Family Residence (Yamaoka Estate)

A bit big but overall feels good; the only downside is there are matches where I never see parts of the map.

The map is relatively balanced, but I feel like it favors me as a killer a little bit. There can be a lot of dead zones that I can take advantage of, and not much on the edge of the map for survivors to work with.

However, I do like the way it looks and wouldn’t mind an update is design wise as long as it kept the same esthetic that it currently has.

Map feels brutal on Killer. If you don't have high mobility, you're hoping the survivors make macro mistakes. Loops are balanced overall. It just takes 5 years for people to cross the map. Which is generally worse for killers when it's that way. Also map is very good for stealthing on survivor side. Which is fine, I think variety is good. Just Know some people really HATE stealth survivors.

As many have mentioned, my only issue with the map as Killer is that it can sometimes feel quite a tad large to patrol for Killers without movement abilities should the last 3 gens spread on opposite long sides of the map; however, I think this can be mitigated by Killers choosing more strongly defending certain sections of the map throughout the game to reduce late-game gen spread.

Gameplay-wise, it feels very balanced, though! Probably one of the more balanced maps. The loops are balanced, it doesn't feel like there are too many or too few resources, and the distance between tiles feels very fair. Both roles are very fun to play on this map.

Should the map be shortened for easier patrols, I think the map would run out of resources too quickly on Survivor, because as-is it does feel like resources can deplete quickly and make deadzones across the map. Right now, it feels like there are ample enough resources that this isn't a problem, which is why removing resources could create an issue.

I am not a fan of some of the recent map reworks, such as Forsaken Boneyard and Decimated Borgo, that strip maps down into a small square-shaped map to make things easier to patrol on Killer. Shorter patrols on shorter maps are objectively easier for Killers, but it strips unique gameplay opportunities out from the maps for both roles, and removes a sense of identity and placefulness from the realms, and begins to make the game feel more... well, game-y.

I can't think of any immediate solutions for the long patrol issue without sacrificing the identity and fairness of Family Residence's current design and balance. As I've said, gameplay feels balanced as-is and there are things killers can do to mitigate the patrol issues, but they aren't guaranteed methods of course.

I don't feel that the patrol issues are terribly bad at all. They are definitely felt when it the circumstances do align, though.

I feel like there are a lot of deadzones in this map, and few meaningful places to interact with a chase. If the map were maybe a smaller one with a small handful of very small 2-story shrines, that might be a cool change to see.

The map is a bit big with weird gen placement but overral is ok

-The map design is great and looks wonderful already💚

-Fireflies perhaps?

-We would all love to go up into a 2nd story of main building, perhaps making the map slightly smaller would give room for this to be possible for gameplay sake.

We need more players advocating on the devil’s behalf.

Making all the maps smaller only favors the Killer, and doesn’t help SoloQ at all.

Experienced Killer players have predominantly almost no challenge ending a team of Survivors; any small percentage of time there is some difficulty, it’s from a well versed 4person Survivor squad.

I want a challenge playing this game, not easy 3/4K each match on these ever shrinking realm sizes.

The focus on making DBD easier for newer Killer players has destroyed all SoloQ enjoyment and caused the game to be 3/4K effortless for most Killer players who’ve been playing for a while.

Time to switch it up a bit.

Seems like a waste of feedback opportunity to choose 3 of the most balanced maps.

None of these need any further changes.

Please look at Swamp, Badham, Coldwind and Garden of Joy.

Mostly needs some dead zones attention.

Like everyone else about said its a tad bit too big. It's fun when it's foggy and hiding in the bushes are fun as survivor and ghost face. I think it's pretty decent map, just have a lot of clutter around the map so playing some killers are a pain but that's the price you pay.

Family Residence can be considered more or less a balanced map, but not because it is well designed but rather because it is very bad for both sides.

Most killers can't afford to constantly traverse the map due to its vast length, limiting their options to more territorial playstyles that aren't guaranteed to work out or be favorable (specially when the map's length still gets in the way by providing survivors with undesirable chases far away from the killer's territory); or unrealistic strategies such as killing all survivors faster than they can recover & repair the generators, which only the very strongest killers can opt to attempt and not even them can replicate such performance consistently. On top of the general gameplan, survivors can also use the length of the map in chase to keep running away in a straight path from the killer for a long time before allowing the killer to cut them off (specially effective against many killers that rely on corralling survivors to proficiently end chases).

Survivors on their end have to deal with mostly inconsistent & unreliable safety (and therefore forced to capitalize on the unfun strat of using the length of the map to delay the killer) as well as dealing with the incentivized territorial playstyles from the killer which may involve having to rescue a defended hook in a very thin map that allows the killer to not let you go through comfortably.

In a closer inspection to the safety of the map (to understand why it is inconsistent & unreliable) we first see main building which always provides 2 windows (3 possible pairs) that aren't too strong and that aren't exactly user-friendly for the survivors, while main building being on the weaker side of the spectrum is not necesarily a bad thing, it has to be taken into account when balancing the other resources in the map. The other "stable" resources are shack and the 4 mazetiles which do provide their fair share of safety (the mazetiles should remain 4, a lesser amount would result in inconsistent safety given than its 7 types are not all equally strong and less than 4 would introduce radical shifts of strength between trials).

Then we have the landmarks. The 1x1 landmarks are located around the main building and would be the courtyard loop and the gateway & log loop; while the window in the courtyard is fixed, the pallet in both landmarks is not, meaning that survivors can run to these loops and find nothing despite noone else spending the pallets (note that main building has no pallets, so in an area that you find main building, 2 mazetiles and 2 landmarks, you can see from 1 to 4 pallets, such inconsistency is not to be taken lightly).

The 1x2 landmarks are also inconsistent and will not spawn their pallet at random. The Gazebo (the old looking one) has a variable window that keeps its strength from one version to the other, but the window on itself is hardly a challenge for the killer without the pallet (2 possible spots). The Shrine (the tall modern looking one) has 3 patterns of windows, 2 are pairs of symetrical dropdown windows, while the 3rd is a single middle window that is very weak; either way the loop is vastly weaker without its pallet (2 possible spots too).

The filler loops resemble Ormond's, focusing on rock loops that are overall not too strong nor weak. While the general concept is not bad, Family Residence only gets from 8 to 13 pallets (aprox.), a very scarce amount that isn't even properly distributed all the time. From those pallets we know 1 will be at shack and 3-4 at the mazetiles, but the rest are randomly distributed between the landmarks and filler loops, with no consistency to be expected.

The map itself, Family Residence, needs a massive overhaul to its shape & layout, otherwise it will remain uninteractive regardless of any other change.

The realm, Yamaoka Estate, needs its landmarks to start providing consistent pallets and on a peculiar note: one of the 7 types of mazetiles has no lockers, which is awkward for some killers and those survivors trying to make use of lockers (it is the one commonly tagged as "Labyrinth Gym" and "Maze Gym"), which is an exclusive issue of this realm.

Similarly to sanctum of wrath it wouldn’t hurt if the map was brighter and/or less grainy since sometimes it can be difficult to spot survivors as killer. But the map itself is alittle big could be shrunken but the placement of generators should be fixed due to the map having 3 generators in very close proximity to eachother.

the gen spread on this map can be crazy good for survivors, and sometimes it can be really favored towards killers. this map is also fairly big and has some great loops that spawn 100% of the time. its definitely survivor sided but most maps are anyways

All in all balanced and really not anything noteworthy really. The map is lacking something (though i hope that something will get added soon after that Japanese animal vote!!)

I like the sound of the wind chimes! Very cute!

some of the bamboo I get stuck on as killer or survivor when I think it’s without collision as for me it seems at some loops I can get through and others I can’t?

Too large. If the final 3 gens are on opposite sides and you’re a killer without mobility you’ve basically already lost. I don’t think we should have any maps where the game is nearly decided either direction simply on what 3 gens are left.

Just way to big

Once survivors finish one or two generators around the main building the match is over - so killers are encouraged to stay around that end of the map. The predictable and concise nature of that gen spawn logic betrays the map and often gets brave survivors in trouble, and rewards boring killer methodology.

It’s pretty balanced but just way to big which is why it favours survivors slightly more but it’s not that big a deal

I think it is fine to have maps the size of the Yamaokas, it adds flavour to the game having differing shaped maps and they're not unplayably large. It's the maps that start getting larger after these that are more of a concern imo.

I noticed that many people write about a good balance on this card... it may be so, but it doesn't seem that way to me and I'll explain why.

From the perspective of the "Survivor" role, I noticed a very small number of pallet appearances. I would also like to note that there is almost always a lifeless wasteland in the center of the map, so you mostly have to move along the sides of the map. If pallets do appear, they are not safe, mostly in stones. There must be at least one good pallet near the generator at least. Next is the spawn of generators. It is very difficult for survivors to start generators in the main building and on its sides, since there is almost always a "line" there. I know you'll say right now that an update has been released that fights "triangles", but before you say it, remember what I wrote about pallets - you have practically nowhere to run. Going further, from the side of the "Killer" role, this map is too big and it is very difficult to guard the generators, but on the other hand, it is easy to guard the "line" of generators in the main building and on its sides. Then I noticed that the feature of this map was the longer walls in the "boxes", mainly in those with 2 windows. This makes it more difficult for the killers to catch the survivor. What would I do if I were the developers? I would consider reducing the size of the map, also slightly changing the designs, which would give an advantage to the killers, but in contrast, I would increase the number and "quality" of pallets for survivors.

Not many 3 gen holding killers anymore since the regression update, but fair point.