Great Wall of Balance Ideas
Hey, I want to start this off by saying that I'm a total noob at the game so take this all with a grain of premium gamer salt. I'm a survivor main for the most part, but I know that the killers seriously need some love and I have a few ideas that could either help or, at least, start a discussion. Not all of these ideas are mine. Some I've gathered from browsing the forums so if anyone wants credit, let me know and I'll edit it in. I know that some of these ideas could alter the balance a bit too much but I thought a few were worth sharing.
One of the first issues is pallet looping and I have a few suggestions that could maybe help.
-The pallets break under the weight of the survivor after a certain amount of uses. For example, if a survivor slides over it three times, it breaks and is left unusable. The number will not reset if a different survivor slides over it and the state of the pallet could be notified by the appearance gradually wearing with each use.
-Have exhaustion take affect after running a certain distance. This could negate certain perks though, so an alternate idea is for Exhaustion to remain for the duration of the chase after it's applied instead if just running on a timer.
-Alter the Exhaustion affect where, after running a certain distance or using perks (i.e. Sprint Burst, Dead Hard,etc.), it blurs vision, slows them down slightly, and/or increases the sound of their breathing that lasts for a certain amount of time once they escape. It would take a certain amount of time after the chase for the Exhaustion and its affects to wear off. This, paired with bloodlust and some of the possible changes in the update will add more risk for survivors to engage in a chase and maybe lessen pallet looping.
-Since Sprint Burst is one of the biggest issues for pallet looping and hard counters a fair amount of killers (Rest In Pallets, me: A Wraith Main), there are a few ideas that could possibly balance it. Give it a charge time in one of two forms:
1.) The survivor has to run a certain distance for it to activate.
2.) The speed builds up gradually instead of just having the survivor blast off right as Peppa Pig ambushes them.
-Another perk that's way too strong at the moment is the infamous Decisive Strike. Some people want to remove it entirely from the game but I think there are ways to possibly nerf it to a reasonable level.
1.) The placement of the skill check on the screen is randomized
2.) If the survivor succeeds, it causes exhaustion and the killer gains bloodlust
3.) The stun time is lessened slightly on the killer
4.) The developers idea of not being able to heal passed the injured state is a solid thought as well
-The last majorly skewed perk is Self Care. I believe the devs have mentioned that they might change it so if you stop healing with Self Care the process starts over. I believe adding more skillchecks would help as well. I think these are fair changes but I think the bigger issue is something else. The perks are overpowered, don't get me wrong, but I think the biggest flaw is stacking these perks. We all have those games where a fourstack comes in with SB, SC, and DS. I have an idea that might help this.
Add diversity within the survivors perks. What I mean by this is, the survivor who goes with the perk, like Self Care with Claudette, is used best with that survivor. No survivor can self heal as fast as Claudette, no survivor can sabotage as fast as Jake, the negative affects of SB will be longer if you aren't Meg, the skill check for DS will be smaller if you aren't Laurie. I think some diversity withing the survivors would be a good thing since they kind of come off as just alternate skins after a certain level, and it would perhaps help add more risk to certain perks depending on the survivor you play.
-Another big issue is hex perks. They tend to spawn in obvious places and, once dismantled, they leave the killer with one less perk for the rest of the game. Since it's already a 4v1, this is seriously stilted against the killer, however some hexs are very powerful and some risk to use them seems reasonable, though the same could be said for some survivor perks. There are a few ideas that could balance things out.
1.) Once the hex is dismantled, certain negative affects are spread out among the survivors. For example, if Ruin is destroyed, a number of survivors, depending on the level of the perk, will have slower repair speed the rest of the game.
2.) A killer has a choice of when and where to place his hex, as long as it is accessible to the survivors. This would not only keep hexes from appearing on top of hills, but it would also keep hexes from being destroyed before they can be used which happens a lot with some perks like No One Escapes Death.
-A big issue right now is flashlights. Some possible answers to this could be:
1.) Buff Lightborn
2.) Have it so that the more the killer is blinded, the longer it takes to blind them next time
-The last issue I want to address right now is the game mode Survive With Friends, also know as, Bully The Killer simulator. This would be pretty tough to balance without messing the game up for those who play solo but there was one idea someone had that I thought could work. For every two people in a group, the killer gains a perk slot. I feel like this is a good idea to even out the power scale without jacking up the experience for solo survivors.
So these are a few ideas that I came up with or stumbled across that I think could help balance the game more. I'm fully aware that with games like these, the slightest change can swing it to far one way or the other, but hopefully this could help start a discussion. Keep in mind that I'm a complete noob who's not the brightest knife in toolbox. And, since I know the comments could easily devolve into a barfight, I want to remind everyone that, in order for this game to work, both survivors and killers are necessary. If one side gets fed too much buffs or nerfs, the game will eventually become boring for both sides. We should all work to make the game fun for everyone.