An elegant Solo vs SWF balance fix. DEVs please read
SWF has become a headache not only for killer mains, solo survivor players like me suffer from it too. SWF teams on comms are so much more powerful than a team of solo players, that the DEVs had no chance but to start balancing the game more around SWF so that solo survivor gemeplay is in a terrible state now. And no matter if the game is balanced around SWF or solo, someone will always suffer, until the huge gap between solo and SWF is closed.
Why we can't simply nerf SWF
Those who thought about the SWF problem are aware already, that we can't directly nerf SWF without nerfing solo by the same amount, since we can't directly target SWF communication, that happens OUTSIDE of the game. So, the only logical way to fix the Solo-SWF gap is to buff Solo gameplay by giving solo survivors information that SWF players have ANYWAY. This will buff mostly solo, but it will also slightly buff SWF, so at the end killers might have to be buffed accordingly.
The fix is actually pretty simple when you think about it in the retrospective. For a long time I thought that adding more information about survivors to the HUD could be very powerful. I shared my ideas and I also gathered ideas of other people on how to buff solo. Just recently I read an idea that expands on the HUD idea and I had an epiphany. Survivor HUD is indeed the key to solving this problem. Nothing else might be needed. So, the solutions is a collective effort of the community.
The solution.
We already have survivor icons for being injured, downed, hooked on the HUD. We also have killer-specific icons, like being in Freddy's dream world, having a RBT on etc. DEVs even added the "Obsession is being chased" state to the HUD, which was a move into the right direction, but of course that's not enough to make any noticeable impact on solo gameplay.
What else needs/can be added:
- "Being chased" HUD icon for ALL survivors, not just the obsession - when solo players, especially newbies know that someone is being chased, they know they can safely work on gets, go for a save, open gates, cleanse totems etc
- "Opening the gates" HUD icon - if someone is already opening the gates, you know you can go for a save instead
- "Healing/being healed" HUD icon - there's no need to rush to a downed survivor if he's already being healed
- "Hearing heartbeat/lullaby" HUD icon - if you can see a beating heart icon next to someone's name on the HUD, you know that you are safe, so you can do gens/cleanse totems/open gates
- "Working on a gen" HUD icon - if someone is hooked while other survivors are working on different gens without seeing each other and someone has stopped doing gens - you know he's going for a save, so you can continue working on a gen ("sprinting" icon could be handy in this situation too)
I think the first tree icons are mandatory and won't hurt the game in any way, the other two are discussible.
More icons can be added if needed, although they are less necessary, like "cleansing a totem", "cleansing a hex totem" etc. - If you see that someone is already cleansing a hex totem, even if the killer will chase that survivor away, as a solo survivor you will know, that the hex totem (i.e. ruin) was already found and you might decide to stop searching for it. You can also count how many totems were already cleansed if you really want to. Also, showing if someone is "dead on hook" can be handy, so you don't have to sprint for a save. Etc.
Also, the new icon states don't have to be precise, they can be triggered with a slight delay. For example if someone starts hearing a heartbeat, the heartbeat icons next to his icon will only gets displayed after 2 seconds. This way it will have less chance to trump SWF comms.
As a programmer I understand that this solution is so easy to implement, the game logic can be probably written in 1 day + some additional icons. It needs no new game mechanics, no text, no translations, no gfx, no textures, no sounds. This solution is so simple and powerful. Also, if it's powerful enough, then no "global kindred" or "global bond" have to be implemented for solo, so no intrusive game mechanics, that would interfere with the game atmosphere otherwise, no removing existing perks and replacing them with something new.
Of course this solution will not bring solo to exactly the SAME level as SWF, it's impossible, and it's not necessary, the key is, it will make the gap between solo and SWF much less obvious and will make this game a much more smoother and pleasant experience for everyone.