"Killer Notes" to help new players learn

DbD now has 40 Killers. Unlike most other games that add new characters over time, Killers border on being alternate gamemodes due to this being a 1v4 game. A Survivor who can intuitively dodge Huntress might die within minutes to Sadako, and because most Killers have a ~2-4% encounter rate, that player is probably going to be slaughtered by Sadako for a while.

A lot of people have proposed better tutorials and bots to fix this. It's a great idea, but I think expecting custom Killer bots for all 40 Killers, AND bespoke tutorials for all 40, might be unrealistic.

Even if BHVR added them, it's hard to imagine a new player being willing to put up with that many tutorials before they start playing. It also produces problems because BHVR will need to rework these tutorials/bots each time a Killer is reworked- I don't think they've even gotten around to removing old Scamper from Chucky's marketing yet.

So, here's an idea I had that could get around this, inspired by a system that already exists in the game; The loading screen tips, which already clue you in on unique Killer mechanics the first time you face them. I think, now that Killers can't be changed out mid-lobby, these tips could be expanded into the lobby screen.

When you matchmake with a Killer, (Custom Games aren't counted) you unlock that Killer's Killer Note if you haven't already, and if that happened a popup appears. (this way, you are only notified if it's a Killer you've never seen before, like the current system. You can reread Killer Notes at any time after you've unlocked them) Don't explicitly tell new players this means they're facing that Killer, they can figure that out themselves exactly like the current loading screen tips.

Killer Notes will provide tips about Killer powers only from the perspective of what's important to Survivors, rather than the comprehensive summaries Killers get. It could also have some nice theming to keep players interested reading, rather than pure tutorialised text- I've written it as notes multiple Survivors have passed to each other before it reached you, but maybe in some better timeline this could be Benedict Baker's triumphant return. Some examples:

Leatherface: "DO NOT let him get close. He's relentless with that chainsaw and can smash through anything with it. I barely reached the hatch." "His chainsaw gets stuck in a tree or a rock for a moment, and he just freaks out right there while I can run away. Whatever those small mistakes do to his mind, that's his weakness."

Demogorgon: "It opens that mouth when it's ready to leap at you. Avoid chokepoints!" "I can't keep track of it, it comes out of nowhere. How??" "It moves through some kind of growths in the ground. Find them, they're soft enough to tear up."

Sadako: "She only comes out of TVs that are playing that tape. Pull the tapes out, then bring them to a different TV, or you'll be dead after seven viewings." "I SWEAR, a pallet went right through her!" "Don't rely on stunning her with them, unless you're sure she's going in for the kill."

Singularity: "The pods are its eyes!!!" "If it clamps one of those things on your back, it'll use it to teleport to you! Break line of sight and run for a window!" "Look for those EMP printers, they'll damage the pods."

Vecna: "If anyone else saw this thing, note down everything you saw it do." "Giant phantom hands?? One grabbed a pallet, there's no way I could move it after that." "It FLIES. Too high to hit us, but it's too fast to escape from." "Those fancy chests have magical gloves and boots in them, but he somehow turned mine off, at least for a while" "It threw some kind of skeletons at me, they can move through the walls! If you see it doing that, DUCK!"

My terrible writing aside, hopefully this gets the idea across. Killer Notes should not tell Survivors parts of the power they don't need to understand, they are just super quick TL:DRs, 2 paragraphs at the absolute maximum. (but as seen above, even complex powers could fit in a single paragraph) This gives survivors an idea in advance of what kind of counterplay they are going for and gives them at least one minute of time to read and mentally prepare for the Killer's power.

And importantly, this feature is mostly just text, so relatively easy to implement. This won't turn new players into skilled ones overnight, but it could serve as a better starting point for players understanding Killer powers, and maybe make the process of running into lots of different Killers for starting players feel less chaotic and more like they're learning. It's also extremely MP-friendly, if you're dragging a new victim into the Fog, you can ask them what note they just got and brief them on what's to come in the lobby screen, rather than needing to do it ingame.

My main concern is that there IS something thematically different about being notified of the Killer mid-loading screen vs mid-lobby, but I think the difference is small enough that it's not a particularly big deal to the gameplay experience, and it has no further effect beyond your first few dozen matches. You could also certainly use this to dodge lobbies, but only the one time so it's kinda pointless.