Regarding a recent statement on the dev stream about the struggle phase
To Summarize the statement, here is a quote from this summary of the stream
Are there any plans to add the cage skill checks to hooks? (from @Lycidas)
The developers aren’t sure yet, but they are considering it. They will be monitoring the mechanic’s performance – how many people fail the skill checks, how much time they lose, etc., as well as player feedback on the topic. They clarified again that they are not “dead set” on the current button-mashing mechanic, they simply want players to be interacting with the game in some way rather than doing nothing during the struggle phase.
This is a terrible idea and your general direction for where you want to go with this is too. Forcing the players to "interact with the game" while on the hook is just a bad idea. At best all this adds to the game is a sense of tension exclusively for new players. Veterans and even mid level players are annoyed by this kind of feature at best and pushed away from playing at worst. You want to know why? Because no matter how pretty you dress it up, being on the hook is boring. Even holding a m1 on a generator is more interesting because you have to be cautious and aware of your surroundings WHILE doing skill checks, but that's simply never the case on the hook, for the most part your surroundings are completely irrelevant. You're just on timeout from the game, and putting a ######### skill check doesn't make that any better because at least I can go on my phone and browse reddit while I'm on the hook. Forcing the player to pay attention to the game where SUPRISE jack ######### is happening, only makes the game more boring because I can't do something more worth my time while I wait
Edit: Unironically, this is literally the thing I hate most about playing against pyramid head, ending up in cage on struggle phase. If I'm not playing with my SWF I actually don't even bother hitting the skill checks, sure I die quicker, but the cage is extremely boring otherwise.
Comments
Behaviour needs to remove the player's ability to get a free disconnect when the match isn't going their way. The thing proposed in this quote is going to make the situation worse, not better.
Was thinking about this a little more and had another idea. If you want players to interact while on the hook. Add skill checks but make missing them do nothing but play the noise missing them currently does, hitting them gives you survival BP (50 each?). This way players like me who'd rather do nothing can, new palyers still feel tension because they'll just hit them without knowing missing them doesn't do anything. And then you also reward players who do it anyways despite knowing missing them does nothing (in the hardest category to max at that, thats a pretty big incentive.)