Another Idea to help buff the Clown

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Why focus on the Clown, and not any other killer right now? From various player feedback about playing as and against this killer, the Clown is one killer who seems to suffer the most from sluggishness in how he feels to play, and a lack of pressure around the map. These changes that I have made are intended to reduce or outright remove the sluggish feeling, and allow the Clown more strategy with his bottles in the form of better aiming, and an entirely new tonic to play with.


Base Changes

Reloading

Reloading will take 1 second per empty bottle you have. Each second of reloading will give you back one bottle. While reloading your movement speed is reduced to 100% movement speed, or 4 m/s.

Throwing

Throwing either Tonic will keep the Clown at 115% movement speed, or 4.6 m/s, but give him a short cooldown of 0.5 seconds where he is unable to hit survivors. He can however still ready and throw another bottle, vault, break pallets, or any other interaction that isn’t a basic attack.

Audio Cues

While the characteristic of the Clown huffing when he vaults is fun, it reduces his ability to mindgame at certain loops. Notably at the shack. Thus, the Clown will not make an audible cue when vaulting if the survivor is Intoxicated, or Hungover. I want to keep this fun characteristic, while giving it a way to be hidden with the Clown's power.


Power


Tap, or press and hold the power button to toss a bottle of the current tonic you are holding. On contact, the bottle will break, emitting a gas cloud with different effects depending on which tonic the Clown has in his hand. A direct hit with either tonic’s bottle will cause a survivor to be unable to perform interactions for 2.5 seconds. Press and hold the active ability button to reload your current tonic. Tap the power button while holding the active ability button to switch your current Tonic.


The Afterpiece Tonic- Start with 4 bottles of the Afterpiece Tonic. When thrown, the bottle will explode in a large cloud of purple gas (~8 meters) for a short duration. (10 seconds) Causes survivors to scream when they enter the gas cloud, and become intoxicated. Intoxicated survivors will suffer from blurred vision, and suffer from the Hindered status effect. This effect will persist for a short duration after leaving the cloud. (2 seconds)


The Hangover Tonic- Start with 6 bottles of the Hangover Tonic. When thrown, the bottle will explode in a small cloud of yellow gas (~6 meters) for a long duration. (35 seconds) The Hangover Tonic will reveal survivors with a Killer Instinct effect after they remain in the cloud for more than 3 seconds. Additionally while in the cloud survivors will suffer from the Oblivious and Blindness status effects, cough frequently, and have blurred vision. These effects will persist for a long duration (20 seconds) after leaving the Hangover Tonic’s cloud, with the exception of the blurred vision, which will persist for a short duration. (2 seconds)


New Stuff Notes

The Afterpice Tonic itself is essentially unchanged, other than a “Bottle Toss” making the survivors unable to vault pallets and windows. This will allow the Clown to still have the ability to get hits on certain loops, if his aim is good enough.

The Hangover Tonic is meant for tracking key points on the map, like certain generators or totems. It will also help to mask your approach. It will essentially allow the Clown to become a stealth killer, without giving him the Undetectable status effect.

Functionally the Hangover Tonic is like place-able active Demogorgon portals that you could place near important objective like Plague's Vile Purge, allowing you to know where survivors are while they will be unable to hear your own approach. This is fair in my eyes because the Clown has no ability to cover ground fast unlike the Nurse, the Nightmare, and the Spirit.

The inclusion of the Blindness effect was to counter any perks that could detect the killer while the survivor is Hungover, making them truly unaware of when the killer would be coming by any means other than Spine Chill and Premonition. Again, this essentially makes the Clown Undetectable, without giving him the status effect for it.

New Score Events

HUNGOVER- Hit a survivor that was under the effects of the Hangover Tonic.

HEADACHE- Down a survivor that was under the effects of the Hangover Tonic.


Addons!

Common

Smelly Inner Soles- Slightly increases Reloading Movement speed. (+4.5%)


Robin Feather- Slightly decreases cool-down time between Bottle throws. (-.15 seconds)


Fingerless Parade Gloves- Slightly decreases Reload time. (-0.25 seconds per bottle)


Ether 5 Vol%- Slightly increases Intoxicated Effect duration. (+0.33 seconds) Slightly increases Hungover Effect duration. (+5 seconds)


Uncommon

Thick Cork Stopper- Moderately decreases Reload time. (-0.5 seconds per bottle)


Sticky Soda Bottle- Start with 1 extra Bottle of each Tonic. Increases Bottle Carrying capacity by 1 for each Tonic.


Starling Feather- Moderately decreases cool-down time between Bottle throws. (-.25 seconds)


Solvent Jug- Intoxicated targets suffer from the Oblivious Status Effect for 30 seconds.


Kerosene Can- Intoxicated targets suffer from the Blindness Status Effect for 120 seconds.


Rare

VHS Porn- Moderately increases Reloading Movement speed. (+5.5%)


Sulfuric Acid Vial- Intoxicated or Hungover targets suffer from the Mangled Status Effect for 120 seconds.


Flask of Bleach- Intoxicated target suffers moderately from an extra Hindered penalty. Hungover target suffers from the Oblivious and Blindness status effects for an extra 10 seconds after leaving the cloud.


Ether 10 Vol%- Moderately increases Intoxicated Effect duration. (+0.66 seconds) Moderately increases Hungover Effect duration. (+10 seconds)


Bottle Of Chloroform- Moderately expands Tonic Gas Area of Effect. (+6 meters)


Very Rare

Garish Make-up Kit- Moderately expands The Gas Area of Effect. (+6 meters) Tonic Gas duration lasts Moderately longer. (+5 seconds)


Ether 15 Vol%- Considerably increases Intoxicated Effect duration. (+1 second) Considerably increases Hungover Effect duration. (+15 seconds)


Cigar Box- Slightly expands Tonic Gas Area. (+4 meters) Slightly increases Blurred Vision effect duration. (+2 seconds)


Cheap Gin Bottle- Start with 2 extra Bottles of each Tonic. Increases Bottle Carrying capacity by 2 for each Tonic.


Ultra Rare

Tattoo's Middle Finger- The Auras of Hungover Survivors are revealed to you, and they will continue to be revealed for 6 seconds after the survivor leaves the Hangover Tonic's Gas Area.


Redhead's Pinky Finger- After staying in the Gas Area for the Afterpiece Tonic for 30 total seconds, Survivors will scream, become Marked, and suffer from the Exposed Status Effect for 20 seconds. All progress towards a Marked survivor will be reset after they are hit.


Perks!

The Clown's perks need tweaks rather than overhauls, so that's what I've provided here. Each change is to address a common complaint about each perk. Bamboozle's lack of benefit at lower tiers, Coulrophobia's situational usage, and PGTW's awful feeling of having a charge ready, but walking to the generator to find it already done.

Bamboozle- Your vault speed is 5/10/15% faster. Performing a vault action calls on the Entity to silently block that location for 20 seconds. Only 1 vault location may be blocked in this way at any time. This location is only blocked for survivors. Vaulted pallets are not blocked.


Coulrophobia- Survivors within your terror radius have a 50% penalty to healing speed. This effect persists for 5/10/15 seconds after the survivor exits your terror radius.


Pop Goes the Weasel - Hooking a survivor will give you a token, up to a maximum of 2/3/4 tokens. While holding a token, breaking a generator will regress its total progression by 25% and consume a token. Normal regression will continue afterwards.


This is all the result of feedback from various players. Some who play survivor, some who play killer, and some who play both! Any feedback here on the forums will be appreciated!

Comments

  • BattleCast
    BattleCast Member Posts: 698
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    I really like all of these changes! I love the Hangover Tonic idea. If this was how Clown worked I would definitely play him more.

    Kerosene Can's effect is pretty bad though. With this new Clown I think Kerosene Can should regress generators in the gas of the Hangover Tonic. That would be really cool and fun imo. Additionally, you should be able to throw the Hangover Tonic much further than the Afterpiece Tonic. This would allow Clown to have INSANE tracking ability if they are good at throwing bottles.

  • CasualConsolePlayer
    CasualConsolePlayer Member Posts: 51
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    I think pop goes would be too powerful with 3 gen strat. (Get 4 tokens early and then spam it for endless game). Maybe hungover tonic could have long cooldown like doctor's static blast

  • freddyisdeadagain
    freddyisdeadagain Member Posts: 15
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    I appreciate the feedback! And while yes the effect is still weak, that mostly coincides with a post I plan on making in the future about making the status effects stronger. But if I were to give it an entirely separate effect, a friend of mine suggested making the Kerosene can make survivors vomit as well as increase the volume that survivors cough for a certain duration. An effect similar to Stridor but able to effect healthy survivors. I think that would also be a very fun effect, and tie in with what inhaling Kerosene irl would do to you. If you want that friend's name on the forums btw it's ZaPe. https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/profile/ZaPe

  • freddyisdeadagain
    freddyisdeadagain Member Posts: 15
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    The change to Pop is a bit strong I know, and I don't feel it really needs any change at the moment, but I figured if I was looking at the other two perks, why not Pop too? As for the Hangover Tonic getting a cooldown? All that would do is weaken it's ability to track survivors. I think there should be a limit of maybe 8 clouds on the map at any given time, but certainly not giving a cooldown to the ability.

  • CasualConsolePlayer
    CasualConsolePlayer Member Posts: 51
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    Hm... I think like 1 token or max 2 would be enough. With 110 killers I don't run Pop because of 60s limit but with token you'd use it whenever you want so I like the idea. Maybe level 1 Pop has 60s (like live version), level 2 has 1 token and level 3 - 2 tokens. (?) I don't know

  • freddyisdeadagain
    freddyisdeadagain Member Posts: 15
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    It's a tough change to pin down yeah, but if it has a token based system rather than a timer, I think this is the best and most consistent thing I could come up with.

  • Onyx_Blue
    Onyx_Blue Member Posts: 1,060
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    Reloading - this would cripple the Clown, considering his strongest add-on is the extra bottles. Not to mention that you should only be reloading when you're empty or have 1 left and are approaching on a potential chase.

    Throwing - the movement slowdown that Clown feels after throwing a bottle isn't that big of an issue. Since you should only be using them to slow survivors in loops or deter strong routing you don't feel it that much.

    Audio Cues - the fact you say his audio cues removes mingames, especially in shack, makes me know for sure that no one has noticed that his vault grunt is exactly the same as his bottle toss grunt? Massive mindgame potential right there!

    Power - hitting directly with a bottle is an unnecessary change; considering you shouldn't be aiming at the survivor (unless you desperately want to nullify a burst of speed from an exhaustion perk). Aiming ahead of the survivor offers far more benefits than trying to hit a survivor with a bottle; since this would only be useful at close range, or vs potato movement survivors, you'd get the hit regardless. But I do see certain situations it could help, ultimately I would disagree though.

  • SkeletalElite
    SkeletalElite Member Posts: 2,681
    edited April 2020
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    I like these changes but I don't think the hangover tonic should blur vision. Vision blurring on the standard tonics is fine because of their short duration but often times optimal play will involve just brute forcing and dealing with the tonic and blurring the screen for such an excessive amount of time is obnoxious and also only slightly useful.


    edit: Pop is already one of the best perks in the game and does not need a buff

  • freddyisdeadagain
    freddyisdeadagain Member Posts: 15
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    For the reloading, this actually would decrease his reload time at base, for the Afterpiece tonic, as if you have 0 bottles, it would only take 4 seconds to reload to a full stock. And sure right now you should only reload after downing a survivor or if you're in desperate need for bottles. This will allow Clown players options, and more options means more potential overall.

    The slow is very noticeable if you are throwing multiple bottles at a particularly pesky loop, and removing any sluggish feeling factor was a top priority for me. Generally the more sluggish a killer feels to play, the less fun there is when playing as them

    The reason I had it only effect survivors who are already intoxicated or hungover is actually because of that! I didn't want to outright remove it, I just wanted yet another opportunity the Clown could have to mess with survivors.

    Finally as for the direct hits with bottles not doing much. Yes, the primary purpose is to still just slow survivors down rather than always interrupt them, and that is still the Afterpiece tonic's primary duty. However at certain loops the Clown's power does absolutely nothing. If you were able to say, get a bottle toss at one of the very safe pallets on The Game, and that give you a hit? That is incredibly valuable.

    All your feedback is certainly appreciated, and I hope I've explained some of my reasons for my decisions.

  • freddyisdeadagain
    freddyisdeadagain Member Posts: 15
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    The blurred vision idea is where I got a lot of inspiration for the primary purpose of the Hangover tonic, to confuse survivors and make them feel like they aren't acting right. Sure it would be a gameplay mechanic that I would have to get used to, but I personally think it would give the Clown's presence a bit more of a unique spin. This is all speculation of course, and it would need to be tested in a PTB, but as of now I would like to see the blurred vision still be a factor in the Hangover tonic. Though I knew that making the Hangover effect include the blurred vision even when out of the cloud would be a bit much, which is why I opted to make it last the same amount of time as the Afterpiece tonic's blurred vision when leaving the cloud.

    As for Pop, yes I also don't feel it really needs to be changed, but I wanted to try and address one of the big downsides to the perk since I was doing the same to the Clown's other perks as well. Just for the sake of consistency.

  • Dabihwow
    Dabihwow Member Posts: 3,409
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    Overall this is could for clown, what I would like to see when they rework him is when they add his own chase music imagine what it could be.

  • freddyisdeadagain
    freddyisdeadagain Member Posts: 15
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    I'm going to assume you meant to say "This is good for clown", and if that's the case, thank you! I've also wondered what exactly his own chase music would sound like. If it would be anything like his menu theme, I'm sure it'd be great to listen to on both sides.

  • Dabihwow
    Dabihwow Member Posts: 3,409
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    It would probably be something like the common circus theme we hear but turned into a more of a intense and fearful take on it.