Long term - Individual Survivors having Individual Base Statistics
Though it was perhaps not originally envisaged this way, it's not really such a great design, that essentially you are always playing as just "the survivor" with a random looks and a few random tweaks.
Right now. I can have 10 perks at purple and have 10 survivors with identical builds. Doesn't mean anything.
And yes, I know the game is about grinding and bloodwebs and more perks, but... how pointless. There's no genuine character differentiation in the gameplay - clothes and cosmetics are essentially just a paste over. More so, I can play survivor well with few or so-so perks equipped and just ok with the best perks on.
Right now, once I have a lot of perks done, the entire character loading should be different. Perks first, then character and whatever other filler.
This game does lore, narrative and cosmetic things well, but it translates poorly with never ending cycles of fidgeting around with perks.
By way of background.
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Individual Survivors actually being Individual Characters
In summary, incorporate elements of their lore (as currently seen through perks) into the character themselves.
Firstly, you get a list of ALL the game variants, eg. generators, running, healing, crawling, healing, lockers, etc etc etc and you allocate different variables to each character.
Then you apply a selection of the most appropriate elements to each survivors in different ways. Two positive and one negative - realistic.
There are many possibilities. Focus is on adaptable and variable amounts - base mechanics. The idea is that each character has an actually distinct focus. Some examples with example numbers.
Dwight
- + 4% increase to generator speed
- + 3% increase to helping others
- - 5% speed increase of hook timer
Meg
- + 3% running speed
- + 75% noise reduction vaulting windows and pallets
- - 75% increase in difficult skill checks
Claudette
- + 25% increase in speed of healing others
- + 15% slower dying speed while on hook
- - 5% reduction to gen repair speed
Jake
- + 50% noise reduction when injured
- + 25% increase in speed of unhooking others
- - 15% increase to time taken to heal
Nea
- + 80% reduction to delays after falling
- + 10% increase to walking speed
- - 15% reduced item consumption
Perks
Now that we've essentially given each character their own basekit, what then for perks?
Consider seperating perks from survivors all together.
Perks essentially become a litttle something extra but do not adapt the base mechanics. Do a massive overhaul and cull, so they turn into non-character specific bonuses that can be of assistance. Should be of the nature - when X happens, then Y. Doesn't have to be a set total number. Each survivor gets one or two perk slots. Option to randomise.
Examples:
- See auras when close.
- See injured auras.
- Heal one health state when....
- Sabotage hooks.
- Influence birds.
Comments
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No.
This would just create a Meta for Survivors. And would lower the variety of Survivors used even more. Some Survivors are used A LOT, while you dont see others at all. If those would have bad base statistics, they would be even more rare to see.
And what about players who play a certain Survivor a lot and got a lot of cosmetics on them? If this Survivor gets base statistics which are not that good, you have to decide if you still want to play them or play a better Survivor.
Let alone that some things you mentioned are just their Perks put into the Basekit. Which is easy for the first few Survivors, but will become really hard for the newer Survivors.
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Some good points.
All the survivors would be as best balanced as possible so that each had a distinct but moderate advantage. There is no reason any particular survivor should have a bad base. The overall idea is that you'd have a generally decent spread of used survivors. Some survivors are a little more generalist and some are a little more specialist - that's ok. You can have a go-to team you prefer and maybe try a new survivor. There will always be some used more than others, but the idea is that there is some level of balance.
The survivor should have a base that gives them a slight advantage related to their lore. Not crazy strong, nor terribly weak. Just solidly decent without being outstanding. How it should theoretically be now for every survivor. Think of it like that survivors have "abilities", similar to how killers have them.
Maybe some survivors have 3 smaller bonuses compared to 2 moderate ones. The above is not exact, just the sort of direction. Another example might be you can have different levels. One character does gens 2% faster, one character 3% and Dwight 5%.
I do though take your point that say you have a lot of looks that you like on Yui but now her character has a set of variables that does focus somewhat explicitly on blood trails, dropped pallets and helpless survivors; while you prefer to run Dead Hard, Spine Chill, Borrowed Time... then sure, maybe it's not absolutely ideal. You can still pick a couple of "new" perks that would assist in the way you like.
I would still suggest that cosmetics should take second place to a consideration of improved overall, long term game experience. Stepping back - if I pick to play Yui, it really should be because she has a focus on blood trails, dropped pallets and helpless survivors and I play to leaning to that strength. That she does or doesn't have cosmetics should be a secondary issue. I think the cosmetics are fun, but they aren't the gameplay.
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My answer to this will always be "no", just because of how the game has been operating for the last 6 years.
If it was done from the beginning like in Identity V then I wouldn't mind it.
Doing something like this at this time would require a lot of effort and way more balancing than current perk system.
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I see where you are coming from though respectfully disagree for the most part.
This game is hardly bringing in sustainable growing new audiences, as we can see by some user stats shared on another thread. There are really only SO many costumes people need time and time again. Maybe the devs should do a costume spin off, rather than a dating one.
Just because something has been operating for X period of time doesn't mean it should always and always be so. Games (or anything) that can continually innovate and refresh while keeping the overall goal in sight will continue to refresh and find new audiences. In this case, the goal is complete the gens, open the gate and leave. That's it. Almost anything within that overarching thing should be thought about. Even if my change goes through, you can still largely play as you currently do, but depending on who you pick, you get a medium boost and a small kick.
They are apparently a sizeable team of devs and it would be no different to the effort of what they've talked about coming up. And goodness, there are loads of independent teams of developers who push out updates to things far more continuously and frequently than here.
Do disagree that it would take more balancing than the current perk system. 28+ basekits that once done should stay pretty stable. A roster of 30-40? "booster perks" that can just be taken from current perks and should be decent enough to not need constant balancing passes, as the items should relate more to constants and niche things, than whole of character performance. If someone wants to give me a bunch of $, I'll do a whole draft model myself.
Character releases are far easier, as you just need to pick a series of stats that aren't well covered so far and then make a story around them.
The whole thing will take some time to do once and then much easier into the long term, rather than let's go over "28x3 plus another 20? perks" and then rebalance as a new meta comes out every time.
In the future, you can even have a paid addon, where you can build your own characters with a bunch of given options. That would be interesting.
This is a progression from the current system for survivors - remember, they are functionally identical, the devs have said. What a waste. I can bring my top fav dressed characters with similar builds every time over and over. Wow.
Not everyone has to love change but if you bring the people along, then it can be managed.
My idea is something that could be beneficial for the game into the future. It's just an idea. If it never gets taken up, then so be it.
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Maybe, as an alternative option, you can do something like how the Killers have addons that reflect their teachable perks. Have Survivor specific item addons that can give that Survivor a boost when using that item. Some rough examples could be a Map addon for Tapp that adds things to it a la Detective's Hunch, or an addon for Dwight that makes a toolbox more efficient when repairing a gen with another Survivor, a Key addon for Claudette specifically for tracking injured teammates, and so on?
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I kind of wanna play a survivor for there looks. not there stats.
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