How do you determine what should be an add-on and what should be base kit?
I've been musing over ideas for how to buff Trapper, but I sometimes question if an idea would be better as an add-on or part of his base kit.
Yes, some things are obviously better as base-kit and others are obviously better as add-ons. In its simplest form, base kit powers should be strong enough to be competitive, and add-ons should offer some fun, some variety, and some spiciness to a match.
But sometimes, the line is a little blurry. So what do you think? When the line is blurry, what should be considered to determine if something should be base kit or an add-on? Clearly, this is subjective. There's always a lot of debate on if a particular add-on should instead be base kit, but what do you think?
Comments
If an add-on changes or enhances a playstyle, or just buffs the killer to a greater level, it should probably remain an add-on. However, if an add-on simply feels like a quality of life addition, as in it doesn't considerably buff the killer in a huge meaningful way, but simply feels better overall to play with in terms of the smoothness of using the power, then it could probably be a base-kit change as it wouldn't make the killer any stronger.
this sounds like a question for the devs but i agree with Remediast, some add ons are just a necessity like toy sword for twins and glue thingy for pig that makes her charge her dash 50% faster (or old trapper bag but that became base kit already), to the extent that i won't ever play those killers without said add ons. so i think base kit powers shouldn't feel horrible to play, that would be my line on making stuff base kit or an add on.
I feel like that metric is a bit too binary though. Sometimes a killer really ought to just have the strength of a powerful addon baked, at least partially, into their base kit.
It’s hard to apply a general rule to this as that’s something that should be decided more on a killer-by-killer basis imo.
(devs, please give Deathslinger modified ammo belt basekit and give Dredge half of haddie’s calendar basekit, thanks in advance)
Oh for sure, the quality of life aspect goes into that as well. Like for example, one add-on might make a killer much stronger than before, but they may feel powerless to play without it. So some add-ons could actually be nerfed a little bit, but have part of their effect added onto the killer as base-kit. This actually happened with Deathslinger when his ADS movement speed got buffed, but his ADS movent speed increasing add-ons got nerfed (however, they got nerfed to the point where they barely change anything when equipped).
The degree to which the killer needs it to do well. You're shooting yourself in the foot by playing Huntress without Babushka or Doctor without shock delay reduction add-ons, so those would be good to make base. It's not as if, with this idea, you'd be getting Swift Hunt or Alchemist's Ring base. Just the necessities.
for me, range add-on is more important on doctor. I agree with wind-up on huntress. I think core stats should be base-line. Its just that if power is good at base-line, bad survivors struggle vs the power and complain about the ability being too effective. unfun to play against and so on.
If we meditate on the practical impossibility, it is voice chat.
This is because voice chat SWF makes the game significantly more difficult to balance. If everyone were voice chat SWF (or if everyone were not voice chat SWF), it would be much easier to balance the game.
... Um, sorry if this is not the answer you were looking for.
In fact, I'm hoping for an adjustment similar to what the developers have done in the past with the Ghostface shroud cool time add-on.
Add-ons that are so dependent on it that they are unplayable without it can be partially reduced from as a base kit to add-on values.
For me, killers should be addon relied, either QoL or buffing, changing play style should not be addon (Shape's mirror addons for example)
QoL addon should not be "silent setting traps" or "+1 trap" or "setting trap slightly faster". QoL addon should have at least 2 benefits, its not about the addon cost, its about addon slot. An addon that cost 10k BP for "silent setting traps" & "setting trap slightly faster", is far better than wasting both addon slot for 6k BP
Buffing addon should have lower rarity, for cheaper price, but the price is already much cheaper though, the problem is having too many cluster "QoL" addons
I think Wesker is a perfect example of how addons should be
He has several addons that tweak how his power works, not to a huge degree but enough to change how he's played
E.g
He has an addon that makes his first dash shorter but his second one longer and vice versa. Addons that add small buffs to situational aspeccts of his power such as how far you can throw a survivor or how long the period between your bounds is.
A couple of addons that could be considered small QOL buffs but aren't too big to completely change his power's strength such as the one that increases movement speed while holding a bound or the one that simply decreases his power's cooldown by 10%