Why Do the Developers Give New Perks Instead of Fixing Core Mechanics?
This is something that I think most people agree on to some extent. The game has many strategies that need a bit more counterplay but instead we are just given perks and told to run them to fix issues. I understand that perks are there to benefit you and help with weaknesses but one or two perks shouldn't be the only counter to something. Here are some examples.
Corrupt Intervention - Reduce the map for slower killers who are unable to control large maps at the start of the game
Mad Grit - prevents bodyblocking
Hex: Haunted Grounds - help your totems stay up
Rancor - (at the time of release) Anti-Decisive Strike
Bamboozle - Preventing infinites specifically shack
These are just a few examples as of recently for killer that have been given to essentially just do one thing, but this issue isn't fixed without these perks and even with some of them the problem isn't solved. And, there are some for survivor as well. While I like some of these perks, it bothers me that some of these were given to us and then problems were ignored. This is a major issue that should change. Perks should boost you and provide new ways to play but shouldn't be band-aids to issues in the game.
Comments
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I agree that it's a very band-aidy way to go about it, but I guess it's better than the alternative - having NOTHING until they fix whatever the perk is trying to help with. It's probably a lot easier to make and try to balance a perk's values than it is to completely change a mechanic or system in the game.
And also since when was shack an infinite? Or has the definition truly changed to "any structure where it's likely the survivor can use it until the entity blocks the window"? Shack isn't even a super long window loop like something like Ironworks, or a genuine glaring map design flaw like Haddonfield houses combined with Balanced Landing.
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Well they have been reducing infinites and continue to do so.
There is now a built in counters to DS. Rancor was never added as a counter.
Body blocking does not need to be "fixed" as it is not broken.
Totems are meant to be high risk high reward. They have been and continue to improve totem spots. Haunted Grounds was not added as a counter.
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Sorry I didn't mean to say that shack was an infinite just that that seems like Bamboozle's main purposes is to block that window.
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"Totems are meant to be high risk high reward. They have been and continue to improve totem spots. Haunted Grounds was not added as a counter."
Then why was it added to the game. People were complaining about Ruin being found to quickly along with other hex perks and instead of just fixing hexes and making them stronger, they added Haunted Grounds. Now, they've ignored Totems except for changing some totem spots to be a bit better.
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Because those of us who play often will slap the perks on. New players will probably quit if they aren’t having fun.
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What do you mean why? It was added to give killers 60 seconds of one hit downs when cleansed. It's just a perk. Not everything they add is in response to something. There's nothing they need to do for totems except improve spots and maybe change when survivors are notified that the killer is running Lullaby.
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I can almost 100% guarantee that this perk was added in response to totems being cleansed quickly and easily.
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Well if you can find some proof or get a dev to say so then I'll agree. From what I remember Haunted Grounds was directly inspired by a fan made perk from Reddit.
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There are many perks in this game that were released because of the community's complaints. Before Borrowed Time and BBQ&Chili were released, many survivors complained that the killer could just proximity camp their teammates since they didn't have much incentive to leave.
Upon release, Borrowed Time protected both the hooked and unhooked survivor from being downed against camping killers.
In the instance of BBQ&Chili, killers were given the ability to see other survivors TO go after them instead of camping the hook to guarantee a kill.
It's the same with Spirit Fury and Bamboozle. Killers complained that there were so many Pallets on a map that a survivor can run them for 2+ gens.
The developers themselves decided vaults were too strong just based off of the nerf on the survivor's ability to fast vault. People still complained about the length of chases because of the "infinites" like the shack and the ironwork vaults so they created Bamboozle.
To say these perks weren't inspired by the community's complaints is just being unobservant.
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You're thinking of Thrill of the Hunt.
Haunted Grounds does nothing to slow down survivors from cleansing. It just gives them more things to cleanse.
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Well to answer the question, it's easier to make a perk fix than to go about major core changes in the game. Also if they did make those core changes we wouldn't have certain cool perks we can choose to use. It's a bit of a catch 22 but I do feel they shouldn't rely on perks to fix major problems in the game, it gets unhealthy in the long run.
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Except I didn't say that about any of those perks. Kind of irrelevant. And I've been playing the game for years so I already know everything you just said, but thanks I guess.
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Except it isn't irrelevant. You said "Not everything they add is in response to something" which is untrue. The perks I mentioned were added because of the complaints by the community.
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So, you think every perk they add is in response to something? I didn't say NO perks were. I said NOT EVERY.
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They know people like new content, and they know people also like balance.
So they're like: Why not both?
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Do you just called shack an infinite loop? Lmao
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They can't overhaul the entire game without getting tons of people pissed off at them for changing core mechanics that players have practiced with for the lifetime of the game so far.
Also, Dead by Daylight occupies that strange space between an actual competitive game and a party game. It's balanced like a party game, and utterly fails at a being a competitive game, yet the community still treats it like it's competitive.
The devs don't want to take a stance either way, since balancing towards competitive players will negatively affect newer players and that ain't good for the Games as a Service model. You always need new blood coming in to spend more money on your game. That's why they're laying so hard into cosmetics, to monetize their existing veteran playerbase.
They also don't want to balance it towards being a party game for the lulz because it'd alienate the competitive players who recognize the potential depth this game could have if the devs bit the bullet and actually balanced it for real.
The result is our mediocre middle ground. We get content updates that have band-aid fixes in the form of "perks" to situationally mitigate the most egregious imbalances (why do you think most killers swear by ruin?) meanwhile actual competitive SWF's still ######### on near anything that gets in their way. Core issues of the game continue to be core issues because the devs continue to design within the box they have created. We can't even have a proper ranking system currently without a reset every two months.
There doesn't seem to be any unified approach in balancing this game and the result is a drip-feed of piecemeal changes to pacify you until the next content update comes along, which you'll stay for to see if it fixes anything just long enough that you catch hope for the NEXT update. It's working, I mean, I'm still here.
TLDR: The devs have no idea what they want DBD to be and so it'll continue to be a mess.
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I feel like the only thing you listed that is an actual band-aid is bambooze for infinites. Every other perk just gives the killer an extra thing to play with, like pretty much every other perk in the game.
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I'm not saying they don't do this. But the perks you listed are bad examples.
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