Lack of game variety? Frustrated? Let's discuss state-of-game.
TLDR: There are a host of things creating a lack of game variety, and things which are more frustrating than fun. Who else agrees with this generalization? How best can we as a player base summarize and provide feedback on meta, variety, and frustrating experiences?
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Below is a list of some of the grievances and impediments which can be described as destructive to enjoyable gameplay. I have excluded those which are bugs and being repaired soon (pallets, hitboxes). All these items likely exist in feedbacks. HOWEVER, this list is meant as a constructive discussion starter to address various perceived problems, or could be used as a reference when providing said feedback in the feedback forums. This is not created as a "vent" thread, nor as an open forum for whining. *The player behaviors mentioned are NOT being endorsed in any fashion! *
I mostly enjoy the game and have spent plenty of my hard earned income on more than one install, as well as several aura packs and dlc's for myself and others. I am hopeful and looking forward to growth and improvement. I hope others are as well. *Please provide positive and constructive feedback in the appropriate forum.*
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State of Game Generalities:
Most maps imbalanced, clearly favoring either survivor or killer
dozens of perks are being perceived as "useless", game variety issue
Multiple Survivor perks so objectively better than others, variety issue
Some killer perks are so good, they are expected regardless of which killer, variety issue
Meta forming around specific characters/perks, games lacking interest / variety issue
Extreme grind to unlock characters, harmful to casual and new players interest level
Perks feel locked behind paywall, due to unrewarding feeling grind, leads to negative attitudes toward Auric Cells
Some items / addons underwhelming for survivors, to the point of being unrewarding to unlock or use
Some items / addons overpowered for killers from survivor perspective to the point of being unenjoyable
Challenges / achievements encouraging non-participatory play, "randoms" camping hatch or assisting opponent
Imbalance / difficulty for players without the meta perks / characters is encouraging "farming" behaviors
Matchmaking not providing for sporting play / not matching player skill, games are most typically one-sided
Meta and grind encouraging new players to "camp the hook", creating a boorish or unenjoyable experience
Meta allowing and encouraging veteran players to easily "slug", creating a frustrating and unenjoyable experience
Meta + matchmaking + grind discouraging new players from playing as killer
Extremely long que times for survivor
Low ping / very laggy players are creating a perception of extreme advantages if they have bad connection
disconnected survivors awarding points to killler, survivors remaining are expected to suffer a possibly very bad game to avoid penalty, but receive no additional benefit for "playing it out" or "trying anyhow"
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Comments
There is a lack of game variety for sure. You can only spend so many bloodpoints before it gets boring tbh. Having events and free bloodpoints is just boring at this point if you have all the perks unlocked and not go for P3's.
And every cosmetic these days is locked behind a paywall, so there's that. I wish there were more events were you grinded out a cosmetic.
Playing for bloodpoints at this stage is just not enought to put on alot of hours into it. I play a few matches every 2 days and thats it.
Honestly, the core problem of the game is that it has an identity crisis.
On the one hand, it wants to be accessible to new players - easy and "fun" to pick up. This leads to balancing decisions that, quite honestly, are oblivious to the actual state of the game.
On the other hand, there is a ranking system that some people (like me) take as the conditions of victory, and that is where the game falls apart. For a competitive crowd, survivors who want to win will 100% outmaneuver most of the Killer roster regardless of Meta perks. A competent killer, in contrast, will be able to quell most of the struggles of a un-coordinated group of individually good survivors.
You're right, the maps suck and are terribly unbalanced. Individual tiles/loops are poorly balanced. Perk balance is probably the most markedly polarized it has been, with there just being "useful" and "not useful" perks. Gen times compared to chase times are stupidly biased to survivors. Core game mechanics and concerns are "patched" via perks. Meta is meta for a reason.
None of this gets addressed, because there is no clear identity for this game. There's no clear win condition. Is this a competitive game? Should Killers try to 4k every game or face loss? Should survivors try to altruistically attempt a 4/3 escape every game to "win?" Even the devs fall silent here - it is clear they don't even know how to separate players into skill categories for matchmaking - let alone talk about the goals of their game in general.
DBD's problems stem from a root cause : A lack of clarity. No one knows what this game is supposed to be. Those who play competitively will hate it because the game is clearly not balanced. Those who play for fun will hate it because there are sweatlords in their hee hee hoo hoo bing bong smacky smacky pallet go brrr killer go splurch game.
We need clarity first. What is DBD even supposed to be, besides a cosmetics vendor to make ugly character models less ugly? Come on, you know you could go to Overwatch, LoL, or some other game if you wanted to rain cash on some waifubait character. What is DBD supposed to be?
Objectives:
So poor on both side, especially Survivor side. Gen to Gate. This is not just boring to sit on Gens for 400sec then open Gates to escape. But also brought unbalance game play. Such as any perk relates to Gen slow down affect on 100% Survivor's objective, which is why Gen slow down perk considered powerful.
Since Gen always requires 4 survivors if Killer able to keep the pressure (1 chased, 1 hooked healed, 1 unhooker healing, 1 on Gen). 1 survivor dies early is a firm lose for survivor. For this matter tunneling is always a thing.
There should be at least another one objective that requires less Survivors to work one. To make tunneling no more effective, Gen rush removed, more fun for Survivors, giving more phase into the game, make Gen perk less effective.
Perks:
This is what killing the game, believe it or not. When a player can only bring 4 abilities, they will always pick the strongest. A perk should enhance an ability, not giving a new ability.
Ranking system taken as victory- oof yeah. This is true on several levels. Is this a traditional competitive moba or is this a fun and suspenseful horror game?
The presentation and leveling system tease at something more immersive and deep which simply isn't happening in the actual game.
Currently, DbD seems to be both an imbalanced competitive game and a casual game gone bad: Inevitably, someone in lobby is a sweatlord, and someone else in lobby hasn't yet grinded 500 hours to get "good" stuff.