Training Wheels - Improving the New Player Experience

WolfePhD

The other day, I was recommended a YouTube video of someone talking about playing Dead by Daylight for their first 50 hours. This was a unique perspective for me, and it has left me thinking. I will post the video below.

https://youtu.be/OUSSfIcW8nc?si=cGWA6gAtTM2stIvb

Dead by Daylight has four training wheel perks, but the game does not designate or inform/suggest/persuade to a new player in any way that these perks might be more valuable to the beginning of their gameplay experience. Similar to how trading cards such as YuGiOh!, Pokemon, and Magic the Gathering sell starter decks, Dead by Daylight needs a similar avenue for new players to enter the walled garden without feeling like they are phony, not valuable, or "lesser" than a player simply because they have not completed outside research. That is intensive! It is just not realistic for us to assume that a new player will love their initial exposure to Dead by Daylight so much … they will research what every perk does, how useful every character is, and what each killer generally does.

The four training wheel perks that I have identified are …

• Overcome, Original Character-Jonah, teaches players how to chase by giving them time to think, react, and find their way to a pallet, window, or loop structure.
• Technician, Original Character-Feng, teaches players how to anticipate and complete skill checks.
• Visionary, Original Character-Felix, teaches players where to find and expect generators.
• Windows of Opportunity, Original Character-Kate, teaches players where to find safety.

At a bare minimum, that is the loadout that I would recommend to a brand-new Dead by Daylight player. In order for a brand-new Dead by Daylight player to unlock the perks that allow them to be “comfortable”, they must specifically know who Jonah, Feng, Felix and Kate are – and then know they need to level each of them to 50 so they can create a unique build. That’s a lot of work, isn’t it?! While I am happy that Otzdarva has a successful career, I do not think it is very responsible for a game company to have loyal fans do most of the heavy lifting for them. The surge of new FNAF players should not have to go through the Otzdarva pipeline to enjoy playing the game, or to have an initial comfortable gameplay experience. I still think themes of community should be maintained—which is why I have imposed limitations to the mechanic.

PROPOSED MECHANIC: FIXED TRAINING WHEEL LOADOUT

• Workshop the name later. The name isn’t important at the design stage. The final design would need to have a name that doesn’t make people feel bad for using it. I am aware that no adult wants "training wheels".
• All four perks that were identified above are provided to all players, in their yellow form. These perks are not available in the bloodweb, and they do not bypass the monetization mechanic currently in place. For these perks to be upgraded, they must be prestiged. In some way, shape, or form, players must be notified how they can get upgraded versions of those perks. To avoid backlash, the description/UI tutorial should discuss iridescent shards, how to identify what survivor a perk came from, and how to get those other original survivors for free. I don’t think this should be too complicated. But I do think that everything in Dead by Daylight should provide an explanation to new players.
• There are currently three loadouts available in the lobby. Instead of a number, there should be a symbol, or maybe a different color. Players should be driven to choose the option. There needs to be strategy in place for players to want to pick the loadout button, if the friendly loadout is not already pre-selected for them.
• Supports multiple business use. Other examples of forced loadouts for community events might include NICE GUY (Empathy/Empathetic Connection/Solidarity/???), SILLY (No Miter/Self-Care/Solidarity/Botany Knowledge), etc. Players who select these loadouts would receive a bloodpoint bonus for having fun.
• Could possibly take the code from Chaos Shuffle, but assign the values to the training wheel perks at yellow rarity. As they are not chosen by the player, but rather forced upon them and unable to be changed and modified in any way, they should work without those perks being unlocked in their bloodweb/inventory.

jesterkind

I think this premise definitely has legs, and it's one of the things about the new player experience that I think could be improved, but I'm not sure I agree with your specific list of perks.

Overcome is not a training wheels perk at all, it's just a strong perk that could arguably be useful for learning the game, but the other three definitely are so I'll mostly focus on them. Hypothetically if we wanted an actual training wheels perk for the fourth slot, I'd probably highlight Kindred, Alert, or Rookie Spirit for killer tracking instead.

For the overall point, though, I want to raise a potential alternative to see how you feel about it. Instead of the mildly convoluted route of giving players limited access to yellow-rarity teachable perks (which, to be fair, does have its upsides too, like teaching people about the teachable system directly), would it not be much more streamlined to give similar-but-not-identical effects to existing/new universal perks and prompt players with a preset loadout of those?

That would probably be a lot easier to set up and more intuitive for newer players, since it's fairly obviously just the game giving you a suggestion combo for things you already have access to. If we tweak the current systems of the game to give every new survivor the tier 1 version of all universal perks by default, it also pushes new players into learning about perk tiers because their preset build gains in power as they level up their character.

smurf

I agree about Kindred. It's very strong on new players. That with WoO, Visionary, and Technician is a solid build to get started.

Emeal

Me when I feel validated in my ENDLESS critique of the LoadingScreen tips being SUPER vague and unhelpful.

She said it, She said it. Do you hear me BHVR??? Those loading screen tips need a VAST upgrade Pleaaaaasee!