hosted by the matchmaking. As the name suggests, you will be unable to play coop or match with other players using Solo Mode.
Now, this is a beta because we know how important this feature will be for a lot of people, so we want to make sure we’re doing our due diligence in getting feedback and resolving major issues during this period. We’re obviously testing this feature as we’re building upon it, but we know that wider testing will expose the feature to more setups, systems, and scenarios, so if you encounter any issues when testing the beta, please let us know so we can continue to improve it.
You’re probably wondering when this feature will be available, and that’s a valid question. We aim for this feature to come after Boys in Blue, and will only be available to Steam players for now during beta. We expect this beta phase to last approximately two weeks, but of course this will be extended as needed to ensure there are no critical issues.
Offline Mode is later down the line and we will cover it in a future blog but for now Solo Mode is an important and necessary step for us to implement first, and the feedback we gather from this phase will be valuable for it.
That’s Not the Hole Blog
If you missed it earlier today, we put a short video out to you all today. It’s a fun one that our Creative Team had a lot of fun making, so we hope you’ll enjoy it.
Happy National Doughnut Day!
Mo’ Money, No Problems
Finally, starting today, we will be running a Double Cash weekend! As many of you know, the first Friday of each month is Community Day, hosted by one of our friends in the community, pdLucky. To help support this fun initiative, we’re going to try a few different things to extend this from our side.
We don’t want to take any credit away from Lucky and the crew, who have been such champs at running the Community Days.
The Double Cash weekend runs from Friday 7th 15:00 CEST – Monday 10th 10:00 CEST.
We hope you have a really great weekend, heisters!
