Perk Categorization and Balancing
Hello! I was thinking about an idea for long term perk balancing which would also shake up the meta and could lead to more varied builds between matches. I’m sure someone has thought this up before but I just wanted to give my two cents.
Instead of all perks being treated equally in loadouts, perks would be assigned to defined categories based on their overall strength and impact.
Example Categories:
•Game Changers – High-impact perks that can significantly influence the outcome of a match
•Power Perks – Strong and reliable perks with consistent value
•Utility Perks – Flexible perks that provide moderate benefits
•Niche Perks – Situational or build-dependent perks
•Flavor Perks – Lower-impact or beginner-friendly perk
Each perk category would have an associated cost, and players would build their loadout within a total budget rather than just equipping the four most busted perks.
Example System:
•Game Changer: 5 points
•Power: 4 points
•Utility: 3 points
•Niche: 2 points
•Flavor: 1 point
Total Budget: 10 point
Solo Queue vs SWF
•Solo players could receive a huger budget
•SWFs could have a reduced overall budget between each player that goes up or down depending on how many players are in your SWF
Killer Balance
Lower-tier killers could be given a higher perk budget to make up for their power being weaker on average. Mid tier killers could have a standard budget and the strongest killers could have a slightly reduced budget. I think the overall budget for killers would need to be higher than survivors since their perks need to be more impactful overall.
Anyways, maybe this is a stupid idea or maybe it’s already been thought of a million times but I just wanted to write it down anyways. I’m sure it would be difficult to implement as well but it seems like any major change has its fair share of problems. Thanks for reading and take care.
Comments
Point systems have been offered up before, as you presumed. And the problem with them is fairly simple - it doesn't really address the issues they're aiming to solve.
The two metas - Second Chance for Survivor and Slowdown for Killer, exist for a reason - and even were you to force them to be used less in builds by assigning high point values to meta perks, they would still be meta. What would form, as the dust settles from the addition of a point system, would be a new meta - the strongest you can cobble together.
In all likelihood, there'd be a few perks that fell through the cracks - high value but low pick rate perks like Conviction (47th by pick rate on nightlight) or Secret Project (44th by pick rate on nightlight) that would see incredibly high usage rates until BHVR steps in and takes everyone's toys away by making the new meta all 5-point perks. The meta would be different, but it wouldn't be… less meta - you wouldn't see more build variety, just a revolving door of perks that are the best one side or the other can scrounge up.
Additionally, there's two other pieces of fallout to address. Firstly, people would have to put down builds they like because they're too good. Presuming that this new point system is somewhat analagous to pick rates, a LOT of people are going to have to put down windows and their exhaustion of choice, because both perks would end up at 4/5 points. Synergistic perks become more restrictive as their added point totals have to be accounted for, so perks like Eruption that generate more value when paired with other, similar perks struggle to fit into builds that simply lack the points to go around. This is going to seed resentment towards the system, as people feel like the system isn't adding opportunities for variety but instead taking them away.
And secondly, like I said earlier - people would feel like BHVR's taking their toys away. Say Conviction released, and was a 3 point perk "because it has a downside!" But then we get our hands on it, andlike we did with Conviction, very quickly realize that the downside is super easy to work around. BHVR panics, and in the next balance patch makes Conviction a 5 point perk becuase it's way easier and faster than nerfing it. People will take that as BHVR enforcing a no fun allowed policy - "they don't need to balance the game because they can just make every good perk so expensive that you can't use it anyway" or something like that.
The theory behind a point system is sound - perks don't carry equal weight, so a system to reflect that sounds amazing - but it runs into a LOT of issues when you put it into practice.