Hatch/DC exploitation
We all know it, we all hear it, we all see it.
It's frustrating. It's exploiting a mechanic that you as a player, Survivor or Killer, have no control over. It's happened to me several times, and it shouldn't be an accepted and common practice for players to purposefully DC from the match to allow their friend to escape. You even have streamers with many viewers/followers saying over Live to their SWF's to DC so they can escape through the hatch.
There needs to be some form of punishment for this. A 3-5 minute time-out for a DC penalty isn't cutting it. Neither is reporting, because I've submitted various reports in the past ranging from this exploitation to literal hacking, and nothing ever gets resolved because I see the players again days later. There's just no follow-up or care it seems.
Context for these 2 images: Was playing Demo against a SWF's group (All rocked the same skin and character, lots of comms due to them always being on top of each other when one was downed) on Ormond. Got them to Gen lock themselves so I simply weared them down until I was able to kill them. 1 DC'd because of the situation, 1 died, downed 1 and went for the last Survivor who ran across the map. Soon as I came over, they DC'd.
Comments
So they get a 5 minute penalty... then another... then 15 minutes... then 30 minutes...
It's not sustainable, at all, and they're robbing themselves of points because... what? You were going for the 4k and didn't get it, but still won the trial?
Woe be you, and the fact you couldn't get a 4k and this team is now matchmaking locked for at least 5 minutes.
It's not about the 4k. It's about abusing an in-game mechanic that can't be countered and shouldn't be abused. And it sounds like you're condoning.
Yeah but name one fix that would be healthy for the game? Factoring in the current state of DBD on lower-end machines that should run the game fine but crash and DC frequently due to horrible optimisation, of course/
There is a punishment for it. The dc penalty is the punishment. The more they do it the higher the penalty goes, and if they’re a SWF, if one of them gets a penalty then they all have to deal with it.
Idk where you're to go with this comment, but I'll answer the first question. A solution I can possibly see and offer is that if a player DC spawns/opens a hatch, that hatch gets blocked for 60 seconds by the entity.
Which is where my second comment comes in, considering the game is boarderline unplayable on a lot of machines ATM that ran it fine pre 5.0.0, and despite BHVR's efforts to fix it still remains a crashing, buggy mess. Accidental DCs are incredibly common right now because of this.
So, again, change that's healthy for the game in it's current state.
I'm aware the time goes up higher. But, this is based on frequency of the DC rate. And at some point, the timer for DCing resets. Idk what the timer is for that, I rarely DC outside of internet issues. And the timer I've always comes to see is 3-5 minutes. It can still happen often enough for it to be a regular occurrence.
That fix could be healthy, or could not be healthy. We wouldn't know until it's implemented. Your comment still means nothing other than an attempt to derail my initial point. Which is that players SHOULDN'T BE ABUSING this mechanic.
I know there are higher priorities, which I agree should be looked at first before this, but DCing shouldn't be rewarded in any way. We don't see survivors getting automatically sacrificed when the killer DCs, so why isn't the opposite true? Why reward survivor DCing with the an eacape? As long as we can agree that this shouldn't be a thing, that's completely fine. I don't want an immediate fix, but eventually down the line, I'd like to see this be addressed.
Eh, I've seen SWF groups where it's multiple rank 20s (decked out with max perks and items/add-ons) and a high-rank player, and the 20s disconnect to give the high-rank the hatch. So at least some of these groups that DC to give another the hatch have multiple accounts. When one accumulates a high ban or ranks up too far, they switch to a different one.
When someone disconnects, the game could at least do the EGC death animation so that the hatch doesn't open immediately. When someone is hooked, there's a bit of delay before the hatch opens. In most cases, it probably wouldn't be enough, but damn that lack of any delay feels like a middle finger to the killer.
Personally, I think the hatch shouldn't spawn until there's only one survivor left (in which case it'd spawn open) or until all five gens are done, that way it'd put key escapes in an acceptable spot and stop the hatch campers who hide in lockers waiting for the other survivors to die rather than participate in the game.
I can't see them changing it so it doesn't effect people who aren't exploiting. Unless the DCer is on a smurf, then they have to wait out the DC penalty, their team has to wait out their DC penalty, they lose all their points on an already grindy game, AND they have to be even more cautious if they ever want to exploit again within the time frame. Personally, a 3k with a DC is more satisfying than a 4k.
You're absolutely right. However, it's still a common practice and seemingly accepted in the community. Even with everything you listed, various players are still doing it frequently. And it seems the majority of the people kinda accept it and let it happen. This shouldn't be condoned, it violates the integrity of the game and there should be some way to adjust it. Whether it's a my offered solution, @Trag1cBrons0n solution, or a better one given by BHVR.
DC tech apologist.
Sure
Also to further cement this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3hoIPqrAsgTimestamp 8:25.
This Streamer tells his buddies over comms to DC soon as he saw the hatch (wasn't successful, he went down and they refused/didn't in time). Now you might try to argue that he's joking, however I've gone against this Streamer before, and he said he'd DC soon as his buddy found the hatch. Killed them both but still, he's no stranger to it and actively does it. If you looked up Dc for hatch on Youtube, you'll find DOZENS of videos where this happens. It proves how common it is.
If someone is trying for adept they will not get it. I was going for adept clown and lost it from this exploit.
Sounds like an adept issue, which we all know needs changing.
I’d rather not. I’ve had the game error out on me while I was healing someone inside the gate. Wouldn’t be fair to screw over the other survivors because the game is buggy.
There's already a DC penalty to prevent people from doing it a lot. And that penalty is already shared with everyone in the DCers party.
Make DC penalties in general harsher and the "collateral damage" that's 100% unavoidable with any remotely functional DC penalty system gets worse. It's for a reason that the first levels of DC penalties are fairly short, to not hit someone that has a genuinely accidental DC out of their control with a session-ending 30+ minute timeout right away.
Stuff like preventing the hatch from opening for X seconds or even forever if someone DCs just gives survivors a tool they can use to screw over other survivors. Oh, that person actually used their brain and decided to just chill on hatch instead of trying to save against a killer making sure any unhook would be a trade? That's """cowardly""" or """antimate/immersed behavior""" to some people, and they could DC to try to deny others the hatch in situations like that.
There's no easy nor perfect solution, because neither actually exist. The hatch/key idea of making the hatch only spawn when either all gens are done OR there's only 1 survivor left is probably the best approach, as it would indirectly make dc for hatch a lot less relevant as well.
I'd argue against it. Paraphrasing someone else in here who stated it, when someone DC's, just make the entity do the animation of killing them similar to EGC. That way there's at least a few seconds to remedy the situation so that someone doesn't win based on an unfair exploitation.
The hatch/key idea is not the best approach because it doesn't solve anything. That's simply the design of how it's intended to work. When you have people taking advantage of it by DCing so that there's only 1 Survivor left which immediately spawns/opens the hatch, it goes beyond the scope of what it was supposed to be used for.
Oh yeah, when it comes to making the "death" less instant I've always been a fan of the idea of straight up teleporting the DCer onto a basement hook, then treating it as if they got hooked as the last survivor. So obviously no struggle, and "rushed" through their remaining hook states and then sacrificed. I guess that's pretty similar to your idea, but at the same time it allows the killer to get any stacks and tokens related to hooking people as well as a time-to-die quite similar to the EGC death.
And the idea of a change more to the hatch itself means unless all the gens were already done, nobody can know where the hatch is in advance. I'd argue most dc-for-hatch situations happen when someone knows where it is or finds it, and before all the gens are done. Assuming that weird thing where the hatch has collision before it even spawns is some sort of bug and gets fixed of course.
They're getting a DC penalty and a depip for it. The jokes on them.
So what if they get the hatch, you got 2 DCs. You're already winning.
Depipping doesn't matter now due to the MMR. And the initial DC penalty is like 3 minutes. That's not much.
I'm very well aware that when it happens in game, I'm usually always dominating. But it shouldn't come down to the only way to win/escape against a Killer is DCing so your buddy gets hatch. It shouldn't be such a common occurrence that happens a lot in the community. A simple adjustment in game would stave it off, a DC penalty means nothing until it's so frequent that the time gets extended.
The SBMM is a test, it ends in two days, then ranks will be valid again.
It's 5 minutes, for the first DC, 2nd is 15 minutes, and it increases from there.
So more than one DC for that SWF is going to significantly hinder their gameplay.
Every time I've DC'd, it's usually 3 minutes. I haven't gone beyond the first to know the next timer.
And again either way, the DC doesn't solve anything if it is still happening on a large scale. They should do a death animation for a DC'd survivor and it would probably help stave off the exploitation by just a little bit.
Is it taking you 2 minutes to get back to the lobby screen?
No. I'll say one final time. The DC timer doesn't matter even if it is 5 minutes. It doesn't do enough to stave off the exploitation.
15 minutes certainly does.
After that it's 30 minutes, and so on.
Do you get how they increase with each DC?
You get one 'free' DC if you consider that 5 minutes isn't a deterrent.
SWFs aren't continuously DCing like this, they wouldn't be able to play for hours at a time.
Think about this concept for second.
There is a large player base in this game. Which means there's more than one SWF group that can do these DC's. On average a week, I prob experience this exploitation...... 4 times a week if I'm being conservative in my estimates. And I play dozens of matches every day, 7 days a week.
Now the DC timer, only increases if you're frequently DCing. However, that DC timer, resets. Idk when, or how long it takes to reset. But what I do know is that there was a period of 2 days where I DC'd on the first day, and got the initial 3-5 minute timer. And then I DC'd the second day and got another 3-5 minute timer.
Now take those numbers and variables, and go ahead and multiply that with the amount of times a SWF's group can DC for hatch with the amount of groups that can do it. It's a pretty large number. So no, DC doesn't solve anything if a vast number of people are doing it at an infrequent amount of time that doesn't double the DC Timer. It limits the amount of times they can do it in a certain time period sure, but it doesn't outright solve the problem.
Nor does it do anything to solve what's happening during the match which is an unfair advantage they gained from doing the exploitation, which is primary focus.
Edit: Forgot to quote.
3k only? dam it is tough to be killer these days man
Honestly, just make DCers die to the Endgame Collapse animation when they DC, complete with the 'late sacrifice' points or whatever it gives.
This buys the Killer time, and it's not unfair for Survivors unless you specifically point to someone waiting for a hatch. In that case; it SHOULD be unfair for them. Which it would be.
I believe someone said this already, and it is the best way to fix the problem. People not waiting for hatch are not affected, people waiting for hatch are screwed, and the Killer gets his EGC points.
Exactly what I'm saying and a couple others have said. However it seems like they either are accepting of the exploitation or saying that the DC timer is the one and only solution.