A DC system that allows players to rejoin and potential animations for it.
So first let me clarify that the time out timer will still be in place so if you disconnect a lot then you won't be able to rejoin the match then finish it to avoid the timer. it will simply exist as a way to pass the time and potentially help your team and finish the match as the timer goes down.
How it will work
When a survivor disconnects they won't fall flat onto the ground and instead will be taken by the entity but not killed, however any item they had will be dropped where they disconnected.
If that player rejoins they will be respawned on the closest or random hook(whatever the devs feels best). meaning they will still lose 1 hook state regardless if they stayed in a match. this won't trigger hook related perks and to compensate and discourage this from being exploited i will next explain the penalty for disconnecting and rejoining.
Penalty system
If a survivor rejoins the first penalty is that they dropped their item and got hooked, The next penalty is that they will only get 50% of any blood points they earned throughout the match. The last penalty is the same as what's currently in place, disconnecting and finishing matches will still increase the time you can't join matches. If a player rejoins the match but they were dead on hook they will still die and get the 50% of blood points they earned.
edit: As for hook related perks while it does go against what the devs like which is constancy perks like breakdown, second wind, and deliverance won't activate upon leaving the hook but DS and the saviors perks like BT will still activate since that discourages tunneling. However if the devs want to keep constancy DS wont trigger as well.
This is to still discourage disconnecting but provide a compensation to players who don't leave matches for whatever reason and to give the survivors a little more of a chance in case that player rejoins.
Animations
So you all know the entity model that kills you once End Game Collapse ends? that or a similar version of it will instead grab that survivor instantly and then evaporate taking the survivor with them. Once that player returns that same model will reappear with the survivor at a hook and hook that survivor. Because certain perks won't activate to make this clear the entity model that hooked you will wrap around the hook (or something else) as if its under the entity's influence and is hindering that survivor. Anything that survivor was affected with will still be on them such as infection from plague or torment from pyramid head.
another thing that's not an animation but will help other survivors find the disconnect spot are scorch or entity marks. something that is left behind by the entity so the survivors have an easier time finding the location in case that survivor had an item.
Hook suicides
Since this can seem unimportant since hook suicides are a thing then another system can monitor how fast a survivor died from FIRST HOOK. Something along the following can be implemented to detect this, if a survivor dies on their first hook within 60 seconds they get affected by the disconnect penalty. this won't affect survivors on their second or third hook obviously.
Comments
Most survivors I see, myself included, don't carry items into trials. Regardless, if a penalty can be avoided by just not taking items, it's pretty much pointless.
The idea of allowing survivors to reconnect is just easily abusable, especially when the first penalty is basically irrelevant. For example, a survivor who's never been hooked DCs mid-trial with Deliverance* ready. They can then rejoin at any point to completely screw with the killer's momentum.
*I'm assuming that by "hook perks" you mean perks like DS, BT, and Kindred, as opposed to perks like Deliverance and Breakdown.
It can also go wrong in a number of different ways. What if a DCer reconnects just as the last survivor is being taken by the Entity? The trial is still going on, technically, so should they be forced to rejoin only to die immediately afterward? If not, at what point is it considered an unwinnable trial, so they're not forced to rejoin, and what's to stop them from DCing at that point and avoid any real penalty altogether?
You know what I'd like?
If you DC your survivor just stops moving (or has AI like mobile) and the killer can kill it as usual, or ignore it.
You then don't have a "find match" button, you have a "reconnect" button. You cannot queue for a new match until your survivor dies.
It would take out a lot of the benefits of DCing just because you don't like the killer, the map, or how someone looked at you, if you couldn't just continue playing a new match. A DC penalty is nice, but obviously they're struggling to make it work without being exploited.
the current penalty is still in place, also i will go edit and address the matter concerning hook related perks like deliverance and breakdown as i can see that as abusable. As for the items its just an extra so survivors can't rely on items to do whatever after getting unhooked and its so other survivors can still get the items. For your last concern yes they will just die, they won't be given a chance to escape just because they rejoined at a good time for hatch, but they still get the points for coming back so its not all worthless.
This system will still discourage dc'ing since a time out is still in place. for survivors who suicide on hook that's hard to address but another penalty system can be emplace to see if a survivor suicides on first hook by seeing how fast they died and if they struggled to go into the next stage.
As Orion said, this would abusable. I'll add more examples:
It just wouldn't work very well. It might in fact encourage DCing. It would also require such a huge effort to ensure all affected perks still work reasonably.
yeah i can see your point a system like this is to abusable and would be too complex to balance however animations for dc'ing would be nice. I actually said the same thing a few hours ago and made this post to see if i could come up with one that works.
They could just make their character stop moving and make struggle automatic (which should be done anyway) and you just rejoin if you're not dead. Same for killer, just stop moving, rejoin if the match isn't over.