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DBD survey slugging questions
There were quite a bit of questions about slugging and when it is fine or not to do. I’m guessing they are trying to do something about it because there is going to be a large influx of new players with FNAF similar to Resident evil and want them to stay since dbd player count isn’t rising to much. Good on behavior for trying to do something about the most boring aspect of the game. What do you guys think about the survey
Comments
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I mean, it was clear that something will be done about it, Killers are just overdoing it and there is way too much slugging outside of getting a bit of pressure or avoiding something like DS (as if this is needed nowadays anyway). So good that they are starting to look into it. Even tho I dont understand what difference the Perks make. Sure it is a bit dumb if a Killer has a build which gets a lot of value from hooking but still decides to slug a lot, but thats about it.
Overall, I think the Survey was fine. But having to click every Character I own manually instead of just having a Button to select all let a bit of my soul escape my body.
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Yes I noticed that and it is a good sign that they are looking at doing something, as it is starting to become a big problem of late.
You cant just leave your paying customers to frequently have to endure 4 minutes of not being able to play the game so the sooner the better.
I totally understand strategic slugging for pressure and I accept that as survivor but I think what we are seeing lately is not that at all.
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I wonder if they’ll come up with another perk to address it (a la Unbreakable, No Mither, Exponential) like they’ve done for tunneling, which is still a problem.
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People are overreacting as usual. You used to be slugged for the 4K or to deny a 4%.... Nothing has changed, just change the 4% for the Finisher Mori. Then there are those rare occasions when a killer wants to be a ######### and intentionally let several survivors bleed to death, but it's not common at all.
Anyway, all this could be easily solved. Making the survivors be able to accelerate their bleedout or that the Entity sends them automatically to a hook after a reasonable time. However, we already know that they will choose to turn all this into an undeserved comeback system, because it was already tested once... and that's why there is so much controversy, the survivors are pushing the devs to be rewarded for losing.
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Or make a new band aid perk.
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If they would address and balance the game with what’s possible to achieve and don’t factor in community driven perk patches and unnecessary killer nerfs (like chucky) it wouldn’t exist, but since the game is balanced according to popular survivor demands, they will add on base kit unbreakable and give base kit abilities from the 2vs8 event. You know, arcade survivor wins mode.
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There were so many questions on the survey by the last parts I think I was clicking random boxes cause I wanted it to end lol.
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Removing the ability for killers to snowball into a win is a joke
The main thing that needs to be addressed is being left on the ground for 4 minutes when they finish up the slug in 1 minute, let survivors bleed out faster after a set time when they lose so they can lose faster. Instead of some killer just standing next to them nodding for 4 minutes
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Anti-slugging mechanics shouldn’t be seen as rewarding survivors for losing. Just as Anti-Tunnel or Anti- camping shouldn’t. It’s just a preventive to avoid exploitation. It’s like the equivalent of perks and abilities having cool-downs or flashlights only having a limited amount of charges. You can still tunnel but you risk making it take longer the second time. You can still camp but you risk filling up the survivors bar. I’m sure you will still be able to slug, but maybe not all 4 people, or if you stay in the slugs proximity they remain on the ground but the farther away you get from the slug the faster the recovery time would be. The core issue is addressing the frustrating and unengaging experience of being left on the ground with no way to participate in the game. Slugging removes player agency. Prolonged slugging till bleed out or slugging all 4 to hook to kill once is a way to circumvent the way the game was designed by using hooks or hook stages and its ability to deny several survivor perks from ever activating by simply not engaging with the survivor is very problematic, and currently rewards too much for too little. Especially when the ability to do so doesn’t require a perk slot from the killer themselves. In addition, certain killers and slugging builds can make it even more oppressive, and it is much harder to counter slugging than it is to slug itself. (It’s not a popular tactic because it’s difficult, it’s popular because it’s easy. The slugging experiment is a good example, I believe it was an 85% winrate) As with many nerfs to perks and things, the people that will be hurt the most are the ones who rely on it too heavily.
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I always feel bad taking surveys because half way through I feel like this is all I'm doing no matter how hard I try. Gen Z jello brain go …
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But it is a reward. You are asking for a way to return to a game that was already decided, because technically you have already lost. If wasting time or frustration were a real factors, measures such as the one I mentioned of being automatically sent to a hook would be requested instead of basekit unbreakable.
For some reason, this urgency to end the match disappears when a survivor is slugged and the hatch is closed, instead of giving away their position, they always decide to crawl to the most obscure corner to prolong the situation as much as possible. The match is already decided and there is a clear winner, but here's what happens.
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I imagine they'll treat this like they did for direct face camping, by adding something basekit that only deals with the "everyone down and no way to get up" scenarios, and just that narrow issue.
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i really hope we don't get another basekit perk as a bandaid that will just make actually good survivors even stronger, but instead look at the core of slugging problem and do something about it
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If the goal were solely to end the match quicker, being sent directly to a hook might seem like a solution, but that approach fails to address the larger issue: slugging circumvents the core gameplay loop, and takes away player agency for long periods of time. It rewards more than it requires. Introducing anti-slugging is about maintaining player engagement and preventing exploits of the games mechanics. If they were going to remove slugging completely I would be entirely against it, as slugging is sometimes the right call. But it’s meant to be a tool, not a crutch. But I don’t believe that’s what they are going to do, likely they are simply putting limitations in place to avoid exploitation, again just like cool downs or limitations/requirments on perks or items. Sacrificing something in order to get something else is not a new concept at all to DBD. Anti-slugging measures don’t change the fact that killers can still secure their wins if they don’t rely on it too heavily. Perks, add-ons, items, and tactics should enhance gameplay, not dictate it.
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only way of them doing it would be to either
A) Give survivors a faster bleed out after 30 seconds if they want
B) Allow survivors to hook themselves on the ground after 30 seconds if they want
Otherwise most other changes would straight up be a buff to survivor and the game doesn't really need them right now
esp with gen defence being so pitiful
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I agree with @Aven_Fallen here. This was bound to happen, some players out there really pushed it too far, way past the limit of what was "acceptable" for slugging.
It seems the devs are looking to fix the problem, and whatever they choose to do, I sincerely hope it is stronger and more effective than the AFC mechanic.
The extreme levels of slugging we're seeing recently are straight up unhealthy for the game, they really need to be fixed.
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Idk maybe survivors should be able to pick themselves up after 3 minutes? It’s a tough call for me.
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The main focus about the slugging questions should be on Killer's intentionally bleeding people out imo
Being slugged in a normal game sucks sometimes but it's perfectly reasonable most of the time and doesn't last too long unless it's a killer who's entire strat is slugging people to death.
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And at the end of the road we get another poorly executed band-aid fix.
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Hope they chance the game mechanics and not just create an underwhelming perk locked behind a licenced survivor.
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Gonna play a little bit of Devil's Advocate now:
IMO the "Slug Meta" wouldn't have become so popular if the killer was not unincentivized to hook because of gen rush and A LOT of good perks that activate after you are hooked/unhooked. By slugging you apply more pressure to slow the gen rush and don't need to deal with said perks.
Just to be clear: gen rushing and hard Camping/Tunneling are both braindead strategies that anyone with a 37 IQ can use to win. I personally only tunnel/camp as killer if gens start to fly faster than a rocket because I don't have any other choice.
So:
1-Do something about gen rushing.
2-Limit survs to only use one 2nd chance perk per build, but to do that hard tunneling should be addressed first.
Of course, let's do something about slugging, but first about these other issues described above.1 -
If they do address it, I'm positive it'll be for when there's only 2 players left. When it's a 4 man team, there should be someone coming to pick you up. Harder when there's only 2, and a counter gives an incentive to just hook. Since the Finisher Mori was introduced I rarely see hatch anymore as a survivor, and I've only been given it once by a killer in that time. While that's just my experience I'll bet it's reflected in the devs stats as well (hatch escapes are considered null in the system, but a kill still goes towards kill rates). Basekit changes have generally been dictated by game stats, while QOL changes tend to be more feedback based from what I've seen.
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I know I jumped into a similar thread earlier today, but I wanted to pop in here as well to say that I really appreciate the discussion that comes out of survey questions like this! I'll be sure to bring the feedback shared here back to the team.
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I didn't really like how questions were phrased.
It's not really about the number of survivors, where slugging can be an issue.Basically only scenario, where I consider slugging to be an issue is when noone was ever hooked, so it is used as main strategy.
Otherwise there simply are scenarios, where slugging is needed imo.
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They were only trying to address face camping, as that was the only issue. Proxy camping is not an issue at all
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Invocation: Just hook me!
60 seconds, permabroken, but you can recover from the dying state for the rest of the trial.
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Im really hoping they do something about it. The only people who complain are die hard killer mains that rely on it. The point is….this is not an Esports game, its a casual game. If a behavior or mechanic is ruining the experience for other players, it needs to be addressed for the sake of the community. And no, it isnt a bhvr loves survivor main things. They have removed plenty of things survivors used to ruin the experience for killers. Just look at the history of flashlights throughout the game. They have buffed and added plenty of things for killer as well.
The issue is that poor sportsmanship and the desperate desire to 4k is causing 4/5 (4 survivors and 1 killer) of the community to have no fun and stop playing the game. Just look at the steam charts, June 24th 2024 had 99k players. December 16th 2024 had 36k players. The player base on steam has plummeted by well over half, and a big reason is the issue with slugging and tunneling. I know at least 8 people who stopped playing because these behaviors have been so rampant and has ruined their fun. Hell, I have stopped playing survivor because every match me or someone else is on the ground. Yes, slugging is a viable strategy but youll have to wait incredible amounts of time to slug bots because the behavior is killing the game.
Yes, there are perks to aid slugging. But the thing is, players shouldn't need to run a full build to counter the slugging and tunneling epidemic just to enjoy a game.
NOTE: I know this post is gonna stir up some rude comments. So just know I'm not a survivor main, I generally hate playing survivor. I primarily play killer and I don't slug or tunnel for the 4k. When I do play, the anger does not come from losing, it is expected as that is the way it is balanced. The anger comes from desperate tactics that ruin the fun, if a killer plays well and fair i often let them kill me.
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I understand that. My point is I expect whatever they do to address slugging would be just to deal with one very specific kind of slugging.
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Im really hoping they do something about it. The only people who complain are die hard killer mains that rely on it. The point is….this is not an Esports game, its a casual game.
the game is PvP, meaning it's competitive by nature. Having a competitive game doesn't necessarily mean it's an esports game.
And another problem is: you have killers that literally rely on slugging (Oni, Twins, Plague etc.) meaning doing something that will nerf slugging will have a significant impact on them.
The issue is that poor sportsmanship and the desperate desire to 4k is causing 4/5 (4 survivors and 1 killer) of the community to have no fun and stop playing the game. Just look at the steam charts, June 24th 2024 had 99k players. December 16th 2024 had 36k players. The player base on steam has plummeted by well over half, and a big reason is the issue with slugging and tunneling. I know at least 8 people who stopped playing because these behaviors have been so rampant and has ruined their fun. Hell, I have stopped playing survivor because every match me or someone else is on the ground. Yes, slugging is a viable strategy but youll have to wait incredible amounts of time to slug bots because the behavior is killing the game.
playerbase is fluctuating over time, comparing active players at two timestamps of a year is not really a reliable way to look at this.
Plus, many players just have plain burnout from playing this game way too much.
Yes, there are perks to aid slugging. But the thing is, players shouldn't need to run a full build to counter the slugging and tunneling epidemic just to enjoy a game.
you don't need a full build to counter slugging and tunneling, basic macro sense plays much bigger role than any anti-slugging or anti-tunneling build will.
NOTE: I know this post is gonna stir up some rude comments. So just know I'm not a survivor main, I generally hate playing survivor. I primarily play killer and I don't slug or tunnel for the 4k. When I do play, the anger does not come from losing, it is expected as that is the way it is balanced. The anger comes from desperate tactics that ruin the fun, if a killer plays well and fair i often let them kill me.
every meta strategy is unfun when your team fails to counterplay it.
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Sorry for the weird question but why am i being notified by this topic when am not being @mention o.o
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Give Killers basekit Deerstalker. When I slug I survivor to apply pressure, I have every intention of going back to hook them eventually. But most of the time, the survivor crawls away to a hiding spot or obscure corner of the map so I can't find them. I'm not going to waste a whole bunch of time trying to find them if I can't find them right away. It's pretty irritating that survivor players complain about being bled out for 4 minutes while many of them intentionally make it difficult for the killer to find them after they've been downed. I think a good percentage of players being bled out are due to the killer not wanting to take the time to find them. Giving killers basekit Deerstalker would make it quicker/easier to find downed survivors and I think would significantly reduce slugging. If after 3-6 months the data shows that it's not effective, then revert the change and try something else. But at least it's worth a try.
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I'm glad they plan to address slugging, the problem is nobody can agree what slugging is. I saw some options on there that seem to suggest that they are considering if ANY amount of a down, even if it's the Survivors' fault for being clustered or making mistakes leading to it, is something that is considered slugging. It's a worrisome trend to me.
Realistically, I think we can all agree that the only time a down really becomes a slug is if it's to the point the Killer refuses to hook. I really do not think they should make every long down count, I think a slug should be considered a slug if it's when there's multiple people down the Killer refuses to hook, or if it's the last two and the other Surv is not within 36 m for 2 minutes. If a Survivor does not come pick a slug up and they're not in a chase that is on them, and yes a pickup should be an option. But my fear is, if they go too far punishing slugging, then forcing a Killer to slug you can become a way Survivors can hold a game hostage.
I would much, much rather the change be that you can pick up if multiples are left downed for more than a minute, AND you bleed out in 2 minutes not 4. This way only downing for a prolonged time is punished, not Killers just downing for a bit and coming back to hook because people are in range. Things Killers use to pressure should not be so strong they can grief with it (face camping), but not so weak it now becomes a new weapon that Survivors can use to grief a Killer right back.
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I've been a regular here for way too long and literally have never been notified about a topic or if anyone has mentioned me. I didn't even know it was a thing 😬 my account is broken
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See this is the issue. The killer mains argue the necessity of it to facilitate their competitive obsessiveness. slugging is not necessity to 4k or to win. I do it literally all the time without it. Furthermore every competitive game in history has mad rules to make the game fair and enjoyable for both sides. You could argue that hitting below the belt is a viable tactic in a fight, and yet it is banned. This game has always been balanced around with a focus on entertainment and fun. Unfortunately for the competitively obsessed, not everyone is playing like its an esports match, in fact most of the player base are casual players. I GUARENTEE that if survivors had a meta that completley annihilated your fun and ability to play, you would argue for addressing that. Take the survivor second chance metas, those were viable strategies for winning but ruined the fun and so were changed to make it no longer and issue. This happened very recently with FTP and buckle up. it was an issue and ruined the fun for killers and so it was changed. Slugging is doing to the same for survivors and so it needs adressed. Just because its viable to your victory doesnt mean it is healthy for the game as a whole
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I figured it out it may be cause I had book mark the topic (which I did by mistake on my phone lol) I uncheck it (on pc now) and no more notifications XD.
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I felt like the survey questions didn't really touch on the scenarios where it's most annoying. Which, to me, are scenarios where slugging people is a way of needlessly drawing out a match you have already won. Like slugging all four survivors and refusing to hook them, or standing over a slug until they're just about to die and then hooking them anyway so the match can't be over.
But maybe the devs already understand why that's annoying so they were asking about more ambiguous scenarios.
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WGLF and MFT destroys slugging
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More like basekit Unbreakable
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It also completely ignores scenarios where survivors are forcing situations where the killer can't reliably hook a survivor.
The big message here is that slugging is only a problem when it's the killer's choice. Because if a killer is forced to slug a survivor because someone sabotaged a hook in their face, that's 100% acceptable. If a killer is forced to slug a survivor because the survivor isn't in range of any hooks, that's 100% acceptable. If a killer is forced to slug a survivor because the other survivors are nearby with flashlights, flashbangs, or toolboxes, that's 100% acceptable.
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In an ideal game, the devs would just give base Unbreakable. But killer is nowhere near, has never been near, and likely never will be near, the level of strength that is required for such a change to be considered balanced. You would instantly make the game unplayable except to an elite few.
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