A tamer thought using the HUD for Anti Tunnel.
I am someone who was very much against the Anti Tunnel changes just gone in the PTB for a myriad of reasons... but there is a indication these anti tunnel changes are coming back, so I had a thought today on it and wondered if it would work.
One of the things I especially hated is the fact rhe anti-tunnel measures punished killers who didn't tunnel by denying them information, and this was especially pertinent in relation to Pig and her headtrap timers.
The only issue I ever had with tunneling, was the more map mobile killers (particularly Blight and Ghoul) could always run back to hook while still pressuring elsewhere on the map. They could drop whatever they were doing and beeline back.
So I had a thought...
What if instead of the HUD showing a Survivor as hooked, show the current hook stages for that Survivor (last hooked survivor marked in red for unique hooks), but unless the killer has LoS within 32m, only show the hooked Survivor as injured, which doesn't change when they are unhooked. When the Survivor is unhooked they still give a loud noise notification sound as normal.
If the killer can see the Survivor on hook via LoS within 32m, they see their sacrifice progress on the HUD and the hook icon as normal.
This same idea could also be used for anti slug, where when you have line of sight on a slugged Survivor within 32m, you see bleedout progress and the slugged icon, but otherwise you only see the Survivor as injured.
Now hold on before either side tears into me, here is my logic for Survivor side:
- Since the HUD doesn't change but there is still a notification, creating a noise notification by any means can bait a killer to return to hook, and waste their time.
- This bait makes a number of perks/mechanics useful. Things like Distraction, Reassurance, Camaradarie, Deception, or even just a fast Vault/Locker Hop (with Dance With Me?). The threat of these things creates uncertainty on the value of returning to hook (in conjunction with all the other anti-tunnel defences Survivors have).
- It also create mind games around tunneling with the use of other perks/effects for Survivor, like Babysitter, OTR, and of course making better use of fog vials.
And here is my thinking for killer side:
- Killers still get a notification and a mental timer, so if working with things like Leverage or Mangled, you can still have a mental timer to attain value.
- The switch where hook stages listed on each survivor is a mental load reduction for non tunneling killers, and instead places the mental load on those who try to time out for tunneling/camping out hook stages.
- Killer perks like Scourge Hook: Floods or Rage or Furtive Chase can gain a little more value, as they give you the unhook extra information for the expense of a perk slot. Perks like Deliverance still come with a built in notification it was used via the Survivor being broken.
- I was worried about Pig, but Pig will still get the notification, and will of course seen active bear trap go red, so she will still have her macro game in tact.
- Survivors can't get away still with dumb hooking, because you can still tunnel if they do something dumb… but mindlessly returning to hook isn't free, and in turn we could see some kind of compensatory buff for weaker killers (20s of 10% haste while out of chase for unique hooks, disabled upon using power, like Bloodlust?).
This seems to be a much less heavy handed anti tunnel solution, that still keeps the strategy in tact, but affects the faster/stronger killers who can get around the map more and retain pressure, than it does the slower killers who are more likely to remain in the local proximity by their design.
I don't think there is another outlier scenario other than Pig, other than naybe Pinhead with his Pin add-on, but that seens an isdue with that add-on... but if I'm wrong and there are other scenarios where more than an unhook notification is needed, I'd be interested in thoughts.