Don't even think about buffing SoloQ until...
You have addressed SWF and/or buffed killer so that it can pressure survivors on most of the maps.
Buffing SoloQ efficiency to near SWF level without giving universal killer buffs is how you make this killer player count gone by 50 %.
And no - don't say that "killer buffs will come next". Knowing BHVR, that could take anything from 6 months to 5 years.
So no, either release killer buffs on the same patch or don't buff SoloQ at all.
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I thought the point of filters/nvidia or amd settings was just that the game offers terrible settings to change graphics or unlock basic stuff like v-sync or anti-aliasing. The game even used to have anti-aliasing options before they actually removed it. According to a Q and A video they even removed it on accident but promised to bring back the anti-aliasing option, didn't happen until now.
I mean sure you can say that they intend the game to look in specific way they consider best and most balanced, but when we look at the lighting in some areas for example the main buildingin garden of joy that just does not work out.
I agree on stretched res though, it gave you an advantage against the killer as you could see him better when you were not supposed to see him at all..
But this point is a crucial difference for me in the entire matter... Stretched res gave you an advantage against the killer... Adding coms just brings solo players closer to SWF that already use communications. By evening out the differences between those two groups of players you get something to balance around, but as long as there is difference in effectivity and communication or information you just have two different groups of players and cannot balance around both.
MMR isn't taking SWFs into account, especially for people that aren't always in a SWF.
Example 1: If 4 players have individual MMRs of 1,200 and they all join into the same SWF, their SWF MMR would be 1,200 even though they have extra advantages for being in a SWF
Example 2: If 4 players are at the soft MMR cap and they all join into the same SWF, their SWF MMR is calculated at the soft cap even though they have extra advantages for being in a SWF
If 4 people always play in a SWF, then they will escape more, which will increase their collective MMR's, which will give them a higher combined MMR than solo players who don't escape as much.
MMR is based on averages, data gathered across several games, it cannot gauge the effect of any single game, not least because of match making issues like lobby dodges and off-peak queue times.
You simply can't penalise people just for playing with their friends.
What if I joined a lobby with one of my friends, who also happened to randomly join with one of their random friends. Perhaps we don't know each other, maybe we're just randoms who added each other after one decent game. None of us are on voice, or maybe two of us are, but there's four players in the pre-lobby. Should we get an MMR penalty for queuing up together?
Now if we're consistently playing with each other, learning each others tactics and behaviours, learning to coordinate, becoming familiar enough to communicate via voice. Well then there might be an argument for boosting our MMR. Guess what? That's exactly what MMR already does.
Killers already received a bunch of buffs in the 6.1.0 update. This caused solo queue to become rougher than it was before, which is why more people talk about buffing solo queue than abut buffing killers.
Balance changes don't happen all at once. BHVR has to balance this game step by step. Killers already received a bunch of buffs, now it's the survivors turn. And then, after that, BHVR can see what the next step is. If they really wanted to help killers out more after that, and in a proper way, they would have to look at maps anyways, but it seems like they still haven't fully understood how to properly balance maps.
Yes adding comms does just bring solo players closer to SWF level, that I'm not arguing. I'm not saying voice comms wouldn't close the gap between SWF and solo a bit.
What I'm saying is, it will set a precedent by the nature of being the default state of the game. Instead of the default being no voice, the default will be voice comms. This will exclude solo survivors who do not wish to use voice drastically moreso than they already are. To the point where people will likely dodge lobbies if they end up with 'non-talkers', because of how advantageous voice communication can be.
Players who speak other languages. Players who have social anxiety. Players who simply don't want to listen to a bunch of 13yo's shout racist, homophobic and misogynistic slurs while they play their atmospheric horror game. Players who are trying to focus on the game sounds instead of random Steve 300 miles away screeching interference down his broken microphone.
What's more, is that voice comms provide much more advantage to players who already want to coordinate. People speak to people they want to speak to. SWF aren't better than solos JUST because they have voice comms, they're better because they're players who are trying to coordinate, who are trying to work as a team. This mindset and behaviour is as, if not more, important than voice comms, and any other way of communicating what you need to say will be just as effective. Things like preset chat messages, a ping system, action icons, etc. would close the gap between SWF and solo just as much as voice comms would, because either of them will only close the gap so far, as the rest needs to be made up by the individuals willingness to work as a team anyway.
Also, filters can be just as broken as stretched res. There are filters out that they make pools of blood and faint scratch marks like up like fireworks, and make otherwise hidden killers glow like a neon sign. Information that gives an advantage.
It's not penalizing people for playing with their friends. It's balancing for the extra advantages people get for being in a SWF.
These advantages are not guaranteed, only potential.
Some SWF groups do not play with voice comms. How did you not get that from my post?
Some SWF groups play worse together than solo. I'm an example. I do far better solo because my friends are chosen because they're my friends, not because they're good at DBD. The amount of ######### talk I have to wade through to get any info out of them is incredible, and most games we just end up dicking about and getting each other killed. But I'd rather lose with them than win without them, most of the time.
Forcing me and my friends to play against sweaty Nurses just because we queued up together is penalising me for playing with my friends.
Your 61% kill rate means nothing, it's your personal kill rate. Others might have 80%, or 40%. Furthermore, it's an average across all MMR brackets. Its meaningless to players.
When people complain that solo q needs buffs, you should tell them that solo q shouldn't get buffs, because you think SWFs have practically the same performance level as solo q.
You're brilliant at twisting peoples words.
What do you not understand about this sentence? "These advantages are not guaranteed, only potential."
guarantee
/ɡar(ə)nˈtiː/
potential
/pə(ʊ)ˈtɛnʃ(ə)l/
Solo queue does need buffs, but not discrete performance buffs, because SWF isn't a discrete performance buff, SWF is merely a potential for better coordination. SWF do better than solos on average, not all the time.
So Solo survivors need QoL enhancements, that improve their potential for better coordination.
Things like:
Preset chat options. So you can communicate key info and certain times.
Some kind of ping system. Limited, so not like auras, but should allow you to locate other survivors in certain circumstances.
Action icons over portraits to show what team mates are doing.
The ability to view other survivors load outs. So that you can plan around your team mates perks.
All of these things would help solo survivors, and indeed help badly coordinated SWF groups a bit too, but their use would be limited and even superfluous in well-coordinated SWF groups.
By that logic, we shouldn't nerf Blight and Nurse, because they only have the potential to be good killers, and there are a lot of people that are garbage with them.
And that is the problem with trying to sidestep balance by arguing about potential. Pretty much everything in the game works on potential, because there will always be people that won't use things to their potential.
Those things aren't even remotely comparable. A bad Blight or Nurse is already penalised by being a bad Blight or Nurse. And a killers MMR is solely applicable to them rather than a team, so a good Blight/Nurse will already be penalised by a high MMR.
There are ways to bring solo survivors up to SWF levels without penalising those who want to play with their friends.
What's more, is you will just get lobby dodging all over again. Before we had the option to SWF, survivors would lobby dodge until they ended up in the same lobby. A SWF group could just time their 'ready' together and try to get into the same lobby, and bypass their MMR penalty you're suggesting. These days there are even scripts you can run to put you into lobbies with certain players.
If you think one person's anecdote has any connection to an average taken from thousands of different players, I don't even know where to start with educating you.
There are players with 90% kill rates. That is a fact.
What does that do to your averages?
You're not understanding at all. Please go back and read the post I quoted.
I never said the average kill rate among all killers across all MMR brackets isn't 61%.
I said it's meaningless to draw any conclusions from that figure, because it's an average kill rate among all killers across all MMR brackets.
Tell me: What is the average kill rate among all killers at the highest MMR bracket (top ~7%)? What is the kill rate among all killers at the lowest MMR bracket (bottom ~7%)? Why are they different? Which killers come out one top at the highest bracket compared to the lowest bracket? Why?
The devs have stated many times they have no intention to add Voice Chat to DBD. Among their reasons is the availability of Discord and other similar 3rd party options, and the language barrier between regions and within countries.
To that I'd add I bet they do not want to have to moderate such a chat either.
Whether these are good reasons is up for debate.
Are there ways to buff solo to SWF levels without affecting the average escape rate? Because BHVR is looking to maintain a specific range of escape rates, so if solo q is buffed, other changes would need to be made to bring the escape rate back down. And you might have noticed these forums are filled to the brim with suggestions on how to buff survivors, but very little explanations on how killers should be buffed, and survivors as a whole should be nerfed, to compensate for these solo q buffs.
And BHVR could just implement anti lobby dodging tactics, like random matchmaking delays. Or the game can try to purposely avoid matching players that have already played together in the past 30 days, so lobby dodging won't be as effective repeatedly.
its going to buff survivor by survivor playing a lot better. the changes that would bring escape rate down would be buffing specific killer power that under perform. for example billy could have his old add-on back that made him a lot stronger at loops with curving though how a killer improves will vary from killer to killer.