An idea to combat tunneling
So this is going to be quite a massive overhaul to some mechanics, and the idea does need some testing and tweaking, but here it is:
If the killer tunnels a survivor(tunneling being classified as hooking the most recent unhooked survivor before they could use a conspicious action), give them hinderance for X% for X+10 seconds.
X would represent (generators remaining)*10.
I believe this will be neccesary for the sake of discouraging tunneling early on, getting 50% hinderance for 60 seconds at the start of the game means the killer cannot really catch up with any other survivor at all. Especially if its the death hook of a survivor. But that is the punishment the killer would have to endure if they decide to hardcore tunnel early on in the game. This, in my opinion, is a fair punishment considering you have a player practically removing the ability of another player to play. Right now, this is almost 100% beneficial for killers, especially against solo survivors. Having a punishment like this would make solo survivor more fun, while barely impacting games that have casual comms(aka, most games)
The problem starts arising when about 3-4 generators are finished against a powerful survivor group on comms and the killer might need to start tunneling because no one or practically no one is dead on hook, but here is where part 2 kicks in: for each non-tunneled survivor, the killer gains 2% haste outside of chase and 2% vaulting speed. This effect has no cap.
This means that killers close the gap faster and after hooking enough people, vaulting as a killer becomes viable in chase. After hooking everyone once and 1 person twice, this means you have 10% haste outside of chase and 10% vaulting speed. This 10% haste bonus in combination with bloodlust would still make "neccesary" tunneling viable, but only once survivors have had a chance to play the game.
Now, this idea isnt perfect, there are definitely flaws, but I do stand heavily behind the variable hinderance punishment as it would actively discourage tunneling. People could still choose to do so, but there would be consequences.
Also, just a quick addition, I am also of the opinion that there should be more conspicious actions, like taking a protection hit for your teammate(even if they are healthy, making bodyblocking with BT or Off The Record a risk you should be willing to consider, this would also make something like Mettle of Man easier to pull off, but it cant be used to bodyblock without being a conspicious action), rescuing a survivor off the killer's back(it is giving a teammate a healthstate, they were downed, now they are injured. Unhooking, picking up a slugged survivor, healing a teammate are all considered conspicious, yet pallet/flashlight saving a teammate isnt), blinding the killer(kinda an argument to be made here, but at least missing a blind doesnt make it conspicioius, you are actively prohibiting the killer from making progress while your teammates are, Lightborn would make blinds impossible, thus not conspicious actions), and while we're at it, opening chests might be added to this list too. This only leaves stunning the killer through pallets, hopping in lockers, vaulting windows, mending and being healed as non-conspicious actions. This makes it a lot easier for survivors to screw up and be tunneled because they were grabbing an item. So the hinderance effect cannot be abused by survivors.
This is a lot of specifics, but I want to make sure both sides of the playerbase can have fun. Tunneling early on is never fun for survivors, survivors using mechanics meant to give fun to survivors to remove fun for killers is never fun for killers. Again, the idea would need some tweaking to be more fair, as I know for a fact that I am missing a few scenario's where it might not be fair. But I do stand behind the punishment of hinderance being by far the best deterrance for tunneling, while it also benefits lower tier killers who have issues catching up with survivors
EDIT: some wording
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