A couple killer buff / change ideas
While on the bus to school, I got to thinking: killer buffs, or changes to make them more fun, and slight tweaks here and there to make extremely powerful killers, slightly less powerful. I came up with a couple so far, and I intend to brainstorm for more during commute and edit this post when new thoughts pop up! Let me know what you think of the changes I bring up!
Note that all of these ideas were thought of with care. I evaluated them and tried to picture how they would play out in the actual game environment for both sides. The goal is to keep the balance, while making gameplay more fun in the case of some killers, and to make other killers stronger. Both sides (killer and survivor) were taken into account when thinking of these ideas, and before writing them down.
There is a TL;DR at the bottom for a summary of the changes.
trapper: a buff - Make rng worth it
The Trapper can be fairly strong, but his traps also rely on RNG. This can be a detrimental factor to The Trapper. I wanted to keep the element of RNG, but make it slightly more in favor of Trapper, while not making it impossible to deal with or infuriating for survivors. With this change, certain other aspects of the game can also see an immediate buff to create more variability in the game.
Bloodloss: A new status effect
The Bloodloss effect would be a new status effect that puts the pressure on the survivors who thought they got lucky upon escaping from a trap instantly. Stepping into a trap will now apply Bloodloss. The effect looks similar to Deep Wound: the survivor gets a "timer". This is indicated by a red colored bar (with a bloodlike texture for flair) below their health. Unlike Deep Wound though, this timer ticks down at all times, except while treating it. This means that being in Terror Radius or in Chase won't save you.
Bloodloss will cause a survivor to bleed out after 36 seconds. Every 12 seconds, the survivor will grunt loudly, making a noise that the killer can hear when within 12 meters of the survivor. The goal of bloodloss is to give Trapper the time to approach a location where a survivor was previously trapped, but managed to escape before the Trapper got there. This will make instant escapes not so easy to get away from, and will give Trapper a leg up in these unfortunate RNG circumstances.
Bloodloss when disarming traps
This is a thought I had to make disarming traps have a "risk" factor to it. It would require the game to know that Bloodloss was applied by disarming a trap, however. The idea here is that disarming a trap has a chance to apply Bloodloss to the survivor disarming the trap. This means that it is not guaranteed to happen, but could. Additionally, because it happened through the disarm action, the survivor's hand would have been injured, rendering them unable to perform any action such as repairing generators, untill the Bloodloss is healed. Survivors can still unhook for balance purposes.
Perks buffed through bloodloss
Survivors can heal out of Bloodloss the same way they can out of Deep Wound: treating it. Self care isn't required for this action. This action takes 12 seconds to perform, but takes only 8 seconds when using a medkit.
This will make medkits slightly stronger, possibly favoring bringing those over toolboxes, and would make the perk "Pharmacy" slightly more worthwhile. Franklin's Demise can also see some additional effectiveness here.
Bloodloss effect on other killers
Bloodloss effect should also be added to a perk. I originally had Sloppy Butcher in mind, but that could bring back the old "Anti-Heal" meta a bit too easily, which the general concensus on that was that it wasn't very fun. And Sloppy Butcher already has its place. Alternatively, I thought this might have been a good fit for the perk "Unrelenting".
Unrelenting would have, on top of its already existing effect:
There is a 10% chance that hitting a survivor applies the Bloodloss effect to them. The perk also charges over 60 seconds, adding 1% chance every 6 seconds, for a total of 20% after 60 seconds. Succesfully applying bloodloss resets the timer, and the effect goes on cooldown for 30 seconds.
This would make "Unrelenting" stronger, without making it too strong. It's RNG based because Bloodloss limits the survival time of the survivor, which can be quite powerful.
The nurse: factor momentum
The Nurse was changed for good reason. While she's still viable, the issue a lot of players seem to have is that she's simply not fun. This change will make Nurse harder initially, much like any change would, and would require getting used to once more, but with careful planning, this change can be overcome by skilled players. The goal here is to make Nurse feel fluid... very fluid.
Factor Momentum
The change is to give Nurse "momentum", and factor that in in her movement speed. It would act much like putting Nurse on ice. Literally. Upon exiting a blink, the Nurse continues to float into the direction she blinked in. The speed at which she glides on would be dependant on how far the blink was charged. The player can control the direction somewhat (much like Hillbilly while he's chainsaw sprinting), but cannot change direction immediately.
The Nurse can use the environment, like walls, to stop her in place, preventing her from gliding further. She can still blink while gliding, but cannot actively move normally.
However, should the Nurse hit a survivor after a blink, the momentum is dropped (at this point, she would be like old Nurse). If she swings and misses, however, her momentum is increased.
The goal is to make Nurse feel fluid in her actions, whilst still punishing bad plays and rewarding good ones. The player playing Nurse will need to factor in momentum when blinking, and how it can give them the advantage or, on the contrary, the disadvantage as she blinks too far and glides away from the survivor with no control. However, should the player succesfully hit a survivor, she is rewarded immensely for that feat.
Factor momentum: Hillbilly edition
The momentum factor should also be added to the Hillbilly. Upon exiting a chainsaw sprint, Hillbilly doesn't stop immediately, but rather keeps going a short distance before coming to a full stop. This will increase Hillbilly's skill curve somewhat, as the player will now need to factor in the momentum and stop in time when attempting to rapidly converge on a survivor's location, sprinting too far will give the survivor additional time to run and escape.
Hillbilly is left unchanged aside from that.
TL;dr
Trapper
- Bloodloss effect: Applied upon stepping in a trap. Chance to be applied upon disarming a trap.
- Survivor bleeds out over 36 seconds, timer pauses while healing bloodloss.
- Survivor makes loud grunts of pain every 12 seconds, the killer can hear these within 12 meters.
- Timer continues when in Terror Radius / Chase.
Bloodloss (Trapper)
- Add to the Unrelenting perk.
- 10% chance to apply on hit. Maximum 20% after 1 minute with no effect applied. (+1% every 6s.)
- Applying the effect resets the charge.
Nurse
- Nurse has momentum after blink: Nurse floats in the direction she blinked.
- Momentum depends on distance blinked.
- Nurse can slightly steer direction, similar to Hillbilly chainsaw sprint. (She can still look around.)
- Nurse cannot move directly, but can still blink during momentum.
- Floating into an object stops momentum. Hitting a survivor also does.
- Missing a hit will increase momentum.
Hillbilly
- Hillbilly has momentum after chainsaw sprint.
- Momentum depends on distance travelled.
- Momentum is less than Nurse's.
Your thoughts?
As mentioned at the start of this post, I'll edit this post to add more ideas as they come to mind, but I'd like to hear some thoughts on these! Share what you think, or share an idea of your own!
Comments
Bloodloss encourages tunneling and punishes Survivors way to harshly. Absolutely not. Any self-escape is a guaranteed down. Just make it Deep Wound.
Momentum is unnecessary. If anything, just make it an add-on. It'd probably be even more hated to the people who play her.
Dunno why Hillbilly needs add-on either. He's fine.
Trapper:
Where would Bloodloss encourage tunneling? Because otherwise they heal? That would mean Deep Wound also encouraged tunneling, no? Since they can heal out of that.
Self escapes wouldn't be guaranteed downs. Remember that this change is to give Trapper a bit of a hand when a survivor stepped into a trap far away and managed to escape out of it quickly. I could see Deep wound being added to this, though I opted out of that idea because Deep Wound wouldn't really help Trapper here at all. The survivor would then simply escape and if the Trapper did manage to get close(r) then looping would ensue.
It's very simple to disarm traps and ignore the effect entirely (Bloodloss upon trap disarm is an "extra" thought I had, the main goal is when stepping into one).
Nurse:
I'd like to hear why momentum is unnecessary, and why it would be hated. You can play around it by not blinking as far, for example. It puts a lot more control into the players' hands than the current cooldown system does, and at least seems a lot more interesting than a cooldown, and at the same time it would reward survivors a bit who managed to make the Nurse miss a blink, giving them slightly more distance before she uses her second. It would increase her map pressure as she would cover more distance, too, if the player decided upon that, or they could use an object to stop at a location of choice.
Hillbilly:
I opted to give Hillbilly this slight tweak because I've read a lot of the time that Hillbilly is incredibly strong for how relatively easy he is to pick up. This change would still let him keep his immense power, as all plays Hillbilly can currently do with him will still be possible, but would make his learning curve slightly more linear and more in line with other strong killers.
Appreciate your feedback, let me know any counter-arguments you may have!
Bloodloss encourages tunneling because the Survivor can't heal if they're being chased, and the timer will still deplete if the killer is near you. The killer won't have to try, just wait until the timer runs out and it's an instant down. This is the same problem everyone had with The Old Legion.
Nurse is already strong without momentum and requires quite a steep learning curve. Experienced Nurse players will suffer from scrambled muscle memory since they are used to precise blinks.
Hillbilly is understandable, but people will be pissed lol.
People will probably be pissed. Some will, anyway. You can't please them all. And hey, everyone always seems so fond of saying "git gud", so I guess that would apply also? Hah.
I know it'll scramble their muscle memory but that's a good thing, I think? The momentum wouldn't be something completely over the top, the exact speeds I can't really say as I obviously can't test anything of the sorts. While it would scramble muscle memory a little, blink distance of the blink itsself would still be the same, and this is why the Nurse would still be able to blink while gliding, to use the second blink to correct if the first one wasn't very good.
It does punish missed blinks more, much like the current cooldown does, but the current cooldown also applies even if you succesfully hit. It's a hard stop in Nurse's momentum, no pun intended, which I tried to avoid with this idea, whilst making Nurse still be very powerful in the right hands (as powerful as old Nurse, really), at the cost that momentum and how far that would bring you would be another learning factor.
I still think it could be a fun thing that still allows for Nurse to be incredibly powerful, while still punishing missed attacks (as it should), and allowing a bit more breathing room for survivors, but not so much Nurse ends up feeling out of control. I'd really love if an actual Nurse main gave their opinion on this. (Without old Nurse bias, of course!)
As for Trapper, yeah, it could. The way I see it is that you could still heal it even if the killer is in the area, and if you're healing the timer stops so you won't make the pain grunts either. The killer would need to actually find you. And if they did find you, you'd already be injured as you stepped into a trap. The difference here is that stepping into a trap can actually be lethal, as now you can't just go ahead and endlessly loop Trapper, your time will run out after some time (and I think 36 seconds is quite generous, about half a generator still).
This isn't tunneling as per its definition though. This is similar to a Trapper simply going for the person that just stepped into his traps (difference is that at this point the survivor could loop for a long time). It would only be tunneling per its actual definition if they decided to chase you immediately after you got unhooked.
It was broken on Legion because Legion had the power to apply the bleedout whenever he wanted, and he could even cut down the time on that. Here, Trapper wouldn't be able to apply it whenever he feels like it, the survivor would have had to have made the first mistake of walking in the bear trap, and Trapper, while a 115% movement speed killer, is still low mobility, so if you get trapped on the other side of the map, chances are likely you have already healed the effect before Trapper arrives and finds you. I think that would balance it out somewhat.
And remember: if a killer wants to tunnel, they will tunnel. Bloodloss or not.
(As a sidenote: "Bloodloss" actually already exists in a way, though it's a bit more like Borrowed Time that's limited: Styptic agent (Medkit add-on, former instaheal) gives you a few seconds after using it and being hit, but you'll bleed out eventually. Seeing as it exists in this way, I don't think it'd be such a drasic effect to exist in the game from other sources, in this case a source that can actively be rendered useless by the survivors.)
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, though! If you have anything else to add, I'd love to hear it!