Survivor feels cushy and warm to play

serabeth90

I am still relatively new to this game, but I started out playing killer because I figured I would be too scared to play survivor. And for a little while, I was right. But once I got used to the jump scares and getting chased and the general flow of games, I started to play survivor more and more.

Today, I wanted to play Hag for a bit, and I noticed that before each game, I got really nervous and felt pressured to start moving and putting down traps immediately, getting my setup asap. It typically felt rushed and like I didn't have enough time to do so. After a few games of that, I realized my anxiety level is much higher when playing killer than survivor.

It's not that I'm good at survivor -- just the opposite. But as long as I do generators, I'll win some and I'll lose some. Either the killer gets me or my teammates are being chased across the map and I get generators done while that happens. It feels much more relaxed and slower pace. The only things that are scary anymore are accidentally running over a Hag trap or when a tier I Michael with no terror radius suddenly grabs me off a generator.

Whereas when I'm a killer, I feel like I have to do many things at once -- defend gens, defend my totem(s), get people hooked, get all my traps down, find people quickly but don't camp, don't spend too long in a chase, etc. etc....

...Shouldn't it be the opposite? Shouldn't the killer feel like they are a terror and a menace, exerting their reign of terror over the map? If anyone escapes, it should only be through skill, teamwork, and probably limping and bleeding out the door. Survivors should always have to be on their toes, while the killer should be able to feel like the map is theirs. Right now, it feels like I am an intruder on the Survivors' map, entering their turf and struggling to come out on top.

And yes, it still feels that way even when I get 3-4 kill games. And no, I'm not super high ranked; I've been rank 10 on killer and rank 5 on survivor. As Survivor, though, I've played against rank 1-2 killers and still come out on top. I even played against a semi-popular rank 1 killer on stream and was the only one to escape (through the hatch) a couple of weeks ago. And no, I didn't hide in a locker the whole game -- I got 3 out of the 4 generators we completed myself. I shouldn't be able to do that, and I think it undermines the skill and hard work of people who have taken the time to become good at this game that a newbie like me could win.

Does anyone else feel this way?

TheHourMan

Sort of, but maybe it's not that you are "good at survivor" but that you are focused on performing a singular objective as survivor, whereas playing as killer forces you to multitask constantly and puts pressure on you to make it fun for everyone else too.

Tsulan

Welcome to DbD, where the roles are switched. Killer feels terrified and survivor is a walk in the park. 
The anxiety thing will get worse the higher your rank. It's because the game is terribly survivor sided. They don't feel any pressure at all, while the killer is running against the clock. All 5 gens can be repaired in 3 minutes or less. While the killer has to do 12 hooks in that time.

serabeth90

@TheHourMan said:
Sort of, but maybe it's not that you are "good at survivor" but that you are focused on performing a singular objective as survivor, whereas playing as killer forces you to multitask constantly and puts pressure on you to make it fun for everyone else too.

Yeah this could be part of it. And you're right about trying to make it fun for everyone else. I never purposely tunnel anyone, even if they are being obnoxious. Just a couple of games ago, I kept on running into a David repeatedly and at one point I had him injured and if I downed him, he would've gone on his third hook when I'd only hooked one other person once. As soon as someone ran over one of my traps in the distance, I teleported to go kill them and let the David escape. I was not obligated to do so, but I did anyways, because I want everyone to have fun in my game. I did eventually end up killing 1 person towards the end and it was not the David, but the other 3 escaped. I still got 25k bloodpoints, which was higher than any 1 individual survivor, so I was happy with what I got. I had been using bbq and chili for this purpose, and managed to get at least 1 hook on everyone.

That being said, it's still quite a scramble out the gates to get everything set up while the little buggers are toolboxing my generators and killing my totems >.>....I wish they would give the killers a minute before the survivors spawn to set up on the map. For the killers that don't have setup, they could let you choose from a number of objects that you could place throughout the map which could do things like reduce your terror radius in that area, show survivors' aura within 5 yards of the object, and/or cause collision with the object. They could offer these objects to every killer, but Hag and Trapper would likely choose to set up their own traps first.

pemberley

I have been playing Michael lately and I am surprised at just how many cocky survivors will just walk in front of you. Like they’re not even worried about tier 3. 

Same goes for the Doctor and any other killer. You may not have to be freaked out by the killer but I definitely think it would benefit the game if more survivors acted like me and my friends do: have to be extremely careful because one mistake and you’re on a hook. 

TheHourMan

If survivors aren't going to extend the same courtesy toward me (ie. gen rushing) then I'm not going to worry about how much fun they're having and I'm usually going to lecture them in chat afterwards for only getting a safety pip and less than 20k bp. 

It is a very common misunderstanding in DbD that the point of survivor is only to survive, when there is so much more to it than that.

No killer has "fun" in a match that lasts 5 minutes, whether they won or lost.

Mister_Holdout

There's a reason people call this game a bully simulator.

DemonDaddy

Yeah, survivors need more reasons to run away. The act of getting injured doesn't put pressure on experienced teams. I had a game where I was playing Wraith and the Survivor Team all had the leader and assorted healing perks making it nearly impossible 2 down the team as I was body blocked and healing commenced right in my face. Thanks to their perks by the time I was able move or take action a Survivor was already back on their feet.
I know a better skilled player probably could have handled that situation. And yes I know there are ways to get around this. Different perks or different killer would have been of immense help in this situation, but hindsight is always 20/20 and I had to work with what was equipped.

serabeth90

@WhateverIGuess said:
"I am still relatively new to this game" Here's your answer. It is hard to play killer when you're new, because some perks are a necessity in most games (such as Hex: Ruin). Not to mention that rank reset happened, which might be why you're getting more experienced survivors. Killer gets progressively harder and harder, survivor does too, but not as much as killer does.

After all, once you spend enough time in killer, you will feel like Survivors: some games you get destroyed, some games you absolutely dominate the survivors.

Yeah, already I can kind of see some of that....It gets frustrating for me because I'll have a couple of good games in a row and I'll start feeling more confident and like I'm finally getting the hang of this killer thing....then I'll queue into a group that just powers through my ruin (or kills it early) and get hit with every pallet along the way and wonder what happened.

I actually felt like overall, survivor gets easier with rank increase, though. I have a lot more difficult time from 16 through about 10 than I do above 10, because in lower ranks, a lot of survivors will either dc, bleed themselves out, or we'll do 2 generators and then everyone hides because they figure at least we'll get the hatch. If I'm the only one out there doing objectives, then I'm the one that gets caught and one of the f***ers hiding in a locker (occasionally popping out to hook farm me in front of the killer) get the hatch.

Whereas in higher ranks, I've found there are more survivors that are capable of leading the killer in long chases. I run empathy for this purpose, and can often do several generators while just 1 or 2 of the people that love getting chased (often seen in bright pink clothing with a flashlight) run the killer around. So there's no skill required for me other than keeping an eye out and crouching away if the killer looks in my direction and holding M1 down.

TheLegendDyl4n1

havent you heard of my dear friend NEA