Payday 3 dev turns its sights to progression, now that servers have been fixed

It looks like Payday 3 is finally starting to turn a corner. After weeks of server instability that even had developer Starbreeze consider implementing an offline mode for solo players, things have finally started to stabilise.

Payday 3 has amassed 3 million players thanks to matchmaking fixes rolled out over the last few days, so it’s now time for Starbreeze to turn its attention to the other problem players have been having with the game.

Player progression in Payday 3 has been the topic of constant complaints from players. The main issue is what the system is designed to reward players for. Unlocking weapons, cosmetics and a lot of useful gear and items in the game is tied to completing challenges.

A lot of those are weapon-related, which favours a play style that goes against what Payday 3 wants to be. The main sticking point was how the progression system encourages players to ignore stealth, and really never care about finishing heists – if it means clearing a weapon challenge or two to get some unlocks. It didn’t help that the game doesn’t reward successful heists with XP, either.

Starbreeze initially said it doesn’t plan to make any changes to the system, and that it needed more data before acting on just feedback. You could imagine how hard that must have been when a lot of players couldn’t even get into matches – but the statement was nevertheless poorly received.

As spotted by MP1st, however, Starbreeze’s stance on the matter has changed. During a recent dev livestream, the developer explained that big changes are indeed in the works.

“What I can say today, is that we are working on some changes to progression and Infamy,” said lead producer Andreas Hall Penninger.

“We have been gathering feedback from you guys, so expect a bunch of changes in an upcoming patch,” he added, clarifying that it’s not going to be the game’s next major patch (currently planned for release in a matter of days).

“As soon as we’re happy with the changes that we’ve made – obviously, we need to make them and test them – so as soon as that’s done, we will communicate the changes we’ve made to progression.”

Patch 1 is set to bring a host of bug fixes to the game, with more details about the specific release time, and all the larger issues it addresses to follow.