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How to solve Guaranteed Tunnelling FOREVER
Before we get into this post, I'd first like to mention that upon fully solving tunnelling, a proper counter balance has to be given to killers to allow them to win games, especially at higher and more efficient MMR. That however, is a separate topic.
In this post, we're going to cover one potential fix to solve tunnelling forever, and make it so that if a survivor dies early, that can be purely blamed on the survivor, rather than on "the killer", which has always been a weird part of psychology for a person that's simply trying to win. This post will also help remove a lot of the guilt killers would have from "trying to tunnel" and will help legitimize most of their gameplay.
But first of all, let's cover something completely contrary;
WHY TUNNELING IS AMAZING
Tunnelling isn't something we should exclusively view in a negative light. First of all, the mechanic of it has always had a very positive effect; tunnelling, and the very mechanic of unhooking has permanently allowed the killer to always know where to find action around the map, after initiating their first ever chase. If the killer hooks someone and then fails to find someone around the map, they will always be able to jump back into action by going back to the hook, where the Killer will inevitably find survivors. That's actually very important, because there is nothing more unfun for the killer than patrolling the map, failing to find survivors while the objectives continue to be progressed (aka the stealth gameplay the game has moved away from, for good reasons).
Another great benefit of tunnelling is, at the competitive level, it's an absolute necessity for killers to attempt to have a decent chance at winning. Failing to do so will often result in a loss.
Another great benefit of it is that it has secretly allowed killers to set their own fun; They can play as a nice guy and spread hooks, but if they feel like they are rushed too much, they can transition into tunnelling, which adds a secret way to rebalance the match to always be somewhat equal, allowing the killer to have some sort of say into how much fun they're having if they're playing for the win.
Now with that out of the way, let's dive into the solution;
HOW TO FIX TUNNELING
When unhooking a survivor, the unhooker has 2 options;
1. They can simply unhook a survivor (called unhooking)
2. They can pull on the hook, which causes the entity to wrap around the body of the survivor, sending the survivor to a faraway hook, which breaks without a sound notification, freeing the survivor (called sending)
When selecting option 2, there are some potential effects we can add to this option, depending on how we want this mechanic to work exactly;
- When sending a survivor away, that survivor suffers from the broken status effect for 30 seconds
- When sending a survivor away as a survivor with full health, the entity grabs the unhooking survivor and holds them in place for 10 seconds while they struggle to get free (they can also run away prematurely if at full health but will get injured as a result of it)
- When sending a survivor away with full health, the entity grabs the unhooking survivor and holds them in place for 16 seconds. The entity will let go prematurely if the killer is within 16 meters of the survivor
Why these changes? Because this now puts the blame of "tunnelling" on the survivor's actions. As they now always have a built in core game mechanic to prevent any teammate from being permanently found after getting hooked for the first time, yet preserves the ability for the killer to always find action at the hook to keep the action-loop going by still having the unhooking survivor at a known location for the killer.
It also creates an interesting choice for the survivors: Do you want to save the survivor at the location where you're unhooking them, so you can instantly heal them u, or do you want to avoid the killer from returning and chasing the unhooked person, by sending them away, but not being able to heal them without wasting a lot more time? What matters that is the most important thing is; if a survivor is killed and taken out of the game early, it'll be completely the survivor's fault, with little blame to the killer, creating a healthier culture for this asymmetrical horror game.
There are probably a lot more interesting adjustments or additions you can make to this "hook sending" mechanic, which luckily has already been battletested through killers like Pyramid Head and the 2v8 game-mode.
Also, a really healthy way to test this would be through an event, where survivors get this options and killers get a buff of their own to compensate, as a perfect testing ground for this fix
ENDING NOTE
Needless to say, the killers should be compensated with the aforementioned fix to tunnelling, as currently the game is balanced around it, and these changes would first break that balance, before we'd be able to retore it, ultimately ending up with a healthier and more enjoyable game for both sides.
Comments
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That’s a very original idea, and it could absolutely be implemented in the game 🤗
From the killer’s perspective, though, I’m thinking of a scenario… Let’s say he doesn't want to tunnel, so heleaves the hook area and go elsewhere, but despite his good intentions, he doesn't find anyone (which can definitely happen when you’re playing chill as killer).
Logically, he'll then return to the hook to at least go after the person who unhooked.
The idea of injuring the unhooker when they choose option 2 could be interesting, but it might also allow the killer to down that survivor too quickly, which could be a bit too advantageous.
So maybe we could imagine that, in the case of option 2, there is still a sound notification at the hook indicating that something happened—but that this notification is identical to the usual one.
That way, the killer wouldn’t know whether the hooked survivor is still there, but he would at least know that someone is near the hook. Regardless of the option chosen, the killer would know he can at least find the unhooker nearby.
Another aspect of tunnelling is when it happens.
Focusing a survivor at 5 gens left is just being a jerk. On the other hand, tunnelling when there’s only one generator left can simply be a strategic way to rebalance the game.
So it could also be interesting if option 2 was no longer available once a certain ratio of hooks to overall generator progress has been exceeded.
Kind of like the 'available/unavailable' system they implemented for DS, and the anti-camping mechanic on hooks once the last generator is repaired.0 -
"The idea of injuring the unhooker when they choose option 2 could be interesting, but it might also allow the killer to down that survivor too quickly, which could be a bit too advantageous."
Essentially, the mechanic is there, not to injure, but to keep the unhooker occupied at the hook for a while to give the killers more time to make it back to the hook and find a survivor. That's the aim of keeping them there for about 10 seconds. Kinda the reason why I added the injure is so that killers with instadown don't disproportionally benefit from this mechanic, as normal survivors stuck could just take a hit and have a chase, but if the killer had, say, exposed, then it could be preferable to take the injure and run away prematurely. That's the idea behind it kinda
"So maybe we could imagine that, in the case of option 2, there is still a sound notification at the hook indicating that something happened—but that this notification is identical to the usual one."
I may have communicated it badly, but yes I do want there to be a noise notification at the main hook, just not at the hook that the unhooked survivor is sent to, so that the unhooked survivor is at an known location again (stealth), while at least 1 player's location is still known (the unhooker), so I definitely intent there to be a notification at the unhooker, that's a must.
"Focusing a survivor at 5 gens left is just being a jerk. On the other hand, tunnelling when there’s only one generator left can simply be a strategic way to rebalance the game."
I kinda hope that, hell, even if a killer wants to tunnel at 5 gens, it'd still be consider the survivor's fault when it happens, because with these changes, they absolutely had the ability to survive if they used the tools available correctly. Having to play more stealthy when you're death hook, as you often see in comp. Due to how unfair being tunnelled is right now, in your ability to regain stealth after your first hook, people don't really blame it on you when you get tunnelled because they know it's unrealistic to re-enter stealth as an injured player. If a killer managed to take a survivor out of the game at 5 gens with this update, it would honestly be well played by them, which I think is a good thing, because there's no reason for killers to be blamed for how they play, especially when they're playing to win. I think this update has a high chance of achieving that! ❤️1 -
I do think a solution like that would help waste time for killers who try to tunnel right from the start of the match. After that, it’s also up to survivors to play more stealthily 😊
And when I see how some survivors behave in-game, I can’t help but think there’s still work to be done—but that’s not the killer’s fault 😅
Had you considered that this mechanic could deactivate after a certain point, depending on conditions related to the current state of the game?
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I think the mechanic deactivating at a certain point may be too arbitrary and add unnecessary complexity. If the killer is typically in a more hook heavy mindset due to this change, and the game being balanced around 6-12 hooking, instead of 3 hooking, that deactivation wouldn't be needed. Especially since it doesn't matter much for non tunnelling killers anyway. For them it might even be beneficial for survivors to use the feature, as it prevents a quick heal from underneath the hook, and leaves more survivors vulnerable for longer
With this mechanic, the survivors would have to more properly play the game themselves, keeping more stealthy on death-hook, and thinking about the fine lines between safety and applying gen pressure1 -
Yes, absolutely. It’s true that sending a survivor to safety on the other side of the map protects them, but doesn’t heal them, so it still slows them down a bit. It’s an interesting trade-off: would they rather be healed in a dangerous spot, or stay injured in a safe one ? 🤗
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I'd like to try this idea honestly, it could be a good way to do it.
But there is one issue, high mobility like Ghoul exists and with the right build like floods of rage could easily just hunt down said survivor anyways.2 -
I think one of the strong things it has going for it is, unlike cages like Pyramidhead or 2v8 cages, the survivor hooked isn't hooked into the location where they'll be unhooked, meaning that they won't have time to find where the unhook location is to begin with. The second they are unhooked is when they will be sent to a different location away from the killer and are able to run, hide, etc.
It would even be possible to give them 30 seconds of elusive to compensate for the 30 seconds of unbroken, making it even harder to get off-spawn snipes
Some minor tweaks and I think we'll get there1 -
Wait I actually love this idea so much, it adds the ability for the survivors to strategically play around tunneling without the use of perks. It also isn't destructive and still keeps the base idea of tunneling in the game but removes the ease of it whilst also not allowing the effects of this feature to be weaponized. Honestly, I wish we'd get something like this on a ptb.
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