What if Borrowed Time worked differently?
Hello all, hope you are well, and thanks in advance for reading.
I’ve seen a few comments recently about killers attacking survivors that have just been unhooked and it got me thinking about ways to combat this and discourage that play style (Although I would like to point out now that I’m not here to debate the validity of the tactic or whether killer players should or should not use it).
When thinking about practical solutions, it is hard not to think of the perk Borrowed Time and how it already attempts to combat these events. However, there is no guarantee that a teammate will have the perk equipped when you are being unhooked and the killer is marching towards you with ill intent. I’ll present my idea for an alternative first, then attempt to answer some questions that I’ve already thought to ask about the change.
When you are unhooked by another player, Borrowed Time activates. For 8/10/12 seconds after you are unhooked, you are protected by the Endurance status effect.
- Any damage you take that would put you into the dying state will instead apply the Deep Wound status effect, after which you will have 20 seconds to mend yourself
- Taking any damage while under the effect of Deep Wound or if its timer runs out will put the Survivor into the Dying State.
Furthermore, if you are within 24 meters of the killer when you are unhooked, the timer for Borrowed Time will not start to decay until you are more than 24 meters away from the killer.
Why change it?
The core idea here is to have a more reliable way of receiving protection when taken off the hook. In its current state, receiving the benefit of Borrowed Time is dependent on another player using the perk. With this version, you can guarantee temporary protection, affording players at least a small chance to escape a killer who is determined to attack them when they are unhooked.
Why have the delay before the timer starts?
Currently, killer players who are determined to hit freshly unhooked survivors will be likely to account for Borrowed Time and just follow the survivor while counting to 12 before hitting them, this way, the perk offers protection to the player from hyper aggressive killer play.
Wouldn’t this be too powerful?
There is a risk of that yes, without playtesting, I could not guarantee that this would be a balanced alternative, for all I know the dev team has already playtested this and found it to be too much for the killer to deal with. On paper it sounds like a no brainer perk to take given how often the situation of a killer attacking a survivor off the hook seems to be occurring, however, if this change achieves the goal of discouraging that playstyle (without banning it completely, like it or not, people are free to play the game how they want, within the defined rules of the game), then the value of the perk should eventually decrease as the situation presents in fewer and fewer cases.
Why only when someone else unhooks you?
I set this restriction in because combining this version of Borrowed Time with Deliverance sounds like an opportunity for ‘troll’ behaviour and this game seems to have enough of that at the moment without my ideas making it worse lol.
Why not just make a new perk instead of changing an existing one?
This is one that feels quite tricky to answer. It is clear that from its introduction to the game, Borrowed Time was designed to encourage teamwork and altruism, two things that my alternative does not do. However, if my idea was introduced as a new perk to exist alongside Borrowed Time then I just don’t see the original being used at all anymore as players will just expect other survivors to have the new one equipped.
I’ll stop waffling on at this point, the post is already long enough, and I don’t want to answer every possible question that there might be because that would just defeat the purpose of a forum. With that in mind, I will be perfectly happy to answer any questions that anyone has about this Borrowed Time alternative, or indeed any other questions at all if you feel so inclined to ask.
Thanks again for reading, and good luck in your future games.
Comments
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I see problems with this proposed change during EGC, making it pretty much a free escape when unhooking in the killer's face, if the other survs are smart.
I do appreciate any ideas to lessen tunneling off the hook, although that is in itself a valid strat too. But this idea needs tweaking imo.
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Okay so what if I get unhooked and decide to chase the killer with infinite BT? If I won't lose my BT until I'm away from the killer I guess I won't go away from the killer until they hit me. This would further encourage using it offensively like it already is.
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12 seconds is typically enough to reach something that you can loop.
This version would also incentivize offensive BT play more than it does already. If the timer doesn’t decay within 24m of the killer what’s stopping me from just aggressively bodyblocking forever until they hit me?
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The removal of the decay is stupid and completely overpowered and abusable.
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All valid points that I had not considered yet.
@JPLongstreet I see your point, but with smart play, isn't the idea of a 'free escape' during EGC already possible with Borrowed Time as it is?
@RareOmen @sizzlingmario4 and @SuzuKR you all raise a very good point about the abusability of the idea, unfortunately, I don't play the game aggressive enough to have foreseen that outcome. It's probably not going to be a satisfying response but off the top of my head, in that situation, the killer could always just hit the player trying to to play like that, or even string them along for a bit, if they're chasing someone else and the BT equipped survivor is chasing the killer, then that's two players not working on generators. I'll have a think about ways to combat the issue you've all raised and update the post if I can think of one.
Thanks for the feedback.
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This could easily be fixed if it got the same change it already needs right now: While you're under the endurance effect from BT, you have no collision with the killer.
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Completelly insane proposed change. What's stopping a unhooked survivor from just hugging near the killer and then taking the BT hit when he's finally about to down another survivor, prolonging a chase another 30sec+
The 12seconds are already bad enough as it is allowing this to be done for quite a window, and then the survivor jumps on locker because they have DS and there is nothing the killer can do but eat the DS or leave them alone.
Nothing feels worse as a killer than having everyone around you going for the unhook, playing a non-instadown killer and being literally impossible to trade hooks with anyone as the BT survivor body blocks the way until they reach an exit gate.
Moving BT yo be a personal perk would be a welcome change since it at least prevent what happens now where only 2/4 players carry it and more often than not every single unhook in the game is with it. They should at least force every sruvivor to have a perk slot for it, they already outnumber the survivor 4-1 in perks with better options, but then we get stuff like BT/boons which give too much value by affecting everyone.
Alternativelly they should just delete BT and give its effect to every survivor for 3 sec. Not like they need any more, their DH is up after the unhook after all.
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I understand the reasoning for wanting to change BT but even then if the timer only starts after being 24 meters away from the killer that's a considerable amount of distance to make it to a strong loop, pallet, or any kind of safety just for the survivor to then gain another 12 seconds of invulnerability. Not to mention what if they hop on a gen within 24 meters? Do they lose BT? This perk is fine the way it is, they changed it once and made it even stronger.
"I see your point, but with smart play, isn't the idea of a 'free escape' during EGC already possible with Borrowed Time as it is?"
Not exactly, during EGC Borrowed Time is only a cog in the wheel of a free escape if the survivor is also running D Strike. Perks like STBFL are reasons why Borrowed Time alone is not a free escape.
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This only works if BT is basekit and applied all the time. If it’s a perk, then this betrays survivors who don’t have it. All the killer would need to do is see if the survivor has collision or not, if they don’t, you know they have it and don’t swing, if they do, you know they aren’t protected and can just down them immediately.
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This is a change I would enjoy, and have expressed or awhile. Keep BT the same but they have no collision with the killer. They changed D Strike to make it so if you got unhooked you literally couldn't do anything but the absolute necessary (gates, mending, traps, etc.) To prevent it from being used offensively as well as giving yourself a choice "I either do nothing for 60s or do this gen and lose DS. Making BT have no collision would stop survivors from using a defensive perk, offensively.
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At that point the survivor who just unhooked can body block. If the killer is close enough to down the survivor you just unhooked again and you know you don't have BT, then 1. You should not have went for the rescue to begin with, and 2. Should have waited for the killer to get further away from the hook. If the killer was camping then sorry, better hop on a gen.
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BT does not need buffs.
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