Hook AND kill Based Matchmaking
why I wrote this
After seeing the Q&A stream just recently, I've realized that maybe I should put my idea up on the forums, I did not realize that the devs actually read the forums (maybe I should have) and that makes me happy. Even if my idea isn't considered, I think that if it can be read by the devs and the community, maybe something good could come of it!
introduction
My idea is that SBMM could be determined by the amount of hooks and kills that the killer gets (in the form of a score), the idea behind this is that a hook requires skill from the killer to catch a survivor in some way and to manage their time decisions on where to put pressure throughout the game while doing so. A kill requires much less skill compared to hooks as catching someone during a chase and hooking them is what leads to a kill (most of the time) and the decision to tunnel/camp a survivor to death to generate more pressure in a game, is the only skillful part of killing and is why it is included in this system, but not the focus of it.
For survivors in this system, the skill of the killer is being compared to the survivors as a TEAM, and so the score determined for the killer reflects on how well the survivors are doing as a team (distracting the killer, avoiding being caught etc). Because this is a team based game, I think the result for how each survivor did in the match, should reflect on all survivors, simply because the individual skill should be enough to make skillful decisions/plays to help other survivors also survive the match. To make this more clear, the score that the killer has from hooks and kills, determines the score the survivors have as a result, which is shared between them as a team once the game is over.
The scoring system
The killer will begin with 0 points and each survivor will begin with 4 points each (a total of 16 for both sides)
- Each hook will grant the killer 1 point and the hooked survivor will simultaneously lose 1 point.
- Each kill will grant the killer 1 point and the survivor that dies will simultaneously lose 1 point.
- Each Mori will grant the killer 1 point as if that survivor was hooked, and the killed survivor will also lose 1 point.
- At the end of the match, the points of each survivor will be totaled and given to each survivor.
Once a match is over the resulting points for killer will be between 0-16, and the resulting points for each individual survivor will also be between 0-16 as it is the total points shared between all survivors.
SBMM at the end of a match will change based on the range between 0-16 for both survivors and killers, where 0 will lower the SBMM at the most extreme, and 16 will increase SBMM to the most extreme, whilst a score of 8 would not by itself change SBMM (a draw for both sides).
edit: DC Penalty
I forgot to include a DC Penalty with this idea so I'm writing this now!
When a survivor disconnects from a match, they will have a penalty that reduces their score to 0 points once the match is over. In addition, the killer immediately gains 2 points (as if the survivor was hooked and killed) and the survivor loses 2 points. The remaining points on that survivor (if any) are contributed to their team at the end of the match, to avoid the teammates losing all significant point gains.
When a killer disconnects, they will have a penalty reducing their score to 0 points. As the match ends immediately if a killer disconnects, the survivors will immediately total their points based on whatever amount they had at the time of disconnect.
These penalties are here to ensure there is no abuse by survivors or killers for gaining SBMM, unfortunately it is unavoidable that survivors can always ensure to reduce their SBMM, but that is the case with any matchmaking system.
Example Games
In the following examples I will cover some normal cases and some extreme cases to show what this supports with a short conclusion for each to explain why I believe this is a good/bad idea.
Game 1:
All generators get completed, three survivors were hooked once (3 points) and the fourth was hooked twice (2 points). All survivors escaped resulting in each survivor having a total score of 11, meaning their SBMM will go up. The score of the killer is 5, meaning their SBMM will go down.
Throughout this game the killer wasn't able to generate enough pressure to kill any survivors/failed to secure even one kill. This game should make sense why it is considered a win for survivors and a loss for killer.
Game 2:
All generators get completed, two survivors were hooked once and killed (4 points) and the rest escaped. Each survivor has a total score of 12 meaning their SBMM will go up and the killer has a score of 4 meaning their SBMM will go down.
Throughout this game, the killer barely spread pressure on the survivors and guarded the hooks, not a lot of skill involved in this, and not a lot of chases involved. I would consider a game like this as a loss for the killer so I think the result is fine for determining skill. However, I can point out that the skill of the survivors that were hooked once is indeterminable, or at the very least, not skillful enough to avoid getting caught once, so this system doesn't take into consider those player's skills. Another argument could be made as the survivors simply chose not to save the other two survivors (At the very least, bad teamwork skills), however that would mean they at least were able to avoid being caught by the killer at all, and therefore the killer's SBMM needs to go down to avoid playing with them again.
Game 3:
Two generators get completed, all survivors are hooked once and die on hook (8 points). Each survivor and the killer will have a point total of 8, meaning their SBMM will not change based on the score alone.
This one is debatable as the killer may have played out of their mind and secured a 4k really easily because they have a lot of skill, which should mean the survivors should lose SBMM and the killer should gain SBMM right? This system could be improved for games like these, however I notice a lot of games that have a result like this aren't the result of very good skill from either side, there wasn't a lot of chases and there wasn't a lot of good plays made from either side that would make this any easier to determine, so I think this might be fine how it is.
Game 4:
All generators get completed, two survivors get hooked once (2 points) and two survivors get hooked three times and killed (8points). two survivors escaped with a total of 6 points each meaning their SBMM will go down. The score of the killer is 10 meaning their SBMM will go up.
This game should make sense, some would consider this a draw or a loss for the killer, but I believe the killer made at most 10 chases where they caught a survivor which required skill to catch, and so their skill should be rewarded in gaining SBMM. The loss of SBMM for the two survivors that did escape, is because they could have made better decisions in preventing the killer from securing the kills on the two survivors that did die, and so the skill gap between killer and survivor makes sense (to me at least).
Game 5:
All generators get completed, three survivors are hooked three times and killed (12 points) and one survivor escaped through an exit gate. The survivors each have a total of 4 points meaning their SBMM will go down. The killer's score is 12 points meaning their SBMM will go up.
This game was very close, the killer played incredibly well, managing to catch/hook survivors at most 9 times. The survivors also played extremely well and only got one escape through an exit gate. The fact that the killer managed to hook the survivors so many times and kill them, should be enough to say that the killer's skill allows them to go up in SBMM, however it should be noted that this system is not perfect considering how they worked as a team well enough to get one survivor out with no hooks, or the individual survivor was skillful enough to never get caught, yet their SBMM goes down as a result.
conclusion
In conclusion, I believe that a hook and kill based matchmaking would be better than the current system, because it does represent a killer's skill a lot better than simply killing survivors because skill comes from chasing and catching survivors throughout a match, and less by killing. However I also understand the flaws of this system, especially on individual skill from the survivors considering how it determines a player's skill based on their teamwork, partly from how well they play, and how their team does separately from themselves.
I hope that people will see my post, I have been thinking of it for a while and I'll happily read comments and respond to people's opinions and thoughts on it!