Closing the gap between solo and swf (voice comm)

Tenebro
Tenebro Member Posts: 89
in Feedback and Suggestions

Hi all,

one of the core balance problems of this game, which prevents it from improving, is the disparity between solo and swf, in particular the advantages that voice comms can give to an swf team. To close that gap, I think that should be useless exchanging crucial information via voice comm. How devs could achieve that goal? Something was said in the past, like including in the base game mechanics perks like Kindred, Bond, etc … that was an idea, but that would destroy game immersion. So, what can we do? I think the HUD is the key. How to improve it while preserving game immersion? Well, I think these are some enhancements that would close quite a bit the gap:

  1. Every survivor should see each other perks, for ex. with little icons over their HUD badge (to let survivors work properly together and avoid mistakes due to ignorance … for example, if 2 survivors are going for a save, which one should actually do the save? The one without borrowed time, or the one who does have it? Right now, you can’t take that decision because you don’t have such info)
  2. Every survivor should see each other perks state, if it’s on cooldown, charging, etc.
  3. Every survivor should know if others survivors are actually working on a gen (changing the survivor icon in something that represent the survivor fixing a gen … like the icon of a survivor in injured state)
  4. If working on a gen, every survivor should see the gen repair status with a small bar or something over or under the icon of the survivor repairing that gen.
  5. Let the brightness of each survivor icon represent the distance of that survivor from you: the darker is, the more far away he is from you.
  6. Include the Buckle Up perk intensity aura of a dying survivor in the core base mechanics.
  7. Every survivor should know if someone is actually in a chase, like it happens now with the obsessed ones. Make an animation similar to what happens with the obsessed ones.
  8. If someone begins to cleanse a hex totem, that totem aura should be shown to every other survivor for a few second (10-20-30 … don’t know).

These 8 points maybe don’t cover everything, but at least it’s a base to really start to balance this game. If you re-read those points while having in mind voice comm, you can realize how simple is to exchange those infos with each other ... really really simple. Why solo survivors should be penalized when they don’t play in voice comm with a friend? Including that information in the HUD is not that hard, and could solve many problems.

I hate solutions like including voice comm in-game, as it forces people to talk each other, and in a toxic game like this one, that would be true poison. I don’t like that solution even when community it’s ok, because simply I don’t like to talk with strangers.

I think, as a killer main, this is the way to go, to really start cutting those annoying edge games where winning is too easy or too hard. Obviously, killer side should be balanced around that, but at least, voice comms wouldn’t destroy the game as it happens now, and solo play would be more enjoyable.

Just my 2 cents 😉

Comments

  • fireplace123ttv
    fireplace123ttv Member Posts: 13

    The only issue is just how many small adjustments like this would have to make. It might not seem like much, but eventually your entire screen turns into a hud with numbers, symbols, and auras glowing constantly all over it, which is not very immersive in this kind of game. SWF know everything down to if a player is about to go for an unhook - if the killer is in someone else’s LOS - it’s just too much to include as base mechanics

  • Tenebro
    Tenebro Member Posts: 89

    Well, you shouldn't include everything in the HUD, but you can include quite a bit, consuming little to no additional space at all, if well thought. Until now the HUD is pretty lackluster: it's full of wasted spaces that could be filled or changed with some more significant info.

    I remember some time ago (about 6 months - 1 year), one guy on Reddit that photoshopped the current HUD, adding so many info by only optimizing it, without consuming 1 more pixel and without being too confusing: in just a couple of second I understood the meaning of everything without reading his post. Was simply magnificent, and the concept immediate ... like the current HUD, but with a lot more easy to understand, monkey proof, details.

    Yes, the gap between voice comm and solo will always remain, but will be so much smaller and a lot more manageable.