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Red Herring

WolfePhD WolfePhD
in Feedback and Suggestions

The Premise

Beneath the stinky sewers of DBD lie certain perks that are so bad, not even new players want to play them.

If the developers really want to prioritize solving bad perks, we might as well start by scraping the bottom of the barrel. Perks that are so bad, that quite literally nobody on the entire planet would object to fixing them. Red Herring is an F-Tier perk. Otzdarva has rated Red Herring to be a 1/5 stars. NightLight play rate is 0.32%.

For those who would like to refresh their memory on what Red Herring does:

After repairing a Generator for at least 3 seconds, its Aura is highlighted to you in yellow.

  • The Generator stays highlighted until it is either fully repaired, you start repairing another generator, or enter a locker.
  • Entering a locker will trigger a Loud Noise Notification for the Killer at the highlighted Generator’s location.

Red Herring has a cool-down of 60/50/40 seconds.

"The news edit out what is burdensome and complex. which is the truth." — Zarina Kassir

The Beginning of the Conversation

I want to clarify that I am beginning a discussion about Red Herring, not ending it. Please give your thoughts.

CHANGE: The aura of Red Herring can be seen by all Survivors.

  • Addresses SoloQ griefing concerns.

CHANGE: The aura of Red Herring is highlighted to other Survivors in Grey.

  • Under no circumstance should the aura color of Red Herring be Yellow. See Important Context.

CHANGE: The loud noise notification can be triggered by repairing another generator or entering locker.

CHANGE: Cool-down reduced to 30 seconds.

  • I would like to make the cool-down 15 seconds, but I am concerned that it might be spammed. 20?

Important Context

  • Perk “Blast Mine” reveals the aura of a generator to all Survivors in yellow.
  • Perk “Lucky Star” reveals the aura of a generator to all Survivors in yellow.
  • Perk “Wiretap” reveals the aura of a generator to all Survivors in yellow.
  • Perk “Better Together” reveals the aura of a generator to all Survivors in yellow.
    • The same color CANNOT be used to communicate "work on this generator with me" and "avoid this".

Discussion

  • Is this enough to make the perk not suck? We want to make a difference, not more busywork.

Comments

  • jesterkind jesterkind

    I think you're on the right track, but I think part of the issue with the perk is that you really don't have much control over when and how it's used, since you might need to repair another generator or might not be near a locker when you want to trigger it. There's also the issue of drawing the killer towards a generator with progress, which may not be what you want. All of these drawbacks for a perk that has a weaker effect even than Diversion drowns out any potential, in my opinion.

    I'd like to pitch the following, myself:

    • After repairing a generator for 10% of its total progress, Red Herring activates
    • While active, interacting with Generators, Totems, and Chests, as well as standing next to dropped Pallets and Windows, will give the survivor a prompt using Ability Button 1 (or whatever that's called, it'd be E for keyboard)
    • If you hit Ability Button 1 while the perk is active, you mark that object, and the mark stays for 120 seconds. Only one object can be marked at a time and the marked object is shown to all survivors in whatever colour we deem appropriate for "avoid this" in general
    • While there's a mark up, crouching and standing still will give you the prompt again, which will trigger the mark and create a loud noise notification + sphere of scratch marks, similar to Diversion

    Now, that was a lot of text, but it'd be pretty straightforward and intuitive in practice. You'd charge it, the way you would Blast Mine or Wiretap or Flashbang (but not for as long as them), then you have a "set and detonate" ability to try and divert the killer.

    This would put the perk more in line with other trap-style perks that have released in the years since Red Herring was initially designed by giving the survivor more control over how, where, and when the mark is triggered, without really actually making it overbearing in any way. It can't be spammed, it isn't all that potent, it's just slightly more accessible overall.

    I know it looks complicated, but it's a perk that has pretty much the same steps as something like Flashbang. Repair generator → interact with static object → get tool to use later.

    What do we think?

  • TragicSolitude TragicSolitude

    My biggest problem with Red Herring is that I can't choose which generator to mark, so if I start working on a different generator the mark moves to the new gen. That makes Red Herring practically useless in most situations. Letting survivors manually mark a gen, that change alone would be enough for me, I think.

  • WolfePhD WolfePhD

    Reformatting for discussion with important context …

    After repairing Generators for a total of 10%, Red Herring activates:

    • Press the Active Ability button while near a Generator, Totem, Chest, dropped Pallet or Window to place a Trap, which stays active for 120 seconds. While crouching and motionless, press the Active Ability button to activate Red Herring.

    Important Context

    • Wiretap - 40% of Generator Progress for 120 second trap. Reveals killer aura within trap radius.
    • Blast Mine - 40% of Generator Progress for 120 second trap. Stuns and blinds killer if generator is kicked.
    • Flashbang - 40% of Generator Progress for a flash grenade which can stun and blind the killer.
  • SoGo SoGo

    I heard an idea that included a voice recorder as an item you'd get from the perk. It would create fake survivor sounds, confusing the killer.

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