http://dbd.game/killswitch
9.2.0 Concerns
I'm going to preface this post by saying that we don't have the full details for the 9.2.0 patch and things can still change. I know this probably won't be a popular post. That being said, I think the game design mentality for 9.2.0 is completely flawed and completely ignores deeper game issues - and I don't care about tribes, I want the game to be engaging and enjoyable for both sides. I play about a 60-40 split survivor-killer and I think these proposed changes are flawed in a number of ways and will poorly impact both roles in varying amounts:
UI disinformation as Killer
Having the UI actively lie to you as killer in terms of when survivors are unhooked leaves you in two positions - either you spend more time patrolling hooks to try to catch the survivor doing the unhooking and as a result lose pressure you would normally put on gens, or you ignore unhooks and leave two survivors to heal and potentially repair a gen together. Killers having less of the basic information that has existed in the game for years makes the gameplay stale for everyone, and discourages strategy. This is not even considering how this is going to impact hook state perks.
Anti-tunnelling
No-one likes being tunnelled as survivor and anti-tunnelling does need addressing, but there are plenty of scenarios where survivors either play poorly running back into the killer's face after being unhooked, or try to utilise their existing unhook protection as a strategic weapon for protection hits. The 6 hook states condition is going to impact weaker Killers disproportionately and just result in an uptake in S-tier killers every game, which is arguably also less fun for survivors.
Anti-slugging
Slugging can also be a boring and frustrating tactic as survivor and it does need addressing, but these changes are too overreaching, and especially concerning when combined with the anti-tunneling changes. Being able to pick yourself up as survivor is already very strong. Also being able to move whilst recovering eliminates the strategy of deciding what the better play is, recovering or moving. I think a big thing that people forget about this game is that it's asymmetrical - survivors are supposed to be individually weaker than killer, but strong teamplay is where the balance swings to the favour of the survivors when done strategically. Making survivors not need a teammate to pick themselves up will encourage selfish survivor play and survivors will just stay on gens more often, making the Killer objective even more time-pressured than it already is. Being able to pick yourself up after 90 seconds wouldn't be so bad if the timer reset for each down, but devs have confirmed that it is currently a non-resetting timer, so once 90 seconds have passed, survivors can continuously pick themselves up once their recovery bar is full.
Anti-tunnelling & anti-slugging conflicts
The currently planned implementation of these systems has some concerning scenarios where Killer will be forced not to do their objective for fear of being punished for it. Let me elaborate - imagine a scenario where a survivor who has just been unhooked is running into the killer's face and doing a gen right in front of them. The killer can't target them because they've just been unhooked and will be punished through anti-tunnel. Perhaps the killer tries to slug that survivor instead, however now the survivor can crawl away and recover and get right back on a gen. I think this patch will see survivors, especially SWFs utilising the anti-tunnelling and anti-slugging systems as leverage to pressure the killer.
You can't and shouldn't balance a game to cater for lower skilled players. I think this patch overall wouldn't be so damaging if the dev team focused more on incentives and less on punishment.