How to not interpret statistics and player feedback
There once was a farmer. On a sunny day when they were out on the field their barn caught fire and their neighbors quickly came with buckets of water and tried to extinguish the flames. When the farmer came back from their work seeing many people pouring water into their burning barn they concluded that it was the water that must have started the fire. Thus they took away their neighbors' buckets to stop the flames and felt very smart for doing so.
This short story shows BHVR's inability to interpret statistics and player feedback. Looking at both and coming to the conclusion that a perk overhaul will fix anything is just taking away the water buckets that keep the barn from burning down. Your job isn't done when identifying a problem that is only the symptom of underlying issues that really are the things to be fixed!
Barbecue and Chilli is not played because it is an overwhelmingly great perk. It is the bonus Blood Points paired with solid utility that makes your often miserable time playing as killer at least worth your time.
Corrupt Intervention, Pain Resonance, Pop Goes the Weasel and Ruin are strong because they cover the necessity to counter the insane gen speed to even make the game playable as a killer.
Decisive Strike and Borrowed Time are necessary because instead of BHVR addressing and reworking bad and lazy game design elements they even describe tunneling and camping as valid tactics.
Overhauling most of the perks mentioned in yesterday's stream won't do anything but take away solutions to problems that actually need to be tackled! Stop looking at symptoms before going for the underlying causes!
Dead Hard on the other hand...
Comments
-
I mean how do you prevent tunneling and camping from happening without creating like XY game mechanic rules that would also have to be 100% not abusable by the other side in their favor but also at the same time not make gens fly or give a reason why killer should not camp the last hook when exits are opened or 99%.
4 -
It is not my job to come up with solutions. It is their game and it is undeniable that at least camping from a game design perspective is absolute garbage. However to fix this issue, do not go for the solutions (aka the perks) before you addressed the cause.
4 -
So if someon is running around that hooker Survivor and killer just want to chase them and leave the hook he gets punished for it? Or what if 2+ Survivors are just running and swarming the killer that just wants to leave and forcing him to stay?
I said game mechanics that can't be abused by the other side. It's really not so easy as you think.
5 -
They said they are also looking into changing game mechanics that makes usage of current meta perks so viable now. And they will implement them with perk changes at the same time
1 -
We're looking at the system as a whole, we're not making the perk changes only - we're looking at reasons why these perks are used and are making some base game changes to compliment the reworked perks.
17 -
Maybe they are looking at camping and tunneling but they decided not to say anything because the comunity is... prone to excesses and tantrums, to say it lightly...
P.D. I do agree inmensely with your "Its not my job to give solutions to problems" Im so tired of seeing "well if you dont like X why dont you propose a good solution?" argument, we are costumers, we may give insight on how to fix a problem or how we want it fixed but its not our job, its like having a leaking pipe while the plumber is looking at it then your neighbour appears and tells you "well if you dont like your leaking pipe why dont you fix it yourself?" why in the hell im paying the plumber for then?
1 -
just disable it when a survivor is XYZ distance from the hook EZ
0 -
I had to rewatch that segment now and indeed: 'small, baseline gameplay adjustments' were mentioned.
Honestly when hearing this I don't think of gen speed reduction or disincentivizing tunneling and camping as small gameplay adjustments. As mentioned in comments implementing mechanics to prevent camping alone seem rather complex an could hardly be classified as small gameplay changes. I hope BHVR will surprise us, but the upcoming perk overhaul was presented as heavily focused on symptoms rather underlying issues and it is hard to believe BHVR is able to fix those problems with small adjustments when they are present in the game and complained about for years.
0 -
I am kinda scared on this perk overhaul. If you look at the game, we now get 204 perks, where 40 are played for different reasons (is it a coincidence with the number? i doubt it). I also dont see too high gen speed as a reason why gen regression is played, but because meddling with the other sides objective is the easiest way to buy yourself more time, while cutting chases is more handled by killer power itself. As survivor perks are run for a more problematic reason. DS, BT, UB as the most prominent examples are a necessity to play as gameflaws aka killer strategies are the worst issue survivors encounter. they make the game nearly unplayable, not even to mention how unfun this is for everyone in the match. The other perks are then just the best of the rest.
If I now think back on how perks were changed the years before it gives me anxiety to see those viable perks being trashed instead of focusing on how to make the 80% of unviable perks useful. Cause this is how it was handled before, trashing the viable perks, while fake-buffing unviable perks to be still unviable. Or you get some stupid new design that just creates more obviously issues like Boil Over.
So from the announcement it looks like those viable perks get changed. That would be the exactly wrong way on how to give perk variety a rise. But this is probably the BHVR way of doing things. If this will happen, we can still pray theyve learned their lesson now, it will most likely come to a big player loss like its happening due to the worst executed change of all times: MMR.
0 -
"How to not interpret statistics"
Using the fact killers run BBQ for points more than auras to say BBQ is meta.
3 -
This thread appears to assume that the identified perks will be nerfed. There is also the possibility that the bonus BP will become basekit and the aura effect will get buffed, creating a stronger, less mandatory perk.
Let's wait for the proposed changes before we cry wolf.
7 -
They did say that they are aware and are looking into why people use the meta and will make base change adjustments to compensate
0 -
Seeing as it is so many perks I found myself wondering if the future baseline is "no perk balance" - and consequently no perk being allowed to significantly change that balance one way or the other; perks essentially being gimmicks and supposed to accomodate personal preferences without having a massive, game deciding impact (think Lightborn, Shadowborn, Lethal Pursuer, Pharmacy, Flashbang, Hope etc. ). And I have to say I don't hate the idea.
As for the big perk categories; In case of gen-regression perks that means base game needs some kind of mechanic that ensures a match has a minimum duration; a duration long enough to reach at least a draw if well played. In terms of second chance perks - especially those that are not about chase but about hook stages (especially bt and ds) - this means a match should have a minimum meaningful match-time for a survivor (aka not timed out or dead) - even if they are tunneled and camped. No idea how they want to accomplish that (or if that's even possible) - but if they somehow manage to do it then that'd be awesome.
1
