Deal with Pain Points instead of Nerfing Distortion
Nerfing Distortion is addressing one ways to hide from the killer. Hiding a killer in closer proximity or far away are both covered by Distortion. One of the primary issues with people hiding is when survivors are hiding [in fear?] of the killer, staying far away. While nerfing Distortion will hinder this, those survivors can just hop in and out of lockers. Those survivors probably have easier access to quick and quiet and would be likely to move to that.
I don't think that Distortion working against some perks is a good reason to nerf it. Why? Aura reading perks are more meta than Distortion. You are not shaking up the meta or addressing shortcoming in a perk, but rather just letting complaints sway how the game changes and reinforcing the popularity of some perks. I don't have exact numbers, BHVR has better numbers than I, but from a website, their number showed BBQ & Chili, Lethal Pursuer, and Nowhere to Hide as top 10 in killer perks, so 3 of the 10. While Distortion is just 11th. The advantage of aura reading perks are doing really cool shots or blinks from across the map, or to help give the killer the feeling of omniscience, which doesn't really work with the interplay of survivors or killers, just helping out killers with few counters.
Another reason I don't think Distortion should be nerfed is that Calm Spirit remains untouched because it blanket counters some perks and killer powers. Distortion uses charges and requires recharging by engaging in being near the killer. The reason it isn't being complained about as much is that those effects are less popular: Doctor, Clown, the other half of Friends 'til the End, Dragon's Grip, Hex: Face the Darkness, etc. I'm not sure if it is meant to do this on purpose, but it counters a stronger effect, since auras don't interrupt actions, but screaming does.
A final reason is Distortion helps people who are not in a SWF. People in a SWF can communicate about what they are doing when the killer shows up, letting them work around whichever aura perk the killer has by doing things such as hopping in a locker. Distortion helps bridge this gap in knowledge for solo survivors.
My first suggestion: change the way crows are accrued. AFK crows are a way to keep players playing. Instead of removing the timer when you swap between lockers, pause the timer until an action that changes the indicator by your portrait on the right. Actions like healing, repairing gens, and even being chased by the killer move the game forward in one way or the other.
My second suggestion: change how Distortion charges by distance from the killer. This would reward players for being near the killer and evading them rather than sitting at the periphery of the terror radius.
Comments
Calm spirit does not disable doctors' power. It turns it into ersatz Whispers because you still get the score notification. Is that weaker? Sure. Is it still useful? Yes. I'm probably going to be able to figure it where a calm spirit survivor is.
My issue with distortion is not that it encourages hiding. People can hide if they want. They can play selfishly. I'm not here to police behavior and tell people they can only play one way
My issue is that it completely nullifies an entire suite of killer perks and add-ons through no fault of the killer and with no input from the survivor. Exist on the map. Congratulations, you are immune to every aura perk in the game.
I saw someone with a post tying tokens to gen progress. I like that a great deal more than forcing stealthy survivors to take chase which they may not be great at.
I do believe that it might be my post XD
But yes, tying token recharge to gen progress would fix the real issue with the perk: people hiding forever without contributing.
Just like STBFL was nerfed the wrong way and didn't fix it's single problematic aspect, if Distortion isn't handled correctly, it will lead to two things;
1: Rats will still play like rats but will merely stay in lockers 45% more and/or will bring Shadow Step and stay in it the whole game, effectively removing what little chance the Killer had to stumble upon them and changing nothing to their uselessness.
2: People that used Distortion merely has a tool to help their team without necessarily taking chase first/often (either due to a lack of confidence in their looping skills or merely preffered playstyle, which is how the vast majority of the players using Distortion use the perk) will remove Distortion from their build in favor of gen-speed perks (likely rearranging whole builds in the process in some cases) and variety will go down again.