All these seperate flashlight changes
Why not simply rework the flashlight?
Brightness hasnt really done anything since 1.8.3, and this means that ever since 1.8.3 that a lot of addons on the flashlight are very unimpressive(Odd Bulb blinds for 0.5 seconds longer, but drains the battery much faster, Intense Halogen blinds the killer for 0.4 seconds, but no battery draining, Brightness was the only reason why battery drainage was even needed back in the day).
Flashlights used to be the main way to get killers out of their power. Billy, Nurse, Wraith, Myers and Hag were all weak to flashlights, aka 4/5 killers and Trapper was excluded because his traps could be sabotaged. Now its Nurse, Wraith, Artist, Hag, Ghostface, Myers(Billy's blind was removed, yet Myers still suffers from that weakness) and thats it. It would be nice to blind a camping Bubba who revs to force him into a tantrum for example.
Right now, they are in a very weird spot. They are very useful for flashlight saves, 4 killers that kinda need that weakness and 2 killers who can stalk but arent really in need of having that weakness.
Why not simply revisit the idea that blinding the killer can interrupt their ability if done right, and why not have Brightness affect the ability to affect a killers ability and have that rate be adjustable per killer(it would be extremely mean to have brightness speed up Wraiths burn, but Nurse would be fine with increased lightburns, old Spirit would be quite fine if blinding her husk made her real body appear). This might sound like a lot of work, and it is, but on a long term effect, it makes flashlights more usable other than flashlight saves, and less clickable for attention.
The only argument that needs to be made here would be what would be considered interrupting an ability in the right way? Some examples would be Trapper and a flashbang, or previously mentioned Spirit and Bubba. You could even add a factor with some killers that pulling it off incorrectly would end up aiding the killer(Wraith uncloaking faster, Myers gaining "stalk" whenever blinded outside of stalk).
It would be a refreshing, interactive game of mindgames with some killers, while giving flashlights and especially their addons a much needed change.
Comments
Using flashlight to turn off killer powers is very annoying thing and I wish the existing "counters" to killer powers by flashlight (except for Hag traps) would be removed.
I would not go the opposite direction to buff them. No, thanks. Flashlights can be pretty usefull in right hands allready for saves and now it will be even easier so no.
Thing is, flashlight saves themselves can already be easily countered by facing a wall, if not outright cancelled out by Lightborn. Leaving flashlights themselves with very little use.
As for it being an annoying thing, depends on what is required to turn it off. Like I said, blinding a revving bubba to force him into a tantrum is a good way of looking at it. You as a killer can easily avoid it in that case, but if you dont pay attention(by focussing too much on the hook for example), survivors can pull off a rescue where that otherwise would be impossible.
And again, you would also have to consider what benefits a killer. I would say to uncloak wraith, you could speed up the uncloak if a flashlight is burning nearby and slightly slowdown the uncloak(equal to the speedup) when a flashlight is on him. That way, if the survivor doesnt use the flashlight correctly, you could uncloak up to twice as fast for example. That could actually be a huge buff to Wraith. I always felt that blinding Spirit's husk, making it disappear, should also reveal Spirit again. This was initially so you could remove the terror radius, but blinding the husk simply took too long.
Reworking takes a lot of time, with a lot of considerations. Its not just simply slapping an idea onto a change, and every single killer would need to be looked at what would be a nice benefit for survivors and what would be a nice benefit for killers if survivors mess up(or if killers make survivors mess up).