Is Breakable Wall (BW) a failed concept?
They started with Saloon, gave it a redundant numbers of BW, and the only shack with BW. Later they added BW in reworked maps.
But then BW is gone, Garden of joy has 1 BW on the 2nd floor that add no game play. Shattered square, Toba, Nostromo have no BW, reworked Red forest also have no BW.
I think they gave up with BW concept, same to Boon. Honestly I feel it has alot potential, it could be something that in killer's control that either breaking or not, both options give both side a pros and cons (something like Midwich that can be blocked or open shortcut for both sides, not just pre-dropped pallets).
Here is a drawing of Skull merchant breaking a BreakableWall.
Comments
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Most of them are put on god-tier windows unless you break them. So they are designed to just waste killers time. Just like a dropped pallet that was spawned from the start and can't be used by Survivors but still blocks movement to killers.
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Failed? No. Breaking them makes some loops more tolerable.
Annoying? Yes.
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Im fine with BW act as pre-dropped god pallet. As long as there is only 1 of them each map. But that's all about BW.
I wanted it to have benefits to both sides if not breaking, and have other benefits to both sides if breaking (honestly I cant think a design for that case). Otherwise, its either BW that give killers benefits if break (they have to break), or give killers benefits if not break (just leave there). Making BW either a chore for killers, or redundant.
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I wouldn't say they failed necessarily but I don't think they worked out like they thought they would. Pretty much every breakable wall now is just used when a window is too powerful, in which case they could just remove the wall and it still plays mostly the same just a bit less safe for the first loop.
More so a pointless addition rather than a failure.
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I think the only map that does breakable walls well is The Game with an honorable mention to Midwich, because they open up new paths on those maps. On almost every other map they end up being either a complete waste of time to kick or necessary to kick to weaken a really strong loop. Neither of those uses for them is interesting.
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Gideon
Midwich
The killer shack on Dead Dawg
Those are all of the good breakable walls in the game.
Not failed, but very hit or miss, with more misses than hits.
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They are a failed concept, if you think about it. The idea was to give the killer some more ways to make a decision in how they interact with the map. But most BWs don't work that way. You either always break them or you always leave them up. There is no thinking involved.
The only exception to this rule is The Game. You can actually make a decision on that map. Opening a breakable wall allows you to traverse the map even quicker but in turn the many existent areas on that map, that only leave one way to go for the survivors are opened up and allow them to use even more pallets. There is a little bit of thinking involved here.
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I'd say the only failed concepts regarding breakable walls are The Game and Dead Dawg. There is practically no reason to break the walls on The Game and Dead Dawg simply has far too many on it. With some posing as an obstacle for the killer, but most simply serving no purpose yet again.
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BW as pre-drop pallets can be a RNG depends on spawn which and a little bit depth to the game play.
BWs that killers should never break are truly pointless.
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Even if the killer actually wants to break them, there is not much strategy behind it, which was supposedly the point of BWs. So even in that case they are a failed concept. They don't fulfill their purpose.
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There's a few examples like that. The side doors for the daycare really only provide easier entry/exit. You have the same thing for the doors in the bathrooms for Midwich which allows more ways to go upstairs.
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Saloon is the only map breakable walls make any sense.
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The breakable walls in Badham work pretty well. There’s the two on each side of the preschool and two on each side of the house without the basement. Breaking those four walls makes chasing Survivors through those areas easier. It’s torture chasing a Survivor through that house who knows how to use the windows to their max potential.
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Seeing as they were turned into one time use god windows
Yeah they are a failure lol
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I mean I think it could have potential as a concept but it's just not been implemented very well.
Either you HAVE to break them because they're near a god window, or you NEVER wanna break them because they open up a really strong loop for survivors. Most of what's left are completely pointless ones that don't help either side at all.
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Yes, they are.
Mostly because the idea of Breakable Walls was to give the killers a decision on whether or not they want to break them, depending on their strategy for the trial.
However, most of them were placed around windows that are very powerful, so there isn't really a strategy because it is always better to break them. Two of them (Torment Creek and Wretched Shop) actually made the maps slightly worse because the paths they block were open by default in the past.
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Before they introduced breakable doors (i refuse to call them walls, they're just doorways) they were fixing all of the god loops, so many of them were reintroduced along with breakable doors.
But hey, you could break them to get rid of them, so it was clearly an improvement over just having them be open in the first place.I preferred that short period of time where the loops were just fixed, and you didn't get 1-2 free rotations while the killer was forced to break. That and the fact that some of them are designed to make things worse when breaking (badham being a prime example) makes it feel awful as a mechanic, since it can only be engaged by killers. Just makes those doors feel like a trap, even worse when they have to be broken to reach a hook (badham again.)
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rip the patch where they finally fixed all the bullcrap windows at the time and than walls were added over the next few months
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I see this all the time on preschool
A killer breaks the one wall on the side of the fence loop and opens up a powerful long loop lol
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I would say its a failed concept. Purely because it became the band-aid fix to bad mad design. Examples being cowshed window, garden of joy main window and the one window in the backyard on reworked haddonfield because if I recall correctly there wasnt a breakable wall during the PTB for it.
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Yes, because they don't add any interesting mechanics to the game. There are either walls that you MUST break, to prevent a god loop (basically a predropped god pallet), or they are walls that you absolutely do NOT want to break (as is the case for example of most of the walls on the game map).
What breakable walls should have been was a section where survivors can spend time "building" a wall that works inversely to pallet. I.E. the survivor spends 20 seconds building the wall, and it takes the killer maybe 5+ seconds to break the wall. And the walls should have been in places where the killer would HAVE to break the wall to continue chasing. Then when the killer breaks the wall, the wall is gone forever.
This would give survivors another "objective" in a way, forcing them to spend time building a wall, but creating an area of safety that forces the killer to basically drop chase one time.
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Massive failure. It just resulted in massively survivor-sided maps.
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Exactly this. Outside of trapper, or in some cases hag, I've never felt like the breakable walls allowed for anything different or interesting. Trapper is just like you said though, there is no thought behind it. Instead of breaking the wall to make for an easier loop it just makes trapping the loop and leaving the wall up a better choice in some cases. On most other killers it's just break the wall if it is strong and move on. Survivors really have no say so or interaction there either. I think it would've been cool if survivors could use 15-30 seconds or so to rebuild a wall just as another secondary thing but it could become too annoying for killer at that point.
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And sometimes they have to break it on preschool in order to get to a hook.
Honestly, I'd just completely remove the breakable walls. No reason for them to exist.
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Yes they’re a failed concept. They’re mostly placed in such a way that the killer needs to break them if they want to catch the survivor at the loop with the breakable. They’re basically pallets that are already dropped if you think about it except they’re placed on walls.
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I don't think it's a failed concept, the concept is fine. The problem is BHVR's map design does little or nothing good with that concept.
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I think the same, but currently BW is only for predrop god pallets, and open shortcut for both side.
There could be more, something like breaking BW give survivors a hidden chest (pretty much the only thing that survivor can not have without affecting the game play) and give killer another benefit (I dont know how breaking a BW give killer benefit beside opening a shortcut and deny predrop god pallet)
At this point, the only way to add depth of gameplay for BW is survivors can spend time to rebuild BW.
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What if some BWs were doors? They start open for everyone, and a survivor must take time to close and lock it, so it can't be done mid-chase, it must be prepared ahead of time. When it's closed, the killer can break through it like normal and remains permanently broken, or a survivor can open it again if they want to.
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Sweet SM drawing!
Finally, a cozy SM that actually makes ppl NOT wanna break a wall😌
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BW that to open shortcut paths are the doors, Midwich, the Game have it. Its pointless for survivors to spend time to rebuild those (if they have that ability), the only worth spending time to rebuild are pre-drop god pallets BW.
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Thats really how she does it
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Omg 💀💀💀 I didn't think it was that spot on lmao.
Ill never unsee this now xD
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I wish Dead Dawg BW shack was implemented for shacks on every map.
That’s about it
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Sometimes they open up God Loops as well? Dead Dawg Saloon is a perfect example, you shouldnt break all of the walls because it opens the loop up to be stronger.
I think the idea of maps being able to have a bit more control and decision-making is cool but a majority of breakable walls are simply just "dont break this one, it makes the loop stronger" or "do break this one, it makes the loop weaker" which makes them a bit flawed since there is never a situation where Im forced to weight the costs/benefits of breaking them when the consequences are very cut and dry.
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Tbh, if I were a brand new player I would have thought that the breakable walls were left over game design from dbd’s early days.
I think that’s where the developers first implemented breakable walls into the game.
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Failed? No.
Substantially improve the game? Also no.
They're a minor strategy element to some maps. As killer you can break them early weakening some loops, but also giving the survivors more time when they are all on gens. Or you can leave them up and potentially give the survivor a stronger loop until you are weakened in a chase by needing to break them.
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It's an uncapitalised concept. When it was first announced, I was hoping for more walls whicj the Killer could see as fake but Survivors could not. I also felt that they would be integrated into the scenary.
Unfortunately, they're little more than glorified door stops. Granted, in more open maps there are less opportunities. However, the tiles present could have had randomized areas where they could be smashed. Some tiles could be unaffected, of course.
The walls were a wasted opportunity for a far better and more nerve-racking game design.
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