DBD survey slugging questions

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 …

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.

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.

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.

Hope they chance the game mechanics and not just create an underwhelming perk locked behind a licenced survivor.

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.

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.

Invocation: Just hook me!

60 seconds, permabroken, but you can recover from the dying state for the rest of the trial.

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.

Sorry for the weird question but why am i being notified by this topic when am not being @mention o.o

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.

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

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.

More like basekit Unbreakable

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.

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.

go play some scrims against teams that actually know to play the game, or try plating killers like Oni, Twins and Plague (Oni's power literally relies on chaining downs aka. slugging) instead of trying to argue how players that have more game knowledge than average player manage to win without slugging/tunneling, since pubs are a massive fest of survivors playing in the way that will let any decently skilled killer player be able to consistently 4k.

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.

what are those "mad rules" we are talking about? You are literally having the most basic rules that provide complete fairness for both sides in matches in terms of loadouts and team skills (in dbd you only see this in tournaments btw), and no big competitive game bans specific strats from being used unless they literally break the game.

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.

welcome to literally every PvP game in the world lol, people play to win and are optimizing their loadouts around it constantly, let's stop pretending dbd is one of the "unique" examples when every PvP game is like this.

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

second chance perks are literally still meta (Decisive Strike, OTR, Dead Hard etc.). MFT was reworked because it provided huge advantage over all killers that don't have proper gap closing power with a contition...to be injured, not because "uwu it was simply unfun to face", BU was nerfed to prevent synergy with FTP for the reason that it was putting killer into a lose-lose situation for basically free. Both of these tweaks were primarily made for competitive fairness, not for some "fun and entertainment".

Slugging is a strategy that exists for such a long time and is simply better than hooking not because it's somehow "strong", but because there are far less drawbacks for slugging than for hooking (and hooking is in the most endangered state it has ever been in, especially spreading hooks, which is nowadays just straight up handicapping yourself in order to flex against average survivor team that isn't good or simply a deathwish against people that know how to play the game). Instead of coming up with ways to punish slugging, how about we encourage hooking + spreading hooks again? Which i'm barely seeing anyone vouching for), since slugging, and even tunneling, are both consequences of flawed game design that heavily discourages hooking/spreading hooks (unless you want to flex the skill gap between you and your opponents in pubs ofc).

The act of hanging a survivor on the hook has become the key to getting DS or OtR used, and the gen regression perk associated with hooking has been weakening over the past few years.

Also, the hook stage time has been increased by a total of 20 seconds, and with perks that manipulate the hook count, there is almost no incentive to hang a survivor on the hook by bringing him down.

The inability to protect hooks and gen, the addition of base kit buffs to survivors to prevent them from camping tunnel as much as possible, and the neglect of OtR have resulted in the current slugging meta that continues to severely limit killer play.

I would very much support basekit Deerstalker if a Survivor is down too long, just like I support a faster bleedout timer. Ghostface is currently the only Killer, thanks to Killer Instinct and how Night Shroud works, that has a basekit Deerstalker like this to find downed Survivors who crawl away and hide or get lost. I think every Killer should have that.

I'm sorry if I have to leave you down for a long time. I don't like to, but there's cases I need to. I want to hook, I have every intention to come back and hook. Crawling away just prolongs the game for everyone needlessly; I really do just want to come back and hook.

Not even that long ago I was playing a Pinhead round where I downed an Ash and then went for a Meg nearby. I was aiming for Meg and hit him instead, not long after he was unhooked. I didn't mean to make it look like a tunnel but he was in the way of me getting Meg. I had every intention to give Ash the Hatch, I wanted Meg out because she contributed nothing to the round - hid all round in fact and it got her team massacred. I thought I was doing the Ash, who was a good player and very funny, a favor. Instead, he decided to crawl into the foliage and hide from me so I couldn't find him and give him the hatch. I wasn't playing mean, I didn't mean to bleed him or even slug him. He just was in the wrong spot when I swung my weapon and went down, and I was more interested in helping vindicate him with what I saw as a problematic player who got his team killed. He instead assumed I slugged him and rewarded my kind act of trying to help end the game faster and punish a problem player by choosing to waste both our times, for utterly no reason.

This sort of thing should never, ever happen. Period.