What can be done about SoloQ?
So just base don the number of threads and discussions about it, most of us will agree that soloQ is very rough right now. While not every game is a mess, and overall I agree KIllers have been needing some major buffs for awhile, it has left many people behind. And i think the answer is simple: survivor communication needs to be added to this game. A ping system at the very least, and a voice communication at best. I think the ping system is a fine compromise, it would at least provide some way of coordinating with your team, but tone down the toxicity that could come over voice.
Comments
The biggest problem with solo survivor is other survivors.
While information (that's superfluous to SWF but still beneficial to solo survivors) would be very nice, you can't make other players use it properly.
Yes, but thats the case in general. At least having tools to allow it would give a better chance of people succeeding.
The kindred basekit without killer aura is the most important step. A player on the hook sometimes don't understand that waving means killer is camping, and does this to tell people that no one is coming for me. We need to cut down on confusions like this and give survivors tools to see where other survivors are at times. Empathy is another perk that could more or less be basekit.
A ping system and voice comms would actually be the worse of the available range of options. The problems with SoloQ are twofold; there's the lack of information, and there's the lack of coordination. Nothing can force random teammates to coordinate with you, or actively choose to use certain tools if they're available- provided that those tools actually are available. Just look at any other game where you can queue up with random teammates, it's always a problem.
A ping system requires your teammates to bother actually using it, on top of requiring them to bother paying attention of you use it. A voice comms system requires your teammates to bother using it, bother paying attention if you use it, speak the same language as you, have a headset, have an environment without a ton of noise pollution, not be hard of hearing...
That's not to say it's hopeless, mind. There are other options, and they are better than either of those two-- in my opinion the absolute best direction to go is passive information sharing, not something that requires active effort- so information sources like the portrait icon change that they made, something like basekiit Kindred, more perks and other tools for aura sharing, and the ability to see your teammate's perk builds would go a long way towards correcting the information gap between SWF and SoloQ.
SWF is always going to be the stronger option purely because you can guarantee good teammates, but the devs can control how much stronger it is- and there's a lot that could be done to shrink the gap.
This isn't a 'thing' anymore.
It might have been back when DBD was relatively small and niche, and behaviours were well communicated. But there is nothing inherent about 'waving your arms' that says "Killer is here".
I'm against giving aura reading as basekit, as this can be more powerful than voice comms, which means it would only buff SWF as well.
I'd much rather they introduce a 'Survivor Instinct' effect. Like Killer Instinct for survivors.
Honestly the idea the devs had of adding icons to the survivor hud when they do stuff is good
They just have to... you know do it
Fix matchmaking. Right now the skill of players is all over the place. I'll have teammates that are constantly insta going down to a killer then it turns out I can run the killer for 2 minutes and they are kind of a baby killer. I don't know how this happens all the time but I got to the point where I would spam lockers and always try to get first chase. In dbd you can't carry. If there are people at a much lower mmr they are going to drag the team down and you can't win. Simply make people of same skill in the same game and the game is much healthier.
I think a ping system is probably the best idea. Voice chat would get really nasty especially if you added the killer to it (like some have suggested).
Adding kindred doesn't help everyone unfortunately. I am partially colorblind and on some maps I have trouble seeing aura's (even with colorblind mode on and at max). Which I'm sure there are others out there with the same issue that I have. If BHVR allowed people to choose the color of the aura in colorblind mode that might fix some of the issue that people with colorblindness have.