Simple change to fix EMPs

Seraphor

The problem is that since 'special items' have their own category, there is zero downside to grabbing an EMP pre-emptively, as soon as one is available. This gives the printer time to ready a new one, so by the time you've had to use your current EMP, another one is immediately available.

I have not yet failed to have constant access to EMPs, and I have not successfully ported to a survivor because they always instantly EMP.

My suggestion:

• Printers do not automatically start printing the next EMP when one is taken. Instead, an inactive printer must be initiated, to start printing the next EMP.
• You cannot initiate a printer if you are currently holding an EMP.

This would allow coordinated survivors to activate printers for each other, but otherwise, it means you can't simply camp out a gen + printer area and rob the Singularity of it's power entirely.

This would mean that lone survivors (not necessarily solo, just not in the immediate vicinity of another survivor) would have to think twice about grabbing the closest EMP, as they could be robbing another survivor or themselves of timely access to an EMP in that part of the map.

Additional suggestions:

1. Charging an EMP takes around 50% longer.
2. Charging an EMP reduces your movement speed by 20%.

These would make actually using the EMP more risky, so that you're better of USING the EMP pre-emptively, rather than waiting until the moment the killer tries to use their power, and forcing it to completely whiff, with all the same frustrations as old Dead Hard.

nikodemo

or, rollback the item change. Killer items are items and should be treated the same as survivor items.

as you say, there's little downside now for survs for interacting with Killer items.

Hex_Llama

I had the same experience playing against Singularity. It felt like it was possible to always have an EMP in my hand just in case -- and, right now, that seems like the correct way to play: everybody take one and hold onto it at all times.

I like this suggestion, but I'm not sure how well it would work. There were a lot of situations where I would grab an EMP, blast the area around the gen beside the printer, do the gen, and go to the printer again. So, if the only difference is, grab the EMP, blast a nearby area, activate the printer again, do the gen, and pick up the EMP, there's still a pretty steady supply in the parts of the map you're actively playing.