The SWF endgame meta is very boring, here is how to make it more interesting

If you have limited time to read you can skip the relevant parts:

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PREAMBLE:

Dead by daylight has been out for a few years and overtime killers have been receiving a series of buffs; however, these gameplay changes have generally been mechanical changes that buff the overall strength of killers across the board. Overtime, there has been an increasing number of complaints from solo players about their typical gameplay experiences being somewhat frustrating as a result. Moreover, in my personal opinion, good SWF teams with proper pre-planning still outshine tremendously and force a very narrow meta in playstyle as a result.

There's been a lot of talk about adjusting generators, certain perks being baseline for survivors/killers, etc; however, a lot of these changes fall into the category of raising the power level of one side across the board in all situations. I want to try to at least steer the conversation on changes that very specifically target SWF's strengths and advantages.

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PROBLEM STATEMENT:

For most of the low and mid-tier roster, an inability to compete at the highest level often boils down to the split-pressure problem. Take four survivors, spread them out across the map evenly. If one survivor is threatened, they lead the killer away from the rest in a long chase. Not all matches and not all SWF teams play this efficiently, but I've been in many R1 games running discordance, and I've seen matches from teams where it never lights up, except maybe once--all survivors spread, all times, all strategically managed from the top level like clockwork, only quickly converging in pairs to heal briefly.

Without good addons, much of the roster has no options. If the chase moves to an unfavorable building, to break off and go elsewhere is also a lot of time invested with the added gamble of having to hope that you find that survivor in that other specific corner. You will be called out on comms and they may be hiding in anticipation. I've been on the survivor side and seen many killers just leave the game once they fail to find another survivor after breaking off the first chase. Unless you're running an endgame collapse build, the match is probably a guaranteed loss.

As a result, the small roster set that is viable often has high lethality that can punish people ever so slightly out of position or end chases with high probability (spirit). Even in cases like Otz doing his 50 winstreaks, a lot of his tactics are trying to bait survivors into making mistakes and surprising them with high lethality perks/addons (starstruck, STBFL 8 stacks, dragon's lunge on loops, etc). There are some instances where snowballing can occur if survivors are intercepted while going for saves, but tunneling and proxy-camping tend to be a bit uninteresting from the perspective of the survivor on the hook.

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The two elements I think should be addressed are:

1). The killer can't be everywhere

------ (but, a side note, this has to be true to a certain extent or else the game cannot progress)

------ Corners of the map are too punishing for killers without mobility

2). The killer's position is often known for an SWF on comms

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Other Considerations:

Generator times are the biggest forefront of any conversation about this topic, but with the game out for years and years and no significant changes in this field being made, I think its safe to assume that there isn't a satisfying answer in this category that was found during actual in-house testing. DBD is a game first and foremost, and a winning formula isn't just a matter of mathematical balance, but also personal enjoyment. Holding M1 for a long time doesn't satisfy people. I personally think the the community should stop barking up this tree.

Moreover, for a lot of people who aren't part of super-efficient teams find enjoyment in the horror elements of DBD. Making voice comms or perks like Bond baseline detract from that horror aspect in a lot of cases. Making bond baseline also has positive benefits for SWF teams too. There is certain information that bond provides easily about the killer's actions that voice comms in a tight amount of time cannot convey. With an extra slot available for another S-tier perk, SWF would be all the more terrifying in close quarters combat.

That said, I do think I have a change that can erode the SWF advantage in split position planning, killer location communication, and to reintroduce horror & uncertainty elements back into SWF gameplay that wouldn't impact low-tier solo gameplay too much.

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My Favored Solution:

In the interest of making map corners less punishing to low-mobility killers, making SWF more uncertain about the killer's position, and adding some extra horror elements into the game, I propose that maps in dead by daylight be made into wrap-around geometries for the killer in the form of some kind of spooky shadow realm.

So imagine this:

Instead of brick walls at the edge of the map, there is a thick shimmering wall of fog from the entity. You can't see in or out of this fog. Only the killer can go inside. Inside this fog, the killer can move slightly faster than normal and is invisible, but he can't see survivors inside the map. If the killer exits the the map into the fog going east, he can keep going east through the fog and end up on the west side of the gameplay map. For the killer, the game's geometry wraps around infinitely, but for survivors, they still have a map with fixed edges to contend with.

So imagine that you're chasing a survivor to the edge and its not going too well. You need to be elsewhere and then step into the shadow realm. The SWF team isn't going to know which part of the map you will re-emerge in. All survivors need to be on their toes and even the survivor that was recently chased needs to be cautious as you could just double back as a fake maneuver. East-West, North-South, corner-to-corner, parallel along the current edge, or doubling back are all quick possibilities.

From the perspective of solo survivors who are immersed and spinning their cameras constantly, not much changes from their perspective other than the killer has an extra direction he can come from. In both cases though, there is an added thrill that danger can come from any angle suddenly. Survivors--comms or not--are going to be more nervous if they are exposed, wounded, or on their last hook state.

For much of the killer roster roster, wrap around map geometry is going to make corners of the map be less of a dead zone. The most important thing it provides are tactical options in giving up chases or confusing enemy organized teams about your current position. As a hag or trapper for example, one might have the choice of placing traps on multiple sides of the map rather than having the enemy team know for certain that only one corner is dangerous. As a Myers, you're going to be giving a lot more unsuspecting victims heart attacks when you can re-emerge anywhere and stare at people silently.

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Minor Details - Implementation, Possibilities, etc:

(Skip this part if you don't want to get bogged down in reading about a ton of fringe cases and theorycrafting):

--For the most part, killer powers shouldn't be usable in the shadowrealm. Huntress shouldn't be able to throw hatchets while invisible, Hillbilly should have to be visible first before revving up his chainsaw, etc. A few exception could be made like wraith automatically cloaking when entering it and being able to ring his bell if he uses certain addons that make the sound global.

--Survivors cannot be carried into the shadow realm, only the physical map to hooks.

--I would lean towards most aura-reading addons/perks still working & functioning while in the shadowrealm just for the sake of reinforcing it as a surprise element in gameplay from the survivor's perspective.

--Killers should be undetectable in the shadowrealm to help it function as a surprise gameplay element

--Certain small maps don't have a problem with distant corners. Using "The Game Warehouse" as an example: Such a map could have only a few small pre-defined entrypoints on the edge of the map rather than the entire edge being a shadowrealm barrier. Moreover the width of the shadowrealm to wrap around from east-west and north-south can also be adjusted on a per map basis to determine how much time the killer has to spend to use this mechanic.

--An edge of the map shadowrealm mechanic offers a lot of design space for perks and killers. While mobility powers are still going to be a positive thing for traversing the center of the map, a killer like Demogorgon for example might be a prime candidate to give some bonuses in the shadowrealm given that his backstory is about being from a hidden dimension and that his portals would stand out less as a unique mechanic. Even something like being able to see the red-white progress auras of generators while in the shadowrealm would give a mediocre killer like Demogorgon a big boost.

--Perhaps a perk like "Shadowborn" could let you see survivors inside the map while in the shadowrealm in addition to giving a FOV increase?

--I'm a hag main, so I'm biased. Hows about converting one of her currently useless addons to allow to me teleport to traps while inside the shadowrealm?

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Its a solution I haven't seen presented yet, so any thoughts out there about this? if balanced right, I think it'd be something that only higher ranks are going to utilize consistently and effectively. In general, we need to bring uncertainty factors back into the game to some extent at all levels of play.