This Can be Dead by Daylight's Health Update (Part 1/5: Mechanics)
Dead by Daylight could be improving itself in all facets in the technical and mechanical level; either revamping or introducing mechanics that make the quality of life in the game significantly better. The only reason that it's not happening any time sooner is simply because of the fact that the developers do not want to listen, and do not want to implement changes that have been in other games for a reason.
This is part 1 of 5 parts that focus on what I would personally do to improve the health of the game. This part focuses on the mechanics and certain features of the game. The next parts will focus upon: aesthetic updates, Killer Power updates, Perk updates and new features, with the latter three being massive.
Please, take a look at what could be Dead by Daylight, part 1.
Collision
Survivor-Killer Collision
- When a Survivor and a Killer now attempt to interact with each other by pushing against one another, the Killer will now slightly push the Survivor back from them, albeit is now slowed down substantially.
- This new effect is known as Pushback, and will eventually cause Survivors to be pushed aside by a Killer if their target is not the Survivor. This is a common mechanic in various video games in order to give weight to interactions, and would benefit Dead by Daylight in creating scenarios where the Killer is given the option to bypass the Survivor.
- Survivors and Killers can no longer body block each other from performing various actions, including searching lockers, hooking survivors, cleansing totems or vaulting windows, to name a few.
- When a Killer is carrying a Survivor, another Survivor can no longer body block the Killer by crouching. The Killer's legs are completely intangible and will simply go through the Survivor.
Survivor Collision
- Much like when a Survivor is on the ground, a hooked Survivor will no longer have collision tied to them on the Killer end. The Killer will always be able to go through that Survivor.
- This is in order to prevent one of the methods of hackers holding a game hostage to occur.
Grabbing
Grab Input
- For ease of use and consistency, the grab input button is now the same as the input for searching lockers, picking up survivors, vaulting, kicking generators and hooking Survivors.
- This includes Powers that can act upon the grab command, such as Evil Within when utilizing Tombstone or Judith's Tombstone.
- This also is in an effort to prevent Killers from swinging when a grab is being validated by the server, which wastes a considerable amount of time due to the fact that the Killer will almost always go into their basic attack animation when this occurs.
Grabbing
- Survivors can now be grabbed when attempting to heal another Survivor from the Dying State.
- This is in order to circumvent the now-prevalent strategy of healing the other Survivor from the Dying State near the Exit Gate to prevent the Killer from picking that Survivor up.
Dying State
- Whenever a Survivor is put into the Dying State, 5% of their total health is removed from their health bar.
- Whenever a Survivor is in the Dying State, their death timer is increased to 360 seconds (6 minutes), as opposed to the original 240 seconds (4 minutes) to compensate for this new mechanic.
- This change is to attempt to make downing a Survivor more impactful, but slugging them significantly less impactful.
- This change is also to attempt to make certain hackers within the community still have a chance of dying every time that they are put into the Dying State.
- This change does not affect any of the Hook States.
Hooking
- Sacrificing a Survivor on a Scourge Hook will no longer cause that Hook to break upon the sacrifice's end.
- Basement Hooks, and by extension the Basement itself, are now entirely removed from the game.
Endgame Collapse
Automatic Ending
- There are now a few triggers that cause the match to end after an Endgame Collapse Timer has finished completing. This includes, but is not limited to:
- The endgame collapse timer finishing when a Survivor is considered to be on a hook state.
- The endgame collapse timer finishing if there are still Survivors left; this ends the match on Killer side.
- The endgame collapse timer finishing at all.
- If none of these conditions are triggered (somehow), then after the Endgame Collapse timer finishes, the match will automatically end after 1 minute, not 2 hours.
Automatic Trigger
- The Endgame Collapse Timer will now trigger if an Exit Gate has not been opened for 5 minutes.
- This is to prevent the game from being dragged on for too long.
Exit Gates
- During the last 5 seconds of the Endgame Collapse finishing, or the last 10 seconds if the timer is extended, the Exit Gate will automatically close off and all Survivors trapped will be sacrificed once the timers end.
- This is to prevent Survivors who have had plentiful time in getting out from just deciding to stay until last second before leaving.
- This does not affect recently-unhooked Survivors within the last 30 seconds, however, as they will be automatically intangible to the Entity's collision for the next 30 seconds.
Generator Repairs
Generator Repair Speed
- Generator repair time is increased to 100 seconds for a singular Survivor on a Generator.
- Generator repair efficiency when two Survivors are on one is now reduced to 70% per Survivor, the same as when three Survivors repair a Generator at the same time.
- The total combined amount of repair efficiency is now 140%, which means that it now takes 71.4 seconds to repair a Generator when two Survivors are on top of it.
- Generator repair efficiency when three Survivors are on one remains the same.
- The total combined amount of repair efficiency is 210%, which means that it now takes 47.6 seconds to repair a Generator when three Survivors are on top of it.
- Generator repair efficiency when four Survivors are on one is now increased to 65% per Survivor.
- The total combined amount of repair efficiency is now 260%, which means that it now takes 38.4 seconds to repair a Generator when four Survivors are on top of it.
Toolbox Repair
- Toolboxes now have an additional 16 charges added to them due to the change in Generator repair time.
- The following Toolbox repair speeds are altered:
- Toolbox: 50% -> 75%
- Mechanic's Toolbox: 75% -> 125%
- Commodious Toolbox: 50% -> 75%
- Engineer's Toolbox: 100% -> 150%
Regression
- A generator will now automatically start to regress whenever it is inactive for more than 15 seconds. This regression goes at the same rate that it does when it is normally kicked.
- A generator that is kicked will automatically regress by 3%, and will require a 3 second repair time before progression can be made once more.
- The following Generator Regression Perks are altered:
- Ruin (Hex): 100%/150%/200% regression speed -> 100%/125%/150% regression speed
- Pop Goes the Weasel: 25% regression -> 15% regression
- Eruption: 6% regression -> 8% regression
- Eruption: Now causes Generators to start regressing after they are damaged by this Perk.
The overall changes to the Generator repairs and regression is to make it so that while the Generators take longer to activate and thus can help slightly increase a Killer's chance at winning, everything else surrounding them is altered in a way where there is still a bit of fairness to both sides. Toolboxes were obviously given a good change to make them more effective in utilizing them to their fullest potential, while regression perks outside of Eruption are now a lot weaker in order to compensate for the slower progression speed of Generators.
Healing
Healing Add-Ons
- The following Med-Kit add-ons are altered:
- Bandages: 8 Charge Increase -> 4 Charge Increase
- Self-Adherent Wrap: 8 Charge Increase -> 4 Charge Increase
- Gauze Roll: 12 Charge Increase -> 8 Charge Increase
- Gel Dressings: 16 Charge Increase -> 12 Charge Increase
- Abdominal Dressing: Healing speed is reduced to be considered "moderately".
- Abdominal Dressing: No longer takes Charges away from the Med-Kit.
- Styptic Agent: Causes healing speed to be increased "considerably", at the cost of reducing Med-Kit charges by 8.
- Styptic Agent: No longer gives Survivors the Endurance status effect.
- Anti-Hemorrhagic Syringe: 16 second minimum time -> 24 second minimum time
Due to the very nature of Med-Kits recently, and how powerful they are, they need a substantial change to how they function. This is why a few of these add-ons are changed in a way to make them significantly less effective, but also still allow them to see utilization for Med-Kits, while making Med-Kits an option rather than what is now a necessity.
Cleansing
- Cleansing time is increased to 20 seconds.
- This is just because I like it to be a more rounded number. Nothing else.
Hatch Escape
Hatch Opening
- Survivors can now attempt to open up the Hatch without a key. This action takes 60 seconds to complete.
- Utilizing a Dull Key will reduce this hatch opening time to 30 seconds.
- Utilizing a Skeleton Key will reduce this hatch opening time to 15 seconds.
- If the hatch is opened by a Survivor, it will remain open until the Killer destroys it.
Hatch Destruction
- Killers that close the hatch now end up destroying it, which prevents it from being opened whatsoever.
Anti-Cheat Methods (These Require Good Developers and Time)
- Whenever a Survivor is counted as being airborne at a given time for more than 10 seconds, that Survivor is automatically disconnected from the game. (Fly Hack)
- Whenever the game detects that a Generator is completed in less than 15 seconds, that Generator will now completely reset from scratch. (Generator Repair Hack)
- Whenever the game detects that a Survivor is healed for less than 3 seconds, that Survivor will be put back into their original state; if in the Dying State originally, that Survivor will go back to being in the Dying State. (Swift Healing Hack)
- Whenever the game detects that a Survivor or Killer are moving at a speed that they are not capable of with the Perks, add-ons or situations provided, that Survivor or Killer will be disconnected from the game. (Speed Hack)
- Due to this, using Sprint Burst, Lithe or Smash Hit after being injured will now increase the duration of the speed boost, rather than the speed of the speed boost itself.
- Whenever the game detects that a Survivor is on the hook more than 3 times or in the hook state for longer than 6 minutes, that Survivor is automatically sacrificed to The Entity. (Hook State Hack)
- Blinding a Killer or Survivor with a Flashlight, Flash Grenade or Firecracker will now hard cap at 15 seconds. (Blind Hack)
- Whenever you are reported for cheating, an actual dedicated series of human beings will review the report provided.
- If this is reported out-of-game, however, if there is sufficient evidence shown to the new report team, the user associated with that account will be banned.
While these aren't perfect and could still be exploitable, this is at least some sort of way to ensure that hackers can't actually cheat their way out of playing fairly. Granted, some hackers will end up being smart about this, but overall it would basically need to make the hacks more nuanced in their approach. Though, the new system of having actual humans review evidence will make even nuanced hacking...well...tough.
Report System
- The Report System now pops out when hovering over the area where you normally click to report or praise a Survivor. This means one less click.
- In order to prevent hacking into the actual report system feature, the feature itself is now simply a one-click feature. The description to report the player is now removed.
- Whenever "exploits" is highlighted, a small pop-up will display below it that will say the following:
- "Before reporting a player for exploits, read their Perks."
And to the developers. I've at least the dedication and time to try and suggest things that, while some might not be feasible (especially with what we've got in the game now), would ultimately be the foundation for making the game a whole lot better.
I'm going to do this four-part series, I don't care. I'm going to dedicate time and effort into suggestions that I won't even know if you'll look at whatsoever. On the off chance you do, take some of the suggestions you see, try them out, try to figure them out, just make things happen.
I'm sure the community itself would appreciate an attempt at improving the game's health, even if my suggestions may not be the correct way to go about the game's health change.
Comments
Part 1/5 ? lol @Vulgun you are so brave. Hope the devs really read all your post bc you've made a deep thinking ! Anyways you deserve a sustained attention for all this !
I agree with all the points and suggestions you have made on this post, I can't wait to see what the other 4 parts will be.
What I'm not quite understanding is your justification for removing various techniques, strategies, and interactions in the name of "game health."
Why shouldn't survivors be able to work together to body block the killer?
Why shouldn't a survivor be able to heal a downed survivor to prevent the survivor from being picked up?
Why does the EGC need convoluted rules? Why does the EGC need to start on its own when killers can just open a gate to start it?
Why should the efficiency penalty on gens be applied inconsistently?
Why should gen times be longer when that's the most boring part of playing survivor?
Why should gens start automatically regressing with no input from the killer?
Why do med-kits need to be buffed when they're already super strong?
Why should the hatch be destroyed when there are potentially still survivors who might be able to use it?
I'm sorry but most of these ideas are poorly thought out and definitely wouldn't result in an overall healthier game.
Killers queues aren't long enough, let's make them longer
and my favorite - chef's kiss of this post
Ah, I see now I misunderstood the med-kit changes, my bad.
A more fitting title is killer buff update 1/5.
I've just shown a preview of the nerfs Killers will be getting, especially to some of the more meta perks such as Ruin and Pop. In terms of universal mechanics, they'll be buffed, and Survivors will have some slight nerfs, but wait until you see part 3 and 4.
In fact, allow me to list the things that are surprisingly Killer nerfs out of all of these things:
This is but a small list of changes that'll give a preview of what's to come for Killers, because there will be changes that will still nerf them.
Yes, I acknowledge there's a lot of Survivor changes that would make them somewhat worse, but I've thought of how to counteract it with changes to the Killer that balance things out.
while generally okay with a lot of the list, there's one particular bit that needs extra consideration i feel
if i proxy camp a 4-stack devour with someone on hook nearby, currently odds are you lose, if it takes 20 sec to nix it without a stacked counterforce there is no 'odds are', you just lose
the stacking hexes that destroy people like devour hope/huntress lullaby would be completely devastating if not got rid of early if they're in a remotely defensible position with a 20 sec cleanse timer (but also i like my 1000 point dulls in 10 sec thanks)
I completely disagree with gen speed and base regression changes, I think they are fine as is and if they are increased it is going to make the game more a) boring (legitimately the most boring part of playing survivor) b) make things more imbalanced and oppressive with high mobility killers. Let's take a killer (blight) who has very good mobility and can knock survivors off gens quickly. Ruin is already strong on these killers with high mobility, and having (almost) base ruin after 15 seconds AND longer gen speeds makes them more oppressive. Not to mention (this will be a common theme) this is highly oppressive especially to solo q and make it practically unwinnable against certain killers and playstyles.
I also disagree with bodyblocking nerfs. While it's annoying as a killer, there are perks to penalize this. Mad grit, forced penance, iron grasp and to some extent agitation. You can't make nerfs like this because these are strats that are helpful to solo q, and nerfing solo q = bad.
Again, I disagree about the 6 minute bleed out. I can tell you have never had a 4 man slug at the same time and the killer just makes everyone bleed out, or a killer who can't find you after slugging. Besides doing gens, being slugged on the ground is one of the least fun aspects of the game. If gen speeds/bleed out timer is increased I'm literally uninstalling. If I have a bad match as killer and I'm not able put any pressure on survivors, I want out of the match faster, and if I slug a survivor for the 4k and can't find that last survivor I'd rather not wait for 6 minutes. I'd rather do anything other than sitting holding m1 for 100 seconds or just sit there bleeding out for 6 minutes, that is so incredibly boring.
Exit gate changes, as well, negatively impacts solo q. This is commonly attributed to swfs only, but 3 teammates healing + unhooking + distracting the killer to get a 4 man out last second happens all solos and what? At 5-10 seconds left we all die, except the person we got unhooked. I don't see the point of this, especially at only 5-10 seconds left. To punish tbaggers/clickies? Pardon me, but who cares? Just don't look at the exit gates or force them out.
I agree and disagree with a 5 minute timer, but I'm more leaning towards disagree.
I don't agree with nerfing medkits. Again, this would be a major, major major nerf to solo q. I think medkits and addons are fine as it is honestly. I'm fine-ish with the syringe change in time, but not ok with a styptic change - those are very useful against tunnelling and slugging killers.
Nayru said what I was going to say about the cleansing, also just run thrill if you want extended cleansing times. If you change it to 20 baseline AND thrill, that is so oppressive with devour. I just want better totem placements, extending cleansing time is just a bandaid for the actual issue.
I don't know why you would add a no-key hatch mechanic and then have a hatch destroyed on closing. I feel like you are just adding basekit key with that mechanic. I personally do not care about keys in the first place because I don't care if a survivor escapes with them (and I rarely see them) but w/e most people disagree with me. It's mildly annoying to me but it's just a game ¯\_(ツ)_/¯edit: I think with the recent dev update about keys/hatch I think what I said is irrelevant
The main issue with adding anti-cheat is that when there is a will there is a way, they can get around these hacks. I don't know how the currents hack work, but I assume you can easily fake progress on gens/health/cause chain blinds/stuns/whatever. Anti-cheat/anti-hacking is hard to do, and while it's clear that EAC isn't really helping, people dedicate their lives to doing ######### like this and a bypass will always be found.
The thing I agree with the most in the post is removing the basement. ######### the basement