The Current Status of The Good Guy (Chucky): Problems and Opportunities
Hello everyone,
I'm playing Chucky on a daily basis since his release, actually taking him to P 50. Since the announcement and the PTB Chucky has been one of the most hyped killers (and contents) of this year: he bringed something unique in the Fog, like the third person camera for killers and a really unique in size character, while looking close to the classic gameplay the community loves since 2016. However, with time his issues shared since the PTB and new situations are bringing frustration for both sides that are risking to ruin an otherwise succesful character/content.
I'll try to make a list of the issues, then what I would look into:
- Scamper outside of Slice & Dice: The tool is really strong and makes too easy plays more rewarded than actually challenging plays, meaning that the counterplay on the survivor side is too limited in front of a low effort on the killer side
- The Cooldown is Really Long: Considering that Chucky is a 4.4 m/s killer, missing a hit is a reason of high frustration, making the killer even risking to lose the game for a single bad play. This takes us to the first point, where the will of playing risky is reduced to not get too punished by a possible bad play
- Removal of the flicks and consequences: The last bug-fix patch was a reason of big disappointment in the community. Since Wesker, we didn't have killers that requested a mechanical skill involvement: Chucky looked really promising in that direction and many were embracing the possibilities offered by his kit thanks to the possibility to "flick" over 90°. Many found more satisfying to hit a 180° flick after a Slice & Dice play, predicting the position of the survivor (who could predict the flick as well, positioning themselves out of the easy to read position) than just normal Scamper in a straight Slice & Dice hit. The removal of the flick made this second kind of play the only possibility, making the whole gameplay and creativity process too linear, AKA less interesting. Not only this, but this also affects the content creation around the character, as many formerly hyped content creators who were exploring his possibilities are dropping him because not satisfied by the linear option of "Just Scamper into Slice & Dice".
- Collisions: This is a really big point of frustration of Chucky, that gets summed to the second point. Many maps have too big obstacles collisions. Considering the really long cooldown and how it can make risky plays even less rewarded for reasons we cannot control, this pushes Chucky players at playing even safer (AKA Scamper into easy hits).
Considering all these issues, the possible feedback from my side is:
- Scampering pallets being possible ONLY during Slice & Dice: Scampering vaults is fine (the bit of extra speed and silent vault make it up for the 4.4 m/s speed), but scampering pallets is really fast outside of Slice & Dice and nerfing the speed even more would make scampering pallets in Slice & Dice even less rewarding than these actually are. Let's just remove the possibility as it is now to give more possibilities to Slice & Dice.
- Reducing Cooldown: There's the risk he becomes a bit too stealthy, even if he can potentially already be, but missing with Slice & Dice while going for risky plays right now is too punishing and a reason of frustration in chase, considering Chucky is a 4.4 m/s. Even reducing the duration of Hidey-Ho to decrease the cooldown could work, making the stealth/hidden red-stain less oppressive and promoting an effective use of Slice & Dice, also allowing to reduce more distance and getting more mobility considering he's a 4.4 m/s.
- Re-Introduce Flicks, while making these more accessible for every player: Making the flicks possible without forcing at too harsh movements of the mouse would make these more accessible to every player (and I don't mean it only for controller players). Making the mechanic more skill-based, but at the same time accessible would create a more engaging gameplay from both sides.
- Collisions: Just looking into this issue in the maps (many dashing killers have this issue).
- Based on how the flicks are possibly reintroduced, considering uncapping a bit the turning after a Scamper in the middle of Slice & Dice to make the play rewarding, expecially with the removal of Scamper of Pallets outside of Slice & Dice
The idea is creating again a deeper gameplay loop for The Good Guy, while solving the causes of frustration from both sides (Scamper of Pallets outside Slice & Dice having a too limited counterplay, Easy plays being too rewarded while risky plays being possibly too punishing, etc...) and addressing the considered fun mechanic (flicks and movement in Slice & Dice) in a controlled way that doesn't create gaps between players (Accessibility, Decreasing Gap between Controller and Mouse).
I hope this feedback can help to improve a killer so loved by the community, with the wish he doesn't get dropped before it's too late. After all the efforts made by the team to bring Chucky into the Fog, it would be such a waste seeing a content like this getting less and less liked when so little changes could do so much to make him one of the best Dead by Daylight contents ever.
I wish great Christmas Holidays to the whole team and a good job once you're back to the office in January!
Comments
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This is where I'm kinda in the middle.
While talking to @Xernoton, who explained the advanced flicks to me, the big issue that comes from the above changes are... you simply can't flick on console, it is not possible due to how the input works.
The skill expression is a big thing, and something I advocate for... I love facing a good Hillbilly, Oni and Wesker, I'm less enthused about the Blight, but I respect him, and the advanced tricks on these killers are out of reach on console. Chucky's limited turn arc for Slice and Dice + Scamper is really hard to use on console, there are a very select number of places you can use it and reasonably expect to score a hit, but PC players could subvert this limited turn arc and last massive flicks that console never could hope to do.
Having a killer who is basically locked out of controller use due to the nature of their power is not good. The scamper under pallet is possibly too easy on PC, but the current iteration where he cant flick makes him reasonably consistent across platforms.
If we get rid of scampering under pallets flat and are forced to use slice and dice, rather than flicks, I'd prefer his turn arc was increased instead, so the skill expression is more from him being able to position correctly and get his hits from his turn arc is there, but isn't such a huge disparity vs. console.
Post edited by UndeddJester on4 -
I wholeheartedly agree with basically everything in this post.
Chucky’s release is what made me interested in killer again, one of the only I felt drawn to & inspiring for content creation. I’ve played him nonstop 5-8 a day, previously only playing about 4 hours on Surv. He had some bugs but they didn’t frustrate me too much… until the 90° cap on flicks. After that, I noticed an insane increase in invisible collision, indicated by audio and visual animation.
The flicks made him feel engaging and rewarding, no matter win or lose I was sat through fun chases. Now he feels a bit.. brainless? It’s rinse and repeat with manual scamper into a W key slice n dice. Chucky now basically makes it where you should ONLY go for a safe use of your power, instead of making risky plays. Ive tried to push past the removal of flicks, but it’s too frustrating—between lack of engagement and him being absolutely riddled with bugs.
I really wouldn’t mind any of these changes listed. I would even go as far to say his undectable can be removed. The idea that hidey-ho being shortened is probably better though, as that would allow better skill expression/timing with an incoming Slice. Overall, his kit just feels pretty cheap with free hits from manual scamper and stealth. Not enough encouragement to use Slice.
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I do agree, that's why I shared the concern about that, but also about accessibility in general to not make it like "You need to move the mouse all around your desk", that would be a limit for who's physically not able to do it. Working on the base turn would be ideal.
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This is a problem that can never be solved, unfortunately. Controller movement will never be quite as accurate as M&K. The devs could allow for higher sensitivities on controller however. That would at least help with this issue.
But I don't think that cutting skill expression from a killer is a good idea, no matter the reason. I am all for trying to create equal conditions for everyone but this is in my opinion the wrong way to do it. Instead of trying to fix the issue that console players are at a disadvantage, they limit killers on M&K. That just feels wrong.
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Indeed it'd be an interesting study case for how to bring console up to PC level.
Perhaps allow flicks for PC, but increased turn arc for console? Same result, different means of getting there... but then you have the issue of different behaviour based on platform... so maybe just as problematic.
As a console gamer I'd like the greater turn arc... as that would solve my issues... but I know that's no good for PC 😔
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This post is fantastic, I couldn't have worded my experience with this killer any better.
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