How to make SWF more balanced...

MiflionL

SWF gives informational advantages to the survivor team. 

It's a total different experience playing against 4 red-rank solo and 4 purple-rank SWFs. It's one of the reasons why so many killers quit playing, and survivors have a hard time finding a match at night.

Here's my suggestions:

1. Give unique icons to SWFs in the match.

Both the killer and solo survivors can identify them and be more prepared. Also this can avoid killer fast-quitting when he/she enters a match with 4 ready survivors. Without the icon, the killer will assume it's 4 SWFs, when in fact they are solos.

2. When queue up as SWFs, find the match based on the highest MMR of the team.

When SBMM is not active, the system find the match based on the lowest rank of the team. I don't know if it's changed or not, but a match based on the highest MMR is certainly more fair than other circumstances. The killer need at least 4 hooks to not depip, yet survivors only need 1 (the most skillful one) to loop the killer for the entire match.

3. Give more bloodpoints to the solo players when playing with SWFs.

Solo survivors can be sacrificed and left to die easily when playing with SWFs. When a solo survivor and a SWF are both on the hook, people are more willing to save their friend than a stranger. When the Endgame starts and a survivor is hooked, SWFs are more likely to wait and return if it's one of the teammates, and less if it's a solo player.

Killers have so little joy playing against SWFs. Many killers (Trapper, Ghostface, Myers, Hag, Legion, Plague, Demogorgon, Twins, Cenobite) can be easily countered.

With the online instant communication, SWFs can:

-locate gens, totems, traps, portals, Victor, boxes,

-avoid Legion, Myers and Ghostface,

-give info about the killer's locations after getting hooked/while in a chase,

-share the progress of their gen before getting chased away, so others can finish repairing it for them

-divide jobs, like who is responsible to save the hooked ones, who is hooked twice and must stay hidden and repair gens,

-equip specialized perk sets that are suitable only when playing as a team.

All of which cannot be done while playing solo. The solo players deserve to have more bloodpoints to make up for the loss of gaming experiences.

In fact, I suggest that the solo players get bloodpoints based on how many SWFs they're facing.

2 SWFs, 2 solo surv -> solo surv & killer get 2x bloodpoints

2 SWFs, 2 other SWFs -> killer gets 2x bloodpoints

3 SWFs, 1 solo surv -> solo surv & killer get 3x bloodpoints

4 SWFs-> killer gets 4x bloodpoints

Seraphor

None of these would be fair.

1. So now killer won't assume the survivors are a SWF, they will KNOW the survivors are a SWF. Every SWF game will have killers dodge the lobby, will never get a game, and will mess up matchmaking tines for everyone.

2. Not fair on SWFs that don't get an advantage from it. SWF 'can' give survivors an advantage if the communication tools are utilised fully, but it's not a definite advantage. Some SWF are just friends playing together for fun, of various skill levels, and various levels of communication skills.

3. So SWF gain less BP than solos, which means there's more incentive to play solo. "Sorry guys I'm not playing with you tonight I need the BP."

These all constitute discrete nerfs to SWF, which isn't something that can ever work, hence my topic:

@Seraphor said:

Balance between solo play and SWF is a hugely contentious issue. You can't legitimately 'nerf SWF', because SWF isn't a guaranteed buff in itself. (I play with friends and do far, far worse than I do solo, because we suck at communication and tend to distract each other more than help each other win. But it's more fun, because it's with friends.)

SWF isn't an instant benefit, or a guaranteed win, it's literally just friends playing together, as the game was designed. SWF can improve your communication capabilities, which can give your team a edge over the killer, but that's only a possibility, not a certainty.

So no distinct 'nerfs' can ever work, nothing that changes anything numerically, by increasing gen times, or inflating your combined MMR, or anything like that, can work.

What needs to be done, is the introduction of Quality of Life improvements that benefit solo survivors, but are superfluous to SWF. Things like:

1. Being able to see each others perk/add-on loadouts in the lobby. SWF can tell each other what they're bringing, or learn what perks their teammates use. If you know that Claudette has Deliverance, then you can leave them to get themselves off the hook, if you know Jake has DS, then you can risk an unsafe hook rescue, etc.
2. A Ping system in game, that allows you to roughly track where other survivors are. Perhaps a button you can hold down while you're not interacting with anything else, that shows you where other survivors are via a Killer Instinct style heartbeat, giving you a direction, but not an exact location or an aura. SWF can tell each other what area of the map they're in, but solo's never know where their team mates are unless they can see their aura.
3. A quick-chat function, using a couple of preset messages that you can flag up next to your portrait. "Help me!" "Leave me!" "Killer is nearby!" and "Coast is clear!" perhaps. Maybe Meg is on the hook and you're going in for a rescue, because you can't see Ghost Face anywhere nearby, but then next to Meg's portrait you see "Killer is nearby!" flash up for 5 seconds before it goes on cooldown for 30s.
4. Some choice perk enhancements, such as:
   1. Head On - when ready, displays the aura of your locker in yellow to any survivors within 16m.
   2. Unbreakable/Soul Guard - when ready, in the dying state, displays your aura in white to survivors.
   3. Deliverance - when ready, on first hook, displays your aura in white to other survivors.
   4. Object of Obsession - when the obsession, when you and the killers auras are revealed to each other for 3s every 30s, your aura is also revealed to other survivors in white. (other survivors will know that the killer can see you, can choose to avoid you)
   5. Red Herring - when a generator is active and displaying a yellow aura to you, it's aura is revealed to other survivors in white.

(these particular aura colours were chosen for the following reasons; white is the aura colour for survivors to avoid that objective, blocked generators, survivors who don't need your help, while yellow is the aura colour for survivors to investigate or aid in the objective)

These quality of life additions could award solo survivors similar advantages to some SWF parties, meanwhile none of these improvements would aid SWFs, as they would be able to communicate them more easily via comms.

Once Solos are on a closer level to SWFs, then Killer buffs to compensate can be considered. This is how you implement a net nerf to SWF while still remaining fair to lesser skilled or lesser coordinated SWF groups.

Bran

Hm

1) hit or miss honestly

2) maybe a average score, you know if they are high mmr it'll hardly matter, but if some are lower it might be fairer.

3) just no.

JawsIsTheNextKiller

1) I think it will put killers off knowing how popular SWF is. It's probably SWF in most matches. I wouldn't want to discourage people playing killer any more than they already are. I'd be happy to see the team icons at the end of the match so I can know whether to blame overpowered SWF at the end of the match or myself.

2) I think the MMR itself should decide this, and maybe already does by the nature of good SWFs escaping most matches.

3) Surely the killer should the the one to get the bonus points?