Basekit Anti-slugging: thank you and some feedback
I'll start with thank you for basekit anti-slugging. While there are instances that I understand the killer choosing to slug unfortunately more often than not I get the ones that are slugging until bleedout just because they can so this change is very much appreciated.
I think the 45 seconds basekit self pick up is good. 45 seconds is a long time for a survivor to be not doing anything in a match and other survivors refusing to help pick them up are just hurting themselves. Old Self Care that took 32 seconds was called a killer perk because it was "too long for a survivor to not be working on the objective." If 32 seconds was too long and helping the killer then 45 seconds will be even more helpful to the killer if the other survivors choose not to help pick up that survivor faster.
The only issues I see are 1. Hooks and 2. Perks associated with the new anti-slug mechanic. Basekit the 45 second self pick up is fine but hooks and perks associated with it may need to be addressed.
Hooks.
Right now there's two issues with hooks 1. Hook placement and 2. Hooks permanently being destroyed after sacrifice. If there isn't a hook around it makes sense the killer would opt to slug until bleedout instead - especially since SBMM has made only kills matter in MMR.
Hook placement needs to be fixed. This is something that has been complained about since Boil Overs buff - the problem isn't the perk it's the crappy hook placements. There should be guaranteed hooks in areas that would otherwise be a dead zone AND make sure survivors are able to have multiple ways to that hook and can unhook from 3 sides. Many times when a hook has been added the killer is able to block a doorway or even just one side of the survivor and camp the survivor for guaranteed death - it's almost like it wasn't considered that survivors would need to attempt a rescue. If the map doesn't allow for this then rework the map so killers have hooks and survivors can manage unhooks.
Have hooks broken from sacrifice come back after 3 minutes like a hook broken by Breakdown (buff Hangmans Trick to bring them back faster). Hooks being broken permanently by a sacrifice causes dead zones which make the killer feel as though they need to slug until bleedout. Having the hooks be broken after sacrifice for an extended period of time does make the killer need to consider where they are hooking that survivor so they don't have a temporary dead zone but when survivors die on first hook for reasons not the killers fault (rage quit or bad teammates) it shouldn't become a permanent dead zone for the killer.
Perks Associated with Anti-Slugging
Right now I see alot scared about perks increasing the ability to pick yourself up faster than the 45 seconds. I think faster self pick up should be capped at 22.5 seconds, so either the perks don't stack for faster self pick up OR they only do a max of 20% each so they can't go over 100% if someone runs 4 perks plus teammate with a boon.
The perks themselves shouldn't give an unlimited increase in faster self pick up unless they also have a downside. Unbreakable shouldn't be unlimited faster self pick up since it's a one time use currently - have one time you can pick yourself up faster but rest of time you can only speed up recover to find help for teammates to pick you up faster, after that one time use you're locked into 45 seconds. Soul Guard should continue to require being hexed for unlimited faster self pick up. No Mither should continue requiring being broken for entire match for a faster self pick up. The basekit anti-slug is fine, it's just the perks that will need tweaking.
Thank you again for adding the anti-slug mechanic. I was very happy and surprised to see that is something planned to come to the game on the near future.
Comments
This isn't basekit anti-slugging. It was a fix to allow the new Mori system to work, because without basekit Unbreakable the game would shift from hooks to slugs as the main objective of the killer.
It in fact encourages "slugging for the 4K" even more:
An actual anti-slugging mechanic would be if the activation conditions of these two features were switched.
If when and only when all survivors are hooked/downed/sacrificed, then survivors or at least one survivor has the ability to pick themselves back up, then slugging would be a dead mechanic, because it would be literally impossible to keep every survivor on the ground at once.
Instead what we have is "slugging every survivor" as a new goal for killers, and the easiest way to win a game, with basekit Unbreakable implemented as a minor handicap to make that task a little harder.
The slugging for the 4k becomes less effective and more effort because the slug can pick themself up. If the killer leaves to go find the other survivor the slug can pick themself up then hop on a gen on one side of the map while the other survivor stays by gens on other side. Being able to split up and be on separate gens increases the chances of the survivors being able to complete the final gen if the killer tries slugging for the 4k. If the killer decides to stay by the slugged survivor the other survivor can finish their gen, open a door, and help the other survivor escape or just escape by themself. Removing the need for the last 2 survivors to be near eachother makes slugging for 4k less successful. The killer has a higher risk of having 2 escape instead of just 1 escaping via hatch if they try slugging for the 4k with the basekit anti-slugging and it makes slugging for 4k take way more effort than it currently does. They're better off just hooking the survivor instead of slugging them.
The finale mori also ends killers slugging last survivor for 3 minutes 59 seconds and then either picking them up to carry to hook and have survivor sit through hook animation or killing survivor with a mori and having them sit through that animation to waste more of the survivors time just because they can.
I'm happy they're adding an anti-slug mechanic that prevents me from being slugged at 5 gens just because the killer wants to use a survivor as bait for 4 minutes at 5 gens, especially if they're running Knock Out where my teammates have no idea where I am. My teammates now can just focus on gens if the killer is refusing to hook survivors.