Ideas for future skull merchant rework
Most of the time a rework simply takes a killers power and tweaks certain variables, like adding status effects, or number changes etc. But what skull merchants main problem seems to be is that people arent fond of her power in general.
For example, at first during her ptb the drones were interesting to sneak by with their scanlines, until you realised how they could be used (camping gens etc). Then they got "tweaks" to be more of a loop denial chase power with stealth, and it kind of ends up just being something you accidently step on all the time, and just isnt that engaging. Infact even playing as her she doesn't really have any particular abilities even with a big power claw.
But one thing is for sure, they can't just take her power and give her something else that isn't drones. Its alredy set in stone that she has drones. But I think the key to making her more enjoyable is to change what kind of drones she has.
For example she could deploy little skull spiderbots that roam the map, searching for survivors, alerting her of their location if scanned, can be disabled if snuck up on, and latch on if you fail the little minigame thing. But because she will have no control over how they roam, she could either have a second ability to "command" them to check various places, or simply give her some kind of lunge attack that can break pallets/walls so that her claw feels more like a powerfull weapon etc.
Or maybe they can come up with different kinds of drones in her addons, like full sized robots with skulls that chase and damage survivors, but shut down after an attack etc, can be turned back on manually, or when generators get finnished. Theres plenty of ways to "rework" her into something more interesting, as keeping her current power as just stationary drones that are mostly just used to camp things, and no chase power beyond these placeable thinngs, is probably whats lead her to become so negatively recieved, besides some not being fond of her being sexy rather than scary (which I liked her for anyway).
Long story short, i think they need to make her drones into something more intimidating/active/fun in order to change her from something everyone dislikes, to something people atleast dont mind. If shes not scary, than make her technology the scary part of her. The part that would make you not want to face her in real life rather than in the game, as currently the stationary hover drones feel more like trip wires, than some highly advanced dangerous technology thats intimidating to be up against.
But i say Ideas for skull merchant as maybe we can make this a spot to place all our ideas for behaviour to look at and consider, so what are your ideas or do you like this one?
Comments
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I highly recommend parting up your text a bit and using some commas, it's a bit hard to read the wall of text you've written here.
Example:
Most of the time a rework simply takes a killers power and tweaks certain variables, like adding status effects, or number changes etc. But what skull merchants main problem seems to be is, that people arent fond of her power in general.
For example at first during her PTB, the drones were interesting to sneak by with their scanlines, until you realised how they could be used (camping gens etc.) and then they got "tweaks" to be more of a loop denial chase power with stealth, and it kind of ends up just being something you accidently step on all the time, and just isn't that engaging.
In fact, even playing as her, she doesn't really have any particular abilities even with a big power claw. But one thing is for sure, they can't just take her power and give her something else that isn't drones. It's already set in stone, that she has drones.
I think the key to making her more enjoyable is, to change what kind of drones she has. For example, she could deploy little skull spiderbots that roam the map, searching for survivors, alerting her of their location if scanned, can be disabled if snuck up on, and latch on if you fail the little minigame thing.
But because she will have no control over how they roam, she could either have a second ability to "command" them to check various places, or simply give her some kind of lunge attack that can break pallets/walls, so that her claw feels more like a powerfull weapon etc.
Maybe they can come up with different kinds of drones in her addons, like full sized robots with skulls, that chase and damage survivors, but shut down after an attack. Theres plenty of ways to "rework" her into something more interesting, as keeping her current power as just stationary drones, that are mostly just used to camp things and no chase power beyond these placeable things is; probably what's lead her to become so negatively recieved, besides some not being fond of her being sexy, rather than scary (which I liked her for anyway). I say ideas for Skull Merchant, but maybe we can make this a spot to place all our ideas for BHVR to look at, and consider. So what are your ideas, or do you like this one?
To address the topic of your post, I like it, just flying drone skulls is interesting of itself, but the novelty passed surprisingly quickly for me. I like the idea of skull spiderbots.
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Sorry about that , wrote the whole thing over a lunch break lol edited most of it. And thank you
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I have feeling, it's better to use forum for feedback only.
Not suggestions, if you suggest something, you make sure it won't happen, because devs don't want to "copy" (kinda understandable, but annoying for players).
Like really, was there ever a specific feature that was created based on forum post?
Have you seen even 1 post exactly asking for changes done in past years?0 -
You are probably right. Only proof ive ever seen of the devs actually reading these is when the guy cuts in to warn about forum rules. But it was worth a try. Even then if they did take this info and bring it to the table when discussing the direction for the skull merchant rework, we would not see its results till some time on 2025. So im just posting it as something they may read, and might bring out a big suggestion box of some kind when they do get to the rework. Just want to see skull merchant eventually in a better light, not take credit for changes made within the game.
Post edited by Tits on1 -
I feel like jt should be like entrapping a survivor in a loop and applying the negative connotations if they leave the permitter, like loss of health state.
Obviously thered be changes like the range of the drones and SM getting haste in range again but i think overall survivors being forced to looped in a area instead of being forced to leave a area is more engaging
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While that would be a unique mechanic in the game, the reason i believe they haven't implemented being forced to loop in an area is because the survivor would be put into a lose/lose situation everytime. The loops are made to be very temporary ex: you vault 3 times the window blocks = forced to leave, you drop the pallet, killer breaks it = forced to leave, and now you get hit if you stay, and get hit if you leave. Then if they were to put a specific mechanic to keep the loop going like the windows dont block and the pallet cant break etc, itd be vert frustrating on the killers end as weve all been there chasing someone around the shack for 3 gens at one point, thatd become every chase.
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NGL, the idea of a spiderbot sneaking up for a scan genuinely made me laugh (in a good way). :D
Skully's problems in a nutshell was her power was oppressive at loops to the point you were better off just leaving and holding W than trying to loop her. This made it so playing her was braindead, you just threw a drone at loop then cut off the survivor as they leave, or hold W after them until they get scanned to death. This combined with getting free haste to force the issue made her catching you not feel earned or a byproduct of skill (even if it actually was). Even though she wasn't oppressively strong, the way you beat her wasn't particularly fun or interesting for a lot of people.
I feel like the single scan line change works cause you avoid the problem with 2 scan lines where you can't increase the speed of the drone rotation because that means you have to crouch more often, and you can't slow the rotation cause that means you have to crouch for longer. I think this change alone makes her FAR easier to tweak to find a sweet spot where her power is good, but also adds mind games of its own. Using the scanner to change direction is actually something Skull Merchant needs to do (a cooldown for that though to make that a mind game in of itself would be useful).
I feel like I want to push her down the trap killer route. Her drones should work as traps in stealth mode, have them stationary, remove the ring and have them used to cut off paths and build up stacks to that injure. They provide some anti loop, but not as strong as before.
Spider drones could be the opposite of her floating drones, instead of then being stationary and not scanning stationary survivors, have them get sent by skull merchant in a direction to sneak up and detect survivors doing conspicuous actions to get stacks instead. 1 trap for zone control, one trap for detection…. and a spider bot beeping behind you would be hilarious :D
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i know thered be some adjusting, like vaults not being blocked but killer would probably get some buffs to adjust for this, like undetectable and old version of haste
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