Handicap mode for SWF?

Zensunim

Just an idea I had. When introducing a new friend to the game, if I play SWF with them, they're going to get crushed going against a red-ranked killer. If they reverted matchmaking the way it was, the killer will get frustrated going against a red-ranked survivor, but what if that red-ranked survivor was handicapped?

When you start your SWF group, let there be an option for the high-ranked survivor(s) to handicap themselves (one perk, no items allowed, 50%+ penalty to BP earned, no MMR/Rank changes), then the game can match the group against the low-ranked SWF.

This will increase the pool of low-ranked survivors for matchmaking with low-rank killers (whose queue times are pretty bad) and keep low-ranked survivors out of high-rank games (since they're not fun to have for the rando survivors).

NullEXE

I just de ranked to green to help my friend when they started. Go go-go dance for the killer, they like that. Your team won't, but the Killer will.

Waffleyumboy

Yeah that would be nice. Alleviate queue times a tad and encourage new players to join.

T2K

I like the idea of the handicap but imo its not that simple. I think items wont be possible. Your friends can just give you an item ingame or you can open a chest. I also think the perks are not the real problem here. I can only speak for myself but I would give a low rank killer a good run without any perks. There is just a big difference in game experience and tbh survivors dont need perks to stomp a killer. Keep also in mind you play swf although you have mixed ranks.

I used to play kyf with my friends, with me as killer. I teached them all the important stuff and basics. After they felt more comfortable and confident we switched to live and they did pretty good even against red ranks. I think thats one of the best ways to play with your friends and help them to get used to the game.

Zensunim

@T2K I agree that the highly skilled players can stomp low-rank killers while going completely perkless. But they could also do this today on PC with a $5 smurf account and they wouldn't have any limitations, but they wouldn't be making any progression on anything because they're on another account.

I figured this is a good way to have high-ranked players to be able to play with new people while earning XP/Rift shards. The limitations discourages tryharding. It doesn't eliminate it because of human nature, but it's certainly fairer than the previous (and current) system.

Archimedes5000

@T2K said:

I like the idea of the handicap but imo its not that simple. I think items wont be possible. Your friends can just give you an item ingame or you can open a chest. I also think the perks are not the real problem here. I can only speak for myself but I would give a low rank killer a good run without any perks. There is just a big difference in game experience and tbh survivors dont need perks to stomp a killer. Keep also in mind you play swf although you have mixed ranks.

I used to play kyf with my friends, with me as killer. I teached them all the important stuff and basics. After they felt more comfortable and confident we switched to live and they did pretty good even against red ranks. I think thats one of the best ways to play with your friends and help them to get used to the game.

@Waffleyumboy said:

Yeah that would be nice. Alleviate queue times a tad and encourage new players to join.

But thats still 1 item less. And worse players have worse items too.

But yeah, you are right. I think the handicap should lower your rank, but not infinitely. Like 4 ranks but not more.

Keep in mind that they can just derank/smurf even right now

Zensunim

@Archimedes5000 said:

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/1048677#Comment_1048677

But thats still 1 item less. And worse players have worse items too.

But yeah, you are right. I think the handicap should lower your rank, but not infinitely. Like 4 ranks but not more.

Keep in mind that they can just derank/smurf even right now

Deranking means that person is just throwing games or DCing a lot, which sucks for everyone else in the match. I'd rather the feature be effective at red ranks/high MMR and not force someone to have to downrank to play with new friends.

Zensunim

Well, I got a lot of positive feedback from this thread, so I created a Feedback forum post that's formatted better:

@Zensunim said:

As a red-ranked survivor, my biggest challenge when I introduce a friend to the game is that if I play SWF with them, they're going to get crushed going against a high-ranked killer. However, if BHVR reverted matchmaking the way it was, the killer will get frustrated going against high-ranked survivors and the new player will still get crushed going against a mid-ranked killer.

So I have a couple of options available right now which all have their disadvantages:

• Create a smurf account
• Purposely de-rank
• Just deal with it

Smurfing may not be an easy option available to everyone, especially on consoles. Since I own the game on Steam, it's easy enough to create a smurf account so I can play with my friend. However, I won't earn any XP towards my Rift progress on my main account. And if my smurf account gets too high in rank, I have to resort to de-ranking.

De-ranking is free and will earn me XP toward the Rift. All I have to do is wear a brightly colored outfit, look for the killer, get downed, and kill myself on first hook. This method is free to do, but it takes time and just ruins the game for everyone else. On top of that, once I'm no longer playing with my friend, I'm stuck at the lower ranks but can quickly rise up again, causing me to have to de-rank again later.

We could just deal with it, but the queue times at high ranks are bad (and this leaves a bad first impression for my friend), but we're also ruining the experience for other players in the high ranks having to deal with a low-rank new player that doesn't know the game, which gives the high-ranked killer a huge advantage. At the end, the other survivors are going to be mad at the new player, and the new player's going to feel awkwardly out of place.

What I'd like to propose is for an option in the SWF lobby screen for high-ranked players to handicap themselves. This will allow them to group with low-ranked SWF players and be matched with a low-ranked killer. A handicapped player can have several game restrictions imposed on them.

Some example restrictions:

• Only one perk allowed
• Can't bring in any items
• 50%/75%/90% penalty to bloodpoints earned (applied post-match) based on # of handicapped players in the SWF
• No rank/MMR changes

I'm hoping this will have several positive effects:

• The new player gets to play with their friend and face a killer appropriate for their level
• The veteran player can work on their Rift progression
• Improve queue times for high-rank survivors and low-rank killers
• Improve overall experience by keeping low-ranked survivors out of high-ranked games
• BP penalties discourages using this feature to farm bloodpoints from low-ranked killers
• Veteran player won't have access to strong builds (which they could have with smurfing/deranking)
• Locked rank/MMR discourages tryharding, and the veteran player is free to make riskier altruistic plays without worrying of suffering an MMR penalty from losing to a low-ranked killer
• The new player actually has fun and is encouraged to keep playing