Glaring Payday 3 communication flaw has players begging Starbreeze to make some changes

Payday 3’s voiceless pre-game lobby has players up in arms this week as, without a chance to talk strategy before a run begins, heists go in unplanned directions. Before players drop into their desired heist, there’s no way to plan their course of action beforehand.

This has gamers begging developer Starbreeze to add voice chat to pregame lobbies via a Sept. 21 Reddit thread. Without the ability to communicate before a match begins, players can’t determine what approach they’d like to apply to the heist.

Those who enjoy a stealthier endeavor are subject to the wills of whoever resides in their pregame lobby. Otherwise, assault rifle-wielding teammates shooting at civilians are likely to ruin your planned course of attack.

Players noted they “can’t even type” in their pregame lobbies, giving teammates no way of planning their heist in the five-minute phase. With multiple approaches available for aspiring thieves, this seems to make everything messy from the get-go, leading to a disappointing session as people inevitably split off and try to go it aloone.

A large portion of the Payday 3 community flamed developers for leaving such a vital detail out of the game. People also pointed to Payday 2’s planning system which provided a variety of methods for mapping out a heist—exactly what players are demanding now.

Players suggested using external “looking for group” Discord servers to find like-minded gamers, but this only adds a step for players who simply want to jump into matchmaking and play.

However, before a heist discussion can begin, players need to start a heist—which is proving difficult given the number of server issues occurring following the launch of Payday 3.

With the game’s server struggles, it seems most players are lucky enough to be playing at all. Server issues have plagued Payday 3’s first-day release as swarms of gamers flock to rob their first bank.

Despite being Steam’s top-selling title according to Steam Charts, as of publication, countless players have been left on the sidelines while servers are fluctuating on and offline. This has been an issue for PlayStation 5 players in particular, which has occurred multiple times throughout the early access period.

While Payday 3’s server fixes are on the way, many hoping for a fix to the lack of pre-game communication options will likely be waiting a lot longer.