On the note of making the new player experience better

ChaosWam

Hey all, gonna provide some feedback specifically on this part of the last Dev Stream.

I want to echo what a lot of people have said before, since BHVR is taking steps toward this. We desperately need to bring new players in and help them learn better. My friend had her bf who has never played this before try it, who is also not a horror fan for the record, and his bigger issue wasn't the scare factor. It was the lack of knowing what to do to survive.

Now, as far as basic tutorials, the following needs added in my opinion:

• Perks. This is one most have been saying the most. We need to make it clearer for newer players that perks are very important. I'd even argue on the survivor tutorial when you play a match with bots, have some perks auto-equipped. I even recommend Fixated and Deja Vu for this, to give players both a sense of how gens spawn and how scratch marks work.
• Looping. I'm not entirely sure on how to do this in a technical sense, but looping is kind of important to learn. Maybe even show tutorial arrows on the ground on how to loop a tile well in the tutorial match? Or a new section on the beginner tutorial? Either way, it's important to teach.
• Small one, loud noise notifications. I noticed on a refresh of the survivor tutorial, there's no mention that entering a locker quickly makes a loud sound the killer can hear, but perhaps I overlooked that? Still, loud sounds need to be explained, as well as killer instinct.
• Perhaps force players to go through the killer tutorials as well? If the noise notifications/killer instinct won't do well, perhaps making the tutorial go from survivor to killer throughout can help explain it better.

Now, my second part of this is to bring back an old post I made a year ago. An in-game compendium with as much information as we can put in for players to look up while in the lobby, to learn what they faced and read how things work so they can learn better. I've faced players who still call me a hacker because of perks like Nowhere To Hide and how Xenomorph can see footsteps above his tunnels.

I'll leave a link to the post from last year since I re-read it and it still kinda holds up with what I envisioned even now, and could even use a small update here and there for changes since then. I also ask nobody post in the old thread as to not necro it, if possible:

@ChaosWam said:

I've suggested this in the past, and I've said this across many places. We all hate that we get stuck with SoloQ players not knowing a lot about the game, right? And clearly, the tutorial doesn't cover all the nuances this game has. Therefore, I suggest once again, the game needs a compilation of all killers, powers, power addons, perks, items, item addons, offerings and maybe even things like personal stats and personal kill/escape rates easily accessible to players. Maybe in the character select screen below the shop tab.

I am aware this won't fix all issues, however, this will help with some things old and new players struggle with. Like for example, killer changes to their kits and for new players learning what a killer does and what they have access to, as well as easy access to learn why they died to certain things.

Layout

I am not good at making graphics for this, but I will explain it to the best of my ability.When opening this tab, you are given the options of:

• Personal Stats
• Survivors
• Killers
• Maps and Tiles (possibly, not entire sure if we need this as an option)

Once clicking one of these, an additional dropdown menu will appear for Survivors, Killers and Maps. For example, dropping down Killer will show the options "Killer Roster" and "Killer Perks" while survivor will show "Survivor Roster", "Survivor items and addons" and "Survivor Perks" seperately.

Personal Stats

Personal stats will show us what we all have wanted for awhile and what some websites draw from the game. Stuff like overall escapes, overall kills, generators defended, pallet stuns, hatch escapes, favorite killer (by use) and favorite survivor (by use), etc. Each can be separated into the Killer and Survivor category, or even inside the previous Survivor and Killer options without a personal stat option, but I suggest it in case of global personal stats being placed here like your devotion level and grades.

Survivors

As stated before, the survivor tab will drop down the options to see:

• Survivor Roster, where you can click each survivor portrait to look over them all and their perks. Maybe even see their personal escape rates and deaths if you so wish.
• Survivor items, to show details on each item, their addons and how often you use them.
• A red ( ! ) will appear next to any survivor and their perk if they get changed between updates, to have players at least check them if they haven't been aware of any updates.
• Possibly, a Survivor's Stats option for overall survivor stats so they're all combined.

Admittedly I don't know what else to add for survivor considering they're mostly all the same. If I get suggestions for this tab, I'll consider adding them in.

Killers

This will be a pretty extensive part, at least for the roster section. The Killer tab will drop down to show:

• Killer Roster, where you can see each individual killer and allow you to click on each one to see their power in detail, their addons, perks and personal stats between each killer for kills, gen defense, and maybe even # of pallets broken, stunned by, flashlight blinded and so on. A red ( ! ) will appear on them if their power, addons or perks are changed. This will help alleviate players confusion on how certain mechanics work, especially when a killer is reworked.
• Killer stats, for all combined killer feats. just to have it all on a global sense if Personal Stats doesn't cover it or is left out.
• Added: Each killer with an intractable (Pig traps, Sadako TVs, Xenomorph turrets) have a small section or addition showcasing what they do, explain how they're important, and how they're used for better clarification.

Maps and Tiles

This one I'm not sure if it should be added or not, but could be useful so I'll touch on it. Clicking this one will present a list or portraits of each map and map variant, and clicking on it can show the following:

• Map statistics, both personal and global for all players on escapes, kills, stuns, window vault misses, window vault hits, and gens popped. Maybe even show the % of how many times main gen was done, who knows.
• Generated and Map Unique Tiles from a birds eye view, as well as each floor of a building's layout. Perhaps even provide possible ways loops can be ran by showcasing arrows?

Final thoughts

A lot of this would, in my opinion, help clean up confusion without trying to traverse stuff like the shop and character menu to find powers and items to learn more about them, as well as provide information for EVERYTHING without having to own it or have gotten it from the bloodweb for newer players to find out. You could even make a cute little way to hide each portrait until you face that killer at least once for new players to experience the scares before spoiling themselves on their kits.

With just how much DBD has and is getting in the future, I think it's more important than ever to be able to easily access this information so players aren't always left in the dust.

Thank you for reading through this, I know it's a lot of rehashing, but if BHVR wants to make the new player experience better I want to contribute as much as I possibly can. If anyone wants to add to this, go ahead and post your thoughts on how to help on a base-game level.