After a lot of complaints and brainstorming, Payday 3’s developers changed their minds on the progression system.
Payday 3 had a rough start with some problems such as not being able to connect to any game servers, not being able to play solo to grind for gears, and a totally questionable progression system that left players’ minds with question marks. To recap quickly about the progression system, it only required players to finish certain tasks within a heist instead of being rewarded with EXP when the heist ended. Ultimately, this decision made the whole heist and cooperative play completely redundant.
Even though the developers, the Starbreeze Studios, stated in their live stream on the 25th of September that they will never back out from the progression system, seems like they have changed their minds. After a week-long play testing and feedback from actual players revealed that most of the planned progression for Payday 3 is not that great, and it heavily relied on factors that are far away from the code of Payday.
Thankfully, the lead producer, Andreas Penninger said they have heard the outcry from the community and working on making the system better and more suitable for the game. Although it has been confirmed, it is uncertain which sort of changes will be affecting Payday 3’s own progression system. Some believe it is returning back to the roots with the payment and leveling up at the end of the heist, some believe it is a mix of both.
For the time being, the community is happy with the current state of Payday 3. Back when it was launched on the 21st of September, the feedback was mostly negative and people realized the hyped title was not much worth the price tag. However, now that both the server issues are fixed and Starbreeze is looking for a change in how players are rewarded, it shows how crucial and important it is to listen to your player base and act upon their wishes.