Alternate Game Modes
As a preface: when I started this game, I recruited five other friends to play along with me. After a few months, only myself and one friend remained. The other four quit citing just how boring and repetitive the generator repair gameplay loop was. Certainly, this is a very small sample size, but I can't help but think that there are plenty of people who would enjoy the option to mix things up, even if only as seasonal events.
So, with that in mind, I'd like to suggest some alternate game types that could (theoretically) be added in using existing game infrastructure. These could either be all-in game types that occur over a weekend, or ones that you could opt into (and perhaps get bonus Event points).
1) Caged Birds Don't Sing
For this event, the cages of Silent Hill have intruded on the Entity's realm. Any time a survivor is knocked down for any reason, they are immediately dragged into the earth and put into a cage somewhere on the map (functionally the same as Pyramid Head's cage, without the Torment requirement). These cages would, in all other respects, function identically to hooks, with all relevant hook perks functioning normally. This would help survivors by preventing Slugging or Camping. This would help killers by removing pallet/flashlight saves and removing the time spent hauling survivors to a hook.
2) Things We Were Not Meant To Know
For this event, the invisible challenge Glyphs are EVERYWHERE. All survivors have 3 private Blue Glyphs that are hidden across the map, just like in the rift challenges. A survivor who activates one of their glyphs gets Blinded for 2 minutes. The second Glyph inflicts Oblivious for 2 minutes. The third Glyph inflicts Exposed for 2 minutes, but spawns a personal Hatch somewhere on the map. If a survivor escapes in this way, one of the generators already in-progress is automatically finished (this cannot finish the final generator). Other survivors cannot see or interact with this hatch, but the Killer can see and close it as normal. The Killer likewise has 3 Red Glyphs hidden on the map. If they interact with one of these Glyphs, all the survivors on the map Scream (even through Iron Will), and are afflicted with Hindered for 45 seconds. This gives survivors a fun alternate (private) win condition and offers killers a variety of temporary potential buffs to track down those pesky survivors before they escape.
3) Rust in Pieces
For this event, all the generators are rusted and difficult to repair alone. Survivors benefit from the Tier 1 Leader perk. However, all survivors also suffer the effects of the Tier 1 Unnerving Presence perk. Additionally, every totem becomes Hex: Huntress Lullaby. All hex totems share their tokens, but every hex totem Cleansed removes 1 token from all others. The Hex is removed completely if all totems have been cleansed. This gives survivors appreciably more challenging generator repair checks, that just keep getting harder the longer the game goes on, unless someone on the team sets out to cleanse totems. However, working together helps mitigate the skill check difficulty and speed up each repair.
4) Key to Salvation
For this event, the Exit Gates are locked. Exit gates can only be powered up by a survivor who has a key with charges remaining. Completing a generator will spawn an Exit Gate key on the ground. After 60 seconds, a completed generator will go back to 0, allowing it to be repaired again (and another key obtained). Survivors must then take those keys to an exit gate and begin Unlocking it. This functions identically to repair a generator, but skill checks are SIGNIFICANLY more common and difficult, with only their Great zones appearing (like the Overcharge perk). While opening an Exit Gate, a survivor is afflicted with Oblivious. Each Exit Key has enough charges to open a door 1/3rd of the way, but failed checks may waste charges. Additionally, Exit Gate Keys are always affected as if the Killer had Franklin's Demise, being dropped if they are hit, and its charges slowly drained away on the ground.
5) Feed the Machine
For this event, the generators are missing a critical part. Every chest on the map contains a tool box with the Brand New Part addon. Looting these chests inflicts the Haemorrhage status effect until the survivor completes a Generator. Additionally, offerings that increase or reduce the number of chests on the map are not consumed and have no effect. Generators cannot be repaired until a survivor installs a Brand New Part in it. This helps survivors by giving them a significant jump on generator progress once the chest's contents have been found. This helps killers by preventing all the generators from starting up right away and forcing survivors to spend some time looking for chests.
6) Eternal Darkness
For this event, the Entity's darkness has closed in! Every match is treated as if the Murky Reagent has been offered and the Dark Mist cannot be reduced. During the match, survivors more than 16 yards from another survivor suffer from Blindness. All chests during this event contain flashlights. Survivors holding flashlights with more than 0 charges are immune to this Blindness, but all flashlights are subject to the effects of Franklin's Demise, dropping if hit and losing charges while on the ground. Additionally, survivors powering up the Exit Gates do so at half speed while suffering from Blindness (40 seconds instead of 20). This helps survivors by increasing their stealth and making hiding much easier. This helps the killer by forcing survivors to group up or trade their typical med-kits/toolboxes for flashlights instead.
Comments
These all sound nice but would absolutely kill que times.
Well, that's why one option would be to have an alt game mode day, where every game in the queue is an alternate game type. Like mini versions of the Blight event with the pustula flowers, for example.
You're never going to grow new alternatives to the game's core gameplay loop without SOME kind of experimentation. If nothing else, you could have the alt game types available through a pre-made alternate queue system, like the "Kill Your Friends" game option.
In a perfect world, when you queue for a match, the actual mechanics of the match would be revealed when you get into the game every time, and would force players to adapt on the fly so there's more depth to DbD than "sit on gen, run if chased." Ideally, each killer would have their own twist on the core gameplay, as they warp the trial around their own, unique lore. But, that'd be way more work than the more simple "make things a little different for the sake of variety" options I'm proposing.