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Add a Surrender Option

aarongai
aarongai Member Posts: 160
edited November 17 in Feedback and Suggestions

Benefits of a Surrender Option

  1. Reduces Frustration in Hopeless Matches:
    In some matches, the outcome becomes clear early on—for example, when one or more Survivors disconnect, when the Killer is dominating, or when the Killer is needlessly slugging.
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  2. Encourages Sportsmanship:
    Some players express frustration by intentionally sabotaging their teammates or holding the game hostage (e.g., refusing to escape or trolling). A surrender option provides an outlet for players to concede gracefully without resorting to such behaviors.
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  3. Better Matchmaking Efficiency:
    Allowing a team to surrender will reduce unnecessary time spent in unwinnable matches, improving matchmaking queue times for everyone.
    -

Potential Abuses and Negative Impacts

  1. Premature Surrender:
    Players might surrender too early, denying the possibility of a comeback.
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  2. Trolling and Griefing:
    A toxic player might abuse the surrender option to prematurely end a match out of spite or to force their teammates into an undesired loss.
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  3. SWF Abuse:
    Friends playing together may collude to vote against the wishes of their solo queue teammates.
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  4. Invalidates Hatch Escapes / End Game:
    Players will skip these aspects of DBD by voting to surrender, which some people may not enjoy.
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Balancing the Surrender Mechanic

  1. Require a Majority Vote:
    The majority of Survivors must agree to surrender. Or if only 2 are remaining, both must agree.
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  2. Restrict Surrender Timing:
    Only unlock the surrender option after certain milestones. Some options include: After a survivor is killed or after 5 minutes have elapsed.
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  3. Surrender Cooldown:
    When a surrender vote fails, players may not initiate another one for a few minutes.
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  4. Keep the Match Going:
    After winning a surrender vote, instead of ending the match immediately, remove only the players who voted Yes and replace them with bots. Any who voted No may either continue playing, or leave without suffering a timeout.
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  5. Penalize Players for Frequent Surrenders:
    Survivors who leave a match through Surrender could suffer a stacking debuff that reduces Bloodpoint and Experience rewards to discourage surrendering frequently. For example, each surrender adds a stack that reduces reward yield in their next match by 33%. Playing two matches to completion would remove a stack.
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Overall, a Surrender option would probably be a net benefit for the average DBD player's experience. Nobody likes wasting time playing out a match they feel is already lost. Letting players concede early would help reduce frustration and improve overall enjoyment of the game.

Comments

  • PetTheDoggo
    PetTheDoggo Member Posts: 332
    edited November 17

    I think there should be such an option, but under specific conditions, so it simply can't be spammed for just a little inconvenience.
    It should be always middle/late game only and basically when game is lost for you.

    BTW if one side will have an option to surrender, then both sides (killers, survivors) should be able to do it. I wouldn't even make it vote system, simply if conditions are met, you can leave the game.

  • Masterninja
    Masterninja Member Posts: 427

    YES TO ALL OF THIS

    Also give killers the option to surrender, but ONLY if the match is going very bad their way. For example: 0-3 hooks and 4 gens are completed

  • UndeddJester
    UndeddJester Member Posts: 3,508

    Letting players concede early would help reduce frustration and improve overall enjoyment of the game.

    I'm not convinced of this myself.

    It will make games where you are losing less frustrating, but it will also make games you are winning more frustrating. You only need to look at games with a surrender option already implemented and you often see players have to "feed" their opponents to get them to play the game out. We've all seen and even had those games where a game seems hopeless, and then one good chase suddenly swings the game back the other way. This dies if the surrender option is the common affair.

    I guarantee the average experience will be: -

    • Someone on Survivor will constantly ask to surrender every time it's off cooldown cause they don't like the killer, their perks etc. They won't be AFK, but will otherwise dither and not really bother to play properly in the hope their team quits.
    • The same problem again every time the killer does remotely well off the start of the trial.
    • Every time the survivors are doing well, the killer will immediately concede and they'll never get to enjoy their win.
    • Even in a close game, if the Survivors manage to squeek out an escape, the killer will quit and deny challenges/achievements.

    The one thing that saves this suggestion is:

    Penalize Players for Frequent Surrenders:
    Survivors who leave a match through Surrender could suffer a stacking debuff that reduces Bloodpoint and Experience rewards to discourage surrendering frequently. For example, each surrender adds a stack that reduces reward yield in their next match by 33%. Playing two matches to completion would remove a stack.

    This is the only thing that would make this suggestion work, but I guarantee you if this were implemented we will be inundated with forum threads saying "the penalty shouldn't exist", and justify its removal by citing SoH.

    I am fundamentally against any mechanism that encourages players to quit. DBD needs 5 players to function, and is not an especially long game. We have enough issues with players quitting now without making it an accepted part of the game.

    The only time I would allow a concede is: -

    • If all players are slugged (though I'd prefer a solution to allow survivors more actions when they are slugged at the expense of bleeding out faster personally)
    • If the match has gone on for longer than 15 minutes for the purposes of anything that slips through the cracks with regards to holding games hostage.