How I would fix Dead By Daylight.
General Changes
- Haste bonuses no longer stack. If multiple Haste effects would be active at the same time, only the largest Haste value will be active.
- Hindered penalties no longer stack. If multiple Hindered effects would be active at the same time, only the largest Hindered value will be active.
- Perks can no longer increase or reduce Repair Speed. Perks can no longer increase or remove Repair Progress. Match length and time management are the most important parts of the core gameplay in Dead By Daylight; allowing changes to repair speed or repair progress too heavily impact the meta of the game; causing perks that effect these mechanics to become extremely powerful for both sides and cause major balancing issues.
- The Hatch no longer exists. Instead, it is replaced with the Final Hunt (explained below) mechanic. The reasoning for this change is that many killer players find the hatch to be too rewarding for survivors, while at the same time, survivor players find it to be nearly impossible to have a chance to escape when it is closed, especially depending on the layout of the exit gates; sometimes creating instances where the killer has easy ways to quickly patrol between both Exit Gate locations.
- Gifted Strength is a new statistic for each playable killer that will modify how much the killer will benefit from certain actions during the trial. Gifted Strength is explained further below.
Pro-Killer Changes
- When a survivor who is different from the last survivor hooked is placed on a Sacrificial Hook, all remaining Generators explode and lose a chunk of their overall Repair progress; this is known as the Unique Hook Bonus. The strength of the Unique Hook Bonus is determined based on the killer's Gifted Strength. This mechanic allows killers to gain pressure by being rewarded with quick chases as well as give them incentive to actually hook different people; especially now that tunneling is effectively dead as a strategy with below changes.
- After the killer finishes the action of picking up a Dying survivor, the killer will call upon The Entity to create a Hook Portal that will transport any survivor attached to it onto a random Sacrificial Hook somewhere in the trial. The killer cannot be stunned or blinded while calling upon The Entity to create a Hook Portal.
- When a survivor is pulled out of a Locker or becomes Caught by the killer, the killer will drop them onto the floor immediately after, forcing the survivor into the Dying State. The killer is immune to Blind and Stun effects while dropping a survivor that was pulled out of a Locker or Caught.
- The End Game Collapse now begins when the Exit Gates become powered instead of when an Exit Gate is opened.
- If a survivor becomes Healthy by any means, it now counts as that survivor performing a Conspicuous Action.
- Dying survivors can no longer manually Recover by themselves.
- Killer lunge acceleration time (the time taken to reach maximum movement speed when starting a lunge) is now instant. The Lunge Duration of all killers is now reduced by 50 percent but their normal Lunge Movement Speed has been increased by 100 percent. These changes should help reduce the ability for survivor players to camp pallets and become basically immune to potential mindgames if their reactions were enough; the killer will cover the same amount of distance with their Lunge Attacks but the amount of time for them to do so is greatly reduced; making them almost unreactable to most survivor players and will instead require prediction from the survivor player.
- When a killer performs the Damage Generator action on a Generator, the Generator will become a Damaged Generator. Damaged Generators must be fixed by survivors before they can continue to gain repair progress. The time taken to fix a Damaged Generator is determined based on the killer's Gifted Strength. Damaged Generators can still lose Repair progress from other sources.
- Once the Exit Gates are powered, Dying survivors can be killed by the killer without needing to be hooked. This change makes the EGC a bit more dangerous for survivors but I feel it is necessary since the killer can no longer select which hooks they want Dying survivors to be on.
Pro-Survivor Changes
- While a survivor has remained in the Dying State for a consecutive 60 seconds, they will automatically recover from the Dying State without needing the help of a teammate and become Healthy, if possible. The time required for a survivor to automatically recover from the Dying State is paused while a survivor is helping that Dying survivor to recover. This should help with excessive slugging without completely gutting the strategy.
- If the killer becomes Blinded or Stunned while picking up a Dying survivor before they are placed on a Hook Portal, that survivor will be freed from the killer's grasp without being placed on a Hook Portal, preserving their Hook State and causing the survivor to enter the Injured state.
- While a survivor is hooked and for 40 seconds after they become unhooked, they are granted the Hidden By The Entity status effect.
- Interacting with Killer Objects (such as Hallucinations, Jigsaw Boxes, Pools Of Devotion, Bear Traps, Phantasm Traps, The Lament Configuration, etc.) are now considered Conspicuous Actions.
- One more Generator is now present in the trial, but the required amount of Generators to power the Exit Gates is unchanged. Should help combat the "3 Gen Strategy" used by some killers.
- The End Game Collapse timer is now 5 minutes.
- Killers can no longer passively gain Bloodlust in a chase.
Final Hunt
- During the Final Hunt, 50 percent of all Dropped Pallets and Broken Pallets are restored back into Standing Pallets. Both the killer and survivor will be placed at opposite ends of a The Killer Shack (or a random generic tile containing a Pallet if no Killer Shack is present on the map) and will be locked in place for 5 seconds, causing them to be unable to perform movements or actions. After the killer and survivor regain the ability to move and perform actions, a timer will start; known as the Final Hunt Timer; which has a duration determined by the killer's Gifted Strength. If the Final Hunt Timer elapses, the survivor will instantly escape. If the last survivor is put into the Dying State while the Final Hunt Timer is still counting down, the killer and survivor will be warped onto a floating platform where the killer will perform their Memento Mori on the Dying survivor. The Final Hunt will only happen if the End Game Collapse is not currently active.
MMR Brackets
- Dead By Daylight is a game of knowledge about mechanics, something that happens over time as players continue to play the game. There are now 7 different "brackets" of "Player Experience" rather than an "MMR system". "Player Experience" is determined by total playtime as a specified role plus half of the player's playtime as the opposing role being added to the currently played role when determining that player's current bracket:
- Bracket 1: less than or equal to 250 hours.
- Bracket 2: less than or equal to 500 hours.
- Bracket 3: less than or equal to 1000 hours.
- Bracket 4: less than or equal to 2000 hours.
- Bracket 5: less than or equal to 3000 hours.
- Bracket 6: less than or equal to 4000 hours.
- Bracket 7: more than 4000 hours.
Gifted Strength
- Gifted Strength is a special mechanic that is used to determine how strong the killer currently selected is; calculated using data collected by the community from the previous season.
- Gifted Strength level is calculated based on the amount of Kills/Escapes/Disconnects versus the total Match Length at the same MMR Bracket as the killer player's current bracket.
- This data will help weaker killers across each MMR Bracket while also leveling the playing field for the stronger killers. Another issue this will help resolve is the time taken for minor balance changes to happen; alleviating some of the frustrations of playing as/against a weak/strong killer.
Gifted Strength (In-Depth)
- The strength of the Unique Hook Bonus is determined based on the killer's Gifted Strength. The Unique Hook Bonus's maximum effect is 35 percent of overall Repair progress lost per remaining Generator while the minimum effect is 15 percent of overall Repair progress lost per remaining Generator.
- The time taken for a survivor to fix a Damaged Generator is determined based on the killer's Gifted Strength. The minimum time taken to fix a Damaged Generator is 6 seconds while the maximum time taken to fix a Damaged Generator is 15 seconds.
- The duration of the Final Hunt Timer is determined by Gifted Strength. The maximum duration of the Final Hunt Timer is 3 minutes. The minimum duration of the Final Hunt Timer is 1 minute.
Hidden By The Entity
- Upon being unhooked, the unhooked survivor will gain the Hidden By The Entity status effect. While a survivor is affected by the Hidden By The Entity status effect, they gain the following bonuses and penalties;
- They leave no scratch marks.
- They make no noise.
- The leave behind no pools of blood.
- They become fully invisible to the killer.
- They have no collision with the killer, killer projectiles, or other survivors.
- They cannot be targeted by the killer's attacks or abilities.
- They cannot interact with Vault Locations, Lockers, or Pallets.
Performing a Conspicuous Action will instantly remove the Hidden By The Entity status effect. The Hidden By The Entity status effect is also removed from survivors who currently have it if all generators are currently powered or if there is no other survivor left standing without the Hidden By The Entity status effect. This status effect should practically eliminate tunneling.