Skull Merchant Design Preview Feedback (P 100 Skull Merchant who played her since her OG PTB)

RomeroJane

The day has come, we finally know more of future Skull Merchant!

I see many things going in the right direction, mainly by hinting at return of infos (what was her original kit) and at a way of having a real M2 attack that compensates in lethality by removing all the overwhelming "Haste/Hindered/Other States" gameplay loop that was making her kit unnecessary complex expecially for new players.

I'm gonna go in big details about every point, what I like, how I feel it can be problematic (for one or the other side) and suggested solutions (or, when I don't have some, giving a feedback about where to look at):

Drones 2.0:

The scanning idea itself feels ok, but there are some points not clear from the description. For example, what happens to a tracked survivor? How long are they tracked? The reward and punishment for the survivor should feel strong enough to make that actually worth it, expecially if crouching, standing still, etc… still counter the tracking of the drone. Also a tracked survivor can avoid the drone attack you showed in Drone Control if this attack is only a charged straight dash. I'm gonna address the main problems of Drone Control in the following point.

Drone Control:

The idea is what many were wishing to see since her launch trailer, but the current description worries me a bit because it sounds as a straight dash. This current design would make her too similar to another killer who is criticised for a counterplay that forces survivors at dropping a tile and sometimes only being able to get a M1 to avoid a worse fate: The Artist. Dropping a drone to control a tile and only having a line to control would create a problematic situation similar to the current contested one, with the difference that this version looks weaker than the Artist one as you as survivor have direct feedback about the "switch" and the killer character is not in control during the shot. My suggestion is that it should be a real projectile, similar to how Pinhead chains work, also you should have the possibility of instadropping the drone for chase by holding the M2 button. Propulsion Charge can work in a way of changing the behavior of the drone: the more you charge (similar to chainsaw revving), the faster the drone moves and the bigger the turning rate (turning would be still complex based on how the drone would go faster). It would create a gameplay loop more similar to Billy, a killer who always had a lot of love in the community, but with a projectile. If that's not possible and drone has to stay as a dash, this concept can still stay, but the drone should be even more considered for an instadrop to have a real chase potential. The previewed design would make the drones more effective just a negating the tile as current Skull Merchant is (or, as said, Artist), so instacontrol of the drone for chase would be better, while keeping remote control activating a bit slower at happening to avoid the "free zoning" situation and rewarding only well pre-set drones.

Drone Hacking:

The benefit to survivors is too high, with minimal risk. Getting not tracked is still relatively easy, but also getting aura reading on the killer is too much and can give too many benefits to survivors in call ("She's backwalking the tile!", "She's going to your generator!", etc…). I don't think survivors should get any benefit if not untrapping the tile itself. The punishment for missing the skillcheck is too minimal, Killer Instinct for a few second is not enough. Considering how easy is to hack a drone, losing a health state wouldn't feel bad at all and it would make it risky for a teammate to attempt removing it in chase or to ignore the threat of Skull Merchant coming at you, so timing for hacking becomes more important on survivor side.

"Red Light, Green Light":

I'm gonna be really direct with this, but I think that only survivors in a locker shouldn't be tracked by this (but in current DbD you've killers who track survivors in lockers like Artist and Houndmaster). If there's an advise about when the mechanic is going to be in work, survivors can react fast enough to go in a locker or, otherwise, getting tracked by what, at the end, is still a M1 killer with low mobility. Think of it more as a map wide Doctor Blast (or maybe it can be based on ranges preset on drones, like 32m from a drone?), so this power is stronger the more and better drones are pre-setted.

Clawtraps:

This is an extra, but I was thinking of how Clawtraps can be reintegrated in the gameplay loop. A tracked survivor gets a clawtrap, after 20-25s (or whatever other number considered "balanced") you can remove the clawtrap by doing the original skillcheck game. Till clawtrap is on, the survivor is tracked. "Red Light, Green Light" mechanic would also give a clawtrap. Getting scanned again resets the timer for the clawtrap removal. This would actually allow the survivor to know they're tracked as well and yes, this can be a better counterplay by knowing the killer knows. Failing the skillcheck resets the timer and gives killer instinct for 5 seconds, in case this happens during a chase the survivor would be punished.

I'm gonna come back on the topic if I have other ideas and/or if you add context to many of the possibly problematic or not understood points of these hours.

Thank you for the Design Preview, I really think the base of your ideas is in the right place and cannot wait for improvements to these to solve the possible problematic points! :)