Totems Update :D
So, everyone keeps mentioning the idea of having tokens to limit the use of boon totems. But, I feel like that's a bit overboard and not particularly great overall for the balance of the game.
While I agree that boons are annoying in the sense that they go on forever, adding an ammo system to them would just make them kind of pointless overall. It'd just be another band aid fix, and one that would only satisfy killers for a limited time without any actual gameplay interaction from the killer side. What if we instead flipped it on it's head.
What if Totem Perks had Lives?
Life counts have been a system in videogame design since the era of arcades. And I feel that this is honestly the solution to boon totems. But not just a system for use with boons, but also hexes. Instead of having limited ammo, have a number of times a singular totem can be stomped on or crushed dependent on the perk.
Currently in the game, every time you snuff a totem as the killer, your character actively stomps on the totem to snuff it. So why does the totem come out unscathed. While some people believe that boons should be instantly destroyed, I would disagree, as the problem with instant destruction to boons(outside of the new perk, which I'll talk about in more detail later) is that it actually gives a similar amount of downside to the killer as it does the survivor. Instantly destroying a totem with a boon attached removes it from the game entirely. While the survivor definitely won't be placing a boon there anymore, it also means less time away from generators. Which is only useful for either side in very specific scenarios, and ends the perk in an instant unsatisfying little crunch with minimal effort for either side of the match. While currently, the boon can just be placed over and over again with no thinking of location or possible repercussions. A common and now fairly consistent use of the healing boon is body blocking plays. A survivor can hold a killer in a chase then swap out with another survivor who placed a healing boon nearby by body blocking, thus holding the chase for a horribly extended period of time while the other two survivors finish generators. If this and the bad placement of totems weren't a consistent issue, boon perks probably wouldn't get the massive amount of complaints that they do.
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The more powerful the perk's effect, the less lives it has. The most lives a perk totem can have would probably be 3, matching the number of skulls on a totem. So a perk with one life would have a totem with a singular skull on top. Hex totems(except for Hex: Pentimento) would have their lives work with their automatic activation. When a survivor cleanses a hex totem, it will go into a dormant state, acting similar a dull totem for a period of time. This change will also make it so survivors won't be able to overwrite a hex with a boon. They will be required to bless it while it's in it's dormant state. A survivor also won't be able to cleanse a dormant hex totem to remove the totem entirely. If the killer snuffs the boon before then, it will return to it's original totem without requiring a time limit. Snuffing a boon totem that was a hex totem will not use one of the totem's charges. A lost life on any totem is permanent. The number of lives/charges a totem is limited to is dependent on the perk connected to it, but is not tied to the perk itself, the number of charges is tied to an individual totem. Dull totems will still be destroyed after cleansing a single time.
Here's some Hex examples:
Hex: Huntress Lullaby-
A Hex rooting its power in despair.
Your hunt is an irresistible song of dread which muddles your prey's attention.
Survivors receive a 2/4/6 % Regression penalty on Failed Skill Checks for Repair and Healing actions.
Hex: Huntress Lullaby grows in power each time you Hook a Survivor, gaining 1 Token, and affecting Repair and Healing Skill Checks:
- 1 Token: shortens the time between the Warning sound and the Skill check by -14 %.
- 2 Tokens: shortens the time between the Warning sound and the Skill check by -28 %.
- 3 Tokens: shortens the time between the Warning sound and the Skill check by -42 %.
- 4 Tokens: shortens the time between the Warning sound and the Skill check by -56 %.
- 5 Tokens: disables the Warning sound.
The power of the Hex weakens the totem, leaving it with 3 charges. If the corresponding totem is cleansed, it loses a charge and becomes Dormant for 10 seconds before regaining it's hex. Survivors are blocked from using the cleanse action on a dormant totem by the entity. The Hex totem will collapse on losing all of it's charges.
The Hex effects persist as long as the related Hex Totem is standing.
Hex: Ruin-
A Hex that affects all Survivor's Generator Repair progress.
All Generators automatically regress at 100/150/200 % of the normal Regression speed whenever they are not being repaired.
The power of the Hex weakens the totem, leaving it with 1 charges. If the corresponding totem is cleansed, it loses a charge and becomes dormant for 60 seconds before regaining it's hex. Survivors are blocked from using the cleanse action on a dormant totem by the entity. The Hex totem will collapse after losing all of it's charges.
The Hex effects persist as long as the related Hex Totem is standing.
Hex: Undying-
A Hex which maintains the vile powers that flow throughout the Trial.
The Auras of Survivors within 2/3/4 metres of any Dull Totem are revealed to you.
- -When another Perk's Hex Totem collapses, its Hex is transferred to the Hex: Undying Totem, including any accumulated Tokens, disabling Hex: Undying instead.
- -The transferred hex will be limited to it's maximum totem charges.
A hex transfer can still occur while this Hex's totem is dormant or blessed, and will overwrite any boon placed on the dormant totem.
The power of the Hex weakens the totem, leaving it with 2 charges. If the corresponding totem is cleansed, it loses a charge and becomes dormant for 10 seconds before regaining it's hex. Survivors are blocked from using the cleanse action on a dormant totem by the entity. The Hex totem will collapse after losing all of it's charges.
The Hex effects persist as long as the related Hex Totem is standing.
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Boon perks will still require the survivor to actively place it after snuffing. However, the totem charges will not be transferred with the boon perk. If you place a boon perk on a totem and it loses a charge from a killer snuffing it, it will have it's full number of charges on another totem, however, the totem that was snuffed will have reduced charges unless it was a hex effected totem. Hex charges always overwrite boon charges. You can't speed up the death of a hex with a boon, and vice versa. If you were to boon a totem and move it to another, it would not lose a life.
Here's some Boon examples:
Boon: Exponential-
When it seems like your number is up, you consider ways to recalculate the odds.
Press and hold the Active Ability button near a Dull or Hex Totem to bless it and create a Boon Totem.
Soft chimes ring out within a radius of 24 metres.
Survivors inside the Boon Totem's range benefit from the following effects:
- -90/95/100 % bonus to the Recovery speed.
- -Unlocks the Self-Recovery ability, allowing you to fully recover from the Dying State.
You can only bless one Totem at a time. The power of the boon weakens the totem, leaving it with 3 charges. If the corresponding totem is cleansed, it loses a charge and becomes a dull totem. A totem's charges are not effected by blessing it a second time.
All equipped Boon Perks are active on the same Boon Totem. If the survivor has multiple Boon Perks, the totem is limited to the lowest number of charges between the perks.
Boon: Circle of Healing-
A Boon that offers comfort amidst the terror.
Press and hold the Active Ability button near a Dull or Hex Totem to bless it and create a Boon Totem.
Soft chimes ring out within a radius of 24 metres.
Survivors inside the Boon Totem's range benefit from the following effects:
- -40/45/50 % bonus to all Healing speeds.
- -Unlocks the Self-Care ability, allowing to self-heal without needing a Med-Kit.
- -Reduces Personal Healing speed by -50 %.
- -Benefits from the general Healing Speed bonus.
Boon: Circle of Healing does not stack with other instances of itself.
You can only bless one Totem at a time. The power of the boon weakens the totem, leaving it with 2 charges. If the corresponding totem is cleansed, it loses a charge and becomes a dull totem. A totem's charges are not effected by blessing it a second time.
All equipped Boon Perks are active on the same Boon Totem. If the survivor has multiple Boon Perks, the totem is limited to the lowest number of charges between the perks.
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Why?
I feel like this combats a lot of issues with the totem based perks and even opens up some possibilities for future hex or boon perks.
For example, Boon: Circle of Healing is a perk that's used over and over again for healing in the terror radius of the killer while a teammate is in chase. It can be used constantly within range of the killer to compliment body blocking to an unfair degree, especially if the killer is trying to focus on downing a certain survivor after a long chase. Also, Killers aren't actively seeking out boon totems as there's no active advantage to doing so, and that will still commonly be the case with this new totem mechanic since searching for the boon totems will use up time. And the effects are in a certain specific radius and will usually only be found quickly if a survivor leads the killer to the boon. So this will encourage the survivor to use the boon perks more effectively and limit how much contact the killer makes with them, while still having infinite usage of the perk as long as there are totems still available on the map. This is also a mechanic that I feel is a lot more balanced than simply destroying a totem immediately after snuffing the boon as base-kit or adding an ammo system. As the amount of time a totem can have effects will depend on both sides. There will now be counterplay for both boon and hex totems without it being a simple interact to instant kill system. This also sticks to the overall themes that both perk mechanics are attempting to stick to. Hex totems will still have a map-wide radius and powerful effects while having the massive weakness of being removed along with it's totem. While Boon totems will still have a radius advantage within an area as long as the killer doesn't notice it and stop the effect for a period of time. And since a perk's charges are directly dependent on independent totems it still plays into each perk's intended advantage without giving many openings for players to abuse them. Boon totems will also no longer be able to be abused around back areas in the same way. For example, the totem on the RPD library second floor can no longer be abused. If the survivors lead the killer to the totem, they'll lose charges on that totem, eventually leading to that totem being destroyed. A killer's hex perks will still be limited to the totem it's attached to at the beginning of the match. And survivors can still transfer their boon perk between totems to create safe-zones. Also, the new perk, Shattered Hope, can still fully work as intended with this system, immediately removing all of a totem's charges by snuffing it once.
Also, seeing the model of the totems changing dependent on the charges would be interesting. The number of intact skulls on the totem indicating it's charges:
- Totem with 3 charges= 3 intact skulls
- Totem with 2 charges= 2 intact skulls & 1 crushed skull
- Totem with 1 charge= 1 intact skull & 2 crushed skulls
You get the idea as far as visual design of the totem is concerned.
That's my overall idea. Obviously some perks may have different interactions with this system dependent on their effects, which isn't too strange. Please feel free to comment on this mechanic idea as I'd love to hear people's thoughts.
Comments
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I understand the hex part of the equation, but not the boon. You have to snuff the totem 2-3 times to get rid of the boon? What happens if you bless a hex totem?
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You wouldn't be able to bless a hex totem directly. However, you can bless a dormant totem. To bless a totem you'd first have to do a cleansing action on a hex totem, which would work only if the hex has multiple charges. You would also be able to tell if a hex has multiple lives based on the number of skulls that are intact on the totem, giving you an immediate visual to see if that hex is actually one you can bless. For example, Hex: Ruin, being immensely powerful and consistent, would still only have one charge. The moment it's cleansed it's gone(unless you use it with undying of course). And you would see that it has only one skull and know that blessing that totem isn't an option.
This is just an idea though & not all the details for it are thought out exactly. This is to prevent immediate and permanent hex to boon/dull actions. And if a hex totem loses all it's charges the totem is destroyed. There might end up being a boon perk available as a possibility in the future with these new totem mechanics that would allow you to really quickly turn a dormant totem into a blessed one or to revive a certain number of broken totems as temporary boons. After all, a killer would be unlikely to go towards an already broken totem in most situations.
However, with this mechanic it would also be something you might not want to do, since not only will getting rid of the hex alert the killer to your location, it'd also give them a quick immediate snuff as they would have probably come towards that totem to catch you after hearing the notificiation. The idea is that blessing a totem is best when the killer doesn't directly know where you are when you bless it. Which is pretty clearly already intended to be the case seeing as the killer can actively snuff boons and grab survivors off them.
Also, snuffing a boon no matter when removes the boon like it does normally, but also removes a charge. It's sorta like hooking a survivor multiple times. The last snuff of a specific blessed totem destroys the totem, but doesn't remove the boon perk.
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Okay. Thank you for clarifying! I think it's a unique idea that I've not seen before. I'm not sure how consistently anyone could determine what boon is strong or weak in order to figure out how many charges it saps from a particular totem. Exponential is on the weaker side, but shines on two floor maps for example. But that's a rather small detail. It's a very clever way to make boons a more limited resource, it's thematic and makes hexes a more enduring presence than they currently are. I like it!
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^-^ Glad to hear you like the idea. And honestly, I had been thinking about the whole boon situation for a while before posting this idea. I've developed a bit of a habit to look for any ways I feel could improve the games I play, since I'm working towards being a game dev myself. And obviously it's not a perfect idea, if it were added or considered as a possible mechanic, it would have to be fleshed out on a somewhat more case-by-case basis.
Also, ik I'm a bit biased. But I personally feel this is a really good mechanic idea... ^-^; don't take my opinion on it too seriously. XD
Also, another thing that I was really thinking about was the fact that dbd kinda needs more base-game tweaks. Bandaid fixes are honestly a massive part of this game's development. And based on the recent livestream, I'm really happy that they're going through and reworking the entire game balance and menu systems. Thats actually the main reason I decided to post this idea, thought if any time it'd at all pull attention or get out there, it'd be right after tons of massive update announcements & a ptb.
Also, to sorta respond to the comment on how the powers of the perks would be determined. Honestly, I feel it would depend on two or three major factors. They're strength I assume would probably be based on; Perk strength in match(the amount of pressure the perk offers in game), how effective the boon perk is at hidden usage(so, Boon: Exponential is one of those ones that is very hard/situational not to place near the killer for consistent use. As you mentioned, it's very powerful on 2 floor maps, but that is very case-by-case. So Exponential would likely have the maximum of 3 charge allowance, since it is very hard to use without the killer quickly noticing in most situations), as well as possibly the factor of the Boon perk's effective range. The first two factors would probably hold the most weight in deciding. Also, due to the nature of boon perks as short term transferrable effects, they also probably won't ever have only a singular charge per totem, as that would essentially remove the main effective strategy & use of boon perks.
Also, imagine having new unique perks along with this system. ^w^! One killer perk Idea I had was possibly a charge build-up perk. So, each time you hook a survivor for the first time, you gain a token up to a limit of 4. And these perk tokens you could bring to a still-standing hex totem to add charges. Each time you add a charge, it forces the hex perk into it's dormant state before gaining the extra charge. I feel this would be really interesting for high-mobility killers.
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I don't know about either Hex totems or Boon totems acting in this way.
We learned from old Undying just how horrendously powerful needing to cleanse more than one totem for a hex is - and this services to cast a shadow of that into the game once more.
Moreover, it needlessly convolutes the system, too many instances to calculate and compounded interactions to predict. It's far too complex.
Hex totems - they exist. Once cleansed, the totem breaks and the perk is removed from play.
Simple enough and has worked well for half a decade.
Boons should mimic this and, after being placed - once cleansed, the totem breaks and the perk is removed from play.
The only reason this is not the case at the moment is because the Boon benefits are far too mediocre and lackluster that such a hard counter would place them six feet under. If Boon totems were allowed to be incredibly powerful and provide incredible bonuses to the team - but once they are removed by the killer, they are gone for good - it would still see the light of day and would be enjoyed by both sides as a part of the game.
If a survivor sets up a Boon totem, and the killer snuffs it instantly, that's tough luck - just as for the past 5 years Killers have been spawning into matches and having their perks removed from the match before they can even enter chase.
If it aint broke, don't fix it.
If it's broke, why are you breaking the fixed thing to make them match?
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You want to give some of the strongest perks in the game 3 chances? You're basically just reintroducing old Ruin-Undying back into the game.
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I don’t know that your fully understanding the idea. Not all perks will have 3 lives, the hex perks are likely not going to have more than one unless they’re really weak in effect. Ruin will still only be around for one totem cleanse. As totem cleansing takes a fair amount of time. Hex perks are more likely to have fewer totem charges due to their powerful effects, and it’s not like the hex perk can be transferred. This isn’t an ammo system after all, it’s not intended to change the general effects of hex & boon perks. And I detailed something about how the charges act with hex: undying.
So, I don’t particularly see your point.
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I think I prefer the idea of having hex perks do more. It fits with the high risk high reward playstyle of using them. Take Lullaby for example, wouldn't it be nicer if it was just a straight up no skill check warning?
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This concept essentially just makes them perks which you can sort of turn on and off and as a survivor, my main issue is gens and what I need to do to get them done, not a whole system of do totems have charges. There is a new level of gameplay complexity which could be too much.
It's almost a sort of minigame with items that often might not be found. You would almost need to have the totems in more obvious positions in many cases.
I think this is not a bad concept in theory but it's adding another element of gameplay placed over the top of a flawed premise and that is that perks should very likely not be attached to totems at all. Right solution for the wrong problem, maybe.
It also means you have to keep balance the perks AND how they interact with totems AND the totem system itself. It's too much and is not the best use of dev time.
Here is my concept for totems. Your ideas actually could work in ok.
In fact, your descriptions could almost be the "new" perks in themselves.
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Honestly, I don't know. However, the totems idea I posted here was also meant to be a possible idea for if they ever looked at the base gameplay elements, which totems are. Overall, I'm just happy if they figure out a way to balance the game with overall mechanics that are a bit more dynamic and less "sit at an object for the entire match."
On the note of base mechanics, I also have another idea in mind that I might post about generator repairs. Which isn't likely to be a mechanic they change overall, but it's something that I feel should be taken a look at.
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The totems in more consistent positions is something that has been suggested a fairly large amount. Seeing as BHVR seems to be working on worthwhile changes now, and seem to be releasing more consistently fair maps/map reworks, I think it's fairly likely that they will improve the totem placement in the game to fit the base game mechanics a bit better, since one of the biggest problems about totems is they are so out of the way of the in-game goal.
Also, keeping balance with the perks shouldn't be an issue. & since BHVR announced an entire perk balance rework, I don't think they want to keep falling short when it comes to game balance. 40 perks isn't nothing to scoff at. & if they don't do well balancing... oh well, it's game, if it gets too frustrating we can just play other games.
& as far as your totem idea is concerned, I don't know that I particularly agree with this. The whole idea behind hex perks is that they are hexes. Negative spells placed by the being who has the spell. Same with boons. If they fix the perk balance and the totem locations, the game would immediately be way better on it's own without either of our ideas. The totems are placed there with the full design of being something characters should interact with of their own accord. I feel that turning the totems into only base mechanic will not only piss off tons of people, but will also completely stray from the theme of the totems. I will still play the game if totems become something like your idea, and will still enjoy it. I don't think hexes and boons at base are flawed, they're flawed by a failure to apply them with good locational and effect balance. If they were to put some attention to these base-game/map elements, which they seem to be going in that direction now anyways(as they have not only reworked Haddonfield, but are also reworking RPD), the hexes and boons could be incredibly good mechanics without the problems we constantly see.
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Sorry, this is just tokens with extra steps, and further confuses the fact that Hexes and Boons are different mechanics that both happen to revolve around totems.
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