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The dumpster fire of killers lately

This is kind of a rant, but I honestly don't care. Killer designs have been so bad lately, with the Skull Merchant, and Knight. First, let's talk about Skull Merchant. First off, she is EXTREMELY map dependent. I swear ever single time I verse her on an outdoor map, everyone escapes because she is simply utter trash on outdoor maps. However, indoor maps is an entirely different story. As her drones can affect multiple levels, this makes her EXTREMELY strong in 3-gen situations. This is obviously a problem, as her kit strongly encouraged just repeatedly camping this 3-gen. Most SMs won't commit to chases, and will simply go back to kick another gen, which results in either side not getting much progress and drags the game on, which isn't very fun for either side. Next, let's talk about Knight, who is just a complete... uhh.... borefest. In chase, unless you are running Dead Hard, there isn't much you can do if he zones you with his guard. Not to mention him getting up from placing a knight has basically no cooldown, making it extremely easy to get downs on closed loops as Knight. His guards are also extremely useful for camping. If someone comes to the hook, simply place a guard and continue camping. This is obviously frustrating for both sides. It just surprises me how they can go from making Wesker to.... this.

Comments

  • MerleDixon
    MerleDixon Member Posts: 159

    Yeah same. Skull Merchant isn't very strong in chase either, normally when she places a drone I just run away to another loop

  • MrMori
    MrMori Member Posts: 1,436
    edited March 2023

    But Wesker is good and fun, so all is forgiven.

  • ad19970
    ad19970 Member Posts: 6,356

    Design is always subjective though. I for one love Skull Merchant's Design, I just think her balance is screwed up, and her design doesn't fit the current 3 gen meta all too well either, but that will hopefully improve with another meta shake up. And Skull Merchant is getting a nice amount of changes that will hopefully improve her for both sides noticeably.

    Knight I kind of agree with, though even his design I kind of like. The problem is that his loop trap playstyle is still quite often the best playstyle, which is extremely boring to face and even play as. If you use him the way he was intended to be used, he is much more fun to play as and against.

  • edgarpoop
    edgarpoop Member Posts: 8,206
    edited March 2023

    It's really concerning. You'd hope for the devs to have a better feel and anticipation for fun gameplay this far into the game's lifecycle.

    Regardless of that though, I think you should always be designing to reward skilled play in a PVP game, and Knight/SM do the exact opposite of that.

    I've seen ironic Knight montages on youtube where the killer deploys a guard and literally stands still as the survivor is downed. Peak skill. Incredible gameplay. Definitely what we should be going for in a PVP game.

    And Skull Merchant is similarly concerning. I really dislike the changes she's getting with haste and pallet breaking. She turns into an unga bunga free M1 hit killer who can hold W with zero mindgames. Again, never what we should be going for in this game.

    Wesker is one of the best designed killers in the game. A fairly complex power that is more difficult to land against better survivors. But there are techniques and plays you can make to beat good players. There is actual skill expression for both sides, and the better player will win. The AI doesn't win. You can't just hold W with free bloodlust and have a pallet automatically break.

  • Huge_Bush
    Huge_Bush Member Posts: 5,287

    They’re running out of ideas. The current game engine probably doesn’t allow for much and we’ve basically hit what it would allow. Anything fun and unique is probably being held back for licensed killers.

    Theres only so many killer powers and abilities that they could come up with. It’s really time they go to two chapters a year and focus on game health and meta shake up. Maybe introduce new gameplay mechanics and more interactive maps.

  • MerleDixon
    MerleDixon Member Posts: 159

    They should upgrade to unreal engine 5 if they haven't already