SWF vs Solo, why is it a so much bigger problem for DbD then for other games
There is no denying the huge gap between solo and swf. Even with recent hud changes, being able to communicate or not makes a huge difference on how well.
The thing that's a little odd is this isn't really exclusive to DbD is it? Practically every teambased game is easier if you can set up your team and communicate vs getting teamed up with randoms.
Why is it a so much bigger problem for DbD then it for games like LoL or team shooter games?
How do they make it work and is there something that can be learned from them to reduce the problem in DbD?
Is it even as big as a problem as we make it out to be or is it another problem that gets amplified by the difference?
I think this is a interresting thing to think about. Do you think solo vs premade team is a lot worse for DbD then for other games and why?
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Because usually, team shooter games are symetrical, while DbD is not.
Imagine you play a team shooter, and one side has an automatic disadvantage. The communication vs not communicating might amplify that disadvantage, until it becomes gamebreaking.
Also, shooters depend a lot more on individual skill, while in dbd, individual skill only helps you so far. In a team shooter, one guy being worse skillwise than average does not too much to unbalance the match. in dbd, it breaks the match.
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DbD thrives on knowledge for the survivors, more so than other multiplayer games. In other games teams can communicate general info, where the enemy seems to be pushing, who needs support, etc. And while that is an advantage it is nothing compared to the ability to let the team know where the killer is so they can focus on gens or if a hook is being camped. Also, planning out your perks together is much more useful than most games.
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One angle people often don't talk about is matchmaking. A plat in a GM lobby is a bug that gets identified fairly quickly in OW, but it's an intended feature in DbD. The DbD equivalent of Masters/GM players are actually rounded down and then matched further down if they're all solo queuing.
You often have this massive skill gap and game sense gap among teammates in solo queue DbD. One player will consistently go down instantly to a killer and a teammate will run that same killer for 2 gens. A remotely intelligent killer just tunnels out the weak link and wins.
With SWF, you get to pick your teammates. Instead of the expected norm of high skill variance, you suddenly have a situation where every survivor might be on equal footing. It's not so much the comms and information that present an issue for the killer. It's the fact that strategizing around the worst survivor gets ingrained in killers because that's the expected norm of bad matchmaking. The SWF probably isn't doing anything special, it just requires the killer to win the game as opposed to waiting for one survivor player to lose the game.
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For league there isn’t a large benefit that VC will give you. You have a good ping system and chat to help coordinate plays around the map. In dbd you have none of this while also having zero idea what builds your team are running.
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Cause the devs try to handhold solo survivors and treat encounters as 1v1. Every other game accepts you may be solo but treats them as part of the team.
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Yeah, thought this too. While comms can do a lot the biggest advantage of swf is having semi reliable teammates
How could you translate that into DbD? It's obviously always going to be assymetrical but how could we make individual skill matter more?
Do you think a ping system of some kind and seeing what builds your teammates are running in the lobby would make a big difference in how Solo vs SWF goes?
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I would saying knowing what builds your team is running would help a lot. I think base kit kindred without the killer aura read would also help a ton.
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Most other games have passive information conveyance that DBD historically has not.
For an example I'm more personally familiar with, we'll take Overwatch. In Overwatch, if you're not on comms (or you play EU and not everyone speaks the same language), you aren't left with absolutely nothing. You can see your teammates through walls, you can see their health + ultimate charge, you and they can actively ping with a variety of specific callouts, there are passive character-voice callouts (EG, "watch out there's a sniper"), there's the death feed telling you who died and to what...
Now, obviously DBD can't have all of those things (and there's the relevant detail that asymmetrical vs symmetrical does impact this), but the general point is still salient. It's why the survivor HUD change was such a good one, it cuts down on the information deficit without relying on players being able + willing to convey that information themselves.
To carry this on, BHVR should absolutely add more. Bare minimum, I'd say the survivor-aura half of Kindred basekit and the ability to see your teammate' loadouts in the lobby and match details screen.
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theyve been buffing survivors and giving them free stuff for years so most survivors dont bother learning the fundamentals of good play and just rely on the free training wheels the devs keep handing out to make up for poor play, its a cycle thats gotten out of control
good survivors in swf just abuse these things and are untouchable for most killers
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