What do you think the game needs to encourage varied gameplay and loadouts?
Title.
Looking at the pool of perks and the killer abilities, there is some attempt from the devs to get people to use different playstyles, but it all falls flat on its face because there is just something missing to get people to actually do this.
Instead the gameplay is the always same, to the point that you can accurately predict what perks either side will run and how they will behave just by looking at them.
And that is not a positive point.
So, what do you think needs to change to get people to drop their ever-same builds and MO, and at least try to play differently (even if it's just 'try to cut the LoS when facing myers and stop healing in the gate against deathslinger')
Comments
The best way is probably to make healing something survivors actually need to do. Right now being injured just means you're a little easier to track, so killers don't get a lot of value from juggling or anti-healing builds if the survivors are "efficient." Adding a downside, like slower repair speeds or slower vaulting/pallet dropping, would force/allow the meta to shift.
I think making the main objective of completing generators take longer and in turn provide higher incentive for killers to take chases instead of having those macro focused games. Right now I think split generator completion ends game super quickly which in turn forces killer to only go for plays that guarantee a hit. ie hook saves.
EDIT: To answer you last sentance: the only way is simply to release stronger perks or nerf the existing ones. If they're the best perks in the game they will be picked the highest no matter what other options there are.
Can't agree. Right now the approach of a lot of people is 'have someone engage the killer in a chase while the others repair gens'. making gentime take longer wouldn't make that any better. On the contrary, it would make it worse as people would be even more focused on repairing gens quickly, so more purple toolboxes BNPs, etc.
Without a system that is able to determine precisely what makes a good/bad player good/bad you will have a hard time optimizing your content.
There is still no answer for the difference between the gameplay experience of killer, SWF and soloQ,
Want more variety? After these are fixed, you can start to rework 80% of the parkbase that is barely/never used.
To rework just one perk takes an eternity, having a perkbase where each perk has more or less the same value is just a dream.
They are also unable to decrease the distance between the best and the worst killer of the game (doesnt matter which ones they/you consider best and worst).
The worst thing is, it looks like there is no intention to do...so...
There's a slew of second chance perks that are just on a completely other level of power compared to all other perks which in turn makes them cloud out all other options from looking decent. That's one of the main issues.
Not saying we should do this, but hypothetically if all the second chance perks like DS, BT, Unbreakable DH ect didn't exist we would see a much larger variety of perks being used.
Second chance perks in this game have needed to be reigned in hard for years.
This probably isn't the answer you were looking for, but honestly the perk loadouts idea. Having the ability to save perk loadouts and just choose between them.
Changing all 4 perks is so slow and sluggish, and always has been.
Either you nerf meta perks or you buff non-meta perks.
That's the only way to encourage different loadouts.
Also basic game mechanics need to change. Because of the basic gameplay design (bust gens to escape, hook survivors to kill them, looping/camping/slugging as the main way to gain time advantage) perks, items and abilities that affect gen speed, chase and hooking/slugging are going to be more powerful bu nature.
Without chanting these two things meta will always be as stale and stagnant as it has been for the last 4 years.
I would bbq and WGLF bp base line so people don’t just run these for BP.
Every weekend one survivor and killer will become free with their three teachables stuck on them. You gain 2 times bp for using them
If my suggestion where to be implemented obviously wouldn't work with current balance. I was just saying that in order for the meta to move away from regression builds on killer and anti-snowball builds for survivor there would have to be more killers actually spending more time chasing.
100% agree with you about the basic mechanics being the reason. Some perks even if they doubled the stats (ie dark sense) would still not be meta because they're simply never more viable than BT if it's timer was halved for example. Game mechanics have to change if other perks would be encorperated into the meta.
How? This isn't meant as snark.
Removing these perks from the equation works, but opens up a whole new slew of problems. The first issue is that getting hooked is now basically a death sentence. There's no anti tunneling defense whatsoever and there's nothing for anti-camping or slugging. But that is actually the smaller issue.
The main problem is that those three are the main ways a killer can gain a time advantage outside of genslowdown. And on the flipside those three perks are the main perks that affect how a survivor can gain a time advantage over the killer.
Removing those perks needs major rebalancing around it, and basically means the removal of all perks that grant time advantage to both sides. The crap perks that do nothing for time advantage aren't used because the perks that grant time advantage are too precious and strong. Mechanically it's a problem where perks that significantly affect the main objective of both sides, are the only ones that matter in the game.
That's why no matter how much you buff Dark Sense or Monstrous Shrine, nobody is ever going to use them. They are just too far removed from how the game is played.
The overall mechanics need a significant overhaul. But I agree that the main second chance perks should be nerfed heavily or removed, along with all the time advantage perks in the game like Prove Thyself, DS, every Exhuastioin Perk, Ruin, Thanatophobia, NoEd, etc. But then if you do that the game gets a lot more boring. So mechanic overhaul is the better solution.
Metas exist for a reason. Even in games with vast variety of options see players gravitate towards certian builds.
Buff non meta perks since if the current meta didn’t exist killers would just complain about the closest thing to it for survivors.
"Removing these perks from the equation works, but opens up a whole new slew of problems. The first issue is that getting hooked is now basically a death sentence. There's no anti tunneling defense whatsoever and there's nothing for anti-camping or slugging. But that is actually the smaller issue."
This statement is literally why I said, "not saying we should do this" when referencing their removal. It was to get a point across, not to be literal. The second chance perks can be brought down to a balanced level without making them useless in their purpose of preventing camping and tunneling.
"The main problem is that those three are the main ways a killer can gain a time advantage outside of genslowdown. And on the flipside those three perks are the main perks that affect how a survivor can gain a time advantage over the killer."
Which is where the issue lies. We can still have them perform their role without being overbearing though.
"Removing those perks needs major rebalancing around it, and basically means the removal of all perks that grant time advantage to both sides. The crap perks that do nothing for time advantage aren't used because the perks that grant time advantage are too precious and strong. Mechanically it's a problem where perks that significantly affect the main objective of both sides, are the only ones that matter in the game."
We must be viewing the games current balancing differently from your statements here. Even with none of those second chance perks existing and the killer running slow down perks the survivors still have a massive time advantage..like not even close. I agree on the point about the perks being chosen that effect the actual objectives of the game, but they can still do that with a much smaller degree of influence to get them closer in line with perks that don't so that the difference isn't as extreme.
"That's why no matter how much you buff Dark Sense or Monstrous Shrine, nobody is ever going to use them. They are just too far removed from how the game is played."
That's only because of the power of the perks you are comparing them too. If those perks were reigned in, and these were buffed/reworked, those perks would be considered.
I don't think time advantage perks is necessarily the problem, as much as the degree of time that they add is the problem. If they only add a small amount verses perks that don't exactly add time but they add significant information per say, we could find some balance.
One thought might be to offer some kind of incentive to use certain perks, like the Daily Rituals or Rift Challenges. Basically get a bonus if you do X while using Y perk. Like survive or escape a chase while using Quick & Quiet or Iron Will, or prevent X screams while using Calm Spirit, or build up a total of X tokens of perks like Stake-Out, Save the Best For Last, or Huntress' Lullaby, and offer bloodpoint or shard rewards for doing so.
Well, changing the meta in survivors so they need to do something in order to earn it. Deliverance as an example, you earn a free hook but you need to safely rescue someone before. Also buffing non-used perks.
As an example, Dead Hard once can be used if you took a protection hit instead of just earning it by existing, it also has sense with David King's lore (I am not saying that Dead Hard should only by earned by this way, it was just an example)
Adrenaline should be earned if YOU helped with the match progression, if you are a Blendette. Why do you need to be rewarded for the other survivors effort?
DS, I think DS needs to last fewer seconds. Something like PGTW would look good on DS
The meta might change a bit in that way.
Remove all meta perks. No meta perks are fun, and I’m saying for both sides.
It could also save a lot of toxicity from this game.
An ingame Build randomizer, so I don't have to open websites all the time.
The game needs to nerf survivor perks and also to nerf SWF lobbies.
Define meta perks (no sarcasm). Cause, to me 'kindred' would count as a meta perk, but it isn't overpowered. Unbreakable can be a blessing without being toxic.
Implement a perk randomizer and give bonus BPs for playing builds made with it.