http://dbd.game/killswitch
Current map balance (post 9.2.0) - with tier-list
So, here we are again, talking about the map balance. Now that I have had more time to fully test out the maps, and fairly extensively too, I can make a better judgement on how (at least) I feel about the current state of the maps.
The TL:DR is in the image
A more in-depth breakdown below
Pretty balanced for both sides
- Ormond Lake Mine - Not much changed with the tile and pallet updates. It still plays mostly the same, and feels decently balanced to play on.
- Freddy Fazbear's Pizza - Still feels good to play on for both sides.
- RPD East Wing - This map is the perfect balance for an indoor map, and should serve as a template for how to make a good indoor map. Loops are not too strong, and pallet density is just right.
Almost balanced for both sides
- Blood Lodge - The pallet update helped this map more, at least in terms of reducing the dead-zones that could often spawn near the main building.
- The Thompsons' House - Pallet update helped reducing the dead-zone in the corn-field in front of the main building.
- Léry's Memorial Institute - Still the same Léry's, with a ton of windows. It needs a few breakable doors added to the long rooms.
- Dead Dawg Saloon - Still feels a bit inconsistent, especially in terms of generator spawns, where it can sometimes create some terrible 3-gens.
- Dead Sands - Was not affected by the pallet update, and it is still plagued by a few weak tiles.
- Toba Landing - Feels pretty balanced all around, but it does need a few small tweaks to be up there with the best maps.
- Nostromo Wreckage - Like Toba Landing, it does feel pretty balanced all around, and it needs a few small tweaks to play better. Mostly in terms of clutter in the middle part, that killers can often bump on.
- Greenville Square - Pallet update made it better in terms of the middle part, but the loop tiles got severely reduced in strength.
Still slightly survivor-biased
- Gas Heaven - Has always been survivor-biased, and the pallet update didn't help its cause.
- Torment Creek - Got a bit more survivor-sided after the pallet update, where loops are much more easily chainable.
- Eyrie of Crows - Main building is still strong, despite countless attempts to nerf it.
- The Game - Still the most pallet-dense map in the game.
- RPD West Wing - Unlike the East Wing counterpart, this layout favors survivors more, with the narrower hallways with god-pallets and all the rooms that breaks line of sight.
Still slightly killer-biased
- Shelter Woods - Pallet update helped a bit with the dead-zones that could occur near the big tree, but it is still a killer-favored map, despite the increase in pallets.
- Azarov's Resting Place - No amount of pallet increase can help this map, due to the layout.
- Rotten Fields - Got significantly better with the increase in fillers, but it is still Rotten Fields at the end of the day.
- Rancid Abattoir - Actually playable as survivor now, but it still suffers from being too small.
- Haddonfield - Significantly better after the update, but it is still a bit small, and the problematic 3-gen by the Myers house is still present.
- Family Residence - While the pallet update made it better, it still feels like too many dead-zones spawn in the middle.
- Sanctum of Wrath - This is more a problem thanks to the layout of the map.
- Hawkins - Mostly due to the tight generator spawns in the middle part of the map. Once the nearby pallets are gone, it is an automatic win for the killer.
- Midwich Elementary - Still favoring killers, thanks to the tiny size, and easy rotates.
- Fallen Refuge - Like with Hawkins, the generators spawn too close together, especially around the main structure.
Pallet Update made it survivor-biased
- Coal Tower - Used to be the de-facto map for balanced play, but after the pallet update, it shifted into being pretty survivor-biased, thanks to the increase in safety.
- Groaning Storehouse - Got significantly stronger as survivor, thanks to the increase in pallets.
- Ironworks of Misery - Same as the previous mentions.
- Suffocation Pit - Used to favor killer more, thanks to the layout, but with the increase in pallets, it has shifted to favor survivors.
- Wretched Shop - Used to be one of the more balanced maps before the update, but now it is a lot stronger for the survivors.
- Wrecker's Yard - Got significantly stronger for survivors after the update, despite it being a more killer-favoring map beforehand.
- Fractured Cowshed - Used to be very survivor-sided in the past. Got shrunk and changed to be more killer-favoring, and now it is back to being survivor-sided once again, thanks to the dense pallet spawns.
- Mother's Dwelling - While the main building got nerfed for survivors, it more than made up for it with the amount of pallets around the outskirts.
- The Pale Rose - Used to be slightly survivor-biased before the update. Now it is even worse for killers, thanks to the increase in pallets.
- Grim Pantry - Same as The Pale Rose, but with a stronger main building.
- Mt. Ormond Resort - Got significantly stronger in favor of survivors, thanks to the increase in pallets.
- Temple of Purgation - Got much stronger for survivors, thanks to the increase in pallets around the main structure.
- Shattered Square - Definitely got a lot better for survivors, maybe a little too much.
Heavily killer-biased
- Forgotten Ruins - Doesn't matter how many pallets you add to the outside, the map is flawed by design, thanks to only one access point into the dungeon.
Heavily survivor-biased
- Disturbed Ward - Got more survivor-biased after the update, thanks to the addition of more fillers, and close pallet spawns.
- Father Campbell's Chapel - Got more survivor-biased after the update, thanks to close pallet spawns.
- Badham Preschool - Still the same, with no changes. Still the same buildings, including the original House of Pain design.
- Garden of Joy - If anything, it got easier to chain loops after the update.
Comments
-
Shelter woods and Hawkins are very survivor sided. You can’t even use 70% of the killer roster powers on Hawkins. Toba also should be survivor sided can’t use majority of the killer roster powers.
-2 -
I do beg to differ a bit there. I have had many more bad survivor games on Shelter Woods than good ones in all honesty.
Hawkins is problematic, let's just leave it at that, but I still find it more killer-sided, thanks to the plethora of 3-gen spawns.
Toba is fairly balanced nowadays, at least compared to the release version of it3 -
I really can't agree with many positions here. Like Dead Sand with shack in middle and zero main is actually pretty killer sided map, because always spawn the most ridiculous 3-4 gen you could ever see.
Coal Tower on Macmillan still pretty balanced despite pallet density update, because of the size of the maps. And there is literally the only one Macmillan map they considered to nerf some god fillers.
Forgotten Ruins will be killer sided only in one case - if killer would camp someone in main. If on the start killer lose 3 gen on surface/basement and survivors know how to abuse portals this map isn’t giving killer any favors at all. Especially after pallet density update.
RPD is definitely not slightly survivor sided… Maybe East one, but West is one of the most broken maps ever. Despite 2 gen in main, yes.
Balance of maps like Lery, Midwich and Hawkins really depends on what kind of killer you are playing.
That's all IMO of course, I’m not trying to push my opinion as anonymously true. But half of the maps in the state we got it now can’t be defined one sidely survivor/killer sided. Because RGN, including gen positions and what kind of killer gonna matter a lot for pushing map to specific side favor.The pallet density update just wasn't healthy decision, except for Borgo and Haddonfield. Many maps, at least for me, just a definition of randomness. There is no consistency now, except indoor maps and some Saloon
6 -
I mentioned the 3-gen on Dead Sands in my more detailed breakdown of every map.
It is definitely killer sided by design, but the reason I said it was almost balanced, is because it only needs a few small tweaks to become more balanced. Like the removal of the unsafe tile near the 3-gen in the top part, and better gen-spread would go a long way in making it an actual balanced map.
Also, I didn't want to make too many different categories in the image 😅And yes, the pallet density update definitely affected the maps negatively.
Here was my ranking before the 9.2.0 update, as a comparison:
-3 -
In my own reality, positions around the generator should never be completely safe and only one, maybe two generators on map should be around strong tiles, so you can give a repair there on last minutes of the match when run out of sources or when survivors who are death on hook need to work on gens, but in more safe position. I think Saloon might be a good example of such gen placement.
This prevents unconditional greed and doesn't make the main objective free. But the same applies to the killer—their 3rd gen shouldn't be free, and they must spend time wasting resources of survivors and protecting these same generators simultaneously. Like 3gens design on Toba Landing for example. Otherwise, we're simply gambling.
2 -
That's just ######### map design and really there aren't that many killers you can't play. Not to mention there's never a need for you to go upstairs. Hawkins can be killer sided a good coordinated team can turn it around
0 -
There's a big difference between feeling killer/survivor sided and actually being killer/survivor sided. The Game, for example, is always cited as survivor sided because of the pallets, but looking at actual statistics, it's one of the more killer sided maps, even more than Midwich. It has lots of pallets, but virtually no vaults, gens are hard to find, both stealth and TR perks (eg Surge) work exceptionally well, totems are often a huge pain, multiple static gens are deathtraps, 3 gens are common, territorial killers are super strong, etc.
It's miserable and braindead to play, so it feels awful, but is almost always high up there in the kill rate. Same with RPD. Both RPDs. It doesn't take much to make either of them virtually unwinnable for survivor, and the even light coordination to be able to use the big advantages survivors have (eg pre-running the long-as-balls halls) that makes them unplayable against a team doesn't exist for 99% of the playerbase.
2 -
The problem with Hawkins is that most survivor dont know how to use the pallets and play the map.
You need to know which pallets are predrops, which you can chain and which you can greed.
0 -
I do disagree on some maps, but since I don't want to write a whole thesis, I will list maps that I find completely sided towards either of the roles:
- Eyrie of Crows
- Badham
- Haddonfield
- Forgotten Ruins
- Disturbed Ward
And others that are highly problematic:
- Blood Lodge
- Suffocation Pit
- Hawkins
- Greeenville Square
1 -
Gasheaven has now bus with palett near shack instead of that window truck which is like what that map is so survivor sided and that palett inside of main leading to that window is just safe as hell because 80% of killers are high enough to be easily spotted by third person which survivors have Im just glad they removed the breakable wall in main but why add more paletts on survivor sided map is mystery the balance team doesnt even know.
1 -
Hawkins is very good survivor map and counters killers like blight, larry, billy which are very strong killers and some paletts are very strong when predroped on that spawns in center when there is gen becomes god palett that cannot be ignored and killer must break it.
0 -
Can't take this tier list seriously when seeing blood lodge most surviwor sided map in the game as "almost balanced for both sides". If you don't believe me go check it out. Also it's not only blood lodge that makes me not take this tier list seriously.
0 -
Since when did Blood Lodge become the most survivor sided map?
Before the change it was like, one chase and all the pallets were gone.Also, current Blood Lodge isn't anything like pre-2.0 Blood Lodge, which was known as "Pallet Town"
-3 -
I said that because that is what stats are saying. It has loswest killrate in the entire game so it is most surviwor sided map. You can check it yourself. Also yea map was changed but does it means it is no longer surviwor sided? Look at erie or gas haven they also got changes and somehow I don't feel like they are any better.
0 -
Hawkins is definitely not killer side my guy.
-1 -
Yh i said that.
1 -
"Slightly killer-biased". The culmination of 10 years of BHVR map design experience. I couldn't even tell which springtrap doors went with which gens…
1 -
- "The Game" is a strange map. It's definitely on the survivors' side, but once an area runs out of pallets, it quickly turns into a dead zone. There are no windows (except a couple), and this completely changes the way you play. So if you loop where another survivor previously looped, you're simply dead.
2
