Good Reasons why should BHVR balance around Solo queue?

Or just simply relegate swf in custom matches, so you can finally balance around solo q with less troubles...

I'm not going to say that Killer should get nerfed, since I don't believe that by any means- but I do definitely think that doing some more balancing around Solo Queue isn't really a bad thing. I think buffing them up to the point of SWF is a good thing and balancing around that (Specifically with more HUD changes and updates.) is the way to go, and then balancing Killers from there.

But tbh, I definitely think that the actual power of SWF's is very much over exaggerated. In theory, SWFs are 100% stronger then a lot of Killers. However, the amount of Survivors who are actually at that level who also play in those extremely coordinated SWFs aren't actually that high. A lot of SWFs tend to just be friends who are just... having fun, and as a Survivor player, I can't tell you how many times my very bad, meme-y SWF group escaped- not because of anything particularly special on our parts, but just because of the Killer making a series of mistakes. And this was true in a lot of my Killer games as well- I'm not going to say that there wasn't some games that weren't decided by RNG or something, but man, the amount of my games where I lost, it was usually because of the Survivors outplaying me.

Ngl, I just think that even if Killer was stronger overall, it wouldn't really change some of the core issues of Killer. Absolutely stomping Survivors constantly isn't fun. Balanced games are hard to make or decide, since the game is a 4v1 but matchmaking is decided by a series of 1v1s. And that can't be changed unless there's a change to the core gameplay flow and how things are scored. And, even if that was achieved, it doesn't stop the fact that loses for Killer feel harsher, since your mistakes are only yours. You have no one to blame, unlike Survivors who can blame their teammates all day long. Really, I'm not sure how that would even be changed to feel better either. Making losses feel less detrimental as the '1' in a 1v4 game without holding the player's hand too much or keeping the gameplay fun and based on skill isn't really an easy balance to reach, and I don't envy the Devs for having to try to tackle that issue.

So yeah, I just think the issues are deeper then Survivor vs Killer, and have been for a while. Along with that, I don't think balancing some things around Solo Queue is always horrible or detrimental, just due to the amount of people who can actually coordinate things like that well are pretty low, unless it's a tactic that doesn't really require any teamplay to pull off. (A good example being an old 4-Man Sabo/Break Out group vs old 4-Man Boil Over groups on RPD. Old Sabo Groups were annoying, but required a lot of set up and coordination to pull off, along with an entire build dedicated to it, and it could easily backfire and possibly kill a team- so even though it was frustrating, it wasn't game breaking unless RNG was against you. 4-Man Boil Over groups on RPD required little coordination, since even one guy sitting in the old spot with Boil Over (or two) with the full build changed the game and it wasn't reliant on your team work or coordination. It was purely reliant of 'Can you get to corner' and, if you were Solo, 'Did you put up Boon first?'.)

Why I think "action icons" (who is being chased, who hears the heartbeat, who is working on a gen, who is healing etc) is the only good way to bridge the SWF-Solo gap

Proximity chat problems:

• I don't want to hear any people I don't know in solo games
• It will be abused
• it will destroy the atmosphere of solo games
• There's a problem with different languages, especially in Europe
• Some people will refuse to talk
• Some people can't talk, because they don't have a headset or for some other reason
• If Killer starts chasing you and you are far away from other survivors, how do you signal them that you are in a chase? Same applies to repairing gens etc
• 2/3 man SWF won't share any info with solo survivors

Chat-Wheel Problems:

• Many people are too lazy to use it
• If Killer starts chasing you, you have to press a button and choose the appropriate message, you simply don't have time for that or you will go down
• Each time you start working on a gen you have to press a button and choose "I'm working on a gen" message. Who would do that? And each time you stop working on a gen you have to press something else again? No one will do it.
• 2/3 man SWF won't share any info with solo survivors
• I don't want any additional GUI clutter

We already have state icons in the HUD, they just need to be expanded, why do we need a second system for information sharing? We don't. It's passive, it means the information doesn't rely on other survivor's will to share information, it doesn't require any input from you, so you can do more important things in the game, it's language-neutral, it's always available to all survivors.

"Action icons will also buff SWF": They will, but not nearly as much as soloQ, that's the main point. Solo and SWF will never be the same, we just need soloQ to be much closer to the level of SWF. It will make it easier to balance DBD the proper way and make more fair games for solo and killers.

"Survivors will be too strong after such a buff": no one is talking about buffing survivors here, if survivors will become too strong DEVs can buff killers or nerf survivors in a general way.

Ok ok, i admit i expressed myself a little bad here. What i was referring to, was the basekit changes. That are small changes. But according to our community had a big impact.

I have never understood this vague hand wavey "buff solo to swf then buff killers!!". We have seen what just adding 10 seconds to gens has done. Do you really want to trade another 10-20 for base kindred? Or an action wheel?

We already hear tons of unfun complaints about chase times and anti loop so you can't make killers faster and we have also seen how .2 seconds off survivor sprint and .3 seconds has brought solo survivors to it's knees. Want to add another .2 in exchange for a voice comm system?

We can't have strong 1v4 powers(pinhead), we can't have strong mobility(blight, nurse, spirit), we can't have anti loop(nemi, pyramid, dredge, artist). So to everyone saying "buff solo to swf then buff killers", I have to ask how? Even the most miniscule of changes has collosal backlash and knowing your bad Claudette is self caring live vs when you get out on a hook probably isn't worth another 10-15 seconds on gens.

Solo queues real problem is getting randoms who have completely different goals and skill levels from you. 'im cleansing all 5 totems this match'. 'im running a silly meme locker build'. No amount of info in the world can make up for these players.

That would be the best step. But watch how that idea gets instantly smashed.

Your last point is funny in the context of the current patch. "Let's buff survivors, killers can wait a while" is exactly whats happening just role reversed. And people are loosing their goddamn mind over it.

Also: SWF WILL USE ANYTHING BETTER THAN SOLO, because they actually care about each other getting out, or have weird mental gymnastics that make 3 dying to get 1 out a "win for the team" somehow.

As for the chat wheel? Does anyone here say it should be implemented INSTEAD of the icons when the devs already did mention those are in the works? Its just a middleground between nothing and real comms, just with predetermined sentences instead of "squeaky teen screech". The basic callout "Focus Reparing" or "heal me" are so useful. The game or survivor doesnt have to stop to activate a button and flick your cursor in a direction for a moment, IF its to clunky or slow, then thats on the implementation, not the concept.

The whole "wont use it" is stupid. "We have those tools but decide not to use them correctly or at all" is actually on the players, not the devs to balance.

The most obvious incentive is that the stronger solo queue is the more likely people won't feel like they can only play DBD if their friends want to play SWF.

The downside is, of course, it can make SWF even stronger if done incorrectly.

Solo queue should be brought up a bit. More info. Icons telling what your fellow survivors are doing. Chase indicator for non obsession. And basekit kindred. Maybe make the killer immune to kindred and only kindred for 10 seconds after a hook to make it more fair. Those would be massive help to solo.