Alright, so yesterday I was messing around with the Payday 3 beta, trying to get a private lobby going with my buddies. It wasn’t exactly smooth sailing, so I figured I’d share what I learned. Maybe it’ll save someone else some headaches.
First off, I jumped into the game, expecting a simple “create private lobby” button. Nope. Didn’t see anything obvious. So, I started clicking around like a madman in the main menu. Went into settings, checked the social tab, nada. I was starting to think private lobbies weren’t even a thing in this beta.
Then, I figured maybe it’s during the heist selection process. So, I hit “Play” and started browsing the available heists. Still nothing that screamed “private.” I was about to give up, but then I noticed a small, almost hidden, option at the bottom of the screen. It said something like “Matchmaking: Public.” Clicked that sucker.
Boom! A dropdown menu appeared, giving me the option to switch to “Friends Only.” Awesome, progress! I selected that, and it seemed like I was finally getting somewhere. I started the heist, hoping my friends could join me. But how?
This is where it got a little clunky. There wasn’t an invite button in-game that I could find. I ended up having to tell my friends to go to the heist selection screen, switch their matchmaking to “Friends Only” as well, and then look for my lobby. It wasn’t intuitive at all.
After a bit of fiddling, they finally saw my lobby and joined. We were in! Finally, a private heist with the crew. The actual heist went off without a hitch, but getting the lobby set up was a pain.
Here’s the breakdown of what I did, step-by-step:
- Launch Payday 3 Beta.
- Go to the heist selection screen.
- Look for the “Matchmaking: Public” option (it’s small and easy to miss).
- Click it and change to “Friends Only.”
- Start the heist.
- Tell your friends to do the same steps, and have them look for your lobby in the heist selection screen.
It’s not the cleanest system, and I’m hoping they streamline it in the final release. But hey, at least we got our private lobby going. Hopefully, this helps you do the same!
