balance of the game
The question is how do you balance a game where the killer has multiple modes with a range of difficulties depending on the killer and survivors have 2 modes (solo and swf)?
Everyone knows soloq is awful due to the many survivors that refuse to touch gens or troll or simply going for adept or any number of reasons. And everyone knows swf provides tactical advantages that solo will never be able to obtain, such as coms, all being on the same page with the same common goal and perk synergy. With survivor role being drastically split into essentially hard mode (solo) and easy mode (swf), how do you balance killer v survivor?
Should we balance for killer v swf or solo? low tier killers v swf or high tier killers v solo? should survivors be able to win a team game without playing as a team? should people be forced to play with friends in order to stand a chance? These are the questions that people should be asking. i believe if we answer these questions and get true balance with solo and swf it will make it far easier to balance killer v survivor as a whole. This balance will then have a knock on effect with things that killers feel they need to do to compete such as tunneling, slugging, camping or even using top tier killers.
So far i have seen perks used as bandaids for the symptoms of the problem without addressing the root cause. these perks effect ALL survivors and ALL killers regardless of solo, swf or particular killer. Same with the recent slugging/tunneling test. Its a blanket bandaid that tars all killers and all survivors (ragardless of what tier killer it is or if its solo or swf) with the same brush. This way of thinking will not solve the root cause and will only lead to shifting the unbalanced problem areas else where.
For example, anti tunneling and slugging game mechanics that applies across the board targets the killers that are op and need the nerf but also targets the low tier killers and cripples them even more than they already are. Likewise with survivor, buff gen speeds or increase pallet count helps solo survivors which could do with the help but also buffs swf which really doesnt need more help. It helps people compete against high tier killers while making low tier killers with no speed or anti loop powers worse than they already are.
Personally, i think everyone should stand a chance at winning and having fun regardless of killer or solo or swf. ideally SWF should be nerfed somehow. The reason i say this is because they use 3rd party apps such as discord to communicate. If dbd was built around coms then they would have been available from the start for everyone. However, there is no way to ensure people dont use coms or dont talk while they play in the same room together so i dont see that happening. Which leaves only 1 option, buff soloq without buffing swf. we can add voice chat or perk visibility but you can never force survivors to play as a team, if someone wants to do totems for a challenge instead of the gen right next to them there is no way to force them to get on the same page as the rest of team.
Its a complex issue, and one i truly believe will never be solved due to the nature of the game. This is why solo and swf need to be played differently just like each killer needs to be played differently. what might work for nurse might not work for pig. what might work for swf might not work for solo. swf makes use of the team work, solo should make use of the solo nature, think more selfishly than swf would. It seems to work for me.
Comments
I like how you're acting like I, personally, have made the decision to not have open VC in DbD. Pretty sure if the devs wanted it, it'd be there.
The WW2 reference is so outrageously hyperbolic. You don't need to summon Hitler for every little silly thing.
the fact you advocate for removing peoples freedom to choose for themselves because you believe its for their own good says everything. i dont see how any meaningful discussion can be had with someone with that mindset. im for freedom of choice, clearly you are not therefore our views are fundamentally different.
not at all, survivors can use meta but that meta should be available to all. all killers can tunnel and slug so why cant all survivors have coms?
What freedom was removed? There never was open VC. You can't remove an element that never was. But even if there had been, that's like saying "they put in an anti-camp meter, removing my freedom to face camp." Not everything is some inherent human right. You're acting like this is some great, important matter like abortion or assisted suicide. It's a game, and implying I have a nazi-like mindset over some small matter in a video game is peak melodrama.
you have freedom to facecamp. you would trigger the facecamp mechanic but you have the freedom to do so. your advocating to deny people coms in a team game and saying they should earn that right to use coms because you think people cant be trusted to make what you think is the right decision. your right it is a game but your the one talking about saving peoples mental state by not allowing coms like they are children and your the parent and your telling them they have to prove themselves worthy of joining a team first. its a game, its words, they can be muted but no you say they cant be trusted to press the mute button.
you have failed to show how you came to the conclusion that muting someone in a game creates more toxicity. coms have been muted in games for years and i have never heard of anyone saying "i cant mute them because they will be mean to me in the game". this is just another instance of you dodging the questions relevant to the topic but also trailing off into something else.
like i said, with that mindset i dont see how any meaningful discussion can be had. its pointless debating the pros and cons of an issue with someone that believes that people shouldnt have the option of coms because they cant be trusted to mute it. There is nothing more to be said on the matter. What am i supposed to say to that exactly? the only thing i can say is im all for the choice of having coms and be able to mute if need be.
Thats why i believe we should add some basekit info for SoloQ (like Kindred) and other stuff like this and balance the game accordingly. Nerfing Swf would make the game worse - imagine being punished for playing with your friends? It won't happen.
true basekit kindred would be a step in the right direction but it still wouldnt come to close to closing the gap between solo and swf. kindred doesnt show the team where that hex totem is that you saw during a chase. for solo to equal swf, soloq needs full aura read of the killer and survivors pretty much at all times (which is pretty much the case v 4man swf), any totem seen by the survivor needs to be revealed to all other survivors, any gen a survivor comes across needs to be shown to all survivors, all perks shown to all survivors. all this aura read would no doubt make things unbearable on the screen but its exactly what swf on coms get without cluttering the screen with auras.
Without excessive aura reading or coms to provide that info there will always be a large gap between solo and swf. If this is by design then people cant be surprised when players like me play selfishly and leave others on the hook while i run out the gates the first chance i get because swf and solo require different playstyles.
Even if we give all info perks basekit ti soloq it wont make itt equal with swf they get more info faster and actualy can pull some strategies or tactics normal doloq joes cant thats just fact.
Lol.
People comparing voicechat to tunneling.
Tunneling isnt a mechanic, its a strategy.