My totally not-toxic feedback

REWORKED MAPS

Overall, I think this was done very well. Not only in terms of visual appearance (thanks for the 100th time, art team!) but also in terms of balancing. I´ll go over a few things regarding the most recent ones:

Autohaven Maps

Good job at keeping the overall feeling of the maps intact. The new main buildings look awesome. I have a few grievances with new Autohaven, though.

The redesigning of the jungle gyms made them the (propably) safest tiles in the game, especially against tall Killers. Due to the fact that the walls are so short now, it is pretty easy to have clear vision of the Killer at all times, even without abusing stretched resolution. This is amplified by the fact that some of the walls have wide gaps to see through, making it unmindgameable against any Survivor worth their salt and took away a huge part of what makes chases fun - mindgaming and trying to get the other side to slip. This problem was also present in the old Coldwind gyms, and in my opinion it was not a good decision to go back to that.

-Dead Zone section removed. Apparently, the update solved the issue, great!

The ground looks....barren. The lack of debris and visual structures on the ground is strange to see. Maybe you did it due to performance issues, I don´t know, but I´d very much appreciate changing or reevaluating the ground design of this realm.

Grass. After more testing, turns out the new grass is actually significantly worse. Unfortunate to give Trapper yet another downside.

"Fun Bus" was not addressed. Kind of a bummer, the way this tile is designed makes it way too strong and chasing there will most likely lose the Killer the match unless tremendously outclassing the Survivors.

The implementation of breakable walls seems to continue the trend we´ve previously seen in MacMillan. They need to be broken to undo infinite loops, basically adding a guaranteed lost chase for the Killer until dealt with. I´d much rather had seen a more elaborate use of breakable walls, like in Badham. These actually serve a purpose by offering a meaningful choice to the Killer.

Ormond

Formerly known as an example of extreme imbalance, it now appears to be much better in several regards.

The overabundance of super-safe jungle gyms has been addressed. To compensate, we now have quite a lot of playable pallets. Many are "safe until thrown", giving both parties oppurtunities to outplay each other. Very well done!

The breakable walls seem non-mandatory to break, which is another upside. From what I can tell, they just change HOW the loop is played, not IF it can be done, which in my opinion is how breakable walls should be implemented.

Grass. I found it very hard to hide traps effectively on new Ormond. The distribution has changed to Trapper´s detriment it seems (prominent example being shack). The colour theme makes it even harder, to the point where using the Tar Bottle, arguably Trappers best addon that isn´t a bag, can be an actual detriment to have there since traps will contrast more with the ground instead of less.

Visually, the Ormond update exceeded my wildest expectations. Paired with the better balance, I now very much enjoy getting this map. Previously, it´s been a dreaded, miserable disaster, so thanks for that!

Mac Millan Estate

Beautiful visual update. I think the team did an amazing job finding a balance between the new graphics and retaining aspects of what the community loved about the realm.

Grass. All the maps of Mac Millan are still very good Trapper maps, not much has changed there.

Breakable Walls. They seem to be quite the mixed bag on this realm. Groaning Storehouse, for example, just breaks the infinite loop the window next to it otherwise provides. The decision to balance this out by making the Storehouse much more unsafe is something I can get behind, though.

The breakable walls in Ironworks of Misery. On the top floor of the building, it´s the same as so many are...break it to be able to chase. The bottom floor seems more interesting, more reminiscent of Badham.

Suffocation Pit. The very strong main building window getting balanced by the breakable wall seems okay, I´d have preferred a redesign of the building, but this seems acceptable.

Coal Tower. My favorite Map, before and after the update. In my opinion, you overdid it here with the breakable walls. While it seems those on the upper floor of the tower serve no purpose whatsoever, there should have been only one on the bottom floor, maybe randomly selected which doorway would be blocked off. Having two very strong windows until the walls are broken in the same building is too much.

BALANCE

I can safely say that overall, I think DBD is moving towards being in a much better place in terms of balance. The combination of Tool Box nerfs, updating the maps and now the mori nerf all contribute to a healthier experience.

With Huntress and Myers being the only remaining Killers with an irregular distribution of addons, I can´t wait to see what´s to come for them. That being said, as a Myers "main" I found it quite disheartening to hear his base kit won´t be touched. While being very cool just for being Michael Myers, in my opinion he lacks depth regarding his power, giving few oppurtunities to distinguish a great from an average Myers player. He doesn´´t neccessarily need huge buffs, but I´d love to see the addition of more skill-based mechanics for my favorite classic Slasher. The fact he is not complained about a lot does not mean there is no room for improvement!

Perks

Ruin+Undying(+Tinkerer)

This combination is absolutely nasty to face as a soloq player. In my opinion, this is rooted in the fact that Undying just does too much. If the aura reading was removed, it would weaken this oppressive combo as well as giving back Thrill of the Hunt the little value it had before Undying came. As it stands now, a good player using a top tier Killer with top addons and these perks is very, very hard to come by for the average lobby. The complaints have merit, in my opinion.

DS+UB

I really hope you have plans to change these soon. I don´t think I´ll have to go in depth about why this combo is unhealthy (especially if used 4x in the same match) since there have been countless post explaining that already. If paired with other strong meta perks, usually BT and an exhaustion perk, it´s very tiring to go up against. This holds especially true for DS, as this perk often creates situations where the Killers best play is to wait up to 60 seconds in front of a locker, doing nothing.

Object of Obsession

In my opinion, the most unfun thing DBD has left. By itself, used by a solo player, it´s relatively balanced (despite being the strongest aura reading in the game apart from Scratched Mirror). The problems arise when used in a SWF. There have been numerous posts discussing the very oppressive benefits it provides while only costing 1 out of 16 perk slots to know the Killers every move at all times (with a few exceptions). The worst thing though is the extreme anti-fun factor, an opinion many players and content creators share. I have not given up my hope that one day, this nasty thing will be dealt with.

@Almo My question for you is: Has the overwhelming negative feedback regarding Object influenced your stance on the issue? If so, how? If not, why?

The Meta overall

It´s been stale for so long. While I understand your reasoning for not releasing too many meta-changing perks, that´s no reason not to buff older perks to an impactful level. Especially on the Survivor side, there is very little incentice to move away from the same 5 or 6 perks if you play with the intend to win. As many others have suggested, maybe buff just a few perks tremendously in every PTB to gather feedback and see whether they could shake up the meta.

SWF vs SoloQ

The age-old debate. I´m very much convinced that you have something in mind to address the outrageous difference in balance the two game modes have. Please add more base cues, like a weaker version of Kindred, to enable solo players to make better decisions throughout the match. In my opinion, this could 100% be done without compensating Killers in any way, shape or form, since many are already very well equipped to deal with premades.

Keys

It seems there´s something on the way. They are very comparable to the (now) old Moris in how they affect matches, and I hope they will be dealt with the same way Moris were.

Killer Powers

First off, I´m very well aware that it won´t be possible to have every Killer be comparably strong, but at the same time the difference in viability between Killers is very significant.

For example: Spirit, even at base without addons, is propably strong enough to take on every team in the world, while Killers like Clown or Trapper will barely be a threat to those even with the best possible loadout.

These tremendous differences make several things harder. There is the decisions regarding balance. What may be appropriate for the many low tier Killers may make the select few oppressive Killers completely overpowered.

It also makes discussing things harder among the community. Someone who apparently gets destroyed every match by Spirits with Ruin+Undying+Tinkerer+Stridor with a YakuYoke Amulet+MDR might be inclined to think that Killers overall are too strong. They won´t accept the fact that there are also Wraiths, Trappers, Myers and Legions with maybe green addons playing the game, working much, much harder for their hits and kills.

A good way to start would be to tune down the strongest Killers and buffing the weaker ones. You already did amazing jobs with Doctors and Bubbas reworks, and I´m very much looking forward to Clown´s, but there are more Killers that could use some love.

Trapper

Since it´s close to Christmas, here´s my wishlist for the posterboy of DBD, the face of the game, the OG award-winning Killer, my favorite original Character:

-Starts with 2 traps, and can carry 2 at base.

-Reworked Bags: Trapper Sack now gives +0/+1, Trapper Bag +1/+1 and Stitched Bag +1/+2

-Rescue time increased to 4 seconds (from 1,7)

-Escape attempts now can be done 3 seconds after stepping on the trap, each attempt taking 2,5 seconds (chance to escape unchanged)

-Stepping on a trap while healthy now also adds 5% hindered to the Survivor until fully healed

-Stepping on a trap while injured adds 5% extra hindered and deep wounds

-Stepping on a trap while in deep wounds adds the Honing Stone effect

-Longwood Dye is now basekit, with the addons darkening the traps further accordingly

-Killer instinct indicating a disarm attempt

-Disarming time increased to 6 seconds

-Dead Hard can´t be used to get over traps anymore

-Red Twine addon and the Rainbow Map no longer reveal bear traps

-Trap spawn now has a range check: Can´t spawn closer than 30 meters from the edges of the map

-Give Trapper something at base to not be utterly destroyed by an Object team if changing Object is not an option

With these changes, Trapper should be a solid mid tier Killer while also keeping the essence of his gameplay. Considering how vastly more powerful many Killers are, these are very humble wishes in my opinion.

Special Thanks for fixing Krampus before December ended!

Thanks for reading my little post, for anyone interested in the Feedback. Have a nice December, and Merry Christmas!