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Chapter Concept - Pan's Labyrinth

Dahtin
Dahtin Member Posts: 25
edited July 2022 in Creations

Update 7/25: Massive update to all The Second Task map sub-sections and QoL changes to the entire main post, reflecting current notes. My goal is now to begin drafting concepts for a Survivor and addressing concerns brought up in the comments. Thanks for the support!~


Hello, and welcome to the post detailing my new licensed chapter concept, "Pan's Labyrinth"!

This concept currently includes 1 Killer, The Pale Man, and 1 Map, The Second Task. I might, later on, introduce concepts regarding add-ons and perhaps even a Survivor!

Apologies if the formatting is messy, this is my first serious forum post in quite some time. This is a long post. I was able to make a TL;DR for the map section, though, so if you're in a rush, you can just read that for the gist of it!

If you enjoy reading this or have balance concerns, please reach out to me in the comments! I'd love to refine this concept until it reaches a point that would be enjoyable for both Killer and Survivor mains if it were present in the game. I hope you enjoy it!


New Killer - The Pale Man

The Pale Man is an enticing Killer, using the grandeur of his feast to gain control over his victims and quickly overwhelm them.

The Pale Man's Power is Gluttonous Banquet.

Survivors are affected by a new Killer-specific Status Effect, Starvation, for the Trial. There are 4 tiers of Starvation, each taking 45 seconds to proc while not in chase, hooked, or downed. Survivors experiencing Starvation 3 - 4 are visible via Survivor Portraits for both roles.

  • Starvation 1 does not inflict penalties.
  • Starvation 2 reduces vaulting and pallet throw speeds by 15%. Survivors cannot stack healing speed increases, and Survivor self-healing speeds are capped at 75%.
  • (All Starvation tiers henceforth inflict a further -5% to vault and pallet throw speeds.)
  • Starvation 3 inflicts Exhaustion and Broken. Survivors make noises as if they are Injured. Solo repair speeds are reduced by 10% (cooperative repairing is unaffected).
  • Starvation 4 can only be reached via Tempting Glare. After reaching Starvation 4, the Survivor receives -10% to all solo action speeds, stacking with previous penalties besides vaulting speeds. If the Survivor was Healthy, they are Injured, receiving the on-hit speed boost.

The Pale Man introduces a new Interactable: Pillars of Fruit. Survivors can see the aura of the nearest Pillar of Fruit. Interacting with a Pillar of Fruit fully resets their Starvation and prevents Starvation progression for 20 seconds, at the cost of triggering a loud noise notification at the structure's location and empowering Tempting Glare.

  • For every Survivor at the start of The Trial, 2 Pillars of Fruit spawn.
  • The Interact duration lasts the same as Invitation Pillars from the Twisted Masquerade event.

After being unhooked, Survivors do not experience the effects of or progress their Starvation tier for 15 seconds or until they perform a Conspicuous Action.

- - - - -

The Pale Man's Special Ability is Tempting Glare.

The Pale Man may press the Special Attack button to initiate Tempting Glare.

  • While activating or deactivating Tempting Glare, The Pale Man moves at the slowest movement speed of the two stances.
  • Activation time is around the same time as Onryo's Manifest.
  • There is no cooldown for swapping stances outside of the activation time.

While in Tempting Glare:

  • The Pale Man moves at a reduced movement speed of 110% and cannot use basic or lunge attacks.
  • Starvation progression is enabled for Survivors in a chase.
  • Survivors within line-of-sight and 16m are affected by Tempting Glare, and receive accelerated Starvation progression by 370%. This progression increase is evenly distributed to each Survivor currently affected.
  • Progression to Starvation 4 is considered unique, with Tempting Glare only unlocking it. It takes 4 seconds to progress from Starvation 3 to Starvation 4.
  • Survivors affected by Tempting Glare are highlighted to you based on their Starvation tier: white for 1 - 2, yellow for 3, and red for 4. This updates dynamically as Starvation accumulates on them.
  • You can see the auras of Survivors in Starvation 3 - 4 further than 16m from you. These auras are red, regardless of the Survivor's tier.
  • Being blinded or picking up a Survivor reverts you to your default stance automatically.

Whenever a Survivor interacts with a Pillar of Fruit, Tempting Glare receives an increased movement speed of +15% for 4 seconds, the duration being stackable.

  • The amount of time remaining is visible via the Power Gauge and only ticks down while actively using Tempting Glare.
  • You receive +1 second for every Survivor in Starvation 4 at the time of interaction, for a maximum of +8 seconds from a single interaction.

- - - - -

The Pale Man's Perks:

Table for One - Your feast is for you and you alone.

  • After kicking a generator, the Survivor who has spent the most time repairing the Generator screams, revealing their location.
  • Table for One has a cooldown of 30 seconds.

Indulgence - The real nourishment of the banquet comes from the fatal mistakes of your prey.

  • Whenever 2 or more Survivors are within 16m of you, Indulgence activates.
  • Any Survivors within your Terror Radius are Incapacitated for 8/10/12 seconds.
  • If a Survivor is hit within 15 seconds of Indulgence's activation, that Survivor receives Hindered (-6%) for 1.8 seconds.
  • When either the Incapacitated effect expires or a Survivor is hit, Indulgence deactivates and has a minimum cooldown of 40 seconds.

One FleshYour tenacity interferes with the Survivor's aura-reading abilities, almost masking your inhumanity.

  • If a Survivor were to detect your aura without the use of an item, you gain Undetectable for the duration of the aura-reading effect.
  • If a Survivor is performing a cooperative action with other Survivors, all aura-reading effects for those Survivors are nullified for One Flesh's duration.
  • One Flesh has a cooldown of 40/30/20 seconds, beginning after the aura-reading effect ends.

- - - - - - - - - -


New Map - The Second Task

The Second Task was a test gifted to a young princess to prove her obedience and innocence. It now serves as the lair of The Pale Man, who litters the floors with the clothes of those who failed and boasts a grand banquet to draw even more to the same fate.

Basic Detail - The Second Task is an "indoor map", but has significant differences from maps such as Gideon Meat Plant and Lery's Memorial Institute. It is a single-floor map around 142sqT that does not feature many complete walls, but the terrain is littered with small elevation changes (such as the dips in Eyrie of Crows) and has a ceiling comparable in height to Gideon Meat Plant's lower floor, emphasizing a feeling of claustrophobia.

Tiles and Loops - The general objects that can be found are mounds of clothes, sculptures, and crates that make up tiles, alongside broken-off pieces of wood and brick. Most tiles are of a middling height, with dips in elevation that favor mind-games. Tiles are small and window-based, forcing chases across the map. Changes in elevation are high enough to cause staggering, making running forward significantly riskier. Due to this, the chase potential is considerably weaker on the Survivor end as there is little room for error, and even perks like Lithe and Balanced Landing do not grant immediate ends to a chase due to the crags forcing a Survivor left or right. Pallets are seldom. As a result, it is overall a killer-sided map where anti-loop killers such as Clown benefit compared to map-control Killers like Huntress or Blight.

Detail - The primary color is a dull orange/brown, and the location itself appears to be a once-lavish palace. However, one cannot shake the uncertainty caused by the long-abandoned interior, crumbling in ruin. The walls seem to almost glow with a malevolence, giving the torches on the pillars and flickering chandeliers above generators substantial competition. That is, where the walls don't feature rich retellings of a malnourished, inhuman being feasting on innocents. Pillars are scattered around the map, giving structure to the complex twists of the cave and hosting a much-needed place to hide for anyone trapped in what feels more like a tomb than a palace.

Structures - In one of the few pockets of the ruin, a feast is laid out across a lavish table, a single chair heading the impossibly fresh display of food. A fireplace lies behind the chair, ever-burning as the ambient sounds of rocks chipping the floor grow ever closer. A Generator heads off the section between the table and wall. This area, The Feast, is the Primary Structure of the Map. Various secondary structures spawn within The Second Task to give landmarks on the map. This can be specific sculptures meticulously maintained, signs of a struggle present by knocked-over chairs, or other means. Exit Doors are marked with a long stretch of chalk around their borders, leading to a rainy, bleak forest that lies beyond. If one exit spawns near the primary structure, a mill can be seen in the far distance.

TL;DR Map - The Second Task is an indoor map that utilizes elevation and small, window-based loops to force Survivors to constantly make decisions in a chase. Elevation serves as both a boon and bane to both sides, hiding Totems and strengthening mind-games while offering Balanced Landing procs and areas to hide from sight, if only temporarily. It is overall a fairly Killer-sided map but is by no means more perilous for Survivors than Shelter Woods or Midwich due to its average size and a plentiful amount of windows.

(This is, by far, the least refined part of the concept, so I'd love to have feedback on this especially. It's an attempt to make an indoor map potentially fun for both sides.)

- - - - - - - - - -


And that's it for now! As I said much earlier, please let me know what you think! I'd like to see if this concept has potential, and all comments help in realizing it!

Post edited by Dahtin on

Comments

  • Jivetalkin13
    Jivetalkin13 Member Posts: 747
    edited July 2022

    You have a lot of cool concepts, however this is obviously a rough draft. I'd like to start off by apologizing if I sound harsh at all.

    First, I'll start off with the perks as they have the most glaring problems. Also, as a general rule when thinking about perks, imagine that every killer might use it and how effective it would be on them.

    Table for One has an unneeded restriction of needing to down 2 survivors in order to activate. It makes it so if you struggle to down survivors, you'll likely only get use out of it at the end of the game when you won't need it as much or you can down survivors effortlessly, in which case why would I need this information perk? If you just had the cooldown on it, it would be fine. Also, having it work on the last survivor that worked on it would be better, because they would likely be the closest survivor and easiest to catch up to.

    Indulgence is not great. There is a reason BHVR has strayed away from Perks that directly interact with the powers of killers. For instance, what if a killer doesn't have an intractable? Killers like Wraith, Hillbilly, Nurse, Myers, Doctor, Huntress, Bubba, Clown, Spirit, Legion, Ghostface, Oni, Deathslinger, Blight, and Trickster get no use out of this perk. Also, does interactables include stuff like Hag traps or Cenobite's cube or Artist's crows? Do locks on lockers count with Dredge? And why specifically Cages of Atonement? If you are specifically pointing out one killer interactable that this perk wouldn't work with, then maybe you need to think about it a bit more.

    One Flesh is an interesting concept, but ultimately not as useful as I think it could be. Why replace your aura with another survivors, when you could just remove it altogether. You even gain the Undetectable status for the duration (which is how long?) Plus, if I have a perk that should show where the killer is and it shows another survivor, I'm just going to know that's the killer, it couldn't be another survivor because the perk I'm using only shows the killers aura, so it has to be them.

    Edit: Also, think about what values escalate with each tier of the perk. You don't specify any values that go up, and some perks don't have any at all.

    The power seems okay. I think if you focused on the effects of starvation as if the survivor is losing strength that could work. No need to block vaulting locations if they are already going through them like slugs if you know what I mean. T1 could be base every survivor is fine, T2 vaulting speeds and pallet throw speeds are reduced, and T3 (which should be the last tier) a further reduction or Exhaustion.

    I would change Tempting Glare completely. I don't know why it would be useful. When using it you have a reduced speed and you can't attack, but if someone uses a pillar you increase your speed...but still can't attack. Blocking windows is fine, but if I can't attack what's the point? They can slip past after you release your power and the window becomes unblocked.

    As for the map, I don't know much about level design so I couldn't tell you if it's good or not. Sounds neat is the best I can say.

    I'd be interested in seeing any revisions in the future and possibly a survivor, but like I said, a lot of changes should be made.

  • Dahtin
    Dahtin Member Posts: 25

    Firstly, thanks for the comment! I didn't think it was harsh at all, and it raised some fairly good points. I'll try to tackle things as they were addressed. Perks were made with not just The Pale Man, but The Blight (for map control) and The Clown (for chase control) in mind so that one does not become insurmountable in their field with a perk, but it seems to have not worked as planned.

    All changes referred to in this post will be updated in the main post as a strikethrough note forwarded by (SCRAPPED) and will be taking PTB changes into account.

    Table for One - The idea around Table for One's activation requirement was to prevent it from being an extremely powerful early-game perk when combined with Corrupt Intervention, and the targeting of the Survivor who spent the most time on said generator (theming aside) was to prevent an extremely punishing, unavoidable synergy with Dragon's Grip. It also punishes the playstyle of hiding around a nearly completed generator as it is kicked and completing it shortly after the Killer leaves, as your location is revealed. That said, you did raise a good point about the activation requirement being too time-consuming for an effect that would be weak on most Killers, so I've updated it in my notes as such.

    • Changes Made - Table For One shows a Survivor's aura for 6/7/8 seconds when used based on perk tier. The activation requirement has been removed.
    • Wording - After kicking a generator, the Survivor who has spent the most time repairing the Generator screams and has their aura revealed to you for 6/7/8 seconds. Table for One has a cooldown of 30 seconds.

    Indulgence - This perk was a tricky one to balance, so I am not surprised that it is the one with the most issues. I decided to completely give it a new effect, as per your suggestion.

    • Whenever 2 or more Survivors are within 16m of you, Indulgence activates.
    • Any Survivors within your Terror Radius are Incapacitated for 8/10/12 seconds.
    • If a Survivor is hit within 15 seconds of Indulgence's activation, that Survivor receives Hindered (-6%) for 1.8 seconds.
    • After a Survivor is hit, Indulgence deactivates and has a minimum cooldown of 40 seconds.
    • This means that on-hit sprints now cover 5.64 m/s instead of 6.0 m/s, for a total of 10.15m for the 1.8-second sprint (rounded to the nearest hundredth). This reduces the total sprint distance by .65m.

    Still not satisfied with how the perk currently is, so I'll continue tweaking it.

    One Flesh - The idea is that if a perk should detect the killer, it instead shows two Survivor auras, with one of those auras being the Killer. The length would be dependent on the usual aura-reading effect. This can sometimes backfire if a Survivor is interacting with, say, a Generator, but any Killers that force Survivors off of objectives for whatever reason (Plague, Nightmare, debatably Onryo) can benefit quite well from it.

    The lack of tiers... and cooldown... was an oversight though. I've redone the entire wording, and the Obsession implementation was arbitrary, so that was removed as well. Also, the Killer can now see the location the Survivor started detecting them.

    • Changes Made - No Obsession effect, cooldown added with perk tiers.
    • Re-Wording - If a Survivor were to detect your aura, you gain Undetectable for the duration of the aura-reading effect.
    • If another Survivor is not performing an action and not in chase, the detecting Survivor also sees that Survivor's aura. A Survivor's aura is then projected at your location, mimicking any Survivor currently in The Trial.
    • The Killer hears a loud noise notification at the location the Survivor began detecting them from.
    • One Flesh has a cooldown of 40/30/20 seconds, beginning after the aura-reading effect ends.


    I'm working on changes to the power now, will post them when ready.

  • Jivetalkin13
    Jivetalkin13 Member Posts: 747

    Table for One is a lot better now. Personally, I don't think it pairing well with Dragon's Grip is a bad thing, but that's just me.

    Indulgence is better, but the numbers could be tweaked and you may have too many effects. I like that it's a perk that punishes survivors grouping up, but the Hindered effect might be too much.

    I still don't understand how replacing your aura with a survivors aura is useful. Maybe if it showed the aura of another survivor at their actual location instead of your aura in your location, that could be interesting. If I'm a survivor and I'm running Object of Obsession, when it activates and I see an aura of a survivor walking toward me, I'm going to know it's the killer, with or without a terror radius.

    Overall great improvements. Keep it up.

  • Dahtin
    Dahtin Member Posts: 25

    Meant to post this sooner, but here is the power change:


    POWER - Gluttonous Banquet:

    Simply put, I like the changes you suggest since they get to the point quicker.

    I also decided to make a small tweak so that healing before the Broken status effect comes into play is more difficult, and thus a greater immediate threat. My goal with focusing on nerfing Haste in Starvation 4 was to prevent Haste perks from being as effective In general, but with the recent PTB build, it is ultimately better to focus solely on having an Exhaustion counter. Everything mentioned below is a new draft of Starvation.

    • Starvation 1 does not inflict penalties.
    • Starvation 2 reduces vaulting and pallet throw speeds by 15%. Survivors cannot stack healing speed increases, and Survivor self-healing speeds are capped at 75%. This makes it so Survivors want to group up to heal themselves as Medkits aren't as effective, and there is pressure to heal before it is too late. This, in turn, assists The Pale Man's revised Tempting Glare ability.
    • (All Starvation tiers henceforth inflict a further -5% to vault and pallet throw speeds.)
    • Starvation 3 inflicts Exhaustion and Broken. Survivors make noises as if they are Injured. Solo repair speeds are reduced by 10% (cooperative repairing is unaffected).
    • Starvation 4 can only be reached via Tempting Glare. After reaching Starvation 4, the Survivor receives -10% to all solo action speeds, stacking with the previous penalties besides vaulting speeds. If the Survivor was Healthy, they are Injured, receiving the on-hit speed boost. See General Changes for additional debuffs.

    General Changes

    • It now takes 45 seconds to naturally progress Starvation through each tier.
    • Starvation 4 can only be reached via Tempting Glare. It takes 4 seconds to charge fully on a Survivor, and progress toward Starvation 4 does not naturally accumulate.
    • Pillars of Fruit no longer inflict Oblivious after interacting with the structure.
    • Starvation 3 - 4 are visible via Survivor Portraits, both being distinguishable from each other. This information is available to all players.
    • The base duration of Tempting Glare's movement speed increase via Pillar of Fruit interaction is 4 seconds, extended by 1 second for each Survivor in Starvation 4 at the time of interaction.
    • Enabling and disabling Tempting Glare takes around the same time as Onryo's Manifest. You move at the lowest movement speed that you would move at between the two stances while swapping.

    Special Ability - Tempting Glare:

    • Tempting Glare enables Starvation progression on Survivors in a chase and increases Starvation progression by 370% on all Survivors within line-of-sight and 16m. However, this progression increase is evenly distributed to each Survivor currently focused.
    • This makes the 45-second progression speed up to just over 9.5 seconds per tier when focused on a single Survivor (100% base in addition to the 370%), but if all 4 are focused at a time, then the progression speed is only increased to around 38 seconds per tier.
    • The progression from Starvation 3 to Starvation 4 is considered unique and is thus not affected by this mechanic, nor does it adversely affect nearby Survivor's progression in Starvation 1 - 2. Tempting Glare only unlocks its progression.
    • Survivor auras go from white (S1-2) to yellow (S3) to red (S4) for tracking purposes in Tempting Glare.
    • While in Tempting Glare, you can see the auras of Survivors in Starvation 3 - 4 further than 16m from you.
    • Main design reasoning: Tempting Glare should be used to quickly initiate and end chases while helping build up your map pressure with Starvation. Survivors who are alone are easy targets to isolate, but grouped Survivors are tricky to build Starvation on. This makes isolation a key goal for The Pale Man.


    This is also a pretty rough idea, but worth posting now so I can work on refining the details off of feedback.

  • Dahtin
    Dahtin Member Posts: 25
    edited July 2022

    Alongside the power change listed above, I made an *extremely* rough redesign of One Flesh.


    If a Survivor were to detect your aura without the use of an item, you gain Undetectable for the duration of the aura-reading effect.

    If a Survivor is performing a cooperative action with other Survivors, all aura-reading effects for affected Survivors are nullified for One Flesh's duration.

    One Flesh has a cooldown of 40/30/20 seconds, beginning after the aura-reading effect ends.

    Post edited by Dahtin on
  • Dahtin
    Dahtin Member Posts: 25

    Earlier today, I talked to a friend about the concept, and they pointed out that the weakest part of the entire concept was the map, The Second Task, by far. I was expecting much since I don't know too much about map balancing.

    They recommended that I ax Breakable Walls entirely and try to focus on elevation due to the interesting plays it can offer. It would be a challenge to implement due to certain powers like The Executioner's Punishment of the Damned, but it could also lead to very interesting mind-games for both Survivors and Killers due to the otherwise average loop walls. It also makes it so the tallest Killers cannot see nor be seen over the loops.

    In this, I added a caveat to make elevation less exploitable for Survivors, wherein Survivors only receive the drop stagger from two opposing ends of most dips. This makes it so holding W with Balanced Landing cannot launch you far ahead of the Killer, and prevents Lithe from having a similar issue on a couple of windows. Other than that, I've refined and clarified ideas previously written into a hopefully more concise package.

    I feel fairly content with the current state of both The Pale Man and The Second Task. With this, I may begin to work on a Survivor for the Pan's Labyrinth chapter. I will, of course, still reply to any new comments and address their concerns. Thanks for your interest! :)