Hot Take: Gen Rush

You're absolutely right, at this point I can no longer blame survivors for genrush meta, it's clearly a failure in game design and something the devs need to address and as usual probably won't until it's far too late.

it’s hilarious how there’s always an excuse that “forces” killers to camp or tunnel. Don’t you know that every survivor is consistently solo cranking gens for efficiency and if they’re not they’re optimally running loops with made for this??

/s

People want change camping is boring even as killer unless your bubba.

I personally find the interaction with the killer the most fun aspect of the game as a survivor. But when that interaction turns into them staring you into your second hook stage after you've looped them or god forbid stunned/blinded them, then there isn't much fun left to be had. But it is what it is :)

This is a "you can't put the genie back into the bottle" type of situation. In the olden days gen rushing and focusing on gens existed, but mainly due to old DH and several other mechanics, survivors were so safe that they didn't had to and could just fool around. Then 6.1 and the gen kick meta turned this upside down and survivors adapted by hyper focusing on gens and especially splitting up. No more cute "working on a gen together while discussing yesterdays hot topics and shaking the head at your friend if they messed up a skill check", now it was splitting up on gens and making the killer pay dearly for every second that a chase lasted.

Over time Eruption and all the other gen kicking perks, and basically all slowdown perks, were nerfed and shut down, but now not only a select few "SWF - complike teams" used splitting up as the true meta (most effective tactic available), but basically everyone did.

And the same was happening on the killers side. Tunneling was always the most effective way, but it wasn't always necessary and it always came with the stigma of being a bad and unfun player, as a lot of killer players could do without. Same with 3-genning; 3 Gen was ALWAYS a very good tactic for killers, heck, when I started out and watched some "how to play killer" or "killer 101" tutorials, 3-genning was always mentioned as an advanced tactic to keep in mind and I sometimes did it myself. Not in the hardcore way, but I would look at the gen split at the start, decide at a good 3 gen and then chased the survivors off of those and went on my normal business. When I could defend the 3-gen, I would do so, but when I had to chase someone, I would prioritise that. Then the gen-hyper-focus-split-up meta happened, and a lot of killers adopted the 3-gen tactic, until it got noticed by nearly every survivor and got called out for being "the next unfun thing toxic killers do!!11". Well, and the addition of the Skull Merchant with her kit tailormade to holding a 3-gen, but not really winning chases, right in the aftermath of the Knight, even aggrevated the problem.

Now we are at the situation were both, the survivor and the killer population at large at not only vaguely aware that splitting up and 3-gen plus tunneling someone out asap are the strongest tactics, but they actively play that way. Like I said, the genie is now out of the bottle and you won't be putting it bad by just saying "thats bad and we don't want DBD to be played like that".

Here is a possible way out:

1) give the killer old BBQs BP bonus at basekit, but only increase the counter for each survivor hooked while everyone is still in the game. This gives the killer a side objective besides tunneling someone ASAP.

2) give the killer a mini BBQ that shows them a single survivor that hasn't been hooked yet, after hooking a survivor, thus peeling them away from the hooks and sending them after someone fresh.

3) give the survivors some kind of debuff upon being hooked, but only as long as everyone is alive. Basically, don't make the killer sabotaging themselves and shooting themselves in the foot by keeping survivors alive, MAKE them WANT to keep everyone alive; at least until everyone has been hooked at least once.

3.5) maaaaaybe throw in a Grim Embrace like effect at basekit, once the forth survivor is hooked and anyone is still alive and block all gens for a while.

4) inverse the gen teamwork penalty, ie make gens go faster when survivors work on a gen together, but let gens repair slower when they split up. Splitting p would still be possible, but there wouldn't be 3 gens popping in union after the first chase, anymore. This whole thing would allow the game to go back to the good old times where it was "one survivor lost a chase and got hooked" - "a gen gets done" - "another survivor gets hooked" - "another gen gets done" - "the playing field shrinks ... uhhhh ... things get spicy now!!!1"

5) give all remaining survivors action speed bonuses for each dead teammate and 30s of undetectable. The killer could tunnel someone out, but this would strengthen the remaining survivors and rob the killer of all the Entities debuffs on the survivors and slim down their BP gains severely.

6) each month nerf the 5 most used perks in some numerical way, while buffing the 5 least played perks on both sides. Next month the last month changed perks wont count for the next round of nerfs/buffs. Thus we would get a living meta that ever evolves, with meta perks falling out of favor, old favorites coming back and new fun perks becoming suddenly eligible, until they are overplayed.

6.5) (a bit controversial) make only one OG chapter and one Licensed chapter per year plus one Community contest chapter. Reserve the last quarter of the year for game health.

In essence, we want to somehow give the killer a reason to go for more hooks and not tunnel someone out asap, while also give survivors a reason to not split up on gens and be out of the exit gates in 4mins. And we won't be reaching that goal by only aplying the stick in abundance, we also need some carots on both sides that promote the behaviour that lead to more fun games on both sides.

Definitely not the same one I've been playing that's for sure..

I mean you have to look at it from both perspectives. I am never that kind of player no matter which side I’m playing. I just do my best and when people are toxic I put it aside. It’s harder for me to deal with toxic killers, personally, because they can rob me of even being able to play the game. Even if survivors get gens done quickly during my killer games I’m still able to do a lot and have a fun time. I never take a “loss” to heart and only get upset if I’m pushed out of a game right away and that includes people disconnecting.

I’ve no issue with the “you’re dead, game over” way that the game works. I just think that it’s a lot easier for killers to take advantage of this. The game is designed for survivors to get caught. If things like tunneling and camping are going to be legitimate strategies then survivors need more resources to be able to elude them. But if you change certain dynamics like movement speed, endurance, etc. people just get all upset. I don’t think the game can ever be completely balanced (nor should it be) but it has to be fair to both sides,.

If i remember correctly, Deathgarden's final nail in the coffin was removing the need for the runners to rescue someone from that bloodpost. With instantkills and respawns, there wasnt any need for runners to do any helping actions but rush gathering blood. It killed the team interaction.

Hope that never happens to DBD.