Some Ideas For 2v8
The "play while you wait" feature was a pretty good addition, I do like it, but I still feel that the biggest issue contributing to the lopsided queue times in 2v8 is that survivors just simply don't get anything as exciting as being able to have a killer teammate.
While matching that novelty might be hard, I do think a lot more could be done with the survivor gameplay to give them more enticing toys to play with.
A while ago, I made this post talking about new classes for 2v8, and I do think that's still a good idea, so this post is going to be more dedicated to the other elements of survivor gameplay regardless of which class you pick. There may be some overlap and incompatibilities between these two posts, but that's just because these are broad-strokes spitballing ideas with some specifics for examples.
So, to start off, items.
In 2v8, you can't bring an item in with you, and that inherently makes chests more appealing- but that's just to make up for something you lack. I think there's a good space here for the chest loot pool to be genuinely different to the normal game, instead of just giving you the same old items.
I'm not suggesting reinventing the wheel or creating brand new items in their entirety, but rather special 2v8-specific rarities of items. One per item type, with their effects a bit more juiced up and interesting to make searching chests actively more rewarding and providing extra gameplay options beyond what you can normally get.
Obviously, a lot of design and testing would have to go into what those rarities actually look like, but for reference here's some spitballing:
- The 2v8 Flashlight could have the Champion of Light effect innate to it, or perhaps provide team-wide aura reading for as long as the beam is shining on a killer
- The 2v8 Medkit could have extra charges compared to the regular kind, could give aura reading on injured teammates while held, could heal faster than default, or it could provide some kind of benefit to any teammate healed to full with it
- The 2v8 Key could have massively increased range, it could have chest-aura reading on it, it could have hatch aura reading on it, or it could have the Blood Amber by default
- The 2v8 Map could, again, have massively increased range, it could again have its iridescent addon by default, it could by default show your teammates everything without needing the beam of light, or it could last a lot longer per use
- The 2v8 Fog Vial could just be way, way better. To be honest, the base game Fog Vial could be way better… but it's more justifiable for it to be strong in 2v8 since that mode is more chaotic
- The 2v8 Toolbox… admittedly I don't know about that one. Sabotage isn't doable and that's the more interesting use for toolboxes, so something new would need to be concocted here
You get the idea- give 2v8 chests their own identity with distinct loot pools, and also make the loot you get a bit more consistent with only one rarity per item type.
Next I want to touch on chests themselves. There's a lot more of them in 2v8 than there is in the main game, and that's great - please do this for the main game!!! - but I think more could be done, and I think I have an interesting idea for how to do it: Add a basement.
I'm pretty sure 2v8 maps don't have a basement, but I think they should. In fact, I think they should have two, just to stay on theme. Because hooks don't exist in 2v8, the basements should instead provide a different benefit: There should be like, six to eight extra chests just chilling down there. It'd still be risky to go for them because there's only one entrance and you might get caught out of position down there, but with extra chests you don't need to search for there's more reason to bother trying.
It'd be very cool if there were some other, wholly unique to 2v8 reason to go down there, but spitballing on that would be getting a little outside the scope of this post- it'd be more transformative than what I'm suggesting here otherwise. I just think that, broadly speaking, fixing 2v8 queue times will require making survivor considerably more interesting— that is still the root cause. There's far more novelty for killer than there is for survivor, so everyone naturally wants to play killer.
That really is the TL;DR here. Survivor needs shinier toys to play around with to make that role as enticing as playing killer with a friend.
Comments
-
These types of buffs would be neat, especially if they added a new Class focused on looting chests. Which is something I really hope they do - same with totem focused classes, which I think they could do for killer and survivor. Personally, though, the gameplay of survivor being stale isn't my issue and why I'm not playing it this iteration. I find 2v8 survivor fun as it is… when there isn't a Legion. No amount of shiny toys or new effects is gonna make slogging through Legion matches worth it to me, especially after they buffed them this go around.
Like I think the Play While You Wait feature is great. But I haven't used it at all, because being bored in queue is still better than risking being miserable in a Legion match. Item upgrades or new classes sound great, but I wouldn't queue up at all to try them for the same reason.
-1 -
Might I suggest skull merchanting legion
0 -
Something like an item focused class and a locker focused class would be neat. 2v8 is a great framework currently, but it needs fleshing out for long-term appeal.
0 -
I agree survivor side needs more to keep people queuing — new classes, chest identity, even basement loot pools would all help. But the bigger problem is that 2v8 is just amplifying the base game’s systemic cracks.
Survivors aren’t just ‘boring’ because they lack toys — they’re boring because their whole role is still tethered to gens, because MMR still produces coin-flip matches, and because killer design is all over the place thematically. Adding shinier items is nice, but it doesn’t fix the fact that 2v8 is just the 1v4 foundation duct-taped bigger.
This is why queue times are killer-sided: everyone wants to play the ‘fun’ side, while survivors feel like placeholders. The solution isn’t just new loot, it’s actually committing to 2v8 as its own mode with its own rules, objectives, and identity — otherwise all these good ideas just end up wallpapering over the cracks.
0
