Solo Queue/Head On Suggestions

Summary of the Problem

In it’s current form, Head On is only realistically viable in premade groups with communication or TONS of experience. Otherwise the only time you’ll get value is on the first stun or when chaining with other perks such as Quick and Quiet or Decisive Strike.

The charge time is too long to use midchase most of the time — which is fine. Keep it as is.

The stun duration and hitbox is also fine. Keep it as is.

The perk should function as protection for tunnel outs or as an aid in other players’ chases. However, it is really hard to use in solo queue games as there is no ping system or means of communicating the play that is easily digestible by the average player.

The other issue I would like to discuss is a lack of communication systems for solo queue survivors. There is currently no voice chat or mid-game text chat (and there shouldn’t be!), and no ping system in place. Outside of using dedicated perk slots for things like Bond, Empathy, Empathetic Connection, etc., there is no way to find teammates for health state resets besides wandering aimlessly until you can find someone.

Proposed Changes

The changes I recommend is to help aid solo queue players and provide more information without verbal communication so that solo can be buffed closer to SWF squads, so that killers can eventually get needed changes that they currently do not receive due to the huge disparity of data results generated from solo queue matches compared to premade squads.

Meaningful changes to solo queue like this lead to individual player improvement, better player experiences, more unique/interesting gameplay loops, and better statistics overall to allow room for stronger killer designs, mitigating frustration, and meta overhauls in the future.

Head On

• When hiding in a locker for 3 seconds, gain the ability to stun the killer within 1.5 meters of the locker. Stunning the killer applies a 3 second stun and caused exhausted for 60/50/40 seconds.

Additionally, other survivors within a 16 meter radius will see the locker glow in yellow. As the perk becomes active, the intensity of the yellow aura will increase gradually from a dull yellow to a bright yellow, signaling it’s activation and availability for a stun.

Locker Auras Create Communication

Another proposed change is for hiding in lockers in general. Lockers should glow white for other survivors if a survivor is hiding in them, either unlimited range or a very generous range like 32-48 meters.

This alone solves many issues that could occur in a given game.

• It prevents accidentally sandbagging a teammate or yourself, who is attempting to hide from aura or a tunnel out. And with the suggested Head On change, it is easy to differentiate a coordinated team play from a stealthing survivor or someone trying to get value from other perks such as Built to Last or Inner Strength.

• Hopping in a locker to communicate to other survivors where a potential health state reset can be had is a great solution if a ping or communication system is not currently being looked into. Sometimes it can be difficult to pinpoint other survivors in solo queue due to lack of communication, especially in 3 Generator situations with killer-created deadzones where managing health states while forcing the generator kick limit is extremely crucial.

• In the event that a survivor who is griefing or being utterly useless by hiding the entire match and playing for themself, it eliminates many potential hiding places for these players as they cannot rotate between lockers to avoid crows without warning their teammates who actually care about playing out a match. Cause let’s be honest, everyone strongly dislikes these players and what better way to get back than to rat them out or ensure they get sacrificed along with you. The Cons

With any new gameplay feature, there is always the cons that come along with it. With my suggested changes, I can only think of a few cons being

• Perk and item usage for aura reading will drop, specifically on perks and items like Bond, Empathy, Keys, etc.

• Players will have a slightly easier time griefing if thats really all they’re setting out to do. They’ll be able to purposely open lockers in front of killers. Though, probably a non-issue because this has always been able to be done and frankly, there are not a lot of times you find survivors in lockers unless hiding from aura reading/getting perk value.