About the developers idea of Kindred...

AnotherRandy said:

Master said:

If you intent starting to lift up solo survivors to SWF lvl, what are the killers buffs to compensate for that?

Just curious, generally I agree with the idea 

You have a logic issue here. Killers already have the issue of swf, it's not like bringing solo to SWF level would make it harder for killer. This is the one only thing to fix this game. Buff solo to SWF level and from there start balancing (buffing killers).

@Nickenzie said:

@twistedmonkey
I sometimes play on SWF and when someone gets hooked and they have Kindred, it's a waste of a perk slot since comms already has the information that SWF have.

Matt: Killer is camping me holding his chainsaw up.
Nickenzie: Okay, we're gonna gen rush but tell us when he leaves.
Nathan: I have BT, yeah I'll do a generator near where you are hooked at.
Maddy: I found Ruin.
Nickenzie: Great, break it and let's do generators.
Matt: Okay, he left now and he went towards you Nick.
Nickenzie: Okay, I'll hide and Nathan, get the save while me and Maddy does generators.
Nathan: I'm running to him now.
Matt: Thanks.

Do you see the problem? Kindred is built-in to comms and having it in general wouldn't hurt. To be honest, you should want this as a killer main because that means they can buff you without leaving solo Q players behind.

That is why SWF needs balanced around the game not the game balanced around SWF.

Kindred lets someone know when a killer is near a hook but comm's lets them all know if the killer is hard or even soft patrolling, SWF can see the killer everywhere if someone is close they know.

They can also say the killer is on I can see the shack in the distance, each person says the shack pallet hasn't been used, team mates run to the shack and loops around it.

3 on a gen, one looking for Ruin, one of them runs alert and the killer kicks a gen, each person in the SWF now knows the killers location

That's the problem solo players can never have the information that SWF have, the aura perks and notification also buff SWF keeping them stronger, as I said there is nothing that can be done to solve the issue with trying to give solo players the same information, all this does is remove what little suspense is left in the game and remove any need to think or know your surroundings.

SWF needs to have certain limitations, no stacking of certain perks, no stacking of items or offering etc, they need to look at what comms gives them and work around what they do not need and what makes them too strong.

AnotherRandy said:9

You can't balance swf around the game. Devs have no way to pretend voice communication. And every attempt to nerf swf resulted every single time hurting solo survivors more compared to a swf group. 

@Nickenzie said:
Since the developers added a 10 second system where if the killer is within 16 meters from a hooked survivor when not in a chase and there's no survivor within 16 meters of the hooked survivor, the killer will lose points. I been thinking when a survivor is hooked, they can see each other's auras but will only see the killer's aura when the killer is losing points from being within 16 meters without reasoning (See Above in bold). Once the killer leaves the 16 meter range, if their aura was revealed then their aura will be hidden again.

Thoughts?

First thought is, they lose a little progress on one emblem, not bloodpoints. And I think kindred is fine as it is. It's a situational perk (since you have to be hook for it to be active) with limited uses (only for the first/second hook). Plus, it can reveal useful information right away, if it's early in the match, including what killer it is, if it isn't known to the others yet.

@Nickenzie said:

Well, the developers don't have a choice. They either add voice comms to solo Q survivors and SWF or buff solo Q survivors to SWF level for a better foundation of balance. Yes, I agree, you have a point with the "All these notifications and auras take away any need to think" -@twistedmonkey But sadly, this is the ONLY way since the developers won't go through months of coding for voice comms, this is just my opinion tho so I could be wrong.

They do have a choice to make and the one imo to make is to nerf those who join via the SWF queue, as I said nothing they can do will ever make solo survivors equal to the use of comms, comms give such an advantage that they negate every change the devs make, each change to try and bring solo up will only inherently buff SWF and make them even stronger.

SWF can always be in position with flashlight, can stack up on gens for quickness, can heal each other in groups, each nerf makes SWF more attractive in these few cases and there are a lot more, without knowing the killers position or the ones of all the other survivors 100% of the time they will never be able to bring solo up to the same lvl and even then its not adaptable on the fly or cant be planned out like those playing SWF.

Joining via SWF, you cannot stack offerings, cannot use the same items and only two items per game, aura perks, self care, speed heal or objective perks etc, they have all the uses of these perks built in by using comms so they remove that advantage by means of cutting down what they can use.

The other way it to simply add more objectives into the game which increase depending on how many are in an SWF group, for 4 man add 50% more, it is normal game for a 3 man but let the match start with 3, 2 man is again normal but they can only join with 2 solo players.

Problems fixed by changing everything around them can and will in most cases reappear and never truly get sorted, there comes a time then you just have to bite the bullet and try to fix the actual problem directly.