Killer Idea - The Shadow - 3D model included!
This isn't the first time I've talked about my own custom Killer, The Shadow.
But this IS the first time I've unveiled a 3D model for her!
This is my Killer for my own Chapter idea for Dead by Daylight - "Shadows in the Fog".
Enjoy!
A big thanks to Junior Digital Designs for the Perk Icons and Starcat Games for creating the actual model!
Name: The Shadow
Bio – When Charmaine Von Brandt was seven years old, her mother died after months of being horribly sick. She was buried in the family tomb behind the looming Von Brandt Castle, which had been built over a century ago, and was currently in possession of her father, a powerful Baron. Charmaine did not cry as her mother was placed in her grave.
The servants were often uneasy around her. Though her quiet nature was often a welcome break from the loud and arrogant berates from the rest of the family, those who tended to her knew there was something sinister about the young woman. Her voice was soft and calm, yet terrible and menacing. Her cold, dark eyes and sly smile often sent shivers down the spine of those in her presence. As she grew older, she grew to an impressive height, further adding to her imposing stature. She rarely spoke. Her eyes seemed to speak for her, but in a way that almost impossible for others to understand. There was something going on behind those eyes, and all who saw it feared of what it might be and could only pray that they would be spared when whatever it was unleashed itself upon the world.
Charmaine was a bright student, driven by a thirst for knowledge. She spent a great deal of time in her Uncle's laboratory deep within the Von Brandt, reading books on science and philosophy. Her Uncle was impressed by the girl's sharp mind and often let her help in his experiments, much to the chagrin of his own son, Percy. Charmaine dissected frogs, mixed chemicals, and observed and documented everything in her diary where she often reflected on everything she had learned.
At some point in her studies, Charmaine began to take an interest in the idea of the human soul. The “soul” was at the heart of many religious texts, as well some philosophical ones. But as a woman of science, revered dogma and logical discussion were simply not enough. Charmaine desired to observe a human soul. To observe it with her own eyes this mystical energy that supposedly lived inside of every human, no matter how powerful or lowly. After many months of attempting to devise an experiment to test the theory of the soul, Charmaine made an observation: Often when taking the life of something, whether a frog in her father's laboratory, or a fox (she loved to hunt and had gone with her father on many occasions), Charmaine had always felt something grow inside her, a strange but powerful sensation that was often fleeting. She could not dismiss this as simply her own pleasure. While she did enjoy taking life, it did not excite her or rouse any strong emotion. She wondered if her own soul was somehow reacting to some form of energy when another soul lost its life. It was a strange theory, but souls were strange concepts, and Charmaine set out to test her hypothesis. But no ordinary creature would do...
A human was necessary.
Using her family's position of power and wealth, Charmaine was able to gather a group of men who would bring her healthy victims at her whim. They would be brought at nightfall and dragged to the bowels of the Von Brandt Castle. Charmaine deduced that something transpired in the body of a living soul around the time of their death. Her Uncle, the only member of the family to know about the arrangement, initially protested, but after the first experiment, he objected no further. He had felt it too. The experiment had been botched, the death meant to be quick and precise, but was slow and excruciating due to inefficient tools. However, this accident provided extraordinary results far beyond Charmaine's expectations. Pain and fear caused a human body to burst with strange energy that flowed through their blood. Charmaine was able to extract this strange energy into a vial and consumed it eagerly, much to her Uncle's alarm. Strength and vitality the likes of which she had never experienced coursed through the young woman's body, and she became capable of physical feats that she was not prior, despite her already fit physique. Her Uncle saw a possibility to greatly expand the family's position by selling the cosmic vial to the nobility. More experiments were conducted, more vials were made, and more innocent people were kidnapped. Servants whispered of horrible happenings going on in the dungeons deep below, but the rest of the family ignored them.
That is, until Percy, Charmaine's nephew, approached her in her father's study. He knew about the kidnappings and murder and torture. Charmaine's father was aging fast, and it was clear that he intended to leave his legacy to his daughter. Percy saw an opportunity to remove Charmaine from the lineage and secure the position as head of the Family for himself. Confident in his own abilities, Percy was certain that he had his nephew cornered. Charmaine took a poker from the fireplace and stabbed it through her nephew's shoulder. As his struggled, shrieked, begged, and pleaded, Charmaine guided and dragged the stumbling man towards the fireplace and thrust him into the flames, holding him down with the poker as he was engulfed.
That was when she first heard its voice...
The next day, a servant arrived in a nearby town, covered in blood and screaming about horrible massacre. A militia was formed and headed to the Castle to investigate. What they found horrified them. The Von Brandts, as well as their staff of servants, had been murdered, most of them terribly mutilated. The men eventually ventured into the laboratory deep below and found Charmaine Von Brandt standing over her disemboweled Uncle. Only two men survived the encounter, and they spread tales that Charmaine Von Brandt had become possessed by some terrible evil. A larger group was assembled, but when they returned to the Castle, they found it ablaze. No attempt was made to save it.
A manhunt was launched, but Charmaine Von Brandt was never found, seen, or heard from again. Pages from her Uncle's logs were found, detailing their experiments in grotesque detail. The story of Charmaine Von Brandt became a local ghost story, with legends born of her capturing local denizens to continue her unholy experiments...
The Von Brandt Castle, meanwhile, stands abandoned, with locals calling it 'damned'.
Description – The Shadow, as the name implies, is a tall shadowy figure, covered in darkness that emits from her in a cloudy way similar to ink in water. She possesses a dark heart and soul, one that she carried in live where she took the lives of many innocent people before being taken by the Entity. Her arrival into the dreary realm of the Entity was not involuntary. She did not shy from the Entity's touch, but embraced it with malevolent passion. It is unknown if the Entity is capable of love, but it is clear the darkness in the Shadow's heart has earned her a special place in it's stark world. Dressed in garb from Victorian England, it is clear she is a long time Killer of the realm. Because of her darkness, she is more susceptible to the Flashlight, she is easier to blind and can be burned while using her power.
Special Power – Charmaine's Kiss: The Shadow feeds off pain and suffering of Survivors. Charmaine's Kiss allows the Shadow to consume energy off injured or dying Survivors. This “Energy” is a separate health bar that has no relation to ones on or off the hooks. Similar to Myers' Evil, the Shadow can only consume a certain amount of Energy from any Survivor. However, the Shadow gains certain buffs for consuming Energy and, likewise, the Survivor gains debuffs when their energy is Drained
Pulling:
Once a Survivor is Injured the Shadow may slowly feed off them while holding M2. This action is referred to as Pulling, which slows the Shadow down. "Pulling" off Survivors initially slowly charges the Shadow's power, but it will build in momentum the longer the Survivor is near her. If a Survivor loses a lot of energy from one continuous Pull, they will suffer from the "Hindered" status for sixty seconds. If a Survivor loses all their energy while Injured, they will fall into the Dying State. Survivors in the Dying State cannot be Pulled, even if they still have energy. Pulling has a range of twelve meters and cannot be done through walls, but it can reach over props and debris in the environment (it also is not stopped by corn).
Feeding:
Survivors that are in the Dying State can be picked up and the Shadow will begin to feed off their Energy directly. This action is referred to as Feeding, which charges her power considerably faster than Pulling. Once the Shadow has started feeding off a Dying Survivor, she cannot stop until the Survivor is freed or she consumes all the Survivor's Energy. Survivors who are being Feed on cannot free themselves (not even with Decisive Strike). They can be freed by approaching the Survivor and pulling them free from the Shadow's grasp (if the Shadow is facing a wall, the Survivors can still attack her from behind, forcing her to drop the Survivor). This takes about six seconds for one Survivor. If all three remaining Survivors immediately join together, it would take four seconds. The Shadow suffers from a long stun, which depends on how many Survivors banded together to help their teammate. For one survivor it's four seconds, five seconds for two survivors, and six seconds for all three. This is not reduced by Enduring (for balance purposes). The Shadow can also be burned by a Flashlight while Feeding, causing her to drop the Survivor. She suffers from a four second stun from this.
The Shadow has four states:
“Famished”, a powerless phase which is basically akin to a Trapper without traps, so it is imperative that she capture Survivors quickly and feed upon their energy to unlock her strengths.
“Peckish" - Her attack cooldowns on both missed and successful attacks are reduced by 35%
“Appeased” - Her lunge range, as well as her lunge speed, is moderately increased.
“Fed” - Immunity to pallet stuns while in chase, automatic destruction of pallets, considerably increased Vault speed.
The Shadow must consume the equivalent of one Survivor's entire energy to advance a state. To reach the "Fed" state, she must consume the equivalent of three Survivor's. Any add-on that Considerably increases how much she needs to feed to reach "Fed" means she has to consume all Four Survivors in order to be "Fed". Finding Survivors in Lockers immediately drains half their energy. The Shadow has a slightly longer, but unique, animation when pulling Survivors out of a locker, affectionately stroking their cheek before grabbing them by the neck and yanking them out.
Drained State – Survivors whose Energy has been completely depleted enter a Drained State. Their Action (repair, heal, etc) speeds are decreased by 15%. Additional penalties to the Survivors can be managed via the Shadow's power add-ons.
Weapon – Father's Blade - The sword that Baron Von Brandt used to take lives in war was eventually used to steal his own life.
Memento Mori Kill – The Shadow picks up a Survivor and impales them with her sword. The Survivors then take on the ghostly quality as when the Entity claims them on the hook, and the Shadow then completely consumes them.
Pallet Break Animation – Places a foot on top of the pallet and this slices through it with her sword.
Cooldown Animation – Wipes the blood off the tip of her sword with her thumb and rubs it between her fingers.
Benedict Baker's description - “I have met many terrors in my travels through the Fog. Ever since I set foot in this wretched realm of nightmares, I've had the feeling that the Killers who dwell here are not much different from those they hunt. They are merely pawns, just like us: Things to be used and manipulated until they are of no use and discarded.
But today I've seen something that challenged that assumption.
A lady. Draped in shadows that drip from her like dark smoke, or ink that is spilled in water, I encountered this fiend the first time in one of the trials in the woods. But she was not the one hunting us. I caught sight of her as one of my fellow victims was captured and dragged off by one of the other beasts. She observed the scene, as I have many times; a long calvary sword sheathed at one side of her hip, a whip rolled on the other. The whip shimmered with the strange energy that I have identified belonging to the Entity.
Then, her head turned towards me and, for a horrible moment, her eyes, which were blood red against her darkened form, met mine. A grin stretched on her lips and then she turned and disappeared into the Fog. Has she always been there? Lurking in the shadows of the Fog? Watching? For what? I'm worried that I may have found a fiend who is more than a mere pawn."
Comments
-
Great idea. Are the perks flat rates? Or are they tiering up like the rest? For Eviscerating Strike, would it be 50%/60%/70% and 5%/10%/15%? For Adept, would it be 3/4/5 seconds and 20/15/10 seconds? For Decimation, would it be 15%/20%/25% or 15%/30%/45%? I also have mixed feelings about Adept. Like, a fast action is pretty much guaranteed in a chase, and you get the notification afterwards, so it's not that hard to find them. I thought it'd be overpowered because of how much people do fast actions, but an aura reading is kind of like icing on the cake in a chase. So maybe you should rework it to something like this:
Unlocks potential in one's Aura reading ability. When a fast action is performed 40/50/60 meters away from you, then that Survivor's aura is revealed to you for 20/40/Until they enter your terror radius. And to balance Decimation, maybe have it return a generator to 45%/30%/15% progression? And maybe remove the automatic pallet destruction from the Fed state. Other than that, great idea.0 -
@ItsDaEmuDood said:
Great idea. Are the perks flat rates? Or are they tiering up like the rest? For Eviscerating Strike, would it be 50%/60%/70% and 5%/10%/15%? For Adept, would it be 3/4/5 seconds and 20/15/10 seconds? For Decimation, would it be 15%/20%/25% or 15%/30%/45%? I also have mixed feelings about Adept. Like, a fast action is pretty much guaranteed in a chase, and you get the notification afterwards, so it's not that hard to find them. I thought it'd be overpowered because of how much people do fast actions, but an aura reading is kind of like icing on the cake in a chase. So maybe you should rework it to something like this:
Unlocks potential in one's Aura reading ability. When a fast action is performed 40/50/60 meters away from you, then that Survivor's aura is revealed to you for 20/40/Until they enter your terror radius. And to balance Decimation, maybe have it return a generator to 45%/30%/15% progression? And maybe remove the automatic pallet destruction from the Fed state. Other than that, great idea.Thanks for your comment!
These are the "Teachable" versions of the perk, so they reflect Tier 1 in their values. Adept would increase the length (the cooldown remains the same through all tiers). And Decimation increases Gen Regression (total amount of Gens destroyed remains the same).
Adept's purpose isn't just to keep track of the Survivors, but to react to whatever and where ever they may be going and potentially help cut them off. But, it can be more useful on indoor maps where it can be hard to maintain line of sight to see where they're heading (the scratch marks aren't always reliable).
I sort of insist that Decimation remains the way it is for the Generator destruction. I view it as the Killer's Decisive Strike. If all four Survivors can have a perk that lets them break free from the Killer, thus undoing all the work they did in a chase, then why can't Killers have a perk that lets them fully undo some of the Survivor's work? It's also a counter to Brand New Part and the general fact that Generators are way too easy to do and can be completed in record amounts of time if the Survivors focus on them (which many do now to get Lightbringer points).
Also, the Shadow is the right hand of the Entity. Her lore is that she is the one who brought the Entity to our world after she discovered the energy in the human soul, which attracted the Entity. Her playstyle is doing as much damage as possible, growing in strength each time she feeds. Once she's fully fed, she's meant to be practically unstoppable.
Survivors want to escape fast before she gets fed. Slugging is a very powerful way to play her as you don't need to hook right away with her (in fact, it's best you don't). This is why she has perks mean to stop Survivors and help her slug better.
0 -
@ABCBABCBABC said:
@ItsDaEmuDood said:
Great idea. Are the perks flat rates? Or are they tiering up like the rest? For Eviscerating Strike, would it be 50%/60%/70% and 5%/10%/15%? For Adept, would it be 3/4/5 seconds and 20/15/10 seconds? For Decimation, would it be 15%/20%/25% or 15%/30%/45%? I also have mixed feelings about Adept. Like, a fast action is pretty much guaranteed in a chase, and you get the notification afterwards, so it's not that hard to find them. I thought it'd be overpowered because of how much people do fast actions, but an aura reading is kind of like icing on the cake in a chase. So maybe you should rework it to something like this:
Unlocks potential in one's Aura reading ability. When a fast action is performed 40/50/60 meters away from you, then that Survivor's aura is revealed to you for 20/40/Until they enter your terror radius. And to balance Decimation, maybe have it return a generator to 45%/30%/15% progression? And maybe remove the automatic pallet destruction from the Fed state. Other than that, great idea.Thanks for your comment!
These are the "Teachable" versions of the perk, so they reflect Tier 1 in their values. Adept would increase the length (the cooldown remains the same through all tiers). And Decimation increases Gen Regression (total amount of Gens destroyed remains the same).
Adept's purpose isn't just to keep track of the Survivors, but to react to whatever and where ever they may be going and potentially help cut them off. But, it can be more useful on indoor maps where it can be hard to maintain line of sight to see where they're heading (the scratch marks aren't always reliable).
I sort of insist that Decimation remains the way it is for the Generator destruction. I view it as the Killer's Decisive Strike. If all four Survivors can have a perk that lets them break free from the Killer, thus undoing all the work they did in a chase, then why can't Killers have a perk that lets them fully undo some of the Survivor's work? It's also a counter to Brand New Part and the general fact that Generators are way too easy to do and can be completed in record amounts of time if the Survivors focus on them (which many do now to get Lightbringer points).
Also, the Shadow is the right hand of the Entity. Her lore is that she is the one who brought the Entity to our world after she discovered the energy in the human soul, which attracted the Entity. Her playstyle is doing as much damage as possible, growing in strength each time she feeds. Once she's fully fed, she's meant to be practically unstoppable.
Survivors want to escape fast before she gets fed. Slugging is a very powerful way to play her as you don't need to hook right away with her (in fact, it's best you don't). This is why she has perks mean to stop Survivors and help her slug better.
Amazing.https://me.me/i/144p-perfection-360p-perfection-480p-the-person-reading-this-1080p-22998391
0 -
Heh. First time I've seen that one.
0 -
I love you.
0 -
Right, this is gonna be a bit of a long one. I like your idea to an extent, and I've got quite a few pieces of feedback that I think you can make of use.
First off, her power seems... well, I'd be putting it mildly if I called it horrendously overpowered. Don't get me wrong, it's a cool idea but it simply does and gives way, way too much compared to other Killer powers.
Pull is a pretty good idea, and if you remove the Hindered application then I'd call it a perfectly balanced power right then and there. However, Feeding... that's one big bag of worms. As it drains Energy faster than Pull does, it's going to be near impossible for a Survivor to actually get to the Shadow and rescue the Survivor being fed on before they're Drained and the Shadow gets a free state buff or two.
And the states? They're completely overpowered, there's no way for me to say that otherwise. Myers wishes he could have states that powerful - free Unrelenting plus Tier 3 level lunges, a better Enduring and automatic pallet destruction, what? That can never and will never be balanced. I'd recommend that you throw them out wholesale alongside Feeding and just focus on making Pull balanced.
Your perk ideas however, I quite like. Eviscerating Strike is a good perk that encourages the Survivors to work together and isn't inherently overpowered. However, I'd reccommend that you tone down the numbers just a little bit, 50% is enough for Tier 3 Eviscerating Strike.
Adept is also a good perk that not only works with the Shadow's power, it's also a godsend for Killers who need tools for chases, Killers like Wraith, Freddy and Hag. That perk is easily the most well-designed you've made and I can only say good things about it.
Decimate however, I see an issue with. Yes, I know that you want it to be the Killer's version of Decisive but that's not a good thing. There's a reason DS is getting reworked, finally, and Decimate will just be an absolute must-take on any and all Killers. I'd reccommend it simply allows you to deactivate a Generator that's active and put it on something like 50% progression - and it definitely doesn't need the extra "15% more effective generator damaging" thing you've tacked on. Decimate absolutely does not need it.
All in all, it's a decent concept you've got. But it seriously needs a rework - throw out the unneccessary things and just focus on one Power and make it as simple as possible.
0 -
The Shadow is not nearly as strong as she seems on paper. And I'll show you why:
I've never posted exact numbers (because this post was always conceptual), but let's say it takes 14 seconds to drain a Survivor completely while Feeding. It takes 6 seconds for 1 Survivor to free his teammate. So that is an 8 second gap where one Survivor can run over and get a guaranteed rescue. If more join in, the Shadow is stunned for longer (she already has a longer stun by default, which I specifically say is not reduced by Enduring). If a Survivor has a flashlight, she is automatically stunned and the Survivor is instantly released.
Let's go further, let's say she starts feeding and someone is nearby and they immediately start tugging at the Survivor. 14 - 6 = 8. That means, once recaptured, the Shadow must stand and feed off that Survivor for another 8 seconds, giving another window of opportunity for someone to rescue them "in the nick of time" if they get downed near another person (which is not uncommon).
So that Survivor gets freed "in the nick of time" and then goes and recaptures him again. Two seconds this time. Now that Survivor is drained and the Shadow may hook him now if she wishes.
Meanwhile, the gates are powered and opened. GG EZ.
Add in one or more Flashlights, and the Shadow has an even tougher time, making Franklin's almost a MUST on her.
The Shadow actually didn't have Pulling when I first wrote her. I added it because only have Feeding made her feel incredibly weak. Two Survivors can have the Gates powered in about 4 minutes (it takes 45 seconds to for two to complete a Generator). Since the Shadow has to actually chase and down Survivors to actually gain strength, it can be very difficult for her to advance through too many stages in a timely manner. Literally one Survivor following her around as she chases someone can really ######### with her, especially if the person she's chasing is a good looper.
She's not like Myers who can gain Evil by staring at people. She has to either down them or be near them while they are injured. Pulling is not intended to help too much advance tiers. It's more to help combat Pallet Looping (especially while Famished or Peckish), which is why it has the Hindered affect if Survivors are Pulled on for a long time. I would estimate that Pulling would be like twice as long as Feeding, so 28 seconds. And since Pulling has a limited range, it only works if Survivors hang around too long (as her movement speed is reduced while Pulling).
Most people I show this to tell me they think she's really weak. They basically look at it and say, "So basically just loop her to keep her from feeding and rush Gens? Yeah, she's no good. She needs a serious buff or something to help in a chase from the beginning or she's just garbage".
That's another reason why she has Decimation. First of all, Decisive Strike is only get reworked in theory. Yes, they're discussing changes, but, to my knowledge, the only change they came up with got scrapped, so we've gone nowhere as far as I can tell. and they're back to just "considering ideas", so who knows when that will actually happen. But Decisive Strike is only one thing: I also mentioned Brand New Part. But forget that too, because, like I said, Gens can be done in four minutes by only two Survivors!
Brand New Part, used intelligently, can even counter Decimation. A destroyed Generator can be quickly repaired with Brand New Part. Or tool boxes. Or teamwork. As for it's Regression speed, it can be stopped by merely touching the Gen. Boom! Stopped. I will agree that Decimation is a powerful perk, but Survivors have equally powerful equipment and perks that let them blow through Generators (which can be blown through almost just as quickly without them).
0 -
Now that you've provided me with this information, I can at least say that I don't think she'll be overpowered, but that just leaves behind another issue, and that's that her power simply does too much. The best Killers don't have enormously complicated powers, they have incredibly simple powers. Stuff like Nurse's Blink or Hillbilly's Chainsaw. And that's the main issue I see with the Shadow now, that her power is weak and as such has been given too much in one end to try and make it work. It just won't, in my eyes and therefore is why I strongly reccommend tossing out the whole stage part of her kit and just focus on making a dead simple power with a simple but powerful central mechanic - and then adding features like cooldown or requirement to make it work.
And sure, "she has Decimation" to make her work but you have to remember that every single Perk in the game can be used by every single character - so when you make Teachable Perks you need to have in mind now just how your Killer can use said perk, but how other Killers would make use of it. Perks like Monitor and Abuse which turned out to be the one thing Myers needed to make him work, Ruin and BBQ and Chili which literally everyone use and so on.
Plus, I don't personally buy into the idea of "hey, since Survivors have bullshit stuff why not make our own bullshit stuff?" That's just gonna make the game worse. But whatever, you do you. I just hope you can see my point, cos all I'm here for is to give my points to you so you can do with them whatever the hell you want.
0 -
The Trapper's power is simple. The Wraith's power is simple. Leatherface's power is simple.
They're all garbage.
Simplicity =/= Good or Great.
Doctor's power is very complicated: It causes Madness, can cause hallucinations that the Doctor can see, can make Skill Checks hard, can "stun" Survivors so they can't vault or drop pallets, has a "Static Field" that affects Madness gain, etc. And he's considered to be one of the better Killers in the game by most of the community.
Decimation works for a lot of Killers because a lot of Killers struggle with Gen Rush. Everyone except Hillbilly and Nurse do. That's why Decimation is a teachable.
So long as generators can be finished in less than four minutes, I don't see Decimation being much of a problem. If they do something that makes Gen Rushing no longer a thing, I will happily agree to a change to Decimation, like focusing on its regression gimmick.
But until that day (which I'm pretty sure is either far, far away or will never happen), I think Decimation is good the way it is.
0
