Ideas on how to improve the game and reduce tunneling (Reposted)

Triserpient

Sorry, my OP was deleted because i posted before i confirmed my email 😅. This account is new as i dont remember my old account. Sorry again for the inconvinience, i saw that people had alredy commented i had alredy respondend but then the post dissapeared. I will try to add extra info and correct some things from the OP.

The amount of people concerned about game balance and tunneling has increased, which I think is good and necessary to improve the game. After watching Otzdarva's video talking about the future of tunneling I decided to post some of the ideas that I have been thinking to improve DBD and make it more enjoyable for both the killer and the survivors. In my opinion, these are the changes that the game needs to be more balanced and fun.

Tunneling:

The 3 hook rule: Currently if the killer hooks a survivor 3 times in a row the survivor immediately dies, this mechanic makes tunneling more appealing. How do you solve this? Remove the 3 hook rule. Now it doesn't matter how many times the killer hooks a survivor, only the time the survivor has spent on the hook (The hook timer will need to be adjusted after this change). The killer can still hook the same survivor again and again but it won't be as effective to tunnel as before. Of course this is a massive buff to survivors that's why we have to make other changes to make it fair.

Survivors that are unhooked will be granted endurance but also some kind of deep wound state that forces them to spend more time healing before going back to repair. This will also make chasing the unhooker more appealing for the killer in order to have two people doing nothing to contribute to the gen progress. There is also the hidden benefit of some perks that give the killer advantages for hooking survivors multiple times like Pain Ress that can now be used limitless.

Hooked survivors will not longer be able to try to escape from the hook without perks*. Perks that grant you escapes from the hook will be modified to have synergy with the new mechanic.Also the struggle phase will now only activate during the endgame, to avoid people killing themselves early.

Endgame:

After generators had been repaired the game became a race to the exit gates and there is little the killer can do to stop the survivors if all 4 of them have survived this long. The only choice the killer had is to kill one of them before this happened. To change this and give more flavor to the endgame I will propose some changes:

• Entity Summoned: After all gens have been repaired survivors that had their hook timer below half will die the next time they are hooked. This will make the endgame more dangerous for survivors and more rewarding for killers if they have hooked multiple survivors. (The percentage doesn't necessarily need to be below half, it's just an idea that should be tested).
• Gate key:: A chess will spawn in the map at the beginning of the trial. Inside this chess there will be a key necessary to activate the gates (individually). Survivors can look for the chess and loot the key at any point in the game. Once a survivor has found the chess and looted the key a symbol will appear next to the survivor icon in the hud (visible only for survivors). If the survivor dies or drops the key its aura will be revealed to other survivors.
• Escape at all cost: In order to give survivors an extra chance of escape in late game the endurance state upon being unhooked will also be granted during endgame. *Also, survivors will be granted the possibility of trying to unhook themselves if they are hooked during the endgame. This will reduce the time bar for each failed attempt but at a lower rate than before.

Perks: 

Now, some perks will have synergies with the new mechanics therefore they have to be modified, these are the perks I think will be most affected by the changes and the ideas I have for them.

• Deliverance: This perk will work now using tokens. You start with a free token and gain more each time you unhook a different survivor, meaning you can only use this perk a maximum of 4 times.
• Kinship: Kinship will work the same as now during the endgame. During the match it will slow the progress of the hook as long as the killer is in a 20 meter radius.
• Off the record: With these changes off the record will no longer require the endurance effect modifier. The other effects from the perk will remain the same (This will make the perk as before the update).
• Slippery Meat: This perk will grant you an extra chance to escape the hook during endgame and also reduce the penalty for failed attempts.
• Grim Embrace: It should be possible to activate this perk more than once under certain conditions.

Conclusion:

I know that these ideas won't solve every single problem that DBD may have and some major issues are not even addressed by it (Large maps, RNG, balance between killers…) but I think that it will create the opportunity to modify other aspects of the game.

Consequences of these changes:

• Less pressure on the killers to kill survivors early as they will have less incentives to do so.
• More gameplay mechanics for the endgame that add some flavor to the game.
• Longer games for survivors as there will be less chances of people being killed early on.
• Room to modify and create new perks that have good synergy with these changes and encourage the killers to hook multiple survivors.
• No more survivors killing themselves in early game and leaving the team crippled. They can still dc but I don't think any change can fix that.

PD: I want to see what you think of this idea so please leave a comment with your opinion and modifications/changes you think would fit better. Also there are a lot of perks that will be indirectly affected by these changes so if you think of any buff or nerf that will happen please tell.

PD2: I am not a native English speaker so it is possible that some expressions and idioms won't be clear or even make no sense. Please if that's the case feel free to tell me so I can correct them.