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Concept: A killer that actually hunts survivors. Honest thoughts?
Andrew Xonder was only fourteen when he encountered the Deor, a result of wandering too far into the Black Forest. Bipedal, deceitfully-seductive deer creatures unlike any animal he had ever seen. The encounter would forever change Andrew’s life, as the vicious organism would commit unspeakable acts to him, shattering his worldview and dignity.
He grew up in a stable -although colorless- world, trying to get by in life. No matter how far he seemed to run, his shame always followed closely behind. The Deor were always there as he got older, sometimes watching him from afar, reminding him of their presence. Other times they would directly interfere with his daily life, scaring him from reaching out or seeking help to quell the creatures that followed him. Dragged by the chains of his trauma, Andrew fell into a void of self-loathing. Medications slowly became less effective, the voices of friends he couldn’t see quieted, and his will to survive began to fade. He could hardly recognize himself in a mirror, feeling nothing but hatred for himself and -what he referred to as- his lack of any meaning in life.
Shortly after his 21st birthday, Andrew would wake up on the last day of his normal life. Something was different that day; perhaps the static in his mind had finally gotten the best of him, or likely he was simply done trying to fight it off. Andrew got in his car and returned to the Black Forest, not a single coherent thought deterring him from the five-hour drive. Emerging before its towering trees that formed a canopy over its dark abyss, dozens of Deor appeared in an instant, watching his every move.
Facing down the creatures that had ruined his life, Andrew’s eyes lit up in admiration. A feeling of broken love surged in his veins, and he held out his arms to embrace what he now called his saviors. Walking into the Black Forest, Andrew Xonder was never seen again. Not long after his disappearance, a new, vile creature emerged from the depths of the forest. A disgusting organism, half-human, half-Deor, stood up as thousands of his saviors celebrated his rise.
The Deerhead. The alpha of the Deor species.
Comments
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The vibe of a hunter in terms of a DBD Killer is really interesting, and quite well executed in this concept. A strong map-maneuver tool that acts as oddly good anti-loop if one gets creative (and you don't have to play in Autohaven), and an interesting tracking power that is effective and easy, but not free, to setup make a strong combination to create a hunter. The power itself is practically masterful; I really like it.
When it comes to add-ons, Iridescent Fawn is the fun button and Perfect Deor is the anti-fun button. I'm sure you've heard about the "Condemn" playstyle the Onryo has, right? Perfect Deor basically gives that to this Killer, but doesn't even require him to catch the Condemned Survivor; the game just kills them itself. I think, if you'd like an Iridescent add-on relating to mark, something that Exposes at 20 marks (with less harsh penalties and definitely not removing the genuinely amazing design of the tracking the base concept provides) would be more fitting I think. Fawn is badass, though. Fawn my beloved.
Unfortunately, as these concepts are designed for the game of Dead by Daylight, Perk Tiers are things I'd encourage are made alongside Perks themselves. Aside from that, the perks are overall very thematic and not half bad information perks.
- Elevated Instinct is interesting and honestly just what the current Perk Predator should be, I have no complaints. To implement Perk tiers on this, I'd probably say making its cooldown something like 25/20/15 seconds would suffice. Cooldowns are nice ways to add Perk tiers without actually making a given Perk unusable at Tier 1 and/or broken at Tier 3, while also making the differences between tiers matter.
- Manic Mobility is a simple but effective idea, and fits well with the idea, though the Deerhead himself wouldn't much enjoy equipping it given he can... climb on walls. Not an uncommon flaw, nor one that needs to be fixed, though; the Blight has a Perk that Exposes Survivors as an M2 Killer, for example. To add Perk tiers to this, I'm thinking just something like making its duration 5/7.5/10 seconds would be nice.
- Not So Different is, again, a very thematic and interesting Perk; overall not one of these were misses, really. To add Perk tiers I think we take a page out of the Survivor Perk, Distortion's, play book though; a mild rework to show the Survivor's aura for 4/6/8 seconds after they see yours.
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It's a decent idea... Although, you will have to forgive me for, from what I have seen, I am far more critical of ideas than many others in this community.
The concept of the power I find interesting, although a bit thematically confusing. The tracking portion is alright, if perhaps not a bit... I don't know, it could either be very weak or very strong depending on a few unaddressed factors. For instance, could you just leave a trail indefinitely while simply patrolling gens at a slower pace? And since these trails are invisible if not in chase, I could see it being rather annoying to avoid trails. But then again, on the killer's side, half a second could be quite a while to even get some benefit out of the trail, depending on how wide the trail is, I suppose. Although, I could see this as a useful in-chase tool where... Which I suspect is why the trail is only visible in chase?
It's not bad, but perhaps lacking a bit in counterplay.
Now, for the thematic confusion: why is a Deer-Man (or a Germanic Poet?) crawling around on walls? I suppose it would be creepy, but I just don't understand where this is coming from... But on its balance, it is either going to be useless in most cases or rather powerful depending on a few things: Can you crawl around corners? Can you crawl over the top of walls? Do windows impede your movement? It just feels like too much would get in the way of this being a chase tool which leaves it as an extremely niche mobility too... Some maps do not have a two-story building where climbing up to enter through a hole provides that much mechanical advantage: Out of the nearly 50 maps, I can think of Coal Tower, Thompson House, Disturbed Ward, Father Campbell's, Haddonfield, maybe Mother's Dwelling, Ormand, Dead Dawg, Midwich, Garden of Joy, Shattered Square, Toba Landing, Nostromo, and if you can crawl through windows you can count all of the Badham Maps... That leaves: 34 (29 with Badham) maps where you are essentially a slightly faster tracking killer. And even then, it is only on the main buildings.
Things are a bit different if you can crawl around corners or over the top of maze tiles... Then that only leaves most indoor maps as maps where your power is limited.
I will, however, concede that jumping down from a wall and hitting a survivor you landed next to (assuming that is possible with this power concept) would be rather fun, even if it is no more viable than chasing them normally.
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I think the perks are all pretty balanced, except for the thing the other commenter brought up about not having rarity tiers. They all provide a relatively unique benefit that I could easily see being added to the game... And Since I am a sucker for vault builds, I do like the simple yet effective ability to gain haste after vaulting a window. However, now that I look at it again, that might get annoying if on a Vault Myers or Xeno... So maybe either shorten it to 3 seconds or add either a cooldown or some other requirement.
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The most glaring issue I see is the Perfect Deor. That just isn't a fun effect. You are running around trying to dodge invisible lines that if you fail too often, you just instantly die... That does not sound like a good time. And I agree with the previous comment's suggestion of making it an exposed add-on instead.
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Well-informative comment; in retrospect, I could absolutely see the wall-crawling mode being made into a universal second mode of transport that isn't exclusive to walls, but enables crawling onto walls, being a change that could significantly help the Deerhead feel stronger mechanically. Additionally, points about the trails made above are pretty understandable as well; perhaps a slight rework that combines the two powers into one could be interesting to consider?
As per aesthetics, I don't have much; I usually don't invest myself heavily in those, but I do agree with points brought up by the above comment.
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