Survivors are just Skins, here's an unoriginal idea to change that
Survivors are all just Skins; some are a bit taller, some are a bit louder, they all have 3 different teachables. Other than that they are literally all the same gameplay wise. IMO thats pretty boring.
Right now people pick the Survivor they like most aesthetically and then just get all the perks on that survivor. But what if there was another reason to pick a certain survivor?
Introducing the unoriginal idea of survivor passives!
What are they?
Survivor passives are small bonusses to actions within a trial that are completely exclusive to the survivor they are on. That means if you play Meg you'll get Meg's passive and there s no way for Meg to get someone else's passive or for someone else to get Meg's passive.
Important: these passives are SMALL, they should not be game changing but they should make certain builds on certain characters better than on other characters while not making them unbalanced; none of them should alter how a chase works imo
also no passives for legendary survivors (the ones you get through skins) they get the passive of the original, much like they have the teachables of the original
Here are ideas for passives that are somewhat fitting that survivors' perks/lore:
Dwight Fairfield: a team leader and team player
- all cooperative actions are X% faster (this at max. should decrease gen time by 1 - 3 seconds)
Meg Thomas: an athlete
- recover from self-inflicted Exhaustion X% faster (stacks with Vigil, should reduce it by ~5 seconds alone)
Claudette Morel: empathic person with knowledge some medical knowledge
- increase altruistic healing speeds by X% (stacks with all other increases to altruistic healing speeds)
Jake Park: he has the perk saboteur lol
- sabotaging a hook is X% faster
Nea Karlsson: urban artist and somewhat good in parkour
- when falling from a great height, do not make any noise (gives her some more stealth while not making long falls safer during chases)
William "Bill" Overbeck: a true fighter and survivalist
- struggling free from the killer's grasp stuns them for 0.5 seconds longer (shrugs i cant give him a shotgun)
David King: he knows how to punch and take punches
- taking a protection hit gives you a 0.5s longer sprint duration (inspired by WGLF)
Laurie Strode: the woman with DS and the only person that could probably maybe kill Michael Myers
- while wiggling, hitting the acceleration given by hitting great skilchecks in increased by X% (if you dont hit any great skillchecks you taje 16s to wiggle free; if you only hit greats you take 15s; I'm thinking Laurie should be around 14-14.5 seconds if you only hit great skillchecks)
Ace Visconti: a smart gambler, a cheat, a lucky guy
- items you find in chests can never be the following: Worn-Out Tools, Camping Aid Kit, Flashlight or Broken Key
- (that way you are always guarenteed to get at least yellow items, it would make the item looting build better and it would increase the odds of getting green+ items; it should increase the chance for lower tier items more than higher tier ones though)
Feng Min: the pro gamer, pushes herself way too hard
- succeeding a great skillcheck gives X% more progress (good if you are great with hitting great skillchecks)
Quentin Smith: i don't know anything about him lol
- opening exit gates is X% faster (based on wake up, is way weaker than wake up though)
Detective Tapp: a detective that knows the method of evil doers
- Killer specific actions are X% faster
- (this includes: disarming Trapper's traps, disarming Hag's traps with a flashlight, waking someone or yourself up against Nightmare, searching a jigsaw box, locking a locker against dredge, snapping out of it against doctor, mending if it was applied by legion's or deathslinger's power, cleansing against plague, unhooking someone from a cage against Executioner, closing a portal of Demogorgon, kicking Victor, opening a chest and using the vaccine of Nemesis, solving the Lament Configuration of the Cenobite and doing anything TV or tape related against Sadako)
Kate Denson: a musician with that can feel the supernatural and tried to beat up the Entity
- the struggle phase lasts X seconds longer (5 seconds max)
Adam Francis: a teacher, adept at languages and throwing pebbles
- the unhooking action is X% faster
- (unhooking normally takes 1 second, increase should make it 0.8 seconds max; stacks with other bonusses)
Jeff Johansen: the guy from the among us chapter, an artist; a quiet guy
- your aura gets revealed to the killer for 1 less second (reverse lethal pursuer)
Jane Romero: TV show host, loves the limelight
- whenever you finish a generator get X% haste until being chased or doing a conspicuous action
Ashley J. Williams: the guy from evil dead
- recover X% faster while in the dying state (weaker than unbreakable but a good synergy with flip-flop)
Nancy Wheeler: i havent watched Stranger things (this is assuming they could even give her an ability)
- you walk X% faster (stacks with Fixiated/Self-Aware, but is not better than them)
Steve Harrington: i havent watched Stranger things (this is assuming they could even give him an ability)
- while within X meters of another survivor, you leave no blood and are X% quieter (work great with renewal + babysitter and kinship)
Yui Kimura: bike person, havent read her lore
- you vault pallets X% faster (should not be a huge increase, should make some unsafe pallets only a little more safe but should not eliminate mistakes you make like DH does)
Zarina Kassir: a reporter that sheds light on stories
- when you fully repair a generator, the notification the killer gets is delayed by X seconds (should not be more than 5 seconds, probably lower)
Cheryl Mason: i havent played Silent Hill
- the endurance status effect on yourself lasts X seconds longer (should be a static increase; probably only 1-2 seconds)
Felix Richter: an architect
- you repair generators completely silent (the generator still makes sound, you can still see particles of your repairs; better than technician but imo that perk should get hyper buffed anyways)
Élodie Rakoto: i havent read her lore, think she was an occult investigator?
- opening a chest gives you 2 items instead of 1 (not sure if it should work on appraisal... I think it shouldnt)
Yun-Jin Lee: music producer, selfish
- doing actions that cant be done with other survivors are X% faster
- (things you cant do together are opening chests, blessing or cleansing totems, unhooking other etc. Self-healing or doing a generator solo are not included as another survivor can help you do them; this buff should be worse than any buff that only focusses on one of these things)
Jill Valentine: i havent played Resident Evil whatever part she s from
- perks that are charged from doing generator and that apply effects to generator are X% more effective
- (blast mine, flashbang and repressed alliance for example charge faster and work longer)
Leon S. Kennedy: i havent played Resident Evil whatever part he's from
- blinds caused by flashbangs or flashlights are 0.X seconds longer (static increase, does not stack with% based increases)
Mikaela Reid: the Boon girl
- blessing a totem is X% faster (enough said)
Jonah Vasquez: Math guy
- the reduction applied from failing a skillcheck is reduced by 2% flat (works on overcharge and other such perks as well, it will always just be 1%; a normal skilcheck takes away 5% progress so now that would be 3%)
Yoichi Asakawa: i dont know anything about him
- scratch marks last 1 second less (works with light weight which is why it s only 1 second)
Haddie Kaur: supernatural girl
- you cleanse dull and hex totems X% faster (works nicely with her perk overzealous, is not stronger than counterforce)
Okay that is a long list...
You may shuffle or completely change some of these passives; some of them are probably worth just being put into a perk altogether, some of them probably don't fit the character at all
These are just ideas that more or less fit the characters and make them slightly more unique without having an insane impact
Will this overall buff Survivors? yes
Will this have a huge impact? in some scenarios yes, but mostly no
Will this make some survivors strictly better than others? yes BUT the effect should be so minimal that in the end the survivor you pick is still the one you like best; this is just so if you want to do a certain build or have a certain effect you can pick one survivor
This makes it so every survivor at least has an identity gameplay wise
Some other effects i have thought of:
- entering a locker or vaulting a window/pallets while NOT sprinting is completely quiet (might be too broken against Spirit)
- you bleed X% less
- you recover from negative status effects faster (worse than vigil ofc)
- positive effects from perks last X% longer (stuff like leader and streetwise and boon: dark theory last longer when outside their range)
- you heal yourself X% faster, does not stack with medkits other healing speed increases (makes self-care better but does not work with COH or medkits; works on brown or yellow or purple medkits though as they dont increase self-healing speed)
- flashbangs and fire crackers make no sound when you use them (they are too easy to avoid)
- you may open the hatch without a key; this takes X% longer and notifies the killer as soon as you start the action (might be too OP)
- you become the obsession at the start of the trial (forces this survivor to be the obsession; multiple of them makes the one with more obsession perks the winner; else it is random)
- you cant become the obsession at the start of the trial (same as above just reversed)
- you see X object around you in a X meter radius (can be survivors, totems, hooks or generators; a very weak tracking effect that can come in handy)
- while in the killers grasp your struggling affects them more (like biol over but weaker)
and thats about it
what do you think? are some of these too strong? too weak?
is the core idea dumb or flawed?
I really think survivors should stand out a little more when compared to each other so I hope that someday this may be done (although it will probably have some issues with licensed characters :C )
Comments
What a great way to make it so you'll only ever see 3-5 Survivors
i copy pasted Nancy's thing and i overlooked that, oops
thats why most of them have X value since when this is balanced that shouldn't happen.
Also it's not like people will just drop their main survivor they like just because claudette gives 3% more healing speed on others.
Might make some survivors rarer than others but right now they are all skins and the favorite skins of people are meg and claudette anyways
Plenty of Survivors would swap their main for an advantage, I know plenty of people that main Ace just because he has an in-built Iron Will
oh I completely forgot that 1 survivor already has a passive.
I mean my point still stands that from a gameplay perspective all survivors are just skins and that there should be something that helps them stand out a bit more. I want this to effect people in a way that if they want to play a specific build, they pick a specific survivor so there s an actual reason to pick, play and level different survivors.
If everyone has a passive I think it would even itself out a bit more as now people that play with a variety of perks take different survivors when they feel like it, meta players stick with 3-5 survivors that they like and people that just aestetically like a character can play them and benefit from a slight passive boost that doesnt synergize with their built but exists and is nice to have.