Since launching earlier this year, Friday the 13th: The Game has seen a great deal of popularity - but also controversy. The release of Dead Alliance by the game's developers made fans worried that Illfonic were no longer working on the many bugs and issues still affecting the fun but under-polished game.
Well, we're pleased to say that the worries were unfounded, at least for now, as the notes for the next patch for the game have been shown off and Illfonic will be countering that biggest of annoyances: team killing.
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It's bad enough that the (still) slightly weird controls causes you to get shot or "accidentally" shoot a fellow camp counselor, but recently teamkillers have been cropping up more and more, players who purposely join Jason in murdering their fellow survivors. Kotaku did a big feature about it. These players either can't be bothered to wait to play Jason (with only a 1 in 8 chance to get chosen as Voorhees we understand), have reached Level 50 and are looking for new things to do, or are just bored with the game. At only three maps and with a set amount of things to do, it's understandable.
Gun Media and Illfonic previously had no intention of removing team killing, but obviously they've changed their minds. The patch notes now straight-up say that in public matches, team killing is no longer possible. The only exception is with cars, and that's only because invincible players in beta testing would stand in front of cars and stop players escaping. Man, people are dicks in Friday the 13th, am I right? Team-killing will still be allowed in private matches, and player traps will now hurt players but not kill them.
Gun Media commented on the situation:
"Our team believes that the ability to hurt other counselors is something that this game should have as it adds tension and requires players to make tough calls. However, we do not believe this should be a mechanic that is abused by players to the point where the vast majority of our current communications from fans are complaints of rampant/unwarranted team-killing/griefing/trolling...
While the mechanic’s intent is designed to promote life-or-death experiences into each and every game you play, the reality has turned into more of a Battle Royale scenario to a point our team feels a change needs to be made."
However, there are player concerns about this rather sweeping change, as a quick glance down the comments on the patch announcement reveals. Clearly griefers are going to start messing with players other ways, such as picking up essential items and refusing to use them, or blocking players from leaving buildings using their new-found invincibility. They have essentially made trolls unkillable, after all. Guess we'll see how this goes. No word yet on when this patch will drop, but expect it to be soon.