Game changes
This comment was originally posted during a discussion and after writing all this, i felt it could be easily lost. So i post it here again.
Most people say ranks are a mess and you are right about it. It´s to easy to climb up in rank. But that´s simply because the devs had to make it easier for survivors to climb the ranks. Killers not so much, because that was basically how they played since our beloved Victory Cube was introduced. You know, that thing that separated how survivors (points) and killers (hooks) piped for over a year.
So survivors had it to hard, when the Emblems got introduced and the devs had to make it easier for them, because killers couldn´t find matches on high ranks.
Emblems are the devs way to force a certain play style on the player. It punishes highly efficient play style and rewards a slow pace. The idea is (at least i assume this), that the whole experience is a pleasant one for everyone. What the devs didn´t had in mind, were the SWF deathsquads which just loved the Emblems. Because they could play the same way as usual and would stay on low ranks where they can torment low rank killers (Ochido anyone?).
Now they introduced Noob ranks (15-20) which are relativly save for new players. They went the lazy way and just removed the depip from those ranks, instead of doing some proper noob ranks where only new players play. But maybe they´ll introduce something proper in the future. Which allows new players to play casual.
That should be the new goal for the devs. Different game modes like Casual (no ranks), Ranked and Hardcore. The casual mode could work just like the matchmaking on the PTB. But have slightly different rules like (for example) more hook stages, a camp free barrier, the indicators we already have, etc. All those little things killers and survivors asked for, to make the game easier and more forgiving. This should give both survivors and killers a pleasant casual experience.
The ranked mode would have more strict gameplay rules we have now. They should remove all the indicators (you know, lullaby, ruin, noed, etc) and have basically the game we had a year ago. Where players had to pay attention to their surroundings and no indicators or warning signs. It should give slightly more BPs and be a lot harder to rank up. They could also award rewards for reaching certain ranks each season. Like Auric Cells or Shards.
The Hardcore mode would be a complete different experience. The Horror game this should be. No SWF, no terror radius, no scratch marks, no aura reading, no perks, no add-ons, no hud, etc. A barebone horror game with the option to play with ranked players.
So now we talked about the ranks. Let´s talk about balancing.
You think the balancing is right, but also recognize that killers get bullied and new players stomped. This means that the balancing isn´t right. It means that the game is poorly balanced. Now the power lvl of killers should be around Billy (not Nurse). Why? Because Billy is in that sweet spot, where he´s viable on high ranks, requires some time to master, but isn´t as brutally hard to learn as the Nurse. This means that the majority of the killers require a buff to their base kit. Why the base kit and not the add-ons? Because the top tier killers are strong even without add-ons. If a killer is heavily dependant on add-ons, it just means that players will have to farm points to enjoy playing those killers on high ranks. Which shouldn´t be necessary. Also the add-ons should alter the game play of the killers in different ways instead of making them simply more powerful. For example, Myers add-ons allow for different approaches to the game. He has wallhack add-ons and insta kill add-ons. Every killer should be able to alter his game play in different ways with those add-ons, but shouldn´t be forced to use them in order to play on high ranks.
Survivors should get ingame voice chat like R6 has for example. Then balance around it. This wouldn´t exclude solo survivors and killers wouldn´t feel the need to dodge SWF. There could also be a varied version of the voice chat like Hunt: Showdown has, which is proximity based and can be heared by the killer. But this might be a little to much, although it would be nice for the Hardcore mode (not sure about this one, because of the insults, etc. Might require some testing).
There should also exist additional objectives for survivors. Which make the game more interesting instead of the boring "hold m1 to repair".
Now the community. I think the devs should take a hard look at R6. It was about to die, and then the devs took a hard turn and streamlined the game for eSports. Now it´s a successful shooter. The same could happen to DbD. The devs just need to balance the game for eSports, hold monthly tournaments and a championship from now and then. And i guarantee you, that this game will rise in popularity. There a streamers like Hybridpanda, which didn´t had much subscribers. But that changed the moment they started to steam DbD. There is a lot of interest in this game and if there were tournaments, then people would watch it and want to participate.
Servers would be probably required to host the game, the voice chat and tournaments. I´m not sure how hard it would be to implement servers. Or if it´s even possible to implement them, since the game wasn´t made with servers in mind. But my idea would be to keep the current peer to peer mode for casual games, and have servers for ranked and hardcore. This would reduce the overall server load.
Asymmetrical is the big balance problem. There are not many asymmetrical games around, and those that are failed or are dying because they catered to the masses (Evolve) instead of balancing the game right.
Killers need to be powerful, so survivors have at least some kind of respect of the killer. Yet survivors shouldn´t be to weak, or they would never win. But the problem lies in the deffinition of winning. Is it escaping? Piping? Gaining 20k BPs? Because survivors can escape with barely 11k BPs and get a blackpip. Or they can die with a pip and 20k BPs. Who won? Survivors shouldn´t be mad about dying and the devs should take a look at the aimed balance of 2 deaths, 2 escapes.
The last part would be seasons. I think the devs should adapt the seasons. We already have the different season killer, survivor, map release + mid season patch. Now we only need to change the season reset to this timeframe. 3 months for a season. With more ranks (most pvp games have tons of ranks). So to stay with the R6 example, we should get copper, bronze, silver, gold, diamond, etc. With rewards at the end of the season. Ranks should matter more. Of course the matchmaking would have to be adapted to find players at higher and lower ranks for faster matchmaking with adapted pips.
TL/DR: This is a great and unique game. Where people spent 1000+ hours. Now we need to balance it and introduce ranks and tournaments.