Solo survivors could definitely use a buff - what do you think is the best way to do this?
At the moment solo survivors are at a massive informational disadvantage compared to SWF. BHVR has acknowledged this but so far has not made any actual changes. So what are everyone's thoughts on the best way to improve this situation?
One way would be in-game comms or at least a communication wheel for simple comments such as "Going for a Save!" . My headcanon being that the survivors have walkies-talkies :)
Alternatively, or in addition, (credit to Cheryl's Guardian and probably others) the Devs could add a couple of free slots for aura perks for solo survivor players only So solos could get a couple of Kindred, Bond, Empathy, Blood Pact for 'free'. This would help immensely with the lack of information and co-ordination that frequently plagues solo queue.
So what are your favourite ideas?
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Add tag lines to emotes; saving, on gen, etc
Free perks are overkill
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The game was designed around Solo survivors and they should be the standard for balancing, because swf have advantages not meant to be in the game you shouldn't base balance decisions around them. Giving survivors more perks for free just means they have less reason to vary their builds and will just keep running the same meta perks that plague the game now. Maybe survivors should just be expected to give more effort through the game than to be rewarded for nothing, just because they have the tools doesn't mean they'll utilize them.
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The best way to buff Solo Queue is to implement a proper matchmaking system.
New players with like 100 hours shouldn't play in the same game as survivors with several thousands of hours.
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Kindred should be base kit (except the killer aura reading). Give the killer aura reading to Kindred.
Also, a quick chat pop up would be nice. You press a button and then a dialogue box appears with phrases like: Come save me!... Working on a gen...Killer is camping! etc.....
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I would do 1 of 2 things
1. Make Kindred Basekit without the killer aura shown. To show the killers aura Kindred could have that added effect.
Or
2. Make a ping system similar to something in another asymmetrical horror game called White Noise 2. If you don't know what white noise 2 is that's fine you don't need to but how the ping system in that game works is that the survivors could communicate with each other by speaking different phrases to help them stay and work together. It also had a bit of a downside as it could also alert the killer of your location briefly.
I feel one of these 2 effects could be good but ultimately a better match making system can also work as well.
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Baked in comms that function via distance (and can be overheard by the killer), or at least a comms-lite quick chat system, where players can inform each other of their intentions with fairly exhaustive pre-written blurbs. "Killer is that way." "I'm on a gen that's [just started]/[halfway]/[mostly done.]" "I need a heal." "Nobody is coming for me, please rescue." "Somebody is coming to rescue me." "Don't rescue me." "Someone needs to work on a gen." "Hex totem here." "I think the killer has [perk]." "Stop doing that and [heal me]/[get on this gen]/[unhook me]/[open the gate]." "Someone with fewer hooks needs to take the killer's attention." "I have [perk], let me do this." (for when you have Ace In The Hole and someone else is opening chests, or you're gearing up for a camping rescue and you have BT so it's better for the other person to be the bait, or when someone is trying to pick you up in a dangerous scenario but you can pick yourself up anyway, or when you have Autodidact and want stacks, or the survivor you're chasing has an active RBT but you can For The People them, et cetera)
I don't want the game to be balanced around all survivors knowing what any one of them does, but there's no way to prevent people from getting this advantage, so it has to be the standard DBD works around. The game can never be balanced when half of survivors are coordinated and half are stumbling around blindly. Once the gap between solos and SWFs is lessened and it becomes more a matter of individual merit than comms, killers can be rebalanced around the new average survivor performance.
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Predetermined messages or pings could be nice, games like identity V have them and they don't seem to have a problem with it. Many people are concerned that buffing solo would also buff SWF but something like this would be useless for a SWF who are on comms already.
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uh oh. You cannot say that in these parts. This is killer main territory ( like most forums). They’ll likely tell you to “get good” or say you’re a bad player for even mentioning survivor buffs. Sadly that is the agenda here. I agree with you however. Solo is awful!
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Ping system, like everyone else said.
The killer should also be able to hear/see the messages if they're close enough.
It works for Identity V, so it should probably work here.
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I have yet to see anyone on this forum, even the users I peg as the most unreasonably killer-sided, take issue with solos being too strong. They're either saying survivors in general, and typically meaning higher levels of gameplay performance, or they're talking about SWF. It is commonly understood that solos are on the bottom of the totem pole.
Building preemptive strawmen arguments when nobody's making them isn't a good look.
(I would also be pretty surprised if most forums on the internet were populated by killer mains... and pretty concerned.)
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With how much I see on there forums that killers are too strong and killer perks need to be nerfed i disagree. People constantly complain about Camping/Tunneling despite the devs saying that its fine. @Sluzzy being allowed to make posts all the time about "overpowered killers" or their "OP" perks shows me that no, the forums don't cater to one side or the other, its all a mixed bag.
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The game can never be balanced when half of survivors are coordinated and half are stumbling around blindly. Once the gap between solos and SWFs is lessened and it becomes more a matter of individual merit than comms, killers can be rebalanced around the new average survivor performance.
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Yes that is my line of thought too.
Solos get buffs which DON'T affect SWF groups as they already have that informational from comms anyway, and also weaker Killers can be boosted so the playing field is fairer and more fun for everyone.
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All I want is to see my allies’ perks. I like to create perk builds that require teamwork, so knowing what my teammates are running could help me run a build to compliment theirs.
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I always run bond so as long as my random teammates are even semi-decent it’s A-okay in my opinion. I work around their auras to figure out unhook situations or avoid running the killer to a gen etc.
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quick chat system. not full chat but quick chat to bring them closer to the power level of SWF.
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The best (or worst) thing they can do is implement a working SBM, because as it is now. Survivors exist in the paradox of being way stronger than killers at high rank and yet ~70% of the group will die in those same high ranks.
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There's really two big problems with solo queue: lack of time spent on generators (or just straight up a ton of wasted time from your teammates) and tunneling/camping/slugging are overly effective against solos due to lack of coordination/communication. They also tend to be bad in chase but that would be okay if it weren't for all the wasted time doing nothing.
I'd add/change:
Contextual messages you can select to display to teammates. Nothing too complex, just a few messages like "do generators" "killer is near me" "don't save me" "I'm looking for totems."
Maybe make Kindred's ally reveal become base kit, even if it only applies to solo queue players or something.
I'd make the black pip for survivor harder to get too. Unless you get tunneled/camped or DC, it's really difficult to depip. This and SWF sharing rank with solo queue are a couple of the problems causing random teammates to be notoriously bad imo.
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- Even small changes like showing which survivor is in a chase. This could be shown the same way you know when an obsession is in a chase via the survivors portrait.
- Built in Kindred (with no killer aura)
- UI totem counter (near gen counter)
- Small UI pop ups near a survivors portrait. E.g. If I'm on a gen or cleansing a totem or opening an exit gate, show it.
- Maybe a chat. Or short lines you can select. "Going for unhook". "Opening gate". "Need help".
- Reveal other survivors perks (and items + addons). For example, It'd be amazing to see which (if any) survivor has BT. Then we know who should get the unhook if the killer is facecamping/tunneling. If this is too much to fit in without looking messy, allow us to press ESC and see the perks/items/addons there. We can already see the offerings there.
All of these changes would drastically improve solo queue. But of course, killers would then get some kind of general buff in return for these solo buffs.
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Proper matchmaking, If matchmaking works correctly, They should get voice actors for the survivors, And by that i mean the survivors should Talk, Like Pressing a button would make a communication wheel pop up where you can stay stuff like "Heal me" or "Generator over there" And Killers might say "THIS IS OP1!!1!1 PLZ NERF" but the comms are proxy based, The further you are from the survivor, The less you can hear them talking, Both as killer & survivor.
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Best solo buff would be good matchmaking
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I like the idea of proxy comms that survivors and Killers can hear at a distance. Its like friday the 13th the game.
But can we trust behaviour doing a good job or will sound be bugged out again?😂
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Obviously bugged Lmao
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Definitely the ping system
Scott jund made an excellent prototype mock up sort of thing and it demonstrates how it should work perfectly and simply
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Tell them to get better and for the devs to fix the ranking. Honestly solo is 100% fine, people are just in ranks they dont belong and alot of people cant accept that. When rank 1/2s can play worse than what rank 15s use to a few years back yeah it's an issue.
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A Ping system similar to Apex would be nice but a lot of work.
I think making things like Bond, Empathy and Kindred in some form or another baseline would be a great start to bridging the gap in information between solo and swf.
Something like all survivors see all other survivor auras anywhere on the map and they change colour when injured.
Some of the weaker killers would need a little love at the same time too ideally though I feel <3
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