My Solution to Slugging & Hardcore Tunneling (A Essay and a Half)

WiseTraveler

Two of the biggest complaints throughout Dead by Daylight have been about slugging and tunneling.
An important question I ask when talking about this topic is
𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘰 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘭𝘶𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦?

It's not that complicated to understand, tunneling and slugging have been the best strategies for killers to build up pressure and control the pacing of the match. Slowdown and regression perks are just as popular for the same reason. This still brings players back to the same question, 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘰 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘭𝘶𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦?

Well, I would like to argue that over the past couple of years, Dead by Daylight has struggled to find the perfect balance between anti-slugging and anti-tunneling measures. As of recency, BHVR has made two changes that relate to this topic.

1. Add the Anti-FACEcamp (face being the keyword here)
2. increased the hook timer to 70 seconds
3. Has increased the amount of Anti-tunnel, Anti-slug, and Sabotage perks throughout the years

All of these changes have affected the gameplay choices of ALL players. Before I continue I would like to say that each of these decisions made by BHVR was made for clear and obvious reasons.

1. Camping has been a more niche issue and rarely occurred, but when it did it was annoying to deal with and usually ended badly if you tried to save your teammate. Unfortunately from my experience, the Anti-facecamp mechanic is rarely used. Sure it happens from time to time but its overall effect hasn't been large. Of course, I don't have all the statistics that BHVR has so maybe I'm wrong.

2. Camping also typically goes hand in hand with tunneling hence why the hook timer was increased to punish players for Proxy camping (not face camping) tunneling typically requires the killer to find and chase the person who just got unhooked so it isn't surprising when the killer returns to the hook in order to tunnel. The increasing of the hook timer in my opinion has punished BOTH players who Tunnel and those who don't. Survivors now have even more time to ignore their teammates and stick to gens, which punishes all killers.

3. Without a doubt, if it wasn't for Perks Dead by Daylight's Meta and variety of perks the game would be dull. So it's no shock to me that BHVR adds more perks to the game every year. Part of adding "new" perks is adding things that pretty much do the same thing as other perks but differently, which is a good thing for variety but too much variety leads to players being confused about what perk is taking effect at certain times throughout the match. All types of perks have their place in the game but I think there needs to be a line of understanding of what's going on so the game is easy to understand and not as confusing.

You see the issue with Anti-tunnel, Anti-slug, and sabotaging perks is that they all aim to deny the killers one purpose hooking and killing survivors. So having too many of these perks makes it difficult to determine what perks are taking place and the worst part is these perks are the strongest and changing the tide of the match, so they shouldn't be readily available 24/7. The more perks you have that do these functions the more opportunity players have to mess with the core mechanic of hooking and killing survivors.

So back to our main question
𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘥𝘰 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘶𝘯𝘯𝘦𝘭 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘭𝘶𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦?
I think it's because everything around hooking doesn't feel rewarding and you're more likely to get punished for the action than to be rewarded for the action.
How can we reward players for hooking without rewarding players who tunnel?
I think there needs to be an incentive to not engage in these unhealthy strategies.

I have a few examples of how we can incentivize players to use more healthy playstyles.
Example #1
BHVR has headed in the right direction with perks like Pain Resonance and Grim Embrace, while they're very strong perks (which can still be rebalanced) they incentivize players to hook each survivor individually, which subtlety makes players not tunnel because if they do tunnel they lose perk value. If BHVR were to change or create more perks that lean into more healthy play styles the less unhealthy ones would be less likely to be used.
Example #2
Perhaps sticking around the hook is still an issue sure we can increase the hook timer but instead of punishing all killers for the simple act of hooking a base kit scrouge hook monstrous shrine but instead, it applies to all hooks. This would still punish players for sticking around with the 70-second timer but would decrease it to let's say 55 or 60 seconds (the normal)
What if survivors are trying to save in front of you? do they still get the 70 seconds?
we can make it like the anti-camp feature where when survivors are nearby the timer gets set back to the default time of 55-60 seconds. (potentially feeds back into camping? but survivors just need to not entertain that senario)
Example #3
Perhaps an anti-slug mechanic that allows survivors to use unbreakable after 2 minutes and 1 second of bleeding out to pick themselves up immediately (bleeding takes 4 minutes thus it could only be used once)

If there's anything I want players and BHVR to take away from this post is that through the power of incentivization, we can manipulate player's gameplay decisions into more healthy gameplay standards.

If you read this whole thing you're a real one and deserve a trophy for taking your time to do so and don't be afraid to add your own opinion and give a response.

Ohyakno

Ah, there's the appeal to basekit unbreakable. I knew if I skimmed it'd be in there.

I also like how it's gone from camping and tunneling to camping, tunneling and slugging. Fun stuff.

Zuiphrode

Your idea literally provides nothing good to killers and would make it essentially impossible for them to win.

Jesus christ, you can't just wait two minutes when you get slugged?

Rulebreaker

Example 1: While we like the ideas, it doesn't exactly stop tunneling. Your still able to tunnel the first out and still get value since they're still active when someone dies. This is shown with pain res and no way out.

Example 2: We'd argue if you want that route to go longer than 70 seconds as the current 70 second default has practically nil impact on those who don't camp in any form. Your opinions are your own and our are ours but we have only seen it genuinely impact those who stick close to the hook and don't pressure other areas. Since it would flux like the anti face camp it should be fine to add more time but that said it would have the same complaints people yip about the anti face camp.

Example 3: We feel like this would be a pain, but we're not completely sure as to how you intend to make it work (aka the details).

Side note: we have some issues with your thoughts on 2 & 3 but that's irrelevant, what is relevant is that we want our trophy 🏆