Killer is the 'power role' so it needs to kill more

Rovend

Title.

Help me understand this

I get that dbd is an asymmetrical game as in one strong player (killer) goes against four weaker players (survivors), but that does mean the killer needs to get kills easier and survivor escape less and less?

I truly dont get it, the balance of any game with players against players (even if 1v4) should try to be 50%-50%, or at least try to be close to that number if not if you lose a game as surv (or win as killer) how can you really tell is because you lack skill / items / perks and is not because of game design.

Sluzzy

@AcelynnBen said:

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/3192944#Comment_3192944

let me get this straight a 4 v 1 AND SOMEHOW THAT"S UNFAIR?

6 years those 4 players have been a power role and now that killers are being actual killers and not play things, that's unfair and unbalanced

and let me remind you of something

killers have to do : gen pressure, chasing survivors, mindgaming, dealing with boons, dealing with bad maps, dealing with shack, hitting gens and dying inside when the survivors pats the gen and removes the regression, dealing with body blocking, aim their power if they have any

Survivors have to do : Do gens, rescue, heal, do a 360 and think u are good when in realize auto aim is what's causing the killer to miss and optionally cleanse a dull totem or boon it, find a chest IF THEY WANT, and open the door, escape a chase which in some maps is easy, hexes which are suppose to punish those 4 players have the worst spawns so nobody even uses them, even noed is rare these days

and don't even get me started on every killer powers, i mean what's ghostfaces gonna do in a chase to catch up to lithe or sprint burst NOTHING

but no clearly that's so unfair and unfun and so unbalanced

if this was a 4v 4 it would make sense but a 4 v 1 don't even tell me one side shouldn't have a bit more advantage

not everyone is a nurse and not everyone is blight, and a lot of killers suffer thanks to maps, and people dc because they are sore losers, i had people dc while im playing trapper on Yamaoka estate, one of the biggest map and i was playing nicely, BUT CLEARLY THAT"S TOO OP to even PREDICT where survivors run and put traps in there RIGHT?

All of those things you mentioned for the killer is simply part of a single task. Mindgaming? That's simply chasing a survivor. The survivor has to also mindgame but it is harder for the survivor because you have to always react to what the killer is going to do, and is always moving faster and variable speeds. Don't forget killer is rewarded for playing badly on top of the already having the advantage in chase: Bloodlust!

Why should a single person versing 4 have a much easier and less tasks to do that the other side comprising of 4? Why does the killer win when all 5 are playing at about the same level?

The 4 survivors requires a PHD in DBD school for all 26+ killers. Why is it fair for survivors to be at an inherent disadvantage at every single level on top of requiring learning how to play against all of those killers? Every killer player has to only learn one survivor because survivors have no abilities, only weak perks that turn off at the killer's convenience. Killer perks are way stronger.

Not only do survivors have to finish extremely and painfully long 90 sec gens, they have to save teammates, be proficient at running the killer with bloodlust, loot chests to be able to heal since self-care is horrible, find hex totems, bless totems, open gates, heal teammates, and so much more.

People DC because the game is unfair and unbalanced. The game is too hard for survivor to win while not requiring the same amount of effort from killer. This shouldn't be that hard to understand.

the_honey_badger

@_VTK_ said:

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/3193919#Comment_3193919

Well, then you will be ok if those numbers were reversed. 39% killrate and 61% escape rate. Those numbers would be across all ranks, so they would be good numbers.

Oh wait, actually we had similar numbers after DBD was released and killers were complaining every day and were even doing several strikes for days, refusing to play DBD. But if Devs brings that balance back, I'm fine with it I guess.

If the devs said they where okay with these numbers then so be it, what good is complaining?

pseudechis

@crogers271 said:

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/3191587#Comment_3191587

I want touch on your points of theme and the threat of elimination making the game interesting.

As a goal, that's absolutely true (I agree its something the game should shoot for). The problem is that DBD doesn't actually accomplish it that frequently and the kill rates are a bad indicator.

No horror movie would be interesting if at the 40 minutes mark all the heroes were dead. Horror grabs its excitement from the prospect that a character may or may not escape. Both have to remain true to keep the tension up. When a survivor is out before a gen is even done, a killer is just face camping a hook, or the survivors are just getting stomped, the mood isn't 'oh my god, we might get eliminated' like in a horror movie its 'yeah, this match is done'.

Part of the issue is that if this was mirroring the horror theme 4k and 4 escapes would both be rare events, with the middle being much more common. Except its usually 4k, 1k, or 0k. Now as a purely competitive game, having either side completely win or lose, with middling results being rare, is perfectly acceptable, but it doesn't actually match the theme.

You make a fair point.

I wouldn't want it to be a killer curb stomp every game either.

I also agree that overall kill rates are a rather poor statistic to base much on other than an interesting side note. Relative stats say more than blanket stats, but we don't really have those.

Even with this in mind, you'd probably still want to see a slight killer bias in outcome, as it demonstrates at least on a surface level that the games primary threat is real and has a tangible impact on games.

I'd say the sweet spot for DBD would be median range that lay within a 2K-2E to 3K-1E predicted outcome.

One death should be pretty typical, in fact almost expected, so the ever present threat of elimination is tangible but 1-2 escapes is not out of the realm of possibility, making escape a realistic outcome but also a high stakes reward that may pit the survivors against each other at some point too.

Like a real survival horror.

I guess the goal is to attenuate the snowball effect that happens, often very rapidly, when one side starts to overtake the other.

How they go about that... well I'm not sure, it all sounds good on paper but how to put it into practice??

Maybe progressive mechanics that change based on player objective i.e as gens get done killers gets stronger as the entity angers like a built in fire up, while as survivors die their team mates are emboldened to escape out of desperation, making faster gen repairs or maybe easier skill checks, shorter debuff durations etc. Maybe?

danielmaster87

@Hoodied said:

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/3191474#Comment_3191474

This is the first time i’ve heard someone use “competitive” for dbd

Get used to it. We're a mostly competitive community, whether the devs meant for it to be a party game or not. They're all over the place with their balancing, sometimes balancing for high level and sometimes balancing for casuals. Sometimes casuals want to talk about balance while also claiming to be casual, and that's what causes problems: people who don't understand the game deciding what's balanced and what isn't. Side rant aside, this is a competitive game. It's not balanced for eSports but it should be.