Springtrap (The Animatronic) and the FNaF Chapter, a List of Problems and Improvements (Long Text)

chknTM

Starting off i want to clarify i think the chapter is amazing, the power is fun and has a insane skill ceiling, but nothing is perfect, and there is a lot of issues that add up as you play a lot of the Character, i will list issues with the Power, Perks, Addons (Gameplay Issues), and Misc. (Smaller Issues)

I think most people can agree he has had a very good launch, and does not need any major changes.

I am not the greatest player, or 20k hour veteran, just some average skill pleb, but i do have one thing, which is alot of hours on The Animatronic, currently at around 500 games played, and around 100 hours (DbD Stats), and during which i have noticed a lot of problems with his Power, along with its Limits and Design Flaws.

Take everything with a grain of salt, and feel free to discuss why im wrong or your own ideas of changes.

Gameplay

Power: Fazbear's Fright

Discussing The Animatronic to start off, his gameplay, his strengths, his weaknesses.

From what we know, Springtrap (The Animatronic) is meant to be a Grab-Based killer, but the grabs are both quite inconsistent.

The axe grab isn't too bad, it happens now and then, but most of the time, a lunge is a better option, and alot of times the grab buffers, or the prompt dissapears around a corner, its not very consistent, and the reward isnt great either considering its safer to go for a lunge in a majority of scenarios.

But the Jumpscare in the security office.. it just doesnt work in practice, in fact, i believe the entire Security Door balance needs a lot of tuning, the first killer Power to be so interactive with Survivors and its so underutilized.

In his Basekit he has decent chase and decent map control, and decent stealth, via the undetectable, but, the doors aren't just his.

Security Doors: I remember how overhyped these things were on release, no cooldown, undetectable, but in reality they are designed to be very reactable, now that players have learned.

There is a lot of Signs.
Firstly the Door is loud, when you enter or exit it.
Secondly the Panel Glitches.
And Thirdly the global Ambience when used. (This one is the one i think should be removed, the other 2 are good, and make sense)

And even without all these signs, The Animatronic is massive and loud, i've gotten more gen grabs playing The Knight with the Torch add-on.

All in all he is extremely weak to pre-running, so if Survivors know what they're doing you will be chasing their scratchmarks a while before a chase starts.

Springtrap takes 6 Seconds to use the Doors (Animations) (2 to enter, 3 to teleport, 1 to leave) (This really adds up, considering u have to also walk to a door, and there isnt always one nearby when you need them, which in reality, makes him unable to keep up the pressure in alot of scenarios.)

Survivor takes 8 Seconds to use the Doors (Animations) (1 to enter, 5 to teleport, 2 to leave)

'But the doors are risky to use'
Well yes, but actually no, across my 500 games, and im sure everyone who has played him can confirm, you wont ever get a door grab if the survivor isn't doing it intentionally, its like a 1/100 thing to get a legit door grab ESPECIALLY now that people have learned.

There is countless safe times to use the doors
The Animatronic is in a chase: Safe
The Animatronic is not within 4 seconds of walking distance of any door: Safe
The Animatronic is not in a chase, location is not known: Risk (He could be in a door, and just disrupt it)
The Animatronic is chasing you but you have a teamate who can bodyblock a hit for you: Safe
(2.7s Swipe Cleaning animation, 2s Entering Door Animation, Swing animation, any time inbetween that)

Realistically the timeframe he can catch u in if he isn't waiting inside a door is a measly rough 3 seconds.

So the only situation where you can get grabs, is by sitting in a door, and hoping the survivors use a door.. any seconds now.. oh a gen popped.. oh another one popped, surely they will try the door now.. oh no exit gates are powered… yeah, definitely needs some changes.

Horrible Door Interactions:

These are interactions that make no sense and are frustrating and simply cheap feeling.

Springtrap entering a door as a survivor leaves it, they clip through each other (Horrible for Springtrap, Survivor just runs as u are stuck in a 2 second entering animation, 1s leaving animation, should be a grab if they leave it during Springtrap entering a door, it makes no sense that it interacts this way, it just feels bad, it looks bad, it makes no sense that they walk through each other.
Should be a Jumpscare if a survivor leaves a door Springtrap is entering, they shouldn't walk/clip through eachother.

Springtrap exiting a door as a Survivor Enters it
Should be a grab, same as above just reversed.

Springtrap entering a door after a Survivor enters it but his Door Enter animation eats up too much time
(2s enter animation means of the 5s the survivor is spending teleporting, u can only actually catch them from outside for 3s, or basically if you are right next to their door.
Basically as long as Springtrap is 4-5 Seconds of walking away u can teleport away safely.
Should be a Jumpscare if u manage to click enter on a door while the panel is still flashing, the 2 second entering animation holds him back severely, could speed the entering animation up massively when its in use by a survivor.

These 2 Interactions both include the Exit/Enter part of Security Doors, the fact these animations aren't accounted for in interactions between Survivors/Springtrap Jumpscares makes no sense cause those animations take up a lot of the Security Door time, which means these events aren't that uncommon. (Much more common than getting a Jumpscare that's for sure)

Springtrap: 2s Enter, 1s Exit, 3s Passage
Survivor: 1s Enter, 2s Exit, 5s Passage
(This means the 3s Spent Entering/Exiting is time that isnt included in interactions for some reason, and leads to alot of clipping through eachother when those Exit/Enter animations overlap with a Survivor.)

Springtrap Teleporting to a Door where a Survivor is using Cameras (The survivor just screams and cameras are cancelled ,Springtrap cant see the survivor instantly cause he clips into the Survivor, which makes the entire interaction feel pretty awful.)
I do not know if this should be a grab, but at the very least it should not be a scuffed interaction with character clipping.

Cameras: This feature is exclusive to Survivors, while it isn't always good, there is some situations where they are extremely powerful, a Teammate is running shack, you are on a generator near a door, if you reveal The Animatronic in this situation, he cannot catch the Survivor without certain perks to weaken the tile. (Bamboozle), and all you lose is around 5 seconds of Gen Time, and he has no clue which door you could be on. (Without Access Panel)

Battery: Does anyone even notice this part of the mechanic, its so short when it runs out (45 Seconds only..) and i rarely even see it run out, its such a shame, cause losing battery in FNaF 1 is a massive deal, and they took alot of inspiration from FNaF games with the character, but ingame its like.. barely noticeable?

I was thinking like a mini-nightfall type thing where the batteries are out and you have no idea where Springtrap can be, but its just like, nothing.

Personally i would lower the battery cap (Survivors do not use it enough to go to 0 consistently)
Increase the duration of it being out to like a minute.
And i feel like the doors should not have any warnings while the battery is out.
Maybe The Animatronic can use Doors faster when battery is out and they don't make sounds, possibly due to being always open, as they are when battery runs out in FNaF 1, meaning he doesnt need to go through the punching the keypad animation.

(This would take a large amount of work and the chapter is already amazing, its more of just an idea.)

As for the Survivor side, i do not know how to encourage the use of the doors and cameras more cause they are already strong in SWF's, but i do want them to be used more so i think tuning it better and making it more appealing would be nice.

Fireaxe:

Feels great to use, heavy, great sound design, satisfying, but there is some issues.

Removing the Axe:
Currently, Removing the Axe is 1-1 a worse Artist Crows, no aura linger when removing (Just hold it to remove Springtraps sight when u want), Both take 8 Seconds to remove by yourself, but no real downside for leaving it in basekit, the second you get a chance to leave chase you remove it and then heal, which leaves an entire Feature to remove it from teammates, with a cool animation, completely useless and without purpose.

Currently optimal play is survivor just holding it to 7/8 seconds then tapping it to reset it during chase, and as soon as theyre out of chase just fully remove it, there is very little reason to remove it, u just hold it down to remove the aura reading of the axe, which instantly dissapears unlike Crows 2.5s aura linger, the axe also doesn't make noise, like crows.

My Solution would be to add some form of downside to leaving the axe inside, along with a downside for removing it by yourself.

For the downside of an embedded axe, maybe a Linger on the aura when holding remove like Artist, its already very similar, or some other debuff when removing it, like a small hinder when attempting to remove it, im not too sure how to do this.

For the downside of removing it.
Removing the Fireaxe by yourself would inflict Deep-Wounded, which isn't the biggest downside, but when someone removes it The Animatronic could keep up slightly more pressure, something he lacks.

If they want to avoid Deep-Wound, they would take the axe to a teammate and quickly get it removed, now the altruistic action has a purpose.

Grabs:

Please, if possible, just make the prompt button M2.

In most situations, for many reasons, the grab is either inconsistent or worse than a lunge, which is bad when he is supposed to be a Grab-based killer.

You go for a grab but it buffers, the survivor gets away cause it buffered, you should've lunged. (You click grab correctly but the game overwrites it, probably due to ping mostly, but its devastating and can throw games, due to the fact it still stops your Springtrap, but not the Survivor he tries to grab.)

You want to down this person for a Perk effect (Surge), or cause the situation has no time to hook someone (You need to down them quickly to chase the other Survivor) the grab prompt can be detrimental in these situations.

You go for a grab but you do a M1 instead due to the prompt disappearing.

Yes, if it was M2, grabs would be a lot more consistent cause u could easily press M2 to get the grab when u are within reach, but i personally do not think it should be hard to get a grab if you are next to a survivor with a embedded axe, the hard part is first landing the axe, and then reaching them before they remove it, or reaching a new tile.

You would also be able to pick when to down and when to grab, especially in situations with multiple Survivors if u wanna hit a Survivor who the axe isn't in to down them, but u accidently grab the axe, control over your characters actions would feel a lot better.

Perks:

Haywire: A Perk that was doomed to fail, needs a Rework, held back by certain Killers (Singularity, Hag) who can use it too efficiently to perma-hold Exit Gates, should either be a 1 time explosion at 99 with a lot of regression per Switch so it cant be held forever, or give him a new Perk, cause its such a shame.

Help Wanted: Compromise Perks are flawed, this new entry is no different, extremely hard to squeeze value out of, i think Compromise Perks in general could use some help.

Phantom Fear: His best perk by a long shot, but the cooldown is too long, 60 seconds when a lot of procs are just wasted.

Addons:

Mostly focusing on less used addons, and the Iridescent, cause i think they could be a lot better.

Fazcoin: I do think it would be a lot more fun if it was your actual terror radius like (Unforeseen, Dark Devotion) for perk synergy, its alright just could be a lot more fun.

Iridescent Remnant: Currently Blocks the Second u teleport, meaning during the 3 second teleport, and 1 second exit animation, it not only reveals your teleport even worse than normal, it also wastes 4/12 seconds of the effects time, the effect should trigger only once you regain control of your character.

Office Phone: No lingering effect, and it has a debuff related to the useless mechanic, assisted axe removal.
Unsure of how to improve this Add-On personally.

Chica's Bib: I've tried to make it work with Party Hat but i believe the perks that rely on missing the axe aren't the greatest in the first place. (Cause he is just a loud, tall, basic M1 killer without his axe)
Could affect embedded survivors instead, and make the 5 seconds a linger once its removed. (Artist has a similar addon)

Greasy Paper Plate: Increase the % (Removing it only takes 8 seconds, increasing it to 9.2 seconds does not change anything)

Celebrate Poster: After the PTB it was reduced to quite a sorry state, the vaulting speed benefits survivors more and 12% is quite far from its original, not to mention you cant swap target after to benefit from the haste cause of the AOE, it feels like it got nerfed in every way, i think it could get increased a bit similarly to Foxy's Hook, maybe add a 20% breaking speed bonus too while you are in the AOE.

Overall my ideas are more in making Springtrap, The Animatronic better at what he is supposed to do, cause a lot of it doesn't work out as well in practice.

Miscellaneous:

Height is listed as Average which makes no sense, considering he is one of the tallest characters ingame, Knight has the same issue.

Complete Lack of Charms is quite disappointing.

Lack of Skins for Original Killers (A good way to make FNaF fans give others a try, and stay around longer)

No Springtrap Badge (Glitchtrap and Matthew/Yellow Rabbit) but no Base OG Springtrap Badge. (I really want spingtab badge)
Please add a Springtrap Badge 2 Backgrounds but 0 Badges

The Yellow Rabbit: This skin does not have a version featuring the Head of the Suit, and while i have heard that there is problems on coding accessories for Legendary skins, Deep Rift skins exist, which are basically the same skin with a small change, my solution is basically, unlocking The Yellow Rabbit (Legendary Skin) rewards you with a 2nd skin which is the same skin, with the Head, and the voice filter, it could be coded similarly to how the FNaF (Fazbear & Friends) Badge requires you to purchase a certain number of FNaF items (2 Skins/6 Shirts), but the only thing that gives the Token for this alternate outfit is the Yellow Rabbit purchase. (Love the skin already, but the amount of people disappointed by the lack of a full costume is not small, its such a cool design, not to mention the Description of the Skin says he was taken while he was being dragged away, which means he had the Head on when he was taken.)

Where is Foxy BHVR? Where are you hiding the Pirate Fox.

Overall, a massive thanks to BHVR for the Chapter, i just wanna be the one to list issues cause i doubt many others have put 500 games into The Animatronic yet, so i have noticed a lot of stuff i would like improved, fixed, and changed, i don't know if anyone is gonna read all of this, or care, new to the forums.

MRFOX365X

Ineresting thoughts. I’ve also played quite a lot and can already say a few things. The ability itself is cool and can be implemented really well in the right scenarios, but after playing match after match, trying to learn how to throw it, I catch myself thinking: yeah, I throw the axe better now, but I still miss just as often as before. Why? Well, it’s simple — the hitboxes are very small, or to put it another way, very “accurate.” It can literally fly right past a survivor’s ear and not hit. And this isn’t a ping issue, it’s exactly because of those “accurate” hitboxes. I play without any extra programs for a central screen dot, but at the same time the killer’s UI doesn’t have anything even remotely aligned with the center of the screen, which makes hitting really difficult (I can’t tell exactly where the center is).
But all of that is minor stuff — what really tilted me are the very long charge and recovery animations, which just ruin all the enjoyment of playing him.

XDgamer018

idk if it just me but after playing springtrap quite abit he doesnt need to be 4.4ms. Sure the argument can be said that he has a ranged attack… Its more of a medium attack tbfr like a nemesis tentacle but with vertical range instead of fully horizontal

Massquwatt

Honestly I really love the camera mechanic and how in depth it is for survivors but holy moly is it the most optional thing ever. Most matches survivors will just go entire matches without using doors or cameras because why would ya? I really wish I had a good suggestion on making the cameras better without them just screwing over Springtrap's power entirely, I also think it's pretty funny that the batteries on the doors are so generous that you can have to go out of your way to drain them on purpose.