Theory for Why BHVR Delays Solo Q Buffs
Theory: BHVR delays improving the solo queue experience because they want to incentivize survivors to play swf which would generate more profit.
A miserable solo q player wants to swf and so introduces the game to their friends, bringing in more sales, etc.. This wouldn’t happen if they made solo queue viable and fun to play.
What do you guys think? Is this plausible?
Comments
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My theory is they didnt expect Solo to plummet the way it did and they didnt expect the changes would be as needed as they are so they were left on the backburner.
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It's because solo survivor is the silent majority,
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What was that about soloq buffs that are due next year ? I think people were mentioning something about this. Like devs already working on something.
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The reason is because BHVR is really slow at doing anything. That's it, that's the reason.
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Because they know they would simultaneous need to release significant killer buffs. That’s a lot to prepare for one patch.
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I wish that the devs could be more clear if they are planning to buff soloQ or at least if they are aware of the poor state it is.
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It depends. I dont see the stronger killers being affected by soloQ improvements.
But they really need to buff those weak M1 killers like trapper and ghostface
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Well the issue is when we say “weaker killers” that’s like 90% of the killer roster.
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The issue is also that the 10% are also killers with extremely Game-breaking powers, Overpowered addons, laughable counterplay if use effective.
There is no buff possible that could ever make a trapper or a ghostface be at the same level to current Nurse or Blight.
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On one hand it makes sense...
But on the other hand it's most likely BHVR being slow and not realizing that Solo queue is bad
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They have to know how bad it is though, the community has been telling them for years. It's so strange they would just ignore the majority of their playerbase though, not exactly good business practice. They should be making it their top priority imo.
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Don't think this makes sense, you generally want to avoid miserable gameplay experiences, in general a survivor that is not having fun will most likely leave the game over trying to SWF in desperate hopes that it will make the game more enjoyable. I doubt BHVR is intentionally delaying changes to make solo players miserable - intentionally steering players toward not having fun is not good for player retention. If they are intentionally delaying changes it is more likely because they prefer to prioritize releasing a new chapter every so often, which is good for bringing in new players (especially if licensed) and money.
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They’ll never be a nurse but that also isn’t what anyone is asking for, simply to take them from F tier to A which is reasonable. I also wouldn’t say those 10% aren’t nearly as oppressive as you make them sound, most those top 10% are simply viable against good survivors.
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90% of the killer roster are not F tier, and that 10% are oppressive. The "X killer is viable against good survivors" usually translates to "I can destroy anyone except the 4man comp SWF that comes 1 every 100 games".
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One issue with your reasoning, a SWF has a much more likelihood of retaining friends to play over a solo survivor.
As someone who has tried (and failed) multiple times to get friends to play, unless we have a full SWF (or even enough people for a full KYF match for practice) protecting them and showing them the ropes, its way too rough for the new player. They are often the "weak link" which, they would be being new, but that means they usually get a quick 3 hooks and have to sit in the lobby and wait for the rest of the match.
There is only so many games of this they can handle before they decide to move on to playing something else.
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I wasn’t saying 90% are F tier, I was referencing Trapper since that’s what you mentioned. Except for a really good nurse the top 10% are not oppressive at all. I don’t mean viable by a 4 man comp squad, I mean viable by just an equally skilled survivor group.
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I am a serial SoloQ and if I had any friends I doubt I'd ever even admit to playing this game unless they brought it up first.
Telling a friend that this game is fun is akin to tell them smoking is healthy.
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Or because it's not as bad as people claim?
Like the balance isnt actually bad, what's bad is you'll get mismatched (SBMM issue) or someone will give up/DC for X stupid reason ruining the game.
It's rare (for me at least) I can say the killer won due to their skill when most of the time I can say my team was massively inefficient or gave up.
Dont get me wrong theres definitely issues but actual balance? Nah it's the issues I mentioned above.
It's also worth mentioning people remember the losses more than the wins as even I do this. I escape far more than I lose, and I have mega easy games too but the worst games and losses stick in my mind more. Hell look at my post history, alot of complaints about SBMM or people giving up.
But alot of solo Q players expect to be able to mess around, be inefficient and run random builds and not have to try their hardest meanwhile most killers will be trying their hardest to win and often run things the survivors dont like (slowdowns). And should the team with members not trying beat the one who is? Just because you yourself is playing well doesnt mean your team are and that's why you may lose, not imbalances just a bad team likely due to matchmaking or entitlement
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BVHR has said there's no need for a buff, "The average SWF group, which makes up the vast majority of SWF groups, has little to no discernable difference compared to solo players (within a few %)."
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TBH I'd agree. SWF doesn't make for wins, I've played always as a duo, but many times (before everyone quit) as a 4 man and we would still lose to 4k the majority of games.
There's a few people who dedicate their life to this game and they are the ones that make sweaty games. Swf doesn't help hardly at all when you're in a chase.
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And to answer the OP's question: BHVR really has to thread the needle if they want to make solo queue more fun without buffing it a ton or nerfing killer a ton.
They paint themselves into a corner a bit when they dig their heels in on matchmaking and map balance. There's only so much they can change when the best players are rarely if ever going to face each other and they crank out these map balance oddities. It's 2022 and Trickster still has trouble initiating chase at some tiles on Cowshed.
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They really won't honestly. Like sure they definitely need to look at maps in particular, and low tier killers need buffs, but they won't have to do that all in the same patch. I would be happy if they just looked at the most problematic maps in the same patch they release solo queue buffs, but that's it.
Clearly solo queue improvements like icons showing what every survivor is doing won't destroy the game's blanace in any way. Strong killers are definitely capable to deal with the most swf survivor groups, even if the odds of them winning isn't always a perfect 50 : 50.
Not to mention solo queue will still be troubled because of matchmaking, most survivor teams will therefor still not be even close to the top swf survivor teams.
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I think its because if you give soloq base-kit kindred or base-kit global bond, it invalidates a large chunk of survivor perks in the game that you now need rework. My suggestion is to purpose all those perks into killer wall-hack perks that briefly show the killer aura. I think its just a lot of work.
I mean they buffed trapper last year. they gave him 2 traps base-kit and reworked his add-on's. It fixed absolutely nothing for what is wrong with trapper, but hey, it's progress I guess. Main problem with most of the killer is lack of skill expression in using their ability. Most of the killer have one dimensional powers with shallow skill-floors. Take Otz who is supposedly trapper main. How much better is Otz trapper compare to another player who has played trapper for 50 games? There is like no additional potency that makes you go like: Wow this guy is leagues above all other trappers! You can put a high MMR killer that is good at playing m1 killers and get them all to play trapper and there will not be much difference in performance level for trapper. Its like that for like 80% of the killers in the game. Repressed skill-cap on their ability.
Part of it is just wee-bit over tuned wraith. Survivor baby rage.
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I think that they’re at the point with this game where they are realizing that dumping a bunch of developer resource into things that don’t provide immediate financial return are just not going to get done. It’s a 6 year old game that is clearly becoming more and more difficult to maintain with the spaghetti code.
It kind of feels like they’ve decided to just spend the bare minimum $ on keeping the game (somewhat) functional and devoting all the other available $ on new stuff.
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yeah that sounds pretty accurate to me. Most killers need a much higher skill cap. This gives them potential against good players but doesn’t hurt the lower players.
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I’m pretty sure both Mandy and Peanits have acknowledged that solo queue has some unique challenges and that the team knows this.
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Solo doesn't need buffs. They need better matchmaking, which is why the devs are doing team MMR.
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Nothing the devs are planning matchmaking wise is going to fix solo q. Really what are they doing? If you run the killer for 5 gens and die but your team survives you lose less MMR? What a ######### joke.
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Do you know how significant that is?! It's your ticket out of MMR hell. The thing that probably plagues people's perception of solo the most. "Wraith must be really strong because we can't beat him." "Overcharge must be really strong, because the gens go all the way down." No, it's because of garbage teammates not pulling their weight. You know you can beat that stuff if it's a 1v4 and not a 1v1, but the caliber of your teammates is what decides that.
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Nah solo absolutely needs buffs. Killer players are always complaining about how strong SWF is, but until solo is buffed to have some of the information SWF gets for free the game can't be balanced properly.
If you buff killers so that they have a shot against sweat squads solo queue will be impossible to play. The only solution is to buff solo queue and then buff killers accordingly.
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True most killers have low skill expression, especially compared to something like blight. Every survivor should know how to loop a m1 killer easily, it shouldn't take more than 50-100 hours max but most killers that actually have skill expression take more skill expression to play against as well.
It's unfortunate most killers in this game have such low skill expression.
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QFT
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solo q simply does - convince me solo q isn't in need of help.
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We've already tried that.
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Maybe they finally realized SWFs will always have an advantage, no matter how they buff solos.
As every buff for solos was just another buff for SWFs aswell so far. (Mini BT basekit and mini UB basekit soon)
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If soloq will be on a same level of communication as SWF, they will have to significantly buff lower tier killers to Nurse level (tier).
Since your everymatch (almost) will be against SWF, most lower tier killers completely disappear from your matches, you'll face killers like Nurse or Blight much often (if not everytime).
There is no buffing soloq to swf, without buffing low tier killers. A lot of time will need to balance things.
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The reason to delay soloQ buffs....
I think soloQ is there to increase kill rates... this is only my 2 cents. I am 100% soloQ and every match i feel like a gladiator, they throw us to the lion and we are supposed to escape alive...
Being soloQ survivor you can loose more games in a row than a killer. Just because you need to work as a team to increase your chance to escape and atm is rare to get a nice random teammates.
Sometimes I watch god survivors streamers playing soloQ and you clearly see that one god survivor can't carry the entire team. This is not only skill issues from other survivors but also lack of communication. If he could say.... hey i am good, u can do gens.. the others wouldn't think... poor guy is being tunnled, i will go bodyblock the killer and take the chase... and the other mate thinks... oh.. let me go there and help too...
Watching those streamers doing escape streak, you can see how selfish and sad the game is for soloQ. You really don't need the team, you don't need to do gens, because if everyone is dead, you are good enough to loop the killer, find the hatch or go stealthy and open the gate... you still escape and that will count towards the streak.
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