Increasing the scare factor of the game
Now I know this is never gonna be your typical horror game where it's so dark, scary, and full of jump scares. But I personally would like to be scared or at least a little more on edge when playing as a survivor. So I have some suggestions that I personally think would increase the scare factor of the game without destroying the whole point of the game.
- Remove the all the offerings that affect the dark mist thickness and just make it permanently foggy - I have over 1,000+ hours and I've hardly seen anyone ever use them. So remove the offerings but make the dark mist effect just a part of the game.
- Darken the Eerie Of Crows map - I feel like it's too bright of a map to feel any sort of tension from as a survivor. So I recommend just changing the lighting, so if you wanna keep some brightness but also make it scary I would change the lighting to something more around dusk.
- Update some of the older killers mori's - I feel like the more horrifying the mori, the less likely someone is gonna wanna get mori'd by a killer, like at least show a wound where they got stabbed or slashed in the mori's. Plus the old killers (for example: the mori's of Trapper, Wraith, Hillbilly, etc. just need major help)
- Update the weather effects - I feel like there needs to be more intense weather on some maps or just more weather in general, like some maps just have a light snow or rain. But like me personally I'd love to see blizzards on some snowy maps, hear thunder, see lightning on some rainy maps, like this stuff would add tension to the game as well as effect survivor visibility in a unique way rather than just using fog for everything.
Anyways these are just some ideas and would love to hear your feedback on them BHVR, I wanna be scared lol!! 👻
Comments
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People don't want these changes because people aren't playing dbd for horror or to get scared at this point. Increasing the fog would just annoy everyone. The reason you haven't seen people running those offerings is because they don't enjoy playing with the fog. I liked the horror factor initially, but I am uninterested in making the game less competitive for the ascetic horror appeal.
Weather effects would be a MAJOR W tho. I think you are right about that.-4 -
You're entitled to your own opinion, but I'm just saying that Dead By Daylight is classified as a "multiplayer (4v1) asymmetric survival horror game", so if people don't want a horror game to be a horror game, then they're playing the wrong game in my opinion. In my opinion increasing the fog would add that horror tension that we all know and love, plus honestly I think it would make it more competitive, for players would have to be more aware of their surroundings and be more strategic with builds and how they play rather than making some garbage gen rushing build where the game is over in 4min.
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Exactly. Debs just forgot this is an horror game. This was the core of the game.
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They removed the moon offerings ages ago so they could have more control over the lighting, preferring the darkness of the game at that time. Daylight maps kinda squashed that idea though.
The fog was greatly reduced (a long with grass and much else) for game performance reasons, and today's offerings are shadows of their former selves, pun intended.
As for weather effects and the like, again game performance concerns. Prolly would melt a Switch and it would slide onto the floor. But they did bring that up in one of the recent surveys so ...
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I miss the game being scary
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i mean it IS still a horror game. Just because yall don't feel fear doesnt mean it isnt horror. A big part of the reason whyy you dont get scared is because its a video game youve put a lot of hours into. Its horror is more akin to teen screams or slashers where its just about killing and being helpless.
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I mean this is a horrorgame - newer players are actually scared, I'd say the reason we aren't is that we played dbd way too much for it to be scrary already.
I know for a fact unknown, dredge, sadako and twins are scary at the start, but that simply doesn't count for players that played for a while because we got used to it and lost focus of the experience for the gameplay itself.
I mean unknown is realistically just a funny boi, dredge a huge turkey, sadako a little undead ghost girl with a little bit overgrown hair that you hear from miles (but is probably behind you), and twins is just a woman with a really unpracticle weapon choice plus a loot goblin as support. All in all the fog wouldn't change much on that: it would only disorientate for no real reason and hurt in your eyes after a while - also I feel the gameplay is a lot less clean because it's a situation like corn, it's more annoying than really any gameplay aspect that I want to have.
Well I don't like fog in games in general, so I'm happy it doesn't really exist anymore xD
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But see that's exactly the problem, no one should be getting use to it no longer being scary. The very definition of what the horror genre is, is that it's "intended to evoke strong feelings of fear, dread, and unease in the audience, often exploring themes of the macabre, the unknown, and the supernatural." Now I don't want the game to be unplayable but I'd also like that fear factor to return and if we can't have it from the killers on their own, then in my mind make environmental changes like lighting, adding weather, etc. I want all (new players and old) to keep the factors of what a game in the horror genre should have, now true we might not be able to reclaim the "scary" factor for all us players who have played awhile, but like we should at least feel tension, dread, and uneasiness when in-game. So like the fact that yall are just telling me like "it is how it is" or "we're all old players so not getting scared is now a normal thing" just shows to me how numbed you all are too, so change is needed somewhere somehow.
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The fokus simply shifted, I was really scared at the start because I wasn't very good and saw the atmosphere more than the gameplay. I'm at 3k hours by now, the atmosphere is simply a cool detail while playing but nothing relavant for how I play personally - the only thing I see in fog, rain and so on is simply that it annoys me because it makes looking out for certain things harder.
Also a game shouldn't make you feel uneasy constantly, especially not a multiplayergame even if it's a horror multiplayer.
Except that horrorgames and horrorfilms are always dropping off in scaryness if you played them more than one time or saw them more than one time, it's simply in the nature of humans to learn and expect things in situations that are similiar or completely the same.
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Agreed.
You talk about lighting and weather, but I think the issue is the Terror Radius.
I know it won't go away, because it's a balancing mechanic, but that'd be one way to make the game scary as #########. Victims get a buffer to the scare-factor of a Killer coming around the corner, when they know he's within a certain distance.
The scariest matches I've had as Victim, was the matches with Killers using Undetectable perks (not just Wraith, who may be Undetectable while stealthed, but you can hear his growling and he has to ring the bell to attack you, meaning you won't really be surprised).
Jumpscare Myers is probably the best example of a scary encounter. You think you're all good, but then he scoots around a corner and your heart skips a beat.
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"Except that horrorgames and horrorfilms are always dropping off in scaryness if you played them more than one time or saw them more than one time" ~ Again that's exactly the problem, hence why I personally think environmental changes will increase the unpredictability factor for Killers and Survivors which in turn can make the game "scary" or at least add that uneasiness or tension while in game. Plus they both can take advantage of said environmental changes, which could add new playstyles, builds, etc. to the pool. Now I understand how environmental changes such as weather, fog, etc. can be annoying but in my mind if done right, it would be a nice change and to me feel like a horror game again, even if the "scary" factor isn't fully there. All in all change keeps things interesting and change I personally think is needed for this game to remain in the horror genre for years to come.
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Oh I 100% agree, the Undetectable status effect is my all time favorite status effect because you can actually scare people with that, lol. Now if they don't wanna mess with killers terror radius, they could mess with aura perks. Like I personally have mixed feeling when it comes to aura reading perks, like I understand their use and usefulness but at the same time part of me feels like they take away from the horror aspect of the game as well. Idk, all I know is I want the horror back in Dbd, lol. 😂
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As someone with adhd I prefer games to be predictable with enough hours especially in multiplayergames, I don't like things that are so increadible unpredicable that you're actually scared because of this. Also the horror genre is heavely influenced by cliches, you can predict jumpscares super often, so completely random would probably swing around in it being funny a lot of the times rather than scary.
Well I guess we won't come to point we both see it as perfect. You want a more unprediable, uneasy feeling game more focusing on the horror aspect, and I want a game I can predict after enough hours that feels good to play and is clean as far as things hindriging on gameplay goes.
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no matter what they do you will become numb to it or get used to it. Thats just human psychology. Like with love, when you’re with someone long enough the intense feelings from the beginning of the relationship start to die down and be replaced by other emotions. Scary movies and games in general don’t scare me at all but I like them for their entertainment value and concept, I’m not gonna say they aren’t horror because I’m not scared of them. Rather I have just become desensitized to horror as a whole because I expose myself so much to it.
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In the early years of DbD, this darkness that you want here still existed. The problem: there are Survivor skins that are also very dark and when those are chosen (Claudette - I'm looking at you), you can literally walk into the Survivor and you don't realise he's there as a killer.
That, along with the fog addons, was a real problem as it wasn't the Survivors having trouble orientating themselves and being constantly jumpedscared by the Killer, it was the Killers just not finding the Survivors anymore. It was such a big problem that there were numerous SWF groups that kept bringing in the strongest of these add-ons so that they had an easier game, as they could coordinate their actions perfectly while the Killer was literally stumbling around helplessly in the dark and fog.
I understand your desire for more horror, but you can't achieve that by giving the survivors visual cover.
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if you're playing dbd for the comp then thats on you. This ######### is the mario party of online horror games
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In which world? Dbd doesn't encourage it in any form to be a "mario party", as soon as any side plays a little bit better than just started, you'll have the problem that you're in the wrong game if want to play it that way.
You can see it on swfs and hightier killers that you won't be able to work around - this game is not made to be threated as a party game even if bhvr also said that in the past.
I don't even say it's a comp game, but it's still a pvp game that are competetive in nature.
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I get what you're saying but you also can't forget literally borderline everyone uses aura reading perks as killer and with the new quality of life changes that BHVR is adding, people like Claudette's are gonna get punished if all they do is hide and sneak around the map. So in my mind regardless if they add more fog or not, you're gonna still be able to find people regardless of what they wear cosmetically, especially if you're running aura reading perks.
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Did someone say turn the sun off on eyrie? Yeah that's true actually :)
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Well I don't want there to be COMPLETE unpredictability either, but there should be enough unpredictability that we "experienced" players still feel a little uneasy or some tension when playing. But you're right, we both want opposite things and you know that's ok, I think we both got our opinions across, lol.
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I get what you're saying, it's human nature to become accustomed to things. That's why they need to increase the unpredictability factor in Dead By Daylight to keep even a little bit of that scare factor. Like I hate being able to look at a killer or survivor and just take a rough guess on what they're running. That's why if you make people play in a little more unpredictable way, the builds will change, the strats will change, etc. and hell they'd be unique in their own ways. Idk I'm just trying to reclaim what's been lost to me and so many other players in this game 😥
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this would be really nice. As killer I pretty much exclusively run jump scare or meme builds. Not to win but strictly to jump scare them or just meme. Not only is it hilarious for me but the survivors love it too. It’s great when I have their stream audio pulled up so I can hear their reaction to the jumpscares lol. I think a big part of the loss of the “scare” factor is the rise in competitive players who only care about the meta way to play and that’s it. Kills the vibe
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Omg yes, I 100% agree! Dead By Daylight was not meant to be a competitive game, it was suppose to be a party game. Have some fun, some quick scares, some laughs, win, lose, etc. but some of these people just wanna run the meta and hurry into the next game, it's boring gameplay and like you said it kills the vibe completely for both survivors and killers.
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We could also bring some scare factor into killer perks. I used mental illnesses as a perk ideas for killer.
I will later work on how killers can inflict more mental illnesses into the game as a perk. And also have ideas about survivor perks later.
https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/440521/killer-scare-factor-perks-suggestion#latest
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Nothing kills a game quite like hypercompetitive players and "comp" mentality.
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I'm trying to come up with some creative ideas as well since there are a ton of players who'd love to have more scare factor, some who've given up on the scare factor, some who don't want a horror game to be a horror game, and then there's the competitive junkies who don't care if this game burns as long as they can win. It's quite difficult to satisfy all parties involved but I'm trying 🤣
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So true, like I swear they don't care if this game burns and dies out, just as long as they can win 🤬
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The problem with this view is that aura-reading perks are no longer just a common thing, but suddenly become a necessity without which the killer can already be cancelled out by a basegame skin. Massively worsening the visibility conditions mainly benefits those seeking cover - and only in a few cases are these the killers.
Then we again have the imbalance of 4 vs. 12 perks per team, which doesn't get any better if the side with 4 perks can effectively only choose 2-3 perks freely, because otherwise they are at a massive disadvantage from the start because they can no longer find the opposing side.
I'm sorry to say it now, but the days when killers were mainly scarejumps or sneaky are long gone. The game specialises in chases, and it's not uncommon for Survivor players to flat-out quit a round when they realise they're going up against a Ghostface.
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If we start blaming cosmetics being the reason why aura perks become a necessity due to them blending into the environment, we might as well run around naked at this point. But then again the human skin tone blends in with certain maps as well so are we gonna have no skin either? Like it's a lose lose argument especially for a horror game, like yes some outfits blend into the environment. But regardless, the aura reading perks do their job and if a survivor just so happens to hide right after your aura reading perk runs out, that's not their fault or the cosmetics fault, that's the killers fault for being just a tad to slow. Plus again so survivors aren't impossible to find, BHVR is adding quality of life changes that will punish survivors if all they do is hide and sneak around, like I don't want everyone to be impossible to find either but if we want the scare factor back into this game, we'll need to increase that unpredictability factor and tweak the environment correctly for everyone to benefit from such changes.
Also I'm in disagreement with you on "the days in which scarejumps and sneaky are long gone" in which they are not gone at all.
It's just 1/3rd of this community:
(1) has given up on it
(2) don't want a horror game to be a horror game
(3) are so competitive it just straight up doesn't benefit them bc they don't care about the game to begin with, only about the win.
(4) are so afraid of change, that it might break what little enjoyment that they get from the game
But the other 2/3rds of the Dbd community say that change is needed, somehow someway and the scare factor needs to return somehow someway. If the scare factor doesn't return, then BHVR might as well un-classify Dead By Daylight as a horror game all together, because having horror themed characters alone don't make it a horror game, freaking Fortnite is a prime example of that (For they have Michael Myers, Xenomorph, Demogorgan, Jigsaw, etc.).0
