An analysis on Generator Speed and Problems associated therein

Xetoil

Recently there have been a few topics made about the speed at which generators can potentially be completed at, and how this speed is problematic for high level play. A lot of retorts to these posts have either claimed that gen speed is the direct result of a killer’s inability to pressure multiple survivors, or stating that the games in which gens are completed so fast as to be problematic are outliers and so not relevant to overall game balance.

My motivation for writing this post stems from my interest in game design; Dead by Daylight, as it stands, presents unique challenge in the form of balancing for the potential highest level play, whilst also remaining a fair and fulfilling experience for players uninterested in playing at the level.

I will be ignoring the existence of toolboxes for this discussion.

Defining Pressure

I would like to start by pointing out a couple of things:

Firstly that gen speed can only ever be reckoned a problem when measured relative to the Killer’s ability to apply pressure on players, within the timeframe it takes to complete a generator. I am not referring to a players ability here, but the limitations of the rules which govern each killer. “Rules” include factors such as attack cooldown, movement speed, etc. This will become important later.

And secondly, the definition of “pressure” that I shall be using throughout this discussion:

• A generator is considered pressured when a survivor believes that being in the vicinity of that gen presents a risk of being hit by the killer, which is greater than the amount of risk that survivor is willing to take.
• A player is considered pressured when they are being offered the choice between two important objectives. Since survivors are always offered the objective of escape, being offered a single alternative objective, such as saving another survivor or healing, constitutes pressure.

I am going to consider a basic three-gen situation, as I believe it represents a microcosm of the full game. With regards to such a situation, the dominant strategy seems to be to split survivors onto the two gens furthest apart, so that the killer finds it more difficult to stay in an area where he can keep check of both active gens at once. By working on gens in this way, the survivors are artificially increasing the amount of distance the killer must move in order to apply pressure to a relevant generator, thus increasing the chance that he will not be able to sufficiently apply enough pressure to prevent a gen from reaching completion.

By adding in a second gen, you create periods in which the pressure applied by the killer has space to fluctuate. On the survivor side, what was previously just holding M1 becomes a game of gauging constantly fluctuating pressure as you stay in the vicinity of said generator. Managing this pressure co-operatively by tagging in and out of chases becomes an integral part of the gameplay on the survivor side, the killer in response having to drop some chases and end others quickly in order to split pressure. In this scenario, the distance between the two gens in play is important, as the degree to which pressure will fluctuate is directly proportionate to that distance, (provided the survivors are split into at least two groups at all times). I am aware that this is not a full overview of the game as-is, but I feel it represents many of the basic factors at play.

As pressure is partially dependant on a killer’s ability to end chases quickly, killer skill vs survivor skill is an important factor. The relative skill of each player is typically measured in contests which seem to take place in widely two scenarios.

• The killers ability to catch survivors out of position.
• The ability of each party to mislead the other. (Commonly referred to as mindgaming)

Catching survivors out of position can be done in a few ways, such as by zoning, or by playing stealthily, however the ability of each party to mislead the other only occurs at interactable spaces, i.e. pallets and windows, or in areas where Line of Sight is restricted.

Now, it would appear to me that games in which the gens are able to be completed quickly to the degree that it could be reckoned problematic, must be games wherein some or most of the following apply:

• The relative distance between a significant amount of gens is far away enough that the killer can not split pressure adequately enough to cause a delay.
• Survivors have more access to knowledge of the killers position, relative to the killers knowledge of their position.
• The killer has limited oppourtunities to mislead survivors and/or catch them out of position.

So considering this, it seems to me that once we have balanced for player skill, the inconsistencies of the distribution of generators, pallets (both safe and unsafe), and Line of Sight blockers across all maps is more the issue than the speed at which generators can be potentially be completed.

Quick Comparison: How Pitch Size Affects Football Strategy

I would like to interlude this post with a link to an informative answer I found on Quora, which details the affect that pitch size has on games of Football, (I refuse to refer to it as Soccer), which can be used as a reference:

https://www.quora.com/What-impact-have-differing-pitch-dimensions-had-on-the-game

To paraphrase some key points:

- Generally, a small field removes much of the impact on the game by virtuoso players whose technical skills and creative artistry require generous space.

- Shrinking the playing surface is usually considered to favor defensive play, reducing the attackers' ability to use space and time, favoring defenders' ability to mark closely an attacker or provide supporting pressure. 

- A small pitch also favors a team that plays a careful game style based on possessing and holding the ball, in contrast to a fast-moving kick-and-run attack with longer passes. 

Unlike football, Dead by Daylights maps are much more complex than simply size, and yet in football, size alone can account for drastic changes in strategy.

Conclusion

I hope that I have adequately made the case that there is an inherent relationship between map (including RNG generation) and killer performance (unique to each killer based on the set of rules which define them) which can not be divorced, and thus there is a big difference between killers who are “viable at high level play” and killers who are “viable across all maps at high level play”. This relationship must be respected when designing/re-designing maps and killers if the game is ever going to be thought of as “balanced”. I would also like to stress that the design focus should ideally be on maps, not killers, as the last two killers (Oni and Demogorgon), seem to have been designed with the problematic elements of existing maps in mind (namely, map traversal and potential anti-loop abilities), when it would seem to be a far more efficient idea to have maps be designed around the basic elements of killers.

Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts on this topic.

FriendlyGuy

The devs are not balancing for the highest level of play. And only the best survivors know how to abuse maps against certain killers.

Only a few balance changes were made in the last few months to high rank, BL and nurse as examples.