Visit the Kill Switch Master List for more information on these and other current known issues: https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/kb/articles/299-kill-switch-master-list
We encourage you to be as honest as possible in letting us know how you feel about the game. The information and answers provided are anonymous, not shared with any third-party, and will not be used for purposes other than survey analysis.
Access the survey HERE!
Thoughts about Map Design?
What are your thoughts and observations on overall map design?
For me, it is that maps with Dead zones in the middle tend to favor survivors because they have to head to the edges of the map which waste more time for the killer.
Comments
-
They should rework the og maps again, they have soo many deadzones. Newer maps have a nice mix.
4 -
Map design is and always has been the number 1 biggest issue in the game.
The majority of maps are way too large and tiles too strong lacking realistic mind games once the pallet is thrown which in turn makes most pallets auto breaks.
12 -
They reached their peak a long time ago.
We have nothing but scraps now, both old and new.
6 -
They should completely rework the formats of some maps
Ie Azarovs resting place and sanctum of wrath
I hate the way they play because everything feels like it happens on one side and also allows for the easiest 3 gen strategies in the game
0 -
Uhhh Shelter Woods would like to have a word with you
1 -
Shelter Woods is just one huge dead zone. The only thing that survivors can really do is hold w and hope the killer is not a mobile one.
0 -
Map design is DbD's biggest issue
5 -
A nice mix of God windows and safe loops.
2 -
I actually like playing against Blight/Billy on Shelter Woods. Lots of space for them to use their power predictably, allowing me to dodge. I can't 360 to save my life, so I prefer killers with mobility on maps like Shelter Woods.
0 -
It’s the biggest issue the game has and unfortunately will either take a long time to fix or never will be fixed.
1 -
They need to re do the maps again... Gen placements, Totem placements, Tile Placements, Spawns for both sides...
1 -
Depends on the map, garden of joy would be a pretty good map imo if they deleted the main house windows
0 -
Map design is probably the biggest problem in the game and its not easy to fix because many big problems emanate from very different minor problems. The first step to fixing map design is standardize the maps, right now there is way too much differences between them in many fields: size (big vs small), defense philosophy (pallet centric vs window centric), main buildings (strong vs weak), gen disposition (cluster/football vs spread) and a lot of other situations.
Lets take defense philosphy for example, you want to nerf windows and to compensate buffing pallets? then The Game or Ormond get unbearable for Killers because they have already a ton of pallets and then Haddonfield and Lery get unbearable for Survivors because they have barely any pallets but very strong windows. Now size, want to buff mobility on all Killers because in big maps everyone has a hard time? then Coal Tower becomes an even bigger cakewalk.
And this with all maps, now if they where more similar between them, not identical, just less disparity between them things could be fixed without making certain maps a chore for either side.
Now I doubt theyll standardize the maps because its a massive amount of work and they have never ever show any kind of acknowledgement the maps are the biggest issue, the reworks have fixed some minor stuff like some infinite loops or certain glaring flaws and nothing else but other reworks just made stuff way way worse.
0 -
I think the map designers tend to favor form and theme over balance. A lot of maps have these massive structures with strong windows that I'm sure look cool, but there's nothing stopping a high level survivor from running that window until the Entity blocker kicks in every chase. Or in the case of the MacMillan maps, large square structures that survivors can hold W around for 30 seconds at a time and force M1 killers to bloodlust.
A lot of map assets/tiles aren't tuned around high MMR at all. Take Groaning Storehouse for instance with the long skinny portion of the map with the random tile and exit gate that typically spawns there and the burned out water tower in front of it. I'm sure every play tester at BHVR runs to the tile and waits for the killer to close the distance. A high MMR survivor runs around the water tower for 30+ seconds and then plays the tile at the end. You can't have a massive square structure with no cutoff route in high MMR play. But maps have these.
Another example: long wall jungle gyms on the Coldwind maps. They have an L shape on one end. This pretty much guarantees a fast vault for the survivor or a successful mindgame before they even have to play the pallet portion of the tile. 90% of survivors don't even know to just play the window by itself and split long wall jungle gyms into two separate tiles against M1 killers. You can't have an L shaped long wall at high level play.
If they want maps to favor certain builds or playstyles, fine. But you need to rework the lobby system then. Nothing is more frustrating than queuing up as Huntress and getting The Game or Lerys. Or running Bamboozle and getting The Game. Or running Balanced Landing and getting Shelter Woods. "Whoops! Your killer choice/loadout is useless!" If you insist on your maps being a balance catastrophe, let us make informed decisions about what we're playing on the maps.
3 -
This game has one of the worst map designs of any major game out there.
2 -
Tbh, I don't they'll ever be able to please everyone with maps. The issue is that there's such a broad range of killers/abilities/perks in use that there's no way to truly 'standardize' map size/tile placement, etc. which benefits every killer and survivor. Look at indoor maps, for example Lery's, which is really good for stealth killers but an absolute nightmare for range killers like Huntress or Deathslinger.
I think the Haddonfield rework is promising as it now feels balanced: there are a couple of 'god' pallets for survivors, but then large dead zones and easily mind-gamed pallets. Plus, in BHVR's defense, they do listen to feedback as they removed that infinite off main building on Swamp (forgot which map: Grim Pantry I think?).
Moving forward, I think they just need to not make ridiculously big maps (Temple) or ones with overly convoluted layouts (RPD!!!) and improve gen layouts and totem spawns.
0 -
What would be an example of a fun loop?
0 -
I just play the game.
0 -
Like others said there are many problems:
- map sizes are too different
- you need a good chasing power for many loops
- maps dont take killer into account: no hiding spots for bear traps, only short wall loops which are useless against trickster, etc.
The strength of map offerings is a good indicator, how unbalanced maps are.
0 -
This content has been removed.
-
Poor map design/tile placement is the reason we get so many band aid fixes in the form of perks. The maps are beautiful of course. However, there are too many safe tiles.
My suggestion is either make all the tiles safe but reduce the number of them. One survivor who knows how to run a safe tile can easily eat up 30-40s+ of the killer time at any one of these. So rework the maps to make less of them so a survivor can't run a killer for so long, and when the killer kicks the pallet the survivor can get to another safe tile to rinse/repeat. Spacing them out properly will balance the maps.
The other idea is to remove all safe tiles and replace them with more but mind-gameable tiles. Give each side a 50/50 chance at each tile. If one sides loses the chase, there is another tile nearby and they can try again.
0
