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Skull Merchant's counterplay can easily be made more intuitive [MS Paint for visuals]

civ
civ Member Posts: 9
edited August 3 in Feedback and Suggestions
skully beams drawing.png

New players have no reason to try crouching under the beam, so Skull Merchant dominates at low MMR while almost completely relying on survivor mistakes at high MMR.

Changing the detection zone from a 2D cone to a small 3d rectangle at head height would:

1. Let new players intuitively understand how to avoid the threat, making her more consistent across MMR.
2. Help all Skull Merchant players by increasing the threat zone during chase, compensating for the removal of the second scan line in a healthy way.
3. Remove standing still as a means to avoid detection, consolidating her counterplay into a single feature.

It's like the difference between being chased by the Trickster and the Huntress.

Two scan lines was like Trickster: Constant threats with no breathing room.
One scan area would be like Huntress: A single decision point of meaningful threat followed by a window of safety as it rotates.

The scan area might need to rotate slower as compensation. Also, when elevation difference causes the scan area to be at ground level (like if a Drone is placed halfway up basement stairs), players would just need to accept that crouching is still a dodge. This is how it currently works with the scan line. But the scan area would still have visual fidelity in 90% of cases.

I know SM has a full rework in the pipeline, but this change would help everyone in the meantime.