New Killer: The Houndmaster
i would like to suggest some changes regarding the most recent killer to be added to PTB. Firstly, many of us have been disappointed by one of the killers modes, that is search. It is underwhelming and has been proven to be difficult to effectively use as it’s extremely easy to avoid the dog and his smaller radius. While I’m sure BeHavior might just increase the terror radius, I think it would be more interesting if the dog had instead tracked a survivor down. Of course I understand that the dog isn’t necessarily a blood hound so it’s not a dog meant for tracking; however, most breeds of dogs have heightened senses, especially hounds. I believe that it would be interesting to have the dog hunt a survivor based on one of two criteria, scratch marks, if there were two survivors the dog would target the most recent, if they left at the same time it would choose at random. And also blood pools, these having higher priority than scratches. This would give survivors an incentive to firstly, not just run away from wherever the dog is, but also to heal stopping them from doing gens for a while. I also understand that this concept, specifically the scratch marks have its issues. What if survivors just place random scratches with fixated and lead the dog on random chases just to heighten the cool down? That’s why I personally suggest a higher running speed by the dog for search only, as well as a higher radius specifically at the end of the scratch marks that can spot survivors through walls. Not a massive radius just a few meters larger. This will be like a dog smelling out it’s target and it will only attack one survivor while it is sent out. I also wish to suggest that if a survivor be found by the dog, they don’t just have a higher noise level or deep wound when hit. I suggest that the dog on finding the survivors gives any survivor in the radius the status effect, but also if it targets a survivor, I think it would be wise to have the dog bite or bark at the survivor. If it were to bite I think that cooldown should be shorter than that of the chase bite, and also leave the survivor with a new status effect that would cause them to be injured if they didn’t heal the wound. It’s similar to a deep wound status effect except that instead of downing they only injure, and instead of being injured they’re completely healthy and don’t have the noises of being injured. This would suggest the note caused infection as dog bites can often cause if left unclean. If not bite then I would suggest bark. The dog would follow the survivors for a specific amount of time and bark at them, revealing their aura to the killer. The dog doesn’t want to disobey the command to find, but doesn’t want to come to its owner empty handed so it tries to bark and tell its owner where it is. I also think that the killer should be able to call back the dog if they were to spend so much time barking at a survivor, similar to calling back Viktor.
The other mode of chase, is also a bit difficult to use. Firstly, the weird delay the dog has when influencing the direction of the attack makes it difficult to hit survivors as they can just mind game it easily. I believe that this delay should be removed. I also think that it would be wise to have a similar thing to Dracula wolf form or Wesker in which the dog can move forward a bit before having to change direction. It might be a bit less realistic changing a dogs path like that, but at the same time a dog wouldn’t move in a solid straight line even if ordered. A dog understands its target regardless of if it’s instructed who it is. Secondly and really lastly as I’m unsure what more could be done. I believe the dog should have a small maybe invisible radius around where it is when in chase. It would help the dog have a larger radius especially around corners and would help chase feel more consistent. I would like to curve the dog more but it feels very difficult to actually be able to do that with coding or keeping the amount of buttons the same with every killer. While it’s not imperative that it is, it also makes the game not so complicated and makes some newer people more interested especially when they’ve never played a similar game.
I also wanted to suggest some changes to the killer herself, bear with me it’s almost over. I believe that the killer kicking animations should have more character, namely having the dog attacking these obstacles would make the killer less of an M1 killer with a dog and more so a master with her dog. Of course it would only be when the dog is off cool down and close enough to be used and I understand the dog can wander from time to time making this difficult, however it makes it more interesting for breaking things.