Hot take: BHVR *is* actually doing a pretty good job so far
We all talk about how upset we are about the new broken thing that we all hate from the other side, but can we stop and acknowledge that BHVR has been taking many steps in the right direction? Let's examine what happened over the last year or so:
- Genkick, one of the most hated meta ever to grace this game, was gutted.
- Onryo, a very underbaked killer, was given a pretty significant rework that conserves her original spirit but makes her power more interactive
- Skull Merchant was reworked within the year to something that's still problematic, but more tolerable
- Circle of Busted and 4x heal medkits were gutted to oblivion
- Dead Hard finally stopped dominating the meta
- Gen regression slowly drifted to something that's more healthy for the game, incentivizing hooks
- Anti-facecamp measure is actually well implemented and strictly prevents facecamping, without being another tool for survivors to abuse
- Many weaker killers got smaller buffs and QoL updates that made them marginally, or significantly better to play (looking at Trapper especially)
- Many weaker perks got their potency bumped up a notch and actually became more viable
- We've had some decent recent killers and chapters, with Alien being one of the chapters people have been asking for for the longest
- Quick measures were taken to fix Xeno when he was glitched (although he got overnerfed in my opinion)
- Many of the stronger perks were kicked down a notch, for both sides
- Brand New Parts no longer do the funny 5s gen repair when you spawn together on a 4 man gen
- A lot of pretty strong perks were released, shaking up the meta. Some healthy, others not so much
- A lot of maps were reworked according to feedback
- Some planned changes were scrapped after negative feedback was received instead of implementing them live and taking years to revisit them
- The long-awaited Nurse addon pass that killed Double Range and Starstruck Nurse
- Spirit addon pass that finally stopped MDR+Yakuyoke from being a free win every game
- Billy was given some love
And now, we're finally getting the MFT nerf update, reworks to Red Forest and Garden (arguably the two most survivor sided realms currently), a Trickster rework (in my opinion, they were a little overzealous, but I doubt he'll make it to live in the PTB condition), and a new chapter very soon.
Can I also just say, I really love this approach that BHVR has been taking lately of trying to buff things up to the level of something that's strong, instead of nerfing the strong thing. Some things that are strong should be allowed to exist (like Nurse, like Blight), and BHVR should aspire to make killers that are closer in strength, rather than reducing the strength on those killers to the level of the weaker ones. Of course, there are some things that are objectively too strong, that rightfully deserve a nerf (like UW, like MFT, like some Blight addons, like FTP+BU, and a few more things). There's still plenty of work to do. But for now, can we at least stop and celebrate the overall direction the game has been going in?
BHVR has, indeed, done a pretty good job so far.
Comments
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introducing broken stuff and then fixing it is not very cash money
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Hope next tweak contains more perk changes including Boon & Hex.
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I'll be honest, Made For This made me quit playing outright, so it feels pretty weird to praise BHVR just for undoing a mistake that they introduced in the first place. While fixing something bad is often necessary in game development, it is very different from adding something good.
My biggest complaint is that it often seems like the devs aren't really learning from their mistakes. I mean, how did MFT make it past testing? You'd think the devs would understand by now that Haste is a mechanic they need to apply very carefully, not as a permanent reward just for being injured.
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Actually, doing a pretty good job so far.
because form balance is good for this game.
Only the balance after looking at the win rate and usage rate, analyzing the reasons is the real balance.
Not the loud crying of some player.
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Tbh, i completly dislike the map reworks, at least most of them. Its basically "lets shirnk the maps by 40%-50%, remove 75% of all good pallets and loop strucutres and add some random ojects on the map to prevent it from being empty. If survivors are lucky we may add 1-2 absolutely bad pallets, but not more because we like huge deadzones". I agree that some of the reworked maps were survivor sided but making them killer sided now it not balancing them. Farm maps had a size problem, absoluetly but now the maps are tiny and contain mostly filler pallets. Rotten fields is still fine with its huge nothingness? The Borgo rework was a joke too with its 8 (!) mostly unsafe pallets and no real loop structores on the map besides main and shack. Swamp does not need a rework balance-wise?
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I think it's the opposite. It's just getting worse. Catering to the hardcore playerbase instead of the casuals is a mistake.
This. It's bait and switch and I'll no longer be a fool falling for it.
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-BHVR has been doing a good job
-80% of the list is heavy survivor nerfs with no compensation.
I guess if you're a Blight player then sure, this year has been great in removing obstacles for you.
BHVR has been doing a great job for everything outside of Balance. Their art team has been knocking it out of the park.
But the balancing is terrible and very ignorant to how the game works. Its very clear they play the game infrequently or only play in controlled environs like custom matches.
-Gen slowdown meta is still very much in flavor with pop buff. It's not uncommon to see four slowdowns and DeadLock is as unhealthy as ever.
-Onryo rework did nothing to make the killer better. The efficient playstyle on her is still just as stale and poorly designed as it was before. It just requires more knowledge to pull off.
-Skull Merchant rework was a failure, nothing changed. The merchants that intentionally use their power wrong just so people don't dc are still the same, anyone that plays her correctly shows how nothing changed.
-Healing rework was a failure. Making medkit rarity irrelevant makes no sense, it served to make solo queue far worse. The only plus is that the addons are better than before but the fact hemorrhage wasn't adjusted to compensate just removes anything good from these changes. CoH nerf was warranted ill give you that. But it was nice for sloppy hit and run playstyle to be dead.
-Funny that everyone praises DH nerf when the thing they were complaining about the most didn't get changed. Just how often they see it. Now killer players proclaiming they wait out DH anyways just proves that the perk was never actually overpowered and had sufficient counterplay but people just didn't like being outplayed and the perk was overused.
-By incenticizing hooks you mean down survivor and carry them to scourge hook inside gen triangle with agi and pop nearest 3 gen with pgtw and pain res then proxy camp with deadlock stalling the game until you force 1 for 1s and repeat the process until its a 3v1. This isn't any healthier. Deadlock being removed would contribute heavily to fixing this however.
-Anti-facecamp is a useless addition to the game that pretty much exists to satisfy a quota. Being kissed on hook was such a niche problem that could be solved with specific killer tuning and was mostly solved with the removal of hook grabs. Basement camping and proxy camping are both bigger issues and still not addressed.
-Weaker killer buffs, fine. Though they feel seemingly random and don't actually help the killer too much.
-Weaker perk buffs, good. Background player changes were very nice. But they should stop releasing perks in such a terrible state to begin with. And there's still a ton of dead or extremely conditional perks.
-Alien was and still is a terribly designed killer. The only saving grace is that the justified nerfs put a lot of people off from playing them. I still have yet to have am enjoyable match against this killer and despite having success in running and escaping from them I still see nothing redeemable. Anti-loop killers are a bad band-aid to balancing map design and should be retired as killer design.
-Kicked down a notch you mean utterly destroyed that yeah. But this is nothing new and everyone knew it was coming so nothing worth being upset about. The only perk that was tuned differently was Pain Res getting widely compensated despite its unhealthy nature of encouraging proxy camping to force trades. I still prefer this method of tuning that keeps perks meta but reworks them though. The balancing for Eruption/CoB/CoH/MFT/Overcharge were all terrible however. I dislike perks being scapegoated for inherent bad game design as the fundamental issues remain unchanged. Perk variety just decreases with perk bloat increasing.
-BNP changes are nonsensical and yet another change that exists to fulfill a quota. Commodious toolboxes are still just as overpowered with charge addons untouched which was the entire problem.
-Strong perks for both sides, fine. I actually enjoy when new meta perks are released and don't really mind them if they add more interaction to the game such as No Where To Hide, Ultimate Weapon, and MFT.
-Map changes probably the worst of the bunch. The only good realm change was Azarov which is actually quite a good rework. Every other map change or release has been terrible. Unsafe pallets being the norm is not good game design. Tiny maps becoming the norm is not good game design. Nostromo has to be one of the worst maps they've ever released and I have 0 faith the Red Forest and GoJ changes. As maps continue to get worse and worse camping and tunneling will continue to grow in how strong they are. It's a bad turn of events in my opinion.
DDS, RPD, Gas Heaven, and a few of the MacMillan maps continue to be some of the only well designed maps in the game. They need to take inspiration from these again.
-Reverting planned changes is a good thing. But the bar cannot be so low that this is seen as extraordinary when it's normal for every other game. I am glad BHVR finally caught up in that regard however they still are rusty when it comes to listening. A learning process for sure.
-Spirit and Nurse addon passes are wholly irrelevant because their addons just contributed to them being overpowered rather than being the root cause of it. They're still just as much of a free win if the player is good and I expect Blight to largely be the same if he eventually gets a nerf as well.
Basekit nerfs are the only thing that will change the status of this top 3.
So yeah, I dont particularly enjoy being so cynical but the past year has been largely a miss filled with pomp and fluff changes to give the appearance of better balancing.
The best thing BHVR did balance wise was remove hook grabs and I will praise them for that.
But not much else.
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Now let's get that Blight addons nerf and we will finally be good to go :)
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When biased survivor mains read the patch notes and make an account just to express their discontent: The post
80% of the list is survivor nerfs? I typed it just out of pure memory. I read the first half, and it's all harsh killer nerfs.
As far as Blight mains go, BHVR has been making maps with worse and worse collision, and even breaking the collision on some old reliables. As a Blight main, this was not a good year for us.
How is Deadlock unhealthy? It prevents 3 gens from popping back to back, AND it has counterplay. Pop/Pain Res is a much healthier regression meta than we've had in recent history. Pain Res actually deters tunneling, and Pop rewards hooking and interrupting high progress gens, instead of being extremely oppressive like old 25% pop.
I actually half considered reading the rest and formulating a proper response, but there's no point.
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I will say them doing these map nerfs every patch (like the new red forest one) is one of the most welcome things they have done in a while, literally one of this game's biggest issues and one it has had for years is finally getting looked at so I agree.
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