Combine Flashlights and Maps?
I might be wrong, but I think the consensus is usually that Flashlights and Maps are weaker overall than Tools and Medkits, at least at higher level play. Basically Flashlight saves are inconsistent assuming killers know how to avoid them, and going for them is actually counterproductive because following a killer around for a save is time not spent healing or doing a gen. Maps are a bit more useful than flashlights but not necessarily hugely important since you can just scout without them a lot of the time. They save a bit of time but not as much time saved as a tool on a gen for instance.
So what if Flashlights and Maps were combined? Have the Flashlights still be able to blind killers, but outside of that you can also expend their charges to shine a beam in a direction and unusual props in that light cone become highlighted by an aura. In this way you could use a Flashlight like a Map to find things and still try for the risky big flashlight save if you really want to. Different Flashlight add ons or flashlight items could highlight different types of props possibly as well.
This would mean Maps could be removed or revamped. Removing Maps would reduce the bloodweb clutter, but they could also be revamped to do something else entirely. They could even perhaps be combined with keys, so keys are removed entirely and the Maps serve the functions of both being a map and instructions to unlock a hatch.
Of course, as a killer main, I’m well aware of bully squads that like to go for flashlight saves over and over. But honestly those squads don’t do well against better killers as the squads that just push gens. And any charges spent on the map functions can’t be spent blinding a killer so if a squad is intent on going for blinds they’re not going to benefit from the item highlights as much as players who are trying to use the items more efficiently.
Finally I can see this could be a slight buff to survivors. If it turned out that the boost was a bit too much it could be balanced simply by tweaking the charges on the flashlights.
Comments
Hmm... I don't agree. Flashlights and maps still have distinct uses. Flashlights are popular enough (and have enough evident usefulness) that they don't need any help, and maps got new life with boon totems - they're very handy to have on a booner and save time locating totems, as well as the old hex-finding usage and incidental-or-challenge-relevant stuff like hatch/gate tracking. This also feels like it'd be a downgrade to the map function you can currently have, which is rather nice; seeing in a cone is much worse than seeing mapwide.
If any survivor item needs help right now, it's keys. I think the idea of having maps and keys having their functions rolled into one is much more suitable on both counts, because they're both already all about aura reading anyway.
Being popular and being effective aren’t necessarily the same thing, especially at the higher skill levels. Face camping is popular at lower levels but not optimal. Chasing a survivor for three minutes until the killer downs them is popular at low levels but a terrible strategy. Just because Flashlight see use doesn’t necessarily mean they’re actually good at what they do.
Even if that is the case, because I'm skeptical that they're not balanced (being able to undo a chase is a very powerful thing, so of course it has to be difficult and-or avoidable, and unlike everything else you brought up, you see more flashlights in high level play than you do low), does rolling another underused item into their function actually address that? I don't really think it would.
The reason I'd be down for meshing maps and keys together is because they serve similar purposes, now that opening the hatch is a footnote. If you do bring a key to a challenge nowadays, it's either because you have a challenge or for player aura reading purposes. Flashlights and maps don't have anything to do with each other.