Hex ingnition
Hi,
I personally think Hexes should only light up when in use, or have their tokens.
Personally, I'm not fond of games where I go full Hex, and undying, thrill, and hope all get destroyed before 3 gens are complete; and it's not down to survivor intuition (like hope had 3 stacks and they need to cleanse the exposed), or they had to find it to progress the game (like Hex: FtD, or Hex: Ruin), it was just luck - they were out in the open, or the spawn had generated one Hex to spawn, lit up, in front of a survivor.
I would recommend, that all Hexes start dull. When the effect/debuff is on the screen and the survivor is aware, a totem lights up. Hex: Plaything, and Hex: FtD are good examples, and I would like this idea of thinking retroactively applied. For example: you work on a gen, and tap it - Hex: Ruin. now this totem is lit, and can be cleansed. Other examples: Hex: Devour Hope, at 1 stack becomes lit, and after a fast vault = HEX: CC - a toten then lights up.
Trap hexes can be lit up all game, or, preferably, something like a 20 second buffer before the totem is selected, this would be intended to stop ones like Hex: HG from being procced when the game has just started.
This could leave some Hexes going undiscovered, for example Hex: Ruin, may never come into play; but then there would be no need to cleanse its totem.
I would suggest if a dull that was previously selected to be ignited with a Hex, but was cleansed beforehand - it should still give the BP for a dull totem, as most likely if the Hex is not in effect (therefore dull) that totem would've been removed regardless of the Killer's build. This extends to perks such as Overzealous not receiving the double repair speed.
TL;DR - when a hex debuff is on the screen of a survivor, only then a totem is ignited, and not all game.
Comments
Hexes are high risk, high reward. Most times they don't last, but it makes, say, those 5-token Devour Hope games even more special.
This change is more aimed at addressing the cleansing of Hex totems before they have an impact, meaning that the Killer's perks matter, and do not get removed within the first couple of seconds of a trail.
This is not an idea to increase the risk of totems by obfuscating their location from survivors as they would only be hidden when not having an effect on the match. This also dismantles the paradigm of them being high risk/reward - if you don't mind me repeating an example: when you spawn and Hex: Haunted Grounds pops when you're heading to where you think the survivors spawned, and there is no other in-game stimuli to where the survivors are in the trail, you have lost a perk. Yes the survivors were exposed, and that would be your high reward - but it leaves you in a state where it cannot be capitalised off. Compare this to Sloppy Butcher low (practically no) risk, mid-to-high reward.
This change will make it so it feels better to run Hexes, as they are safer at the start of the match, where they are most vulnerable, and have had little impact. This is off the back of learning that BHVR are not looking at changing spawn location logic, so picture this change as a fix to give the Killer at least some time to get the build going - just because a 5 stack Devour Hope is special, does not mean it should be a rarity, rather than just spawning on a lit totem, thinking 'If it glows, it goes.' then removing a whole perk before any effect is even felt.
This is exasperated as most Hex builds are 3-4, as you need your trap/protection Hexes. This change would not remove that aspect of totems, so Killer's will still need to run a full Hex build, and not just cram stronger Hexes where Hex: Undying or Hex: Retribution would be. Or worse slotting gen regression in their slots.
Additionally, it could reduce more degenerate totem camping playstyles, like that with Demo defending Devour Hope - which is spurred from them being so vulnerable.