Killer Concept: The Soldier

The_Trapper · December 2018

Killer Name:
The Soldier

Appearance:
A male figure fitted in a tattered, dirty, bloodied and weathered World War 1 British soldier's uniform, including the backpack and additional satchels. A spade is attached to the backpack as well as a combat knife sheathed on his belt. The most notable feature is the dirt smothered gas mask he wears, with a single eye-hole shattered and showing a bloodied, milky-white eye.

Height: Tall.

Lunge: Standard.

Movement Speed: 4.5 m/s.

Terror Radius: 32 metres.

Weapon:
Lee-Enfield bolt action rifle with a bayonet attachment. The Soldier lunges and thrusts with the bayonet with M1. When striking a survivor; he removes the blood with his left index finger and thumb. The Soldier's audio sounds like his lungs are damaged and the gas mask is difficult to breath through.

Ability:
Take aim (M2). The Soldier must spend two seconds to use the bolt to arm the rifle before aiming down the sights, he is immobilized while aiming.

Upon pressing M1 while holding M2, there is a base percentage of the rifle firing (23%).

The chance can be modified with add-ons.
If the rifle fires and connects with a survivor; the rifle is lowered and the Soldier performs his audio sound, the lowering animation is the same as the Huntress'.

If the rifle does not fire and instead jams; the Soldier grunts and shakes the rifle in anger, re-cocking it which then allows the killer to either aim again or keep moving. The rifle does not need to be reloaded, as it is already penalized by the base chance of hitting as well as needing to be aimed. The killer uses the iron sight to aim.

Survivors can identify when the Soldier is firing as he breathes sharply in through the gas mask when aiming down the sights. The sound of him cocking the rifle can also be used to identify, however the killer randomly generates similar sounds when moving from time to time.

Perks: (W.I.P)
1. Survivors who are being healed face slightly/moderately more difficult skill checks, upon failing a skillcheck their aura is revealed for 1/2/3 seconds.
2. When chasing a survivor, there is a 20%/25%/30% chance of revealing one random perk the survivor has for 4 seconds. This perk can only be activated once every 40 seconds.
3. Survivors within your terror radius suffer 5%/10%/15% reduction in movement speed when moving faster than 100% (4.0m/s).
4. TBA

Add-ons: (W.I.P)
Name: Rusted Bullet
Stacks: No
Rarity: Common
Description: A .303 cartridge that has been poorly manufactured and suffer numerous dents and rust damage.
Slightly increases the chance of successfully firing a live shot.

Name: Torn Military Issued Gloves
Stacks: Yes
Rarity: Common
Description: A pair of worn leather gloves that has seen better days.
Slightly reduces cooldown after using the 'Take Aim' ability.

Name: Dirty Canteen
Stacks: Yes
Rarity: Common
Description: A military issued canteen with a few drops of water left.
Slightly Reduces the time required to aim when using the 'Take Aim' ability.

Note: The add-ons listed above would simply increase, for example, the bullet would become an iridescent, translucent bullet with a name scratched into it.

*Background:**
Another name lost in the documents, another face easily forgotten as so many men enlisted during the first world war. What is known, is that he was British, and originated somewhere around London.

July the 14th, 1916. Delville Wood. The British forces pressed on to secure the German's second position. Both sides had suffered casualties from counter-attacks. Alas, the order was given to climb the trenches and charge.

Gunshots were heard, the artillery summoned thick smoke, the planes dropped gas. The respirator covered his face as he moved through the woods, he could hardly see.

Then, the sounds stopped and the sky grew darker. His sight grew even worse, the glass around his right eye began to crack, then shattered. He fell to the ground and felt the warm blood ooze down his flesh, battling the cold. Soon, he opened the same eye for the other could no longer see through the black smoke which had coated the glass.

He thought he was blind, he was wrong. He was surrounded by hostiles, though they did not fire back. He could not breath, but he still felt strong. He stabbed, fired and bashed the enemies surrounding him until he was alone. There was no sense of direction anymore, only the black trees whose branches were like the legs of a spider. A fire was lit in the distance, he ran as fast as he could.

When the second wave of allies came, they only found fellow comrades inflicted with bullet holes, bayonet strikes and bashed in skulls, but 'he' was nowhere in sight.

Memento Mori: The kill animation changes based on chance. The Soldier uses his right boot to roll the survivor onto their back before placing the boot against their neck, the survivor throws their hands up in fear while the Soldier aims his rifle at their face, he then pulls the trigger. If the gun fires; the survivors head is blown off for a sweet gore animation. If the rifle jams; the Soldier grunts in anger and proceeds to stab the survivor through the neck once, and then the stomach twice with the bayonet.

Conclusion! Please read:
If you have read everything, thank you! I hope you enjoyed it. I haven't properly gone through for spelling errors and such, it was quite exhausting for me to type this all.

I would LOVE to hear any feedback, if you think it would be fun to play as or against.

Pros and cons to the killer, any ideas or changes you would make.

I will respond to all comments and questions to further flesh it out, so feel free to say anything.

Please keep in mind I have tried to make this fair for both killer and survivor, I do not know if he would be considered top tier, but I personally believe he would be a fun and cool killer to play.

All information I have typed has come from my own ideas, whether or not this has already been thought of is oblivious to me.

TheUltOtakuGamer · December 2018

You're probably anxious that your idea got some reads but no comments and maybe you think people don't like it so I'm gonna say that I like your idea and that it's very well made, no joke, I actually like your idea

DexyIV · December 2018

I always thought a firearm killer could be cool. Only problem with this is that it'd get super frustrating to waste two seconds holding still only for you gun to jam 3 times in a row. I'm not a fan of RNG since I usually get the ######### end of the stick, no matter if the odds are in my favor. And I'm not a fan of requiring addons to make a killer's power fully functional either. But that's just me.

Would have liked to see more ideas for perks since that's typically my favorite part of new releases (usually determining whether or not they would be good on my favorite killer). Still a great idea though. Just maybe some numbers adjustments and such

Raptorrotas · December 2018

I like the concept as it is similiar to something i made just before huntress became a thing.
The description is nice although i get the feeling that "ragged or tattered cloths on X" is quite common, as my concept did that too ;P
Not a big fan of Lore, as some killer concepts focus on it too much, but this is nice.

Although i normally don't critize perks because i cannot come up for those myself, i think that without regarding the actual numbers, your first and third perk might actually be good, or could be usable ingame.
Especially the third perk is good, as it reduces that stupid hit sprints .
The second perk wouldn't be used as much, i guess. Having that info isn't simply useful to the killer. I could be wrong, of course.

Now to the actually important part: the Killer's ability.
Keep in mind that i will be comparing it mostly with the huntress.
Don't do random chance in such an ability, only having a 1 in 4 (basic) chance to actually get any use out of an ability is simply so goddamn unreliable that you might've aswell have created a M1 killer with ~112% movement speed. ( I hope you understand why this in my opinion bad)

I will now assume a lot of stuff about your ability, it might sound a bit too technical and might go way too much into unccessary details .
I assume this ability would work like aiming with sights in typical shooter games:
1. you start pressing M2 and then the soldier lifts his rifle up until the sights are aligning with the middle of the screen when the charge meter is full. This action instantly stops all movement and lasts 2 seconds.
2. you then choose to fire (M1) or to put it away (stop holding M2)
3. you fire and get probably a "hit comfirmed" or "miss" animation, OR have a basic 77% chance of jamming your rifle. The fire action is a hitscan attack which will be near instaneous. the survivor will be injured, and it will probably not trigger "exposed" damage unless specified by a iridecent addon ( this is just here to trigger survivors reading this)

I think the total inability to move during the "aiming phase" of this ability might be a bit too restrictive, this is about the time HB needs to rev his chainsaw, ESPECIALLY when combined with a chance to just jam instead.
I actually like that you actually mentioned the cocking sound cue as a warning, might be a bit too strong if the same sound effect plays randomly. but since the killer also makes a breathing sound as warning, this might be unneccessary worry.

Now some points YOU might consider for tweaking this ability. As I made a similiar concept before, these should all be taken with a grain of salt. I admit here that i am a (probably strongly) biased killer main and would add lots of strenghts to a killer without giving much weaknesses if any.

110% or 115% movement speed, not something in between; this will make it clearer how to balance the shooting ability, although I think a 115% killer can have a strong shooting ability too.
I think firing earlier with worse accuracity might be a thing you could consider,depending on how long it will take to aim, but might be too similiar to huntress.
No complete removal of movement during aiming, in this point I'll insist on it because most killers (all except spirit and arguably wraith when reappearing) do not stand still during casting.
Will you add reloading/ammo or not? If it were another type of rifle, putting a bullet into the rifle mightve been simply be part of the aiming animation, but this is a magazin-fed rifle, so it is really your choice if that should be part of the ability.

I hope this will be helpful

The_Trapper · December 2018

@TheUltOtakuGamer said:
You're probably anxious that your idea got some reads but no comments and maybe you think people don't like it so I'm gonna say that I like your idea and that it's very well made, no joke, I actually like your idea

@TheUltOtakuGamer said:
You're probably anxious that your idea got some reads but no comments and maybe you think people don't like it so I'm gonna say that I like your idea and that it's very well made, no joke, I actually like your idea

Thanks for the positive feedback

The_Trapper · December 2018

@DexyIV said:
I always thought a firearm killer could be cool. Only problem with this is that it'd get super frustrating to waste two seconds holding still only for you gun to jam 3 times in a row. I'm not a fan of RNG since I usually get the ######### end of the stick, no matter if the odds are in my favor. And I'm not a fan of requiring addons to make a killer's power fully functional either. But that's just me.

Would have liked to see more ideas for perks since that's typically my favorite part of new releases (usually determining whether or not they would be good on my favorite killer). Still a great idea though. Just maybe some numbers adjustments and such

I can see why you wouldn't like the mechanics of the gun When coming up with the idea I considered a few things.

How can this killer be efficient
How can this killer be different to the Huntress and other killers
Can I imagine this killer in a horror movie

The whole point behind the gun is that it has many advantages and disadvantages without modifiers, the bullet speed will be near instant compared to the huntress, whose hatches you can dodge. The gun will also be easier to aim at medium to long ranges too as opposed to hatches.

In my opinion, perhaps the rifle could be buffed to, say, 36%? That might make it more appealing, but it's a tool which can be used for situational moments. If that survivor is about to make it to the exit gates, you could risk a chase or risk a shot.

If you chase a survivor and they're in the open with a good bit of distance, you could chase or risk a shot. The ability, to me, could make a huge difference between scoring that extra kill.

I'll update the last perk soon, had a bit of time to think today so if you're interested check again soon haha!

Thanks for the feedback

The_Trapper · December 2018

@Raptorrotas said:
I like the concept as it is similiar to something i made just before huntress became a thing.
The description is nice although i get the feeling that "ragged or tattered cloths on X" is quite common, as my concept did that too ;P
Not a big fan of Lore, as some killer concepts focus on it too much, but this is nice.

Although i normally don't critize perks because i cannot come up for those myself, i think that without regarding the actual numbers, your first and third perk might actually be good, or could be usable ingame.
Especially the third perk is good, as it reduces that stupid hit sprints .
The second perk wouldn't be used as much, i guess. Having that info isn't simply useful to the killer. I could be wrong, of course.

Now to the actually important part: the Killer's ability.
Keep in mind that i will be comparing it mostly with the huntress.
Don't do random chance in such an ability, only having a 1 in 4 (basic) chance to actually get any use out of an ability is simply so goddamn unreliable that you might've aswell have created a M1 killer with ~112% movement speed. ( I hope you understand why this in my opinion bad)

I will now assume a lot of stuff about your ability, it might sound a bit too technical and might go way too much into unccessary details .
I assume this ability would work like aiming with sights in typical shooter games:
1. you start pressing M2 and then the soldier lifts his rifle up until the sights are aligning with the middle of the screen when the charge meter is full. This action instantly stops all movement and lasts 2 seconds.
2. you then choose to fire (M1) or to put it away (stop holding M2)
3. you fire and get probably a "hit comfirmed" or "miss" animation, OR have a basic 77% chance of jamming your rifle. The fire action is a hitscan attack which will be near instaneous. the survivor will be injured, and it will probably not trigger "exposed" damage unless specified by a iridecent addon ( this is just here to trigger survivors reading this)

I think the total inability to move during the "aiming phase" of this ability might be a bit too restrictive, this is about the time HB needs to rev his chainsaw, ESPECIALLY when combined with a chance to just jam instead.
I actually like that you actually mentioned the cocking sound cue as a warning, might be a bit too strong if the same sound effect plays randomly. but since the killer also makes a breathing sound as warning, this might be unneccessary worry.

Now some points YOU might consider for tweaking this ability. As I made a similiar concept before, these should all be taken with a grain of salt. I admit here that i am a (probably strongly) biased killer main and would add lots of strenghts to a killer without giving much weaknesses if any.

110% or 115% movement speed, not something in between; this will make it clearer how to balance the shooting ability, although I think a 115% killer can have a strong shooting ability too.

I think firing earlier with worse accuracity might be a thing you could consider,depending on how long it will take to aim, but might be too similiar to huntress.

No complete removal of movement during aiming, in this point I'll insist on it because most killers (all except spirit and arguably wraith when reappearing) do not stand still during casting.

Will you add reloading/ammo or not? If it were another type of rifle, putting a bullet into the rifle mightve been simply be part of the aiming animation, but this is a magazin-fed rifle, so it is really your choice if that should be part of the ability.

I hope this will be helpful

This was a lot for me to chew on! Thank you! I'll try and put across my points as easy as I can, it's always great to hear someone's honest opinion.

I'm no good at knowing what balanced numbers would consist of, that is something the developers can tinker with, the numbers shown are just my basic idea.

The second perk is situational, perhaps you're chasing an obsession and you use the perk to see if you can identify if they have DS (95% of the time they do), at least then you can decide whether or not you want to risk losing precious time.

The third perk was more aimed for people who use adrenaline, balanced, lithe and sprint bursts. That would shorten the distance they gain as to make the chase more appealing. It never occurred to me that it would effect the distance survivors gain after taking a hit. I kind of like the idea, thanks for indirectly telling me.

Another comment suggested the same problem in regards to the rifle jamming. I wanted the killer to have a drawback, and was perhaps a little too harsh on saying 25%. How would 36% feel? Or perhaps 40%?

When designing him I had to make sure he wasn't more powerful, or less powerful than the Huntress. Each have their own advantages and disadvantages. The reason for the Soldier to be immobilised is because then his movement speed wouldn't have to be the same as the Huntress'.

The cocking sound of the gun would be mixed with similar sounds to form a mini mind-game when chasing a survivor, inexperienced survivors might not know which sound means he's properly aiming, so they might keep looking over their shoulder and end up running into something. It would make a chase more intense in my opinion.

The layout of the ability would be:

Hold M2 to activate 'Take Aim'.
While holding M2, wait 2 seconds to actually take aim.
Press M1 once aiming to take the shot.
If the shot fires successfully; survivor is wounded/downed depending on health state.
If the shot jams, killer performs the animation.

Releasing M2 before firing would revert the animation, the same way it works for other killers.

I like your idea about firing before being fully aimed, however I worry that survivors would get upset since the killer could close the distance and just keep firing it rapidly until it lands, if he was immobilised however, it could definitely work.

As of this moment, I suspect the ammo is infinite however after firing a successful shot (not including hitting a survivor), he has to use the bolt lever to reload which doesn't take too long at all.

Thanks for the feedback, really enjoyed reading your response. Let me know if you have any further ideas, concerns or general questions!

Killer Concept: The Soldier

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