SWF is punishing for new killers
Feedback
Let me get my point out there and hopefully someone from BHVR would take this feedback into account.
I’m new to the game (approx. 120h in) and I love to play as a killer (rank 8-9, rightfully so). I did a bit of research beforehand, got a couple DLCs because of perks and playstyles, etc. All good so far. I watched plenty of videos on YouTube, read loads of posts here and Reddit as well. But none of them prepared me for the nightmare that is to play against survivor with friends (SWF).
Don’t get me wrong. I totally 100% support people being social and playing with their mates. The problem lies when they use third-party chat software. I read a statement from BHVR that this isn’t cheating and, even if it was, it’s almost impossible to prove these people are actually in a voice chat together. And I agree with that statement.
The problem is, the game doesn’t seem to be developed for that purpose – otherwise it would have an invoice chat. Plus, perks such as ‘Kindred’ or ‘Bond’ (maybe there are more aura perks that I don’t know, I don’t play survivor that much) just highlights how the game was intended to be multiplayer game but to gather information from other survivors, you would have to sacrifice a perk space to do so. Great.
With Team Speak and Discord out there, SWF do not need to use ‘Kindred’ or ‘Bond’ anymore. They will 100% run ‘Decisive Strike’ and ‘Borrowed Time’ instead with something else that would adapt to their playstyle as a survivor.
Information seems to be key in this game (which is why most killers use ‘BBQ & Chili’ or ‘Nurse’s Calling’). SWF are able to gather and communicate crucial information freely, with no consequences. This is at some extent extremely unfair to killers.
Think of it that way. Imagine a killer being able to see survivors’ auras all the time, so they could decide if they should go for a chase, stop a gen from being rushed or a totem from being broken. This is what happen with majority of SWF groups. They know where the killer is, who he is chasing, who are doing gens, who is breaking totems, etc. There are killers that deal with that just fine, but I assume they have thousands of hours in potentially have all the good perks to deal with that.
Now, BHVR has shown some concerns to the fact that ‘Hex: Ruin’ is frustrating to play against for new survivors. Well, if new players are your concern, you should know that SWF is as frustrating for new killers (for all the above reasons). It’s clear why Ruin is overused. If you, as a killer, do not run Ruin in your build and still manage to make the match last more than 7-8 minutes, you have my great admiration and respect because I simply can’t – not with SWF. Hit me up, I need some tips. Also, since the matches are so short because all SWF are working in unison, there is no way you can improve or get better as a killer when other players are exploiting voice chat to ‘rule’ over you.
And don’t let me start with matchmaking. If wasn’t hard enough to play against SWF majority of the time, they are always rank 2-4.
Suggestion
I don’t see SWF going anywhere, which is absolutely fine. Again, I need to mention I’m fully supportive if you want to play with your friends. However, I should not be obliged to play against you.
Ideally, I think the below could be great systems to have.
1) Duo/group queues. Plenty of games out there have solo, duo and group queues. That way, you would be able to enjoy a match with your mates with no judgement and get the rank you deserve for each category (there are plenty of SWF players that are high ranks because they play SWF non stop).
2) Simultaneously, BHVR should flag if the survivors that joined the lobby are a duo, a trio or a full squad. It’s up to the killer to decide if he/she wants to join that match or not. We kind of already have that since we can ‘leave’ matches before it starts but I’d love to be able to do so without stalking other people Steam’s friends list.
Anyway, that should be all. Really sorry for the long post but I do enjoy playing DbD. I just think SWF takes the asymmetric element of the game and that I’m probably speaking on behalf of every new survivor that it’s frustrating, punishing, boring and not productive to play against SWF players exploiting TeamSpeak or Discord.
Comments
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I'm not sure I've understood what you're suggesting with the different queues. Do you mean that they would literally be in different matchmaking queues separately from other players, or that the game would just be able to detect what size the party is so that it can give that information to the killer? If the former, the game doesn't have anywhere near a large enough player base to support that. If the latter, the game can already do that as part of its matchmaking system.
Unfortunately, both suggestions suffer from the same problem of extending queue times. The developers removed what was otherwise a very helpful feature from the game (survivors' ability to see each other's ranks in lobbies) because it was encouraging people to dodge lobbies and extending queue times, which are already bad enough. Anything that contributes to that problem is not really a feasible addition to the game in its current state.
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The second one, actually. I appreciate the fact that could affect queue time and potentially killers would keep dodging lobbies, but that's what 'cause and consequence' is. In its current state, SWF has no downside. Players can communicate freely with no punishment. At least killers should be able to decide if they want to take a chance or not.
Also, I need to mention I'm sharing my views as a new player and what I'm struggling with currently as "baby killer" (as I was called earlier).
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