Why I think the game is in the best place it's ever been / game theory
I believe that DBD is in the best place it's ever been, and it's because they've made these core changes to the game to facilitate this state of play.
So a trial has 3 different phases, the first phase is the beginning when the 4 survivors are alive. I think to many people understand this game to be a 4v1, but it is not. It is 4 1v1s. During this time the survivors goals are to escape the trial, and the way to do this is to complete 5 gens, open the gates and escape. The killers job is to stop this, and kill the survivors.
Here's the deal, it is in the survivors best interest to work together and complete the goal of opening the gates and escape because your chances of escaping that way are drastically better than any other way. You want to be in the trial for the shortest time possible, because the killer is essentially trying to wear you all down. However, avoiding that "wearing away" is preferable to taking it in 100% of cases, so if you gotta abandon the gens to avoid the killer, then do that. Just don't get caught, finish the gens, and get out.
Once a survivor is downed, the goal and strategy remains the same but becomes significantly harder, so hopefully you managed some progress while the 4th was still in the match.
However, once it's down to 2 1v1s, the second phase starts. At this point in time, the survivors goals remain the same, escape the trial. However, your method of achieving this changes. If there is a single Gen left, and its nearly complete, finishing it or another to open the gates remains a viable strategy. However, avoiding the killer and letting him find the other survivor and kill them becomes a legitimate strategy. Once it's down to the final 1v1, the third phase begins.
The final showdown. Who finds the hatch? I highly recommend trying to position yourself in an position to cover as much ground as possible to discover the hatch before the killer. However, another possibility also exists. If you are near a switch, you can stay near and once the killer finds and closes the hatch, you can attempt to immediately begin opening the gate. If the survivor can pull this off, they manage to survive, the killer has 3 kills and all is well. A trial well played.
It's because of this I believe DBD almost takes on a battle royal aspect to it, where only a single survivor escapes and I believe this to be the optimum version of the game, and I believe that if everyone played the game with this mindset, you'd have better trials, as well as nerfing SWF. It needs to be every survivor for themselves, allow the survivors who wanna throw themselves into harms way die on the hook. I'll be finishing those gens, because I intend to escape.
Concerning the matching making and MMR, I believe the system also works elegantly despite its simplicity of relying only on kills. The way it works, is essentially the killer is the "difficulty" of the match, and your ability to get kills raises your lethality rating, whereas for survivors who escape allot have a higher survivability rating than those who do not. Generally though, the vast majority of survivors are going to be sitting in a giant pool of "mid-tier" while a few are at the very top, and a few are at the very bottom. Killers who manage 2-3 kills every match are placed into que with "mid-tier" survivors who are all just "generally" good. Sometimes they survive, sometimes they don't and that's fine. You shouldn't expect to win every game and conversely you shouldn't expect to die in every game, hypothetically you should expect to have a 25% to escape against a similarly lethal killer.
Those survivors who have high escape rates, IE they are in SWF squads and bully the killer, they are placed in the "high-tier" of survivability and will therefore be paired up with the son-of-a-######### killers who aggressively go for 4ks. Let those jerks play with each other, the "mid-tiers" will have just a fine ol' time facing each other and having fun games.
This situation actually encourages solo que because if playing solo is enjoyable enough with a solid 25% chance of winning, people who seek out SWF squads on discord will actually STOP looking for squads and solo que, increasing the solo que pool. Make the solo que experience better, and you will see the SWF percentages go down.
TLDR: Play survivor with the intention of escaping, and you will enjoy the game more.
Comments
This take is so unhealthy for the game
No, it is THE healthiest take for the game. A killer who is doing their damnedest should be rewarded for doing a good job, just as the survivor who is doing their damnedest to survive should be the one who survives. No one team should be expected to take it all home. When it comes down to the wire and it's live or die, that's when the game is at its finest, when your heart is pounding and everything is on the line, the slightest change in events can mean the difference between winning and losing, THATS when the game shines. If that isn't happening, then the game is over and everyone should just leave and start a new match. The killer IS the power role. The Killer SHOULD be scary and you should want to avoid them. Being discovered SHOULD be a inconvenience. Conversely, if looping the killer is buying everyone time, and everyone was focusing on their goal, which is escape NOT harass the killer, once that survivor finally does go down, that leaves a ton of breathing room for the survivors to circle the wagons. If the gate is open and awaiting the unhooked survivor, guess who escapes? The looper, and everyone who contributed to opening the gates.
lmao what is this
not even comp players would apply this as every single comp match I watched everyone tried their best to body block for their teamates if the situation allowed for it
being chased and trying to help your TEAMates (as this is a team game you know) while they are chased either via flashlights, pallet saves, sabo plays and etc are the only fun part of the survivor gameplay
I am sure that most people who plays survivor will rather have a fun match and die than hold m1 hide from the killer and escape while everyone else was chased lol
Sometimes I will play my p3 claudette with urban self care iron will for the lolz but the survivor playstyle you described only happens at low ranks
I literally don't care what comp players think. The comp players are the ones destroying the game, and crying about every little change the devil want to make. I would also reframe from deciding what every survivor would rather do.
All tactics are viable. If bodyblocking secures a save, and that save secures YOUR escape, then you should go for it. I am NOT saying you should sit in the corner just repairing gens, I'm saying your gameplay should reflect your intention of surviving. If one survivor getting tunneled ruins your experience, that is a YOU problem. I wasn't planning on that person escaping, I was planning on ME escaping. If the killer is slugging and camping all of the survivors, I WILL not be going over there and throwing myself at the killer for the save, that would not be conducive to my escaping. Let that killer get his 3k, he obviously really wants it, I however will be attempting to secure my exit, if just to deny him his 4k.