How to Fix Hex Totems
I think everyone here knows how stupid the current hex totem spawns are. And I'm not even talking about the locations, but mostly about how some hex totems can spawn right next to the survivors at the beginning of the game. We can all agree that this is ridiculous and should not be in the game, but a lot of people aren't quite sure how to fix it.
I have seen a lot of people either say that hex totems should be protected for the first 60 seconds of the game (like how plaything is protected), or that hex totems shouldn't light up for a survivor that hasn't discovered the totem yet. I think these are somewhat good solutions, but I also believe that there is a much simpler way to fix this problem.
Let's think about this situation a little more. The main issue with hex totems isn't that they can be broken, but that they often spawn very close to survivors and the survivors are able to break the totem very quickly, pretty much dooming the killer to a loss unless they can get a snowball effect in motion. So my idea is pretty simple, so simple that I'm actually surprised that something similar hasn't been implemented yet.
My idea for fixing hex totems is as follows. Instead of the game randomly choosing a dull totem around the map to turn into a hex totem, the game will now calculate where the killer spawns in, and light the dull totem that is closest to the killer. It is a little similar to how Corrupt Intervention works, when the killer spawns in, the 3 generators that are the furthest away from them become blocked. I want this but reversed for hex totems, the dull totems that are closest to the killer at the beginning of the game will be lit into hex totems.
If this is still confusing, I have drawn a couple of pictures to show my reasoning.
Let's say we have an Oni equip Hex: Ruin and Hex: Undying, and he gets the map Coal Tower. With the current hex totem spawning system in which any dull totem can randomly be lit into a hex totem, it turns out that sometimes a hex totem can spawn extremely close to a survivor. This leads to some Hex builds for killer feeling very inconsistent because sometimes the survivors are able to cleanse your totems before you can even reach them in time.
Now let's take a look at my proposed system for spawning hex totems:
With this system of lighting hex totems on dull totems that are closest to the killer, this guarantees that survivors will never spawn next to a hex totem. This also means that the killer doesn't have to waste time at the beginning of the match just checking on his hex totems, because he is paranoid that a survivor spawned right next to it. This change would overall make hex builds feel less RNG based and make killer more fun to play because you wouldn't have to worry about your perks disappearing immediately.
On top of that beneficial change, survivors would also have more counterplay when it comes to finding hex totems. Instead of aimlessly wandering around the map looking in every location for a hex totem, good survivor would now be able to somewhat triangulate the location of the killer's spawn point, and then search around that area. This means that survivors would have to run into a "danger zone" of sorts and go past the killer's range of influence to even be able to cleanse a totem early on. The only other option to cleansing the hex totems would be to wait a couple of minutes and then go look for the hex totem, which at that point the killer had already gotten some use out of his hexes.
Comments
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I like your illustrations. They tickled me for some reason.
yes it would make more sense to have a hex spawn closest to the killer rather than the survivor.
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Probably because each one had 4 cute fengs ;)
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I voted the topic just for the illustration alone.
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Seems like a reasonable way to make Hexes a little more consistent. Not overly so, but more than current.
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And hexes definitely need to be more consistent. Putting on any hex totem without undying is like flipping a coin where you just lose your hex within the first minute of the game.
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Ok I think I like this idea. It's not over the top and seems fair. But I have 2 questions.
1. How would this work with perks like hex: Plaything and NOED? Will it be the same and just spawn the hex to the closest totem the killer is?
2. Doesn't this indirectly nerf perks like Hex:Retribution and Haunted Grounds since you want survivors to do the totem as fast as possible?
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Let Killer see all totem locations at the start of the trial, Killer can go within a certain range and click a button to ignite that totem with the Hex perk, order of Hex perks going from top and clockwise around
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I like this change! It's definitely a smaller change they could implement and then monitor without breaking anything- this'd hardly put hexes in a worse position.
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I love this change! It’s simple, it doesn’t rework the entire game, it’s a nice fix that can still work in the games code. This is something that should be implemented.
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1) Plaything and NOED would act the same way as they do now because they do not light hex totems when the trials begins, but rather light a hex totem later on after certain conditions.
2) I guess it would indirectly nerf those hexes, but I don't think its a great idea to balance hexes around the couple of "trap hexes."
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My guess is that originally they did the random Hex spawn thing in order to prevent too much early survivor knowledge, ie if you had a good idea were the killer was you could then easily predict the totem spawn(s). But nowadays, a lot of players have memorized all the totem spawns, so the surprise factor is mostly gone and this change could indeed help to make some hexes viable longer then 1min into the trial.
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Loved the illustrations.
Not a big fun of the idea itself though. Doing this means that survivors can have a very good idea of where hexes are based on where the killer came from.
You generally spawn away from the killer so most likely wherever you are the totem is close to the other side of the map.
You are going to have players who if they see where the killer came from know exactly where their hex totem is going to be.
That's the downside of making hexes less rng. That also works into the survivors favor
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The real issue is that the maps are too small and anyone who plays DBD regularly can easily remember any reworked totem spots. Totems are simply not well designed.
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While that is true, remember that the alternative is that a lot of the time they just spawn stupidly close to a hex and immediately start cleansing/blessing it. At least with this change, survivors would have to travel across the map and potentially put themselves at risk of being chased by the killer before they can start disabling hexes.
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That's a cool idea.
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That's true.
There are drawbacks to every solution. But atleast with yours it atleast takes some map knowledge skills instead of luckilly spawning on a hex
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Pretty much. It wouldn't be perfect, but it'd at least have a reliable upside.
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Looks like another episode of "Things that will never happen".
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First of all, you are not "fixing" Hex-Totems, you are buffing them. Can we for once stop to use the word "fix" if we are talking about Nerfs or Buffs?
Second, the idea is not really good. Of course, you have in mind the situations where a Survivor spawns next to the Totem. But, there are also situations where the Totem is well hidden. Especially newer Maps have really good Totem Spawns (even Outdoor, looking at Dead Dawg Saloon). Those would be gone as well.
Instead, the Survivors would have a clear idea where the Hex-Totem might be located. Which of course removes the bad spawns, but also the good spawns. Reminds me of the old times where Killers tend to walk to their Ruin at the start of the game, which was the sole reason why at least one Survivor knew the Location of the Totem.
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I'm not sure I follow- the spawns themselves haven't changed at all, just which side of the map has them light up. If a survivor knows all the spawn points, it doesn't make any difference beyond stopping the possibility of spawning adjacent to that totem.
Unless I'm missing something with your objection?
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Lets say the Survivor is the Feng Min on the far right in OPs picture. This person would not need to check the Totem in the Coal Tower, next to her or the other side of the Coal Tower. She would know that the Totem is located near the Shack, since the Oni spawned there.
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Right, but getting to that totem will take longer than if the totem were next to her, so I don't think that time loss really... matters? She still has to go over there, and she's still putting herself at risk of being intercepted or detected by the killer while she travels there, so even in the worst case scenario that hex is doing more for the killer than the worst case scenario right now.
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I love the illustrations, lol.
I don’t actually know how well this would work though - if you have a rough estimate of where the killer spawned, then you can use the knowledge that the totems are near the killer’s spawn in order to potentially find them easily/narrow down where they could be. But this would at least prevent survivors from spawning 2 meters away from them.
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I slightly disagree.
I think the totems should spawn away from both killer and survivor, and I think totems should be generated after player spawn generation.
The first point is because it would be easy for survivors to predict totem spawns based on killer location in early game if it simply spawned near them, and the second is a method of guaranteeing some distance from both sides.
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Well yes that's technically true, don't forget that the killer has a lot of pressure at their spawn point early in the game. And after the early part of the game where they have less pressure over that area, the killer will have already gained some use out of their hex totems.
Same point as above, at least the survivors will have to interact with the killer before being able to cleanse their totems. It also 100% prevents the cleansing of totems immediately at the start of the game. But also don't forget how frustrating it is for survivors to randomly wander around the map and hoping you find the hex totem. Now there is some strategy in trying to triangulate the spawn of the killer and then searching around there.
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