Simple suggestion for next patch.
Devs, this will be the easiest fix of your life. It's a simple UI change and a flag in the match making algorithm. It'll probably take 5 minutes to code and 30 minutes to add the UI elements. It solves the one issue of balance that is both A) completely outside of your control and 
completely your fault for the bad implementation.
To be clear, the issue is not inherently groups with friends, but the almost certainty that said groups are communicating OUTSIDE the bounds of the game. There is no amount of balance that can be obtained through skill or perks that can counter this. Even the best rank 1 killers fail against some of these groups. Give killers the CHOICE to face them or not. It's pretty simple, really.
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Then the SWF can break up and go solo, or wait. It's silly to suggest that long wait times are frowned upon but forcing unfair circumstances on the killer is A-OK. As it is, killers experience stupid long wait times at higher ranks.
Further, if the SWF group REALLY wants to play together, they can do KYF as an option. If they don't want to do KYF but are adamant about SWF, that tells you they are clearly looking to use the SWF advantage to rank up, something killers have no option to do or counter.
A lot of people playing this game enjoy playing it with friends. If you implement this idea, then queue times for SWF will go through the roof. They could go solo, but what's more likely to happen is that they'll leave DBD and play a different game to hang out with friends. Punishing people for playing in a group could end up causing a large chunk of players to leave, essentially killing this game. I'm all for balancing the game, but I don't think that this is the best way to go.
No, they won't. the vocal minority will, but these are the same vocal minority that take pride in being toxic idiots. The people that truly enjoy the game will keep playing.
It's not punishment. It's giving both sides a choice. Right now, one side has a choice, the other does not. How many potential long term players do you think have left because of the current state of things? I guarantee you just as many would-be killers have left the game because of the way it is now as you suggest would leave if things were more fair. You're ignoring one entire half of the equation to fit a bias.
SWF would still be possible, but both sides would have to consent. If mutual consent doesn't fit with your idea of fair play, then I would suggest you're part of the larger problem plaguing this game.
Hell, I watched a VERY popular twitch streamer spend at least 1-2 hours today de-ranking on purpose. He''d get 3 kills, slug the last, and leave the game. He did this from rank 3 down to at least rank 6 before I stopped watching. All to avoid the issues plaguing the upper ranks.
Having an opt-out feature will make longer wait times and it’ll just stray people from playing the game because they can’t play with their friends. Your idea of having SWF break up/wait is honestly very stupid, it’ll be just as unfair.
Not to mention, KYF you gain no BP’s and it isn’t fun...
Dont wanna play against SWF? Guess what? DEAL WITH IT.
One of the biggest draws to online games is being able to play with friends. Not everyone who plays with friends is doing so because they want to be toxic. Some just want to hang out. If people end up with ridiculous queue times, they'll play a different game to hang out with others. If one of the reasons people enjoy playing this game is to hang out with others and this game is suddenly unable to sustain that, they'll play a different one.
It's a punishment in a sense that most people wouldn't want to face SWF so this would increase queue time and possibly end up driving away a lot of players. The most recent statistic from the devs, in their October 5th livestream I believe, showed that a significant amount of people playing this game play SWF so this would end up affecting everybody. The only reason SWF was ever added to the game was because so many people wanted it. I agree that it's imbalanced in its current state, but your idea could essentially lead to killing the game. Your claim that I'm ignoring half of the equation is also false, since I stated that I agreed that SWF was too strong and should be balanced. Ironically, I've only ever played this game solo. I never said that mutual consent didn't fit my idea of fair but, from a business standpoint, your idea could end up hurting the game far more then helping it. The devs know this, so I seriously doubt that they'll ever implement this. The best thing to do is balance around it, not exclude large amounts of players with massive queue times.
This would kill the game as the only killers who wouldn't opt out are those that don't care and those that don't know better. Queue times would become insane and in most cases these SWF groups would go find a different game.
What I'm seeing:
/cry
Then I can't play with my friends unless I want to wait for someone who wants to play with us!
/cry
The voice chat outside of the game is unfair. The ignorance on display here suggesting that that unfairness is perfectly fine is pathetically astounding.
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Estimated queue time: 25 hours 51 minutes 02 seconds . . .
Elapsed queue time: 00 hours 00 minutes 43 seconds . . .
If all you're seeing is crying, then I'm afraid you're blind. I've given my reasoning as to why your idea wouldn't be good for the game and so have others. If you choose to ignore it and chalk it up as crying, then so be it. And I never said that SWF is fair the way it is now. I've already stated that I believe that it needs to be balanced. But your idea would hurt DBD.
Yeah, we get it. You only enjoy this game if you can gang up on the killer with your friends.
No, SWF isn't going anywhere. Because you can only enjoy this game with your friends.
But you won't let the devs nerf SWF or survivors, since it would be to much for the 33 solo survivors around the world.
How about special killer perks for SWF. They won't take up normal perk slots. But give killers an advantage against SWF. For example reverse BBQ. Where you see every swf survivor within a certain range after hooking. Or kill your friends, where 1 friend is chosen at random, and if that one tries to unhook his friend, he kills him.
I've never seen such a unthinking idea.
I've been playing since beta, and at the lauch of the game, there was no "SWF". I recommended this game with my friend and 80% of them didn't like the game because they couldn't play with friends. So they left the game and played another one that has the ability to play with friend. When the SWF was introduced, they went back to play the game and really enjoy it.
By blocking SWF, DBD would lost a lot of player, and queue time for killer would take forever.
Killers who want to dodge SWF can already do that. HOWEVER in that process solo survivors who join at the same time get hurt too. A SWF button would solve that issue (sorry for all solo survivors I dodged because of that)
I know that, but most killers won't choose to play SWF groups. This would cause a massive spike in queue times for a large chunk of the player base and possibly drive them away, which would increase queue time for killers and solo survivors as well. A lot people play this game with their friends, so excluding them could hurt the game. Again, I agree that SWF is too strong and should be balanced, but this option could end up killing DBD.
You noob Killers dont want to play against SWF Groups... we Survivors dont want to see a camping noob Killer...
But like PinkEricka said: The Survivors and the Killer should just DEAL WITH IT !!!
If you want rules - play KYF
SWF are okay once you know how to handle them. They're soon not going to be different from solos. I.e. everyone will always know where you are if someone sees you :DDD
well, at least they will kindred auto installed
Identity V does this and maybe you can tempt survivors to play killer for 20%extra bloodpoints if there are not enough playing.
I think SWF is a part of the game and solo survivors just have to work a little harder. Killers might have a rough time. Killers show no mercy against swf and show your intent to slay them.
Lmfao. SWF is cheating? The most closest thing that resembles cheating in this game is that killers get to prune exactly who they want to play against. Toxic survivor in the lineup? SWF? Flashlights? Too many toolboxes? Too many of a survivor character you don't like? Survivor with more playtime than you? Survivor you lost to last round? DLC character? Dodge and roll again!
You cannot gather data from games that do not happen. You cannot balance the game when some killers are allowed to and encouraged to self-select match-ups in their favor. You cannot make a player satisfied when they are self-entitled. Killers. Are. Spoiled.
I guess, you didn't watch OchiDO. Go watch few of his videos, so you can understand not only that SWF is broken ASF, but how spoiled survivors could be.
Let me tell you some fun facts about game. It actually can't detect SWF, lol. Since game don't have dedicated servers, all it does is just establish connection for every survivor to the same killer. Peer-to-peer connection. So, technically, when in SWF lobby everyone press "Ready" button, SWF stop exist, since survs aren't connected to each other anymore. It's also the reason why SWF members forced to create lobby after every game.
Let me tell you, as a programmer, it absolutely CAN. I don't have to even know the code to tell you how this works.
Eliminating SWF joins would be as simple as the killer lobby always reporting only 1 slot available. If a solo survivor joins the queue, they'll never have a problem finding a lobby with 1 slot. If an SWF group joins the queue, they'll only be directed to lobbies with N slots open. The SWF toggle on the create lobby screen simply controls the reported value of N in this case.
You can't be serious. If you are, you're either wilfully ignorant of the current situation, or just inexperienced in the game. On the assumption that your response lacks malicious intent, let me clarify why SWF is "cheating" in many cases.
Here's a second option for those of you above who argue that eliminating SWF play would kill the game.
**Give the killer a spectator option. Let the killer invite ONE friend to spectate the survivors during the trial. The spectator can communicate with the killer just like the SWF members can communicate with each other, but cannot otherwise influence the game. **
The simplest fix for SWF is don't let people see what everyone has when they die. make it to where when you die you have the option of either spectating the match or leaving. Only at the end of the match will the stuff be revealed.
This thread must be a joke.
Or they can close DbD and play another game.
People like OP who have no friends don't get what "friend" means. Friends like to hang out together, so they won't prefer saying "bye" over playing something together. There are many other game friends can play together , and if DbD won't have the option to play together then those people will go play another game. The devs know that , which is why it will never happen. They don't want to kill their game since there's many people who play with friends most of the time and not much alone.
SWF in the context of a ranked match has absolutely zero to do with playing with friends and absolutely everything to do with the unfair advantage. You know it. I know it. Everybody else knows it. You can play dumb all day long but at the end of the day it doesn't change the facts.
And attempting to play the "You must not understand because you have no friends" card, seriously? Sometimes I swear the average age of the DBD player base must not exceed 15 or so.
It will make a big problem with match making system, the queue will be extremely too long for the killer and solo-survivors to wait until the lobby will be full.
This argument keeps being made over and over, and it's bollocks. When was the last time you tried getting a game going as a rank 1 killer? Nobody wants to discuss lobby wait time issues there. Wonder why?
If the queue time is too long for your SWF group, break it up or play another game. It's not legitimate argument to maintain a well documented imbalance simply because bringing balance to the game might be an inconvenience for people who desire only a specific mode of play which has an inherent imbalance.
Also, I found this thread:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/381210/discussions/0/340412122417546673/
That's from 2016. When the game was new'ish. And yet the same killer disadvantages existed then that existed now. 2 years is a long time for an online game to be so critically ######### up and not go under. Behavior and it's sponsors should consider themselves EXTREMELY lucky this game still limps along at all.
I like how people think they've come up with this amazing idea....
But has been suggested about a week after SWF was put in the game... over 2 years ago.
If they didn't do it then... You won't see it anytime soon.
@TheBean said:
There's always room to reconsider. Silence never brings change.
Problem is though they've been buffing solo survivors to have more information to bring them up to the SWF level. Plus the player base it too small to split it. Considering a huge portion play SWF when playing survivor, they would basically telling all those players to leave. Since a big portion of killers will opt out of SWF, thus killing their own game.
This line of thought is self-defeating. People are already quitting. The average player count has been in decline. Survivor queues are getting longer as it is, not even accounting for lobby dodging killers.
Fine, killing SWF will kill the game. Not killing it will as well. It'll just take slightly longer.
Look at that huge decline in players... oh wait!
It's not going to happen ever, so stop asking for it.
Using a third party program yielding you an ingame advantage is considered cheating according to the TOS.
Are you trying to deny that ts/discord is a 3rd party program or are you believing that voice comms dont grant you an ingame advantage?
Yeah except there is more players playing now then there was over 2 years ago, on a game that is over 2 years old.
Then a new DLC drops and the player count will increase. Nice try... but dips in population are pretty common in a game until there is new content put out and more players come back.
All games will die off eventually.... So it is always easy to bend the numbers into whatever logic you want.
Perhaps those that want the opt out option should look on the steam forums for the 3000 post thread about this same topic that was made over 1 year ago, maybe add your 2 cents into it. Guess what though, Devs never really ever addressed that post. And that was a legit discussion thread about the topic of what to do with SWF from a communities perspective.
Also one other point, since you wanted to point out how the player count is declining... So what would ever make you think they would then add in a opt out option to separate the player base with declining player numbers?
Anyways.... Nuf said, isn't going to happen. Best to focus on other ideas on how to integrate all players together that might satisfy the majority of players.
Except the fact the Devs have never come out and said they consider it cheating and against their TOS. In fact you may even find on one of their Dev streams from way back that they specifically don't consider it against their TOS.
Show me posts from BHVR that states they consider using 3rd party comms while playing SWF cheating and against their TOS. (Not talking about Killer and Survivor on the same comms, talking about legit 4 man SWF team using comms.)
Here's the mindset behind this game mode.
These peoples don't care about fairness or their opponents, just boosting their ego and goofing around at the expense of another player (i also count the solo survivors stuck with them, who have to deal with their bullshits too)