Solution to DBD’s core problems

TLDR Summary:

For Killers -- Increase dull totems on map to 7, cleansing a totem provides a generator part, each generator part removes a Hex: Ruin effect on 1 generator

For Survivors -- Increase hook times

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Why do this?

For Killers -- Games are extremely stressful because you have very little time to get your objective done.

For Survivors -- Being camped and tunneled is extremely frustrating, especially when the killer ends up succeeding and getting a 3K or 4K because of this tactic. 

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Here’s how the new system works: 

All 7 Generators at the start of the match are Unstable

• Good Skill Checks result in 3/4/5 % regression on an Unstable Generator.
• Great Skill Checks grant 0 % bonus progression on an Unstable Generator.

There are now 7 totems on a map. Inside each totem is a Generator Part. 

Survivors who cleanse a totem receive a Generator Part. This will be displayed on their HUD. (It won’t prevent them from holding other items.)

When a Survivor with a Generator Part begins to repair an Unstable Generator, they instantly install the part, making it a Stable Generator (normal).

Stable Generators will have a flag unfurled on the top of each pole so survivors know which is which. 

Survivors can only carry 1 Generator Part at a time.

(If a survivor with a Generator Part cleanses a totem or if a survivor with a Generator Part dies, then the Generator Part will be left on the ground until a Survivor without a Generator Part picks it up.) 

Survivors now need to work on a generator for 5 seconds or until a skill check before their repair work is recorded. If you let go of the repair button during the 5 seconds or before a skill check, no progress is awarded.

(This is to prevent gen tapping, which in its current form would be just as effective as finding Generator Parts and installing them.)

Totems now take 10 seconds to cleanse instead of 14. (10 seconds x 7 totems = 5 totems x 14 seconds)

Perk changes:

1) Hex: Ruin —> Ruin

• Good Skill Checks on an Unstable Generator result in an additional 1/2/3% regression

2) Hex: No One Escapes Death

Once the Exit Gates are powered, if there are 2 Dull Totems remaining on the Map, this Hex is applied to them. 

While this Hex is active, Survivors suffer from the Exposed  Status Effect and your Movement Speed is increased by 2/3/4 %.

The Hex effects persist as long as one of the related Hex Totems isn’t cleansed.

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To help the Survivors:

Each hook state now takes 90 seconds 

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 Why this is a great idea:

 A. This will fix “the games are over too quick” problem. It will also fix the heavy reliance on Hex: Ruin to slow down the games, leading to frustration when it is cleansed early. 

B. This will be way more fun than just increasing Gen times; it also rewards good play -- finding totems and hitting Great skill checks.

C. For Survivors, camping and tunneling become much less effective strategies for Killers. If a survivor goes down in the first minute of a match, killers can no longer camp them out of the game without losing many gens and likely the game. 

D. The new system would be easy to implement: All the pieces are there; they just need to be put in place.

E. This will make the games much more consistent. A game without Ruin or when it is cleansed in the first minute is much different than when it isn’t found all game.

F. Survivors will have more reason to do the “secondary objective” of cleansing totems as they will now provide more reward, making the game more interesting. 

G. Killers no longer need to rely on Ruin, meaning they have more room to make fun builds.

H. NOED is more of a gamble for killers.

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My response to potential criticism:

1) The Escape/Death Rate is around 50-50. The game is more or less balanced; therefore nothing major like this needs to be done.

The Escape/Death Rate data fails to take into account two major things:

A. How many kills did you “really” get? 

B. How satisfactory were those kills?

1.  In many games that I should have gotten 0 or only 1 kill, the Survivors threw it away by messing around or being overly altruistic. I reckon my Kill rate is at least .5 higher because of this. 
2. Outplaying a survivor and catching them three times throughout the match is way better than catching them once or twice and camping/tunneling them out of the game. 

Most of the time, there simply isn’t enough time for Killers to get satisfactory kills.

2) I get at high rank the game can be frustrating, but won’t this make the game overly difficult for beginners?

If this is the case, there is a simple solution. Don’t put the system in place until the Green Ranks or gradually incorporate this system as players ascend in rank.

For example, Brown ranks -- 0 unstable generators, Yellow ranks -- 2 unstable generators, Green Ranks -- 4 unstable generators, Purple and Red ranks -- 7 unstable generators or something along these lines.

3) Good survivors hit Great skill checks anyway so this won’t slow down the game enough.

Even in the worst case scenario, where survivors hit every single great skill check, you now don’t need to use Ruin, meaning you get 1 extra perk slot -- that should be a big help.

4) 30 seconds extra per hook state won’t prevent Killers from camping and tunneling

True, but it will give survivors more than enough time to finish gens and/or realize what the killer is doing, adapt and punish the killer for it. A lot of times camping/tunneling works simply because by the time survivors realize that’s what the killer is doing, they can’t run back to the gens and get enough progress done to make killers really regret doing it.

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Final Pitch: 

DBD is a great game but can be extremely frustrating at the same time. 

As killers, we’ve all had games where we are God-like in chases and still get 0 kills or 1 kill because the game is over too fast. As survivors, we’ve all had games where we get caught once and then get tunneled out the game and feel there’s nothing we could do. 

Putting this simple system in place would drastically cut down on this frustration, while keeping the core elements of the game we all love.

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Thanks a lot for taking the time to read all this! I hope you like the idea.