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Potential Balance idea for SWF, Solo Q, and Killers
This is just a rough idea at the moment. I've been seeing the controversy between two content creators which genuinely seems to me that we can't agree. In my personal opinion nerfing the top tier SWF will only impact the game in negative ways for mostly the rest of the player base. I tried thinking of a way to potentially help all other roles in the game, with minimal impact to the solo Q survivors and a potential benefit to the killers. Here is what I came up with:
Proximity chat could potentially be the solution. The only thing a SWF has over 4 solo Q survivors is communication and knowledge of the others' skillsets. This benefit gives them a major advantage in the long run and things such as discord or a party on console will never stop giving this advantage, however if proximity chat makes it's debut in DBD it would give solo Q survivors a similar alternative to grouping up with friends. This would encourage survivors to group up together (which for killers would be beneficial because being together for longer than a heal is usually considered not optimal gameplay, slowing the game down a tiny bit) to discuss what to do. This also helps close the gap between a SWF and a solo Q survivor, making balance changes much less strenuous and difficult for the devs to pull off. This would allow solo q survivors to have much more strategy in the game than currently available and be more confident in playing solo q despite the disadvantage of not having map wide comms.
However, this could also provide a benefit to killers as well. In theory if proximity chat could be heard by killers, it could give information to the killer depending on the situation. The thought is that solo Q survs need to group up to make a plan (giving that benefit to the killer already with the survs being grouped up) but also the killer would be able to discern how many survivors are potentially in the area ( newer killers would find this better). Another thought and benefit could be for stealth killers. If a stealth killer rolls up and hides around something, they could eavesdrop on the survs making the discussion about what they should potentially do. That information could then be used to benefit the killer. Giving a whole different take on stealth killers. This could also help nerf 2-3 man SWfs because if they want the solo Q surv to work optimally they need to find the solo Q and tell them what's going on, providing the stated benefits mentioned above to the killers. However it would not be a simple nerf for SWFs, it would just close the gap between the advantages of SWFs and solo Q making it easier to balance than keeping the same system we have.
This is just a rough idea. I would appreciate any input on this. I know proximity chat has been a point of contention for a while with the toxicity of the game however, I do believe this would provide an all around benefit to everyone including the devs. As in any online multiplayer game the proximity chat would need a mute button for in game chat for the ones that want to be toxic and a report button for those being over the top with their toxicity. I think however if we can close the gap between these two points on survivor and bring them roughly to the same level, then we can balance the game better than ever before.
Comments
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There’s no way you can do that proximity chat. Chat parties are private. Half the stuff my and my buddies talk about isn’t even game related lol.
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Could you elaborate on this please? My goal isn't to nerf SWfs, however, buff Solo Q in a way that could add a different layer to the game to help balance. I understand parties and stuff are private. But a problem like that requires a solution that's not detrimental to the solo Q players.
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You are not buffing solos by giving them ability to communicate because communication isn’t the issue. You can bring kindred now and solo survivors still with that amount of information will leave you to reach stage 2 or die or both because they aren’t capable of using common sense in scenarios where that is what shines. Not comms.
I’m not saying this happens in every single match, but for the most part 95% of my matches has survivors not working on objectives or dying in two seconds to the point where one cannot even start a gen. It is way too common but something that IMO no amount of communication will fix.
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While perks do exist, they do take up a perk slot. But in your response to the kindred thing, this wouldn't nullify kindred in any way, if it was proximity based chat you wouldn't have map wide comms like SWFs, so kindred could still be very useful for information while spread out. This would just allow for more diverse builds to happen instead of needing a perk simply for communication with your team.
In regards to the gamble, yes you're right with that. However, organized people do better than unorganized people in general.
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Best buff to solo would be good ranking and matchmaking. But in DBD there are no such things
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Unfortunately as in every online game this is a problem, oblivious/new players could just simply let you die. This is not a solution to that. This is providing an alternate form of organization and potential to close the gap between SWF and solo Q as much as possible. Like I stated in a previous reply, kindred is good information, but it takes up a perk slot you'd have free if you were on comms in a SWF. Proximity chat is not a perfect solution to just get rid of kindred though. Kindred would still have it's uses, but the advantage of comms wouldn't be as noticeablw.
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The idea of proximity chat has been around almost since the game launched, the devs have said time and time again they dont want that for solo queue.
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The thing is, if you solo queue, you have to use perks like Kindred as one of your 4 perk slots, where SWF with comms doesn't have to, so they get to use 4 perks with comms being their 5th perk, so that's what makes solo queue more difficult. As solo if you want info, you have to use so many of your perk slots, whereas SWF doesn't have to use any. Not even to mention, if I solo queue with a 3-man SWF, I'm probably gonna get sacrificed as the "random", they aren't as motivated to come in for rescues, they'd prioritize objectives and their friends over me if given a choice (of course, there are exceptions, but it happens a lot of the time when I play solo surv...that's why I rarely do anymore and wait until my friends can play to play surv).
Side note, I feel like good solo survivors are super skilled because they have to be, it's like they are stronger because they can only depend on themselves a lot of the time (it doesn't mean they play selfishly, they'd go in for rescues/heals when they can). What I mean is: A rank 8 solo survivor (who mostly plays solo) feels way stronger and skilled as a survivor who reached rank 8 playing SWF. I mostly play SWF now and when I solo queue I feel like a potato lol
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I like this idea, but am scared about what would happen if you play with strangers - you see how the community is on here and in game. There are wonderful people, but you also get less than wonderful people that would abuse the whole proximity chat feature to be offensive or rude, especially if it's strangers together in a match. For that reason, I don't think any in game comm system would work. They could maybe finally give us more gestures for survs to help us out, or have a hotkey-shortlist of a couple of game related things to let your teammates know:
For instance: pressing 1 and 2 would be the gestures as we have them now. Pressing 3 could bring up a text on the screen to say "the killer is camping", pressing 4 could be "let's finish this gen" or something like that.
The other possible solution, and what I think really needs to happen sometime is: make Kindred base-kit for solo survivors, so they don't need to lose a perk slot for it that SWF doesn't have to lose and maybe give them a higher percentage chance of unhooking themselves if necessary - as a lot of SWF's sacrifice a solo surv queueing with them on hook if it benefits them. Something along the lines of that.
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How to ruin proxy chat for the killer, play blaring loud noises that drown out everything else until they have to turn it off
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Well that's the problem with pretty much all multiplayer games. People will abuse it but that's to be expected. This is why things such as muting a player exist in multiplayer games. It's to help weed it out and make it a better experience overall for everyone, rather than just have it reserved for people who group up with their friends. If you make a good relationship with people in game it could also potentially help you escape in the end.
I understand this point as well. And it's a good one to make. Something as simple as saying "Let me loop him for a bit guys" could help solo queue just simply up the efficiency of anyone who hears it though. It would feel closer to SWF level gameplay. Which in turn if there was a balance change necessary, devs would be able to do it with minimal pushback from a portion of a role.
I understand that the idea of this has been around for a minute, however most arguments I have seen with proximity chat is "Add it, I think it would be cool" I am just bringing up this perspective of how it would help solo queue survs close the gap to SWF level.
Something as simple as a hotkey to mute each surv (1, 2, 3, or 4) could fix this issue with minimal interruptions in-game
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Actually the main reason the idea has been proposed for so long is because solo queue is a nightmare compared to SWF, there's like a million posts here that actually and literally include the words ''solo queue nightmare'' not because ''it's cool'' the devs have said multiple times they are aware solo queue is bad because of communication issues and also have said they don't want that for solo queue regardless of the purpose you intend to give it, so this post is beating a dead horse.
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