New Ruin is designed for the endgame
Please bear with me. I know this post is very long, but I would greatly appreciate feedback as I truly, truly believe this is an interesting change to the current Ruin and would greatly appreciate feedback, suggestions, changes, disagreements, agreements...anything that you have to say. Thank you in advance for reading, and I hope you have a good rest of your day, sincerely.
As has been stated by many, many other players, content creators, and even some developers themselves; the newly reworked Ruin is designed for the endgame. The primary issue? Ruin is a hex perk. Hence; Hex: Ruin. Now, this is an issue for many, many reasons but a few of the most common / most problematic are as follows:
- Survivors often spawn on, within sight, or near a totem. This makes Ruin, as well as any hex perk at all, ultimately useless as it's cleansed almost immediately (Sometimes actually immediately) upon the match starting. This could be fixed by reworking how survivors spawn, or the totem spots.
- Totems are very often placed in positions of high traffic, or positions that are extremely easy to spot. This means that even if you do get lucky and you don't have a survivor spawn on, near, or within sight of your totem they will most likely find it within the first thirty seconds to a minute into the match. This worked with old Ruin, as it gave killers the crucial time needed to begin snowballing and thus it became acceptable to have it break. While this was extremely punishing to new killer players who were not able to snowball as quickly as more experienced players, it was still acceptable for high tier game-play. However, as new Ruin is "designed for the endgame", that makes the perk ultimately useless as it is cleaned before it reaches the endgame. This could be fixed by reworking totem spots and overall map dynamics.
- There are a whole slew of perks designed to quickly find and break totems, including one class of item which does the same. While in no way do I disagree with these perks or find them to be overpowered or over-performing, it spells danger for any hex perks designed for mid-game or endgame (new Ruin, Devour Hope, Third Seal, and Huntress Lullaby, to name a few. I may be forgetting some.) This could be redesigned by restricting the power of the totem discovering perks, reworking totem placements to be harder to find with said perks, or by reworking how the breaking, or activating, of totems works.
With these problems established, I can now freely describe my intention behind the suggestion for new Hex: Ruin, with the necessary knowledge established.
Hex: Ruin
A Hex that affects the Survivors' skills at repairing generators
Each time a generator is completed, Hex: Ruin gains a token.
- 1 Token: One Survivor is affected by Hex: Ruin. Any time this survivor stops working on a generator, the generator automatically regresses at (1/1.5/2) times normal speed.
- 2 Tokens: Two Survivors are affected by Hex: Ruin. Any time these survivors stop working on a generator, the generator automatically regresses at (1/1.5/2) times normal speed.
- 3 Tokens: Three Survivors are affected by Hex: Ruin. Any time these survivors stop working on a generator, the generator automatically regresses at (1/1.5/2) times normal speed. A random dull totem remaining on the map becomes active. Cleansing the totem will deactivate Hex: Ruin
- 4 Tokens: All Survivors are affected by Hex: Ruin in its truest form. Any time a generator is not being worked on, the generator regresses at (1/1.5/2) times normal speed. Cleansing Hex: Ruin will no longer deactivate the perk.
"A curse is upon you. It will cause your ruin."
I find this concept of Ruin to be one that offers very interactive and interesting game-play elements that can reward a variety of play-styles on both ends, as well as punishing particularly reckless play-styles and tactics. Survivors can, either upon notification that Ruin is active, or at the start as a precaution, begin cleansing all the totems to prevent the perk from ever even becoming active. This will pause generator progress (as survivors will be more interested in finding and breaking all the totems rather than do generators) giving the killer more time and opportunity to find out-positioned survivors and engage in chases. This will also force new survivors to learn totem placement, training them in finding totems quickly as they become better.
Survivors may also choose to ignore the impending Ruin until the totem is active. While this allows for a quick deactivation since they know exactly which totem it is, and don't have to break every one, this forces Ruin to reach at least mid-game, where it will begin to shine and provide much needed reprieve from generator speeds at possibly one of the most crucial times in the game. Killers can take advantage of this by having less generators to pressure (Three less to be specific) and allows for more generator pressure, which will bring out more effectiveness in Ruin until it is broken.
Finally, survivors that choose to outright ignore Ruin and press generators as fast as possible will be punished by a permanent Ruin that they must contend with while the killer must only pressure three generators, granting him immense pressure on these three; especially in the case of a three-generator grouping. This will punish survivors for moving through the game too quickly, and train new survivors to avoid three-generator groupings and split up their repairs, making them more reliable as they reach high tier game-play.
However, both sides may be punished if they choose to play particular play-styles that are either excessively reckless, or excessively safe. If killers outright ignore their totems, giving no bother to protecting them, Ruin will have no noticeable effect as it will be cleansed before it can do so. But protecting his totem(s) too much will once again show no effects from Ruin as they won't be pressuring generators the necessary amount to gain use. On the flip side, survivors are punished for outright ignoring totems and recklessly flying through generators by inflicting them with a permanent powerful effect. This will train newer survivors to take into consideration secondary objectives of the game, making them better suited for high-tier game-play. However, survivors that spend the whole game looking for totems and not pressuring generators at all will also be punished for their lack of pressure, as while Ruin will certainly be deactivated before even working, the Killer will gain intense early-game snowball and be able to capitalize heavily, potentially spelling death right from the beginning.
As I stated, I find this idea of Ruin to be one that is highly interactive, provides interesting mechanics based on your play-style and the play-style of your enemy, and ensures that Ruin will make it to the endgame, as many insist is the purpose of this perk.
With this inclusion however, I do think a base totem-counter for both Killer and Survivor would be necessary. At the very least, one for survivor. Without the ability to communicate with the other survivors on how many they have broken, survivors may waste time searching for already-broken totems, or miss still-standing totems and be punished despite attempting to do what they were supposed to do. This idea is suggested often and one that, in this implementation, I would be more than accepting of, and even encourage.
TL;DR a Ruin but with tokens which gets more powerful as the game goes on but can't be cleansed until mid-game
Comments
I would love to see this in game.
Thanks man ♥️
Any feedback or suggestions? I really want as much criticism to this idea as I can get so it's as good as it can be.
I think it's a bit too complicated. Take Hex Devour hope as an example, it requires 5 tokens but has 3 different effects. Devour hope is currently the most complicated token based perk. Could you keep the same general behavior with 3 effects rather than 4?
I don't think it'd be too complicated with the 4, since the first two tokens just add one survivor affected. But maybe I can think of a way to simplify it...
This is just new ruin except worse. Particularly since it doesn't effect everyone like old old ruin did at levels 1 and 2. What happens is that whoever is effected by it is the new unhook/totem search guy and whoever isn't just stays on gens. Gotta pass on this one.
That's the point. They stop doing generators and the generator progression slows down. And as they finish more, then less and less people are doing generators until, under your example, no one is doing generators anymore and everyone is unhooking and looking for the totem, meaning nothing gets done and you get massive snowball