Meta perks are killing the game.
Okay the title is a bit overreacted, but I still think that the game is suffering under these perks.
I mean how many times do you have the nerves to go against the same perks over and over again?
Ruin+Undyne, Ds+Unbreakable, spine chill+ironfor example.
I'm luckly green ranks were the perks are a bit more...random, but the more I rank up the more I see only the same stuff over and over again.
I have a little idea to make it better, maybe a "Cooldown" for perks.
You played the perk and have to wait 2 rounds until you can use them again.
Comments
Unfortunately, meta is going to be in every game you play. Devs have a hard job to make sure everything is balanced. If they simply nerf the meta into the ground, another one will form. It's present in all games, Magic the gathering, Yugioh, CoD, WoW, LoL, there are literally entire websites devoted to defining the meta. This is not just a DBD problem, it's a gaming problem. The sphere of information is such that we find the best way to do anything in games.
That's true, if we rated all perks by a percentage, I wonder how much better the meta perks are.
Creating a hard cooldown for Perks isn't a good idea at all. That kind of hard punishment and lockout of preferred playstyles isn't healthy for the game or fun.
If you want to encourage players to use other Perks, and you're not taking balance changes into account, (which will obviously help A LOT especially for Survivor perks) I would recommend features like:
One idea could be to distribute the perks into tiers. Take the perks which are most powerful/meta builds, make them legendary so you can only use one at a time. Kind of like how league is revamping their item system.
But in good games there is not a 1 defined meta that completely outshines everything.
Also, if you want to give an example of LoL, this game has this nice trick of metaswitch. All the time multiple buffs, nerfs and new heroes makeit so meta switches from favoring certain characters to favor the others.
The problem is this meta switch makes some characters underpowered and some unpowered for some time, behaviour won't do this because they want to see only perfect 50/50 statistics for all.
The two issues with such an idea:
And that's putting aside the fact it'd need a sweeping Perk overhaul that'd quite likely bugger up the balance. It's honestly especially unsuited to Dead by Daylight thanks to the Exhaustion system already being a thing, too.
True, in a way exhaustion is a form of limiting perks to one of a type. I don't think my idea would be the best idea, but it's an idea. There's a reason these guys make $$$.
"But in good games there is not a 1 defined meta that completely outshines everything.
Also, if you want to give an example of LoL, this game has this nice trick of metaswitch. All the time multiple buffs, nerfs and new heroes makeit so meta switches from favoring certain characters to favor the others."
Are you really trying to use LoL as an example of a game that does not have defined meta?
Sure it switches with patches, but it does not mean there is not a defined meta. Look at the tournaments, where you see the same 3 top laners. This time it was Gnar, Renek, Camille, and Gragas. That is one small example, then look at sites like op.gg which have defined metrics and percentages for what are the best runes and items. This entire game is defined by a meta.
Based on your argument if DBD nerfed and changed perks enough to where the meta changed every patch it would not have a defined meta. There would still be a meta though. The only way to not have a meta is to have perfect balance, please find a game where there is perfect balance and no "best way" to choose builds.
There will always be a META. You can't stop that. BUT I did get two ideas:
Uhm... that's the point, there are multiple characters on each lane and there is such thing as counterpick. Not one defined meta THAT OUTSHINES EVERYTHING. The example of a game that had this problem to a ridiculous degree is overwatch, where dive was so powerful, that there was no point of doing anything else, so games were a constant mirror matches.
it's just a result of both sides sweating, you encourage each other the further up the ranks you climb or you're punished for it. i'll have the occasional round in red ranks where nobody's brought ds so there's no obsession and more often than not killers take that as an invitation to tunnel as much as they possibly can. guess what happens after that round?
to me the problem isn't strong perks, it's how necessary they feel because of the core game design. if killers couldn't tunnel or camp without being punished, if there was a true secondary objective to tempt survivors away from gens, maybe dbd would have a very diff atmosphere at the top. but playing nice and giving the other side a chance isn't what the game encourages so it isn't what happens.
its not that meta perk are killing the game, its the meta is really stale.
Uhm... that's the point
Okay, I think we need to define the definition of meta then before we continue. For me, this is how I see the word "meta". A meta is a strict adherence to a certain pattern of gameplay, usually derived from the community via external 3rd party websites, simulations, guides, or from watching pro play.
The example of a game that had this problem to a ridiculous degree is overwatch, where dive was so powerful, that there was no point of doing anything else, so games were a constant mirror matches.
The "meta" for a given time for OW for example could be said like this. The beginning seasons in OWL, dive was the "meta" because it performed the best and it was easier to copy the meta than to try and counter. This is more present in pro play, because we are talking maxed skill levels, however it also bled into the ranked modes because players emulate the pro scene. Then there was Brigitte, who directly hard countered dive, the meta shifted towards snipers and eventually grew into GOATS. This is an over simplification and I may have the timeline wrong but it's a hypothetical. So yes you're right OW is a better example than League for having a meta, but there is a reason. OW does not have a draft, limit each hero to 1 player, or stop players from swapping mid game.
there are multiple characters on each lane and there is such thing as counterpick. Not one defined meta THAT OUTSHINES EVERYTHING.
League does however, still have a meta. If there was no meta, we would not have ten different websites telling players what items to use and which champions are S tier for that patch. There are champions with less than 1% played, while others are banned 75% of the time. In this recent tournament alone, Kai'sa had 100% participation in games, meaning she was either picked or banned for every game of the LEC tournament. Their system has more checks and balances to stop a meta, due to bans and counterpicks, it's not near as bad or stale as OW but I disagree that there isn't a meta.
meta THAT OUTSHINES EVERYTHING.
edit: I would like to be clear here. I'm not defining meta as something that is 100% replicated all the time and is better than everything. There are degrees this and to simplify it to being OP is imo not correct. You are describing a broken system, where there is no real choice. Sure this is the ultimate version of a meta, but meta is not simply OP or broken. Some metas are worse than others and some do outshine everything (GOATS for example).
Ok, my definition of meta is the same, but indeed, i was talking exclusively on ultimate version of meta, which is the case (at least in my opinion) in DbD and that should change.
Meta perks are annoying, but the solution has to be a little more nuanced; people would kill themselves on hook until their perk cooldowns finished, and only actually try on those games where they can run meta perks, which wouldn't solve the problem at all.
A more advisable suggestion would be to make more meta perks. Diversion, autodidact, deathbound, huntress' lullaby, etc. are all really, really fun, but aren't meta. Buffing these perks to the ranks of meta perks would let people run interesting and creative builds that aren't repetitive and old.
I'm a fan of buffing vs nerfing. The thing to watch out for with that, is power creep.
I agree, stale metas are boring. I'd like some use for the other 90% of my perks and some customization options. Maybe perks for different playstyles, rather than if I don't use X perks I get run over.