As a survivor main - SBMM is concerning
Before anyone says anything - I am exclusively looking at it from a survivor side due to me largely being a survivor main rather than a killer main - no other reason.
Out of everything that could've been tested, I think they have possibly gone the worst route that they could've. I've watched videos from other creators, maybe to sway my opinion but I don't seem to be moved or in agreement with many.
As a survivor, you have many objectives - completing generators, running the killer, potentially cleansing totems, unhooking survivors. These are all features of the game that at one point or another - you will be expected to attempt if not complete. In the game, you are assessed on how well you perform in the four individual categories which demand some of these actions.
But with SBMM, none of these are considered except one - escaping. This SBMM system is going to enforce the already existing issues - teammates that aren't altruistic, gen-rushing, purposely leading the killer to your teammates or even selling out your teammate for an escape, face camping and tunneling. The game actively deceives you with the ranking system about your performance, whilst the SBMM works only based on escapes.
How is this skill-based at all? What part of exiting through a gate is deemed as skillful? You've essentially removed all aspects that could've been considered skillful (skill checks, chase, flashlight hits) in favour of an end-game feature.
I've never ever seen a worse rank disparity than now in my two years playing DBD, across both platforms or games that have been so flippant and one-sided (from either side).
Comments
How can you be seeing any rank disparity when there are no ranks?
You have to go by experience in the game, and what your team mates are actually doing.
No, you're absolutely right. But the Lead Game Designer considers it fun, because "sometimes you'll get out", so there's not much we can do.
I disagree. At the end of the day, for the majority of players getting kills/escaping is what really defines a win, therefore, the game should take in mind that these are the objectives that each side pursues. The point system is a mere way to take your attention out of this binary vision, so that survivors get a reason to be altruistic. However, at the end of the day, getting only one kill and a "Ruthless Killer" isn't satisfying, neither is getting sacrificed and getting a good amount of points.
Tbh, I'm on the team that thinks that survivors should play more individualistic, in a way that the whole point based system gets dumped.
Eh, yes we do, just because MMR doesnt influence it doesnt mean that it's non-existent.
Then what does it even mean?
So what if the rank disparity is absolutely atrocious, rank and MMR has no connection, therefore it's meaningless.
You could be grade Ash 3 and matched against Iridescent 1s and still have a more evenly matched game than if you were all Ash 3's.
Except, the game is assessing games as a 1v1 now rather than a 1v4 - despite demanding the survivor side to be altruistic and to work together - how is that NOT problematic?
If we are to make the game award selfishness then they need to remove the reliance that exists in the game currently and allow players to be more independent - but this isnt the reality.
Because it is deceiving. That's why it's an issue, either remove altogether, or remove the point system that is associated with the rank as it affects the amount of BP that you get at the end.
Nah, survivor mains would never. They are really nice people who play well. You have nothing to worry about whatsoever.
MMR isn't a "reward". It is not "rewarding" players who survive, or "punishing" players who don't. If anything it's the opposite.
If you survive, regardless of 'how' you survived, then the game recognises that as a win, and adjusts your MMR so that you will face tougher challenges, ideally reducing your chances to win, unless you improve.
If you die, regardless of how you died, the game recognises that as a loss, and so adjusts your MMR so that your subsequent games will be a little easier, increasing your chances of survival.
It really doesn't matter whether or not your escape/death was deserved or not. If it wasn't, then you get punished for your cheap tactics and are forced to face tougher opponents. If it was deserved, then you're rightfully placed against higher MMR opponents who are more on your level.
If you did everything right, and you looped the killer for 5 hours, and made 20 hook rescues, scored 30 stuns, healed 10 health states and repaired 500 generators, and after demonstrating all of that skill you still died... the game will rightfully lower your MMR, because why should you be able to play that well and still die?
Meanwhile, if you got downed 20 seconds into the game and camped on hook, the game thinks you're in way above your head and adjusts your MMR down so that you stand a better chance of playing in the next one.
Both scenarios are fair for the individual. The only way they're not fair is when you compare it with other players. "It's not fair that Claudette's MMR goes up when mine goes down because she did nothing and I did everything!" well so what? Claudette's MMR means nothing to yours and yours means nothing to her. You'll likely never match with her again anyway.
It sucks. There's not a nice way to put it. It absolutely, positively, sucks.
Solo Queue has the deck stacked against you as it is and with this new system, I need to survive with potato teammates but it is INCREDIBLY difficult to survive with potato teammates. So I keep staying where I'm at where I need to survive IN SPITE of my teammates because this is still a team game. I can do a lot on my own but I can't carry the entire damn team on my back the entire time.
I am consistently outscoring my own team, even when I've died and the hiding potato has survived but in the eyes of the game, I'M the potato. Which puts me with more potatoes that get me killed. Which makes me play with potatoes because the game thinks I'm a potato. Which puts me with more...
Absolutely frustrating and is making me reconsider playing the game period anymore...
The short version of this would have just been "elo hell." But I feel you, fam.
You don't get punished if your escape wasn't deserved.... You've contradicted yourself in your own post - the game sees it as black or white - either you escaped or you didnt - which I am arguing is wrong.
Why is it wrong because you do not start the game with the ability to escape - you have to work towards it through other objectives such as unhooking others or completing generators, and in some cases, distracting the killer for others to complete generators. It is absolutely outrageous that there are multiple factors to the game that are being overlooked by one criteria which is whether you were killed or you escaped.
No skill is being assessed in that because your active engagement in the match is not being monitored for the purpose of MMR. It's a terrible system, and the ranking (aka 'grades') are deceiving, especially to newer players, about just how well or badly you engaged in that match.
I understand the feeling and the frustration.
Ever since they've implemented the SBMM system, I've been left to die on my first hook more than ever before. I've also witnessed far more DCs, and hackers too which I'm not sure is in correlation to the new system or not. But generally so to speak, the quality of matches has gone down tremendously for me.
I didn't contradict anything, read it again. I said losing MMR isn't a punishment. First line of my post, I said it's the opposite, and then explained why.
I know it's not a skill based system exactly, it's not, and SBMM is a complete misnomer. But it is an effective Results based system, and it works in matching players who have a fair shot at escaping/killing against each other, regardless of skill, or luck.
With so much RNG and imbalance in this game, you cannot accurately gauge skill. This is the next best thing.
Did you win because you're good at the game? Or did you win because you brought Ruin, Undying, Pop and NOED? Or did you win because all the survivors gave up and killed themselves on first hook? The game will never be able to tell.
Well what's even worse with it is that I went ahead and tried to play a game to prioritize myself over every one else. I didn't try to save anyone, I avoided the killer as much as possible. I prioritized doing bones with Small Game over generators (because I'll be damned if I'm going to get killed once again because of NOED). I did just enough to make sure the gens were all completed and prioritized getting to the gate and getting the hell out of Dodge ASAP.
I survived the match but had one of the most boring experiences I've ever had as a survivor. All three teammates were killed and I scored the lowest points in the game, even with the 5,000 extra BP I got for surviving that they didn't get for dying.
I have no desire to ever play like that again and if the game is going to try to force my hand to play like that...
So what's more fun to you?
Playing a boring game and surviving with 10k BP. Or playing a fun game with the chance that you will die and still score 20k BP?
Why are you trying to game your MMR? If you just play, game after game as it comes, some you die, some you escape, your MMR will be working as it should in the background putting you where you should be, to give you the best chance to survive at least 50% of the time.
If you keep playing your boring games where you guarantee you survive but have no fun. You're going to back yourself into a corner where you'll end up against killers at a higher level than you, that will force you to play more and more cautiously, having less and less fun in the process.
Because most of my games right now I'm getting killed because my team is hot garbage. I can loop the killer for over a minute and see maybe one generator pop. If I'm on the generator, I get to watch with Bond as my teammate runs the killer right to me. With Kindred, I get to hang on the hook and watch one guy self caring in the corner while the other two hide in the bushes as my Stage 1 slowly ticks down to Stage 2. I get teammates who are missing skill checks (with my favorite one where they missed THREE damn skill checks in a row healing me. I finally decided that playing injured was far safer than letting that dude heal me). That is not a fun game to me. If I get killed because the killer does well or I play poorly, cool. GG guys, we'll get them next time. But that's not what is happening and that is frustrating as hell to deal with.
Now some of this is also on me as I am the player who will go for the high risk play to save a teammate. If the killer has NOED, I will go around the map trying to find the lit totem so that we can help them. If the killer is camping, I will do my best to save them and take the trade if that's what it comes down to. If someone is being tunneled and needs help, I will do my best to step in and body block to give them a chance to get away. Because this is way more fun to me to actually play the game rather than playing a game of hide and go seek.
At the level BHVR seems to believe I am at, I have no real chance to actually do anything. But because I can't survive without cheesing the hell out of the game (something that I'm not willing to do), I'm essentially trapped in this Hell that is potato survivor...
Except there are so many differing conditions as to why one may escape that it doesn’t account for anything skilful - the only one that they accounted for is a hatch escape which the game counts as a draw.
believe it or not, this WILL cause skill disparity as the game only asses one aspect out of the many that are in the game
Generally speaking, good chases and doing gens leads to escapes. But I do agree that there has to be a bit more nuance to it, because making it a binary escape or not question really doesn't tell the whole story in many instances. Three survivors can escape because one survivor ran the killer for most of the game and died at the end. So the players who did the least are gaining MMR and the survivor who carried the entire team is moving down. It's asinine. It's honestly shocking that the best they could come up with after two years is something so simple but something that also misses the point by so much.
Most players won't change their style to raise their MMR. You said before that this MMR incentives the players to just escape, but the thing is, what actually gives you a reward for playing well isn't the MMR, it is the rank system. In theory, the MMR should be a hidden system that allows good matchmaking. You don't get BPs neither cosmetics by raising your MMR, therefore, there is no reason to, unless you are a hardcore player that wants always to go for strong opponents, which I don't think is the case for most players. What gives you rewards however is the rank system, which not only gives you achievements the first time you reach a certain rank, but also gives you BPs at the end of the season. To rank up, you still need to please the point system as always, so for most players, having a MMR won't change their style.
For the reply that you gave me, I would say that I still disagree, for the fact that being altruistic is a choice most of the times. Ofc, you still need teamwork to complete all 5 gens and escape, but if your goal is just escape, you can just wait for hatch if your team is getting dumped or leave as soon as the gates open, even tho someone is on hook. You won't get as many points, but you will raise your MMR, which I think that people who only want escapes don't care about.
Riddle me this if you as a survivor are "rewarded" with more difficult games vs much harder killers why would you want that? Why would you seek out the escape if you can get more points shorter queues more opponents prone to dumbe nonesense like cj techs, taking long chases and vault techs.
Tome challenges are easier to complete if you keep your mmr low. Your rank rewards are unaffected by your mmr. The only reason you might want to escape is items or escape points but long term you stand to gain more points and more items keeping games in low mmr with more exploitable killers. Keep your mmr above the camp you at 5 gens killers and your set.
Best part is no one can tell your a low mmr survivor since its hidden. You can claim your high mmr and theres no definitive way you can claim there not.
Exactly this, out of everything that they could've picked, they've selected the most RNG part about the survivor side. There are games where you wont once touch a generator, and games where you're stuck on generators trying to get the gates going.
Today, my first game, and every time i was hooked, i saw this Yui that stood still in the edge of the map, contributing virtually and physically nothing whilst everyone else has already been twice on hook... lol
Actually, the last bit is false. Hatch escapes count as draws and thus gain you nothing.
As for everything else, I don't believe this to be true but that is purely down to anecdotal evidence - so feel free to take with a grain of salt. I've never, prior to SBMM, have dealt with so many players that hide out in the corners of the map, or have left me to die on my FIRST hook (when the killer isnt even camping/proxying). It has made the experience miserable so far, and I do believe that is it down to SBMM, because whilst there are many that dont care for it, there are many that do too.
Simply because I dont get any pleasure or fun from a match that is so disproportionate in skill and understanding of the game that it's depressing.
Whilst others may like going against killers and survivors that aren't on the same level, this doesn't apply for everyone. Realistically, in a game that is assessing your skill, you should eventually reach a point where you and the other side are on par, and your kill/escape rate should hit around 50%, so it wont be like you're walking up a hill in your games.
Not to mention that if my MMR is low, this will also mean that my survivors will be on par with 'my mmr', so, not only will the quality of the match go down when versing the killer, but also when trying to cooperate with other survivors.
The MMR system does put at a kill/escape rate of around 50% (It's actually around 60%-65%, but that's pretty close for an asymmetrical game). Basically the new MMR system does exactly what you are asking for and the old matchmaking system was not.