http://dbd.game/killswitch
Why Anti-Slug Is More Reasonable Than Anti-Tunnel
With the major changes coming soon both are (at least on the surface) geared very much against killer. While anti-slugging preserves gameflow anti-tunnel serves more as idiot safeguarding.
Where anti-slug works:
- Activating after 90 seconds (and every other down after) is great. This does not interfere with pressure as it only stops stalemate scenarios where survivors are neither actively moving towards escape or death.
Where friction points appear:
- Recovery while crawling is fine on its own, but without a basekit Deerstalker as compensation it becomes a bit too easy to lose a dying survivor when distracted by their teammates or side objectives through perks.
- Auto recovery is not necessarily a problem either, but coupled with the ability to crawl while recovering goes against any decision making/skill expression a survivor would have to make a choice previously. A simple solution would be to slow the recovery during movement.
- This system does not differentiate slugging for pressure versus slugging for bad manners. I believe survivors should suffer some penalty such as losing recovery progression or pausing the 90 second self pick up timer if another Survivor is damaged while 1 or more are in the dying state. Otherwise killers are punished for taking the time they need to spread pressure or avoid pallet/flashlight saves.
But with anti-tunnel, it does become much more complicated. We have yet to see it in action, but the sticks far outweigh the carrots in this scenario. In the announced state I don't forsee this affecting how soon survivors die, only shortening match time after they do.
Here's why it's too harsh in its current state:
- Hook status delay is simply unnecessary and has far too many ramifications on existing perks such as Make Your Choice and Floods Of Rage. Many killers who choose to proxy camp will be unaffected by this delay, and will only serve to create awkward scenarios with delayed perk effects (assuming they are delayed along with the hooks.)
- Anti-collision would be best off applying to all situations where Endurance is active and not specifically to unhook situations. A current pain point for the killer role is just how often survivors can gain the Endurance status and how often they can weaponize it to protect teammates. As an aside, Endurance really does not have business remaining applied to healthy survivors.
- Protection from Killer Instinct also has awkward ramifications for killer powers, as a recently unhooked survivor is now unstoppable in niche scenarios such as solving the Lament Configuration, evading Victor and the Legion, and acquiring Slipstream through proximity to teammates, among many others.
- The ability to see a killers aura after an unhook coupled with the Elusive status makes it a bit too easy to hide under their nose and begin a getaway. This should have a range requirement to encourage safer unhooks instead of directly rewarding risky saves.
- Since the loss of collision, Killer Instinct, and aura abilities do not have status effects associated with their activation, it creates an awkward scenario where there is no clean UI update for losing these buffs following conspicuous actions.
- Activating permanent progression bonuses for survivors dying at the 5th hook is simply too late in the game. Even in scenarios when killers bounce between two targets they are forced into lose/lose scenarios. If a Survivor misplays the killer is forced to slug, which activates the anti-slugging feature. If they capitalize on the failure, they activate the anti-tunnel feature. It's a bit ridiculous that two survivors can be on death hook and the system still activates. Truly, this system should only activate if a Survivor is dead by the third hook to only discourage extreme tunneling and not be obstructive of normal gameplay. This system is also currently far too easy to activate with alternative Kill methods such as Reverse Bear Traps, Condemned and Tombstone Moris.
- Disabling damage and block states for generators following a Kill on a survivor who has been hooked twice in a row is also a bit extreme. While perks for either scenario are a pain point for survivors left in a 3v1 scenario, it should take into account things such as time elapsed or generators remaining. I'd wager most players would be all for a grace period of avoiding powerful perks, but to outright disable them permanently is too far.
- Targeting commonly agreed S-tier killers with lessened effects for unique hooks isn't bad in concept, but very awkward in execution. If killers had classes that had varied effectiveness of unique hook bonuses this could be interesting. Killers with low mobility getting longer or larger haste bonuses, while killers with teleport and ranged abilities benefiting from more aura would be interesting and add a new layer to gameplay. But as it stands "You're too strong and we don't like that." sticks out a bit too much as an issue of power design and balance rather than a chance to offer unique bonuses across the roster.
That being said, there are a few bonuses to the upcoming systems:
- The updated post unhook status effects is a bit confusing but does lay groundwork for further base changes to perks. The Elusive status is fantastic and streamlines perk designs, possibly buffing older perks that did not cover all bases covered by this status effect.
- Adding rewards to unique unhooks is always going to be more effective in guiding gameplay rather than wrist-slapping necessary choices where the killers hand is forced. This system would probably benefit from tiered effectiveness to maintain pressure, if acquiring 2/3/4 unique hooks before resetting itself. But at its basic level bonus Regression, haste and aura is a neat reward for doing your job "fairly." If I'm understanding it correctly, a hook is going to be considered unique so long as it's not the same survivor in a row, but giving exponentially better effects for every individual hook on a survivor would be far more interesting and give incentive to equalize hook states instead of just juggling 2 targets. (Even a bloodpoints bonus would be welcome as outside of end game collapse a 12 hook game does not max you out in Sacrifice.)
That being said, both are very good starts to streamlining ideal match durations and improving the gameplay experience. But before both roles can benefit, these features need more time to bake. Anti-slug is far easier to implement as it improves match flow by reducing stalemates and "alternate Win conditions." Anti-tunnel is going to be a very delicate dance, as it's current iteration does not address why its chosen as a strategy and does not offer enough consistent incentives to change playstyles.
Comments
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The Tunelling solution has some flaws for sure.
For the Slugging one, they only need to make it so every self-pickup takes 90 seconds, not just the first, as it seems atm.
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I really thought people would be more mad about the anti-slug than the anti-tunnel, though they actually gave us numbers for one which is allowing everyone to imagine worst case scenarios for the other.
Hook status delay is simply unnecessaryI think this is one of the best things they could possibly do. Honestly kind of mad they just didn't do this a long time ago.
such as Make Your Choice and Floods Of Rage.We're all playing hypothetical games without numbers, which is fun, but trying to guess at how the perks are going to look opens up a whole other basket of possibilities.
But just to try and guess anyway:
Make Your Choice: I think the 32 m requirement means it could stay as is, because the killer is not camping in this scenario.
Floods of Rage: Yeah, probably need more of a rework.
Many killers who choose to proxy camp will be unaffected by this delayExcept it will. The strength of proxy camping is you don't have to pay attention to the hook. You can focus on other things and turn around the moment you see the unhook. Now you need either to stare at the hook (eliminating a lot of power in proxy camping) or good game sense on when the unhook might happen. That's why the delay of the notification is so important.
Anti-collision would be best off applying to all situations where Endurance is active and not specifically to unhook situations. A current pain point for the killer role is just how often survivors can gain the Endurance status and how often they can weaponize it to protect teammates.I'd be fine with it as a concept, though that's not really related to the proposed changes.
now unstoppable in niche scenariosUnstoppable is going a little far. They're harder to find, absolutely, but that's the point.
The ability to see a killers aura after an unhook coupled with the Elusive status makes it a bit too easy to hide under their nose and begin a getaway. This should have a range requirement to encourage safer unhooks instead of directly rewarding risky saves.Again this feels like its the point. The unhooked survivor is meant to have the advantage in these scenarios. A range requirement seems wrong as it just awards camping.
If a Survivor misplays the killer is forced to slug, which activates the anti-slugging feature. If they capitalize on the failure, they activate the anti-tunnel feature. It's a bit ridiculous that two survivors can be on death hook and the system still activates. Truly, this system should only activate if a Survivor is dead by the third hook to only discourage extreme tunneling and not be obstructive of normal gameplay.Should the killer be giving up the benefits they get from unique hooks because they weren't going to tunnel anyway?
This is the thing I think keeps getting missed - the killer is getting buffs. If the killer got their buffs, and could easily evade the survivor buffs, it wouldn't really accomplish its goal.
I'd wager most players would be all for a grace period of avoiding powerful perks, but to outright disable them permanently is too far.I don't think it will be permanent, but I get that BHVR's wording can be unclear.
as it's current iteration does not address why its chosen as a strategy and does not offer enough consistent incentives to change playstyles.We don't know the numbers.
I think it actually creates more possibilities in playstyles if the numbers aren't either minor or out of whack. There's more pro / cons to various options. Tunnel to get to a 3v1, but face stronger survivors, or spread out the hooks. Tunneling and slugging will still likely be powerful, but tuned down creating more options in what gets played.
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The anti slug is fine, only the Tenancy effect probably is too much. The anti tunnel is also fine but if it turns out adjustments are necessary then so be it.
The situation had to change, as a minority were abusing the fact you can identify a weak link and tunnel them out at 5 gens. This makes for a miserable experience for the survivor getting tunnelled out and their team who are left in a match they really cant win.
It will be fine, most killers don't do this so they will only get the benefits of not tunnelling and I would be happy to see these increased to reward good conduct from killers.
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Rip twins and oni, hope they will get something in exchange but I doubt the more blood orbs on oni after hooking will be more than 4 in total lol.
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I feel I need to see it on the servers first, coz like 90s total is a long time and a lot of the bleed timer.
because you still have to recover the 2nd time and the 3rd etc.2 -
Since bleed out still takes 240s, you'd only get 2 pick ups total in that case. Probably not much of a disincentive to slugging.
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Getting 2 instances of Unbreakable (among other help) is nothing to scoff at.
Even one is enough to make a big comeback.
The main issue with it "unlocking" after 90 seconds and then being free to use every time is that potential issue that could come with perks like Plot Twist, Power Struggle, ect.
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