Ideas to change end game/hatch mechanics.
Hello! A brief introduction before I get into this post: Im Smoothie, and have played this game for a few years now, ever since I was given a closed beta key with just the first three survivors and good ol chuckles. I've got about 600 hours, and love this game! I play killer when I'm alone, and usually duo with a good friend of mine to play survivor. I'd say I have equal playtime in both survivor and killer. Im surprised I haven't come to this forum sooner, but I'm glad to be here! ♥
Moving onto my post! As I understand it, the idea to close the escape hatch was scrapped as this didn't have the effect that the devs were after. I'm glad to hear they're at least experimenting! I'd like to give up my ideas and possibly inspire a new solution that may be looked into. To put it briefly, I think we should change the hatch to a secondary objective- similar to generators- or require a secondary objective to be completed before the hatch is to spawn. Before continuing, I'd like to state that out of all the suggestions I'm about to go into detail to, I feel the options where you remove the hatch entirely would be the best choice, as in the end I feel things would still inevitable end in the well known hatch standoff. I would also like to greatly emphasize (and this isnt meant to offend anyone, I'm just coming from the very toxic steam forums. 
) Everything I share here is merely conceptual! These are not meant to be presented as polished, flawless ideas. They are just to inspire, and to bring discussion! Thanks!
1. Cracks in the wall: Instead of a hatch spawning, when the final survivor dies have there be weak points in the wall that survivors can seek out, and take time to take bricks/claw out the concrete (as in the case of The Game and Leerys) out to squeeze through and escape. This could take up to or possibly less time than a generator to finish, and progress could be easily represented through bricks lying by the hole, and the hole becoming bigger. A killer could look for these signs, and know to watch this location more carefully. There could be one, or multiple of these (more of a balancing thing to consider, im just throwing out concepts here) along the walls of the map.
What this does, and why it would create healthier gameplay: I have found that the more a Killer is split between objectives, the harder it is to stay on top of things. Survivors slip by and hide easier, since they dont stick around to look as much since they have more to do, and they get more done since they're gone from where survivors are working for a bit longer. This division of attention is made even greater when the objectives are further apart. A good example of this is when the Killer can force (or the survivors accidentally cause) a close final gen formation of the 3 available generators, vs when theyre very spread across the map. The wall would cause the Killer to both search and then patrol an additional objective, giving the survivor a better chance of completing another gen or working on another section of the wall. There is more cat and mouse, and less of an egotistic standoff!
2. Scavenger hunt: In this scenario, items spawn in the map (either in newly spawned chests or found by some other means) that when gathered together complete a tool. Survivors may carry these, and will drop them upon death or if they choose to give them to another player. I'll get to what this tool does later! There are a few ways this could go:
A: For each generator completed after the second, a new chest/part spawns.
B: Similar to A, but instead of per generator complete, its per Survivor sacrificed.
C: All parts spawn under the conditions of when the hatch would currently spawn.
D: ???? This could be done many many ways. 
What does the tool do? Well, this could function as some alternate but guaranteed key to open the hatch, could be some kind of super gen fixing tool to greatly speed up the process, or even be a tool used to directly escape by using it as some specific location on the map! Just some ideas, but I think you get the gist.
What this does, and why it would create healthier gameplay: Well, I'll have to generalize this one a bit since the different ways this could be implemented. In general, it gives the survivor a stealthier alternative to finishing generators. In examples of A and B, this could even be used with 2 survivors still in the game. For the killer, this slows down generator progression to some degree should the survivor(s) choose to pursue the item and in some way removes the hatch standoff (Which a lot of the time the killer seems to be forced to give to the survivors. Though, this is just my experience.). This one looks a bit more favorable to survivors, but I'm sure theres ways to implement it to be equal and fair.
3. I dont know what to call this one (lmao): This is one of my less thought out ones, but it basically is like a second set of objectives that youve got to complete X amount of. For just this example lets say you're replacing the fuses on a box. This could scale with how many generators are complete to balance it to a killer sided vs a survivor sided game.
-Say your a survivor, and all of your friends die (or ragequit) and youve only done a single generator! Well crap. Guess youll just give up huh? Well now instead of completing another generator and finding the hatch, you can instantly work on the fuse boxes! You only have to do one of them, and the gates will be powered (Or the hatch will spawn? Again, least thought through idea, but still worth mentioning). You get it done, can attempt to open one of the two gates and stealth around, and might get out when the odds were VERY stacked against you!
-Now say you're a killer! Its been a tough match. Its a SWF group or maybe just a very competent set of randoms, but you've managed to get 3 of them before the final generator was finished. Now your final victim has two options: Finish the final generator, and boldly reveal their location, or go and attempt to finish all (4 or 5) fuse boxes! It's coming down to a game of wits, patience, and observation. Now lets just hope they finish the fuses in an order that groups the final ones next to the generators...
What this does, and why it would create healthier gameplay: The third and final suggestion! I personally love this one as much as Idea 1 because it really balances out those games that are just so one sided. The amount of fuses scales with the number of generators finished. This gives those survivors that got boned over a chance to escape and keep their items/earn more BPS/safety pip, and the killer a strong chance to 4 man if theyve managed to get the other 3 just in time. I think this could cause better/more entertaining matches and leaves a bit more up to skill rather than an standoff.
That about does it! I think that on top of an alternative to a dumb waiting game (the standoff) these could provide more enjoyable gameplay, and even give perks such as Resilience or Left Behind a better use. Thank you very much for making it all the way through. I hope my thoughts and ideas provoked some of your own, and I hope youll share them and some feedback on these possibilities down below. Thanks! ♥♥
EDIT: Changed some dumb wording, and added the mentioning of perks at the bottom.
Comments
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I like your ideas. The hatch is definitely one of the things that needs to change, since it basically punishes the killer for doing his job.
"You killed 3 people?! Well done! As a reward, we will let the person left behind a free escape! Good job!"0 -
@bloxe said:
I like your ideas. The hatch is definitely one of the things that needs to change, since it basically punishes the killer for doing his job."You killed 3 people?! Well done! As a reward, we will let the person left behind a free escape! Good job!"
I wouldn't quite say it punishes the killer, as much as it is an unfair hindrance to a 4 man. I think it was once said that the devs find a fair game to be 2 dead 2 escaped, but that doesnt change the fact that its the ultimate goal for a killer to 4 man and there are achievements tied to it. Just as likewise the survivors aim to survive, or have everyone survive, theres achievements tied to those. However with the hatch (keys included) I feel its much easier to survive and get say, the Adept achievement for any certain survivor than it is to get the Adept achievement for any killer. Im kinda word vomiting but what Im getting to is YEP I agree, the hatch should go. It just causes too many issues once it comes down to actually using it when both sides are there.
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You make good points. I remember in a video from Monto, he was playing at the beta and was possible to close the hatch. I thought it would be great because it would reward whoever finds it first. I still cant think of a reason to not implement that.SmoothieKnight said:@bloxe said:
I like your ideas. The hatch is definitely one of the things that needs to change, since it basically punishes the killer for doing his job."You killed 3 people?! Well done! As a reward, we will let the person left behind a free escape! Good job!"
I wouldn't quite say it punishes the killer, as much as it is an unfair hindrance to a 4 man. I think it was once said that the devs find a fair game to be 2 dead 2 escaped, but that doesnt change the fact that its the ultimate goal for a killer to 4 man and there are achievements tied to it. Just as likewise the survivors aim to survive, or have everyone survive, theres achievements tied to those. However with the hatch (keys included) I feel its much easier to survive and get say, the Adept achievement for any certain survivor than it is to get the Adept achievement for any killer. Im kinda word vomiting but what Im getting to is YEP I agree, the hatch should go. It just causes too many issues once it comes down to actually using it when both sides are there.
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