The low number of killers is the root of all evil in this game
This is gonna be long ....
The screenshot is from a friend of mine who just sent me after his last match. Well, he has hardly any experience in the game, he had played it a few months ago for a few hours but then gave up because all the matches were a torture for him. And I thought, after hearing about the new MMR changes, I'll tell him that now might be a good time to give it another try since BHVR now wants to protect newcomers from experienced players.
Well... you can see the screenshot.
This was a full swf on comms with meta perks bullying my friend the entire time with flashlights blinds , body blocks and pallet stuns like there was no tomorrow.
Now he doesn't want to touch the game anymore. He says if even the new matchmaking doesn't work, and there's no way to detect swf in the lobby screen, so he can dodge all swf, the game is just unhealthy for his mental health and he never wants to play it again. I've rarely seen him so upset.
However, that also got me thinking.
There is a problem , a problem that is not so easy to fix with a few tests and changes
Many Killer players have had this experience of my friend.
However, I keep reading posts where survivor say that they are still being matched absolutely unfairly, too.
My own matches (survivor and killer) have been mixed. Some were good but most of them still very stressful.
After the talk with my friend and some thoughts,
I now see the main problem with survivors and killers and so the main problem with the mmr and the unevenly matched players is that there are too few killers. Just that.
THIS is the root of all evil.
If there are too many survivors in the queue then any MMR changes will do next to nothing for BHVR.
1) From Survivor's point of view: There are too many Survivors and not enough Killers in the queue. The result is that the game always gives the survivor whichever killer is available, and as new killers like my friend get scared away, there are often only a few hardcore killer mains left (especially on peak times where most people have time to play) and so weaker survivor teams will still be matched with strong killers again and again, no matter how often they try to change the mmr system.
2) From the killer's point of view: As I said, there are too few killers in the queue. This means the game throws a random killer at the survivor team that has been waiting the longest in the queue, often an experienced full swf on comms. Again, the cap doesn't work as it should, the MMR gets out of balance, because if it worked as it should, some teams would never get a match.
The solution would be to make the game more attractive to killers.
The community is constantly fighting about buffs and nerfs for each side, but maybe if players were matched fairly, all the time, those arguments wouldn't be necessary at all. But this requires a balanced killer/survivor ratio with players of different skill levels.
But what does BHVR have to do to make the game more attractive for killers without completely destroying solo survivors?
Are we realistic, removing swf will never be a thing, they would lose more than half of the player base.
Bring solo queue closer to swf and then buff killer?
I don't know if that would really have the effect it needed, but maybe I am wrong and this could be a solution.
What do you think needs to happen to make the game more attractive to killers in order for the balance to be restored?
And please be realistic in your suggestions. It must not happen that one side suffers, so no suggestions with any mega buffs that would destroy the solo queue completely.
Comments
Lower mmr matches are tough or challenging because they haven't got good at the game yet while high mmr matches are the unfair ones. They've got everything totally backwards.
completely agree on that one.
Even if we were extremely generous and said they were B tier now, B tier in DBD is trash tier anyway and relies on the survivors making a ton of mistakes to win. I'd argue that not only B but even A tier killers can play a literal perfect game and still lose, that's how bad the balance problems are.
Yeah I would say that killers B-tier or lower killers are entirely reliant on survivor being playing poorly to win on every element of the game. I'd say A-tier what I refer to as Strong in DBD is the killer having some influence on the outcome of the match but only about half or little more than half the time, say 2/3(66%) of the time. S-tier being that the killer's skill entirely decides the outcome of the match. in reality, its suppose to mean that for every 10 matches you play, you should win 10/10 of them. I don't think any killer is truly winning 10/10 matches so I do not think S-tier killers really exist(again this is all my opinion) but you could definitely argue in the past that DBD did have some S-tier elements for killers... like old Ebony Mori's and old nurse.
With that being said, I don't think Legion or Ghostface is moving anywhere. I'd say Ghostface is probably going to be worse from playing PTB, most likely a C-tier killer somewhere around sadako/pig level. Legion is better...in the sense that he is physically down someone in his ability, but I think his counter-play is too easy without going into too much detail about it. He might be able to win average teams so perhaps B-tier but most likely still just a strong C-tier killer at best.
The strange aspect of legion's rework is that his best add-on is yellow meme bloodpoint farm add-on(sleeping pills). It increases the duration of feral frenzy by 10 seconds and this is like 2 green mural sketchbooks+1 yellow sketchbook. The drawback of moving at 115% m/s is not really drawback because of his buff where he gains 0.2 m/s per hit. You move at 120% m/s if you hit first person which should always occur otherwise, why in earth did you activate your ability? To put into perceptive, its like speed-limit billy being billy best add-on. They're marketing him as BP-farm machine.
I think you can see where I'm going with this. Enticing killers with more BP doesn't make me want to play weaker killers in losing matches. Playing weak killers is borderline demoralizing. I rather play strong killers because they're fun to play. possibility to win every match is more important. Don't think legion or Ghostface really give you the possibility to win every match, hence why most low-tier killers are not seen that much at higher MMR(low-variety for survivor).
Shortage of killer is by product of killers not being fun to play because they don't feel powerful. Not a bloodpoint problem.
Yeah I pretty much agree with all that.
I will highlight a problem that a lot of folks here know about, but that's not discussed often enough: the killer controls.
Peeps sometimes joke that one of the biggest opponents a killer has to beat is their own controls, and that's true.
A whole lot kf killer powers are reigned in, ie "balanced", by making them awkward, clunky and tough to use. You get slowdowns, hard aims, deliberate fidgety controls and what not. Using a killers power should be the exciting part, the thing that makes your character unique and that sets them apart and where they are the best of the best, yet most of the time you feel barely adequate.
Sure, its somewhat satisfying to land that awesome hatchet throw over half the map with a Huntress or down two survivors at once as Oni or disrupt a healing party and injure everyone as Pyramid Head, but all these occasions are hard earned through grueling grinding down the mechanics, battling the survivors AND controls and somehow, sometimes come up ahead.
I didn't notice for the longest time, as I played nothing but DBD for three month straight, but now that I got sidelined by a few cool single player games and had a few flings at shooters with friends, its baffling how utterly bad and garbage most killer powers control.
A killer known for a certain thing should be a master at it and have an uncanny control over their element of evil, but more often then not you fumble through your powers and waste them ineffective due to clunky mechanics.
Also, most powers give the survivors way more knowledge then the killer. I can somewhat understand that you don't want to encourage tunneling and other bad habits, but we got Spirit, were the players know more about your position then then the other way around, Pyramid Head were the players see where you're gonna aim at in stark, red lines, Sadako were the players know when its save to pla, around TVs and when the curse oa thickening, yet Sadako herselfs info is just binary, and a whole lot more.
I also understand that this is often a balancing issue and giving killers unfettered access to their powers and responsive, snappy controls would make them way more deadly, but isn't that ever point of playing a killer? Being a scary maniac with a cool power that kills people? A power that makes you YOU? The defines your modus operandi and where you're the best?
Long story short: you shouldn't balance a role by making the fun part playing that role clunky and un-fun. Maybe give each killer some unique item or mechanic that the players can active, in order to debuff the killer for a while, like, uhm, an actual secondary objective.
Find the nurses locket with Spencers last Breath, in order to give her a higher cooldown for a while, sabotage Billy's fuel storage, so that his chainsaw gains the overhead mechanic. This last part is just some random ideas, but my core issue stands: make using powers fun, not a chore, and balance around this.
See you said the curse phrase "more attractive to killers". That's always been the bait and switch to this game. Sure the licenses alone is a draw and they do a great job in killer mechanics and design. Seriously hands down that alone almost redeems what comes next: the nerfs, less than appealing perks, too many survivor sided maps to count, slow turnaround to address killer issues vs. surv issues, and then glossing over other issues. Killers get nerfs that are not needed and nerfed into the ground only for them to be buffed again, which then makes for more nerfs later. This game might have killers as the draw but the Entity seems to perennially favor the survs...