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If survivors should expect to escape ~3/10 matches...

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Halloulle
Halloulle Member Posts: 1,045

…playing the game as survivor is not about trying to escape anymore. - And that is a problem.

What do I mean? I'd say people generally play a computer game to have fun and enjoy the time they are playing that game. So first of all: if "escaping as a survivor" is what you need to enjoy your time playing the game, you will simply not enjoy the game anymore and will probably quit sooner or later, switch to mostly/only playing killer or maybe opt for very coordinated meta swf-ing. - Either way: you're either gone or will belong to a very small sub-group of players* (remember that asterisk). So let's put that group of people to the side for now and focus on those that want to enjoy their time playing the game - which consequently has to be based on the match experience itself and not on the outcome of the match.

So, the survivor who wants to have fun based on playing the match loads into the match. How many beeline to a gen because that is what makes them have fun during the match? Now, I do think there are people who genuinely like just doing gens for one reason or the other (Fogwise-Hyperfocus do be fun sometimes) but I'm also pretty sure I don't even go out on a limb when I say it's a very small minority of players. Which makes the answer to my question "very, very, very few". What do people do instead? Well, anything but gens, I'd say. Whatever is fun to them; getting a challenge done, trying to hole the killer, trying to get a pallet/flashlight/whatever save, trying to pull off some perk combo, going for a sabo build, trying to get as much chase as possible, trying to cleanse every single totem or get that exponential value or whatever have you. Hopping on a gen is reserved for "downtime when the killer is busy elsewhere / you have to pass some time until you can do what you wanted to".

I don't know about you but I can't see that going well in the long run. - And blaming someone for prioritising their fun over the objective is a tad too close to "what? You want to have fun? When playing a game?! Unheard of!". Besides, all these things are part of intended gameplay and you can hardly say "you didn't play normally because you didn't maximise efficiency on a gen."

Now for the * from earlier. The DBD community is a pretty competitive bunch of people I have found. So a good chunk of people playing the game now are probably in the group I put aside earlier. At the moment I imagine they are pretty frustrated and are looking at the three options I mentioned earlier: quit, switch to killer or find competent, likeminded people to swf with. So far, this number is rather small - BHVR keeps saying something along the lines of "low percentage of players" (10-15% iirc…?). A number I'm rather sure will grow if the current trend of balance changes continue. … Which in return will more balance changes necessary since the game will have to be balanced more and more around swf.

I don't know about you but to me that is a rather grim future and I most definitely will stop to play then. - Though, I also have a handful of friends and call one of them my S.O. that would rejoice at the idea of DBD going full sweat and full comp. (Though, they also very much agree that it's a pointless endeavour since DBD is effectively unbalance-able. - But that's a different can of worms.)

What do you think? Would you agree with that train of thought? - Or do you go "nah, that premise is so far off, go get coffee, you're still asleep"? In which case I'd very much look forward to you outlining where/how got off track.

[And yes, most of this is just me thinking the thought "but wait, if you can't reasonably expect to escape even if you play to escape, what's gonna happen then?" through, so feel free to write it off as me just rambling.]

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Comments

  • caligraph
    caligraph Unconfirmed, Member Posts: 246
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  • Halloulle
    Halloulle Member Posts: 1,045
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    it's more of a thought experiment so it's not exactly meant as an empirical study or anything. And expectation as in the player's expectation based on their experience. Maybe should have stated that more clearly. - So yes, this is rather subjective but at the same time I still have a feeling that the sentiment isn't too far off. I might even go as far as to say "if people feel like they don't escape more than ~3 out of ten matches then…" is really all that matters, now that I think about it. What the devs aim for and what the actual numbers say is one pair of shoes. What the players perceive is sometimes a completely different thing. - But it's the thing that determines how they behave.

    And even if only one out of four people feels that way and opts for the "fun based on what I get to do during the match regardless of outcome" that will have an impact on the entire match. Almost like a self fulfilling prophecy, since the odds of actually escaping are greatly reduced the moment a single survivor doesn't prioritise gen pressure.

    I'm very well aware that this entire thing is basically a slippery slope kinda thing… but at the same time I don't really see how the general direction can be avoided.

  • caligraph
    caligraph Unconfirmed, Member Posts: 246
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    SM's kr is because everyone kills themselves when they see her

  • Halloulle
    Halloulle Member Posts: 1,045
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    Very much this. - Imo, maybe the only viable alternative route (aside from drowning in sweat or just playing for the fun of it with no regard to gen efficiency or teamies which, I'm very sure, will hurt the game in the long run).

  • Neaxolotl
    Neaxolotl Member Posts: 391
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    Survivor BP in general is ridiculously bad, honestly limiting those doesn't makes sense when we have so much of infinite things to grind for

  • ExcelSword
    ExcelSword Member Posts: 443
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    I tend to hover around the 2,000,000 BP cap constantly, just because I find that I have to actually focus on spending blood points now that all my survivors and killers have all perks.

    But sometimes I find myself forgetting that not everyone has bought all the dlc as they release, completed all achievements and unlocked every perk, and that DBD is really not friendly to new players as other live service games.

  • Sandt1985
    Sandt1985 Member Posts: 190
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    I think for the most part, survivors will never be satisfied with this game, because not all survivors are meant to escape trials. 4 man escapes should NEVER be a thing. If it happens, then the killer MASSIVELY misplayed. Some survivors are ALWAYS going to die in trials, so some survivors are always going to be angry. I've made peace with it

  • edgarpoop
    edgarpoop Member Posts: 7,977
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    Agreed. A huge part of what made playing comp so fun was that it was consistently good players vs good players in an even match. That rarely seems to happen in public matches.

    Games usually seems to be a runaway in either direction. I'll have a game where a teammate is found in basement at 5 gens for no reason, or a game where we 4 out and the killer has 3 hooks. It feels like they're matchmaking for a kill rate and not for gameplay.

    And maybe they're not. Maybe MMR is usually really close between players in a trial. But it doesn't feel like that, and we have no way of knowing that. I would think you want to be transparent with a well-functioning system. It's not like SBMM is some industry trade secret that other devs are going to steal. This isn't a new problem BHVR is trying to solve. So I don't understand the smoke and mirrors surrounding it. The feedback on it seems to be consistently negative. I'd think you'd want to prove that it's functioning correctly to counter that feedback.

  • ReverseVelocity
    ReverseVelocity Member Posts: 2,976
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    It sounds like you'd enjoy Identity V more to be honest.

  • NarkoTri1er
    NarkoTri1er Member Posts: 67
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    since whole MMR range between 1600 and 2100 is stuck together, you will rarely get someone that has similar MMR as yours.

    That's why tournaments and DbDL are much better place to actually expect to play with/against people of similar skill.

    The big problem with SBMM is that people would complain when it gets tightened because "boohoo, longer queue times".

  • sinkra
    sinkra Member Posts: 278
    edited April 13
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    I'm convinced the matchmaking system in this game matches you against players at much higher or lower MMR to maintain your win/loss rate. It's like you lost a few games in a row? Ok Here's an easy stomp. It might also be placing skilled survivors with newbies with the intention they carry them.

  • Xxjwaynexx
    Xxjwaynexx Member Posts: 266
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    I mean as a huntress main did she need buffs absolutely not, were the live version buffs op na bro not op just not necessary. They didn't make bad huntresses better in any way. Kill rates are a terrible stat honestly they should be looking at hook states. If I 4k but I essentially only got 4 hooks then that's a L. If a 1-2k and I got 8-10 hooks states that's a dub and every one probably had the match of the week. Hook states determine how well a killer played not kills, playing for kills will always lead to tunneling because you still get 12 hooks if you kill someone.

    The most you should be rewarded for a single hook state kill is 2 hook states at the most. I would prefer a single hook kill showing only a single hook state when it's all said and done. That way sandbagging teammates, camping and intentional first hook suiciders aren't padding the stats. This might not directly deter tunneling, but at least we can see what killers are actually overturned.

    I would also say that an average of 9 hooks would be healthy seeing as how you can get 8 hooks without killing a single player, let's be honest someone has to die lol.

  • Halloulle
    Halloulle Member Posts: 1,045
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    I havent played the ptb but from what ive seen and heard it seems twins was actually even better at winning with slugging instead of hooking on the ptb.

    I do give props to bhvr for trying to address what survivors dislike...its just that quite often they go a bit overboard - at the very least on ptb...which idk if thats a good thing or setting wrong expectations / primes players to judge the final changes in a certain way.

  • edgarpoop
    edgarpoop Member Posts: 7,977
    edited April 14
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    I don't think that's necessarily the intention when those lopsided matches happen, though it definitely feels like it. What I think happened: they brought in someone to implement SBMM who had previous experience with such things in symmetrical PVP games, but they had no context for DbD or its asymmetry.

    The MMR averages probably work out on paper, and in other games they probably produce good matches. But there's no mechanism to force engagement in DbD, and survivors have limited carry potential. It's not like an FPS where a great player can straight up carry. A great survivor will just be ignored until 1 or 2 relatively less skilled teammates are sacrificed.

  • mecca
    mecca Member Posts: 204
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    4 kills in a match should never be a thing then.

    It's funny you mentioned about killers massively misplaying. They can misplay and still win via cheese tactics like camping, tunneling, slugging.

    Survivors can never misplay, start the backup plan, and win a match at will.

    Survivors pretty much have to play flawlessly, and the killer must be significantly less skilled at the game in order for a killer to actually lose.

  • FilthyLegionRevival
    FilthyLegionRevival Member Posts: 303
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    I don't expect to escape but if you do wanna have that feeling then I say look forward to killer bots coming at some point like I am. Hopefully they make for good practice!

  • Sally_S_gay_son
    Sally_S_gay_son Member Posts: 284
    edited April 14
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    all that only to disregard the fact that Survivor is a team game mode and unless you are playing with friends who are all down to do dumb #########, you are ruining the match for other players

    Post edited by EQWashu on
  • Halloulle
    Halloulle Member Posts: 1,045
    edited April 14
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    Except… survivor isn't exactly a team role. or more like. The design of the game mechanics doesn't consider survivors to be a team. As far as the game is concerned it's 1v1v1v1v1v1. - Just that four of those individuals have the same objective (though: still individually) and the remaining individual has a different objective. As far as the game is concerned it would be perfectly alright for one individual to throw the three others that share the same objective under the bus in order to complete the objective.

    [Also, since there's quite a bunch of different opinions and sub-discussions in this thread, it would be very helpful if you quoted the post you're referring to. If no post is quoted, at least I just gonna assume OP (aka me) is addressed. And I can assure you: I am most definitely not a killer main.]

    Post edited by EQWashu on
  • Sally_S_gay_son
    Sally_S_gay_son Member Posts: 284
    edited April 14
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    I believe we both have played this game enough to know how it works in actual matches.


    If you truly believe that the flawed mmr system and the way it works should be taken into considerstion when playing surivor, meaning you will on purpose throw matches and make it frustrating for your team, just stick to killer.

    Post edited by EQWashu on
  • Halloulle
    Halloulle Member Posts: 1,045
    edited April 14
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    You're also kinda addressing the exact three options that I think will be the choice all the players who find "just playing a match for the fun of it - regardless of outcome" isn't what they want to do / how the game should be played: Find a swf (I think that what it ultimately comes down to when survivors "play as a team"), switch to killer — or, well, if neither of those options are chosen then only quitting is left. I mean, even at the very beginning I say that if it comes to survivors not playing for escapes anymore (be that because they actually only escape ~3/10 matches or because they feel like they do) — and personally: outside of swf that is kinda what I experience, both when I play SoloQ and when I have solos/not-4-man-swf when I do occasionally play killer — it's a problem.

    Seriously, I don't think we really disagree all that much. - The only difference I see is that I don't blame/judge players who opt for fun. I don't say it's good (like i said: it's actually a problem). - Games should be fun, yes. But it should be the process of working toward the objective/achieving the objective that is fun - and that only works for as long as players perceive the objective to actually be attainable often enough to be worth the effort. Or, well, at least I don't see a point in putting effort into a futile struggle.

    Post edited by EQWashu on
  • NarkoTri1er
    NarkoTri1er Member Posts: 67
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    tho people love to use it as an excuse when they clearly get outplayed and lose the match.

    Remember, my opponent wins and i lose = "they don't play for fun, i didn't have fun"

    I win and my opponent loses = "ggez, ur so bad at the game"

  • Halloulle
    Halloulle Member Posts: 1,045
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    Though: If either of those two is happening a lot of times that should be a clear indication of something being off on the dev/mechanics side, no? You win some, you lose some. - But if you consistently lose you should get to a place where you lose less and get back to the equilibrium stage of "you win some you lose some." Sure, there are petty people who think it's "you win all, you lose none" but overall that's not the complaint people make. The complaint many people make (at the very least many SoloQ players) is that they consistently lose and "lose streaks" are way too long / never really ending.