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Perk Selection by "Weight" Vs. Slots
It's pretty common knowledge that not all perks are created equal; Some pretty straight forward examples being stuff like Windows of Opportunity Vs. Self-Care & Ultimate Weapon Vs. Shattered Hope.
Since every player has 4 perks for their loadouts, it makes sense then that folks would prioritize equipping perks that have the greatest value return on the cost of an entire perk slot. Typically this skews perk selection towards cramming meta perks & other perks that far outshine the usefulness of more niche & subtle perks.
As a consequence of this, players typically have to choose between efficiency with better perks, or adhering to a more creative, but less efficient playstyle with niche perks in interesting combinations.
This segways into my actual suggestion; I would love for each perk to be assigned a weight or "point cost" & loadouts to have a "point allowance" as opposed to just strictly 4 perk slots. The best analogy I can think of for what I'm trying to convey would be something akin to Hollow Knight's Notch & Charms system. For folks that haven't played Hollow Knight (definitely check that one out if you're into Metroidvanias btw), I've cobbled together some pictures as visual aids as a proof of concept:
(Throwing this out there first as a disclaimer that the point costs I've assigned to the following perks, the amount of perk points permitted to be equipped & the adjusted max perks allowed are arbitrary with regards to their balance, it's just to serve as a visual aid for understanding what I'm talking about for discussion & deliberation)
Below is an example of a build utilizing a mix of strong, to relatively niche perks; Because some of those perks are weaker, one would be permitted to equip more of them as a tradeoff for not equipping something more powerful in their stead since they have a smaller impact on the perk point allowance.
Looking at an additional example, this time using a build consisting entirely of relatively strong perks; The perk allowance is consumed completely with just 4 perks, akin to how standard DbD plays now. Despite the maximum perks allowed in my visual aid being 8, this build isn't allowed to equip more than 4 since that would go over the allotted perk point allowance to keep the loadout balanced.
I've also taken the liberty of making some visual aids & examples with a survivor (Bill in this case) as well:
Another example of a mixed build:
Lastly, another example of a build exclusively using stronger perks:
This approach kills two birds with one stone, the first being that folks using weaker perks would be permitted more flexibility with their builds in exchange for foregoing stronger perks. The second is allowing stronger & weaker perk designs to coexist in Dead by Daylight without the need to balance around making them all equally viable options compared to each other, as long as an appropriate point cost were assigned.
All of that being said, I'm not intimately familiar with how Dead by Daylight's codebase is organized or implemented, so actually adjusting loadouts to work like this may be infeasible given already existing overhead. Nonetheless, I think it would be pretty neat if some rendition of this came to be in Dead by Daylight, whether it be implementing it directly to the standard gamemode, having a separate queue, offering it just through custom games, or even doing another event/modifier like Lights Out that dabbles around with this idea a bit.
This idea's been rattling around in my skull for a couple years now, I had more time than I knew what to do with this evening so I slapped all this together. I'd love to hear about how folks feel about this idea or how they would amend it. :^]
Comments
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It's segue.
Also this doesn't work. Different perks have different efficacy on different killers. Also BHVR would have to decide how good or bad perks are and get ahead of whatever meta emerges which is impossible.
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The main flaw I've heard from opponents to this type of system is something along the lines of "this comes from distrusting BHVR to create balanced perks to begin with, why do you think they would rate the perks at the correct rating?"
I like the idea personally, but that BHVR balance issue definitely is understandable looking at their track record.
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Learn something new everyday, I didn't even know segue was a word till you pointed it out.
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You got a pretty solid point there.
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It would be possible if they don't manually weigh the perks.
If you want to weight perks and avoid a hard meta, then you weigh the perks by an algorithm based on popularity and let the community decide, indirectly.
Whatever is meta will be weighted the heaviest, and it would prevent things like 4x S+ tier perks in one build.
Still not a perfect system, and likely too much effort to rework the entire perk system.
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If they can balance perks with weights, they can balance perks without weights.
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One possible problem with usage rates, is people can troll the system by intentionally giving false data. I can be a mad lad bringing Poised as a 4th perk when SWFing, or Bloodhound as a 4th on Blight/Nurse, and have those factors carry my victory. Alternatively more intentionally weak perks when my skill with SWF/high-tier Killers can carry me. Heck, Comp players already do this by not repeating perks, so this would impact soloq the worst in all likelihood. Plus, as we can see from the perk usage rates, Self-Care would be S-tier despite being horrible, or Windows being a soloq perk (since coordinated SWFs can say which pallets are used).
Even then, it should be balanced around allowing 4 perks (at S Tier), and more for weaker ones. If it is framed negatively, people will naturally revolt. If it is framed as a bonus for bringing weak perks, it would be better received. The perks could then be adjusted W/L based on the percentage of the build (eg. 25% at 4 or fewer perks, 20% at 5, 16.6% at 6, ~14% at 7, and so on).
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