Nerf Survivors by Buffing Them: A Paradoxical Solution

I. I never believed in the theory of buffing the killer when a SWF is in the match. The first problem is that the type of buff would have to be really unorthodox to reasonably work, because few things would be universal for most killers. You could buff movement speed, but that's not really going to help a killer like the Nurse. You could reduce power cooldown time, but how would that help the Trapper? You could let the killer see every survivor's aura at any given moment, but then aura reading perks would be near-useless. Not to mention that once you buff a killer too much, it could have repercussions on the length of chases, and if the chases are too short, then what's the point in having them? But let's just say you find the best "boost" to give the killer. This certainly stops fully-optimal SWF in their tracks, but this severely hinders SWF that are just trying to have some plain fun. The purple ranks that brought their new friend who just got the game. The full Head-On squad. The group of people who are trying to win, but aren't spewing commands at eachother the whole match. This change would make casual SWF a thing of the past, and force survivors into a sweaty, competitive mess.

II. There's actually a good reason to balance around SWF. Like I said earlier, as it currently stands, reasonably changing SWF requires changing survivors as a whole, which would inadvertently change solo survivor.

III. Balancing the game around randoms is good for a casual game, but squashes any competitive potential into the ground. Tournaments and ESports wouldn't really be an option with this mentality, and that's not good for the game's growth. At least in my eyes, this would make the game a lot more boring. There should always be the option to play casually OR competitively. Having one or the other isn't enough.

IV. I sort of agree, and I sort of disagree. In survivor's current state, yes. Giving every survivor the ability to communicate with one another would give them a huge, undeniable advantage, and would make the game really difficult for the killer. But I wrote this with the mindset that survivors would get nerfed overall, with the compensation of having communication. These nerfs would have less impact on solo survivor, but more impact on SWF (Which is what we're after.). The devs could increase repair time, reduce the number of pallets on the map, really anything. That's not my place to say, I'm not trying to make the point of what that nerf would be, as that's a completely different post that I am nowhere near qualified to create.

This was something I thought about a lot when I was writing this. Obviously there would need to be an option to disable this feature (Streamers wouldn't want people just screeching on their streams, for example. Not to mention the previous points you brought up.).

Here's the little bit of solace that I can provide:

1. I've been in a lot of toxic games, games that are much worse than this one. People who are toxic in voice chat are far fewer than those who are toxic through their keyboard (i.e.: Typing or gameplay). And regardless, this could still be solved by either disabling survivor-killer communication, or not implementing it at all.
2. Don't get me wrong. I really want this game to be a horror game. But realistically, if this game were to be a horror game, it would have to do a complete 180 and change a LOT. And a lot of those changes would come at the cost of balance. And in my eyes, I'd take a well balanced/non-scary game over a poorly balanced/scary game any day of the week. The former has a lot of longevity, and a lot of opportunities to grow. The latter is fun for a couple hours, but it will get really old once you get farther into the game. And no one wants to spend $20+ on a game that's fun for a couple of hours.
3. I doubt that a majority of people would have this feature permanently turned off. And if they do, and chose to give themselves that handicap, then more power to them. But only time would tell.

Even given these points, I do see what you said as being completely valid.

This is a good theoretical thought, but I have never seen people share discords in public chats in a little over 800 hours of playtime (Let's say 650 of that was survivor).

I agree that the solution is much more complex than just giving all survivors communication, but I think that this, along with many other things, is a step in the right direction. In-Game VC: Part of a Balanced Breakfast!

I. Buffing the killer against SWF is my whole point. Right now, you can't change SWF without changing solo survivor as well (Unless you give the killer buffs depending on whether or not a SWF is in the group, but I've touched on that before and don't plan on touching on it again. TL;DR: Assuming an optimal SWF is too broad of an assumption to make.). Making every team a pseudo-SWF would make balancing the game a lot more linear, instead of having to do backwards changes to change SWF OR Solo Survivor without changing both. This one change would open the door to killer and survivor balancing without having to worry about the difference between solo survivor and SWF.

II. First things first, this game is not balanced. There are certain maps, perks, killers, items and addons that are all in desperate need for balancing (Put a Bubba against 4 Commodious toolboxes on Ormond and tell me that's balanced. It's just not.). But even assuming it is, SWF still needs to be taken into account. Even though SWF is a minority, they are a recognizable minority. I've always believed in balancing around all points of a feature. That includes its weakest, its average, and most importantly, its strongest. If you got 3 competent friends with good items and good perks, and you had a 99% chance of winning that game, then what's the point of playing in the first place? It's frustrating for the killer. It gets old for the survivors. That's how a game dies, when one team has the ability to effectively secure a win, while the other team has no tools to stop it. That's true for many things in this game, and optimal SWF is one of them.

III. DBD is certainly not ESports material in its current state, but who's to say it can't be? Who's to say that players shouldn't be able to go head to head with one another to see who can come out on top? Who's to say that we can't choose the best killer players in the entire game, the best survivors, the best survivor teams? I have a competitive mindset, and I dream of this kind of stuff. I know I'm not the only one out there.

IV. Well, the first thing that comes to mind is to nerf survivor-sided maps. Some maps are too big and take too long to patrol (Mother's Dwelling comes to mind. Rotten Fields as well.), some maps have too many safe pallets (Ormond, Blood Lodge), some maps are way too good for immersion (Yamaoka, Swamp.), etc.. Another idea is to nerf certain items that survivors have at their disposal, like keys and toolboxes (Perhaps in compensation for buffing things like Maps and Medkits?). You could also increase the amount of time it takes to repair a generator, have more consequences for staying injured vs. healing, and more things alone those lines. The game doesn't need to be completely rebalanced around communication, because communication (While strong) would just be another feature. Sure, some serious nerfs would need to happen in exchange for this, but not on a scale that's completely unreasonable.

[I love your name btw. lol.]

I also think that players should have the option to toggle this feature on and off, precisely for people like you who value atmosphere over balance (Which is perfectly reasonable, as I think that both are important. Personally I value the latter, but it's just personal preference.).

This was something I thought about. Aura reading perks would essentially be slammed into the dirt if this change were to take place, and they would all need a pretty good rework.