the problems devs and community pov
over the last year ive heard many people claim:
survivors are unbalanced.
killers are unbalanced.
items are unbalanced.
mori, brand new parts are unbalanced.
the game is dieing.
devs arent fixing bugs.
ext.
though both me and the devs agree on some of these. the devs appears to base their entire point of view on statistics.
and yes statistics dont lie. but they can be manipulated.
example:
one of the last dev stream that included % of perk usage. it came to my attention that around 23% of all survivors in prestige 3 rank 50+ used selfcare. doesnt sound bad does it? less then 25% of the entire survivor players. that would mean 1 out of every 4 players on avarage would bring selfcare.
but here is where the illusion of presenting the stats comes in.
every player can bring 4 perks. (safe to assume everyone will do this)
explination A: there will be 16 perks used by the survivor. 23% of these will be selfcare. putting the number between 3 and 4 selfcares each match. making it pretty much a guarentee that everyone will bring selfcare.
explination B: survivors are not able to bring 2/3/4 of the same perk in each match. meaning that when selfcare is picked as the first slot. there is 0% chance that it will be in the 2/3/4 slot
this means the stats are devided by 4 due to the inabillity of repeating the same perk.
wich means that the 23% given by the devs in their statisics. is infact 92%. were they to show this number. it would give the reality that some things are not as balanced as they seem.
showing the illusion of statistics. even though they did not lie.
ofc the same coud be said for the killer perks. but there was not a single perk with a higher % than selfcare.
wich brings us to the next point. bug fixes.
the devs have stated that fixing bugs is 1 of their prioritys of the game (higher then creating new content or skins)
from wich i ask. then what is the problem? communication with the community on what is a bug and what is not? are u not aware of some of these bugs cause people dont use the item enough? or is it that u only focus on bugs that inpact the abillity to play the game.
it appears to be just that. example:
with the release of the hag came: thrill of the hunt. at the time bonus points were given to the hunting catagory based on the ammount of tokens that u had earned from survivors being unhooked wile the killer is at X distance (same as devour hope is right now). soon afther this bug was being alterd feeling that killers werent rewarded enough for it. and insted using the the current version of gainging bonus bp depending on how many totems remain.
it took more than half a year since that change befor the devs patched the bug that came with the change. what was the bug? aslong as not a single totem was destroyed (meaning that the 5 tokens in thrill of the hunt were all there) not a single bonus point was rewarded. but nobody seemed to notice. as nobody seemed to use the perk for bloodpoints.
this is where the devs messed up. not only was this bug reported shortly afther the perk was changed. there were killers that used the perk JUST to get more bloodpoints.
so i ask the devs. plz add a more specific option on the new website for reporting bugs.
have a drop down menu for most of it. perks / items / killers / addons. a dropdown of wich item. followed by an explination of what is broken. how it can be repeated. insted of the current. forum where 100+ people report the same bug with diffrent titles leaving u to guess what is done. make it easyer for u to orginase what is bugged and what is already fixed. as communication seems to be the problem here. that or lack of interest.
reasons why a killer conciders survivors overpowerd.
is looping the intended way to keep killers busy. do u want killers to run circles. around an object 5+ times only to repeat the same process 20 feet away. do u want killers to abandon that chase. spend time to find a new survivor. only to have that survivor do the exact same thing. do u want high rank play to be based on how well survivors are able to run in circles. blind the killer during a pickup animation. or hit the desicive strike skillcheck.
or do u want high rank to be everything. hiding. dodging. tricking the other in doing 1 thing wile doing the other. as of right now. the biggest problem to killers is looping. the inabillity to catch a survivor due to the abillity of survivors to bully the killer. the ONLY skill that comes into running circles around and object. is to figure out when the killer will stop. take a step back. rather then being hit by the pallet. and for the survivor to not drop it. wich saidly only happens afther already 5 circles around the pallet. only for the entire process to start over.
stats say the avarage of 2 survivors escape each killer every game. here is what the stats do not say. are those surivors being camped. did the killer bring noed and manage to kill someone at the exit gate due to greed from the survivors. did camping cause more kills as survivors wanted to go for the save.
yet another example on how stats are incomplete. and manipulated to show what they want u to see. im willing to bet. if these stats of escape. were combined with the killer getting a pip. and the ammount of time killer is conciderd to have camped. the stats wont be as pleasant. but an even better statisic that i have not seen. is the ammount of times a bloodlust tier leeds to a palletstun. or a pallet break action.
survivors claiming the killer is unbalanced.
of what i have heard. the top 4 most hated killers (not in order) are nurse, billy, huntress and doctor.
nurse because high skilled players are able to catch survivors that are found. without a counter.
billy because of the 1 hit down.
huntress because of the ranged attacks able to be thrown over objects.
and doctor because of the madness blocking the abillity to heal and tracking their location.
ive always found it interresting that early game. survivors have no intension to hide. no reason to be afraid as there are many ways to keep the killer away. wile all times that any form of noed came into play (devour hope, huntress addon, noed itself) or simply being the last survivor alive, survivors start to hide. walk around the map. stay in grass. dark cornours. inside lockers just to find the hatch.
words of many survivors: the fun is in the chase. wile at the same time for the killer this is the hate.
Survive With Friends / live streamers.
SWF was not part of dbd at the start. this is no secret. the only form of communication was pointing, waving over, crouching and doing a workout wile on the hook. the good part of this. was survivors not being aware where the killer was. if he was searching. what their teammates were doing. basicly the fear of the game. this was what dbd was balanced around.
then came swf. and most of all, communication.
its been said by the devs. more than 50% of all matches includes some form of SWF. if its 2/3/4 players. that doesnt matter. its fairly safe to assume that atleast 75% of all these matches have communication in the form of discord, teamspeak, ext.
wich brings in words like: killer is chasing me. im here. killer is there. go do generators. body block that hook. or most annoyingly of all. there is a trap over there. and the killer is camping me with insidious. all of these directly alter the choices made by the survivor. in favor of the survivors. and lets not forget when 1 of the survivors dies. he just tells his friends what perks and addons the killer brought. most importantly. noed. litterly the perk supposed to be a suprise until its too late.
then we get to livestreamers.
i understand that livestreamers want to play with their viewers. but saidly this is not the only reason they play survivor. its because they find it more fun than playing the killer.
communication even without discord/teamspeak/whatever. is possible when u deal with livestreamers. u dont have to be able to communicate with them. if the livestream has 5 seconds delay. that streamer is still able to tell his teammates important information.
oh and. if u put any form of HINT. in ur steam name that ur a livestreamer. u are inviting killers to stream snipe u. dont get angry for ur own bad choices.
perk balance. i beleave that perks should be balanced depending on how much they are used. if people keep using a perk afher a nerf. than its not nerfed enough. the PTB's are the pefect way to nerf populair perks. finding out what is too much.
the statement: this game is dieing.
its correct in the way the devs dont take it. no the game issnt dieing cause there are plenty of players still playing it. its dieing for how the games are being played. more and more killers either camp. quit. dodge a lobby. or play one of the top 3 powerfull killers. (nurse huntress billy)
the game is dieing due to actions. due to what becomes more fun for those claiming to suffer. i myself am guilty of camping survivors for the sake of pissing them off. purely cause it brought more joy to me than the normal playstyle.
lets go back a year. im not sure when. it was befor the huntress got added and afther the shape. devs claimed this was a bug:
there was a time where flashlights had the abillity of blinding killers during pickup / drop and even hook animation. causing the survivor to be dropped and able to run. this not only caused most killers to use lightborn. dodge survivors that bring flashlights. and simply quit the match when someone brought one. it also caused most killers to play survivors. (me included) this directly caused so many killers to quit / go survivors. that queue times were going up to around 10+ minutes. safe to say. the developers patched this within a few days. claiming it was a bug.
i would have beleaved them. if it were not for the extremely similair experience to happen within half a year ago. where blinding the killer during pickup aninimation. or stunning them with the pallet during pickup animation. caused the survivor to go free afther the animation was completed. this time they specificly added this in their patchnotes. meaning it was intensional. this change also got reverted within a week. as similair results happend like the first time.
so i ask the devs. did u forget? or do u simply wanna find out how much the killer is willing to take befor they give up.
im glad with the changes to mori's and brand new parts. however it still doesnt seem fair.
mori's require the killer to find. down. hook. find down and then kill a specific survivor. and with the current state of looping. this is not an easy task.
wile on the other side a brand new part is almost always usedup to what it was ment to do. give u the points for it. but most importantly. can be used on the weakest toolbox. an item. not an offering.
killers lose the mori afther the game. even when they did not use it.
survivors lose the item only when they did use it (maybe not completely but most of the time)
killers are required to do well to be able to use their mori.
wile survivors are getting skillchecks that they would hit anyway. (seriously. skillchecks are way too easy)
wich brings me to my last thing. toxic players.
camping. looping. tbegging. pointing. waving over. and chatting post game.
for a company named: behavior. u dont seem to care alot about the behavior of the players.
u know why people do it. yet there is no reaction.
tldr: communicate more with the community. find out what is a troll. and what is not. dont look at stats as much. look at the livestreams more. and most of all. dont sugarcoat a problem.
Comments
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So I read this and the only real thought I have is this:
The devs have created something. Often, the community behaves like whiny children, begging their parents for a new toy, mocking them though the parent has "done a pretty good job" raising their kid. The children can't always agree on what they want and sometimes what they want isn't what is best for them. Also, daddy Cote has a job and a lot of responsibilities and some of the things the children want take time.
...At this point, were I a dev, I'd be really frustrated with the community. Play the game. Enjoy the game. Until we get Willy Wonka as a killer, there's zero reason to be whining like Veruca Salt saying "but DADDY, I want it nooooowwwww."
I've never seen another video game company do weekly updates in video format into the 100s. They're communitcating. They've been fairly transparent. Consider all of this and calm down.
2 -
for starters. nothing of this was ment as screaming. the lines in caps are somehow created in a way i dont know. i posted this on the steam forum. realised forums were being moved. so copy/pasted it here. somehow the caps are linked to lines i placed seperating each content.
and to clarify. im not angry at the devs. im mentioning what i understand is miscommunication. example. when a poll was made wich of 3 killers to give a rework. most votes went for doctor. soon aftherwards a change was made to the wraith. this led to assume peopleall 3 killers in the poll we gonna get reworked. just the poll chose what order. this was a miscommunication as ive heard a dev say that the hag (wich was in the poll) will not get a cube. again. this is miscommunication. wich is what im trying to make clear with half of this thread0
