Simple fixes for solo q that don't buff swfs
Obviously the biggest issue in the game that bhvr doesn't apparently know how to address is the huge gap between swf and solo q. The reason for this is the game was intentionally created as a more casual survival horror game so yes in that sense it's more fun not knowing what all your teammates are doing and having some mystery. But now clearly the game has evolved and using comms breaks the game completely because the game is balanced around solo q.
Before everyone disagrees because people hate change and all the "duh just run swf" comments, this is a list of changes that do not give a single benefit at all to swf, which means it's a good change. Then you can properly balance the game for swf and solo q.
1 - Notification for when any teammate is in chase. This already exists for the obsession, just make it for everyone.
2 - Notification for who is going for hooks. This is obviously a huge issue in solo q and cause a lot of toxic games.
3 - List of perks your teammates are running. This would benefit in many cases like not going to rescue someone that has deliverance.
These 3 things would help solo q a lot and not give a single benefit to swf because they always have this info. One thing I hear get thrown out is kindred base kit (but removing the killer aura obviously). This DOES give a benefit to swfs, because swfs arent going to know exactly where all their teammates are so I don't think you need to go that far. Just give the basic 3 items above, which once again give ZERO benefit to swfs and then you can start balancing the game more properly.
The most common argument against solo q buffs are "swfs dont guarantee you escape!" or "just run these 4 perks and you can almost have that info!" If you really don't understand the flaw in that logic I don't even know what to say.
Comments
-
As a solo survivor I want the chase indicator for all survivors more than anything else. DEVs did add it for the obsession and stopped at it for some reason. I also want to see who is currently repairing gens. From that information alone you can infer a lot - if anyone could be going for rescue for example. I hope DEVs didn't drop plans on adding additional HUD icons.
9 -
You're right. These are the obvious changes the game needs. The second one is probably complicated, but the others would be pretty simple. These changes are taking a little too long to implement.
3 -
Us solos should always see the other survivors aura when someone is hooked. Other than that I don't think we should get more info. The game is only hard for solos in low ranks and this change would make things better for them also.
1 -
So at high ranks swfs don't have an advantage over solo q? At high ranks knowing where the killer is at all times and coordinating perks etc isn't an advantage? Man you should play in a tournament without comms since they don't help.
6 -
Here's an example of a concept how it could look like. I would rather put gfx directly inside survivor avatars instead on icons in corners, but I'm not a GFX artist, BHVR can do it much better.
Heart icons represents heartbeat. The louder the heartbeat, the bigger the beating heart icon. Tools icon - repairing a gen, knife - survivor is being chased.
Even this little change can mean a lot for solo survivors. When someone is hooked and you see that everyone is working on gens or healing or is being chased - you know that you have to go for a save. If someone stopped working on a gen and doesn't heart heartbeat, you know he probably runs for a save, you can continue doing gens. Not even kindred basekti is necessary.
5 -
They do SWF is OP. That is why I said we solos needs some information. But I still escape more than 50% of my games as solo so getting too much info would be unfair also to the killer side. But we all know changes to killer is coming soon buffing them, so buffing solos with info will be next they kind of have to.
0 -
Solo isn't that bad as long as someone doesn't dc or suicide on hook immediately. that being said, knowing your teammate's perks at the beginning of the match in the lobby would cause people to dodge anytime someone isn't running DH/BT/DS/Boon etc
0 -
Give us that kind of information and fix maps and we'll be..
Well, not golden, but definitely in a much better place.
1 -
just add template chat and it'll be much easier.
0 -
#3 will never happen... would lead to people being bullied for not using the meta
0 -
I think that one way to nerf SWF's, is that 3-4 player SWF's shouldn't be allowed to bring any map offerings.
0 -
It could happen, just force people to wait till the game is loaded and then you get press start and see the usual, Survivor names, offerings burned…now just add everyone perk list. Realize I’m just saying it ‘could’ be worked into the game, not ‘should’.
Some survivors are selfish enough to suicide on hook because someone brought out no meta perks lol.
0 -
I always thought it weird that 1 killer map offering didn't have a higher effect than 1 survivor map offerings...
0 -
why are these not in game yet lol
0 -
If you think every single SWF is on comms you are dead wrong,
some SWF are just 4 really good players that don't even need comms, and the fact that you would introduce something that allows people to see if someone is chased could make them even stronger.
1 -
Make Kindred, Bond and Windows of Opportunity basekit. Then rework this perks.
2 -
I really like the icons! Not only do they help if someone doesn't have Bond or any other aura reading perk, but could also help anyone who is hard of hearing/deaf be able to see with those survivor status icons what's going on and what they need to do. Sure, is it likely that there could be survivors who would ignore those important pieces of information and still get things wrong? Yes, but a lot would benefit from those HUD ststus icons, myself included. I rely on Bond just to see what another survivor in SoloQ is doing, but also because I have visual issues. I can say that without Bond, I know I wouldn't be able to monitor what everyone else is doing. This change could free up many aura reading perk slots for other players.
0 -
1 - Meh. I'm not sure this reason is concrete. It's nice to know - but 25% of the time you get it anyway. It's powerful information, true - but both potently strong and absolutely unbalanced when looked at in a certain light. By simply having basic awareness of where certain survivors are, you can 100% of the time glean where the killer is and what they are doing - this is an incredibly oppressive tool against killers that is usually reserved around highly situational information perks and items. While having this information displayed with the Obsession is a good bonus to the match - and is balanced due to its scarcity. Letting survivors ALWAYS know who's in chase and who isn't in chase at all times is quite a lot to contend with. While I can see the merit, as 4 man SWF see this benefit passively, I don't think that it is a fair trade. If 4 people play the game on coms, their coordination and communication is also fillable - giving a blatant and omniscient notification with perfect information that reveals the location and activity of the killer to all survivors is far, far too powerful to be given to all players at all times. It's half and half. It's incredibly strong, but some players already have it - so it may be seen as fair equipping everyone with the same weapon to use against killers, but I personally think it detracts from the joys of lower MMR matches and the fear factor. It's injecting the cynicism and mechanical numbness of high MMR into every match forever, and I don't agree with it.
2 - Difficult, as the parameters for 'going for hook' is extremely vague and can be misleading. How do you code that? If it's based on where survivors are looking/moving - there are so many possibilities for false positives it might as well not be implemented. If it is based off of context (Was on generator, left shortly after hook action) this too can lead to false positives. The only way to remove a massive amount of misinformation is to make a confirmation system (Press X while looking at the hook to declare intention) - but this can be misused by newcomers and patently abused by trolls. You'd see a vast majority of players NOT confirming their actions, especially because they'd have to cancel it mid-chase if they are caught out or have to switch priorities - and trolls would just confirm their intent to unhook and ignore the hook altogether. Even if you made a complex system that marries the two - requiring context and confirmation, it would start gathering dust in a hurry. Survivors simply won't bother 'confirming' the unhook with their allies while they run towards the hook, or they will spam it to annoy teammates. In addition, while such a thing may help in certain aspects, Kindred is a popular perk in the match - which makes this aspect rote by mere existence... and to make matters worse, average to high MMR players don't need much in the way of information, as they play their matches efficiently enough that such a change isn't needed. So if this addition changes next to nothing in good lobbies, is redundant with information perks, is too complex for new players, will develop false positives, will be outright ignored by many - many players, and will be used by some to annoy teammates... Why bother? It's too difficult to implement without these issues inherent in its design. Either buff information perks so that they are used more often, or use deterrence to teach survivors context and how to better play around hooks.
3 - There are only two problems with this: Either it's in the pre-game lobby - or it's in the match.
If it's in the pre-game lobby, you're going to see a lot of people leave matches when they see an ally with an unfavorable build, pre-match bullying, and disagreements. Meta synergies will be enforced and survivor gameplay will be a community enforced slog - either you play the perks your team wants, or they will dodge and get a better match. Say goodbye to your ques if you bring No Mither. If you let survivors scrutinize each other's builds and offerings, the game will become bogged down by meta picks even more than before - and players will feel the sting of slower cue times and choosy allies that may force their fellow survivors to pay for their perk selection in blood once the trial begins. 'You brought a stealth build - I'm going to ruin that for you!' 'Wow, you didn't use For The People on me? I know you have it. I hate you and will sandbag you now.' Giving survivors the ability to glean insight into who they will play with and exactly what methods their allies will employ will be the absolute worst thing for the community and will turn the game into a toxic trudge from match to match with the same team synergies being exploited and seen day in and day out. You want to make the game more insufferable, this is a very quick way to get there in a hurry.
If it's in match - as a wise man once said, no one should have all that power... at least not for free. Having allies see exactly what your build is can be situationally beneficial, but more often than not it takes away from the experience for very little in return. If the worst thing imaginable is that an ally comes to your aid when you have deliverance, such problems are not common nor severe enough to warrant such a blatant revelation. Open Handed isn't a particularly useful perk, if Open Handed revealed your perks to your allies - and you get to see everyone else's perks as well. If you want everyone to know that you have Deliverance, take Open Handed - that would be an eloquent solution that may allow the perk to see the light of day. This being said - otherwise allowing survivors to know the exact loadouts of everyone else doesn't just increase efficiency, it detracts from any semblance of wonder, ambiguity, or general willpower. Again, solo allies can and will use this information as a source of scrutiny, and they will also ignore it in many cases. While it may be nice to be aware of a Deliverance or a friend with Unbreakable, DS, or Mettle Of Man... it's too much clutter and potential disruption for very circumstantial 'balance' benefits.
There are many reasons there is no other multiplayer game where the precise loadout of your allies is revealed to you during gameplay. There are many, many, many reasons.
0 -
I think its not the problem that it would be hard to implement, but because it would shake up the balance between survivors and killers in a way that BHVR isn't ready to face. Right now the backfill soloQ survivors are often the weak link that a killer can somewhat exploit, if they are buffed the kill rates should somehow reflect that, and we know how wonky that metric already is.
I am not saying that soloQ should be the punching bag of the game, nor that killers can't deal with strong opposition, but right now the game is stacked pretty much in favor of the survivors and stacking it even further that way would probably tip the balance.
With the next balance issue BHVR at least swallowed part of it and gave a big universal buff to all killers. With this the time could be right to buff soloQs next?
0 -
Nice ideas but your premise is flawed:
Any buff to survivor is a buff to swf, as both are mechanically the same, atleast in dbd. Any info given to survivors by UI, or god beware aura, is info swfs dont need to relay via comms, opening up more time for strategizing.
Im not saying survs do not need that swf-gap lessened, but many ideas i see do not replace the comms, but just add new tools that'd help swfs too.
A message system, or chat wheel ("focus gens, heal me, etc" would be one of the few real solutions to close the gap.
0 -
Thank God you don't work for BHVR.
0 -
why?
0 -
Good ideas there. I do think though that basekit Kindred would benefit solo moreso than swf, as swf on comms can simply tell each other where they are. I watch streamers who play swf and they will tell each other who is going for unhook, who is on the gen at killer shack, etc. They can even tell each other where killer is located (provided they're using comms of course) which is something solos will never have.
1
