My ideas for "fixing" Dead by Daylight
I have around 350 hours of playtime in Dead by Daylight. I mainly play killer, but when I'm not, I'm playing SWF, or custom games. I enjoy the game, and I have had a lot of fun with it. However, there are many issues I have with the game, and I figured I'd put my thoughts out there. I doubt my ideas will really do anything, especially when much more influential people get ignored. I would like to see what members of the dbd community think about my ideas.
Thoughts on Dead by Daylight, The Rift, Iridescent Shards, Decisive Strike, Object of Obsession, Undying, Exit Gates, Lag, Trapper, Issues I’ve encountered
Thoughts on Dead by Daylight:
I like Dead by Daylight, and find it to be an interesting game. I appreciate the plan to redesign all the maps. However, I have numerous issues with the game. The game feels like a grind to get Blood Points and Iridescent Shards, which isn’t inherently wrong, but for a game that costs $20 and has lots of dlc, it seems like too much. Throughout my time playing I have encountered numerous bugs and issues, some of which I will alter detail. I don’t like redeem codes being given to streamers as I don’t really have the time to watch streams and wait for codes. I really don’t like how it appears as though the developers completely ignore all criticism, and have little regard for the players. This was displayed by the Eternal Blight “event” as well as The Binding of Kin patch. The fact that the devs would release a Killer unfinished, where one of their 3 perks is completely broken is astonishing. Additionally, the myriad of game breaking bugs that have followed that patch are inexcusable. Legion’s Frenzy doing nothing, Huntress Hatchets randomly deviating, Hillbilly’s saw continuing to overheat after sawing pallets, Demogoron add on name errors, new Clown add on leaks, Vikor being able to down survivors in lockers, Viktor getting stuck on parts of the map, Viktor’s camera angle slanting, Viktor’s model clipping into Charlotte in the menu, Survivors getting stuck in pallets after using power struggle. All the new issues that were caused by this patch make it clear the devs would rather rush out an incomplete and broken product, rather than doing it right. This is on top of the numerous issues players already face, that have not been fixed.
The Rift:
I don't like the rift for a number of reasons. It's just a battle pass for Dead by Daylight. I've never liked battle passes, but I've understood the need for them in some games such as Apex and Fortnite. These games are free to play, and need some way of generating revenue. Dead by Daylight on the other hand costs $20.00 at regular store price, and with all the DLC the game is around $100.00. This does not account for sales, but I don't think the price of things on sale should excuse high prices. The rift pass costs around $10.00 and theoretically you could earn it all back by completing the entire rift. However, the rift is super long and you would have to play for hours and hours to complete the rift. Additionally, you can only do one rift challenge at a time, and it has to be selected before you start queuing.
So, here are my ideas for the rift. I think the devs should make it so you don’t have to select challenges, and you are awarded as you complete them. I think it would be okay if you still had to pay for the rift pass because it would be much easier to complete. Additionally, players who did not pay for the rift pass would be able to earn some blood points making the game feel like less of a grind. Players without the rift pass would also be able to more easily get the free items in the rift.
Iridescent Shards:
I think Iridescent Shards are a decent currency, especially since it is free. However, I think that shards are earned too slowly. From what I understand the amount of shards earned scale as the player levels up. Shards earned max out at 300 per level at and after level 50. Once a player reaches level 1 they return back to the start of the scale and begin to scale back up to 300 per level. Considering how expensive items are with shards 2000 per perk in the shrine of secrets, 9000 per killer, and cosmetics ranging from 900 to 7200 (full outfits can cost around 21,000).
My solution is to give players more shards. I think players should be allowed to earn shards through the rift. Additionally, I think it would be good to reward players with shards through the rift. I would say around 100 to 300 shards per rift section would be good, especially since many of the rift sections are empty for non-rift pass players.
Decisive Strike:
Decisive Strike is supposed to be an anti-tunneling perk, which I believe should exist. However, there are many instances where ds does not act as an anti-tuning perk. If a survivor can be unhooked, healed, and then start a gen or totem. I hate it when a survivor has ds and jumps in a locker. At that point all I can do is either wait out the ds, get hit with it, or leave. In situations where a survivor is no longer being tunneled, it sucks to get hit with ds.
My idea for Decisive Strike is that if the survivor interacts with another survivor, gen, totem, chest, exit gate, hook, etc, Decisive Strike should deactivate. If a survivor can do any of these things they are not getting tunneled. If a different survivor is put into the dying state and hooked, decisive strike should also deactivate (assuming 1 minute has not passed). I think that the times Decisive Strike is active 40/50/60 seconds, are fine the way they are. I have seen other ideas for Decisive Strike rely on chase, which I disagree with. This is because chase is very unreliable and there are a number of factors that could impact chase. Killers such as Wraith, Ghostface, Spirit, Pig, and anyone running any stealth perks would be able to potentially tunnel without being “in chase”.
Hex Undying:
I think Hex Undying is an interesting perk, and it was a good addition to the game. It is very powerful, but that could be said about a lot of perks, pop, bbq, ds, noed, etc. Many people complain about the Ruin/Undying combo, but I think that it is an issue. A killer main would likely argue 4 survivors running BT, Dead Hard, DS, and Sprint burst, are overpowered.
The only thing I would change about undying is the aura reading. I think that the aura reading is an unnecessary addition to an already powerful perk. It seems unfair for the killer to get random information of the location of the survivors. Additionally, I think that the aura reading acts as a discount Hex Thrill of the Hunt.
Exit Gates:
I think that there are a few issues with the exit gates. I believe that the exit gates should not be able to be 99ed. Being able to 99 exit gates makes Blood Warden, and No One Left Behind super niche and unlikely do get any value from. Blood Warden is almost always run with NOED, and I believe that Blood Warden is a fun perk.
I think the exit gates should either regress when not being worked on at 50% of the default opening speed. That would mean that it would take 40 seconds for the gates to completely regress. This would make the endgame feel more significant, while making perks like Remember Me, Blood Warden, Wake Up, No One Left Behind, all more useful.
Lag:
I’m not sure how this issue could be resolved but I have had so many issues with connectivity. I have never had a game where I didn’t lag. Additionally, there are a lot of times where I’ll be starting a match and then it will exit and say there was a connection error. Again, not sure how to fix this but it’s been a big problem for me. I don’t experience connection issues this frequently, or of this scale in any other game.
Trapper:
I think trapper is very addon dependent, which isn’t inherently bad. However, it’s extremely difficult to win without at least one of the bag add ons. Additionally, Trapper is the only killer who has to walk around the map to use his power (with the exception of Plague fountains, or Oni collecting blood). Trapped just seems really underpowered and I’m not sure what the point of that is. I think a lot of people have gotten used to the Trapper and how he is, but I don’t think that’s a good reason not to change him.
I think at the very least Trapper should be able to carry 2 to 3 traps without addons. The bag add ons could be changed to be like Plague’s apple add ons, where she starts with corrupt fountains. The other idea I had is that Trapper could be like Hag, where he starts with all his traps, and would be able to collect and deploy them as he saw fit.
Issues Encountered:
Stalking on The Shape and Ghostface is very inconsistent. There will be times where the stalk won’t register. I have also had an issue with The Shape where as I am stalking, I will lose a portion of the stalk on the meter. It doesn’t always happen, but sometimes the meter will display I am at 80% stalk, and then I lose line of sight and it drops to 60% or something.
I had a game a few weeks ago where a survivor spawned on top of a wall on one of the Backwater Swamp maps. Luckily Myers has a super long tier 3 lunge so I was able to hit her leg and she fell.
I have had a few games where my chase music would abruptly stop and start.
I had a game on The Pale Rose (Backwater Swamp) where there was a gap between 2 trees that looked as though I would be able to walk through it. I was surprised to get blocked by it and didn’t think much of it. However, later into the game I was chasing a survivor who dead-harded into the gap and got blocked. I downed him and he disconnected (understandably).
I was playing as Plague on one of Yamaoka Estate maps and I was looping a survivor around a rock near the killer shack. On one of the loops the survivor was able to walk up the edge of the rock. It was very confusing, and I didn’t know what to do. The survivor stood up there and got vomited on, and eventually I managed to walk up the rock as well.
I was playing a custom game with friends against an Oni. Randomly towards the end of the game I started floating as if I was being carried by the killer. I had not been injured or downed at all that game, and It was really odd. Other survivors were able to see me the same way but not the killer. While it didn’t impact the game, it was really odd.
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