New Perk type for chests
I've been thinking of this recently about how chests are almost never used unless by the 1% of players that do run coins and chest perks. It would be really cool to see Chest related builds for the killer side which I think could also increase pick rates for perks such as Human greed and Hoarder (especially Hoarder).
a few different names for them could be, Relic/Artifact/Trinket perks. It is the same as a Hex perk… just for chests! (I'm gonna refer to it as a Relic).
When a Relic is in the trial Survivors can rummage chests (one time each chest) to see if they can find the Relic. Once found they can pick it up to break it or do like a foot stomp animation.
Designs of this perk could be that it has a main ability and a lingering passive to make up for the fact that chests are really easy to do compared to totems. the lingering passive only active once the Relic is broken, and the main ability only active while the Relic is intact.
For Example:
Relic: Haunted Cogwheel
While the Relic is intact: Whenever you damage a generator it loses an additional 8/10/12% progress and regresses 30% faster
While the Relic is broken: While in chase with a survivor, Survivor repair speeds are 3/4/5% slower. This effect goes on cooldown for 30 seconds when you damage a survivor or the chase ends.
or maybe instead of Main thing small thing it flips the perks concept. That way survivors are forced to adapt to a new perk or if they figure out what it is before-hand they can decide whether to break it or not.
Relic: Comedy & Tragedy
While the Relic is intact: Whenever you basic-break a breakable wall or Pallet Survivors within 8/12/16 meters gain 12% hindered for 5 seconds
While the Relic is broken: Whenever you basic-break a breakable wall or Pallet You gain 5/8/10% haste for 5 seconds
(I'm not a game designer so Idk how balanced these are, just examples)
I wouldn't give any visual clues to which chest has the Relic because then it would be worthless compared to totems, that don't save progress on cleansing. Instead it could just be that the way you know a Relic is in play before being cursed by it is that you can rummage chests without any perk to do it.
To make it identifiably different to the totem status effect of cursed you can introduce a similar one called Damned or you could just combine them and people would have to make note of what perk it was so they know whether to search chests or cleanse totems.
Pros for Killer:
A new Side objective for survivors that gives you a powerful buff
Synergy with totems and second objective killers?
Encourages survivors to open chests instead of repairing generators.
Still lingers throughout the trial so the perk doesn't turn into nothing if found straight away.
Provides built in build variety where the focus could be on the lingering effect or main effect.
Cons for Killer:
Benefits Chest build survivors greatly as it turns their side quest into a main objective.
Not a lot of chests spawn in the trial unless survivors bring coins making multiple relic perks on one killer extremely easy to complete.
Gives survivors access to more items throughout the match (more toolboxes, flashlights and med kits constantly switching survivor loadouts, what they bring might not be what they always leave with)
This perk type encourages survivors to use chests more often and consider running chest based perks on the off chance a killer brings a relic. Like how totem builds love hexes.
I notice that the coin offerings don't benefit either side with this perk as it punishes survivors for wanting more chests and weakens the RNG defense a Relic has for killers but the removal of chests could work in the killers favour as it would make it easier to defend when you can guarantee which one it's in. I don't think survivors should get the opportunity to remove chests though and giving killers the other coin offering seems unfair so I like the idea of perks adding more chests like Hoarder even if it's just 1.
Another problem I do recognise with this Perk idea is what would you do to allow killers to run multiple Relics?
Well if the effort of creating each perks own relic Icon is possible I would say putting them in separate chests is fine That way survivors can try to search for the ones they want without breaking the ones they don't want. Otherwise putting them all on the same item could be a risk for the Killer but maybe worth it?
Gameplay Experience Pros:
Players have excuses to open chests for blood points.
Players are introduced to another side objective which can make the gameplay loop more interesting and cause them to adapt to alternating effects.
Build variety on killer is improved with Relic perks having 2 different effects you can build around.
Gives survivors more decision making on whether they want to actually break the Relic or not.
Open to Ideas, frankly I just want a chest update for the game I love using them on survivor and love the concept of human greed closing chests and hoarder adding more to the trial.
Comments
This could be interesting.
Chests in general would probably need a buff or two, but this is a really cool perk idea.
I don't think this would be a chest fix (IMO baseline changes need to happen for that. I really think Chests should just be worth doing as a default and Perks should go from there) but as an idea for a new class of Perks, yeah I love this idea. A Perk that gives Survivors a side objective, but gives them agency for doing the side objective rather than turning it off entirely. It would be difficult to communicate to new Survivors, but that's not a new issue for Perks.
Another possible take could be the Relics having benefits for Survivors, or the Survivor holding it. Eg. A Relic that passively makes Totems take much longer to cleanse. The Survivor holding the Relic is immune to the effect and cleanses totems even faster, or they can break it to replace the debuff with something else.
It's got a lot of ripe potential for lots of different Perk designs, so I'm a fan!