Visit the Kill Switch Master List for more information on these and other current known issues: https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/kb/articles/299-kill-switch-master-list
We encourage you to be as honest as possible in letting us know how you feel about the game. The information and answers provided are anonymous, not shared with any third-party, and will not be used for purposes other than survey analysis.
Access the survey HERE!
A Thorough, Comprehensive Set Of Skull Merchant Changes
I won't sugarcoat it: This will involved undoing almost everything from the last set of changes, because they fundamentally cannot address any of the issues this killer has while they also ended up unfairly harming players attempting to engage with her basic gameplan.
So, we'll start with my goals for this rework, overall. Skull Merchant's power currently shines when everyone involved both understands how it functions, and is attempting to engage with the more interactive and skill-based elements of it, on both sides. Therefore, my changes aim to emphasise this gameplay while weakening any of the edge cases and cheese strategies present in the power. We'll go over changes to the drones themselves, changes to the information gain on the survivor side (as I personally think this is her biggest issue, recent changes notwithstanding), and then a few other miscellaneous changes. For each change, I will give a brief explanation of my reasoning and intended effect.
To reiterate: These changes assume pre-nerfed Skull Merchant as a base, so all of those effects and such are still there unless otherwise stated.
The Drones Themselves
- Drones placed during chase begin in Active Mode.
This change is similar to one that BHVR made recently, but with a more focused aim. The Skull Merchant dropping drones at a loop mid-chase often led to the assumption that the survivor had to run away immediately, but this is often not the case. With the drone's beams more obviously present from the start, players can see if they're actually in danger of being scanned immediately and make the decision to run or stay accordingly.
- Placing a drone incurs a slightly larger speed penalty.
This is the one good change that was made in the most recent update, but it should be more of a noticeable speed penalty.
If a Skull Merchant places a drone sloppily mid-chase just to try and zone survivors away from the loop, a stronger speed penalty would allow survivors to make more distance and punish the poor play, incentivising the Skull Merchant to place drones with more of a plan. Placing drones ahead of time would be offset by this change, and successfully either "laser tagging" to snipe a survivor as soon as the drone initialises or simply placing the drone with the aim of playing the loop/structure well should offset the speed penalty.
Not pitching numbers here, they'd need to be tested, but more of a penalty than exists now.
- Hacking a drone places it on cooldown for longer.
Hacking a drone can often feel underwhelming in terms of result gained. While it's not her main counterplay and shouldn't replace her main counterplay either, the drone being offline for longer stands a better chance of pushing the Skull Merchant to recall it and manually set it down again, rather than just waiting out the timer and having the drone available anyway later.
Not pitching numbers here, they'd need to be tested.
- Claw Traps no longer apply Deep Wound on injured survivors.
I've never understood why Skull Merchant has this. It's a completely arbitrary effect that seemingly only exists to annoy survivors, without really helping the killer's basic gameplan in any meaningful way. Complaints about Merchant's kit being bloated are generally off the mark, but this particular effect doesn't need to exist.
- Increased minimum distance between drones.
Currently, the degree to which drones can overlap can be pretty problematic on certain maps. While some degree of overlap is probably sensible to make the power not too restrictive, especially on the tighter indoor maps that serve as the biggest problems here, decreasing it from where it is now would be completely appropriate.
Not pitching numbers here, they'd need to be tested.
- Claw Traps now last for longer.
As avoiding Claw Traps entirely is Skull Merchant's main counterplay and most changes on this list are aimed at making doing that more consistent, I think it's fair to give her a buff or two to compensate. Claw Traps lasting longer would be a nice reward for the extra effort gaining one might take after these changes go live.
My suggestion for increased duration is increasing from 45 seconds to 60, but this would need to be tested.
Information Gain Fixes
- Lock On stacks cause a survivor's portrait overlay to glow red for as long as that survivor is scanned on Skull Merchant's radar.
This change is geared at situations where survivors are blindsided by Haste they didn't expect because a teammate of theirs tripped a drone out of chase. This also allows players to learn exactly how long the Haste lasts after each scan without having to go to an outside source for the number, if they're paying attention.
- Model change: Drones' white lights in Stealth Mode are replaced with thinner, brighter red lights.
If a survivor is pushed into a situation where a Stealth Mode drone is potentially threatening them, in chase or otherwise, avoiding the beam is still the main form of counterplay. However, the ability for a player to discern just where the beam is pointing in this mode is - while present - often somewhat imprecise. This change would make it more intuitive exactly where the drone is pointing, as the effective variance is smaller from a thinner light, but wouldn't affect any cleverly placed drones meant to ambush survivors who didn't see the model at all.
- Drone rotation causes a sound effect to play.
If a Skull Merchant uses the drone rotation ability, there's often no real indication to the survivor that it happened, especially if they don't already understand that the drone always moves clockwise otherwise. Changes have already been pitched that would make it obvious to observant survivors which direction the drone always moves when deployed, so this would be another layer to make it more obvious to players that this CAN happen, without unduly harming the desired effect of the ability for the killer.
- Disabled drones start to flash prior to reactivating.
Drones that are disabled can spring back to life unexpectedly sometimes. While uncommon, probably even moreso with the increased disable timer further up the list, more information to survivors about how this power functions is welcome. I pitch that the drone flashes once a second for the last five seconds of its disable timer, so it can be predictably observed and decisions can be made around it.
Miscellaneous Changes
- Skull Merchant's footsteps are louder.
While the Skull Merchant's stealth is balanced with a different limiting factor than other stealth killers - the timer on the effect - the end result is still quite good, especially when she's using perks to gain the Undetectable effect. Slightly louder footsteps make her slightly easier to track for observant survivors.
- Radar input is a toggle, not a held button, and the radar comes up faster.
As a bunch of these changes lean towards using all of Skull Merchant's kit to get real value, since countering her power when lower-effort strategies are employed becomes a lot more accessible, I think it's fair to make doing that smoother. Being able to tap a button and have the options come up a little quicker would make her a lot smoother to play, without really changing what options she actually has available.
This could be an option if enough players preferred holding the button, of course.
- Addons changed to promote consistency.
Somewhat similar to Nurse, I believe the Skull Merchant shouldn't have addons that directly increase her numbers when it comes to the Haste and the Hindered. If a survivor has gone to the trouble of learning the ins and outs of how her power works, they should have reasonable certainty that her power actually works that way, so they can make decisions accordingly. Keeping track of things can be a little stressful, so the extra uncertainty of these addons existing can be a little too much.
This doesn't have to be a nerf. Good addon effects could still exist; for instance, perhaps a purple addon that reintroduces Claw Traps breaking pallets. Arguably more useful than just increasing the Hindered, but without changing the consistency of her basic power effects.
—
As of right now, this is my list. There might be something I've forgotten here and there, but by and large, I think this set of changes would be the most healthy things that could change for the Skull Merchant. There's a lot of them, this wouldn't be a small update by any means if it happened, but they're all relatively minor in isolation and shouldn't really affect skilled players for the most part. A few things are slight nerfs to regular gameplay, to be sure, but the Skull Merchant isn't a weak killer, she's pretty good. She can withstand getting slightly weaker in the pursuit of getting her flaws ironed out, if that even happens because of this.
Comments
-
Big read, Ill read it up when i get home. :)
Also, do one for Trapper plz. <3
0 -
Honestly, I probably could, I think about poor Evan quite a lot. He was my first killer main back when I started playing, I do have a big soft spot for the guy.
0 -
Alright. I wanted to make sure I was home, smoked up, and actively keep my mind open.
Disclaimer: Skull Merchant is the only piece of dbd content I do not own, and never will. She represents everything wrong with the game with her release fiasco, and while I am fine with others forgiving and forgetting, I simply can't. I wanted to express my view on her before giving feedback on your proposed changes. I do not DC against her, but I've yet to not dislike simply being in the trial with one.
Moving on!
Drones! The proposed ideas actually make sense and would make things feel more smooth, if that makes sense? There's a strange rigidness when being chased by one, and I've yet to figure out why. I thought maybe the model movement, but I'm just not sure.
"Claw Traps no longer apply Deep Wound on injured survivors."
This also got me going 'Yeah, not too sure about that one." Doesn't feel like it needed to be a thing, so I agree with ya!
Information Gain Fixes
- Lock On stacks cause a survivor's portrait overlay to glow red for as long as that survivor is scanned on Skull Merchant's radar.
I'll be honest, not sure what the SM hud even looks like/works. But if a survivor gets a stack(s), the killer should have good info on that. So if I understand this one correctly, good buff.
- Model change: Drones' white lights in Stealth Mode are replaced with thinner, brighter red lights.
Anything to make visibility better in this game, even for a SM lol. This change would be better overall though.
- Drone rotation causes a sound effect to play.
This… I find myself wanting to debate this one. Being this is a horror game, I feel her drones should have some level of uncertainty. I'd be fine with it going either way though.
- Disabled drones start to flash prior to reactivating.
Again, like the rotation sound effect, sitting on a gen and staring at that disabled drone a few feet away is quite disheartening lol. Its a nice distraction whilst sitting on a gen and actually feeling (albeit only a lil) dread lol.
Miscellaneous Changes
- Skull Merchant's footsteps are louder.
While I really, really want to agree… I play Naughty Bear over any other Trapper skin due to him being a ninja by default. SM does make sound, a lot more than the bear, but if you did turn it up a bit, I certainly wouldn't cry about it lol.
- Radar input is a toggle, not a held button, and the radar comes up faster.
This is a QoL that should either just 'be', or toggled. Not sure why things like this just go past BHVR.
- Addons changed to promote consistency.
Haste is something I wish would just go bye bye globally in the game. I believe haste, controlled aura reading and gen speed items/perks all need to go in order for the game to begin becoming a 'comp dbd' game that too many believe is already a thing.
Tbh, a lot of killers need addon passes. I wouldn't put SM anywhere near the top of the list, but she should still be on it.
0 -
To clarify, I don’t really know a lot about Skull Merchant.
But these changes seem nice.
0 -
when i last spoke to for how skull merchant was problematic for the game. you stated that skull merchant should not get any global haste and that survivors hacking drones should remove lock-on stacks.
While they did not implement 2nd change. they did effectively implement 1st change by removing haste from her kit and granting haste when turning the drone.
your last person that i would think would disagree with her changes because exact changes you proposed pre-nerf were exact changes that developer did in fact implement. while i am not shocked that the killer is terrible, i am puzzled by these changes.
in any case, skull merchant does not need extensive changes to her base-kit. She need revert to how she used to be. She was a good spot prior to the changes. The only aspect i would change on old skull merchant is buff her add-on's, mainly the iri add-on that used to grant 25% stronger haste on claw traps but reduce battery life by -50% & Low powered mode which makes her drones have stationary laser. Lastly the Super charger add-on that increases claw battery life by 15%.
the way i wanted these 3 add-on changed was following
Expired battery:
Increases the total haste bonus by 2% when detected on the radar.
Increases battery life by 25%.
Supercharged:
Increased battery life by 25%(From 15%)
Low powered mode:
Reduces cooldown by 25% when placing drone.
at least now, i can be patient until Skull merchant receives a rework that reverts her changes.
1 -
Eh? I've never been against global Haste at all, what are you talking about?
Oh wait, I think I remember that thread, but I never talked about her not getting global Haste, I'm pretty sure. I remember saying that cross-map Claw Traps becoming harder (but still possible) would be fair, and that generally speaking survivors probably shouldn't be tripping drones randomly if they're paying attention outside of the very specific context of the killer hiding traps in those neat spots where the ring is hidden, but none of that would've affected her Haste.
Anyway, Merchant was in a pretty good spot prior to the nerfs, save for specifically the lack of information given to survivors making it very hard to learn her power + counterplay just by playing, and a few small issues like drones overlapping + the arbitrary Deep Wound. That's why I'm suggesting only changing those small things, and nothing super dramatic. If you look, most of these changes are just QoL things that'd make learning her power easier with only a handful of genuine nerfs/buffs.
1 -
but none of that would've affected her Haste.
right…
0 -
I mean… yeah?
Back in that thread we were still talking about her getting scans, which is what gives her Haste. Removing the Lock On stack by hacking a drone afterwards wouldn't have changed that she got the Haste when the scan happened.
It's also not even in this list, I was entertaining that as an idea because it was a popular talking point at the time. If they did choose to make Lock On stacks removable, that's still the best way to do it, but I'd rather lean in on stacks being avoidable rather than removable.
0 -
Regarding disabling Dorn, I would like to add a 6 second cooldown after Dorn is restored. The reason is that disabling Dorn is meaningless and will not really affect her. What happens is that she will throw another Dorn in its place as if nothing happened.
With my suggestion she will have to choose either to restore Dorn but not be able to deploy another Dorn for 6 seconds or let Dorn fix itself after a long time.
0 -
Her having to go back and replace the drone is exactly what you'd be wanting if you're hacking drones.
I do think it can feel a little unrewarding, but you don't hack drones to keep drones away from her. You hack drones so that she has to go out of her way to replace it.
Which also means, you have to think about the drone. If it's in a useless area like hovering over a generator or stuck in a corner after she just used it for Undetectable, don't bother hacking it because she won't care. If it's in a good structure or loop, those are the ones you'd hack, because she clearly wants those available for chases. In the latter case, the drone being off for longer would be nice, to make the killer have to recall it and replace it more often.
2 -
no. the topic was about making skull merchant not get global haste. Our conversion was that you did not like that skull merchant was getting haste rewards through out the map for smart drone placement. The removal of lock-on was an additional change on top of what your initial proposal was. not only did you want trap rewards being worse, you also wanted SAFETY nets in case you DO play bad on top of that. that is why thread was comical.
current skull merchant no longer gains global combat haste for successfully landing traps and ever since that change, her kill-rate on nightlight has dropped rock bottom. The developer changes are mirror to what you proposed in the thread.
Skull merchant is no longer rewarded for being trap killer. As a result, she is less fun to play. as mentioned in my previous post, i don't she needs any additional changes other than revert for whenever her rework shows up. if there would be additional changes, it would be improving her add-on's. nothing more.
Post edited by Devil_hit11 on0 -
Went back and reread the thread, since I remembered it was one of mine. We were talking about Claw Traps, you're misremembering. I even state multiple times in that thread, part of the reward she'd still get with that old proposal was global Haste, she just would have to try harder to get global Claw Traps.
0 -
by try hard-, rely on survivor to be bad at the video game.
0 -
Something I think should be added to this just to make playing against her feel better which while I can't balance out with buffs because I don't know enough about playing as her assume someone else talented at that did. I think making a hacked drone be unable to be recalled for a brief duration lets say ~15s, and it removes 1 stack of lock on would be a good change.
0 -
I'm not rehashing a few-months-old thread with you, man, especially if you can barely remember what we actually were talking about in it.
0 -
While I'm not necessarily against hacking drones removing Lock On stacks, in theory - I had a thread about it a while ago - I've come to think that the smarter decision would be to lean in to the stacks being completely avoidable in the first place. Empower that, and keep the potential removal of stacks as a change later on down the line if she needs it after things settle.
As for the drones being unable to be recalled, if you're hacking a drone you want her to recall it. What purpose would making that impossible for a few seconds serve? Genuine question, I'm not sure what the goal there would be.
0 -
I think wisely placed ambush drones mid chase are more interesting than trap drones out of chase, that way you can make them harder to avoid by seeing them (especially in chase while you try and look back at the killer occasionally) and then if someone gets spotted by one outside of chase, you still get the info off them but they eat up a bit of time to remove it or rush back to an objective and leave themselves vulnerable with more player agency.
I think just the ability you know you can cleanse it can go a long way.
0 -
i am just saying that this version of skull merchant is fairely accurate representation of the skull merchant in thread. you get bad rewards for claw traps and you rely on survivors to play terribly bad for trapping to trigger outside of chase.
strangely enough, SM is indifferent if you follow the survivors at loops and drop drones. the haste bonuses exist only for manual scans and add-on that buff up scans equate to similar levels of power to old original SM(Vital processing unit+Strobes).
0 -
So, I'll say this one more time and if it isn't acknowledged I'm not going to respond again, apologies for the harsh tone but it's pretty necessary:
I did not suggest weakening Claw Traps or scans in any way in that thread, except for removing Deep Wound. That's the only weakening thing I suggested, and I suggested nothing surrounding the Haste. There was no other suggestion for weakening the rewards for scans or Claw Traps.
No part of that thread is represented in the changes BHVR made, because BHVR chose to actually weaken Skull Merchant's rewards, which is not what I suggested outside of Deep Wound, which she currently still has even. BHVR didn't even weaken the one reward I did suggest changing. That's why I'm making threads like this, because I think the changes she got were bad, and don't represent fixes for any of the issues I've consistently been talking about since her rework dropped.
0 -
Still waiting, sir. :P
0
