Suggestion for a werewolf killer
So... a werewolf. Yes, already mentioned several times as a possible killer, but since I wanted to have the second classic of the horror genre immortalised in the game after the vampire (which was a very good choice), I've overcome my aversion to forum discussions and I'll have my say.
At this point: Hello to the community, we may like to face each other in trench warfare and mutual accusations, but since we all want to see the game grow, here's my request: forget the tribal behaviour of Survivor Vs Killer for the duration of this thread and let's brainstorm constructively together.
Simply because an idea can be accepted much better if many people think along with it and the idea is handed over elaborated, instead of just throwing a bone to the developers as if to say: ‘here and now do it!’
So my idea of the werewolf looks like this.
From the background, it's a Dude/Dudette who had the misfortune of getting infected/cursed and has now been collected by the Entitus as an addition to his collection of macabre freaks. A reporter would be good, as you can put a reasonably anonymous person in a trench coat and floppy hat in here, who can then transform at the start of the match in the all-round view.
Why is he transforming now and not in the round? Because, from a folkloristic point of view, transformations are not the werewolf's special characteristic. They simply reveal what's going on inside him. Savagery, anger and hunger are the characteristics that define him - and all this with a rejection of human conventions, which makes him an animal. Ergo, our killer takes on the form of a werewolf at the beginning as an ‘introduction to himself’ and remains in this form throughout the match. This corresponds to the literary-folkloristic core of the myth and ensures that the killer player does not have to play a tame human half the time, who actually has no reason to harm the survivors.
But if the transformation isn't his thing, what would be a good killer power? At this point, I would orientate myself on the Demogorgon and split it in two. A chase power (the dash from the Demo or Wesker are both good and could be taken over almost 1:1) and a power with which he can build up map-wide pressure. This second power would be his sense of smell.
I mean that quite seriously. What is a werewolf other than a very large dog? And what makes dogs so dangerous when hunting? That you can't hide from them.
So my suggestion: the killer presses the button to activate his abillity and slows down by 50% for a second while the werewolf picks up the scent. From then on, the tracks of the survivors are visible to him as coloured bands that correspond to the survivors' short distances. Each of the four survivors has its own colour and as long as they don't walk in a duck march behind each other, they are clearly distinguishable (which would also be the counterplay to protect injured teammates).
The ability has a duration of 10 seconds and a cooldown of 15 seconds. This ensures that the killer has to pause from time to time (with a 50% slowdown for one second for one use each) if he wants to pick up the scent again, but at the same time ensures that the coloured bands of the scent quickly disappear from view again if they would interfere with the overview.
In terms of game design, this scent trail corresponds to a kind of ‘tail’ on the back of each survivor, which is around 50 metres long and becomes increasingly transparent towards the end. The ‘tail’ follows the survivor's path exactly and has no collision detection, so that it can gather in one place (if the survivor stops) or be superimposed several times when running forwards and backwards, which makes it clearer, but at the same time can confuse the werewolf player about the "age" of the scent trail.
The purpose of this power is to make it much more difficult for the survivors to hide, as they now effectively have an intelligent bloodhound in the area that can find them quite quickly. At the same time, it is not a killer instinct or even an aura sight that reveals their current position, but only provides information about where they were a few seconds ago, measured by the colour intensity, how long they have been gone and in which direction they went. If the werewolf stubbornly follows the trail, he will find the survivor, but the results are of course better if the killer player thinks along and guesses where his target wants to go and which path it is taking.
This power builds up pressure because the Killer will always be breathing down the Survivor's neck, but is of little help when trying to make chases or bypass pallets (that's what the chase power is for). It should help him decide where it makes tactical sense to go on the map if he can't place teleportation options or items that can put pressure on the Survivors even in his absence (such as Trapper Traps).
As far as perks are concerned, I'll stay out of it and leave the thought processes to the community. The important thing is that the basic theme is that of a hunter. We already have perks that correspond to this or use the same theme, but would a perk that accelerates the bleeding out of downed survivors or a perk that reduces the genre repair speed in relation to the survivors in play (-15-20% speed until the first survivor is dead - then it deactivates for the rest of the match) be a way to avoid tunnelling, for example? For example to avoid tunnelling, as it gives the killer an incentive to keep the match with all four survivors in play for as long as possible and emphasises his ‘sadistic streak’.
Something like that. I'm sure we all have a spark of creativity or two.
As for the Mori... I would suggest brutal and gory because an embodiment of angry savagery aka ‘werewolf’ strikes. Arms torn out, heads half bitten off or a mangled face etc. Ending it all with a howl that can be heard from across the map would be a pretty good way to depict it, although I would understand if the cannibalistic nature of a werewolf had to take a back seat to the gore factor in consideration of the woes of youth protection.
Being appropriate doesn't necessarily mean necessary and appropriate.
Comments
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I would love a werewolf killer <3
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Me too, but I mainly opened this up so that thoughts can flow freely. So if you have any ideas for possible perks or suggestions/criticism about the powers, I'd be happy if you could add them here.
Once again: the more creative work you do in advance, the better it is for a developer to understand a concept and perhaps even accept and implement it.
In addition, of course, thinking along is a higher level of approval for the concept, which also makes the idea more attractive from an economic point of view. ^^
So for players on the survivor side of the game, I can perhaps see a certain thrill in the game again, should there be a killer that you can run away from but not really hide from. Something that was still there in the first few years, but was then increasingly lost under the bully squads of the time, which strengthened the chase as game content, but completely pushed out the hiding aspect. This aspect has not really returned, especially as the gameplay no longer focusses on it. So perhaps we can bury it productively in this way. :-)
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I see a werewolf as having a Power = Demogorgon pounce + Weskar throw + Myers buildup-to-one-shot.
I could be awesome if he could periodically summon 1-2 wolves to aid him as free-roaming NPCs - Nemesis's zombies with Dracula/Houndmaster models. I wouldn't want them to be similar to Knight's guards, however.
For perks, the most thematic for a werewolf would be those that focus on Bloodlust, Killer Instinct, and Haemorrhage mechanics. Maybe a perk that deals with scratch marks that is fundamentally different than Predator.
And I suppose it goes without saying that I'd prefer an original chapter, not a licensed one.
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Honestly, the one-shot ability of a Meyer would feel a little too strong to me at first glance if you also have a Dash or something like that on the side. Although of course I can understand where the idea comes from.
Many werewolf films work by having the werewolf stalk the victim before the devastating attack. And that in combination with the ability to better track down survivors, which I suggested, would of course harmonise perfectly.
However, I would still like to know how you would have imagined this combination in detail. Just to give me a better idea of it and to see if you could perhaps tweak it to sharpen its profile. ...and to avoid the ability becoming an overpowered ability when it effectively combines Wesker/Demo & Ghostface/Meyers, effectively rendering their killer existences obsolete in-game.
New killers should enrich the game and not outdo existing ones in their core competences to such an extent that they become uninteresting. That's why I effectively modelled my original idea directly on the Demogorgon and simply replaced its teleportation ability with another ability that allows it to generate map pressure. :-)0 -
I imagine an enraged werewolf throwing his victims around like ragdolls, as you typically see in movies/games. That's why I mentioned the idea of Weskar's "tossing" ability, whereas a werewolf would pounce like Demogorgon beforehand as opposed to "dashing/bounding" like Weskar. Werewolves embody the slavering, unrelenting, bloodthirsty apex predator, so when I think of that, I think of the aforementioned combo.
How could it be balanced? Maybe if it was separated into tiers like Myers or as a charged power-up like Oni.
You could alternatively have a "howling" power that can be heard map-wide. Maybe Deafening those nearby and activating Killer Instinct on those further away.
Given your username, it appears that you might be familiar with World of Darkness TTRPG. I don't know anything about Werewolf: The Apocalypse, but I imagine there are plenty of powers/mechanics that could influence a werewolf killer here.
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The username is more or less a play on words, but I'm actually familiar with Werewolf: The Apocalypse. ...and honestly wouldn't want to include that here in terms of powers.
The reason is that the abilities there are either social, purely magical, or partial shapeshifting (I grow silver claws or have burning teeth, or the like), which don't really want to fit a werewolf in my eyes. That was the teething problem that White Wolf as a publisher let seep in when it effectively turned a game of political and personal horror into one of monstrous superheroes.
Accordingly, the werewolves there are also shamanistic eco-terrorists who have complete control over their form and are pretty good at controlling their anger to take advantage of it....which is a marked difference to the more classic werewolf image of a person who is overcome by their second nature (actually their rage) and is then a danger to everything around them because they follow their most animalistic, bloodthirsty urges.
The latter, however, is precisely what would make a good DbD killer type. A person who is an involuntary killer because they have caught the curse and are now being used by the Entitus to torment its victims. Another victim, but one so dangerous that pity is clearly out of place here.0 -
To come back to your suggestions... :-)
NPC support is one of those things. Either you can let the computer take control (Nemesis and his brainless zombies) or you'd have to do it yourself, but then the paragon of fury and hunting zeal would be standing around in the area (Twins, Knight or Singularity). Neither seems to me to have a good mood, but that's more due to the limitations of the technology than to the thought of whether it wouldn't be an option to give the killer a unique selling point.
Regarding the slinging around - yes, I could well imagine that. Wesker and Demogorgon are quite close to each other, which is why I used them as an example for the chase power.
Howl, on the other hand. Let's be honest: it's part of it, but as a power it's rather negligible. In real wolves it is used for communication, in werewolves in the stories it is used as an element that is supposed to frighten and signal danger or as a sign of the triumph of evil. In the game, it would therefore be something that can sound at the beginning or after someone has dropped out of the game. Rather by a mori than by a hook or bleeding out.
I wouldn't take it as an effect-triggering power, because that just doesn't fit. Why should you see where a survivor is hiding after the howl?
The sniffing would be more suitable (which is why I had included this as a power in my original post), so that the wolf can pick up the scent of the prey.
What would be a use for the howl, however, would perhaps be that it irritates the survivors. As if they panic as the killer uses the power near them (10-12 metres away or so) and they would have a sort of ‘static’ over the screen briefly, so the players would be partially blinded and disorientated briefly, meanwhile the killer gets a brief 2-3 second haste effect, giving the killer a chance to catch up and land a hit.
A good survivor will be less affected by this and will be able to hold their nerve, while an unprepared player can be caught out more easily.However, this doesn't have to be a howl, but can also be a monstrous roar (like the Demogorgon does when it has hit someone) and should be hinted at as little as possible in advance. Otherwise, the killer effectively has no power if the survivor player knows seconds in advance that his screen is about to become less visible and takes a route where little can happen to him. Counterplay is important, but should not be too easy.
Post edited by WolfgangGarou on0
