This game's update direction feels soley Survivor-focused
I started playing DBD in October, so forgive me if I am unaware of some year-long context, but from what have seen so far it seem like changes to the game are approached from a pure Survivor viewpoint, almost as if playing Survivor was seen as the normal way to play the game with playing Killer as some secondary mode.
I want to make clear that everything I am going to say is about game feel, not balance.
One thing that a noticed pretty early on was that when a Killer would hit a Survivor a short time after they were unhooked the Survivor was protected by an additional effect, fair enough. But then I noticed that when I was playing Killer, unhooked Survivors would intentionally run into me to block me from chasing the unhooker, which seemed pretty unfair to me, after all they were using something that was supposed to keep them from being oppressed, to aggressively protect another player, in a way that left me with no counterplay.
Then later while researching gameplay mechanics, I learned that I hasn't always been like that, originally, Survivors could be downed directly after being unhooked, something that many Survivor-players understandably saw as opressive, while from a win oriented Killer's viewpoint it was the optimal thing to do, after all an already injured Survivor was an easier target and also closer to sacrifice after already have been hooked.
Now the Devs agreed with the Survivors, but instead of adressing the problem at its core, the specifics of the injure-down-hook-unhook-sacrifice-mechanic, they turned what was formerly a Perk into a basekit Survivor ability. There was a situation that had both sides having legitimate causes and it was resolved by buffing Survivors without addressing the way this could be used as an oppressive tactic against Killers.
It didn't seem fair, but it was how the game had always been to me, so I didn't really mind.
Then still later I noticed that the majority of Survivors in my games both as Survivor and as Killer were toxic towards the Killer, waiting at the exit gates in a 100% save spot just to tea bag when the Killer apporached them or going into a game with their friends without actually playing to win, instead just stunning the Killer over and over again.
This is where the cracks appeared; why was a behaviour from Killers that, while unfun to the receiving Survivor, was in the end purely a efficient playstyle from the Killers point of view, worthy of a buff for Survivors, even if it means enabling an unfun tactic against Killers in return, but Survivors going out of their way to harass Killers wasn't adressed?
But I thought: "Maybe it's an ongoing process, maybe the next update will adress your issues."
Then the next Update hit the PTB: to adress slugging, admittedly the one pure "harassment over efficiency" tactic avaible to Killers, it was planned to give Survivors not only another strong perk as basekit, but to actually make it even stronger in the process, a change that would not only punish slugging, but go as far as punishing Killers for not immediately picking up Survivors, ignoring all the many legitimate situation where it would be simply stupid for the Killer to pick up a downed Survivor immediately, not to mention Killers who actually had downing Survivors without being near them as part of their gameplan.
Now of course, this was from the beginning pitched as an experiment, with no plans to hit live servers, but it still shocked me that a change, that would so massivly punish one side to adress a comparatively small issue for the other, was even considered.
This brings me to the current PTB patch; again a change that is a buff to Survivors in general. While the motivation behind it is understandable, it is still disheartening that the effect that this change will has on Killers is treated as an afterthought. It was stated, that if this change will affect kill percentages there will be adjustments, but honestly, how is there even an "if"? This is a buff to Survivors and it is intended as such, the only way how it could not affect kill, and therefore Killer success, rates, is if Killers adept an even more efficiency focused playstyle to compensate.
Why is Survivor satification important enough to upset the entire games balance over it, but Killer satification is reduced to win statistics? Killer players aren't bots who will be happy as long as enough Survivors die, we are also playing this game to have fun, but the direction and motivation behind the changes to this game that I have witnessed make me fear, that there is a, perhaps unintentional, philosophy towards "Survivors play, Killers perform".
Statistcal unevenness can destroy fun, but evenness doesn't guarantee it. In the end a fun game, no matter what the statistics say, is a better one than one that is fair on paper but sacrifices fun.
A game needs a healthy balance, but balance can't be healthy if one side is measured in fun while the other is measured in efficiency.
I love DBD, but the updates that I saw since I started playing make me fear that, whenever I will still love it three monthes from now it will be by chance rather than design.
Comments
yes, and the only reason you got that overpowered is because survivors cant handle not surviving, it took the game dying for that to change