New Killer: The Angel ('Weeping Angel" from Dr. Who)

Hyd

Background:

I'll just give a brief overview as it will relate to DBD, but full details on this character as it's known in the show can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weeping_Angel

The Angel takes the form of an angelic stone statue covering their eyes while observed by someone (as if crying/weeping) and appears frightening like a vampire when attacking someone (see above pic). Weeping Angels can't move when being observed by someone but as soon as they are not being observed, they can move incredibly fast, almost as if teleporting. If they are allowed to touch/attack someone, they can send them back in time. They do this because they require a special energy to sustain themselves, and this energy is left behind by someone who gets sent back in time. Absorbing this Temporal Energy powers additional abilities outlined below. Angels don't merely exist in their physical form - because they are quantum beings, any visual representation of them can be manipulated to their advantage (i.e. a picture, a video, and even a mental image in someone's mind can come to life as a fully-powered Angel). Angels can also manipulate electronics to an extent, such as turning off lights in a room so a victim can't see them.

Movement Mechanics:

When the angel is being observed, they turn to stone and cannot move, but when unobserved, they appear normally (i.e. they lose the stone look) and can nearly teleport around at great speed, at all times covering their eyes, appearing as a very fast moving blur. This will be a completely new mechanic for the game so, how will it work? What does it mean to be "observed?" And how fast of movement are we talking here?

• Observed and Unobserved states: The Angel is considered to be Observed if any survivor is within physical line-of-sight of The Angel, AND, The Angel is within the survivor's camera view. The Angel is considered Unobserved if either of those qualifications is not met (additionally, the Survivor cannot being reparing/cleansing/healing/etc, as one cannot focus on doing those actions and also simultaneously keep an eye on The Angel). There is a distance limit as well, but it is quite generous. So, for example, if a Survivor is hiding behind something and using the camera to look around a corner or over some obstacle, The Angel will not be frozen because the Survivor doesn't have a physical line-of-sight on them.

Note: If this sounds like it can easily be exploited by just designating a Survivor to stare at The Angel and do nothing else the entire game, The Angel will have additional passive abilities to discourage this (see "Passive Abilities" section further down).

• Movement: While Unobserved, The Angel will have an impressive 10 m/s movement speed, greater than The Blight while rushing, and appears as a flickering, distorted blur. While Observed, The Angel turns to stone and cannot move at all.

Passive Abilities (some of these may end up better as perks, but for now...):

As this is not a typical Killer, The Angel will require some special passive abilities to level the playing field and bolster what would appear to be her primary weakness.

• Stone Sight: The aura of any Survivor currently observing The Angel is revealed to The Angel for the duration and continues for 1.5 seconds after they stop observing.
• In Your Mind's Eye: Staring at The Angel for too long begins to form a powerful mental image of The Angel in the Survivor's mind, which gradually manifests as a physical Angel clone within 5m nearby ALL Survivors that are observing The Angel. The Angel clone takes 6 seconds of observing by a Survivor to fully form, and when complete, The Angel can choose to instantly inhabit and take control of any clone, leaving a husk of itself as a clone where it stood. Any clones not controlled by the The Angel will notify The Angel when a Survivor looks at them, and reveal their aura for as long as they look. If not controlled by The Angel, clones will crumble to dust after 45 seconds. Alternately, The Angel can choose NOT to control a clone, and instead let out a bellowing shreak that emanates from the clones as well, causing any observing Survivor to look down in fear, giving The Angel a chance to escape.

Note: The 6-second observe time to form a clone does not need to be uninterrupted observation. If a Survivor looks away for a period of 4 seconds, the observe time will reset to 0, but if they look again before 4 seconds have passed, the observe time will continue to accumulate. This should hopefully counter any Survivor exploit intended to hold The Angel in-place without making any clones, either solo or with a coordinated team. As an additional defense against exploitation from Survivors who think they can escape by looking away and then looking again over and over very quickly, so as not to build up the observe time too quickly but still hold The Angel in-place, each action of looking away and then looking instantly adds 1 second to the observe time, so it becomes better to just keep looking and let the clone form or just run away.

• Stone Cold: The Angel does not have a heartbeat, and thus has a very small Terror Radius but can be heard moving about from a decent distance (sounds like a bunch of stones and pebbles being ground against each other) .
• Lights Out: Downed Survivors are terrified with fear and cannot bear to look at The Angel in order to stop her from picking them up or carrying them. They may still wiggle free though.

Power:

The core power of The Angel (and Weeping Angel in Dr. Who) is sending people back in time, so I'd somehow like to come up with a version of this that works in-game - how to implement such a power?

• Touched by an Angel: A 3-tier power which enables The Angel to send someone back in time with a successful Power Attack hit. Each tier is achieved by building up your Temporal Energy, which is done by successfully hitting players with the Basic Attack. The Angel begins in Tier 0, the default state with no accumulation of Temporal Energy, and a Power Attack here has no special properties, but it only requires 1 hit's worth of energy to get to Tier 1 and start sending people back in time. Upon being Power attacked, the Survivor is sent back in time by 5/10/15 seconds. Once Tier 3 is achieved, there will be a 60 second regression on the power before resetting to Tier 0.

Power Details (what does it mean to be "sent back in time?"):

There is some give and take here with this power in that it can benefit the Survivor in some cases, and benefit The Angel in others. Being sent back in time will do several things, including:

• An instant physical re-position of the Survivor to where they were X seconds ago
• A restoration of any status effects the Survivor had X seconds ago
• A reset of progress made on repairs, healing, etc to wherever it was X seconds ago (including completed generators and totems)
• A reset of any breakables if they were not broken X seconds ago

Some example scenarios:

• (Assume Tier 1) The Angel comes upon a Survivor repairing a generator and whacks them immediately, the generator was at 50%. Since the Survivor was repairing the gen 5 seconds ago, they aren't physically re-located, but the generator reverts back to whatever progress had been made at that point.
• (Assume Tier 2) The Angel uses a Basic Attack on a full health Survivor, injuring them, then follows up with a Power Attack. The Survivor is physically re-located to where they were 10 seconds ago, AND, since they weren't injured then, they are back at full health status.
• (Assume Tier 3) (This is one of the more interesting scenarios imo) A hooked Survivor is pulled off the hook by a team mate. After a brief chase (less than 15 seconds), The Angel catches up and whacks them with a Power Attack, sending them back (you guessed it) on the hook, with the hook progress being whatever it was at the time. (keep in mind that because this is Tier 3, The Angel only has this Tier for 60 seconds, so, pulling this off should be pretty hard considering everything else The Angel would have to deal with).

Perks:

• Blind Obsession: Survivors that enjoy looking at The Angel a little too much will eventually become blinded by the sight of one. After 5/4/3 Angel clones are created by a given Survivor, the next time that Survivor sets eyes on The Angel, an Angel clone will take only 2 seconds to manifest, and if The Angel takes control of it, the Survivor is completely blinded for 2 seconds and cannot freeze The Angel. The clone count for that Survivor resets after The Angel utilizes this perk.
• Voices of the Dead: The consciousness and image of any Survivor that is sacrificed (or killed by other means) becomes available to The Angel as an apparition to use for their own purpose. 1/2/3 apparitions (for each dead Survivor) can be placed around the map like traps that will scream when another Survivor comes too close to them, revealing the aura of the Survivor. Apparitions can be destroyed without alerting them if a Survivor crouches over to disable them.
• Temporal Shift: While The Angel is frozen in-place by a Survivor with Tier 3-worth of Temporal Energy, complete 4/3/2 Great Skill Checks immediately one-after-another in order to send the observing Survivor(s) back in time by 4/6/8 seconds. Succeeding all Skill Checks consumes 1.5/1/0.5 Tier's-worth of Temporal Energy. Failing a skill check will consume 2.5/2/1.5 Tier's-worth of Temporal Energy.

Mori Offering:

• Kiss of Death: The Angel stands over the Survivor who is face down, grabbing the back of their head with one hand, and violently gouging out their eyes with the other hand. The Angel then flips them over for a kiss, completely absorbing their Temporal Energy, turning them to stone and then bursting them into dust with a crushing stomp.

One final thing...

Quantum Realm: The Angel's own "timey-wimey-wibbly-wobbly" realm (similar to Spirit, Freddy, etc)

This could probably be utilized for a number of things, and initially I didn't think it'd be necessary until I got to the very end of this post and thought to myself, "Wait, if Survivors can freeze The Angel, how will the act of carrying a Survivor over to a hook work if other Survivors are watching?" My only way out of that predicament was to include a Quantum Realm for this Killer where The Angel can be safe from being frozen while carrying a Survivor. There may be better alternatives than this (for example, we could implement something similar to Pyramid Head's cage mechanic) but this is what I've come up with so far hehe.

Conclusion:

Obviously, any of what I've come up with - the abilities themselves, any of the numbers I've set for things, etc - is all just a starting point and up for alteration for whatever reason (i.e. too OP, not powerful enough, etc). It's really hard to know just how something will play and how fair or unfair it might be just simply listing these things out as text, so, I tried my best!

I think this Killer would be pretty frickin cool and different from anything else. Actually, there are lots of characters from Dr. Who that would make great and interesting Killers in DBD ("The Silence" comes to mind...).

Any feedback is appreciated!

EDITS:

12/1/2020: Added Quantum Shift ability as an additional perk or passive to consider

Quantum Shift: The first time any Survivor looks at The Angel, The Angel will immediately be presented with a very difficult skill check. If The Angel succeeds, they will automatically teleport to within 5m of the Survivor. 45s cooldown. (Note: Due to the Stone Sight passive ability and how quickly this teleport will occur, The Angel will likely have the full 1.5s leftover aura reveal on that Survivor)

The_Spooky_One993

My only recommendations would be to make the perks accessible for more killers. Since they're specific to the Angel they wouldn't really make sense as teachable perks

3readroll

This is amazing, but I think a blinking mechanic should be added as one of the Angels default perk, further preventing cheesing the game by staring at the angel. That way the angel has a chance to work up to the angel husks perk, and not just given it right away! It would make the angel last longer and people feel more accomplished!

Hyd

@The_Spooky_One993 said:

My only recommendations would be to make the perks accessible for more killers. Since they're specific to the Angel they wouldn't really make sense as teachable perks

Aye, you are right there, I definitely wasn't thinking of making them accessible for more killers. I'm still pretty new to this game actually so, I'm wondering, are all Killer perks teachable? If so, I'd definitely have to generalize these ones a bit hehe.

Hyd

@3readroll said:

This is amazing, but I think a blinking mechanic should be added as one of the Angels default perk, further preventing cheesing the game by staring at the angel. That way the angel has a chance to work up to the angel husks perk, and not just given it right away! It would make the angel last longer and people feel more accomplished!

Hmm, that's an interesting idea. I thought about a Blink but didn't want to copy a core ability of another killer (Nurse), so that's actually why I went with giving her a movement speed of 10 m/s. As a default movement speed, that's more than 2x faster than any other Killer, and probably covers as much distance or more than a Nurse double blink, but with a lot less effort. Obviously, it's hindered by the fact that if any Survivor spots you, you're frozen solid. So, to get hits really depends on being able to swoop in on someone before they can look at you. This is why I then came up with the clones idea and Blind Obsession perk, as it punishes the Survivors a bit and gives the Angel a chance to re-position and get the jump on them.

I'd like to flesh out a possible Blink option though, something different than Nurse at least, so, after a few minutes of consideration, here's what I think could be doable, either as a Perk or a Passive ability:

• Quantum Shift: The first time any Survivor looks at The Angel, The Angel will immediately be presented with a very difficult skill check. If The Angel succeeds, they will automatically teleport to within 5m of the Survivor. 45s cooldown. (Note: Due to the Stone Sight passive ability and how quickly this teleport will occur, The Angel will likely have the full 1.5s leftover aura reveal on that Survivor)

leafninja

I think this is an awesome idea for the game dude.

Hyd

@leafninja said:

I think this is an awesome idea for the game dude.

Thank you! Working on another Killer, an original this time, which will be just as in-depth as this one. Not quite finished with the details but it is also based on shaking up the typical gameplay we're all used to currently. Will be ready to post soon :)

leafninja

@Hyd said:

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/1814496#Comment_1814496

Thank you! Working on another Killer, an original this time, which will be just as in-depth as this one. Not quite finished with the details but it is also based on shaking up the typical gameplay we're all used to currently. Will be ready to post soon :)

Let me know I always love reading people's ideas especially if it a new killer in the game. I play both sides so it be interesting to see how playing the weeping angel is compared to going against it. Love the show u got it off of too lol

Hyd

@leafninja said:

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/1818698#Comment_1818698

Let me know I always love reading people's ideas especially if it a new killer in the game. I play both sides so it be interesting to see how playing the weeping angel is compared to going against it. Love the show u got it off of too lol

Doctor Who is awesome hehe, so many characters there that'd make great Killers.

Here's my original Killer, just completed!

@Hyd said:

How cool would it be to have a Killer that can ACTIVELY manipulate the map, and/or features on the map?

I've only been playing a month but in my time, despite the enjoyment I've had playing different Killers, I've found they're all essentially the same as far as general gameplay strategies go, and the same applies to Survivor strategies defending against them as well - there's always chasing, always pallets, always dodging/zig-zagging, always slash once, twice for a down, carry to hook, etc... The stalking powers/mechanics of killers like Ghost Face and The Shape are interesting and sort of alter the typical "see survivor, chase survivor" gameplay, but don't go far enough.

I came up with some fairly in-depth ideas for a licensed Killer a while ago, The Angel (https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/208641/new-killer-the-angel-weeping-angel-from-dr-who), which I feel introduces some powers that takes a decent step towards really changing the gameplay dynamic and forcing Survivors to adopt new strategies, so for this one, I want to attempt to shake things up once again.

Behold...

The Entity's Architect! (or, just The Architect):

Background:

The Architect is a servant of the Entity, the mind responsible for designing the trials for Killers and Survivors to play in. However, the Entity has, over the years, developed an unquenchable thirst for blood that its army of Killers alone has not managed to provide in the existing trials. So, the time has now come for a Killer like no other, one with unmatched knowledge of the trials and the know-how for turning the tide against Survivors in ways they've never seen before...the right hand of The Entity itself, The Architect!

Appearance:

The Architect is just as gangly, intimidating and evil looking as he Entity itself. Obviously, we've not seen the Entity in its full form (if it even has one) but given the appearance of the pointed, thorny limbs which grow along the Hooks and block generators, The Architect is basically a mostly humanoid looking creature with colors and features based on the Entity. It should appear as a gangly husk surrounded by black smoke emanating from all around it.

Powers, Passive Abilities, and Perks:

The idea behind The Architect is that this is a Killer who designed the maps, and so their Power(s) (active and/or passive) should somehow revolve around the fact that they'd have intimate knowledge of the map's features (i.e. locations of hooks, chests, totems) and, in addition to this (to make things really interesting) have some abilities that allow for ACTIVE manipulation of some of those features, as well as others (hatch, generators, exit gates), possibly even the environment itself in some form. This will not be a highly offensive Killer, but more defensive, one that sets up the ultimate set of traps to snowball the game in their favor, and can be extremely effective the longer a game goes on, and truly becomes threatening in the end game.

Below will be some ideas for Powers, Passive Abilities and Perks (some or all of which may end up being better as something other than whatever I've labeled them as):

Passive Abilities:

• Visions of Death: The Architect can see the auras of all Hooks, Totems, Gate Switches and the Hatch on the map (in the same way Killers can see all Generators) for the entire trial duration, but, cannot see Generators.
• Backup Plan: For any and all Hex perks being utilized by The Architect, if it is cleansed, it will automatically transfer to a dull Totem, if any remain on the map.
• Deathly Durability: Upgraded Hooks take 50% longer for Survivor's to Sabotage and/or unhook other Survivors from.

Power:

The core power of The Architect will involve manipulation of the map and/or its features.

Will of the Architect: The Architect can manipulate a variety of features on the map by approaching them and using this ability.

• Hooks can individually be upgraded to begin with the Struggle Phase when a Survivor is hooked. Upgraded Hooks will have a different aura color to differentiate them. Upgrading Hooks takes 20 seconds.
• Totems can be sabotaged and made to look like they have an active hex perk on them. Sabotaged totems also have a different aura color. Cleansing attempts on these totems will notify The Architect. Sabotaging Totems takes 10 seconds.
• The Hatch itself can be sabotaged. When opened manually by a Survivor, or accessed by the Last Survivor, an arm of the Entity itself will spring forth, lashing the Survivor and injuring them. The Entity continues to guard the Hatch until it automatically closes or is manually closed. If already injured Survivors are hit by the Entity, they'll be placed into the Dying State and have 4 seconds to crawl away before being sacrificed right there on the ground. Once closed, the Entity vacates the Hatch and it is safe to re-open with another Key, or, The Architect may also choose to sabotage it again. Sabotaging the Hatch takes 25 seconds.
• Gates can be upgraded. Survivors will face Difficult Skill Checks while powering the Gate. Progress also regresses at a rapid rate of 5% per second if a Survivor leaves it unfinished. Powering attempts will notify The Architect. This action takes 30 seconds.

Perks:

• Hex: Photo Finish: The Architect grows impatient with the rate of death in the Trial - force the Endgame Collapse timer to last only 75/60/45 seconds regardless of Survivors on Hooks or in Dying states.
• Heads Up: When a Survivor Sabotages a hook or saves a hooked Survivor, the Hook drops down onto them, inflicting the Deep Wound and Exposed status effects. If the Hook was an Upgraded Hook, the falling hook also injures the Survivor by a full health state. Hook regeneration takes 30 seconds like normal.
• Look Again: While in a chase, The Architect can see all nearby vault locations and pallets, and can call upon the Entity to block a position of their choosing for 4/6/8 seconds. This takes 1.5 seconds to activate with no movement speed slowdown, and has a 45 second cooldown.

Thoughts on balancing:

I tried my best to balance things but of course, it's difficult to know just how overpowered or underpowered some of these abilities might be in reality so, any powers, abilities or numbers I came up with, it's all purely conceptual and just a starting point to further fine-tune things and/or inspire new ideas and gameplay mechanics.

My primary thought-process for balancing the Power itself was that manipulating a given feature should take more or less time depending on the potential that manipulation has for causing injury, death, distraction to Survivors, and/or other benefits to The Architect.

So, for example, in the case of an Upgraded Hook, that's pretty significant to be able to hook someone and go straight to the Struggle Phase, right? I had to ask myself questions like, "How much time will this save The Architect when compared to any other Killer?" because normally, a Killer will have to chase, injure, chase again, down them, carry to hook, then if no one comes to save, a certain amount of time passes with that Survivor on the Hook, but if someone does save, then you have to chase again, down again, carry again, etc... So going straight to the Struggle Phase is a pretty big deal - how long should that upgrade take to complete?

I settled on 20 seconds because I figured that for The Architect to get the MOST benefit and save the MOST time, they'd have to chase, injure, chase, down, and carry to THAT hook, which they may not even be able to get to at that point, especially earlier in the game. The conditions have to be right for The Architect to realize the benefits of an Upgraded Hook early on. However, obviously, as the game goes on, The Architect may have upgraded many more Hooks, and suddenly you can have a snowballing return-on-investment occur once they start chasing and downing Survivors, but, by the time this is possible, the game should be nearing its end, so the pressure is really turned up on both sides at that point.

The timing I settled on for Hatch and Gates is also pretty long as they can provide a significant benefit, especially at endgame. Totem sabotage is fairly short as it merely notifies The Architect and wastes a small amount of time for the Survivor.

Conclusion:

So, in conclusion, I feel that The Architect, by way of its abilities, is truly a Killer that is different from any other. It's highly defensive, and Survivors may rarely (if ever) be chased by it during most of the game, as The Architect will be far too busy traversing the map and manipulating it to its advantage. However, if The Architect did their job right, the latter half and final moments of the game should be quite intense and stressful. The Architect is a late-game Killer more than anything else.

If there is one thing I feel is missing here, it's gen pressure. This Killer has a number of tools at their disposal but gen pressure isn't one of them. Is it needed? That kind of perk can just be obtained from the existing pool of perks but I feel like this Killer needs one more unique kind of perk or ability added to the list of things it can upgrade or sabotage in some way. One initial thought I had was the ability to physically re-locate generators, or even kick completed generators and force them to regress, but, that could be going too far hehe.

Would love to hear anyone's thoughts and feedback, thanks!

Too over the top? Not powerful enough? Hard to know for sure? Probably too hard to know hehe. It's a good foundation though I think. :) Hope you like it!