In-depth feedback on the developer update | April 2021

Overall view of this developer update: good

Keep in mind that none of us are developers and that we will provide the best feedback we can.

The overall view of this update seems nice, and I'm sure many players are excited for the PTB tomorrow. The perk changes were much appreciated, the Huntress addon pass will be cool, and the map change to the Coldwind farm realm looks great. Everything else is also appreciated.

The only 3 things that are a little negative are that the Nightmare changes seem too harsh, and that a totem counter on small game should be incorporated into the base game somehow (not just a straight up counter) for solo queueing players. It would help them coordinate totem cleanses. In fact, we would love to see some changes to buff solo queue for survivors that would allow them to communicate more effectively. The final negative thing about this patch is the Twins nerf. They are being punished more for hitting survivors now, this seems unnecessary right now since they are decent killers right now, they need buffs if anything.

So let's get into it.

The Nightmare changes: They seem too hard on him

The Nightmare's overall changes to the base power seem a little harsh honestly. He will only be able to use 5 snares or 7 fake pallets in his dream world which is pretty crippling.

Having only 5 snares is a huge detriment to Freddy. Especially since survivors can disarm them when asleep and the Nightmare is far enough away. He needs something to compensate. Consider giving him dream pallets at base and an extra dream token.

The reason Freddy is strong is because he can get a lot out of his power for not really doing anything. He inflicts the oblivious status effect on survivors who are asleep and has an omni-directional lullaby as well. He has passive regeneration of his dream projection, and survivors fall asleep automatically. Much of the community thinks that he could use a small rework.

Here is a concept for how Freddy could be changed (just an idea):

Make Freddy even more powerful in the dream world by giving him dream pallets base kit and maybe 10 dream tokens. However, to compensate for survivors, allow them to more easily stay awake (which you have already done with the current alarm clock changes) and consider changing the wake up action to 12 seconds (no more, no less) to reward survivors for cooperating with each other.

Obviously this is a very rough idea, but Freddy with these upcoming changes will be a little too weak. People don't like playing against this killer because he is just boring, same goes for people playing him. Making his power take more skill to use would alleviate that issue, I hope you keep this in mind.

Concern:

The addons that will make survivors louder (footsteps, groans of pain, and repairing generators) is concerning because of the possible new bugs it might present. Sound is pretty inconsistent at times and just a little weird in general. By weird I mean that it is hard to find a survivor's exact location when they are injured, it is a little more harder than it should be.

Suggested changes:

• Since it is easier for survivors to stay awake, consider giving him dream pallets at base kit with an extra dream token (so 6 tokens at base). It would make him more threatening in the dream world and not too strong since survivors can escape the dream world and stay awake more easily. His power is also pretty easy to counter as well.
• Maybe think up of another smaller rework for him to make so players have more fun playing as him and against him. Many players don't like Freddy because he is just boring to play and does not require too much skill to play effectively.

The Demogorgon changes: Could maybe use some work, we will have to wait and see

The Demogorgon is a meh killer due to how bad his addons scale up when going to higher tiers. Otherwise, he is actually pretty good, and the buffs will only help him. His power helps him in a chase and he has a form of mobility. both of which have reasonable counterplay.

My only concern is that his shred ability and his loud footsteps are still quite a detriment at times. A good change to his shred ability would be to make the Demogorgon move at 100% movement speed at base when using it so he does not have to rely on the rat liver as much. His loud footsteps are a problem because it negates the stealth he gets when coming out of a portal. His rat liver could be changed to add 2 meters to his shred attack.

A suggestion from the community would be to increase the undetectable status effect to 5 seconds at base and then have the Demogorgon appear as if it's crawling during this time (and of course make him quieter when moving during this time as well), this can be adjusted with addons.

Other than that, we will have to wait and see how good his addon changes are, I am sure they will be great.

Suggested changes:

• Increase the Demogorgon's base movement speed while charging shred to 100%.
• (Quality of life change) When charging a shred, demo players sometimes press m1 too early and it turns the would be shred attack into a basic attack. Please change this to just allow players to charge the shred and not swing early.
• Make the Demogorgon make less noise when walking around.

The Huntress changes: Could use just a few tweaks

The Soldier's putee addon is an interesting new ultra rare for the Huntress. However, this feels very underwhelming for an ultra rare addon. When playing huntress, you are not going to spend a large amount of time in a trial with no hatchets, as it is very detrimental. This seems like more of a quality of life change to the huntress. Although we appreciate that you are looking into changing the Huntresses addons.

Knowing that, this mechanic should probably be a base kit feature for the huntress. When she is out of hatchets, she is pretty helpless since she is reduced to an m1 killer with no power. Having this base kit gives her a little something when lockers are too far away and she is in a chase. The soldier's putee addon should be changed to something that is more powerful.

Then there is also the iridescent head change. The change is decent, but could be better. The reason people don't like this addon is because a Huntress can easily use it on survivors and be rewarded for easy shots. Restricting it to one hatchet that can instantly down survivors is a bit too much of a nerf, see the suggested change below and consider adding it in.

Here is my personal suggested change to the soldier's putee:

• When the Huntress has one hatchet left, her movement speed is increased to 4.6 m/s (115% mms) until she reloads.
• During this time, the Huntress does not hum her lullaby

This will make her much more threatening in a chase and will be balanced because she only has one hatchet. It is sort of like a high risk high reward situation. If the Huntress chooses to stay using one hatchet and chase a survivor and ends up downing them, she will be rewarded with a much shorter chase.

As for the iridescent head, the community seems to have agreed on a certain idea for changing it, here it is in case you have not seen this specific change:

• When a survivor is hit from a hatchet from further than 20 meters away, they will be immediately put into the dying state
• The iridescent head no longer reduces the amount of hatchets the Huntress can carry.

It will end up making her zoning ability much stronger and reward skillful Huntresses for landing far shots while still being balanced.

Here are some ideas the community has come up with for a second ultra rare addon for the Huntress (keep in mind these are just ideas):

• The Huntress has some sort of passive regeneration for her hatchets.
• The Huntress regains hatchets for each one she hits. She could also gain one for downing a survivor with a hatchet.
• The Huntress hatchets that penetrate through one object.

So overall, her changes are good and I'm sure the rest of the addon changes will be great.

The Twins changes: Mostly good, but there is just one questionable change

The only gripe people have about these changes are the one directed to make it take longer for Victor to recover after downing a survivor, it seems quite unnecessary. The Twins are going to The other changes were great though, it is always nice for killers to get small buffs here and there.

The perk buffs: Pretty good

The buffs were pretty good, that's all there is to say. The only one people seem to not like is the lucky break buff, you might want to consider changing it in someway if it seems too strong on the PTB. It is probably going to be strong in the early and mid game, but that is it.

MIsc changes:

The hatch, struggle mechanic, and HUD update are all the smaller things that are much appreciated. Thank you for looking into them.

The coldwind farm graphic update:

My only concern for this part of the update is optimization. Ever since the graphic updates have started rolling in, the framerates for most of the player base has started to decrease on the reworked maps. It would be nice if this was fixed for everyone.

Conclusion:

Besides a few underwhelming changes, this appears to be an overall great patch. We are going to get a bunch of new changes along with the upcoming trickster buffs as well.