Perk overhaul: specific feedback
On the whole, I’m really impressed with both the perk adjustments and the basekit changes! I have no complaints about most of them, so I’ll only mention the ones I’m concerned about here.
NOED
I love the way the rework encourages players to seek out the totem and make last minute rescues. However, there are still some aspects of the perk that prevent this counterplay.
Firstly, the time it takes to find and cleanse NOED can easily outlast the time it takes for someone on second hook to die. Secondly, I’ve been in scenarios where the hex totem spawned very close to a survivor that the killer was camping. In both these situations, NOED makes ditching the hooked survivor the only logical strategy.
Please consider the following suggestions:
- Add safe radius around the hex totem and/or hooked survivors where NOED is not active.
- Give NOED the downside of slowing hook timer progression by X/X/X percent.
Off the record
Since Decisive Strike is disabled when the exit gates are powered, the same should be true for Off The Record, for the same reasons. Plus, consistency is good!
Overcharge
As you might have seen, many are worried this will stack with Call of Brine for 600% regression. I think that the perks will still have good synergy even if the regression doesn’t stack, since hitting Overcharge’s skill check will trigger a Call of Brine notification.
Calm Spirit
I like the idea of adding more utility to the perk to make it more appealing. However, I don’t think the appeal of the benefits outweigh how unappealing the downsides are. The reduced chest/totem noises would appeal most to people running rummage/boon builds (respectively), but the harsh speed penalties are disharmonious with those gameplay styles.
The current Calm Spirit has very niche, situational appeal. The additional benefit being added is also very niche and situational, but comes with its own set of hefty downsides. This consequently feels like its own niche perk attached to an existing one, and many seem to consider that unwanted baggage.
Sole Survivor
The added benefits to this perk make it much more useful for escaping as the last remaining survivor. However, this isn’t necessarily a good thing if they have teammates on the hook! The changes to hatch spawns a while back were greatly beneficial in how they disincentivized letting teammates die in order to escape, but it still happens, and this perk may encourage that strategy even more.
One possible solution would be to make this a survivor counterpart of Fire Up: for each dead teammate, a token is gained that increases gate/generator speeds, with the max being the respective 75/50 percent bonuses already proposed. The spirit of the perk (gaining power by outlasting others) remains, but the perk will still have some utility if the player helps to keep one or two teammates are alive. This would also have the added bonus of functioning as a comeback mechanic for those early-game DCs.
Camping and tUnneling
Not a perk topic, but important nonetheless. I think it’s crucial to acknowledge how game changing the basekit Endurance and Haste effects on unhook are. It’s a recognition of the fact that certain killer play styles are inherently detrimental to the experience of the survivor. Thank you so much for that!
While the proposed changes do much to combat tunnelling, it feels like camping was not addressed in the same way. As Otzdarva has pointed out, the global nerf to gen repair speeds is an implicit buff to camping, since the intended counterplay for camping is simply doing gens.
Please consider adding a hook timer slowdown when the killer is in the vicinity of the hook outside of chase. This is what Otz recommended, and I believe it will be massively beneficial to survivor enjoyment and overall gameplay variety.
Thank you for your time and attention!