The Entity (Game) director
I thought about something like this after I remembered how left 4 dead had a game director (an AI) that would make the game easier or harder depending on how well the game was going for the player. If the player was doing extremely well the game director would spawn more enemies and make ammo and med kits spawn less, if the player was doing super bad more ammo and med kits would spawn, and so on...
This idea came to me to try to help killers who are struggling against good survivors and since the entity is supposed to help the killer it kinda fits a little bit within the lore, I guess? So how about having a Entity (game) director here? Here's a few ideas I had about how this could work.
Instead of having just 2 exit gates the map can have 4 exit gates, 1 on each side of the map, however only 2 will become active (survivors will only be able to open 2 of the gates as always) but the game director will choose which 2 doors will be the ones that will become active, if the killer is struggling then the director can choose to make the 2 active gates be the ones that are closer to one another, this could help the killer have more interaction with survivors at the final stages of the match. If survivors are doing extremely bad then maybe the 2 exit gates that become active will be the ones that are on opposite sides of the map.
Another example: Lets suppose survivors are doing extremely well, the game director can help the killer by spawning extra scourge hooks, or block a few windows. This will obviously help the side that is struggling the most. A lot could be done with something like this, a lot of ideas could be implemented, I know devs are not gonna do it but sometimes I wonder if the game would be a little bit more balanced if a game director was implemented.
Comments
Catch up mechanics have been suggested a lot in the past, but it always boils down to an outcry of "why should I be punished for playing good?" plus a smidgen of "why should they be rewarded for losing the game?".
Personally I think that a catch up mechanic would be awesome, because stompy games are usually not fun for most people, but here we are now.
Catch up mechanics are very volatile in any PvP game. No need for them in DBD imo
If you play bad as killer or survivor you should be punished for your mistakes. It would make the game feel less skill based and unrewarding. Blood lust is a catch up mechanic and feels awful to p,any against since it just gives the killer a down after a set amount of time
Not like it’s op or anything just annoying
With L4D things that are farther along in the map haven't spawned yet, so the game can adjust them based on playstyle. There aren't really elements like that in DBD. You mention the exit gates, but that would only apply at the very end of the game as a catch up mechanic. I'm not really opposed to the idea, but if it balances anything it is a very, very late correction.
I'd like catch up mechanics as a part of the game, but recognize that they are really tough to implement/balance.
I think this would be something good to add to the custom bot games, but I don't know how it'd work out for live/public games.