http://dbd.game/killswitch
Where does the game go from here?
There was (unsurprisingly) a big jump in the Steamcharts player count during the anniversary event. Now it’s pretty much back to the pre-event player count. Where do you think the player count goes from here? Will it go back into a multi-mint slide like it did before the event, will it hold where it’s at, or will it grow?
For me personally, I haven’t been playing much at all the past few weeks and I got really discouraged after seeing the upcoming changing which are going to be a lot of fun for coordinated SWF but miserable for killers and solo q (both of which are what I usually play). On top of that, the blood point bonus for BBQ and WGLF getting removed made me even less motivated to play. I think we’re probably on the front end of another multi-month player count slide. The meta shakeup and BP grind reduction might be enough to attract and keep some new players, but I feel like a lot of players are getting fed up and playing less often like myself as well.
How is everyone else feeling, and where do you think the player count goes from here?
Comments
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I, too, play solo survivor and killer. The coming update is going to be a disaster for solo queue. I stopped playing today after going against a streamer who was finishing up a 50-game win streak with Doctor. He had a map offering, NOED, Deadlock, No Way Out, Dead Man's Switch, purple Calm and Discipline add-ons. He camped and hard tunneled the first survivor out of the match. I DC'd the moment he downed her the third time and, then, she followed with the DC. It's unplayable and this playstyle has been made even easier with the coming patch. With all the buffs killers are getting, it's going to be a little less cute and a little less tolerable the next time Wraith hits you on the hook or Bubba camps the first survivor he downs, etc.
The streamer, by the way, has numerous 50- and 100-game win streaks on killers playing like this. There are posts on the forum showing his Bubba "playstyle". It's boring and a waste of time. I understand SWF is strong but neglecting solo queue in this way leaves a sour taste in my mouth and I'm not going to be playing survivor, at least, when the update comes.
There is wisdom in crowds at times, and the last update that was hated before it even arrived was the HUD/UI changes that were jammed through last year without playerbase input. The playerbase was right in that instance. It got changed quickly but I don't think that will happen this time. It is a shame.
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I think there is going to be a significant drop after this patch. Some of these gen speed killer builds are going to be boring to go against.
Having endurance hits stack up is nice, but really a delay of the inevitable.
We'll see though. I've been wrong before.
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Killers will gain more players and Survivors will see less players.
Then hopefully they will balance SoloQ and make it somewhat bearable to play.
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I wore myself out playing during the event. I've been wanting to play again, but I'm also feeling like the games have been somewhat of a letdown after the epic games I played during the event. I feel like I'm waiting for the new updates, hoping that I will still want to play dbd after the game gets scrambled. I think the player count will drop off until the new updates arrive. I've noticed the wait time has doubled or tripled since the event ended. None of my friends have even loaded dbd since the last day of the event.
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I think the next few original chapters are going to have to be very good to keep lasting interest in this game. I don't know what licenses they may bring in the future but honestly I don't think there are that many out there that would really be as good or better than the ones we've already gotten. The RE chapter was the best one and they're doing another one instead of going with a different license. If I had to guess its because of how popular the first RE chapter was but honestly I don't think the next one is going to be as popular because its more of a previous license rather than something completely new. We already have Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Saw, Hellraiser, Freddy, Halloween, Sadako, Ash from Evil Dead, Leatherface and Ghostface. These are all big name licenses in one place and yet it seems like its not enough to sustain the games future in the long run. Cool content is fun but if the game itself isn't fun to play then no amount of content is going to change that.
Apart from new chapter content, I think quicker bug fixes and overall game balance are probably as important if not more important than new content. The game is about to change with the overall meta playstyle. A lot of perks are changing and we'll have to wait and see how players respond to it once it goes live. Its going to change the norm which is going to take getting used to. If players like the overall feel of the game then I think that can help sustain the game for awhile too. Ultimately its going to be a combination of cool new content and balance that will determine the game's future.
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I think what is trying to be done with this update is the correct thing. The issue is I don’t think it’s going to play out the way the devs think or hope for.
The second chance/endurance meta will not be used to counter tunnelling as the devs hope- it will be used to make the killer’s job even more difficult. In relation to this given the time it will take to complete a generator, expect even more strong items and prove thyself to become even more meta.
On a similar note, the small buff in chase power and the increase in Gen completion time will still see killers run oppressive slowdown perks because quite simply the more time you have to complete your objective the more likely you are to win. If killers can use builds to force gens to take longer than the new 90 seconds then even if chases still last a bit of time you can commit and grind your opponent down and basically rid the maps of resources to the point where nothing is left. The game will become more attritional and less fun.
Fundamentally I think the philosophical question this update has raised with the game at the moment is how long should gens take vs how long should a normal chase take. And this is where I do feel a little sorry for the devs as it’s very hard to balance these two things out.
If we take the data they referenced at face value and accept that kill rates across the board are too low, then clearly things needed to change. The question then becomes is making survivors hold m1 for longer the best way to go about it? I would say no. However if Gen speeds were left alone, then the tough part is that chases, which are generally considered the most fun and interactive part of the game, would need to be balanced more favourably than they currently are towards the killer. Could anyone see this being popular with the survivor player base? I doubt it. So increasing the time taken to complete a Gen was probably the lesser of the two evils. Especially as the devs seem adamant on not giving survivors another objective (no, I don’t count doing totems).
For me personally though I wish they’d started this shake-up looking at maps first, then individual killers and solo queue and then the perks. Let’s be honest a few OP perks have led to this overhaul. We all know what they are, we don’t need to go over them again. To me the things I mentioned should have been way more of a priority, but perks seem easier to alter so this is what we get.
Some of the changes are really good. Base-kit BT, the reduction in attack cool down and the buff to killer actions are good changes. But changing stuff like calm spirit and then saying that there was no time left to work on Sadako due to the perk overhaul is not what people want to hear.
Post edited by HauntedKnight on0 -
Did a double post so ignore this. Silly me!
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But here is the kicker, Killers already have long queues most of the day in Europe and wouldnt be surprised its the same in the rest of the world, if Solos quit the queues will be longer and if they switch to Killer then even longer, right now you can spend roughly 8-10 minutes between finishing a game and loading into the next as Killer (1 minute loading after exit screen, 3-6 minutes queue, 1 minute waiting for ready up, 30 seconds on offering screen, 1 minute loading the map) imagine if a third of the Solos quit, a third go Killer and the remaining third keep playing.
This will force Killers to quit too.
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I'm going to play SoloQ and see just how bad it is. If it does become even more unbearable than it already is, I'll switch to Killer until the queue times go up so much that I can finally find a new game to play (and support in a monetary way).
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