Balance Proposal to Help Mitigate Toxicity
My solution is twofold and simple. It’s not a cure all, but it’s a healthy start. As far as I can tell, the vast majority of the toxicity that players experience in DBD comes from three massive problems colliding.
Problem 1: No Casual Mode.
Problem 2: Stale Meta.
Problem 3: SWF Voice Com Abuse.
Here are my solutions.
Solution 1: Institute a Casual Mode.
Benefits: This benefits everyone. DBD’s player toxicity largely comes from the fact that everyone is forced to play in Ranked Matches. It’s the only way to play the game right now. The meta becomes stale because everyone has to run their best Killers, best Killer Perks, and best Survivor Perks one hundred percent of the time; because that’s the only way to get and maintain rank.
Sure, you could choose to try a different Killer or a different load out for Survivors and Killer; but it’s to your own detriment to do so. You are punished for it. So, you have two choices. Learn one good set up and never change it. Or, eat a massive drop in rank to experiment long enough to become competent with a different set up. Typically, this is not worth the trade off; due to the massive amount of time and effort that it will take to regain the lost rank.
Also, Casual Mode would be a place to play the game just for fun, outside of the rigors of competition. Players could try new set ups with characters and load outs that they never would in a ranked match. This would allow for experimentation in a way that is not really possible in Ranked Matches.
This idea came from the fact that every other massively competitive game I know of has this. Mortal Kombat has this. Street Fighter has this. I come largely from a background of fighting games. When I play Street Fighter 5; I do enjoy going into Ranked Matches. But, sometimes I don’t want to have to worry about picking my best characters and set ups all the time. It can be fun, for pride of rank, but it can also get very repetitive and stressful. It leads to burn out very quickly. That’s why switching to Casual is a nice break from Rank so that I can try new characters and not have to care so much if I win. I mean, I still try to do well. No one plays a game to loose it, even in Casual. But, I’m noticeably less salty about loosing a Casual Match than a Ranked one. In DBD, there is no place for players to just chill out, relax, and have fun experimenting with the game.
I think being expected to compete in Ranked Matches one hundred percent of the time is what leads to massive player burn out in DBD. I think this burn out is what leads to a large part of DBD's player toxicity. You're working so hard to make and maintain your rank. Then, out of nowhere, a SWF Com Squid swoops in and knocks you down. Is there any wonder so many players become toxic? It's built into the very foundation of how the game currently operates.
Solution 2: Restrict SWF from Ranked Matches and Funnel them all into Casual Matches.
Benefits: Well, the first benefit is to lower player toxicity. As with the Street Fighter 5 example, players would be less salty to loose to SWF Voice Coms in a Casual Match that doesn’t cause them to loose rank compared with loosing to them in a Ranked Match.
The second benefit is that there will be a version of the game that goes back to the game's original release, intent, and design concept. It was originally supposed to be a game where five strangers came to a trial; all solo joins. That game concept died with SWF. There is no way to play that type of game anymore in DBD. SWF took that away from us.
The third benefit is that Survival Rank will actually mean something again. As it currently stands, Survivor Rank could mean you’re a good Survivor. Or, it could mean you’re in a team with voice chat and you’re team carries you all of the time so that’s why you have good rank; but left to your own devices you actually should be ranked far, far lower than you are. Because of this, Survivor Rank basically means nothing now as it is not a true gauge at how well a Survivor can actually play the game solo; but rather a measurement of how good their friends are at saving them, hand holding them, and carrying them the entire match.
The fourth benefit is that SWF still gets to exist. Many people purchased DBD to play the game with their friends and they should still be able to this. Removing SWF is never going to happen, and would be a massive value loss in the eyes of so many players who just want to have fun with their friends. Well, having fun is fine; but it should be done only in the having fun mode; Casual Mode. Ranked Mode should be reserved for solo competition and pride of rank only; not for Voice Com Squads that artificially inflate their own ranks while knocking down Killer ranks with an unfair advantage of cooperation that is near impossible to deal with.
I know that, at lower ranks, Killers can punish the alutrism of SWF Com Squads. But, this is not true at higher ranks. Higher ranked Squads know to leave the hooked Squad Member and keep popping Gens while another player runs loop interferance. They got over their aulturism and will actually agree ahead of time to cut their losses and keep pushing forward if the Killer camps the hooked Survivor. If the Killer leaves the hooked Survivior, it is a guaranteed save because the hooked Survivor just tells the Squad that the Killer is gone and someone stops work on a gen to free the hooked Survivior while the other Survivior is still running loop interference to draw the Killer across the map.
I get that all of this is a normal part of the game. I get that people on a LAN or in the new upcoming Switch version could just do this while in the same room as SWF and not be using voice chat at all to achieve the same effect. But, it's clearly not the original intent of the game and the game is not balanced around this to be fair. That's why SWF needs to be balanced against. Locking SWF into Casual Mode will at least help a little.
The fifth benefit is, again, perk diversity. While solution one of having a Casual Mode will allow people perk diversity through the freedom to experiment with new builds; solution two of taking SWF out of Ranked Mode will force Rank Mode Survivors to create builds that actually make a giant laundry list of perks meaningful again. Perks that, currently, don’t really have a place in the game.
SWF is like having Empathy, Aftercare, and every other perk like this equiped one hundred percent of the time, from the start of the game, without having to take up any perk slots at all. This isn't fair or balanced at all. Nor is it fun.
There is a new perk Aftercare that comes with Jeff Johansen. This perk is useless. It’s made by a Dev Team that continues to balance DBD around the original idea of everyone being Solo Joins. Why would a SWF Com group ever equip Aftercare? They already know where all their other teammates are all of the time anyway because they just talk with each other and tell each other what part of the map they’re in and what they’re looking at. This makes Aftercare, Empathy, and all perks like this useless in the current game and that’s why no one but the few Solo Survivors run these perks. SWF Com already gives all of these perks to SWF Teams all of the time. There is no point to them running these perks. Actually forcing SWF out of Rank Mode will force Rank Mode Survivors to have to trade off stale meta perks for more of these perks to play viably. This will result in diversity to the meta.
Conclusion: While this doesn’t fully deal with the problem of toxicity that is caused by loosing to a SWF Com Squad; it does at least regulate it to Casual Matches. Combining Solutions one and two will create perk diversity in both Ranked and Casual Matches. Having a Casual Mode in general would be a nice place to cool off, have fun, and just play the game in a relaxed and experimental way; rather than having to perform perfectly, constantly, just to play the game at all.
Comments
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I think this is really well thought out and I definitely hope we see a casual mode implemented soon. It could possibly be a great idea to put swf there too.
The only problem I could see arise from this is that killers wouldn't que for casual knowing it would put them in an swf and thus matchmaking in casual would become problematic. Thoughts?
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They need to make a penalty system in which if you get reported enough you get a reduction in bloodpoints and XP.
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Thank you. I did try to put a lot of thought into this and it's far from a total fix. Just some ideas that I think might help.
Honestly, I think the main problem will be the other way around and it might kill Ranked Mode by making its lobby times take too long.
I think a lot of Survivors mostly only play the game as SWF. Maybe once in a while when they're bored and no one else is on is when they join as solo.
As such, I suspect most of the traffic to shift to the SWF games in Casual Mode because Killers will know that's the only place where they will be able to get a match going in under five minutes.
Ranked will be for people who are willing to wait longer for a match; because they want the all solo join experience that this game originally was. They want to, Killer or Survivor, compete for rank so that they can have pride in knowing they earned that rank themselves.
My biggest fear is that, as popular as DBD is, I'm not entirely sure it can withstand a player base split like this. I really do think most Survivors will play Casual because they play the game to play the game with friends and they will boycott ranked if they have to join solo. Killers will play casual out of getting tired of waiting for lobbies to fill in ranked. I really do think filling casual lobbies will be no problem. I really do think rank will be a twenty to thirty minute wait at best. Longer at worst.
So, really, rank will be set alone for those wiling to wait for a match that's fair to everyone involved. While Casual will be instant join, instant play; because that's where about 80%-90% of people will move to playing at for the fast lobby load times. The Survivors, I would guess, make up about 80% of the community. They are 4/5 of the players of every game. I assume the split isn't really that even. But, you get my point. They carry the weight and as such; where they choose to play is where games will be played at. They won't give up SWF; so with SWF tied to Casual that means Casual will be where 90% of DBD matches will take place. Essentially making the ranking system optional for super competitive game-play and players; while no longer the main focus of the game for the community as it will be almost entirely abandoned by most people in favor as the faster lobby times of Casual Mode. With that, a large amount of the player base toxicity will die out with the death of ranked mode.
I would personally rather see both modes get loved and both be an active scene. But, honestly, I would guess that there aren't enough Survivors willing to give up SWF and Solo Join to make ranked mode Viable under a player base this size. Hopefully I'm wrong and both can find games in under 10 minutes. But, I do see Ranked being a Ghost Town and Casual taking over. But, considering the nature of SWF, at least this gives those few people who want to play a fair game a place to do it in ranked if they're willing to wait for it. And it stops SWF from tanking killer ranks unfairly. Essentially, even if this kills ranked mode (which I think it will) I think that in itself will kill most of the toxicity in this community.
People play this game too competitively. Maybe killing ranked mode is the best thing for this community; at this point. The Devs have never been able to balance it to make everyone happy. And we're all stuck with it; it's the only way to play the game. Now, if the Devs want a quite way to kill ranked mode so that they don't have to really worry too much about fixing it any time super soon; this will be the best and most well intentioned way to do it.
'Hey guys and gals; we decided to give you all a Casual Mode. You've all said you wanted this for a very long time now. Well, here it is. SWF will be tied to Casual Mode because that's the place everyone plays just for fun. Ranked will be solo joins only so that only those strong enough to go it alone will have earned their rank honestly.'
If the community is big enough to handle the split; we have two active scenes that everyone enjoys. If not, casual wins, rank dies, and the community can be a little less toxic and one more balancing fire put out for the Devs.
'Hey guys and gals, we want to focus on other ideas rather than balancing Ranked Mode's Emblem System right now because our data shows us that about 90% don't really play Ranked Mode anyway once we added Casual. So, one day we'll get back to it. But, for now, we're just going to focus on making the game play better balanced over all and adding exciting new content.'
See? Even if the split fails, it succeeds in a different way. And, the option is given to the community to decide how much it's willing to support Ranked Mode. If enough people play it, the Devs can keep working on balancing the Emblem System for it. If everyone just leaves it; the Devs can just can their work on it and focus on other ideas for the game. It's a win either way.
I guess the other issue is how DBD Devs handle matchmaking if ranked is essentially abandoned by most players.
Street Fighter 5 handled matching the casual players under the same ranking system as the ranked players. So, let's say you start of Rookie and make your way up to Silver in Ranked Mode. Well, you could just stop playing Ranked for a while and coast in Casual. Everyone you fight in Casual will be around Silver; because that's the rank you earned in Ranked Mode. So, Ultra Copper and Super Silver. In the ballpark of your rank from Ranked Mode. So, that's how matchmaking is handled in SF5.
The problem with DBD using this type of system is that rank resets with each new chapter. As such, what's really stopping a skilled Killer from simply only playing Casual and never playing Ranked? Then, there will be no baseline on how to fairly match that Killer to other equally skilled Survivors in Casual.
About the best I can think of is to consider Casual to be a free for all in matchmaking. Or, keep a hidden rank that players don't see and stress out over (hence Casual Mode) but actually does record how you're doing separate from the real rank of Ranked Mode so that matchmaking has something to operate off of.
The other options is to do the Street Fighter 5 system. But, to make that work, you'll need to incentivize people to play ranked if not enough are doing it on their own. Maybe reward ranked play with more shards or special outfits for that Season that only people who rank up high enough are allowed to buy. That way, people will have to play ranked mode to get cool outfits exclusive to Ranked Mode and then the rank from Ranked Mode can be used to match make in both Ranked Mode and Casual Mode; just like how Street Fighter 5 does it.
These are just some ideas I'm spit balling.
But, to address your concerns, I will do think SWF groups will stay together and the Killers will fallow them for games. Is playing SWF unfair and sucky? Yes, yes it is. But, not as bad as a ten to twenty minutes wait time for a single game. So, considering Survivors carry most of the weight in this community; they'll decide to move the matches to where SWF is allowed. If that's only in Casual; then the matches will move to Casual. They will wait out the Killers and this bring the game over to Casual Mode.
That, or if I'm lucky and get my hope, enough people will be willing to give solo Ranked Mode a try and we can have two active and alive game play modes. I doubt it, but it would be awesome and I hope it happens. This is why bribing them with exlucsive outfits to play in ranked for each season might work if the Devs want to try to keep Ranked Mode alive.
Otherwise, like I said in the beginning, this idea was to decrease toxicity. Whether it ends with two great game play modes or an abandoned Ranked Mode and an active Casual Mode; toxicity will be decreased either way. Because I feel the toxicity comes from people taking the game too seriously over their ranked combined with being expected to play perfectly all of the time and getting knocked down unfairly in rank by SWF Com Squads.
If we are mature enough to keep Ranked Mode alive; then the toxicity of SWF gets shoved to Casual where we can laugh it off as just for fun mode. If Ranked dies for Causal to live. Well, at least when SWF are kicking our butts we don't have to worry about rank anymore, no one does, no one plays Ranked anymore...
See? Either way, toxicity defused at least a little.
Post edited by EVIL_ED_VAMP on0
