The threads full title: [Suggestion] Improving Matchmaking through a character, clothing, gear, perk, addons and survivor/killer rating severity system.

I feel that currently when being matchmaked there a lot of factors that really should be taken into account, and the imbalance can certainly be experienced when playing, sometimes for one's benefit and sometimes for one's detriment. You've probably already experienced being matchmaked with a killer with the best perk combinations while you might just have had your first games or maybe this was your first game as a survivor, where you just got slaughtered, because you really didn't stand much of a chance. The same could also apply to a new killer facing 4 survivors with some or all of the best perk combinations without much experience or only having one or two perks, or maybe even both, where you couldn't really do much because they just kept escaping. What makes matters worse is that a lot of factors isn't being taken into account but really should be.

Introduction

Currently anything owned can be equipped with no regard to balance what so ever, meaning it can create some gameplay that can be unintended that is quite unbalanced - which in other words mean that it directly impacts gameplay and therefor also gamebalance that can have a detrimental effect to killer or survivor but has no balancing aspect to it. Characters and clothing are intended to serve purely for theme and cosmetics, but each of these characters has some inherited benefits because of how they look which also applies to clothing. Given the nature of the game, the scene being dark, hazy, a lot game elements that obscure vision, which means a player's survival can either be tremendously increased or decreased from just these two aspects of the survivor - character and clothing. This will either increase or decrease the chances of survival for the player by some degree, because the killer will either have difficulties spotting the survivor or find it easier. This translates into a base concealment and the better concealment it offers the higher survivor or killer rating the player will get when playing that particular character with the equipped clothing. Characters should have various base stats pertaining various skill groups and other base mechanics depending on what type of character they are.

The current meta (not as in the most effective tactic available) is seeing a lot of dark colored characters (Claudette) with dark clothing (black t-shirt), which makes her very difficult to spot which increases her chances of survival tremendously, but with no regard to drawbacks. This is quite unreasonable in my opinion, however the same should also apply to the killer and it's clothing. When suddenly various perks are thrown into the mix it makes it even more complicated in terms of balance, especially because powerful unique teachables can be equipped in any combination without any regard to gamebalance. This basically means you can equip the most powerful top tiered unique teachable perks, along with the character and clothing choice that makes that particular survivor quite imbalanced in regard to the killer. So obviously, perks should also affect the total survivor and killer rating, so there at least is some measure of balance to it, because then suddenly its not without consequence when you select all the best. Also in my opinion I find the unique teachables to be detrimental to the game's balance.

A word of warning, this is a long post, so if you're type who don't want to read long and detailed posts with a lot thought and effort put into it, then you may want to skip this one. But let me ask you this, do you think it's completely fair that certain characters can give the player an unfair gameplay advantage alone from playing a character that gives this, where it's not the perks or skills, but just because of how the character looks and blends with the environment? If you disagree then this post may be for you after all, as would benefit to support the suggestion. Even if you think it is fair I can tell, you it can make a very, very big diffence. I have had a lot of matches where alone the fact that the character blended so well, that the killer kept walking past me and eventually I escaped. So yes, there certainly is a need for this type balance.

Characters, Clothing, Survivor & Killer Rating

As explained in the introduction the characters and clothing play a big part in the game balance, so its quite obvious that the characters & clothing need something that defines exatly how they affect gameplay, which is where stats come into the picture, which I will cover in more detail below. However, I will briefly touch on the concealment stat as it ties into character and clothing. The final output of the concealment stat will be affected by brightness or darkness of clothing and skin color and actual skill number, which lowers or raises survivor rating depending on the final output. Also clothing could potentially modify various stats, which also should affect the piece of clothing's actual impact rating (gamebalance). The survivor rating and Killer rating have now been mentioned quite a few times and deserves a brief explanation, however a more detail explanation will follow. This rating is basically to help create better and more balanced matchmaking, which is completely aside from actual pvp rank, but of course also will affect matchmaking.

Character Stats, Perks & Addons

So as mentioned in the introduction and the section above characters need to have some stats, these are fundamental stats and skill stats & skill benefits - the benefits are inherited in some way.

The character's base basic & skill stats, actual stats and current rating should always be visible to the player, so that the player knows what kind of effect he or she can have on the gameplay, but certainly also so the player knows what role he or she will serve best as in the group. Perks also affect gamebalance and as such it should also affect the survivor or killer rating. The same applies to any addon equipped.

Fundamental Stats..

These are the most fundamental stats to every survivor character. These are the same for each survivor character and are modifiable by perks, gear, clothing and potential others. Killer will have more or less the same stat types, although some will affect differently, I will add this at a later point as there is more than enough to consider.

• HP - Base amount of health.
• Speed - Base movement speed
• Strength - Affects wiggle efficiency and stun duration from physical confrontation.
• Perception - Controls sight range and detail range.
• Endurance - Controls Maximum Energy & Fatigue.
• Willpower - Suppresses Detrimental Vocal Character Sounds & Reduces Terror Effects
• Luck - Affects rarity of items found in the level and affects luck margins.

Skill Stats & Skill Benefits...

These skills & skill benefits are what really sets the characters apart because each survivor will have a different skill preset from the other survivors, and this is what will make each member truly an important member of the survivor group. How the character has obtained the skill or benefits to the skills could come from a variety of sources, professional training, talents, inherited traits, hobbies, etc. These skills individually affect different gameplay mechanics and therefor will affect the survivor character different, which means that some characters will affect survivor rating with a higher, lower or more neutral rating, depending on how much the character can affect the gameplay mechanics. Each of these can be modified by clothing, perks and other various gear. The various character's skills & benefits to skills can easily be determined by looking at their unique perks. To note here, most perks emphasizes on specific skills or/and one basic stat which means that both their basic and skill stats will be affected, however some perks don't exactly follow this trend.

• Empathy - Controls the strenth and range of auras can be seen.
• Balance - Determines stagger duration & speed reduction from long falls.
• Botany - Determines stopping bleeding & healing efficiency.
• Concealment - Is mostly determined by the brightness/darkness of skin pigmentation - This affects severity & impact rating on gameplay and gamemechanics.
• Leadership - Affects the strength and radius of auras.
• Medical - Determines base healing output - speed and efficiency.
• Running - Directly affects speed.
• Sabotaging - Directly affects sabotaging output - speed and efficiency.
• Sneaking - Reduces amount of noise when running and crouching.
• Tech - Directly affects repair output - speed and efficiency.

Perks & Addons...

The above sections should by now have given a clear indication what this section will be about, you probably already guessed it. If you guessed the perks & addons modifies the survivor/killer rating then you guessed correctly. Some will increase the rating more than others, but no one will decrease it unless it has a detrimental effect on the character's ability to perform somehow. The actual perk/addon rating output should be determined mostly by its tier, rarity, power and versatility - in other words how much it can impact gameplay & gamebalance. The final number should have taken every aspect of the perk or addon in consideration. However, some combinations are considered more powerful than others and will therefor also additionally affect the final output of all the perks and addons.

Survivor & Killer Rating...

To avoid confusion, when I'm talking about survivor and killer rating, I'm not refering to actual pvp rank with the character types, but the actual severity / impact rating the characters will have on gameplay and gamebalance.

As mentioned before, this is basically to better balance matchmaking and is completely aside actual pvp rank. This part of matchmaking is directly affected by the final survivor or killer rating, which in other words mean that they will be matched up based on what they have selected. This is specifically so that players will be better matched up with people based on how much they can impact gamemechanics and gamebalance. One of the problems matchmaking has now is that it doesn't take level into account, but is solely based on pvp rank with the character. With this, character level will actually affect the matchmaking a whole lot more, because lower level characters won't have as much unlocked and thus won't be able to equip as much and which directly will mean that they have a much lower rating. The survivor / killer impact rating can be also be combined with the actual pvp rank where one them should act as a multiplier, to create the final value used in the matchmaking.

An Example of the improved matchmaking system

Here is the order in which players would be matchmaked when not combining them:

1. Killer / Survivors are first pooled into the first queue based on severity rating.
2. Killer / Survivors are then pooled from that queue into the final queue based on rank.
3. Killer / Survirvors are then from this pool matchmaked.
4. If too few players within the severity rating / player ranks then it will be expanded slightly.

Note: If using the combined value then 1 and 2 can be skipped, to speed up the matchmaking process.

This will take a lot of things into account and will make it a more even playing field for all, and would in my opinion also improve gameplay experience as people wouldn't just go for whatever gives the best concealment while taking the best perks as this now would have a significant drawback - high severity rating which equals getting matched against killers or survivors who have the best as well or have similar potential to affect the gamebalance somewhat equally.

Some Final Notes
I feel the above is a logical step to better and more balanced matchmaking and certainly will be a great addition to the game.

The actual numbers for the various items is subject for debate, but is solely up to the developers to decide.

If you have something constructive or beneficial to add, please feel free to comment.

If you don't have anything constructive to say, then please keep it to yourself.