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A Possible Improvement to Survivors

MadMatt
MadMatt Member Posts: 17
edited December 2020 in Feedback and Suggestions

When I say "improvement", I mean something that will make Survivors inherently different, and not just skins with different grunts and moans. This could bring Survivors more to life and give a little ode to their characters, and actually give some kind of enjoyment to playing different Survivors other than just for teachable perks.

I saw this idea on another thread and thought I'd tweak it a little bit: Survivors with Innate Perks (adapted the idea from @chieften333 (sorry for the @)).

An Innate Perk could parallel a Killer's "Innate Perk" i.e. Huntress hatchets, Ghostface stalk, Wraith invisibility etc etc, except they would be much less prominent. This would mean that all Survivors have their usual 3 Teachable Perks, but in addition to their Innate Perk. This would mean that they would be able to have a total of 5 perks for any one game, the only difference is that they cannot change the Innate Perk of the Survivor they are using.


Here are some of the stipulations for the Innate Perk:

  • They are interactive. They don't have to be just an additional stat change to a character's speed or whatever, but can tailor to the character's actual personality and bring them to life. An example would be:

Claudette Morel's Innate Perk: The ability to pluck leaves from a specific bush (one of two) and create a medicine to heal yourself or other survivors. Has the same effect of a Styptic Agent or an Anti-Haemorrhagic Syringe (depending on the bush). Can only be used once per match. (Again, this is just an example).

This is in-character for Claudette (given the description of Botany Knowledge) and may spice up the gameplay and actually be of use to people who tend to play stealthy and are the family medic of the four Survivors in any given game. Interactive perks should especially be easy for licensed Survivors, as they have more content to go off of from the series they originate from.

Meg Thomas' Innate Perk: The ability to perform a fast vault at a distance of only 1.5 metres instead of 2.5 metres.

This is reminiscent of Meg Thomas's aspiration as a track star, and isn't something that is terribly prominent but distinguishes her enough to be decent at evading the Killer. The vaulting animation could even resemble that of an athletic hurdle with one leg stretched out towards the vault and the other in the opposite direction, rather than both legs to the side.


  • They introduce the difference needed between Survivors. Some of you may argue that "only a select few Survivors are gonna be used because they're good", but how is that any different to Killers? This is the whole point. Survivors will finally have a tier list now because they'll be fundamentally different, and not just a blank canvas that can be dyed any colour. The same reason Clown and Pig are hardly used, but everyone and their mother uses Spirit or Hag.


  • They are not as prominent as a Killer's "Innate Perk". They shouldn't make the game infinitely harder on the Killer, but they should have some influence as long as they're not game-breaking. The whole point is to make Survivors an actual variation in experience, rather than just skins. Interactive Innate Perks would be the best thing rather than a simple stat bolster, but not so much that the Killer starts ripping their hair out.


I think you guys get the gist, but I feel like this would be a really great addition to the game, and could prevent the inevitable staleness that would come if DBD persists in adding Survivors with basically nothing different about them. People may say "people only play DBD for the Killers", but that's no reason. Why not give people a reason to play it for the Survivors too? Nothing is stopping that from being a reality. Anyways, thoughts?

Post edited by MadMatt on

Comments

  • chieften333
    chieften333 Member Posts: 1,554

    Pretty cool, seems like it would essentially act as a secondary objective tailored to the innate perk of the survivors.

    Maybe Jake could spawn junk piles that would give him stuff to hook sabotage.

  • MadMatt
    MadMatt Member Posts: 17

    Yeah that would be cool, or search those junkpiles for toolbox add-ons. Perhaps, they could even make his Saboteur perk his Innate Perk, and then give him a whole new other perk that could just amp a stat or something.

  • MadMatt
    MadMatt Member Posts: 17

    How is it not already like that with the Killers? You have to pay for certain Killers. And given that I said for the Innate Perks to not be prominent, I doubt they would be game-changers as I said in the original post.

    Also, many Survivors are free, so it wouldn't be that much of a PTW game.

    As for people disliking the innate perk, it's not like its a nerf to their main. They just got a simple buff by an extra perk, and even if they had a reason to hate it, that shouldn't stop the majority of people from enjoying new content.

  • OniWantsYourMacaroni
    OniWantsYourMacaroni Member Posts: 5,944

    It sounds like a good idea,but the only thing it would do is actually add to the staleness in the game because now people will not only min max their killer side but their survivor side as well.

    It also sounds like an absolute balance hell and could be another source for extremely gamebreaking bugs.

  • MadMatt
    MadMatt Member Posts: 17

    That's fair, although there's no easy way to introduce something and not have bugs. If they ironed those out over time, it could really mix up things for the better. If folks wanna min max, who are we to say no to them?

  • Someissues
    Someissues Member Posts: 1,604

    Totally agree survivors should not just be skin, but gives something different

  • NoOneKnowsNova
    NoOneKnowsNova Member Posts: 2,785

    I know, it's hypocritical, and maybe they've changed their minds since they stated such, I'd personally be in favour of them if they weren't extremely major.

  • Altarf
    Altarf Member Posts: 1,046

    See, this would create the issue of one survivor's innate perk being inevitably strongest, and everybody would then switch to that survivor and there would be no variety. Like, imagine if Meg's allowed her to run 5% faster or something; everybody would just play Meg.

  • siren_sorceress
    siren_sorceress Member Posts: 321

    You guys really need to give this idea to god. It's been suggested 1000s of times. We don't want it.

  • Reinami
    Reinami Member Posts: 5,517

    This is the problem. If this existed, eventually there would be a meta around it, and people would only play 1 or 2 survivors. As it stands now, they can pick whatever one they like based on looks/personality/lore etc.

  • Greatamygdala
    Greatamygdala Member Posts: 292
    edited December 2020

    Are you guys serious?

    This game is a 4 v 1 by the way where killer can make one mistake and throw the game while survivor can make all the mistakes they could go and shrug it off because again there's three other players in your team. Let me just introduce another meta to make killer life hell what could go wrong when balance is questionable enough as it is.

  • greekfire774
    greekfire774 Member Posts: 170
    edited December 2020

    @NoOneKnowsNova yeah, the developers are notorious for not actually knowing how fanbases work when it comes to the grand scheme of things. Also notorious for releasing BS content and openly admitting they take good ideas and willfully butcher them so they aren't our ideas anymore in game. Pretty dumb if you ask me.

  • MadMatt
    MadMatt Member Posts: 17

    That's why my very first stipulation is that they're interactive, not just a stat boost. Also, a boost like that would be too prominent.

    Instead of Meg getting a generic speed boost in footspeed, she could get for example:

    Athlete's Hurdle: Meg is capable of performing a fast vault when only running at a window for 1.5 metres instead of 2.5 metres. Given that she's a track star (I know that doesn't necessarily mean she hurdles, but she's the Survivor most likely to have it as a pastime). Perhaps the animation of her vaulting could even be reminiscent of an actual athlete's hurdle (where their first leg is moving forwards over the vault rather than both legs to the side).

  • snowyukimura
    snowyukimura Member Posts: 3

    Cool idea but since there is like 20 survivors now it would be alot more work then dbd tends to put into the game and then cant just update one at a time because it would kill there sales on chapters that dont have one

  • MadMatt
    MadMatt Member Posts: 17

    Yeah that's true. I suppose it would be a BIG update they'd need to save for like a big announcement or something, but it would be awesome.

  • RepostRiposte
    RepostRiposte Member Posts: 793
    edited December 2020

    Doesn't matter how you paint it, a bonus is a bonus and one or two survivors will inevitably have the best.

    The two examples you gave would already ensure that Claudette would be picked less often than Meg. Easy fast vaults is a big deal. Can't wait to spend another couple million bloodpoints on Jeff, Zarina, or some other random survivor cause they suddenly unhook or recover exhaustion 50% faster.

    Not to mention these would essentially become survivor basekit once the meta sorts itself out. Not so gameplay-altering when everyone has the exact same "unique" bonus.

  • Rebel_Raven
    Rebel_Raven Member Posts: 1,775

    No. I'm absolutely done with the idea of creating new meta for players.

    "You gotta play this survivor with these perks to be optimal!! Do it!" Screeches. Rage quits if you don't fit their party blueprint.

    Screw that.

    Enjoy being able to play any survivor you want and use whatever perks.

    And survivors are a big enough pain to killers as it is. Giving survivors even stronger methods to eat up the killers precious time is not going to go well.

  • MadMatt
    MadMatt Member Posts: 17

    It's not like they wouldn't balance it out for Killers. Killers could get buffs too. This is just to stop Survivors from being copy-paste. You know that the Killers are the favourite child of the devs, the Killers are LITERALLY what people want to play DBD for.

  • Iblis_Doomsong
    Iblis_Doomsong Member Posts: 17

    It's a great idea but as people have said already balance is already a huge struggle for this game. I think this idea would work really well if there was ever a dead by daylight 2

  • Letche
    Letche Member Posts: 96

    I love how people took this and ran with it saying it'd be too much and overpowered without giving it a second thought. It doesn't have to be. It's a wonderful idea as long as the innate perk wasnt anything majorly impactful.

    For instance the Meg vault thing wouldn't work I don't think, that would turn most medium vaults essentially into fast vaults if I'm understanding it correctly and that just seems too powerful. Same with Claudette but a little less so.

    Maybe kinda keep a bit of Claudettes idea BUT scrap the syringe/stypic part and make it either heal a portion of you or your injured teammates health or be a slow overtime heal (that maybe only heals you a third of the way or something). Ace could have a 1% luck increase. Jake could rummage for addons in chests (which would forfeit obtaining an item and the addon would be added to your inventory if you escape the trial). Nea could tag stuff (one tag at any given time). Dwight could see people who get out of a locker for like half a second (with a cooldown).

    During chase Feng could pull out a handheld game which would grant bonus blood points the longer she's able to keep the chase up which she will lose all together if she gets caught. If she ends a chase without getting grabbed or going down, she secures a little extra blood points, not much maybe 1 or 2 bp per second which caps off at maybe 5-600bp. Maybe less, it's negotiable.

    Nothing significantly game altering that wouldn't cause a huge shift in the meta, just enough to make the characters actually a bit unique. If anything it would encourage people to play other survivors than their alloted main(s). Although an idea this great probably wouldn't or couldn't be implemented by this dev team unfortunately.

  • deeziebaby
    deeziebaby Member Posts: 31

    Who is we? If it's been suggested 1000 times that means a lot of people want it

  • MadMatt
    MadMatt Member Posts: 17

    I love some of your ideas, especially the Feng one.

    For Meg, maybe the reduction of distance could be even smaller? So from 2.5 metres to just 2 metres? It's the only edge I could think of that matches her backstory/aspiration.

    Claudette's change seems reasonable, but I feel like stypic/syringe would work if the actual harvesting of the leaves took a significant amount of time. Like maybe 1.25-1.5x the time it takes to cleanse a totem.

  • Letche
    Letche Member Posts: 96

    Thanks, I know they're a tad complex though. With what happened with the Twins I couldn't expect them to do changes like this any justice. I actually got a headache thinking about these and went to sleep, which I should be doing now lmao.

    Meg was one that stumped me because running is her thing, but you wouldn't want to increase her speed or anything like that. The hurdle animation would be a nice change, but that on its own wouldn't set her apart. If survivors had stamina they had to work with/around she could have a little bit increase of stamina. It makes me wonder if survivors having a stamina bar in general would benefit the game. One that would refill relatively quickly but only when you're not running and would refill at a slower rate if exhausted?

    If the plant gathering was significantly long, maybe. If it's shorter the alternative would be better for balance reasons. Wouldn't want claudette to be able to insta heal an infinite amount of times after touching a bush for a few seconds, lol.

  • MadMatt
    MadMatt Member Posts: 17

    Agreed. Stamina could be cool but I feel like that would have to be a big update, or maybe even DBD 2. It changes up a pretty big mechanic in the game.

    For the Claudette thing, I stipulated it would only be used once per match. Don't want to be too broken haha

  • Saitamfed
    Saitamfed Member Posts: 1,620

    It's a pretty cool idea, I suggested one similar to yours a while ago. Personally even if devs says "we don't want this to be a PTW game". Is it really different from buying a certain killer as an example Freddy? This game is already "pay to win" in some extent, yes, every killer can win a match but there's a reason why there's a killer tier list and a perk tier list, the so called meta perks and it seems like devs have no troubles having Decisive Strike (a perk from a paid DLC) as a meta perk.

  • RepostRiposte
    RepostRiposte Member Posts: 793
    edited December 2020

    If you want to see how stamina plays out in a similar type of game check out Friday the 13th.

    Once you are out of stamina/items/door bars there is nothing you can do to stop Jason from killing you. Works fine for F13 because nobody is taking the game seriously or trying to outskill everyone else but I can only imagine how putting a hard-cap on chase time would play out in DbD. No more running the killer for 5 gens.

  • MadMatt
    MadMatt Member Posts: 17

    Yeah i wasn't really a fan of F13 for that particular reason haha. Also just Jason teleporting everywhere.

    I suppose DBD could implement it differently. Where you don't have unlimited stamina, but it doesn't just run out after 20 seconds of running.

  • Yords
    Yords Member Posts: 5,781

    So because certain killers are chosen more often than others means survivors should have the same kind of thing? I think there is too much work and things will need to be rebalanced if this is the case.

  • ColonelManny
    ColonelManny Member Posts: 7

    Or possibly he could strengthen his bond with the crows, and much like throwing a stone, make the crows go distract the killer for a few seconds.

  • HarlowXRaven
    HarlowXRaven Member Posts: 191

    I only level up survivors for their perks I'm not really looking for an innate perk. Hopefully, they don't add this.