http://dbd.game/killswitch
Animatronic Changes Miss the Mark on Improving Survivor's Security Door Experience
While I do think the changes to Animatronic are certainly welcome, I believe they totally miss the developers's stated goal of making the Security Doors more valuable to Survivors.
The tweak to Security Doors on PTB is that they use less Battery for Survivors. While I don't mind the Doors using less Battery, this entirely fails to address why survivors DO NOT use Security Doors.
Plain and simple, Security Doors are not worth the risk or reward of using them.
To use a Security Door as a Survivor, you have to run (sometimes far) out of your way to access the door. Then, you need to spend a long time searching the map for Springtrap. It can take 20, 30 seconds. Springtraps, when they teleport, do NOT walk around. If a Springtrap teleports and there's no one at the Generator they teleport to, they will IMMEDIATELY go back into the door. And they will keep doing this until they teleport to a Door that has a Survivor near it.
This means that Animatronic will almost always be Undetectable when he's in chase with someone, which means that the most vulnerable on your team will already know where he is, because he's already in chase with them. And by that point, it's too late.
The Problem With The Reward of Revealing Him:
This all means, that the reward of revealing The Animatronic through Security Doors is a pretty useless reward most of the time. Because by the time you reveal him, your team is already in chase with him. Why does it matter to know where he is?
This is exacerbated by the fact that it can take so long to find him on cameras, sometime. To find him before anyone even knows where he is can take the entire duration of a third of a Generator! To spend that long and not be guaranteed value? That time is better spent on Generators, and at this point I think most Survivors recognize that.
Sitting on Security Doors while Springtrap is rapidly teleporting until he finds someone is incredibly dangerous because he can see you using the Door, so it's not worth getting on the Door unless you can guarantee his position, either by spotting him or by waiting for him to be in chase with someone. Which, again, at this point, the reward is invalidated because why bother revealing him when you and your teammates already know where he is?
Survivors Aren't Going to Interact with Security Doors Unless They Have To:
Using the Security Doors to Teleport is so incredibly risky that it's almost never worth attempting. Using the Security Doors to Reveal Springtrap is such a measly reward that most Survivors don't even bother, and it's still dangerous AND it wastes time instead of doing Generators!
There's no reason to ever Teleport: A match's outcome will almost always be exactly the same if you successfully teleport. I could have just walked there and the match wouldn't be any different.
Failing to teleport, on the other hand, has dire consequences.
Why interact with a mechanic that gives you no reward for succeeding, and punishes you for failing?
Survivors need an incentive to use Security Doors: Either a different reward, such as locking a door from him using it, or a longer reveal duration, or a Hindered applied, or the reveal persisting through a subsequent teleport… or some reward they can get by traveling through the Security Room successfully!
The only reason Survivors have to interact with the Security Doors is to interact with the Killer's gimmick. The PTB changes, they are fine. They're not entirely unwelcome. But they miss the mark entirely on the intended goal, I think, and doors are not going to see increased use in a way that is meaningful to Survivor gameplay or inter-player Killer/Survivor interactions.
Comments
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all I really wanted was slightly longer reach; i personally believe having 2x gen jockeys, 1 chaser and 1 camera man can be fine because it helps keep the ship from sinking imo, the chaser can get a lot of mileage from the reveals. it just doesn't do anything if the chasee isn't looping optimally. then you just waste your time.
the reach would at least reduce the amount of time I spend fiddling trying to find the right camera because sometimes the bunny gets in a sweet spot that's hard to tag them.
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I agree extra reach would reduce the time that it takes fiddling on cams, but I still think it isn't worth the rewards that it gives. It provides a minor advantage to solo queue, and can minorly nerf his mindgame capabilities, but SWF doesn't really need the aura reveal if they can just callout.
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I would make springtrap permanently undetectable with a cooldown after reveal, to force surviviors to use doors to reveal him.
Cuz you can clearly hear him even when he is undetectable anyway.2 -
The current incentive to use cameras isn't a good enough trade off for not being on a gen and working toward the objective. Looking in a camera, draining the battery, resulting in the door being blocked for use teleporting until battery recharged would be a good incentive for survivors to interact with cameras more. The survivor could then decide if they wanted to take the time to block the ability to teleport to a door near gen they want to work on or risk Springtrap coming out that door and chasing them away. Its like a survivor choosing to run around the map shutting off tvs to stop Sadako from teleporting or locking lockers to slowdown Dredge teleporting.
For survivors to use doors to teleport maybe have them leave no tracks/blood pools for 10 seconds after leaving a door? Maybe give them a full map aura read (unfinished gens, teammates, totems, etc.) for 10 seconds after exiting? Tbh not sure what reward would make the risk of teleporting worth it.
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I agree completely. The buffs to his axe are nice, but the adjustments made to the cameras' battery power don't do anything for survivors. Battery life was not and never has been an issue.
Interacting with the cameras has never been a particularly valuable proposition in the vast majority of games. While there are times when it's useful, more often than not from my experience it just ends up being a waste of time overall, you might not find him easily, you might get hit or grabbed if he sneaks up on you while you're looking through another door, you might reveal him in a situation that doesn't help the team that much if the survivor being chased isn't in good position to take advantage of the aura. There's a lot of things that can go wrong, and usually that time is better spent on the main objective.
I am sort of only focusing on the camera reveal aspect here, I think it is okay that survivor teleports with the doors are risky given the potential value of that effect, but I feel like there needs to be a better incentive or reward for looking through cameras and revealing the killer. I'm admittedly still a bit saddened that you don't even get bloodpoints for revealing him. It also doesn't help that Blindness blocks it (which I feel like really shouldn't be a thing? I feel like it should be treated as a killer-power-related aura which is exempt, idk if that's just a me thing though).
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If he's loud enough anyway how would that make survivors interact with the doors more? Permanent undetectable would only work on inexperienced players. There's plenty of things that cause undetectable/oblivious that experienced survivors won't leave gens to get rid of the undetectable, they'll just be more aware of their surroundings.
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I mean he's loud (and I think all Stealth Killers should have their "tells") but he's not audible from 32m away. It still gives him an upper-hand, even if it's only like a 12 m approach.
I'm actually kind of a big fan of this idea, although once it gets down to the 1v1 or 1v2 things get a little tricky in terms of design and balance.
I think another issue is that the main reason for the Undetectable is that it incentivizes the Killer interacting with the Doors, and if he has permanent Undetectable then that's gone.
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He should just be undetectable permanently. That's the only way I see even half of the player base actively trying to use cameras to reveal him for a time. They'll never be useful otherwise.
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The cameras need to almost be mandatory like Pinheads box so Survivors won't ignore it.
Let's give Springtrap 30 seconds of Undetectable and make the Aura reveal last 15 seconds. (Live is 20 and 10). Let's also maybe make his doors disabled so he can't travel through them when is Aura is visible.
Make Survivors actually play Five nights at Freddy's
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