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Easy & fair way to nerf "Gen Rush" and SWF.

oke
oke Member Posts: 102
in Feedback and Suggestions

TL;DR (This will be a long thread!)

Killers get gen rushed because he is too weak in the first chase. Buff his action speeds in early game. Lose the buffs when he gets hooks/kills. Encourage him not to tunnel to keep his buffs. In return, nerf BBQ & Ruin and consider to make the last 1 or 2 survivors stronger. Make Kindred a built-in ability to nerf SWF and camping.

Major assumptions

  • Let's assume that the game has to be balanced around perfect or near-perfect play, as almost every good game is.
  • Adjustments to average- or low-skill levels should only be made after that.
  • The game is balanced when the killer gets 2 kills on average, and 2 kills is the most probable outcome.
  • SWF and non-SWF will always make a difference. The difference should be made as small as possible.
  • Nobody likes camping killers and survivors, who stall the game.

What is the real cause for "gen rushing"?

If a 4-man SWF plays near-perfectly, all survivors will start repairing a generator on their own. The killer will find a survivor in ~10-20 seconds and chase him. Especially in the beginning, since all pallets are still availible, a good survivor can waste at least a minute of time. Gens are completed in 80 seconds. Ruin would add only little time to that since good survivors hit many of the Great Skill Checks (or just gen-tap).

By the time the killer gets the first hooks, 3 generators are completed. BBQ triggers too late to stop the gens. SWF survivors will further save time by sending only one to unhook while the remaining 1 survivor gets chased and 1 survivor continues to repair gens.

Obviously, the reason the killer can be gen rushed is that the first chase is too long! So, the killer has to be buffed in early game. That way, he instantly puts pressure on the map.

How to fix this?

This is my concrete suggestion:

  • Killer starts with a number of tokens (8).
  • For each token, the Killer gets a 3% speed increase to pallet breaking, vaults, main weapon cooldown, bloodlust activation.
  • If the Killer has all tokens remaining: Remove red light when bloodlust is active
  • first time any survivor is downed, lose 4 tokens
  • any other survivor downed -> lose 2 tokens
  • if a survivor gets hooked for the first time, gain a token (discourages slugging and tunneling)
  • one survivor dead -> lose all tokens for the rest of the game

What are the consequences?

  • In the first chase: 24% faster pallet breaking, vaulting (can catch up more easily if survivor loops windows), weapon cooldown, bloodlust activation speed. No red light so more mindgames possible, which is always fun!
  • If the Killer doesn't tunnel, he can hook all 4 survivors once (8-3-1-1-1=2) and still have 2 tokens.
  • If the Killer tunnels the first guy, he has only 3 tokens left with just 2 hooks. If he kills him, all tokens are gone!
  • The survivor has to aim for losing the Killer instead of wasting time, since the survivor will be much weaker in chases now, which also closes the gap between a survivor who is really good at looping and a stealthy survivor, thus leaving the survivor with a broader variety of options to chose from than just using Sprint Burst.
  • Tunneling will get punished
  • BBQ will be very strong since the killer will be able to more effectively use it to stop gen progress in the beginning! Right now, BBQ just puts even more pressure on the map when pressure is already there (it is much less useful in the beginning if 3 gens are completed before the first hook).
  • Ruin will be probably OP since if combined with BBQ and a short first chase, the Killer will be stopping the gen progress for good.
  • Billy and Nurse are no longer that much stronger than the rest since their ability to end chases quickly will be also availible on other survivors. This will make a broader range of killers more viable without having to buff every single one of them (even though Freddy and Wraith should get some love)

What to do about the "bad" consequences?

  • Nerf BBQ so the survivors that were hooked, will be not highlighted. This discourages tunneling and BBQ is still extremely strong in early game, as it is supposed to be (plus, double bloodpoints are still very rewarding)
  • Nerf Ruin so the Skill Check zones are like the Brand New Parts now.
  • Since the Killer will have an easier time killing the first 1-2 Survivors, faster action speed (depending on generators left) for the last 1 or 2 survivors could be taken into consideration to bring more dynamics into different phases of the game instead of them being linear.

What to do with SWF?

I suggest the simple change that Kindred should be a built-in ability. This would eliminate SWF's biggest advantage: Survivors on the hook can tell their mates if the Killer is camping or not, and the team only has to send one survivor to rescue the hooked or survivor. By giving the Killer much more map pressure, this seems to be a fair buff to survivors who are not always tryharding 4-man SWF.

If you read all of this:
THANK YOU!
Constructive feedback is very much appreciated!