General Balance Concept - "Red Passives"
The way the game is designed makes it innately hard to balance. Some killers thrive on any map, while others will suffer on certain ones. Many killers find no trouble in elevated areas while other killers have to take the stairs.
As such, the game will naturally lean towards certain maps being "killer sided" or not, however with the wide and diverse cast of Killers in the game, it's impossible to say any map is good or bad for every Killer.
Additionally, some perks or combinations of perks may thrive on a certain killer, and may be gimmicky or worthless on another Killer.
So, a personalized way to balance killers, add-ons, items, and perks would be advantageous to the game. A simple solution which is relatively risk-free is to add generalized, negative effects to the end of problematic perks in bright red text. I'll refer to this as a "Red Passive" for simplicity sake.
As an example, if Pain Resonance is being used predominantly by killers, especially "high tier" or exceptionally lethal ones, there could be an added effect at the end simply stating: "Progress required to complete generators; -3%" A perk which collects tokens could say "Progress required to heal a survivor: -1% per token at the start of heal." This would also give new ways to gain intel on a killer's perks, which also opens the door for killers to make silly mind games.
Killers who are overperforming could cut some slack to the survivors by having an effect which increases Red Passive effects across the board, such as "Increase all equipped Red Passives by 1% each." Meanwhile underperforming killers could do the opposite, decreasing Red Passives by X%, or disabling Red Passives if you have less than 2 equipped, etc. etc.
Survivors are trickier to give Red Passives to, since they have no unique abilities individually, and also operate on a team. As such, Red Passives should IDEALLY only impact the survivor running the perk, and never directly hurt their teammates (such as slowing everyone's Gen speed). They must be few and far between. Selfish perks should be the focus of Red Passives in this regard.
A few ideas could be; causing the survivor to gain crows faster, reducing base walking speed, reducing haste gained (50% haste - 5% Red Perk = 45% haste instead), or reducing generator repair speed under certain conditions. These conditions could be things as simple as being injured, or could be "when downed, and until you unhook an ally." Ideally, Red Passives for survivors should encourage teamwork to counteract their inclusion on selfish perks, requiring a sense of balance between "benefit myself" and "help my team."
While Red Passives may cause bad matchups, it is entirely the player's CHOICE to use or not use perks which have these. If a Red Passive requires you to heal a survivor to Healthy to cleanse it, you must accept the fact it may be a hinderance against a Plague. Just as running any Perk in the game could benefit or hurt you against a specific killer or situation, Red Passives are the same.
Add-ons, and Items could also use Red Passives if desired, but depending on the case I find this to be relatively unneeded.
Ultimately, the game is very nuanced. There is no singular "solution" to making it universally fun or fair. However, with this system at least it can add a new layer of depth to builds for both competitive and casual players. It allows for builds to BE strong, but with a higher risk, or an exploitable weakness. It does not prevent perk combinations, but encourages new ones. It's also simple enough to tweak, as opposed to entire perk reworks.
And, of course, if it's tried but doesn't work, it could easily be undone too. I've always felt uneasy toward the idea of uprooting the entire foundation of the game's experience. Sometimes, having an idea that needs less commitment is a good first step.
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