AFC System risks widening the gap between S-tiers and others, while remaining unintuitive
There is a key problem that risks being exacerbated by the current iteration of the upcoming anti-facecamp system: the disparity between low-tier killers and high-tier killers.
DbD has changed a lot over the years and as players have gotten better, grown in understanding, and have become more efficient, we have seen the development of particular killer playstyles and strategies in response to this increase in survivor efficiency and pressure. One of these playstyles I would like to elaborate and talk about today: "3genning" or controlling a specific area of the map and its associated gen cluster.
The reason for controlling a specific generator cluster is quite commonly understood, but I will briefly elaborate. Any time that the killer spends moving across the map is time spent not actively pressuring survivors, which is usually a net loss in pressure. Additionally, each area of the map has resources at the surviving team's disposal which many times must be dealt with before downs and hooks can be secured. Some areas are too strong for certain killers to reasonably chase in and are avoided entirely. The result of this is a situation in which a killer may deliberately restrain themselves to a particular area over a long period of time where they can whittle away at the resources and spend less time traveling and more time exerting pressure. The larger the map or the larger the number of safe pallets, the more incentive the killer has to participate in this style of gameplay.
The problem begins to reveal itself in part when we ask ourselves which types of killers care most about controlling a specific area over a long period of time. The answer to this question is typically "low-tier killers." The reason for this is because low-tier killers often don't have the chase potential or mobility to deal with traversing large maps or to deal with the plethora of resources available in others. These killers rely on controlling a specific area of the map over the course of the game in order to maintain pressure. A trapper cannot defend all corners of Mother's Dwelling against even an inefficient team, as we all know very well. In these circumstances, low-tier killers have to choose which areas to protect and which to give up, and thus it makes sense that they would self-limit to areas that are the easiest to protect.
Now this is where the AFC system begins to complicate things. As a result of the current state of the game, we have a game where it is strongly encouraged - and where it is sometimes the only reasonable choice - for some killers to choose to defend a limited area of the map. As the game goes on, successfully protecting a particular section of the map will result in a situation where all of the objectives have found themselves in one location -- that particular section of the map. Now if a killer secures in a down within this area of the map -- the area where the only remaining objectives for them to defend remain -- where do they hook this downed player? Should they hook the player within the area, then they will risk that player unhooking themselves simply as a result of the killer defending the only objectives that they can. Should they hook away from the area, then they have given up control of one objective at the cost of another, while the decision to hook away from your objectives makes little intuitive sense in itself. A survivor hooked next to a near completed generator provides strong incentive for the killer to defend the area, but in its current iteration killers will be discouraged from doing the most reasonable and wise thing available. If there is only one generator with progress, and it is the only objective to defend, why should the killer be punished for defending it? It is the survivor's mistake for getting downed next to a critical objective, not the killer's mistake for defending it.
The problem reveals itself in its entirety when we ask ourselves "which killers care about camping, proxying, forcing hook trades, or controlling a specific part of the map?" The answer is not all of them. Killers with strong mobility and chase power do not rely as heavily on controlling specific areas of the map. These killers can afford to burn through the resources across the entirety of the map, because they can make up for the time lost or secure downs regardless of the resources available to the survivors.
In its current iteration, the new system risks weakening one of the only playstyles that makes sense for low-tier, low mobility, or area control killers. This system was designed to alleviate frustrations with facecamping, but risks cases where players who play to their killer's strengths or weaknesses are punished for doing so. Meanwhile, the killers which are strong enough to deal with high-level teams without being overly concerned with controlling or patrolling a particular, limited area of the map will be largely unaffected. This will not affect the majority of games, but this change risks inadvertently and disproportionately negatively affecting the weakest killers in high-skill competitive lobbies where the aforementioned strategies are strongly encouraged.
Please consider the inadvertent impact that this system will have on the strategies weaker killers use to stay competitive in high-skill lobbies in the current state of the game.
Comments
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100% agree. I am getting tired of killers being punished for survivor mistakes.
Here's a prime example. I am playing ghostie. The generator options clearly automatically makes the 2 gens 50 miles away in opposite corners as 100% undefendable. This forces me to defend the area on my side of the map and try to protect the middle gen. Unfortunately, the survivors pile up on the middle gen right at the beginning of the map forcing me to protect entirely one side of the map. Again, that was the survivor team's plan of action. The rest of the map has generators and hooks near each other. With AFC, I would be punished with people unhooking themselves for left and right the entire match despite me not planting my feet in front of their hooks. All generators to defend and patrol are near their hooks, and even each hook was near each other. The game would literally tell me that I'm supposed to run far away out in the middle of nowhere or face punishment with AFC.
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