This Game is Awesome, but...
Just wanted to air some thoughts and some observations regarding this game after playing for a few years.
Praise:
I love this game.
It's unique in that there is no other game currently that delivers both on concept and competitiveness.
I'm a big fan of old horror movies, and every match I partake in feels like those movies, except, that I have some influence on the outcome.
Content is not strictly limited to the unique IP generated for the game, but actually branches into established horror characters portrayed in outside movies/series/other games.
Grievances:
This game has been out for 3.5 years and still cannot run faster than 30 fps on anything other than P.C. and playing on P.C. means long wait queues, I know this is somewhere on the development timeline, but I would think this would be prioritized directly behind stability/bug fixes, but I'm not a designer/engineer, so what do I know?
Some maps completely nullify some killers and create situations where playing an archetype is miserable (i.e. Ghost Face and Corn Fields. Nurse on Hawkins.)
Some Killers are just not viable at higher ranks without crutch perks (namely ruin)
I know mobile is the new trend for games (don't you guys have phones!?), but this is not a game you play on the bus on your way to work. You need 10 - 30 minutes to dedicate to a game, surround sound, adequate lighting (meaning diminished to no sunlight, this is a dark game), and the ability to pan the camera if you're survivor, I couldn't imagine playing this game on an ipad, much less some kind of cellular device. I feel like the platforms it is currently on are the best possible platforms for playing the game and going mobile is just a dedication of resources to making a much worse version of the game (just my opinion of course)
Suggestions:
I think some of the lopsidedness/balance issues can be rounded out with an addition/redistribution of RNG and a few design changes.
How cool would it be if there was a rare-spawn map that favored survivor/killer? imagine a map full of lit totems that could make totem hunters cringe or a shipping yard with pallets everywhere?
Every Trial is an adventure and most adventures have treasure. What if every chest had a minimal chance (like maybe %.1 chance) to contain some sweet cosmetic or re-skin of an existing tool (first aid skins/toolbox skins) to show off. This might in fact make the trials seem like less of a trial and more of a raid. For killers, maybe there can be an equivalent event to proc an item discovery (maybe sac'ing survivors?)
I loved that leather face could wear the survivors' faces after hooking them X amount of times, It would be so cool if that idea was expanded to other killers.
I like that survivor items are all disposable, but I think it would be awesome if there was a Legend-rarity item/artifact that would act as a half item and wouldn't be lost with the trial. This would make it possible for Survivors to carry 1 and 1/2 items, or maybe make it a third attachment for an item.
Some grey/brown tier items for killers should just be stock on those killers. The two that come to mind are the moldy electrode on Doc and straps for Piggy,
I don't think it would break either of these characters and it would in fact be a welcome buff.
It feels like Legion is half a killer at the moment, and that there is a missing half to them. For this rework there were two ideas.
A. Feral Frenzy behaves normally unless every other survivor has the deep wound status in which case the last survivor to take a deep wound is instantly downed.
B. Keep legion as is, but give them a charge bar where if after 50 seconds of not stabbing anyone, their rage is channeled into their blade (it glows red btw, so survivors know), they lose sight of scratchmarks and the next person they stab (frenzy or not) is insta-downed. This feels unbalanced now that I've put the idea in writing, but I'd be interested to know what others think.
Ruin Re-work idea:
There is a general theme of dark and light in this game. It's subtle but it's there.
I feel like Hex Ruin is almost necessary at high tier as it buys the killer enough time to try to get ahead of SWF survivor Gen progress.
What if rather than ruin being a dedicated hex perk, it was more an integral part of the entity's presence, so every killer has Ruin, and it's not tied to a totem but rather to the darkness present in the trial.
Basically, Ruin is the darkness that looms over the trial grounds, but as gens are completed Ruin's effect gets weaker and eventually dissipates altogether. So maybe 5 incomplete gens means that ruin is in effect at tier 3, with 1 gen dropping to tier 2, 2 gens dropping to tier 1 and 3 gens completed removing ruin altogether.
In effect, survivors start in a very dark place where the killer has maximum power, but as gens are completed and the darkness gives way to light, the killer gets slightly weaker and escape is more likely.
I think this mode is more balanced than games that hinge on your totem placement rolls. I can see backlash from survivor mains, but I would counter that I've seen games where survivor's ignore ruin altogether and can still gen rush effectively. This would also serve to mitigate some of the advantage granted by SWF chat (maybe not completely, but it would be a step in the right direction)
That's it,
Peace