Hatch mechanic is unhealthy for the game
(TLDR at the bottom, if you prefer to skip the essay)
The hatch escape spawns whenever there is 1 survivor left in the trial. It's there to create a forced end to the match, to avoid hostage situations. The survivor jumps into the hatch to end the match or the killer closes the hatch to start a 2 minute Endgame Collapse timer. During which the survivor either gets killed by the entity or ends the match by escaping through one of the two doors.
It used to only spawn with 3 generators left to repair, with 1 survivor alive (lets ignore the old key situations). But this created a problem where the match would enter a stalemate. A survivor had to potentially repair 2 generators, while being the only survivor left in the trial. This created an awkward situation, because you couldn't repair these generators while getting chased. To combat this, the developers made the hatch spawn guaranteed, no matter the generator progress. So with this all problems are fixed, right? Well... no.
The following problems (still) exist:
- Instead of 1 survivor going into hiding mode at the end, you now have situations where the last 2 survivors will hide and wait for the other survivor to die. This can happen when both survivors know the game is over, but refuse to repair generators. As a killer you now spend lots of time roaming around the edges of the map looking for survivors, hide-and-seek style. This can take so long where you go in circles, check every locker, run circles around rocks and check basement. Why is this still a thing...
For AFK players we have a nice feature called "idle crows". They will start spawning when a survivor has been idle for 1 minute. Could such feature also be implemented for situations where 2 survivors remain?
'After not gaining X amount of points in the objective/altruism category for X amount of time the killer will see killer instinct on this survivor for X amount of time?'
As this could be seen as "not participating in normal gameplay". Like holding a 3-gen to keep the game hostage. Hiding for the hatch at the end feels the same, but then for the person playing killer. Show killer instict, keep the game flowing.
- Killer slugging the 3rd survivor to get the 4th. The only way to stop the hatch from spawning is by keeping 2 survivors alive. We all know these games where you are just lying on the ground bleeding out for 4 minutes because the killer is trying to get 4 kills. Letting someone escape for free, especially when you kept the survivors from completing a single generator, can feel very unfair. Now if you don't want to lose to a RNG based hatch escape you might feel the need to slug the 3rd survivor. This is a very boring and awkward way to end the match, all because the hatch exists.
- Killers waiting on top of the hatch. Now with hatch grabs being gone you can still have a situation where the killer refuses to close the hatch (yes, super funny, Wraiths). They will just stand on top of it and wait. Only difference now is you can repair a generator to force the killer to act. Only problem is by doing this you give away your location, where you end up dying anyways. Doesn't feel very interactive.
- Killers making the 3rd survivor wiggle off over and over to try and make them rat out the last survivor. These killers will keep the survivor hostage by dropping them over and over so they wiggle out. They will keep them hostage until they rat out the last survivor who's hiding. This only happens because the hatch exists. It creates, in my opinion, a toxic environment.
- Hatch feels very cheap. You can play out of your mind as killer and get 3 kills before a generator turns on. Now if you don't want to give the last survivor a potential free escape, you have to slug the 3rd survivor. It's boring for both sides, but if you decide not to slug you have games where the hatch spawns on the last survivor resulting in some nice abuse in end-game chat. Giving wins away for free, purely based on RNG is in my opinion not the way to go.
- Gates! After closing the hatch! You finally close the hatch.... oh RNG GATES! So not only did you stop the survivors from completing their objective, you also find and close the RNG hatch first, now you have to pray for good RNG on the gates. If a survivor team struggles, they shouldn't be given so many free handouts. Yes, I understand a game should have a forced end, but why does the losing side get free candy? When a killer gets 0 kills at the end they also don't get a random kill from the entity.
- Having said this, it can also work the other way around. Where you play well as a survivor, but your team dies, and the killer finds the hatch first. And now you get 2 gates basically next to eachother. Where the killer just stands in between them and you're forced to die. There's no real interaction during these endgames. It all feels very awkward and clunky.
- No interaction between the two roles during endgame. You both run around the map hoping for RNG to be on your side and after the hatch is closed you hope for the same thing again. Now you have an awkward ending where the killer is walking back and forth between 2 gates for 2 minutes. If the gates are close to eachother, the killer gets the 4th kill. And if the gates are far away from eachother, most likely the survivor will escape. Sometimes you don't even see eachother, it feels very awkward to play.
TLDR:
- Two survivors hiding when the game is lost, waiting for the other to die. So they can go for hatch.
- Killers slugging the 3rd survivor to get the 4th survivor.
- Killers waiting on top of the hatch.
- Killers keeping the third survivor hostage to try and make them rat out the last hiding survivor. They will do this by dropping the 3rd survivor over and over until they wiggle out. They will keep this survivor hostage until this survivor decides to rat out the last survivor. And if the survivor decides not to do this they will be kept hostage until the killer is forced to kill them.
- Hatch feels like a cheap escape. From my experience, people who get an unfair hatch escape at the end are very toxic in end-game chat. This could be because they know it is, and want to rub it in your face.
- RNG Gates on top of the RNG Hatch.
- Hatch/EGC Gates offer no real interaction between killer and survivor. You're both just running circles hoping for RNG to be on your side. Once the hatch is closed you hope the same thing again. Very awkward and clunky, you sometimes don't even see eachother.
Will there be a moment somewhere in the feature where we could expect a new concept for the endgame? Has someone thought about one, is there an idea floating around? One which includes more interaction between the two roles? Which feels more satisfying for both killer and survivor? The current endgame situation creates, in my opinion, toxicity and awkward scenarios.
Comments
First off: guys they never said remove hatch. If you want to leave hatch in and fix some of the problems (like the 2 survivor stand-off) then that'd be a step in the right direction.
Saying "it's good enough for me" crossing your arms and brushing the problems under the rug is one reason why a lot of the issues in the game don't get fixed.
The reveal/instinct/crow mechanic after 2 survivors are left and haven't progressed the objective sound like a good step imo. Just make sure there's a minimum gen% requirement because otherwise survivors will just tap a gen for 0.2 seconds and get off to reset their timer.
Yo! This is what i always thought as a possible solution even for tunelling. To make it more strategic and not a braindead solution for killers who just want the easy way, you buff the remaining survivors, like Propnight used to do. In that way even if you are alone you can still manage to repair gens. The game stop feeling so stale if you loose a teammate at 5 gens and with the repairing buffs you still have a chance to make it.
the hatch mechanic doesn't force you to slug for a 4k. if you came to this conclusion after 4k hours, you're literally just incorrect. you can get 4ks without slugging. if you have to slug to get 4ks, you're just not as good as you think you are. sorry. very rarely in the forums do you see objectively incorrect things because it's a bunch of subjectivity in here, but what you've said is literally objectively incorrect. if you're only getting 3ks because you feel the only way to 4k is through slugging for hatch gameplay, it is a skill issue on your part, pal.
You're not wrong in saying its not forced upon the killer, you can get a 4K with hatch in play.
But saying it's a "skill issue" is silly imo. You have to get lucky with hatch and then get lucky with gates. Neither of those are skillful. Either you get lucky or you don't. Only certain killers are able to increase their odds with the gates.
Slugging for the 4K is also up to luck. You have to hope to find the last survivor in whatever random location they decided to hide in or that they run in for the pickup and you catch them doing it. It just maximizes your odds compared to the alternatives. It's the best gamble. There's no reason not to take it unless you personally don't like it or don't want to.
None of these situations feel great imo. On either side. Dying or losing a kill just because you got bad gate/hatch RNG sucks, having this super long drawn out endgame because the survivor(s) are excessively hiding also sucks.
Having a survivor reveal mechanic in some form in these situations would at least help with the latter.
no, i genuinely feel if someone admits they have to slug as killer to get a 4k it's a skill issue. i don't care about people who say "oh hatch is rng reliant and not getting a 4k for my challenge kinda sucks so i'd rather slug to guarantee it" those people are just regular players and i don't mind those people.
people who spread misinformation (you HAVE to slug to get a 4k because of hatch) have a skill issue. if these people had gotten a 4k without hatch escape they would know hatch escaping or not hatch escaping as last survivor is just up to luck. in order to have the opinion that you have to slug to get a 4k, you have to have never gotten a 4k before without slugging. which, in my humble opinion, is an immense skill issue.
No amount of skill can guarantee a 4k without some form of slugging, even if it's brief.
Fair enough.
LMAO "if you have to slug to get 4k's, you're just not as good as you think you are"
Yeah this will be my last response to you, as with a comment like that I can tell that I am not dealing with someone who understands the game very well.
However for my last response I would like to inform you that the hatch is part of a common game mechanic known as 'RNG' - that results in the killer has no control over the hatch spawn. However what they can do is to prevent survivors having mobility to search for the hatch and the way to achieve this is to slug them.
The fact I have to explain this shows I am wasting my time replying to you champ.
lol. yeah this guy's definitely right. covering his ears and stopping communication because of how right he is and how wrong i am. xD
you seem like the type of person to be insecure enough to check my response anyways so i'm editing my post and quoting myself because i already went over this but you conveniently ignored it just to be childish in my replies:
"i genuinely feel if someone admits they have to slug as killer to get a 4k it's a skill issue. i don't care about people who say "oh hatch is rng reliant and not getting a 4k for my challenge kinda sucks so i'd rather slug to guarantee it" those people are just regular players and i don't mind those people.
people who spread misinformation (you HAVE to slug to get a 4k because of hatch) have a skill issue. if these people had gotten a 4k without hatch escape they would know hatch escaping or not hatch escaping as last survivor is just up to luck. in order to have the opinion that you have to slug to get a 4k, you have to have never gotten a 4k before without slugging. which, in my humble opinion, is an immense skill issue."
you are arguing against me, when i have always quite blatantly stated, "the hatch *does not force you* to slug for the 4k". if you are disagreeing with that statement, you are objectively incorrect. you can 4k without slugging. if you do not think you can, you just aren't experienced enough with the game.
i do not care about your statements about the hatch being luck reliant. i know it is. that's not what i'm arguing about. i'm not saying killers NEVER lose 4ks because of things out of their control (hatch luck). i am arguing against the belief you HAVE to slug in order to get a 4k, as that is an objectively untrue statement which only seeks to breed negative playstyles by misinforming people. slugging for the 4k is always optional. you can always get 4ks without slugging, as long as you're able to find the hatch before the survivor, or the survivor before they get to the hatch. what you and other people are perpetrating is a "boogeyman" scenario, a made up tale that is just to fearmonger people who don't know better. if you cannot help yourself but spread misinformation after 4k hours of dbd playtime, that's not necessarily a good thing.
No amount of skill should be 'guaranteeing' anything.
If an outcome is guaranteed, the game is broken. That's precisely why survivors are giving up and hiding.
Play for the 4K normally, and if you find the hatch first you win. If you don't, play one more game, it's a 50/50.