Game Needs Overhaul for New Players
I just watched a TikTok of the experience of a new comer to Dead by Daylight and it's really made me think, the game needs to be overhauled for new players.
Let me start off by saying, I have almost every single Killer Prestige 3 or above (except for 3). I have every single survivor tier 3 perk unlocked n my main. So in no way, is this post about myself.
I think we need to consider the daunting journey of a new player stepping into the world of Dead by Daylight. The game presents an immense learning curve. From understanding game mechanics, grasping the intricacies of hundreds of perks, map layouts, and strategic gameplay, there is an overwhelming amount of information to absorb.
Now, envision the scenario where a brand new player ventures forth. Instead of offering them a balanced selection of perks, we confine them to a solitary perk slot. Furthermore, their options are limited to a handful of lackluster tier 1 perks, devoid of any significant synergy.
This places new players at a considerable disadvantage. By hindering their access to meaningful perk combinations, we inadvertently heighten the already steep learning curve they face.
Especially when they are versing experienced players with more perks. Why are we punishing new players?
A solution to the problem:
Create a bunch of default meta perk loadouts (updated each chapter). Make these available to new players up until Devotion 1.
Comments
while I agree new players have a lot to learn and earn in DBD, i'd say a better tutorial would do the trick. Simply telling survivors how to loop in the regular tutorial and not to run around wasting pallets would be great, along with an explanation of the UI and what the icons mean. If killers were shown how to chase a survivor and that its ok to drop chase, new killers would be better. then there could be an advanced tutorial, teaching survivors some basic tricks like faking and idk vacuuming or smth. Killers could be taught some basic mindgames as well.
New players do have a very limited selection of perks, yes. But a lot of the avaliable perks are very strong. The base survivors contain some of the best perks in the game, or just pretty good ones. Meg is fantastic for new players, SB providing a safety net if caught off guard and adrenaline being itself. Dwight has prove, enough said. Claudettes perks are pretty underrated too. Empathy is a great chase tracker, helps keep everyone healed and gives you great info on where your team is. Botany is the best healing perk behind CoH. Yeah, their all tier one and only have one perk slot. But thats just more incentive to keep playing the game. Hey, you like sprint burst? Well, if you keep playing it'll have a shorter cooldown! And for that same cost, you could use even more perks you like at once. That, and all of the cosmetic options and characters you can earn entirely for free entice new players to keep playing.
After a few matches you can use plenty of good perks in plenty of slots. A very good starter build is SB, adrenaline, inner healing and resilience. 2 of which are universal, the other two belonging to one survivor. So just play meg and you get a rounded build. And if you dont like her, one prestige will only take a couple days of playing to get. Most of the limitations put onto new players exists as reason to keep playing, and to focus more on the gameplay itself. If I could just use a meta build right off the bat, how would I learn how to loop? I could just use Lithe, deliverance, OTR and windows of opportunity to W game me into oblivion with very few consequences thanks to deliverace+OTR.
Thats one reason I dont really like the idea you presented, that new players will begin to crutch on their meta build before even learning how to play properly. And then when that build gets taken away in the next chapter, they are left to play with entirely new perks they probably dont really know how to use. If someone with the build I mentioned before is suddenly forced to use SB, resilience, prove thyself and decisive strike then the perks they loved just got taken away. So instead of seeing lithe on feng and going
"Wow, thats kinda like SB! Seems a lot easier to use though, I wouldnt have to worry about the cooldown not ending before the killer finds me. Cant wait to unlock that. And the same survivor has a pretty good tracking perk? Okay, how long do I need to play to get these perks?"
its something more like
"What? I was just using that build, what do you mean I cant anymore? I really liked it, now I've gotta use something entirely different until I unlock my build again... I dont even like any of the builds they've got this chapter. Ugh, now I've got to grind just to get my build again."
A new player right now formulates their own build based on the perks avaliable to them from the start, instead of a full meta loadout they get to have for a little while that gets taken away. It would also stifle variety, even new players turning to meta perks instead of finding something that they really like themselves. That'd happen eventually yeah, but for the time being we just have another meta survivor that didnt even need to unlock their perks.
Starting out last year, even during the anniversary, was so discouraging. Especially starting out survivor. I started playing with 2 friends, one of which knew the game a little from playing a couple of years before, and they were pretty much the only reason I kept playing. One of them abandoned quickly.
When I got sick of dying on repeat I switched to killer for a nicer time, and only went back to survivor after meeting a couple of new friends in game with who I played customs and survivor (no comms).
The introduction of bots in custom was honestly a godsend. Now we can take turns playing killer and playing among ourselves with all perks available and it's been really fun !