Stop taking your dedicated player base for granted
That is exactly what the devs are doing. They are completely shifting gears with the laser focus of attracting new survivors. The Ruin nerf was just part of it. The main reason it was nerf because new survivors struggled with it. What I find more bothersome is the "streamlining" of killers, making them more similar than different. Why? So new survivors have less to learn. I was just reading someones ideas for some Clown additions which seemed very cool.
@jlavaplays said:
Okay, so we know that The Clown is kinda good at chases, but has extremely little to no map pressure, right? So I have an idea. It might sound crazy, but bear with me and please be nice, hahaha!
The Clown now has a secondary power called "The Act" (name can be improved).
When standing in front of a locker, pressing and holding the M2 button will now initiate the "smear" action instead of a bottle throw - allowing the Clown to smear and mark a locker, up to 6 lockers. The Clown will take one of his bottles, remove the cork, and splash it onto the locker. Smearing after the 6th will automatically vaporize the earliest smear. Auras of smeared lockers will be shown to the Clown, while Survivors will see a faint pink cloud above/around the locker (need to look carefully in order to see).
Press and hold the secondary action button (Ctrl) while looking at a smeared locker to begin performing The Act. The Clown throws a bottle in the air (or just holds it above his head), smashes it with his weapon, and a thick gas cloud pours on him. Once the cloud dissipates, the Clown is no longer there, but teleports to the selected smeared locker, breaking out of it - similar to a survivor's rushed action. While The Clown is performing The Act, survivors hear a jack-in-the-box sound effect. The Clown continues at a regular 115% speed upon exiting a locker, while his terror radius instantly sets at 32m (not gradually starting from 0 to 32.) If a survivor happens to be inside the smeared locker when the Clown performs The Act, the survivor is pushed outside of the locker by The Clown and is immediately put into the Dying State.
The Act has a cooldown of 45 seconds and its effects can be modified by add-ons. The duration of The Act is 3 seconds and can also be modified by add-ons.
ADD-ONS:
Oxalic Acid (Rare)
- A substance stolen from a drugstore that increases the volume of a solution, without increasing its toxicity due to its weak nature.
- Increases the amount of lockers The Clown can smear by 1.
Methylphenidate (Rare)
- Stimulates euphoria in the user, giving a surge of energy.
- Reduces The Act's cooldown to 30 seconds.
Street Uppers (Very Rare)
- Induces uncontrollable hyperactivity upon the user. Use sparingly.
- Speeds up the jack-in-the-box music and reduces The Act duration to 2 seconds.
Phenolphthalein (Very Rare)
- A liquid added to make some solutions colorless.
- Smeared lockers no longer show pink cloud.
Tainted Robe (Ultra Rare)
- A robe that gives wearers a mysterious look - intensifying cinematic effect and garnering more suspenseful reactions from the audience.
- Survivors no longer hear the jack-in-the-box music.
- Reduces the amount of lockers The Clown can smear by 3.
NOTES:
- The concept of the animation is based on him being a clown. Majority of clowns perform magic tricks, and perform stuff meant to "surprise" audiences, and catch them off-guard, so this served as the inspiration for that.
- The Jack-in-the-box effect is meant to be a jump scare for survivors as The Clown is most likely to smear lockers near generators. The Clown will break out as soon as the music finishes, so survivors can choose to hide, or risk being attacked by staying on the generator.
PROBABLE ISSUES:
- The Clown is bigger than a locker, so clever animations or considerations are needed to make his break-out animation creepy and scary and avoid making it comical.
- Some maps have few lockers. But I think this is very minor.
- Since there will be an abundance of add-ons for the clown, maybe some of the existing green and yellow add-ons can be downgraded one level to make way for this one? The current brown add-ons don't feel like any help anyway as they are too weak.
So that's it. Any thoughts guys? :)
First thing I thought, was there was no way the devs would do this, as it would be too complicated for new survivors.
Perhaps the devs should show concern for the people who made this game as successful as it is. The ones who buy the ridiculously priced cosmetics. The ones who buy the DLC chapters the day the come out. The ones who give a damn enough to spend time on these forums.
Comments
I 1000% agree they are pushing there veteran and dedicated players away whilst enticing newer players. Survivor mains.
It does not even appear they are attracting many new players through this strategy. New players come and stay through word of mouth. I have seen far too many forms of entertainment chase new fans while ignoring their dedicated ones. Very rarely ends well.
All the things a user can do is to tell them that... And probably look how they ignore it. Would not be the first time.
I generally find games that have good word of mouth attract new players not because they pander but because the game is good. From Software has never pandered yet they get new players because gamers want a challenge.
Hi there! First of all, thank you for sharing my post and taking time to appreciate my ideas for the Clown! Also, feel free to comment on that thread any suggestions you might have for that idea.
Anyway. Exactly as you said it sir. Heck, I would rather have ads in the main screen of DBD as their source of revenue rather than them skew the gameplay mechanics just to get new players.
The devs are putting their focus on new survivor players. Not even survivor players in general, but the new ones, because those people haven't bought all the existing DLCs and cosmetics yet.
It's a bad strategy. The pool of new players is limited. You cannot grow a game or even keep it alive long-term if you only focus on gaining new players and not on keeping the current ones.
If they continue like this, DbD will not last those 4-5 years as they planned.