We have temporarily disabled The Houndmaster (Bone Chill Event queue) and Baermar Uraz's Ugly Sweater Cosmetic (all queues) due to issues affecting gameplay.

Visit the Kill Switch Master List for more information on these and other current known issues: https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/kb/articles/299-kill-switch-master-list
The Dead by Daylight team would like your feedback in a Player Satisfaction survey.

We encourage you to be as honest as possible in letting us know how you feel about the game. The information and answers provided are anonymous, not shared with any third-party, and will not be used for purposes other than survey analysis.

Access the survey HERE!

SWF need a time gen debuff

RenoPro
RenoPro Member Posts: 69

The game can't be balanced around them and was not created with them in mind( all the visual perk prove it). How many perks where getting nerfed bc squad would abuse them? Adrenaline for example.

This is not a competitive game and should be balanced around the solo Q-Killer experience.

is not a punishment for playing with your friend is just a balance to make the game fair for all.

Comments

  • TieBreaker
    TieBreaker Member Posts: 994

    I'd say no to nerfing SWF. But I genuinely wouldn't be oppposed to a system that scales gen speeds just a little. That would reduce the amount one sided stomps, whilst not rubberbanding hard enough to give someone a black eye.

    That way if survivors rush gens, then the killer gets a little more time to build some pressure, and if a survivor gets tunneled out early, survivors are capable of making a comeback if they play well. It would also make balancing easier, as there would be more consistency in matches.

  • Reinami
    Reinami Member Posts: 5,636

    This is not the proper way to deal with this problem, there are 3 ways that would be good, each with their own tradeoffs, on how to deal with this problem, that would not affect game balance of solo vs SWF.

    • Make voice chat a thing, allow survivors to communicate with each other by default. This won't perfectly close the gap but it would significantly strengthen solo queue communication. Then, killers can be buffed accordingly to deal with the fact that coms is the more normal thing.
    • Remove SWF and force solo queue only. I think this would be extremely unlikely, but in theory it is possible, you can play with your friends if you want using the custom KYF mode and SWF will no longer be a thing.
    • Separate out the queues, create a ranked queue that is 3-4 man SWF only, and a solo queue that only allows duos, and ensures that survivors are either 4 solos, or 2 solos and 1 duo. Then they can balance each mode accordingly. For example, in CS:GO, the ranked mode has a different economy and balance than the casual mode where you get free money and armor for just playing.

  • Devil_hit11
    Devil_hit11 Member Posts: 9,062

    that is fine because it is 3 man swf. gen repair debuff would balance out SWF. It is just that i think it is better to buff soloq to similar gameplay efficiency to swf and then make appropriate nerfs to survivor globally if neccassary.

    at the same time, i don't think it is that survivor needs gen speed nerfs, more so that killer needs base-kit gen buffs.

  • Devil_hit11
    Devil_hit11 Member Posts: 9,062
    edited August 16

    solo isn't getting punished for playing with swf. the debuff is just regular balance for SWF. a modification to the games balance.

    if someone plays against an SWF which is really, really strong, they would have probably lost against them as Solos anyway.

    No. Not necessary. That is why the conversion is about debuff SWF. Even developer themselves admit that 4 man SWF and 3 man escape more often then Solo. MomoSeventh Played Blight for 2000 wins, Only to lose to 4 man SWF. This loss would have not been possible apart from SWF.

    I am not saying that Survivor globally or SWF should be nerfed but SWF does win more on average. Like with any change, it is a blanket change. it is more important to buff killer from lower end of spectrum to the level of dredge's PTB changes than focus on blanket changes but some blanket changes don't hurt for under performing aspects of the game like Gen-kicking or spreading hook for 3rd/4th hook after hooking first 2 survivors.

  • Devil_hit11
    Devil_hit11 Member Posts: 9,062
    edited August 16

    the 20% debuff is off-set by SWF being more efficient at the game. your teammate are suppose to be better/stronger because they're a swf. The goal of the changes is to reduce escape rate to 49% →40% to be in line with soloq.I highly doubt this is actual escape for reference, i think strong swf escape way more than that vs most of killer cast but anyway. we're just using a number showcase the goal.

    When you have to play with those people who have Debuffs, how is this not punishing for yourself as well, even if you are Solo?

    I wouldn't consider a punishment as soloq player. i'd consider a balance change for SWF where SWF has 112 charges to complete generators just like 80 →90 charge change. Me as solo player would stay at 90 charges.

    Like i said, i am not really for this type of change because it creates target prioritization for killer. Like i want to now target soloq players because of repair efficiency+weaker player/weak link of the team and ignore swf even more then what it currently is. I'd rather that soloq have bond-level aura reading and if solo survivor is speed-running the game too hard, then perhaps starting buff killer in some way.

    I am not opposed said changes, but i think it is different route to balancing.

  • pa4n
    pa4n Member Posts: 74

    Like many others have said over the years….Let's start with making kindred basekit.

  • まうっす
    まうっす Member Posts: 24

    Killers and survivors are not friends.
    It's quite normal to balance the game by nerfing advantageous survivors, especially SWFs.
    At least in other games.

  • Donyjunior
    Donyjunior Member Posts: 23
    edited August 16

    If u are really good with the killer ur playing with, SWF will be perfectly balanced.

  • Kaitsja
    Kaitsja Member Posts: 1,838

    Other games nerf things that are advantageous but don't actually harm the experience of playing with friends. No game that I know of punishes people for playing with their friends.

  • Deathstroke
    Deathstroke Member Posts: 3,522

    No best solution is to just tighter the matchmaking. If swf is very good and escapes majority of times they should face more nurses and blights. SoloQ players who struggle should face more weaker killers. Also swf who is not good should face weaker killers. Better matchmaking is all that is needed.

  • JPLongstreet
    JPLongstreet Member Posts: 5,985

    Like a year and a half back or so they tightened the matchmaking up significantly. The result was longer queue times for most players, and the sweatier players complained when they only got sweatier players to go against. The loudest complaining came from streamers who started to get burned out due to stressful match after stressful match repeatedly.

    So the skill levels started to balance out some, but they didn't like it. And as for queue times, each and every time community gets asked whether they want faster queues or quality matchmaking, the resounding answer is always for faster queues.

    So basically players do not want to wait, want fairish trials, but not back to back sweating either. I don't envy the devs figuring that one out. 😕

    Imo the best way to improve matchmaking is to continue to work through the reasons players lobby shop & dodge. When players leave lobbies the awful backfilling happens. The longer people wait the worse it gets, until the system just grabs whoever and throws them in. Maybe it's no lobbies at all, I'm not sure. Not showing Prestiges should help some.

  • Jim_Tonic
    Jim_Tonic Member Posts: 555

    It doesnt even matter what nerfs you oppose on swf (which you shouldnt do. SWF shouldnt exist but now that its here, people shouldnt be punished just because they play with friends in a group.)

    But the fact they can communicate is the strong thing. And you wont ever be able to nerf that.

  • Aven_Fallen
    Aven_Fallen Member Posts: 16,341

    If you think that communication is the strong thing for Survivors, you are just so wrong. Put the same Survivors who play in an SWF together without Voice Comms and you will roughly have the same results.

  • Jim_Tonic
    Jim_Tonic Member Posts: 555

    How so?


    Because swf is strongest when they KNOW when the killer is approaching and they just get away early enough so the killer cant catch up. That only works so perfect with voice comms.

  • crogers271
    crogers271 Member Posts: 1,906

    On a personal level, I'd be thrilled with a game solely based around soloq because that's all I play as survivor.

    Realistically, that's never going to happen. The only chance it ever could have happened to treat SWF and soloq differently was when SWF was introduced. maybe then it could have been done without player anger, there's no chance at this point.

    BHVR also isn't seeking a perfectly balanced game. As it is, you can do things like run double Iri, use map offerings, etc. if you really want to. If they aren't concerned with such things, people playing together doesn't seem to be that big of a leap.

    MMR could be tighter, but that has limits on what it can do.

  • 09SHARKBOSS
    09SHARKBOSS Member Posts: 1,368

    hold on a sec are you a survivor main taking the killers side?

    if so thats nice of you thank you for being one of the nice ones

    but even as a killer i gotta disagree with balancing around the one over the many so i say balance it to solo Q survs personally

  • Memesis
    Memesis Member Posts: 204

    Absolutely not. We've seen swf teams have slightly better escape rates not because of communication, but because it means those survivors are probably just better overall. Gotta remember that people playing swf together are usually more dedicated DBD players than average solo ques.

    Swf teams are not this unbeatable boogey man everyone thinks they are. Punishing team play would kill this game.

  • Devil_hit11
    Devil_hit11 Member Posts: 9,062
    edited August 16

    We've seen the killer equivalent in 2v8 now. Would you say the same there? Should killer premades have a -10% penalty to their movement speed if they queue up together? Or should survivors in 2v8 get 20% faster repairs if the killers are a premade?

    There is no real proof that 2vs8 killer is imbalanced. If anything, i think the problem exists in reverse. 2vs8 killer is too weak when NOT playing SWF killer because they're not using advantage of 2 killers. That is one of the reasons why 2vs8 had so much huntress because non-swf killers was like 1vs8 +1vs8 rather 2vs8. Lone gunner type killers in my opinion will end up being more popular because they don't require any teamplay or team synergy to be effective. this is detachment from original conversation.

    You're punishing these people for simply playing with their friends, making the game experience worse for those who are simply trying to enjoy a multiplayer game. That's only going to drive people away.

    No, It is balancing specific type of gameplay mode. your not being punishment because in practice, SWF might still be more advantageous to play even with said drawback. SWF won't be massive advantage with no downside.

    Not to mention, you're targeting gen repair times of all things. You're specifically targeting gen efficiency, which is not something you need voice chat to optimise. Anyone with good game-sense can repair gens efficiently if they're solo, particularly now we have the survivor HUD action icons.

    I disagree. there would be no statistic difference in escape rates if it did not provide an advantage or any posts regarding nerfing SWF. SWF has faster generators because it plays macro game more efficiently then solo. The combination of many stronger macro elements means that they spend less time healing, more-time pre-running, less time running into pallet dead-zones & teammates make them more efficient at doing generator objective by not running killer into generators. it is that all those aspects of the game are complicated so it is easier to simplify this and just weaken a global variable in generator speed.

    someone upset that SWF /= free wins.

    Post edited by Devil_hit11 on
  • Aven_Fallen
    Aven_Fallen Member Posts: 16,341

    If the players are good, you dont really need communication. Then everyone knows what they are doing. Like, you dont need to tell me how to play the game, I have almost 10k hours. Yet, I only play in a 2man-SWF, simply because I enjoy playing with a friend (and having at least one person to rely on is nice).

    And this is the main strength of SWF - filtering out the bad teammates. You basically lower the RNG of your teammates, in SoloQ you can have awesome Mates in one game and in the next game the Survivors you play with dont know if they play DBD or Minecraft.

    For example, at some point we played with a friend of my SWF-Mate who is a Streamer. So he was not in our Discord Call, yet we escaped more often, because that guy is a really good player and we removed one RNG-factor (a potential bad teammate).

    But overall, most SWFs players encounter dont care too much and just want to play with friends. So while they communicate, they will most likely not communicate in a way that it will significantly boost the escape rates.

  • DeBecker
    DeBecker Member Posts: 324

    Did you even take a look at the latest statistics? Or are just one of those SWF-haters?

  • JPLongstreet
    JPLongstreet Member Posts: 5,985

    I think the the biggest advantage of SWF isn't the comms, which in most groups never use it to its fullest potential.

    It's the midigating of the rng aspect of solo queue. You know if your mates are doing challenges. You know that they'll likely not leave you behind, or get to second stage needlessly, or sandbag recklessly, things like that.

    Much of what makes solo queue so rough is gone when you can know something of your mates, their strengths and weaknesses and tendencies. All of this I feel matters more than calling out killer locations and what perks they're running.

  • VantablackPharaoh91
    VantablackPharaoh91 Member Posts: 580

    SWF does not noticeably change escape rates for Survivors unless they are a 4 man at the highest play level. SWF is not the issue.

  • Jim_Tonic
    Jim_Tonic Member Posts: 555

    that also makes alot of sense, yes. Maybe this combined with the fact that call outs are simply easyer through voice coomms, makes the whole picture why SWF is so much stronger than soloQ, as these things are often more layered.

    I agree

  • Nazzzak
    Nazzzak Member Posts: 5,834

    All this would ensure is they'll all bring gen perks and smash them out even faster to compensate. Then everyone will complain even moreso about gen progression perks until they're nerfed and solo q will suffer

  • Deathstroke
    Deathstroke Member Posts: 3,522

    Well I don't get it why listen to streamers over most players. They should definetely had it more harder I see them mostly sweating as their life on line well as it's their job. They can always start to play more chill and get to MMR bracket where they suppose to be.

    But probably problem streamers has their own community who defend them. Myself I don't find appealing watch someone else play. I certainly would not watch players who can't handle facing equally skilled opponents. That makes them actually bad at the game.

    I do find most players would like having better matchmaking over short queques it's just loud minority who complains. I think lobby shopping should be made punishable. 3 minute ban like tcm did is good solution. Probably the lobby should be just hide entirely.

  • The_Krapper
    The_Krapper Member Posts: 3,259

    If you struggle with killer in 2024 that's a personal problem it's literally never been easier for me, for everyone that has your opinion there are an equal amount of killer mains who share my opinion that if you made this game any easier it would be flat out boring to play unless both sides were given sizable buffs for more fun, I'm literally playing killers like Freddy, wraith, onryo, clown and demo still winning most my matches because nurse, blight, oni, or billy isnt fun for me anymore when you can end a match in like 2 minutes and half the team dcs when you down someone in the first 25-30 seconds, what would even be the point in playing when I could just stack slowdowns on top of the debuff you're suggesting and sleepwalk my way to a win?

  • JPLongstreet
    JPLongstreet Member Posts: 5,985

    My issue with splitting the queues isn't just not likely having enough players to reasonably fill them both. It's how would we keep the sweats out of the casual area, who would roll in there looking to stomp and pillage? What incentives would be enough to make anyone pick a much harder mode willingly? I don't think shards or even cosmetics would be sufficient.

  • JocelynAwakens
    JocelynAwakens Member, Administrator, Mod, Co-ordinator Posts: 1,674

    Let's please keep the conversation civil and constructive, even if we are disagreeing. Thank you!