Trickstershadow's suggested fixes to make dead by daylight good
Some of y'all have doubtlessly seen Scott's video on it. I figured I'd just post the doc itself for y'all to read. It goes without saying that this entire thing was written by Trickstershadow. It is a long one too, so get yourself some snacks and a drink.
( had to remove some of the intro in case the mods want to try and remove this because of the whole name and shame thing )
The link: https://docs.google.com/document/u/0/d/1tpw2CqNt7Uv6-WWWWKhmUUPoD4GCds3r4IR25NI75ko/mobilebasic. ( in case you want to read it in a better format )
How to Fix Dead By Daylight
By TricksterShadow
Intro:
Dead By Daylight is a game that many people have come to love but it seems that with every new patch released, the disdain among players grows exponentially. In an effort to identify and provide possible fixes for the issues with the game I, TricksterShadow, sent out a tweet asking for player responses as to why they have or may stop playing DBD. After sending out this tweet I catalogued the first 150 responses and organized the complaints through this spreadsheet in order to visualize the complaints. The main complaint (outside of game involved aspects) was developer communication/decisions. I will not be providing any potential fixes for this as I do not know the conditions surrounding the company that runs Dead By Daylight. I however will focus on what I consider to be the three main pillars that are causing a decline in the game. They are: Grind, Matchmaking, Player Interaction.
Through each of these topics I will list subcategories of each pillar and potential remedies for every one. I hope that this can reach the devs and if not, at the very least spark conversations which can eventually lead to positive changes in the game we all love. If you have any questions or concerns involving this project contact me either on (REDACTED)
Special Note:
While it is not brought up in the rest of the document I feel the need to highlight two pressing issues outside of the ones I will dive into: accessibility and optimization.
The drive for accessibility seems not to be a priority for the developers. Even the existing color blindness settings - which took a disability advocate’s pressure in order to implement, have been described as ineffective or lacking by many players. On top of accessibility settings for deaf/hard of hearing people being non-existent. A suggestion to this would be something as simple as what DBD Mobile has, where the survivors see a visualization of the heartbeat within their own chest to indicate the terror radius. Otherwise, deaf and hard of hearing players have to run perks such as Diversion, Alert, Spine Chill or Stake Out to have an even playing field with the rest of the playerbase. In addition to this, more in depth gameplay settings for things such as struggling/wiggling/etc as well as the option to choose between different types of input settings would considerably help many people. I would suggest that the developers consult with disabled players and disability advocacy groups for the best ways to make Dead by Daylight more accommodating to all types of players.
Furthermore the optimization of the game has become increasingly worse. Many players with lower end PCs or last gen consoles are feeling forgotten as with each patch their game stability (FPS, crashes, stutters) becomes increasingly worse. The developers do need to work on ensuring that patches which can ruin optimization don’t reach live servers as there is little to no use for new content if half the playerbase can’t even access the game.
Pillar 1: The Grind
The Grind for Dead by Daylight has become quite daunting and unfulfilling for most players. I have previously done a video quantifying the grind for DBD which you can see here. In this video I highlight that in order to prestige 3 and max perks all on characters within the game, it takes around 500 million Bloodpoints. Even if a player runs double BP offerings every match with BBQ and has decently scored matches, the grind would still require 2,000+ hours of gameplay at minimum. This creates a system where people feel forced to play the role of killer in order to have a chance of barely keeping up with the meta, and even despite this - if players do not invest ~300 hours every 3 months they will actively be falling behind the grind so much that it will be near impossible to keep up.
Considering that most players cannot invest the equivalent of a full time job just for playing DBD in combination with the ever increasing grind, something must be done about this as well as rewarding players for the time that they do grind and making the grind feel meaningful.
Through this Pillar I hope to offer some ideas that would make grinding feel more meaningful and less oppressive.
Problem: Survivor BP gain is significantly worse than killer BP gain.
Solution: While in chase with the killer, any actions that are done by teammates contributes to the chased survivor’s BP gain. If a generator completes/totem gets cleansed/heal occurs/hook save occurs, the chased survivor would get ¼ of the BP from such completed actions. Note that this wouldn’t take away from other survivors’ point gain, but be extra points given out. This would allow good runners to be rewarded for long chases instead of receiving the least amount of points, either penalizing them for playing well or because the killer wrongly decided not to drop chases.
Additionally, point categories should be uncapped. If a killer decides to only chase one survivor the entire game, the other survivors who aren’t chased should not be punished for doing the only thing they are able to do in the entire match - which would be completing generators. With that being said, the max point cap of 32,000 should stay in place in order to prevent massive farming problems.
Problem: The Rift grind feels boring due to excessive filler content.
Solution: In order to provide meaningful content in the Rift that helps out with the grind, the charm recolors should be removed, as there are way too many, and be replaced with account based Bloodpoint and Iridescent Shard modifiers. By having the filler charms replaced with 4hr/8hr/12hr/16hr/24hr BP/Shard modifier boosts, players would be rewarded for playing enough in order to complete the Rift, while also reducing the grind for dedicated players.
Problem: Devotion feels unrewarding.
Solution: Adding a new Devotion currency in which the player gains one Devotion Token per Devotion level, as well as a new section in the Store where Devotion cosmetics are included and can only be acquired through said Devotion Tokens. This will help players be able to show off their dedication to the game. Specifically, one idea for a Devotion cosmetic reward would be different types of paint/effects that apply to the character’s clothes similar to legacy - while still leaving it unique enough as to not discredit legacy player’s hard work. This has already been proven to be possible with killers such as Nemesis being able to apply blue paint to any cosmetic, and Plague applying a vomit effect.
In addition to Devotion based cosmetics, I believe that each Devotion should increase the Bloodpoint cap by 100,000 BP. This would allow dedicated players to store more BP for upcoming chapters and be able to access content sooner. While I do acknowledge BHVR doesn’t want people to access content too fast in fear of them becoming uninterested, I can promise that people who have Devotion in the double digits would play the game regardless of something to grind for.
Problem: Perks take forever to unlock and Prestige feels pointless.
Solution: The main hurdle when it comes to grind in DBD is perk leveling. While getting rid of perk tiers would substantially help with this, I think simply giving that to every player would not feel as rewarding. My solution is to have the prestige level be equal to the level of perks a player finds in their Blood Web. Specifically, Prestige 0 and Prestige 1 will remain unchanged, while Prestige 2 would automatically spawn in level 2 perks - that can later be leveled up normally to level 3, and Prestige 3 would have every perk automatically spawn in as level 3. This would help reduce the grind significantly while giving an actual incentive to prestiging characters players enjoy in order to access content sooner.
Currently, Prestige increases the drop rate of certain item rarities by 1% per tier. What I would prefer, especially considering that some of the more sought out things (yellow items, add ons, offerings etc) are in lower tiers, is if the player could choose which item they wanted to have an increased drop rate of or even what tier of item they want an increased drop rate of (also 1% increased rate is incredibly low for such a BP investment).
Problem: I do not know if I have completed my dailies/challenges until after the match is done.
Solution: When a challenge or daily is completed an indicator in the corner of the screen should appear to tell the player it is done.
Problem: Iridescent Shards are difficult to acquire.
Solution: The addition of Weeklies. Weekly challenges would include a considerably larger grind and be automatically reset every week whether a player has completed the objectives or not. Similar to dailies, 1 weekly can be reset every time they reset.
E.g. Break 200 pallets for 1,000 shards
Be chased for 1,000 seconds for 1,500 shards.
Complete 50 generators for 1,000 shards.
On top of this every rank reset should give rank rewards. In my opinion the rank reward should be Iridescent Shards that are of increasing amount depending on rank. This would help dedicated players unlock cosmetics/DLC faster and incentivize ranking up.
Pillar 2: Matchmaking
Matchmaking in DBD has been a serious point of frustration and controversy ever since the inception of the game. There have been many iterations of the matchmaking system, and I personally think that the developers are going in the wrong direction when it comes to matchmaking. Dead By Daylight is a party game and not a competitive game. While players can play competitively, there is undeniably too much RNG - maps, perks, luck, and trying to force the game into a competitive state is turning it into something it is not.
Through this Pillar I hope to offer ideas that would contribute to a better game and overall experience for the playerbase.
Problem: Queue times are way too long depending on the region/time of day.
Solution: The addition of an indicator in the lobby that shows the population for each side. When the player population on one side falls below the needed threshold for faster queues, an incentive is offered to players in the opposing queue to switch over. For instance: “Your next 5 games of killer will automatically have double BP if you switch roles now” would be more than enough to incentivize players to play the role that is needed while also helping reduce the grind.
For low rank survivor games I believe that bots should be added. Especially considering players are locked out of rank 20-15 after they pass these ranks, adding in bots to low rank matches to compensate for long queue times for new players would help with the transition into the game of DBD. Most new players just want to experience the game and (I don’t mean this in a mean way) the bots wouldn’t be too far off with much of the skill at lower rank.
Problem: Waiting in queues is very boring/there is nothing to do while in queue.
Solution: The addition of a small map instance where the player/SWFs can run around in and cycle bots to experiment. This would make wait times seem shorter as players would be actively doing something, even if that is just running around aimlessly, thus reducing player burnout. It would also add another level of customization and monetization by allowing players to purchase custom lobby map aesthetics. Additionally, the Store should be accessible while waiting for a game since it’s rather inconvenient having to give up a queue spot for the sake of checking and/or purchasing something.
Problem: It can be stressful and difficult to learn new killers in public matches.
Solution: The addition of a bot mode similar to what DBD Mobile includes which enables people to try out killers, as well as survivors, in a low stress environment in order to better understand basic mechanics. This bot mode should also give ½ BP after a certain threshold of time played so that there is reward for practicing.
Problem: Killers with unstable and slow Internet ruins matches.
Solution: While it’s impossible to fix someone’s lackluster Internet connection, I think that players should be at least aware of what they are getting into when it comes to player ping. While in the lobby, everyone’s ping should be visible to all players including the killer’s ping. This would allow players to determine if they would like to stay in a match or move onto another one. Moreover, a ping indicator for the killer should be shown in the “Match Details” section of the menu during the match in order to keep track of the killer’s connection as well.
Problem: Games are either too difficult or too easy.
Solution: This is a very complex issue and the current fix that the developers have been trying to implement is the MMR system. However, I do not believe forcing everyone into high level play is what is good for Dead by Daylight. If there was a competitive mode it would be a different story, but sadly there is no such thing. Thus, if we are trying to create a ranking system we can’t make the only win condition to be looping the killer, as that would make high ranks way too oppressive against most killer players.
In order to reward survivors for being useful teammates both inside and outside the chase I believe going back to the “Bloodpoints for Pips” model is the best solution for ranking in DBD. With the uncapped point categories and extra BP while in chase in mid, ranking up would now be determined by how much BP a player has earned during the trial. In order to pip up as a survivor one must acquire 25,000 BP. If one gets anything below this then they will depip. Furthermore, in this system both double pipping and safety pipping will be mostly removed. Safety pipping will still exist but only if the survivor escapes from the match, otherwise anything less than 25,000 BP is a guaranteed depip.
This system would ensure that all styles of play are rewarded for being useful while also ensuring ranking up is more difficult to do - as this addresses the common complaint of lackluster skill in high ranks. Hopefully with a system such as this, better players would float to the top of the ranking pool while less useful players will remain at the lower ranks. The only point of abuse for this is players farming but this problem exists under any ranking system.
The killer side’s rank should be determined by how many hooks they acquire during the match. Generators should not be one of the main focus of killer ranking systems. Generator control is more so a consequence of killers aiming to get more hooks and chases, thus prioritizing generator control is not needed. The amount of hooks required in order to pip would be determined by rank.
Brown Rank = 5 hook stages, Yellow Rank = 6 hook stages, Green Rank = 7 hook stages, Purple Rank = 8 hook stages, Red Rank = 9 hook stages
In addition to the previously stated points, double pips should be removed. This would slow the rate at which players rank up and help spread out the ranks more evenly.
All of this would ideally help normalize the game’s experience, and prevent the whiplash of going against an extremely new team and a veteran team. While going against extremely good teams will still occur, there is only so much that can be done about that in order to preserve everyone’s queue time.
Moreover, one band aid fix could be to reward players with additional Bloodpoints after the match for each perk discrepancy of the opposing side. If a low rank team goes up against a high rank killer then they too would get a large sum of points for having such an uneven match up, and vice versa. For example, if a rank 10 killer goes against a full rank 1 survivor team, the killer would receive a large sum of additional BP for enduring an unbalanced match up. The same principle would apply to a low rank survivor team getting matched up against a high rank killer, by the survivor team receiving extra BP. Likewise, if a high rank survivor has a low rank team and a high rank killer then the high rank survivor should be compensated for being paired up with an unbalanced team. This would help reduce player frustration while also reducing the BP grind.
Pillar 3: Player Interaction
Player Interaction is a pretty all encompassing topic. This includes not only how perk builds interact with the game, but also certain strategies that are seen as unfun as well as player toxicity.
This Pillar is arguably the hardest in order to try and fix but nonetheless I will attempt to provide solutions for some pressing issues.
Problem: Players DCing ruins matches.
Solution: Sadly, most solutions for this would have avenues for exploiting. The most that can be done without causing possible future exploitation is reward the players who endure the match that has a DC’ed player.
For survivors: If a killer DCs then all remaining survivors in the match get maxed out Objective points and the 5000 survival points they would have got for escaping. Usually a killer DCs because they are losing a match, thus I don’t think the players that remain should be punished for the opposite team’s inability to accept a loss. The main objection to this idea is “This would make survivors try to force the killer to DC more” which is a bit of a silly counterpoint. There really is nothing that can force a killer to DC. If the survivors play well then they deserve to escape much like if the killer plays well they deserve to get kills. Yes people will teabag, flashlight click, and otherwise BM but those actions are not negatively impacting gameplay, they’re merely negatively impacting egos and shouldn’t be punished.
Survivors continued: For each survivor that has DC’d the remaining players get a percentage boost to BP gain for the rest of the match. E.g: If one survivor has DC’d and a Jake saves a Claudette from hook then Jake would be rewarded with the 1000 unhook points as well as 250 additional BP (25% bonus) for a survivor being DCed in the match.
The above would apply to all actions and allow players to at least get a decent amount of points from a match that would otherwise be lost or harder than normal.
For killers: I don’t believe killers should get a BP boost for survivors DCing as that would incentivize killers camping and tunneling, therefore trying to ruin specifically one player's experience in order to get the boost. This would lead to an uptick of killers that can camp hooks effectively - such as one shot and territorial killers, which would overall lessen the “fun” aspects of the game.
However, if a survivor does DC then the killer should be rewarded with that survivor’s BBQ stack if it is applicable, and the remaining hook stage points that survivor would have given. This would still give the killer BP they would have missed out on while mitigating an incentive to make matches more unfun for players because they would have gotten the same amount of BP if they played the match normally or not.
Replacing DC’d survivors with bots could also be an option for this but this could also lead to frustration as bots will almost always be easier to down and manipulate than human survivors.
Problem: SWF communication and solo queue communication is not equivalent
Solution: SWF communication has been a large source of controversy ever since the inception of survivors playing together in DBD. While many people want to punish SWFs for their advantages I believe that this is a wrong direction for the game to go in. While some SWFs are very difficult to win against because the team is very experienced, many SWF teams are merely people casually playing with their friends. Blanket nerfing SWF matches would punish casual and veteran players alike, thus it’s not a solution.
My proposal is to go in the opposite direction; instead of nerfing survivors by affecting SWF, survivors should be buffed so that the benefit of SWF information is minimal compared to solo queue information. This would put all players at a potential level playing field and would justify further nerfs to survivors if needed, while not making solo queue and casual experiences noticeably worse.
There are 4 ideas that I have in order to accomplish this goal which would be relatively easy to implement. Not all of these points are necessarily meant to be implemented together and could be added individually.
- Built in Kindred. Having Kindred’s aura reading be a default experience in matches would allow survivors to coordinate saves to a similar level to how SWFs do. Much of SWF efficiency lies in how efficiently they can coordinate saves, and by doing this we can normalize this aspect of play and then possibly adjust hook interaction if this proves a substantial buff.
- Rework of the map add on effect for “Glass Bead”.
A strange bead circled with gold that can be used to magnify the map and mark a specific position. The bead emits an energy which can be felt and seen by Survivors.
- Unlocks the Map's ability to place a Light Beacon in the Trial Grounds that can be seen by all Survivors.
Proposal: Instead give Glass Bead’s effect to the secondary emote button for survivors (the “come here” waving). Every survivor can do the emote and it will place a light beam at their location which can be used to indicate generator locations, totems, or other key locations.
- Much like how the obsession has spider legs around their portrait which indicate when they are being chased, every survivor should have an indicator for when they are being chased. Thus, giving information to the entire team about what the killer is doing at said given moment.
- Indicators next to the survivors’ portraits to indicate what they are doing at that given moment. This would allow survivors to know how their team is prioritizing their time, while also leaving room for ambiguity in the match.
Problem: Gens complete too fast at the beginning of matches.
Solution: One of the biggest draws to DBD is the ability to diversify builds and perks to make each match feel fresh, by not being dominated by the meta on both sides. Sadly, most killer players feel forced to run slow downs in order to have a chance in their games. While slowdown perks help combat gen speeds I believe that they are band aid fixes for poor base game balance.
My solution includes 3 parts:
- Early Game Collapse (Credit to ScottJund). In February of 2020 ScottJund created a video proposing a new mechanic called the Early Game Collapse. At the beginning of matches, survivors would repair generators at 50% of normal speed until either enough time had elapsed or the killer entered into their first chase - upon either condition being met the gen debuff would be dropped and the match would play as normal. This would allow killers to get into their first chase without being hindered by map size as currently some map designs (Mother’s Dwelling) are so massive that sometimes a generator can be nearly complete by the time a killer reaches it even with going directly to that specific location. This would help normalize matches and lead players to feel as if they can diversify their builds instead of thinking slow down perks are a necessity.
- Fixing survivor spawns. I believe survivors should always spawn with at least one other survivor. Anyone that runs Lethal Pursuer (aura reading for the first 9 seconds of the match) for at least a few matches can tell you that there are some matches where all 4 survivors spawn at separate corners of the map. When this happens, it forces the killer to chase one survivor while the other three freely do the generators. Unless the killer has a very good first chase it will be an almost guaranteed 3 gens complete within the first 80 seconds of the match.
By spawning survivors together this - while increasing individual gen efficiency, reduces their overall efficiency on completing all of the generators. On top of that, if the killer finds these survivors then they will be interrupting multiple survivors instead of just one, hence gaining significantly more pressure. Of course survivors could run away from their spawns to counteract this, but that would require them to spend time finding another generator which would help slow down the game normally without the use of artificial slowdowns; perks.
- Finally, if the above changes are made, slowdown perks should have their values nerfed to compensate. Additionally, the survivor perk “Prove Thyself” may need to be adjusted. This would push the game to a place where efficient chases are incentivized over gen control.
Problem: Killers camp and tunnel too much
Solution: At the end of the day tunneling and camping are legitimate strategies and sometimes are needed due to the conditions of the match. However, they are not fun strategies to play against. I believe the only thing that can be done to promote people playing in a more “fun” way is with Bloodpoints.
My suggestion is to heavily reduce the points gained from chasing/hitting/downing a survivor if they have been unhooked within the past 60 seconds and buff the point gain for starting a chase with a new survivor/a survivor that has not been hooked before. This would ensure that even if a killer has a bad game in terms of kills, they will get rewarded heavily for trying to incentivize chases. It also allows the playstyle of tunneling and camping to still exist in the meta at the cost of BP gain.
Problem: Keys feel unfair to go against
Solution: While keys feel very unfair for killers I do understand their place in the meta. I feel with some small adjustments keys can maintain their strength while feeling better even if it may not be noticeable from the killer’s POV.
I have 3 changes to keys in order to adjust their use in the meta.
- Establish a difference between purple and pink keys. Currently, the only difference between the keys is their channeling time. This feature is something that is more of an afterthought than the main function of keys and with this being the case, I feel keys should be adjusted accordingly.
The channeling difference between the keys remains, with the addition of the following change: Purple keys only open the hatch for the survivor with the key and the hatch automatically closes after the survivor escapes. Pink keys allow the entire team to escape through the hatch.
This would add in an extra distinction to keys and justify the difference in rarity.
- Make Pink keys (with the change from #1) never spawn in chests. The only keys that should spawn in chests are purple. This allows survivors to have a chance to combat the hatch being closed, while having to make the decision of leaving their team behind.
- Add in an animation for the hatch that is required to open it. This animation time should be 10 seconds or less to keep the ability of opening the hatch in tense moments, while not being able to do it directly in the killer’s face. This also opens up the opportunity for lesser used key add ons to affect opening time, keeping hatch open longer, letting an additional person to escape etc.
Problem: Survivors hide before the end game and hold the killer hostage/the killer refuses to chase anyone and forces a 3 gen making the match last longer.
Solution: Most games have a match timer to ensure the maximum length of a match. The reason for this is because experiencing a 20-30 minute match in a game that has an average match time of 10-15 minutes can feel like an eternity.
In order to fix this issue, I think that a match timer should be put in place which can be checked in the Match details on the Menu. The match timer should be somewhere between 15-20 minutes as that is on the higher end of the match time for DBD. After the match timer ends, the end game should be force started which makes the survivors’ auras be revealed to the killer, as well as the killer’s aura be revealed to the survivors for 10 seconds. This would give survivors a chance to escape, while not rewarding them for hiding.
Problem: When the killer closes the hatch most matches feel unwinnable
Solution: When the killer closes the hatch in a 1v1, a portion of the pallets on the map respawn and a “Sudden Death” mode activates. Upon closing the hatch, the survivor and killer now see each other's auras when outside of 32 meters. A timer of 2 minutes is started similar to the normal “End Game Collapse” timer.
The difference between this timer and the current timer is; if the survivor survives until the end of the 2 minutes they automatically escape. This would ensure that people who are good at looping still have a chance of escaping matches and make End Game more tense instead of a free win for the killer 99% of the time.*
*Instadown on basic attack could also be a feature of this permadeath mode but I don’t want to suggest that fully as I do not know how the balance would be without testing.
Problem: Basement camping is boring and with certain killers there is little counterplay.
Solution: Add a new type of locker to the game called “Teleporters”. Teleporters send the survivor to the connected Teleporter locker if the “Active Ability” button is used. Put one of these lockers at the back of the basement and if activated the survivor will teleport to a Teleporter locker at the top of basement. This teleportation takes 2 seconds to complete and upon coming out of the locker the survivor is forced to slowly come out and cannot quickly move away. This forces the survivor into a long animation, and gives the killer a chance to combat the teleport. The objective of this is to make camping basement less effective and take more strategy.
Conclusion:
Thank you for reading! I hope these ideas get in front of BHVR because I really do care about the game and think it can be one of the best games out there with just a few small changes. Even if this does not reach the desk of the devs, I hope that even one of these ideas becomes a point of discussion for people to think about fixing Dead by Daylight. I will most likely be creating a sequel to this document some time after this one becomes public. I assume that people will contribute their own ideas and I wish to signal boost what I consider the best and most healthy ideas out of the bunch. If you would like to contribute to such an effort I will be most likely posting a tweet similar to the one that I posted before the release of this document.
Comments
This is pretty good and i like most of it. Idk if fixing spawns and adding an early game collapse is enough to warrant nerfing gen regression perks though, that seems like a crazy trade off. Should be thoroughly tested AT HIGH RANKS first before going live
It would take a helluva lot of PTB's but it would ultimately be worth it I believe.