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Miserable new player experience.
I bought this game last week after watching some people play it on YouTube as it looked fun. I cannot for the life of me understand the matchmaking here. I have played 31 games as survivor in total and I have escaped exactly 0 times. There hasn't been a single match I've played where the person I've faced has had less than 1,000 hours playtime. Last night I went against a streamer who had played this game for 9,000 hours. This is absolutely ridiculous in comparison to my less-than 20 hours.
I have no way of learning how to play as I don't get a chance to do anything. How am I or any other new player supposed to have fun, progress or really do anything in this game if I'm being matched against people who have been playing for years and seemingly want to end the match as soon as possible?
When I que up, I'm almost always immediately put into a lobby, which would indicate that there's not a shortage of players, however, it's always with and against players who are very high prestige, some being 100. Why is this happening in a game that actually has a matchmaking system and an MMR system? I shouldn't be playing with these people, surely? If there are no lobbies with players of my skill level immediately available then why can't I just wait until there is, rather than just being thrown into matches in which I do not belong? At the very least, put me into a match with players who are "average" - some MUST exist. I would be more than happy to wait a little longer to actually be able to play.
As it is, my experience playing this past week has been absolutely miserable. I regret buying it and if I hadn't gone over the 2 hour refund window I would refund it. I really don't understand why the developers would think that this matchmaking system is even remotely "OK".
Comments
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I am sorry for this happening to you.
Yeah, we have pretty garbage matchmaking and it's one of the biggest issues we have atm.
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Ranks were better. A new player would start at rank 20 and face rank 20's.
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And people wonder why the tunneling meta is a problem. Whilst this is the meta, DBD will likely not retain new players. I've tried to get multiple friends in this. They usually leave citing tunneling, matchmaking, or general dbd stuff in matches lol.
Sorry this happened to you, OP. Custom games are lots more fun.
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That is really a big issue and your complains are absolutly justified.
If you like, i can coach you the basics of the game. This wont solve the problem of the terrible matchmaking but might help you have more fun and escaping your trials here and there. Feel free to DM me.
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This game overall is very unfriendly to new players. I would definitely not recommend this to anyone, even though I have thousands of hours logged.
Not even the matchmaking. Just simply how much of everything there is & how much grinding you have to do. If you haven't been playing it for some time now, I'd just stay away. Until they improve the new player experience at the very least. Which could take years b/c it doesn't seem to be something they are particularly interested in improving.
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Threads like this are the only time killer and survivor mains will come together to help new players lol. Really beautiful.
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Yeah that really sucks bro. The game is actually fun when you get a chance to learn to and actually play opponents on your level and not sweat lords trying to pub stomp.
If you only play survivor I highly recommend joining the discord and finding a nice survive with friends or swf, there's tons of people that would be willing to help. Solo q aka survivor hell is rough when you know what your doing due to the matchmaking among other things.
I can't help much on the survivor side since I barely play, usually for challenges but I can help with the killer side if you have any questions or anything. This is a game that takes a lot of time to learn most people are considered beginners until about 500 hours give or take.
The only tips I can give you I starting out don't set your personal win condition to wether you escape or not. Try to learn the loops, watch videos on how to run the loops there's a right and a wrong way to run them, also learn the types jungle gyms and which ones are safe and unsafe to loop. go into matches with the sole condition that you improve on something, idc if it's 2 secs longer in chase it all matters in the end. When you take that win condition out and just focus on learning the game it gets better, starting out killers usually will stomp you because it's easier for them at that level as tunneling and camping are almost guaranteed wins.
I'm sorry you started out on a terrible foot, I hate to see another new player leave due to crappy matchmaking, and terrible killers, someone with 9k hours knows exactly when they're playing someone with less than 500, there's no fun or glory in stomping someone whose just loaded the game up. I usually let the low hour players always leave and try to show them what not to do when I come across them. If you ever need to practice against killer hit me up.
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DBD is incredibly unfriendly to new players. I tried to get a couple of friends into it a while ago and there's SO MUCH the game never teaches you that I had to teach them. God forbid someone goes into the game by themselves without someone to learn from, it would be so frustrating and I could completely understand why many would just give up and leave.
And that's without even mentioning the awful matchmaking. When Otz was coaching AnnaChess who had never played the game before, her first actual real game was against a killer with a couple thousand hours which just doesn't make sense. Either the game has a massive shortage of new players (which is believable given what I already mentioned) or the MMR prioritises fast queue times far too much over even matches (which the devs have already confirmed in the past).
I think the devs just gave up on trying to make the game accessable to new players, and left it to creators like Otz to make guides and do the work for them. Shameful.
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Yeah, it's not new player friendly. Which kind of blows my mind since you think they'd want to retain new players, not drive them away. Matchmaking in general in this game is confusing tbh.
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Why the US VS them?
We are all players. Helping out new players that struggle has nothing to do with the side someone plays.
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In no way was that us vs them. I literally said we came together.
Anyway!
We'd all like to help you out, OP! Me and @radiantHero23 here will protecc! You will escape!
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Im not the best survivor, but I'm always trying to help with advice.
If i can be of service, feel free to ask.
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You have my condolences. The matchmaking for new players is pretty bad (like in most other games too). You get paired with some guys that have a lot more experience than you and there is also a problem with smurfs.
Unfortunately, there is not much you can do other than keep playing. The matchmaking will adjust and put you into some more fair matches eventually. In the meantime many of us would be more than happy to give you a little advice on whatever it is your struggling with and there are also some great videos on YouTube to introduce you to the game as a survivor and as a killer.
Something else that can sometimes help is to play the other side to see how people play against you. That way you'll learn first hand what survivors typically tend to do in a match and you'll also find a few things that do and don't work.
Prestige doesn't mean a lot when it comes to how well someone plays though. I have played against some P100s that looked like total beginners and people with low prestige that completely dominated me. Don't let this number intimidate you.
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I've tried to introduce multiple people to this game and this was part of the reason why they quit. This is one of the least new player friendly games i've ever seen.
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yeah the mmr system is reallly bad for noobs
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That sounds rough. Sorry you had to deal with that.
The MMR system simply doesn't work around here. It has been like that ever since the system was first introduced, and I don't doubt new players are getting hit with the worst scenarios the system has to offer.
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As a pretty empathetic person I can understand the problems you're experiencing. It's been something that I've talked about with some DBD streamers time and time again- The core problems, from what I've experienced in my time playing, is that the devs have been focusing so hard on balancing the game and, yes, that is typically a good thing for game devs to do until you notice the main flaw with BHVR doing this which is that they're making the game more balanced meaning it's more skill-based, but if the matchmaking system is gonna be as bad as it is now then making the game solely skill-based is just simply gonna make the game not easily accessible to new players who want to play the game like you. This is, ultimately(imo), one of the core things that is very slowly killing the game for a lot of newer players.
At the end of the day BHVR just simply need to do a similar system that other game devs do when it comes to MMR-like systems which is that the MMR system simply can't get applied to newer players until they've played for a long enough time. Game devs do that kind of system to protect newer players so they can get themselves more familiarized with their games before they get thrown into the main MMR system. The only flaw that BHVR could possibly face with this is mainly all the hackers that get new accounts after getting banned because they would likely all be initially appearing in that part of the game which would also drive newer players away.
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For a new Survivor I recommend practicing at hiding from the Killer and learning to find a generator asap and repairing it as soon as the Killer is chasing another Survivor.
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Sorry for your experience, wish I could say that the devs are working hard yo improve it but their last AMA pretty much confirmed they are not focusing on improving new player experience anytime soon.
That being said, do know the devs are working REALLY hard to bring the mobile skins many characters have over to the main game, so know if you leave youll be giving up your chance to give these devs your money
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I hate to be the bearer of bad news but survivor is very unplayable at all MMR levels but especially new. It is simply balanced too much for killer.
You can try Killer but that is the only way.
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Being a new player to DBD is a very rough experience, no matter what side you choose to play. I'm also relatively new to the game, so I hope I can share a few helpful tips (I started earlier this year with the Skull Merchant chapter).
As a new Survivor player, I would recommend not playing the way that streamers and youtubers tend to play. They tend to be more bold, confident that their skills will save them from pulling off risky plays. It's usually a better strategy to be stealthy but active when you first start out. Unfortunately, this play style doesn't make for great "content", so (with some exceptions) you won't find many good examples of stealthy play from the biggest streamers. But it should keep you in the game for longer and the longer you can stay alive for, the more chances you'll have to learn. Don't worry about escaping much just yet. Even very experienced Survivors like JRM and Ayrun can go multiple games without a single escape through the gates.
Make every game an opportunity to learn something new. Pay attention to what your teammates and Killer's perks do, the layout of each map, common gen, pallet and totem spawns etc. There's an insane amount of stuff to learn (even very basic stuff) that the tutorial doesn't mention at all. I'd also suggest making progressing a tome challenge or daily ritual your main goal for each trial. That way, you'll feel some sense of progression even if you don't ever escape.
I also recommend looking up some beginner guides and prestiging Meg for her Sprint Burst as a priority. If you do a gen with someone else and you can Sprint Burst away, the Killer will probably chase after your teammate instead. Then you can return to the gen later when it's safe to keep working on it. But let's say they do chase you, with Lightweight and Meg's other perk Quick and Quiet equipped, you can often lose a killer that's on your tail by breaking line of sight and vaulting a window or jumping into a locker. Sprint Burst will also give you some defense against tunnelling Killers that like to return to the hook. Of course there are many other stealthy combinations that you can use, this is just one example. Don't be afraid to experiment.
I'd also recommend playing some Killer games. I personally had more fun playing killer when I first started because I felt like I improved a lot quicker at this side of the game. It will at the very least give you opportunity to explore the maps and tiles at your own leisure, experience the Killer's field of vision, as well as learn how the other Survivors play and think, the places they like to hide, where they run to etc. All information that you can use to improve your Survivor games.
I hope you don't feel too discouraged. DBD is a difficult game even for players with many hours. I have over 800 and I still have a lot left to learn.
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Hard to know what to advise really... I started May this year, and thoroughly enjoyed the game right from the get go... and I can't really say why... I'm kinda an addict now...
I feel like in my case I was enjoying the atmosphere and scares as a new player, and didn't really care about escaping... I was just trying to survive longer and just do better than I did before.
I did start off by playing killer initially and watched a lot guides and videos for new players, which helped a lot I think. I do think there are a few key concepts and starting blocks to get going with. I introduced a friend literally on the 28th who had a little trouble to begin with but started getting the idea having fun by game 5. I advised him to just use Feng Min and her perks with Deja Vu, as it gave him a safe guard vs. missing skill checks, gave some info, some escape, and helped progress gens.
If you haven't already make sure you use the THANKYOUFOR60M code in the store. It'll help you with some bloodpoints and a good number of shards.
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that is somewhat normal. survivor has incredible steep skill-floor. In my first 50 hours of play, i remember dying 95% of my games. I do not remember how many game i played but let say i played 100 games in first 10 hours of dbd of survivor. I probably died in 95/100 games. in most games with mmr, you typical starting MMR is usually higher then expected average value of new player so it does take time for MMR to adjust. I don't think there is anything that can be done to soften skill-floor on beginner survivor without imposing rules like, you can only play on garden of joy, badham and autohaven(restricted realms) for 100 games or you can only play vs trapper xyz killers. those type of stuff divide queues and hurt matchmaking but who knows, maybe new player queue might increase player retention.
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I wish that was the case. When ranks were still a thing, new players often faced high ranks.
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I don’t blame you for feeling that way
If I bought the game today I would most definitely refund it
Glad I bought it 4 years ago
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When I started the game I was lucky to be trained by a friend with over 3k hours, learning the ropes as killer and survivor. I can't imagine what it's like right now as a new player with this matchmaking and the opposing sides trying desperately against newer players, sometimes not even aware of them being new.
Best suggestion I can offer is play killer for awhile, see how survivors play, and swap between them and learn from each side and how they play.
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Thank you all for the positive comments, this is honestly a side of the community I haven't seen while playing so far (I've been called some very colourful language for playing like a "bot" and told to end my life multiple times). I think it's pretty sad that some people resort to this over something which exists solely for people to have fun. It seems people forget that this is the purpose of video games. I've had to make my Steam profile "private" after a player with two thousand hours told me he saw I was new, figured I'd be weak so tunnelled me out immediately for "pressure". I can't say I've experienced anything like this in any other game.
For what it's worth, I don't expect to be amazing at a game when I play it for the first time, I don't even expect to win and I'm ok with that, but I would at least like a chance to actually play and maybe learn a thing or two as I do and I'm just not getting the opportunity to do either as I die far too quickly.
Again, thank you all so much for being so kind. I genuinely was expecting a bunch of simple "get good noob" comments, but I posted anyway in the hope that maybe a developer would see and understand the experience new players have playing their game. According to some comments here I get the impression that they aren't too concerned, which is a shame as I still think that this game looks like it could be fun.
I think I'll give it a bit of time and maybe I'll try again at some point, perhaps I'll switch sides, but the past few days have been pretty frustrating and I've just been asking myself what the hell am I doing this for if it's so thoroughly unenjoyable?
Happy New Year to you all. I hope you all have a fantastic 2024!
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It's a seven-year-old PVP game and there's nothing else like it. Skills from other games don't transfer over. It's an impossible task to make it friendly to new players. The only way to attempt to overcome this is to have a friend or a group of friends who can help you get up to speed.
It's the same for any other game that's been established forever. DOTA 2? Miserable for new players. Any online shooter? Miserable for new players if you don't have years of online shooter experience. Fighting games? Miserable for new players unless you're willing to lose most of your games for months. You need friends if you want to get into established games.
DOTA 2 specifically has infinite money and resources and put a ton of effort into making the game more accessible for new players and it's still a miserable experience unless you're the type of person who enjoys learning through losing repeatedly.
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It’s simple. MMR has ruined DBD. Everyone needs to admit it. Demand that matchmaking is changed back to the old Grade system. Watch how better the matches would be for everyone!
Survivor will always play SWF to win consistently. To protect their MMR. This leaves solo players in an antlion trap. They’ll keep losing. So what’s the point of playing alone?
Tunneling at higher Grades meant that the killers didn’t pip. They lost pips. They lost rank. With MMR killers can tunnel without consequence. In fact, they win more now than ever! As they can potentially catch everyone if they do it effectively!
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Lol they don't care about the players they have, what makes you think they care about your experience? No Dev or mod is going to take your post seriously. All they care about, is selling reworked mechanics to a very small group of gamers that like brightly coloured clothing and are happy to play this game for 4+ hours a day. Everything you're complaining about right now, has been repeatedly explained to the Devs and they have done absolutely nothing about it.
This game also has a steep learning curve. It takes hundreds of hours to consider yourself ok as a player, but over a thousand hours to be knowledgeable in everything you need to know in order to play effectively on every map against every killer and survivor, understanding every perk, add on and offering.
This game is dying, there's nothing new being added to gameplay. Just rinse and repeat of sloppy mechanics, cosmetics and a few double xp events. All the problems that were here at the start, remain today, with nothing of any worth being done about it.
It's sad that your experience was bad, but no one of any significance cares about your experience, otherwise they would have fixed the problems that make this game a terrible experience for new players
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There are some perks you should run as a new players. Depending on your play style you can build your own ways of playing. I would start off on Meg for adrenaline. Just survive until all gens are done.
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In my experience the old system was even worse. I of course get awful uneven games now but I had them much more often back with grades.
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You'll all be thrilled to hear that after about 36 games or so I finally got to a point where we had all 5 gens done and could escape!
Unfortunately, Prestige 57 Feng wasn't happy with the fact that I jumped in a locker when the killer came to the last gen, despite me being injured and hooked twice, so she blocked me in a corner until the killer found us and he killed me.
What a marvellous community!!
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Sorry you don't enjoy DBDs new player experience. This game has been expertly crafted and tweaked for almost 8 years so your experience must be intended by the developers, the only other option would be that they are incompetent which can't be true. My best advice would to continue to play solo q as that role really shines once you get some experience with the game.
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This might be one of the worst times to be a new player on either side. Over the years both sides have complained nonstop about anything strong or meta and now what we are left with is the genrush/tunnel meta where everyone seems to be having a bad time, but don't acknowledge that they basically asked for this. Also matchmaking is complete trash
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To be fair the experience is miserable for old players too
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You don't have anyone to play with?! Id play with you and help you learn if you want
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I can’t stand players like that
being in a locker for 1 second is the ultimate sin to those types
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You really just wanna go into the match with the mind set of "OK I probably won't make it out but I'll do what I can. 9/10 you'll pip unless you're ruthlessly tunneled but I'm not finding many tunnel killers anymore. Maybe because I'll loop them for as long as I can but if you show even the slightest knowledge of loop skills a tunneling killer will not chase you for long.
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"9/10..." Pretty far-fetched statement... this is next to impossible at Iri levels as you won't be winning 9 matches out of 10.
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I'm so down to help you learn all I do is play survivor. Send me a friend request @so_saucee_ttv and we can link up and play.
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True. But matchmaking *is* within their power, and seems to be the primary gripe that alot of people - including OP in this very thread - seem to take issue with. A brand new player shouldn't be playing with or against folk with thousands of hours. As someone else mentioned, killers have the option to opt out of matchmaking (ie lobby shop) which renders the mechanic even more unstable. They could start there?
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Except some rank 20 would have 1k hours under their belt, my first game ever was against a 2k doctor.
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No amount of game design can force bitter jerks to not be bitter jerks
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Sure, but bad game design can lead to people who aren't usually "bitter jerks" to act like bitter jerks more often. Also bad design can attract toxic players as well, which in my opinion is apparent in this game.
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Wait until you realize you're being matchmade with teammates who are only there to sabotage you and get you killed.
It's happened often when I solo queue. I'll get set up with 3 teammates who are high level and obviously playing together.
They then proceed to do nothing but screw around with the killer, then lead the killer on a chase right to my position, then run around doing nothing while I'm hanging on the hook, then unhook me just in the nick of time before I can die so I have to keep enduring this.
If you solo queue and get matched with a level ~50, a level ~75, and a level ~100, dodge that lobby immediately. Those survivors are going to ruin your survivor experience so quickly and ruthlessly and then get themselves killed right after you're done.
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While it does suck that the matchmaking needs some changing, they give us a ridiculous amount of blood points quite often , so while you may see someone with "100" prestige it's very possible that especially within the last couple of months every single blood point they've been given has gone into one character, my friend just started a couple of months ago dumped all her bp into 1 character and already has an 100 where I've been playing for years now and I scatter my bp across all the survivors and all the killers so I don't have anyone over 10 ....we joke about mmr not really being a thing in this game and in some aspects it's not , but I understand the frustration of coming in and getting matched with people who may seem like they play a lot , but the reality is they probably just dump all the bp they're given into 1 character and they doesn't take long to get to 100 . I hope your experiences are better going further .
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oh boy, you're in for a wild ride
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Hello. I did the same post a few days ago, and answer was "get better in the game". Problem is matchmaking. You should be with people your level (as a killer or survivor). I dont have exactly the same level of problem but im equally matches 1 in 4th. I have played other game with proper mmr rating, and all games were close. So its à choice of developer to not put in place à proper mmr system. With adjustement for swf / killer / perks. And with à more random gap if they want it to be à party game. And with à teal chose for smurf
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I did match with a few people who were high prestige like that today. I told them I was new in the lobby and asked them if they wanted me to leave. They said no, they would "protect President Dwight at all costs". They all followed me round the map the entire match doing gens with me (I know this is not efficient) and protecting me. It is by far the most fun I've had playing this game yet, even though we lost, It was great.
For those offering to help, I very much appreciate the offers. I'm in the UK and I suspect many of you are not, so I'd imagine high ping would be an issue. I'm also not big on talking, bit of a recluse if I'm honest having being a diagnosed agoraphobic for a good few years. I'm just not great with people in general. I really am grateful for the kind comments and offers! When I created this post I was not expecting many replies and certainly wasn't expecting many, if any, positive replies. You're all wonderful people!
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