Mercy as a feature

Hey!

I've been thinking about how giving mercy hatch/exit gates, or giving Survivors a break as a Killer or vice versa is a significant enough part of DBD. And since we have MMR coming at some point, why not make some type of "Mercy" a feature? Where the game gives you a pat in the back for giving "Mercy" to a Survivor as a Killer, or a Survivor offering an item to a Killer for example.

How it would work

I think the simplest example is a Killer carrying a Survivor to an exit gate blocker or on top of the hatch. Have a prompt that they can press near each of them to let the Survivor go and "forcibly" exit them out of the game. You could recycle Killer stunned animations, but would have to somehow force the controls away from the Survivor atleast with Exit gates. Animations could be implemented later, like a Killer "throwing" a Survivor past the Exit Gate Blocker in a not-so-friendly manner to keep up with the Survivor vs Killer theme. It's important that the prompt Killer uses is automated/scripted so, that neither has control of their character after it's pressed, to prevent abuse or harrassing.

Question: Why?

I personally feel "Mercy" or "Pity" is a part of the game since forever and should be rewarded or atleast encouraged as a positive aspect of the game. And since MMR, while vague to us players, can potentially be manipulated with acts of (malicious) mercy, it would give the devs a straightforward tool to control that aspect. Obviously there still would be ways around it, nothing would prevent Killers from just doing it the old fashioned way, and again, us players have no way of knowing if MMR already counts such acts in it's algorithm.

But I'll try not to underline the MMR aspect of this potential feature too much, it's just a bonus. I think "Mercy/Pity" is still a big enough community gameplay aspect that it should be considered as an actual, interactable and rewardable feature.

How about Survivor's showing Mercy to the Killers

While thematicly a bit weird, you could still get away with this aspect as some sort of Entity encouraged thing. Let's say a Survivor offers an item to the Killer (or Entity?), as an act of Mercy/Pity. Implementation of this sort of system could be difficult tech wise though. I was thinking of a Survivor dropping an item in front of the Killer (while they're in their red stain, for example) would prompt a "Mercy/Pity" grab from the Entity, consuming the item. Or a special prompt when inside the Killer's red stain and the Killer isn't moving. All this sound a bit complicated to implement though, and would probably be a nightmare to code in an internet connection friendly manner with all the checks and conditions. But still, something to consider?

If you want to go with a life-for-a-life theme, where a Killer shows "Mercy/Pity" to a Survivor and spares their life, a Survivor could willingly sacrifice themselves to the Entity as their way of showing respect. Now, this is a bit more uncommon from my personal experience, and Killers don't always react well to Survivors giving them "free kills". I feel it's perceived as almost insulting sometimes, so I might not opt to go this route.

Personally, I wouldn't be against the idea of just Killers having the ability for "Mercy/Pity". Seeing as The Entity who whispers instructions and demands to Killers is a very fickle being, I don't think the idea of sparing a Survivor's life is too much out of the scope of the game's theme. Seeing as it's also cruel irony that, dead or not, said Survivor comes back to the Entity's playground again, again and again.

Thanks for reading!