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What would you do to make the game fun for new players?
I've got 8 friends to get DBD (even bought it for two people) so I would have someone to play with. They all lasted about two weeks because they said it is not a fun game for new players.
What would you do to help new players have a fun experience? I think maybe the first 20 games for new players should be a "training wheel" experience. Where they get to see the killer's perks so they can see why the play is so radically different and why survivors perks don't work like described (it is confusing when they have a perk but the abilities are not functional because the killer's perks always trump survivor's perks. I would even give them a different base build while they are learning, like free self care, unbreakable, and decisive strike.)
DBD has morphed into a game with too steep a learning curve for new players to stick around. Every new killer with new perks just makes the game more complicated and less fun for new folks.
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You are right, the game is very rough on new players and got quite the steep curve. Sadly I got no real solution myself, but I know that your solution would get very heavily exploited by the millions of free Epic Game store account some people got. Just start a new account to get that juicy 20 games of "know your killers perks" and feed that info to your SWF.
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I thought maybe they should unlock all the base survs and killers perks at level 1 as a game starter.
This would reduce the initial grind a bit imo.
The Bot matches are a great thing for killer starters
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I think there's two things BHVR should take into consideration for both killer and survivor babies: Killers really need a practice mode, and I mean for every Killer not just basic Trapper. I'm an experienced player myself and even I don't like trying new killers most of the time cause I'm immediately thrown to the wolves with Survivors who are here to play, not babysit. I don't think it's fair to make someone try to learn how to ping pong with Blight against skilled players right off the bat. As for Survivors, I think your suggestion is pretty good! I've never though of implementing an idea like that, like a free cheat trial run. The only way I can see this being abused is if SWFs just keep making new accounts so they can essentially cheat and call out everything to friends as an easy win. But if BHVR keeps getting better at tracking these accounts down I think it's a possible option 😊
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Honestly, probably something like "here's a bunch of iri shards" (or maybe a new currency type that can't get cosmetics and killers), and fixing the whole shrine of secrets mess to not be 'hope something good comes in on rotation.
Just so people don't have to play the game for fifty hours to get a reasonable perk assortment.
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There's a definite learning curve. I'd advise them to hit up bot matches if new to killer, and to watch content creators tbh. I saw how good many of them played and wanted to reach that same level. It just gives you something to strive for. It also helps to not take the game so seriously either.
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Your friends are right. The game is very beginner-unfriendly.
However, it's not just about your first 20 games in my opinion. That would not be enough. Technically, there's already tiny training wheels in place in the form of knowing which killer you're facing and receiving brief advice on how to go against them for your first 3 games against every killer.
But you don't get better at the game, or very marginally, from theory. Especially as survivor when you're starting out, since you're very underpowered compared to killer when you're inexperienced.
Considering you can't reasonably buff survivor more than they are, and that the ensuing balancing on the killer side will probably be very rough on new survivor players, the only thing that would realistically help new players is a much more precise matchmaking.... Which won't happen.
Unfortunately, new players just really have to strap their asses to their chairs until they've practiced enough to get better. :/
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They got to be willing to spend money and grind the game
They got to be able to soak all of the information that the game offers
They got to realize that the game doesn't hand them anything
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I don't think that if this game is unfun for a new player they would really enjoy it as an experienced player. Being invested in dbd is part of the appeal. I feel like people that say that would be the kind of people to try all of the stuff available and then get bored of the game.
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I'd say the "beginner" experience and the "casual gamer" experience are kinda similar. I've seen so many people showing off saying I've X amount of hours in this game, it's a skill issue, it's experience, get better. To a certain extent it's true, we do need to learn how to play certain games, but a lot of people don't have the time to dedicate the amount of effort needed to not get completely wrecked at this game and come out the other side feeling like theres no point playing lol. Can we not just have a game we can jump into and enjoy casually instead of this competitive and overly experienced mess that we're in at the moment. More bots, more causal games are needed. For beginners a reduction in the initial grind is very much required.
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Make the game less grindy and p2w to get the best perks, but to be honest with the state this game is in right now very unlikely.
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New player experience is awful, tied only with Mobas in terms of how little you start with, how awful the grind is, and how many things you are going to have to learn by experiencing it first hand
As others have said, reducing the grind is probably number 1 as well some screens that make it far easier to understand how killer powers work, what perks can do what, what items are used for, and how add-ons impact powers and items
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Rework how Perks are unlocked:
Complete (Kill all survivors as Killer or Escape as Survivor) a game of Player vs. AI and you unlock a tier of Perks for the Character you use, up to tier three after playing three games.
It gives a meta reason for everyone to use the Bot match system while also acting as a good introductory system for new players that removes them from diving into the PvP aspect immediately.
You can even make it so that you have to successfully use the Perk in the AI match to unlock it, such that effectively any new player will start looking into the effects of the Perks instead of just bum rushing the same method over and over.
Could even make it so that these AI matches have help text in them if a player hasn’t unlocked a single Perk for that character yet. Turn this system into effectively a tutorial wherein you’re unlocking more game mechanics as you go.
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At this point they should make 3 or 4 of the oldest non-licensed killers free and make more universal perks. Perhaps reduce the cost of purchasing non-licensed characters too.
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I do understand you. The same is true for a game like e. g. League of legends. With more and more champions the game gets more complicated. But somehow league remains one of the most played games actually.
Yes, the first xx hours is more or less pure learning. Sometimes fast and sometimes slow. I, personally, don't think dbd is too complicated. I read a lot on the wiki about perks and mechanics and killer powers... But that is just me. I was really interested in learning dbd.
I think your best bet would be to explain your friends a lot while playing... And maybe that dbd isn't always about winning but more of that experience playing dbd with friends.
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I think this is true, but probably not as big of a problem as it is made out to be. If you just want to play with a free Epic pass then you are not going to ever build up any characters. Let the cheats just keep making new accounts and being stuck at the shallow end of the player pool.
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I think the main problem is there is not a protected core game mechanic. Just way too many perks to try to learn. There should be a base game where not everything can be changed by a perk which greatly alters gameplay. Add to that the fact lag is also a major factor in altering gameplay; it is hard to learn a game which has the tendency to screw players over frequently with bad lag problems.
So the current course DBD is on is new players will decrease, so there will probably be some attempt at giving the game away, which will result in worse games as new players play a few times and quit, and then the number of older players sticking around will decrease as frustrations trump fun.
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More original characters made free. Console gets Chapter 3 and 4, aka Feng, Ace, Hag and Doctor unlocked by default because it is included in the price of the game.
I think all versions should have this, as well as Chapter 8, 9 and 10, so Clown, Spirit and Legion as well as their survivors.
Forget the DLC sales. Think about it, if you include them for free, you'll sell more outfits, right?
One of the most boring parts of being new was how few characters I had unlocked. Grinding shards and waiting to be able to finally get a new character.
I guarantee that the community goodwill, word of mouth, good PR and boosted outfit sales that BHVR would get from making all these chapters free would more than make up for the chapter sales.
Add in 5000 shards or so to players who already own the chapter and we're golden.
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5000 BP welcome bonus.
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There's a lot of grind still for beginners, especially on the killer side. If you don't want to just be a one-trick pony, it will take a lot of time to get enough stuff unlocked on the killers you want to play. And the rng nature of the process usually makes the whole ordeal even more frustrating.
What would I do? Remove perk tiers.
We also lack a mode that could let players at least practice the fundamentals (survive with bots ain't it). This affects survivors the most, because they have a lot of downtime in normal matches, whereas the killer gets to be in every chase. Compare that to an fps game, you don't go straight into comp mode, you can practice in deathmatch and even if you die a lot you get a redo in a few seconds. Inexperienced survivors just go down fast and then get to contemplate their life choices on the hook.
Add a 1v1 mode, or a 1v1 with bots with fast reset whenever downed. Also, AI would have to be improved. That could be done with machine learning algorhytms on real players' trials.
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- Remove perk tiers
- Include killer bots in custom games so survivors can use that as a learning tool too.
- Make it a little easier to obtain Iridescent Shards.
- Reduce the max character level to 40. This would make presteiging easier and will allow new players to get other characters perks on all of their other characters easier.
- Reduce the shard cost of new characters. 9000 shards is ridiculous to purchase a new character.
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tell them to play solo as a survivor. or play in a private custom lobby until they get used to the game.
do not take them online in an swf comp.
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also - you can gift them some packs. this is risky as they might still not enjoy the game, but more options makes for a better experience.
my best recommendation is still just custom matches in a friendly party chat. once they get a decent understanding of how people play in relation to one another they might be able to internalize it in a match.
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An Unranked mode... would really help those that are newer to the game
No Grades, No Prestige... just show Devotion level (maybe or maybe not)
Or give generic builds to newer players... instead of letting them pick (pros and cons with everything I know)
Then again as someone already said... KYF with someone who knows the game (not everything but enough to teach newer players what they need to know)
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There needs to be lots of QoL changes.
Particularly a 'tutorial' mode but online so you can go against new players as both killer and survivor. This mode would only allow the new players to que up, for example any player with less than 50 hours played. And as they go on in the match, give them tooltips in the corner or a safe area of the screen, like advice on looping, efficiency, map awareness, perks, etc. A lot of people absorb that info in real time rather than after the match.
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Trial by fire is the best way to learn I think. If you have it easy the first X number of games, what are you going to learn?
Calm seas do not make a good sailor.
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That is the current model, it drives new players away. Or it drowns sailors, to follow your analogy.
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For starters, it would help if the couldn’t be matched against semi-pro players with thousands of hours. The current SBMM system doesn’t prevent new players from being matched against semi-pros, especially during peak hours.
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Under the tutorial page I would have videos from BHVR and certain fog whisperers about various aspects of the game. Watching these would give you up to 1 million BP (enough to get 1 character P1)
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The game need better tutorials for Survivor and killer bots so they can practice.
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Get rid of the perk slot level lock for one. Idk why this is still in the game and it's an ABHORRENT system that really keeps you from trying new things as you want to level them to try to "play with a full deck" so to speak. Steam players (maybe all pc players I have no idea) also don't get free access to multiple chapters like console players do, leaving a fairly large amount of perks behind paywalls (whether it's an in game currency paywall or cash paywall it doesn't matter) Also if custom matches (bots or otherwise) could give a BP at a reduced amount that would also help as they could learn how perks worked and what perks to use instead of trying to learn through random games where the killer has no idea that a newbie is just trying to learn.
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- Custom killer bots to practice.
- Killer charts to see how they work with pictures, arrows and that stuff. Instead of a block of text.(Also for killer)
- Better MMR system.
But yeah, this game is not friendly for new players, a lot of skins, powers and maps to learn in 2 or 3 games.
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At this point Behaviour has enough income and data to add some new game modes. I would love to play DBD as a completely offline single player experience. All bot killers and all bot survivors. Imagine if DBD was like a single player adventure game where you have to beat every killer on every map as a survivor player and where as a killer you had to get 4k kills on every map. This would be fun when I am in an area where there is no internet and would also allow new players to learn the game.
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