http://dbd.game/killswitch
Map changes and the concerns they bring
I have the tendency to ramble, so I will try to make this as straight-to-the-point as possible. If you wanna skip the nonsense, go straight to the bullet point list.
Quick disclaimer before I start. Maps have always been the root of nearly every problem players face in DBD. Whether it's useless dead zones, totems spawning in the open, infinite loops, map size, generator placements, or gross tile RNG (for both sides), maps have been the main issue. It's why we have bloodlust, it's why generator speed had to get evaluated, it's why pallet spawning had to be changed, it's why perks got reworked, buffed, nerfed, and/or implemented, it's why mobile killers are king--everyone should know what I'm talking about.
And these changes are great, but this arises other areas of concern that I really hope get addressed sooner rather than later.
- Three genning scenarios just got even stronger...and they're really bad, especially against certain killers and certain perks (oh I dunno, Doctor with Pop Goes the Weasel?). Gen repair speed being changed just made the three genning game significantly more prominent. Buckle up for that
- Smaller maps means it is even easier for high mobility killers to become even more oppressive. (Great news for Michael and Clown, though)
- Uh...elephant in the room...what about Bloodlust? Breakable walls, a huge percentage of unsafe pallets that any killer can just respect and walk around, and smaller maps. Is Bloodlust really needed? I hope to see it go, because with it gone it adds value to a perk like PWYF
- Perk combinations in smaller maps are going to make the combinations repetitive and boring. I'm talking about Sloppy Butcher + Thanatophobia + Pop Goes the Weasel
- Killers slug, tunnel, and proxy camp in attempt to put the pressure on survivors, which is a very useful tactic at catching up or turning the tides in your favor. But if maps aren't as god awful now, are these dirty tactics ever going to be evaluated? I don't want to be pigeon holed into certain builds, but the amount of times my teammates get proxy camped or I get slugged for a total of 3 minutes a game is astonishing. I can't do anything about these scenarios unless myself and/or others are running the obvious meta perks everyone wants to complain about. So whether doing these things hurt the killer's score or survivors have some sort of weak-ass, built-in Unbreakable, something has to happen
- I am genuinely not looking forward to any game that has Infectious Fright in it. Get ready for endless screaming and slugging in the new Thompson House (just run Calm Spirit, amiright? You know...run a perk to counter bad game design! Oh wait...this sounds familiar)
- Are situations like 2 or 3 L-walls spawning next to each other going to stop? With Bloodlust, these setup are hardly useful. I can't stop Bloodlust without a pallet or without getting hit. A good killer will shut this down fast
There are many other issues that I'd like to mention as well, but I think I've already brought up a fair number of points. Thanks for reading.
Comments
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I'll try and go through every point here.
I personally don't see the 3 gen problematic. I think only 6 maps are having their size changed and about 8 maps are having their type spacing altered, so only those maps should be affected by new gen placements. And these are all just maps that are gigantic and have gens that are too far spread out for a killer to patrol those gens properly. And they are being brought in line with many of the game's other maps. So 3 genning would already have to be a problem in this game for those maps to become problematic in that case as well. Of course a 3 gen situation is strong for killers, but that has always been the case and won't be worse with the new maps, and survivors have the potential to prevent themselves from getting 3 genned.
I can understand the concern of your second point, but I would say that killers with high mobility profit less from smaller maps than slower killers, as they can cross maps fast no matter their size. And again, it's only the really big maps that are getting their size adjusted to be more inline with other more balanced maps. I do think that the devs will need to keep an eye out for the top tier killers with these and possibly future map changes, as some of them might need some small nerfs. Especially Freddy who benefits from these map changes the most.
I want to see Bloodlust go as well but it does seem like certain maps can still spawn structures that are really good for survivors. I guess the devs only want to remove Bloodlust once they are certain there aren't any structures where the killer needs Bloodlust. Haddonfield for example hasn't seen much changes, and I already had a match on the ptb on rancid arbattoir where a cow tree connected right into a long wall jungle jym.
Regarding slow down perks, the devs stated in one of their Q&A that they want to nerf the synergy of slow down perks. In the case of Sloppy, Thana and Dying Light I guess they'll just make them not stack with each other anymore.
I would say slugging is still a necessary strategy for a killer to apply enough pressure at times, however I'm not talking about slugging the entire team and never hooking any survivor until all 4 are downed. I would hope they could find some way to nerf the latter scenario while not nerfing the occasional slugging to apply map pressure. However, I really hope the devs will look into camping and tunneling. I think now that killers are getting fantastic map changes to make matches fairer for them, tunneling and camping should also be looked into and nerfed.
Not sure what makes Infectious Fright worse now, the perk is still the same. I do sometimes feel like the perk could need a 20 or 30 second cooldonw though.
T-L walls are some of the most balanced structures in my opinion, but I agree that multiple of them together is bad with Bloodlust still in the game. But the T-L walls spawning next to each other should not be changed in my opinion, it's Bloodlust that needs to go.
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Really good points.
I'll add few more!
The new Ormond looks and feels like the current Shelter woods - I think the most hated map after Hawkins or maybe just the most hated on the survivor side. The map design looks like this - bunch of pallets and extremely limited loops, gens on the edge of the maps in corners where there is nothing else around or even if there is a pallet after it is broken this place become a huge dead zone. I ran around Ormod as a killer just to see it how it looks and I counted just 2 loops /excluding the basement and the mid building where I saw just one downstairs/ one of which one was pretty bad in general, everything else was pallets. So basically the gameplay on that maps is just run to a pallet drop it run to another drop it. If there is nothing u are dead and that's it. Everyone esle has to gen rush meanwhile. It is extremely extremely boring the way the game is heading.
I saw something very very similar done to Suffocation Pit. Map looks smaller, loops are removed, they added bunch of crates around the map but there is just 1 pallet in these spots and thousand of crates so these for me are just wana be dead zone after that pallet is gone. I really don't like that model. How you are supposed to play vs Billy on such map ? Or vs the new Freddy. I feel like the devs completely lost it. The made the Freddy not so long ago and gave him teleport and suddenly few months later they decided hey - lets make maps smaller. I don't even want to start talking about Spirit ...
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Yeah, chases have become so mindless. A bit disheartening, honestly. And I even say that as a Killer.
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But Suffocation Pit hasn't changed except for the window loop. Pretty sure it's the same otherwise. It felt pretty normal to me when I played on it.
Also Ormond still has loads of safe pallets, but it's better now in the ptb than it is in the live game.
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Also I think we should address the strongest kills that already are balanced against SWF. Nurse obviously won't matter much because chases rely on jukes. But what about an enduring spirit fury Hillbilly that forces pallets down and Back revs with instasaw? He can make the entire map a deadzone in two minutes. What about a spirit that spams her powers against small loops, forcing you to guess every 5 seconds? God Windows were one of the few reliable counters against spirit as she couldn't vault windows in phase, but now there is a door next to every window. Speaking of which, is entity blocker fair now? If a killer is preforming that badly at a jungle gym or L-T wall, should they get rewarded with a blocked window and bloodlust? What are we going to do about Freddy who can end loops just by pressing M2 around a pallet 3 times? If these map changes go through, many of these killers need some serious nerfs, which I don't think will be fun for either side. Not to mention hit detection is still killer sided, so even if you make a correct guess at an extremely unsafe pallet you may still get hit.
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Camp and tunnel is the big one that needs to be addressed. It needs to be made less viable, so that chasing other survivors is the better and always more effective way to play.
Hillbilly was always busted imo but now even more so with all the deadzones and the fact that you needed the best survivors on the team to loop him for multiple gens to even stand a chance at winning.
Not that it matters though. Its obvious whose ideas and concerns are more important to the developers. Hint: It’s not survivors.
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I think we should also talk about how these new maps will affect the top tier killers. Sure you can argue that for a Clown or Trapper these maps are more fair. But what about an enduring spirit fury Hillbilly that back revs and forces down pallets? He can remove almost every pallet in the first 2 minutes. What about a Spirit that spams her power against small loops, forcing survivors to guess every 5 seconds? God windows were one of the few reliable counters to spirit, as she could not vault during phase, but now there is a door next to almost every window. What about a Freddy that can force a pallet down just by placing 3 snares around a loop? Almost every killer in this game would need some serious nerfs, which I don't think anyone will enjoy, if these changes go through. Not to mention hit detection is still killer sided, so even if you make a correct guess at an extremely unsafe pallet you may still get hit, and being careful with your resources and trying to greed pallets will often give the killer a down. Not to mention there's entity blocker and bloodlust, so even if you are being very careful to not use pallets, the killer will be rewarded even if they're getting looped at an L-T wall because they aren't chasing well.
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The map changes have a huge effect on the game. A perk that was more often that not taken out within the first 30 seconds not so much.
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Ruin was the only way to slow down the beginning of the game. Sure it was risky but still useful, and it certainly didn't go out with 30 seconds every match. Also, it had an effect in any match, on any map. Mapo changes only affect the maps that they are applied too.
God people need to stop being so whiny and immediately accuse the devs of being biased towards one side just because that side is getting good changes in one patch. It's so freaking ridiculous.
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The only way? Corrupt is doing just fine for me. Also they changed a hell of a lot of maps.
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