The Game is currently so up and down, and backwards....
Really, title says it all. Dead by Daylight really has the potential to be a truly amazing game, instead of just a middle-of-the-road time sink.
The grind is insane because of the way the game is designed; all these survivors with zero individuality because teachable perks exist and are mandatory to be 'good'. Add-ons that give abilities features that really should just be baseline for killers; killers requiring teachable perks to be 'good'. The biggest problem with Dead by Daylight right now, is just the grind makes it incredibly difficult to attract new players and get them to want to stick around. I am also in that category -- I struggle keeping interest in staying with the game because of how ridiculously long you have to play to get anywhere, and how often you are forced to play characters you don't want to because you have to have their perks (or compensate and play 30x the matches with characters you do like and use the BP to funnel into the ones you don't like, therefore not getting anywhere with your preferred characters). I am pretty confident that I am not alone in saying: The Grind and Balance in this game is starting to get out of hand.
Now, I know people will jump on here with "get gud" and reworded equivalents of the statement. Some people prefer games to have a long grind and require you to devote almost all your gaming free time to playing that one game. Some people want the grind as a way to feel 'superior' to others because they 'took the time' to get things. Others, want to jump into Dead by Daylight - be able to fully enjoy characters we like -- and make progress without feeling like we're just wasting hours and hours of time to get nowhere.
On PS4 particularly, queue times are horrible on both sides (worse on Survivors though); this forces matches to be spaced out, therefore eating up even more time not making any progress. Then, when you do get in a match - BP rewards are so tiny that you're lucky to get 1 web complete on a character from those rewards. Not to mention the fact that killers get BP at almost twice the rate survivors do -- yet, all the balance updates my friends and I keep seeing are skewed in the Survivors favor which further forces out Killer mains causing queue times to increae in an endless cycle. It has become increasingly clear that if something is inconvenient or difficult for Survivors, chances are incredibly high it will be modified because the mentality is "survivors are more important" simply because the game requires 4 of them over the one killer.
Take the Freddie Rework, for example. I was introduced to the game back before the rework and Freddie was always my preferred killer out of everyone. Yet, when the rework came around -- his entire playkit was gutted to make it less "difficult" for Survivors. He no longer could slow the game down; his Dream World status was laughable at best and never a pressing issue for survivors to have to WANT to wake up from, because the devs removed his action speed penalties and made them "add-ons" like they do with every feature that should be baseline. Freddie lost his invisibility during the only logical point of gameplay (during Survivors being Awake), gained a constant audible terror radius, and all of this just so he could hit survivors without having to transition them first. He gained gimmicky abilities like generator teleporting -- with a massive tell to let Survivors know to run the hell away; dream snares that really... don't do much and are visible to Survivors; And all of this because instead of Survivors logically having a 2-live average (which with 4 survivors should really BE the average), games are now 3-live if not 4-live averages unless you resort to the "unfun" (as Survivors put it) methods of camping and slugging to maintain pressure. All because any pressure the Killer COULD have, gets 'balanced' out due to Survivor outcry.
On the flip side, I have not seen very many instances where Killers in general get buffed to make them more threatening. Killers SHOULD be threatening. You should WANT to get away from them; WANT to try to survive and sneak your way around them. Right now, Dead by Daylight is 'Taunt the Killer with Emotes' because they're just angry teddy bears.
My Actual Suggestions (Not All-Inclusive, but just different options and ideas):
First and foremost, bring the fear back to the game. Killers should, by a logical deduction, be strong and frightening -- the 4 v 1 nature of the game implies that the Killer should be 4x more powerful than any singular survivor, requiring the 4 to work together more than the game currently requires (currently, the game is only 'altruistic' because BP demands it). Killers should be challenging to play against and games should not be fairly easy to get 3-4 escapes. Also, remove the Hatch. No free escapes for Survivors should exist and literally turns the 'last two standing' gameplay from Survivor standpoint into a toxic one of waiting to see who gets downed or captured so you can run to the Hatch and escape, instead of those two actively still trying to finish their generators and escape with their lives.
Another option/idea I had is a complete rework of the game - which clearly will not happen, but I feel like I should throw it out there anyway. Allow Killers to kill without having to 'sacrifice', remove 'downed' state. The original idea I had for this was to change the way taking damage worked. One hit, Injured (same as current). Two hits, Gravely Injured (think the Sloppy Butcher bleeding). Three hits, Dying (same a before, still can walk around, but slower). Fourth hit, Killed. Survivors would need to be given a few more active methods to stun killers -- like a basic 'attack' that can be used only by the Survivors in chase to give them a few seconds to get away. Survivors could heal one another, but you could not heal past Injured (because we are using gauze and bandages, not magical healing magic to repair all injuries; come on). I feel that if the Killer didn't have to 'Hook' you, it would make them far more dangerous and make Survivors have to rely on working together, stealth, and avoidance more than they need to in the current game. Option B - Allow downed survivors to 'die' from bleeding out. Even if slugging is considered "unfun" it is currently only effective at mitigating your active threats so you can more easily go hook people. Forcing Survivors to have to decide whether focusing on their generators -- or going to heal their downed friends so they don't die, would put more pressure on the Survivors instead of the dismal interactive gameplay we have currently. To go along with this, however, I would say allow downed Survivors to patch themselves up back to injured status slowly. Though I think to allow this, you'd have to combat with a faster 'bleed out' each successive time a survivor is downed and it'd be easier to just go with option 'A'.
Addressing the aspect of characters (particularly Survivors) feeling like cheap excuses for 'skins'; remove teachable perks. Rework perks on all the characters so that there are more universal perks (maybe take some of the meta perks and make them universal and replace them with new perks) and make it so Survivors have their 3 unique perks and then the 4th slot is for a universal. I feel this would provide some MUCH needed variance to the game instead of just changing your survivors face but still using the same perks as any other 'look'. If this is paired with the 'no downing/sacrifing' suggestion, you can take Survivors like David who are written to be aggressive and in-Killer's-face type of Survivors, and make them truly in-the-Killer's-face with perks that would increase their combative ability to escape being chased and injured.
A smaller suggestion that isn't a 'game wide', rework Freddie and give him back his Game Slowing ability. I'm not saying go back to his Dream World aura reading; but he should be invisible to awake survivors -- by all lore accounts. Invisible and undetectable. The only time you should see/hear him coming is IN the Dream World. Making this change and keeping the transition timer, I'd even go so far as to say remove Freddie's ability to hit awake Survivors - instead, the Killer would use the time between transitions to either set up Dream Pallets or scope out/stalk Survivors; then bringing back his action speed penalties as baseline for the Dream state, would force Survivors to decide --- is it more beneficial to see/hear Freddie but repair/etc. more slowly or do I wake up so I can repair/etc. at full speed but lose my ability to track the Dream Demon. As it stands, there is practically no downside to being in the Dream World (and this has been stated by the devs in some interviews about Freddie's rework, that there really isn't a downside to being in the Dream World as a Survivor; just no benefit). PS. This kind of goes in-hand with the concept of bringing fear/challenge back to the game. PSS. Also, Freddie's terror radius should just be his lullaby -- that thing is more 'anxiety inducing' than the heartbeat will be; same with Michael's theme. Even if Survivors get 'annoyed' by it.
A suggestion to reduce the current grind -- cut Bloodweb costs in half (3k becomes 1.5k, 4k becomes 2, 5 becomes 2.5, etc.). Otherwise, increase bloodpoint acquisition to be proportional to queue times/active players (so that the more players and more active and quick-matching games, the less BP; but the more time players are having to sit in ridiculous queues, the higher BP they would get from the match when it finally connects). Or, third, just increase BP acquistion. The point of the game should be to play the game and enjoy it -- not have to devote your life to the game just to finally get to where you can enjoy it in full. Instead of artificially enhancing your 'play time' metrics by dragging the grind out; let players get to where they can play their preferred characters how they want faster and then they can spend their 'grind time' doing the Rift challenges and working through your Season Pass (which contrary to popular belief is actually a good thing to add if it is implemented correctly; and this one seems to have been -- all cosmetic stuff, no gameplay effect.)
TL;DR - Dead by Daylight needs some serious overhauls to bring it from middle-of-the-road, grindfest timesink; to an actively fun and frightening asymmetrical survival game for both sides.
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