Please consider smaller changes during updates.
During my time with the game I have noticed a pattern regarding updates and how they are applied to Dead By Daylight. The team seems to choose 3-4 major items/issues and heavily focus on them with numerous changes to attempt to balance or improve something. This often includes several ideas being implemented at the same time, none of which individually are "bad" ideas but when implemented together have unintended affects and in many cases ends with the changes later being reverted, or in some cases left to the detriment of the game.
A recent example where it needed to be reverted is the AFK detection system. Adding a system that would require interacting with the killer or an objective was not a bad idea. Decreasing the time it takes for an idle player to gather a crow was not a bad idea. Together however it became difficult for players to gauge when crows would be obtained, and with both active how does the developer know which parts needs to be adjusted for a better balance? The changes had to be reverted and as a player/consumer it seems hard not to see this as a waste of time and effort in the end.
An example of where it was simply left in a poor state in the game is Skull Merchant. Decreasing the status effects of her drones was not a bad idea, or removing the buffs she got from deploying one, or even removing one of the scan lines. However implementing all of these changes at once has left the killer feeling extremely underpowered. Making these changes one at a time, letting players get a feel for it, and then adjusting again down the line if need be could have reached the desired result of making her less frustrating to play against while leaving a sense of power in tact for the killer. Even now instead of making small changes back the other way to give her some power back, the team is instead looking to completely overhaul her design which while exciting could also just be another giant misstep and waste of time and effort.
Other things like adding new items with different item charge mechanics, buffing Built to Last, and nerfing Franklin's, these are all good ideas on their own but when you combine these effects all at once, it becomes overwhelming to certain combinations and unclear which of the massive group of changes is the one that needs adjusting when they all come out at once. Changes to Clown are in the same vein, why does the pink cloud need to have its time active reduced AND have a debuff reduction? Why is the yellow cloud in need of a faster activation AND an increase to the effect? Choosing one of these changes on each would make it easier to players in the PTB to articulate which changes are positive and which are negative. A PTB could even have "phases" where you have players test one set of changes for a few days, then switch to the other set of changes for a few days and get feedback on which changes worked best, if they need adjustment, or even if they do need to be combined in the final updated,.
With large sweeping updates the solutions are often reversion, killswitch, or just wait for another large sweeping update. With smaller changes being implemented per update it would be easier for specific changes to be adjusted when an issue comes up and would allow for more frequent updates or hotfixes.
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