Can we get a dev / mod response on what the intended playstyle of the Skull Merchant is?
I just really want to know what's the intended gameplay loop there and I'd love to have a discussion with someone who represents Behaviour. Is she supposed to be stealth, how is she supposed to control the map with drones, how is she supposed to down people, etc? Cause I cannot figure out what is supposed to work here and I'm usually pretty decent at that.
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Intended playstyle is to sell skins.
Until proven otherwise, this is what I'm gonna choose to believe because she really just seems all over the place design-wise. She's not even a jack-of-all-trades. Anything she can do, someone else can do better.
It's like we're only allowed to get one good Chapter a year. Project W was an absolute banger. Everything since has been #########.
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Well she's clearly not a traditional stealth killer, since her stealth is both limited to a zone that survivors can see and doesn't kick in immediately when she is in that zone, she's barely a area control killer since her drones are hilariously ineffective at being threatening, maybe she's meant to be a surveillance killer using claw traps and her radar? But even then her surveillance doesn't help her all that much since she can't keep tabs on survivors all the time, and even when she can it doesn't show her where they are if you have multiple drones or what they're doing
Honestly? I think her power isn't finished, that's the only explanation I will accept for why her power is the way it is
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So... I'm not from Behavior, but I can share what I think is the gameplan for Skull Merchant.
So... the backbone of her kit is information. Beyond that, she's got three things going on. Light anti loop from exposed and forcing survivors away from loops, light slow down from survivors hacking drones and removing claw traps that takes her almost no time to set up, and light stealth from drones giving her undetectable. Then... she's got so many addons that add perk like effects to any one of those 3 game plans... making it entirely possible to specialize in one of the three.
So... in short, I think the gameplan is versatility and efficiency. Even when specialized, She won't be as stealthy as Ghost Face, as good in chase as Clown, or have as much slowdown as Leigon or Pig, but those will never be the only tools she's working with. Meanwhile all her base kit info will make it easier to not waste time not knowing where to go.
I don't know if that game plan will work, but I think that's what they were going for.
Edit: Also I am 100% expecting her to be add on dependent.
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To me It feels like Knight and Skull-Merchants powers don't have a "intended playstyle", It's just whatever players do with them because their powers tick so many general killer gameplay boxes (albeit poorly in some areas)
'Anti-loop', Tracking and a way to protect generators. The only thing that's missing from these two is mobility but they make up for that by having a power that leaves "something" in an area (guard/drone).
Problem is, they just aren't fun to play and I know that's extremely subjective as some people genuinely enjoy playing genlock knight but speaking personally I can't play Knight for more then a game or two before I'm bored but I can play Blight or Wesker non stop not because of their better results but because their powers are genuinely fun to use
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We seem to have ended up in the same spot as to her game plan (versatility) but very different spots as to whether or not we'd play them.
I really like M1 killer game play, so Skull Merchant being one with a power that you don't directly do much with but will hopefully provide enough little extra efficiencies for you and inefficiencies for the Survivors to be viable is super exciting for me.
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I do think she was pretty clearly rushed.
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You assume they even thought that far into the power. At this point I think they go "Hey this is a thing" and make a killer power without any context for player sentiment or game health. See: Knight.
We're two updates in a row where the killers are best used at 3 gen'ing, which is a vocally despised playstyle. I really don't think the devs are paying that much attention to what they're doing.
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The intended playstyle is assuming survivors are bots who will mindlessly stand in the Expose zone long enough to get Exposed.
I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt and say they simply didn't foresee how this power would have been used. But really, most people cottoned on the moment they understood her power, let alone having tested it.
Also if anyone at BHVR can design a perk like Background Player and not instantly understand it's tunnelling potential, it's hard to hold out hope for the future of perk design.
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intended play-style is be an m1 with no ability. their single negative change off-sets all their positive changes.
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She just want to know your location
Atte:Devs
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I didn't even think about that until now.
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I like using Knight to just pingpong from chase to chase. Obviously, he's great in 3gen, but if you can tell where Survs are going to be, it's not hard to drop a guard on someone, pincer them off, and get the down. Goes well with STBFL. Shame that running it in a way that feels somewhat fluid needs Call to Arms for the extra range and Map of the Realm for detection range...
Skull Merchant... can't do that. You can find out where people are, but that's it. They'll have no other concern but running away from you, and your power stops existing once you're in a chase. Nothing to do at loops, or pallets, or vaults; you just find out where some guy is and it's M1 town.
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