http://dbd.game/killswitch
What DBD needs the most is better tutorials — a suggestion
I feel like many balance problems the game currently has honestly depend on the completely lackluster tutorials and guides it offers.
Many mechanics and general rules of this game are now clear and well-known to everybody who has played this game for a while, but honestly this game is not intuitive at all for new players, and the overwhelming amount of perks and killers (and some gameplay-changing killer add-ons) is a lot to deal with. And the current tutorials do not cut it at all.
Over the years I've introduced many different people to this game, and one thing I've noticed is that all of them only played the two basic tutorials, without touching the game manuals. This means that they loaded into public matches with no clue on what boons, hexes and invocations are, no idea on why stuff like NOED, No Way Out and Head On activate, absolutely no idea on how to handle killers with specific counterplay such as Plague, Pinhead, even Nemesis (constantly going for vaccines right away all the time).
Now, I understand that a player who really wants to get good at a game will read the manuals too and maybe even get on YouTube/Reddit/Otzdarva's site to get a better understanding, but the reality is that most people buy a game, play the required tutorial, and will want to get into a real match right away. The majority of players will NOT sit through all the manuals. They bought the game, they want to get into the fun part as soon as possible without reading. And their initial experience affects the balance of the game as well.
There's also a problem with killer power descriptions. Besides the fact some of the larger descriptions (straight up walls of text) often bug out and get cut off screen, they often do not help. I can't even count how many people I've seen try to play Artist without watching a YouTube guide first and ending up completely confused on how to use her, since the game doesn't tell you swarm hits will only work if you only place one single crow down at first.
This is a problem for the other side as well. There will always be a chunk of players who is only interested in playing the survivor role; these players won't go into the "Killer" section just to read power descriptions, and they will inevitably be overwhelmed by Plague, Pinhead, Sadako, Singularity, Xenomorph etc. Not because these killers are overpowered (sometimes they're not even that strong lol), but because they require more specific counterplay that they do not know about. They might understand they need to use turrets against the Xeno, but they'll place them straight in front of tunnels without knowing it's useless. They'll see that vomit thingy give them a permanent injury, so they'll jump to a fountain to cleanse, without knowing what that entails for the killer. They will also never know that touching windows will save them from Knight's guards, that Pig's traps activate when gens are completed, that mending too early will make them a target for Legion's Frenzy again, or that lockers can instantly get rid of Artist's crows.
Add in all the killer add-ons that change their powers radically. 10-hours Meg met a Myers before, but he thought the instadown only happened with dash attacks. Why is Myers not dashing anymore, can he still do that in this match? 50-hours Dwight met a Hag before, why is she so fast now and why are her traps bodyblocking him? Why is Bubba not instadowning anymore? Why aren't the TVs spreading Condemn anymore? And so on, and so on.
Lastly, the survivor tutorial kinda teaches to drop the pallet as soon as possible to shield yourself from the killer. This leads many inexperienced players to instadrop and run to the next one, whereas the optimal play would be to play around the pallet (and learn how to loop in the process). A new player who isn't familiar with the game doesn't really understand that, in chases, keeping the killer busy as much as possible is just as important as not going down (it's way more important, honestly). They will inevitably assume that never ending up on a hook is much more important than giving time to their teammates to crank gens, because that's how it would be in a slasher movie setting, which is what this game has (apparently, at least). I have had a newbie friend drop shack pallet right after spawning in, right before getting on to the gen, so the killer wouldn't take him by surprise from the back. I mean, that honestly makes sense in a way, and it's probably the best strategy that comes to mind to someone who is not familiar with the gameplay loop. The tutorial doesn't make an effort at all to explain that the better strategy would not be that one, though.
All of this matters for everybody, because inexperienced players also affect the balance of the game, and being constantly overwhelmed and confused will frustrate them and cause them to quit the game. A sub-100h survivor who doesn't know anything about looping will understandably ragequit after the third 80h killer in a row takes advantage of that and tunnels him, and his "Why did you uninstall?" feedback will skew the data a bit, because it comes from a different sources of frustration compared to, say, survivors who know the basics and instead have a problem with overpowered elements or harassment. Characters like Sadako and Pinhead can never really get adequate balance changes, because without a proper in-game tutorial they'll always be overwhelming to new players no matter how much they suck against survivors who know how they work, so they'll always be stuck in that limbo of being overwhelming and underwhelming at the same time. Better tutorials and in-game information make for better players on both sides, they make it easier to balance killers and get more accurate stats.
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In my opinion, the best way to go at this would be through multiple steps:
1) Completely revamp the playable tutorials and make them mandatory
New players need to play through the full tutorial before being able to queue in as the related role (i.e. must complete the survivor tutorial, or else you can't play online matches as survivor).
Both tutorials should be longer and go more in-depth about the basics, specifically talking about hexes/boons and the soon-to-be-added anti-tunnel/slug/camp measures (including explanations on how they change during endgame). They should also explain how items work, what saboing is and so on.
I understand a mandatory, slightly longer tutorial might sound more frustrating at first, but giving more context to the new players will make it much more likely that they won't ragequit out of frustration.
The survivor tutorial should stress the importance of making chases last as long as possible to give more time for gens to be done, and that pallets are finite resources that should be used, but not wasted. It should also explain what the HUD icons (healing, cleansing, doing gens) mean and that it's important to unhook teammates before their bar reaches the halfway point. Proper team play is necessary to win as survivor and I feel like its current tutorial doesn't highlight that aspect properly.
Let the killer know about the red stain, terror radius, basic hits and lunges, grabbing injured people mid-vault. DBD in its current state completely depends on chases as a concept; both tutorials should be as in-depth as possible about all the chase mechanics that are not killer-specific.
2) Make an entire new page in the "How to play" section dedicated to explaining each killer's power, for both roles.
I think the current killer power walls of text should be ditched completely. The "How to play" section should have a page completely dedicated to explaining each killer's power for both sides. The current killer power descriptions should be completely ditched, and the killer lobby screen should instead have a shortcut button that brings the player directly into that killer's guide page.
On this guide page, ideally, you press on a killer and you see "For survivors" and a "For the killer" sections. Both sections repeat the same general short jist of the killer power and explain the best way to play against/as this killer. For example, survivors are taught how Sadako's tapes work and what they should do, the killer player is taught that TVs that play the tape animation have a survivor nearby, and that the Onryo's hands phasing in and out correspond to what the survivors see. Both versions of the same tutorial repeat the more general and necessary information, such as how Condemn works, how survivors can nullify it, and that demanifested Sadako can walk through survivors.
These guides should have lots of screenshots (or even better, gifs or short videos, if that's possible) that break through the text and make it clearer and also easier to read through. Reading these tutorials through completion should each provide a slight bloodpoint reward to motivate players to read through it, and the rewards should be higher for those killers with more complicated/dense tutorials. There should be something to motivate survivors to learn how the more complicated killers work.
3) Instead of the little perk/add-on icon on the bottom right corner, there should be a pop-up with a brief brief description of said perk/add-on
The previous PTB had a pop-up message for the killer when he was about to tunnel. I think a similar pop-up message (less intrusive, more in a corner rather than in the middle) should be used to explain the more game-changing killer add-ons and some perks. I'm talking about a very brief, as-short-as-possible description. Currently we see a little icon of the perk/add-on in question on the bottom right corner, but there are a lot of them in the game and these images alone do not really mean anything to most casual players.
These pop-ups would come up after the add-on/Perk's effect already took place, just like the currently existing icons, so it wouldn't really make them less effective, just clearer for less experienced players.
Those are just some ideas, I just think that generally better and more detailed in-game explanations would solve a lot of issues, so any attempt to add them in would be great in my opinion
Comments
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I would love for the game to have an overhauled tutorial system. The worst part at the moment with DBD is considering the fact that this current tutorial IS a rework of an older tutorial. Personally I feel like the worst part of the tutorial isn't exactly even the tutorial but how the information in them is fed to you. It's not even necessarily even a lack of information either.
A couple of things I'd like to see in the tutorial are optional "Scenarios" that put you in short 1-2 minute scenarios that are quick to load into to teach you how to do basic things like flashlight saves.
I also feel like survivors should have a way to play the tutorial with others or at least a friend. At least for the one that puts you in a normal game.
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Should have been a priority long before any basekit changes in my opinion.
Would have been easier to overhaul the tutorial than constantly adding new things and making it more tedious to update the tutorial later.
Even worse, something tells me the tutorial is going to leave out the new stuff for a long time, so people will be unaware of a lot of things.2 -
I agree, I feel like we (as in both long-time players and devs alike) are all so used to this game's mechanics that it's easy to forget how incredibly overwhelming and dense it all is for newer players. And that all affects game balance decisions tremendously.
Besides fixing killer bugs, I genuinely think making the in-game guides, information and tutorials as detailed, up to date and easily accessible as possible should be the first priority.
People often say it's important to bridge the gap between Solo Q and SWFs, and that's absolutely true, but fixing the knowledge gap between intensive players who use third-party sources to learn and casual/newer players who just log onto DBD to have fun from time to time is even more important, to be able to properly address balance issues.
All the necessary information to understand each mechanic and killer power should be readily and easily available in-game, because there will always be players who are not willing to go learn mechanics in their free time on other websites.
I remember how convoluted the last PTB was, with so many perks like BBQ and Tenacity made basekit and with special exceptions made for some characters even. I believe that if something like that actually made it into the game, DBD would become straight up unapproachable to newer players.
We need better tutorials that touch every little mechanic that exists, before thinking about radically reworking basic mechanics or killer powers.
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I completely agree with you. I would also suggest adding community created guides to these forums: one for every killer to discuss how to play with them and other how play against that same killer. For example, we would have a topic on how to play Vecna discussing how to use his powers effectively and another to discuss how to counter his power, at least the least common counters (crouch against skull, greed or pre-drop against mage hand, be aware of your position if he uses fly etc etc).
After some time, a condensed guide on how to play as and against that killer could be made by one of the forum members, voted and pinned, and then we would have a very good official source of information for newer players.
Also, guides for general survivor and killer gameplay, like how loops should be run, how to mindgame, how to coordinate with your teammates without communication, when to drop chase and who to chase, etc etc.
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The majority of players will NOT sit through all the manuals.
Sounds like the problem is not tutorials but people not willing to learn in the first place then.
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Dead By Daylight is not complicated enough to warrant a full page of text to explain a simple mechanic - it could all be summarized with less effort. For example - do you bother reading character bios? If not - why? Chances are if you don't you'll tell me the most common reason is it's uninteresting and boring. Imagine being a new player - a lot of the tutorial is like that.
Where do you even start with all of this #########?
In 2016 there wasn't a lot to learn - I played in 2016 before a tutorial was added. I genuinely believe the current tutorial makes the game more complicated than it needs to for people. The way the information is fed to you is very jarring and disruptive in the actual in game tutorial because it constantly pauses and forces you to click on the UI prompt to continue. Then we go to the actual game manual and there's so much wasted potential. Let me give you a few examples.
A lot of wasted space - Unnecessary need to scroll for single line.
A lot of wasted space which could be used to give the player a picture example showing what this is.
Why does this ######### need space in the game manual? It should be explained when a player is looking through the UI and be able to be figured out on the actual Rift.
All of this is also tucked into Play > Learn to play > Game Manual
All of this is a chore to get through - it's boring. If your tutorial gives the impression the game is a chore or boring why would I stick around? So many of these entries could have a picture tied to them at least to help visualize what they are even referencing. You could read the tutorial and still not know what it is.
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That part of my post was specifically about people who just installed the game and have yet to queue into their first online match, your response takes it out of context. They're also not wrong to do so, since one would assume the game tutorial would already provide an in-depth explanation of all the non-killer-specific mechanics.
But either way, pointing the finger at these new players is not that useful, when they inevitably end up doing that either way, when the manuals are lacking information, and all of this affects game balance for every other player as well.
We can say it's their fault, sure, but it's a consistent and frequent problem, and it's affecting the state of the game, so addressing it would bring net positives for everybody.
I am saying that there should be more and better explanations and guides in-game, rather than kinda relying on people going on third-party websites and videos to learn more.
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i think we can all agree as a community this would be great, but I personally don't think they should be mandatory but instead highlighted and rewarded for completion and not just with a little charm which doesn't look bad I cant lie
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- My opinion. As for killers, the situation is acceptable; create a bot lobby, and you can try out your power (including add-ons) as long as you want. As for survivors, the situation is truly dire; if you don't want to buy the killer, don't want to play as the killer, or don't want to read the power description... well, you just have to learn during "normal games." It's simply foolish to expect survivors to go on YouTube/Twitch to learn the mechanics of a new killer.
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Yeah and the trapper on the tutorial games is a bit confused. Lol I think custom games needs killer bots so survivors can learn and practice how they work without the pressure and toxicity of a real match.
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