New Killer - The Captain

NEW KILLER: The Captain

DIFFICULTY: Hard

A pirate captain who commands a ghostly crew to locate Survivors using his Search Party.

His personal perks, Mutinous Bildgerats, Hex: Fog o' War, and Fool's Gold, allow him to find and impede Survivor's progress, bring survivors into the open, and fool any Survivor searching for items.

SPEED: 4.6 meters

TERROR RADIUS: 32 meters

SIZE: Large

ABILITY: Search Party

The souls of the crew remain under his control, and they desire bloodshed.

SEARCH PARTY

A ghostly skeleton appears at a random location on the map, along with a gold doubloon, every 20 seconds. Skeletons cannot appear within each other's detection range. The Killer can see the aura of every skeleton on the map. Any Survivor who enters the skeleton's detection range will cause the skeleton to shriek, glow brightly, and point at the Survivor, giving the Killer a notification at the Survivors location, and filling the Captain's Power Gauge. The skeleton and the doubloon then disappear. Survivors can avoid detection by crouching through the skeleton's detection range and use the Interaction button to pick up the doubloon, giving the Killer a notification but removing the skeleton. Survivors hold onto the doubloons until hit by a basic attack from the Killer.

SPECIAL ABILITY: Place Doubloon

Press and hold the Power button to pull out a doubloon and release to toss the doubloon at a target location. After a few seconds, a ghostly skeleton will appear at the doubloon's location. The Captain starts the trial with 3 doubloons and gains more after hitting a survivor with a basic attack for every doubloon they have picked up. Looting a survivor takes all doubloons that survivor is currently carrying. The Captain can have a maximum of 3 doubloons.

SPECIAL ABILITY: The Broadsider

When the Captain's Power Gauge is full, he can press the Active Ability Button to pull out a large hand-cannon firearm known as The Broadsider and cause the Power Gauge to rapidly drain. During this time, Skeletons will disappear and not detect Survivors. Press and hold the Power Button to aim down it's sights and press the Attack button to fire a deadly shot. Successful hits will instantly put healthy Survivors into the dying state. After a short amount of time has passed, or a shot has been fired, the Power Gauge will empty and the Captain will put the Broadsider away. The Captain cannot use basic attacks while The Broadsider is active.

The Captain's power is meant to be a slow build up to a total minefield, making survivors feel like they have to actively avoid detection against several preying eyes. They can choose to either avoid the skeletons and conceal their location or disarm the skeletons and draw attention. The doubloon theft I felt would be a more interesting mechanic than just passively generating doubloons that the Captain can place as he has to protect his treasure, and give a risk/reward for survivors to make gameplay more engaging. If survivors are being very carefully and completely avoiding the search party, they'll eventually run out of places to go during chases, and the Captain can force them into skeletons to fill his power gauge.

The base amount of alerted skeletons required to fill the gauge in my head is 5, with maybe some add-ons reducing that amount. There is a slight wind up when the Captain pulls out his gun as well as a global audio queue of some kind, such as an evil laugh or an approaching storm on the seas so every survivor knows it's being activated. It's meant to feel like a dangerous event and very crucial the Killer lands the shot. Naturally, the killer would be slowed down for the duration, so they need to have a clean shot before committing.

Tossing doubloons is meant to be very quick, like throwing bottles as the Clown but not not near as far.

PERK 1: Mutinous Bilgerats

You have come to recognize disobedience quickly and know how to squash it.

After hooking a Survivor, Mutinous Bilgerats activates. The unfinished generator with the highest repair progress becomes highlighted.

While highlighted in this way, repair progress on that generator is reduced by 50/60/70%

If a different generator's repair progress becomes equal to or higher than the highlighted generator, or if the highlighted generator is fully repaired, Mutinous Bilgerats deactivates.

Not as effective right at the start since survivors can easily work on several generators at once, but after a couple generators have been finished this can be an incredibly helpful perk to not only find out where the Survivors have spent most of their time but also slow down their progress so you can interrupt them. It's important to note that the perk deactivates if either another generator becomes more complete through repairs or if the marked generator regresses enough from being damaged.

PERK 2: Hex: Fog o' War

A Hex that grows in power and reduces the places where survivors can hide.

After hooking a survivor, Hex: Fog o' War gains a token, to a maximum of 5 tokens.

• Survivors within 2 meters of the edge of the map have their auras revealed to you.
• While Survivors are revealed in this way, they are afflicted by the Blindness status effect.
• Every token extends the range of this perk by 2/4/6 meters.

The Hex effect persists as long as the related Hex totem is standing.

Not a lot to say about this one, other than I thought the idea was unique and interesting, giving the killer information about where the survivors are/aren't and asking Survivors to react and play around the safe spaces of the map slowly dwindling throughout the trial. Not sure how long to make the range of the perk and whether or not it will be effective, probably more map dependent that anything. Still, at a maximum of 32 meters you can prob rule out a lot of places on any map.

PERK 3: Fool's Gold

You know how to tempt and deceive looters to punish their greed.

Survivors open chests 40% slower when outside your Terror Radius.

The first 1/2/3 chests opened in the trial contain no item.

Start the trial with 1/2/3 additional chests.

A lot of little effects on this one to give that feeling of trying to loot a dead pirate's treasure horde that's full of tricks and traps. Probably not the most impactful perk but not every one needs to be game changing. Plus, I thought it was fun. :)

Visually, the Captain looks much like a traditional pirate captain. Big hat, thick coat, bandolier, maybe a jug of rum on his belt, long beard, eyepatch, peg leg. No hook hand though so he can dual wield effectively. Strap The Broadsider on his bandolier across his chest. The difference is that he's ghostly green with a glowing eye and an exposed rib cage on his chest. He also has a lantern on his waist (see backstory).

The Captain's Basic Attack is done with a rusted cutlass. After a successful attack, the Captain holds a gold doubloon (implying he took it back from the Survivor), flicks it into the air, and catches it again.

The skeletons glow a ghostly green, slightly translucent, and have a quiet ambient moan, kind of like the Spirit. They also prob have a bandana or something like a casual pirate crew.

The Captain's voice lines are much like a typical pirate, for obvious reasons.

Basic add-ons can affect things like total number of doubloons, rate at which skeletons appear, detection range of the skeletons, blind/exhaust survivors after being detected by a skeleton, or having survivors start the game with doubloons.

Some more powerful add-ons could hide the skeletons until they detect a Survivor, inflicting survivors with the Exposed status if they are currently holding 3 doubloons, and causing the Captain to do a unique ranged Mori if he shoots a Survivor with his Broadsider after they've been hooked 2 times.

MORI:

The Captain flips the Survivor onto their back and lifts them up by their neck until they're face to face. The Captain pulls out his lantern which glows brighter and brighter as it rips the Survivor's soul from their body. After a couple seconds the survivor goes limp and the Captain discards their body like common trash, eyes greedily focused on the lantern before reattaching it back to his belt.

RANGED MORI:

The Survivor's chest bursts as the musket ball blows clear through their body. They pause for a moment and inspect the hole in their torso. During this time the captain is laughing louder and louder as he slowly puts The Broadsider down and pulls out his lantern. The ghostly apparition of the Survivor's soul is pulled from their body and into the lantern before the Survivor falls to their knees and onto the ground.

BACKSTORY:

Captain Edmund Roberts was infamous for relentlessly pillaging and ambushing trade ships, always knowing exactly when and where the ships will pass unprotected. He had an uncanny way of recruiting spies and gaining information that even the greatest navy could not hide their secrets or track him down. He was also obsessed with treasure, but not just silver and gold. Above all else, he valued that which others held most dear. Particularly the life of others. Any time another captain would request he spared the crew, he would kill them right before their eyes or hold them captive until their spirit was broken.

The call for treasure never failed to lure Edmund Roberts, and he chased any and all rumors for rare and unique artifacts, no matter how far-fetched their value seemed. Upon one of these ventures, Captain Roberts found a curious lantern locked deep in an ancient tomb buried beneath the waves. When Roberts first laid his eyes upon the artifact, he knew there was something unique afoot, which only served to intensify his greed. A small green light began to emerge from the lantern, and when Roberts held it aloft to boast to his crew, a sickly green fog began to be wrenched from their bodies, leaving nothing but the corpses of his former allies. Roberts smiled a horrible smile, understanding the true power of the lantern. It has the power to steal that which can never be replaced. A person's very soul. When he returned to his ship, Edmund Roberts stole the souls of every man aboard.

Roberts floated adrift for days without a crew, obsessing over the lantern. Every day he would stand amongst his treasure now disgusted by the very look of these once precious jewels, as they no longer have the appeal they once did. In a fit of rage and disappointment, he scattered his many gold doubloons across the deck of the ship and shouted to the wind about the beauty of the lantern and the souls within, how gold can be remade and re-forged but the soul is can never be replaced. As he spoke, the doubloons clattered and glowed on the deck, and the spirits of his now captured crew arose from the coins awaiting the beckon of his every command. Surrounded by the ready and willing, the skeleton crew had but one request which echoed in Edmund's mind. "Find more souls. Expand the crew."

Captain Edmund Roberts became the very definition of a ghost tale, appearing without warning and stealing vast amounts of treasure. Any survivors of his attacks spoke of the horrors of him ripping the souls from his victims and tossing the bodies overboard. There also, however, grew many rumors of Captain Roberts' Cove, a secret treasure horde of unimaginable wealth and the source of his power. The stories alone brought plunderer's, explorers, and treasure hunters right into Captain Robert's lair, which only led to growing his ghostly crew.

Eventually, Captain Roberts' became too great a plague on the high seas to be ignored. Soon, a massive fleet of pirates, naval militia, anyone who could hold a sword and wouldn't jump overboard at the sight of the Dread Captain unfurled their sails and waged war on the pirate, which culminated on a massive last stand where Edmund Robert's stole the souls of hundreds of sailors but ultimately met his ultimate demise. His ship surrounded and musket holes peppering his chest, Captain Roberts fell overboard and plunged beneath the waves, lantern clenched firmly in his hand, and his laughter echoing across the stormy seas.

Some claim Captain Robert's death was merely an illusion, a precursor of worse yet to come. Shipped that disappeared into the night were said to have been claimed by the Dread Captain himself, come back for his ghostly revenge, holding the souls of the sailors on board captive for all time.

And then Roberts was found by the Entity or some ######### and they were like "Hey you wanna chase some dudes? I may or may not let you keep their souls" and Roberts was like "Hmmmmmmmokay but I don't really trust you to hold your word tho" and the Entity was like "Yeah I prob won't keep it but that's the interesting suspense of this interaction, yo" and Roberts was like "Dope lets do it."

That's how it happened I swear.