The death of this game will be the learning curve that BHVR continues to make worse for new players.
It won't be a broken killer, it won't be busted perks, it won't be unbalanced sides or bugs....it will be the inability of new players to learn how to play the game.
Most people can argue this wasn't much of an issue 3-4 years ago. The perks were very straightforward, and there was a pretty decent balance between new content and learning curve requirements.
Looking at the game today, that balance has completely changed.
New players today are facing the absurd task of understanding a combination of 1000+ addons/items/perks/maps/killer special powers...it's completely unrealistic now to expect anyone under 500-1000 hours to know everything they need to know to be an effective teammate or killer. There is just so much to learn and the game does nothing to ease a player into the game.
Hell, even veterans of the game are having a hard time keeping up with killer changes...I doubt even half of the experienced players today know how skull merchant or oynro work anymore with all the constant changes...
And to top that all off, the game actually goes out of it's way to prevent players from learning or informing them of a negative status effect that cuased them to lose. The HUD for example is so cryptic, that new players (or even experienced ones) have no idea what those icons mean, or worse, the HUD doesn't even inform them at all of a negative status effect. So they'll just continue remaining oblivious to the fact that a certain perk is revealing thier position, or that certain actions are giving the other side an heavy advantage...
Right now, the only way a player can progress through the learning curve, is to purposely seek answers themselves by memorizing what each of these things do, and how they are combined to impose even more punishment to the opposite side...how is this even realistic to expect players to do this? Especially new players who are already overwhelmed with the basics of the game itself? It's not, and the experience just ends up overwhelmingly frustrating.
And finally, the game actually goes out of it's way to prevent players from communicating with eachother, and the teammate action indicators on the hud are are incredibly limited as well...so not only are we giving new players an seemly impossible task of learning every aspect of the game, but BHVR slaps duct tape over the mouths of thier teammates to prevent them from helping a new player, which in turn makes the game incredibly frustrating for even experienced players since all they can do is watch a noob teammate consistently make mistakes...
BHVR needs to focus on making the game more accessible to new players. The fundamentals of this game has completely changed from what it was 3-4 years ago, and there has been zero compensation to either side to help ease that burden on new players.
If the game continues the way it is, and as even more complicated perks/killers are released or changed, it's only going to get worse. BHVR needs to retain new players, otherwise there will be nobody to replace the experienced players as they move onto other games...
Comments
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I killer main and if its obvious I'm playing new players I let them win and lead them to pallets so they can drop them on me. Although if they are really new it can take a few hits of the pallet to get them to understand what they should do.
I agree with your points and that's why I try to help where I can but unfortunately too many killers and survivors think it's okay to bully a new player and talk pathetic childish toxic trash after the game. Way to go to encourage new players.
Everyone was new at some point so help where you can.
Good post
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I've seen quite a few new Switch players when I'm Killer. I hook them twice and let them escape, but I don't make it obvious I'm letting them.
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As someone who went on a hiatus with this game for a year I agree with this.
I pretty much had to relearn the game as everything had changed.
Personally I think the MMR system needs a rework where new players are only faced with new killers. Both sides don't have all killers or perks so they can start at a steady learning curve. If facing a killer with more experience they should get 3 % haste + 5% gen repair boost until they are out of their kindergarden shoes.
Yes this would lead to bully smurf account squads beeing a problem but I think it would be a small problem.
I feel so sorry for players who have less then 100 hours facing a 3k hours killer.
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There definitely needs to be more leeway for new players.
A longer period of dead-low MMR before they start to climb. Complete lock out of being matched with mid-high MMR killers if playing solo, even when it comes to backfilling. The option to conitue playing tutorial matches against bot killers (including Wraith, Billy and Huntress). And a new player +100% Bloodpoint and EXP bonus.
All of which should last for something like your first 30 solo games in each role. Or first 10 hours of play time, whichever is the longest.
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im not moving on ever i love playing killer and being nontoxic as one
this game is way too fun for me to stop playing even when i lose its still fun
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I am new and love the discovery aspect with it being new to me. I do not mind being thrown to the wolves. It just helps you to learn at a faster pace. The only issue with requiring to pair new survivors with new killers is probably extremely long que times.
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You'll get over that emotion state.
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I agree 100% When I first bought the game (way back in the early days of DbD) I had some friends who stared playing with me and they all gave up within a month or two because the game was too difficult to learn killer powers/perks/etc. It's WAY worse now and that much more overwhelming for new players. Unless you are willing to drop hundreds of hours into learning, with all those hours being incredibly frustrating and soul-crushing, this is not the game for you. There's just way too much to learn to be able to enjoy it at all.
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I agree and it reflects on killer reworks as well. Not a lot can be done with them or their powers or else it becomes too complicated for newer players and they won't know what to do without the right information. Then, it leads to really bad reworks or ones that reflect that the devs don't really know what to do with a rework when they need to cater to both a large community of players who are lost and a community that can do simple counterplay too easily.
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i have been like this for years it wont be changing anytime soon.
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It's just because you're so dang chill. The dude abides. 😉
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thx bro i will stay my ways bc of peeps like u
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respeckt
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As I have mentioned on a previous thread is a "Welcome Package". Give new players 1 million blood points just to be generous. Some shards to buy a perk from the shrine and a code to use in the store. It will not only give a tour of the game's features, it would give them a chance in their first couple of matches.
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