Keys, Reworked

To the community at large, I want nothing more than for the game to be better. This is why I made this and why I'm urging you to give this not only a read, but if you actually agree, to get this spread around in the hopes that this actually does land into the eyes of the developers.

But if a developer is already reading this, I urge you to actually give this a try, at least once. Give us a PTB specifically for key changes, and run all of these to see how they would feel.

Keys

Chest Usage

• Buff: Keys can now be used to open Chests 50% faster at the cost of consuming their charges.

Hatch Usage

• Nerf: Keys now take a cumulative 60 seconds to open up a Hatch, regardless of the Key used.
• Nerf: The amount of time that the Hatch remains open after a Key is used is 5 seconds, regardless of the Key that is used.
• Nerf: Killers can now grab Survivors attempting to open up the Hatch.

Aura-Reading Ability

• Buff: Broken Key's aura-reading base duration is increased to 20 seconds (from 10).
• Buff: Dull Key's aura-reading base duration is increased to 30 seconds (from 5).
• Buff: Skeleton Key's aura-reading base duration is increased to 60 seconds (from 30).
• Buff: The Dull Key now automatically tracks one Survivor's aura within a 24 meter radius.
• Buff: The Skeleton Key now automatically tracks two Survivors' auras within a 24 meter radius.

Appearance

• Change: The Broken Key now appears more rustic in appearance and emanates a foggy aura t it.
• Change: The Dull Key retains the same model as it currently does.
• Change: The Skeleton Key now has a new model adorned with wings on the head of it. Additionally, it is a gold coloration in order to distinguish itself from the other Keys.

Add-Ons

• New Add-On: The Key now has a new Uncommon add-on known as the Bronze Scale, which allows it to open the hatch at the cost of considerably consuming its charges.
  • The amount of time that it takes to open a hatch with this add-on is 30 seconds.
  • The amount of time that the hatch remains open after usage is 10 seconds.
• New Add-On: The Key now has a new Rare add-on known as the Silver Scale, which allows it to open the hatch at the cost of moderately consuming its charges.
  • The amount of time it takes to open a hatch with this add-on is 15 seconds.
  • The amount of time that the hatch remains open after usage is 15 seconds.
  • This add-on negates the effects of the Bronze Scale.
• New Add-On: The Key now has a new Rare add-on known as the Polished Pearl, which considerably increases the Key's aura-reading range.
• New Add-On: The Key now has a new Rare add-on known as the Ruby, which reveals the Killer's aura within a 24 meter range at the cost of considerably increasing the consumption rate of the Key and allowing the Killer to see your Aura within that range.
• New Add-On: The Key now has a new Very Rare add-on known as the Blue Pearl, which tremendously increases the Key's aura reading range, at the cost of tremendously increasing the Key's consumption rate.
• New Add-On: The Key now has a new Ultra Rare add-on known as the Philosopher's Stone, which allows the Survivor to see the auras of all other Survivors and the Killer within a 32 meter range at the same time.
  • However, running this add-on allows the Killer to see the user's Aura, and will tremendously reduce movement speed when running.
  • Additionally, running this add-on will reveal the aura of all Survivors to the Killer within that range.
• New Add-On: The Key now has a new Ultra Rare add-on known as the Golden Scale, which allows it to open the hatch without consuming its charges.
  • However, running this add-on will require the total amount of time of 15 seconds to open the hatch, and will alert the Killer to your whereabouts via a Loud Noise notification.
  • Upon opening the hatch, however, it remains open until the Killer closes it again.
  • This add-on negates the effects of the Bronze Scale and Silver Scale.
• Prayer Rope: Now slightly reduces the Key's consumption rate.
• Prayer Beads: Now moderately reduces the Key's consumption rate.
• Weaved Ring: No longer saves key from being used up upon death. Instead, it now considerably reduces the Key's consumption rate.
  • Weaved Ring's rarity is now reduced to Rare (from Very Rare).
• Milky Glass: No longer saves key from being used up when the hatch is opened. Instead, it now tremendously reduces the Key's consumption rate.
• Blood Amber: Now reveals the Killer's aura within a 48 meter range, instead of 32 meters. Additionally, your Aura is revealed to the Killer within that range.

This is how Keys need to be; an item that offers up multiple different usages that are all completely valid to use. The Keys either need to be used as aura-reading items, as a secondary escape method, or as an item that can aid in opening up chests at a much faster rate when they are needed.

The first thing I changed is the interaction with the Hatch. This was the main reasons that the Keys themselves are widely hated by the community; they provide far too easy an escape for Survivors. The current nerf to them has done nothing to solve the issue at large, and no nerf to them will ultimately ensure that they are balanced.

They need a complete rework on how they function.

Currently, people have only two uses for the key; to open the hatch or to use their aura-reading abilities. People do not run the Keys for their aura-reading properties due to the fact that various Survivor Perks (such as Bond and Object of Obsession) exist and the current line-up of add-ons do not provide Keys with a suitable enough utility to run as aura-reading items. That and the fact that Keys open up hatch instantly makes the add-ons for aura-reading a simple non-option in the grand scheme of things.

Thus the changes.

The Key can no longer automatically open the hatch; instead, it now consumes its charges up when opening the hatch and takes time to open it. The base amount of time is incredibly high for such little escape potential and reward, and it should be that way for a reason, since I want hatch opening to feel like an option instead of something that you can always do and not be punished for it.

Then I added a couple of add-ons that allow the Hatch opening times to be reduced and the duration of the Hatch being open to be increased. While this certainly makes them an option now, it doesn't make it an option that can't go unpunished, as now you have to be careful not to be grabbed out of opening that precious hatch of yours.

The next change I want to go over is the aura-reading ability of the Keys. Now, unlike before, Keys have an innate aura-reading capability to them (outside of the Broken Key), and have considerably longer durations to them than ever before. In addition, a whole pass of add-ons were added in and changed to give the aura-reading capability of these Keys more utilization in the long run. Various add-ons have been added to increase aura-reading ranges and reduce consumption rates, as well as the addition of a few add-ons to give it a little more utility.

Finally, a change to the visuals; Keys usually get a bad reputation, some of it very unwarranted since some people run Broken Keys, and the Killer can't distinguish between them. Thus, a visual adaptation would be made to Keys so that they can actually look the part of what they're supposed to, and so that Killers aren't mistaken for whichever Key is being run by the Survivor.

Now, one of the benefits of all of this is the fact that my changes would considerably reduce the amount of tunneling that players will receive when running Keys since now they aren't a free escape card, and they can be used in new and more interesting ways. This is how Keys should be; an interesting item with multiple functions that give the game more spice and life to it.

What do you say? Can you guys accept this as the new Keys for once? And if any, any developer is actually looking at this post right now, by some miracle, can you and the others at least try to make a PTB to see how this would all pan out? I'm confident that my changes would be for the best interest of the game at large, and through testing, it would likely show that this could indeed be the biggest quality of life update the game needs.

Anything, any response, would be greatly appreciated. And to the community, again, if you actually like these changes, it would be appreciated to get this spread around and talked about, at least.