Opinion on the current direction of the game.
I've calmed down a little after reading the upcoming changes, watching the reactions of the Apostles of the Fog and just some experts, and now I'm finally ready to give you a solution.
The easiest thing you can do is to start asking the community and personally Apostles and pro-players about the real value of a particular innovation or recommended direction. For now, your interaction with the community is limited to self-made reward selection, PTB, and reading reviews diagonally. At the same time, you change the digital values over and over again to obscenely high or obscenely low. As if you have absolutely no idea what is actually happening in the game and just bring the Excel file to the average level.
(Who needs a Pyramid egg change anyway? Who tearfully asked for Billy's only playable add-ons to be cut?)
Hence the solution: start to really get into the life of your community. Hold mass voting (separating survivors and killers so that one side does not impose its opinion on the other), communicate with big-name players and content creators, and...
do Not try to stifle the meta. It won't work. There will always be people who, with literal calculators, will calculate the new most efficient way, and thus a new meta will be born.
There are only two ways to destroy the meta:
1) Leave only one way, i.e. one killer with not addons or perks. When there is nothing to compare with, the only option is the best.
2) Make all perks, characters and addons universally good. "When everyone's super no one will be." Something like that.
The choice is yours. For now, you're on the path to "remove everything that's strong". I think (and many will agree) that this will not lead to anything good in the long run.
Thank you for your attention. We all love this game and wish it a long life. Why don't we join forces?
Comments
I very much disagree that the devs are removing everything that is strong. Yes, perks this update are getting hit hard, but we still have plenty of strong perks left. Plus I am not convinced that DH and Pain Resonance won't still be fairly decent after their nerfs.
The only nerf I dislike is the one to CoH, because it takes away the one part of the perk that particularly helped solo survivors. The healing nerf is more than enough already, CoH doesn't need another nerf beyond that.
I think the idea that BHVR has here is good, add some more slowdown to the killers basekit with the healing nerf, so that killers are rewarded more for playing well, and then nerfing the strongest slowdown perks, so they don't do as much work for killers. The execution probably just needs some improvements, especially considering the changes we need additionally, but aren't getting, like a nerf to mangled.
If you left CoH's self-heal in, it would continue to be used in the same way it is now: forgo all other healing perks, just bring Circle of Healing, boon in a corner of the map where there are no generators to fix, and run there to self-heal every time you get injured. Making that take a little longer won't dissuade survivors from doing it, the self-reliance it grants the whole team is simply too good.
Not only was DH limited to a total of 8 successful uses per match, but it once again encourages killers to tunnel. The unhooked will not be able to reset the DH if he immediately engages in a new chase, making him a safe and defenseless option to take out of the game quickly. You know... If you think about it, DH could still be a good perk if BHVR make the upcoming version of it independent of "exhaustion" but with a little cooldown to prevent spam. As a rewarding second chance for altruism.
As for Pain Resonance, believe the killermane, everything is very bad. Fixed-limited perks will never rise above middle, but will most likely sink deep into oblivion. 4 times per game to demolish 15% and not just, but always catching different survivors. Great anti-tunnel strategy, but no, thank you. I'll probably take Jolt instead.
CoH was killed unfairly. In fact, in the general dynamics of the destruction of a second chance and, consequently, a more frequent state of one-shotability, the aura of the needy wounded is good. You're right that solo players will suffer a lot, but the infinite self-healing area was just way too strong. Perhaps it's time to bring back the old statistics of self-care. Healing longer than the generator requires to repair is too painful. Even from a killer mane's point of view.
I believe that it was not necessary to destroy all the healing in general. It was enough to cut the medkits (with half the forse BHVR want to do) and to prevent spam with a totem, put a cooldown on it. And rework Shattered Hope so that it gives some kind of bonus all the time, and not just when you are lucky to meet totem survivors. This would make healing and injury more meaningful, while creating a working countermeasure.
Simple solution: Cooldown to stop spamming and rework Shattered Hope to make this perk more stable. Because if you suddenly get a team without totems, you have one dead slot. Give one perk a cooldown and another a reason to use it more permanently and everything will work great.
Simple solution: Cooldown to stop spamming and rework Shattered Hope to make this perk more stable. Because if you suddenly get a team without totems, you have one dead slot. Give one perk a cooldown and another a reason to use it more permanently and everything will work great.
Well maybe, but that's because it helps solo survivors in particular. Which is why I think it's a very healthy aspect of the perk, and shouldn't be removed.
If they keep nerfing everthing it is a good direction.
But not a lot will get this i fear. Stop the power creep.
DH was never good for anti-tunnel, because it can't be used if you already have the deep wound status effect.
I do not think this change will encourage tunneling a lot. This was definitely the case with the first iteration of background player, but I can't see this being the same.
If it does turn out to encourage tunneling, then the devs can change it so you get dead hard after you get unhooked. Although that could also encourage tunneling, because now if you let the survivor go, that's when they will be able to use DH. Personally, I just think it's good that DH won't be a thing anymore in the killers first chases.
PR I think will still be somewhat decent. It will be strong in the earlier stages of the game, but not so much anymore in the later stages of the game, which is fine, since it's early on when the killer is the weakest. The rework is actually really clever, the only thing they could maybe also do is increase the regression a bit, to 20% for example.
I still think that CoH needs the self healing. The general healing nerf is enough to make that perk not problematic anymore. Self Care however will 100% need a buff. It will take so ridiculously long to heal yourself otherwise. I hope by god that Self Care not being buffed is only an oversight.
I understand why people think only medkit self healing times should have been nerfed, but I still think nerfing healing in general is a good idea. If it's too much, the devs will probably settle for 20 seconds instead of 24. But I think a nerf like this is very good. Again, you have to consider the slowdown perk nerfs with this nerf. The only problem I have with the healing nerf is that not enough other aspects are being changed to compensate for the nerf. I am talking about mangled, Coulrophobia and Pentimento, which all will need to be nerfed. That and camping will also need to be nerfed 100%, or BHVR will be in for a bad surprise.