Suggestions for more Player Intent options.
Hello! I'm a huge fan of the new Player Intent system and have been loving using it in the PTB. I feel like it's definitely improved the Solo Queue experience. However, I do find that the options which have been added for it are a little lacking. A good chunk of the actions (repairing, Boon, Hex, being chased, healing) can already be determined by just looking at the HUD, which may make them feel a bit redundant. Still, the system is a huge step in the right direction, and I'd like to personally suggest more options to be added in the future.
"Killer In Main Building/Killer In Shack" - These would be separated of course, and adding a command which specifically tells the team of a killer's location might be a bit too much, but it's still something to consider. Terms like main building and shack are baked into the game's terminology, so it shouldn't confuse new players too much. Although it might seem like too much information, it's not something that coordinated SWF players don't already have at their disposal.
"Killer is Camping/Killer is Staying Near Hook/Killer is Near Hook" - A really good communication option that would solve a lot of problems with camping killers. It'd let everyone know to be careful when unhooking or to just rush gens. If 'camping' is too much of a game term, you could use the latter message (even if it's longer).
"Killer Left Me" - If the killer decides chasing you isn't worth it anymore and leaves to chase someone else, letting your team know that this is happening would let them adjust accordingly and prepared to possibly be the killer's next target.
"Open Gate/Don't Open Gate" - The current command "Gate" isn't very descriptive as to what a player might want to do with the gate. Changing it to these two commands would let others know what they actually want to do, whether they want to prolong opening the gate to get a save or to open it as fast as possible.
"Gate is Blocked" - Very, very niche, but still could prove useful if a killer has perks that block the gate from opening, which will let your teammates know they have to play safe until the gate can be opened.
"Don't Unhook" - This could be used in situations when an instadown killer is camping the hook and a save simply isn't possible, when there are 2 survivors left and the one on hook wants the other to just look for hatch instead of rescuing, or when a survivor has the Deliverance perk and doesn't need to be saved.
"I Can't Help/I Can't Unhook" - If someone happens to be in a situation where they can't go for an unhook, or simply can't currently help their teammates, using this command would potentially decrease toxicity, since they wouldn't be seen as someone who 'doesn't want to help', but rather 'can't help' due to certain circumstances (for example, if they're injured and on their last hook state, they don't want to risk being killed if found by the killer near the hook).
"Don't Heal" - Useful when facing killers like Legion and Plague, but possibly a bit niche. Could also help when everyone is afflicted with Exposed and healing won't do much good.
"Don't Help" - In some niche cases, you may not want a survivor to help you by taking a hit if you're trying to use Decisive Striike on purpose, or if you simply feel like you don't need/want their help and can handle the killer by yourself. It's also possible to add just this command instead of the two above.
"Focus on Generators" - The "repair" command probably covers this suggestion, but it might help to be more clear.
"Focus on Healing" - The command would let your teammates know to find each other and do a full 'reset' so that everyone can be healed. Also useful against killers like the Oni or Nightmare.
"Focus on Hex" - "Hex" is a bit of a vague communication, so making it more specific could help with that. In cases where a killer has a powerful Hex effect, letting your teammates know to stop doing generators for a bit and look for the Hex totem to destroy it could prove very useful.
"Getting Killer's Attention" - Very useful command for survivors that want to deliberately seek chase with the killer to that their teammates can focus on the objective.
"I'm in Main Building/I'm in Shack" - This might make a perk like Bond a little obsolete, but it'd still be nice to have when you're looking for a heal and want to let your teammates know exactly where you are, or just to find each other in general.
"Stay With Me" - Possibly covered by the 'follow me' gesture, but wouldn't hurt to have in case you need to make use of a perk like Prove Thyself, or a Teamwork perk.
"Don't Follow Me" - Opposite to the command above, letting your teammates know to leave you be so that you're not all caught by the killer is very useful. The "Split Up!" command kind of covers this, but it'd be nice to have regardless.
"Take a Hit for Me/Protect Me!" - This would be very, very useful in situations where an injured survivor needs to be protected by other survivors, so that they may escape through the Exit Gate, or avoid being killed early in the trial.
"Look for Hatch" - In a scenario where only two survivors are left, one of them might want to sacrifice themselves so that the other can escape through the Hatch. Using this command would let the other teammate know of the first survivor's intent.
"Yes/No/Sorry/Understood/Nevermind" - I was a little surprised we didn't get some more generic commands. It'd be nice to have these included just for broader communication possibilities.
Contextual Command: "I have [perk]!" - This would definitely require a bit more work to implement, but what would really be nice is adding a command that lets you highlight one of your perks for teammates to notice. For example, you'd pick this command, then pick a sub-command based on one of your currently equipped perks. The chat window on the left would either display a small icon of the chosen perk, or the name of the perk itself. This would immediately let your teammates know if you have perks like Decisive Strike, Deliverance, Prove Thyself, etc. and allow them to act accordingly. Although simply pressing tab and looking at your teammates' perks kind of already covers this, it wouldn't hurt to have in case someone really wants to make sure that their perk is noticed.
Contextual Command: "[Survivor Name]…" - Another contextual command that would help a lot is being able to call out to specific teammates. For example, if you're in a match with survivors who are playing Dwight, Meg and Kate, you could use this command and make a sentence like "Meg… Focus on Generators", or "Dwight… Open Gate". This would really, really avoid a lot of confusion when using commands, since sometimes you may want one person to do one thing, and another person to do something else entirely.
Contextual Command: "Killer Heading for [Survivor Name]!" - When you know for sure that the Killer is going to chase a specific survivor, warning them ahead of time will help them adjust accordingly and avoid getting injured early. Very good command that would help with awareness.
I hope these suggestions will help to impprove the Player Intent systemI I very much look forward to any and all updates to it, as I honestly believe it'll make the experience for Solo Queue survivors a lot easier and more coordinated. Please keep adding onto it whenever possible! Thank you!
Comments
I think out of these, I think someone's suggestion of changing "Chasing me" to "Killer's on me" (which would be much more useful and flexible) combined with a location ping that simply said "I'm at X" would be extremely useful and probably cover a lot of different situations. I think "Killer is at X" would also be useful, but may be less of a priority. It could be technically used for toxicity or whatever, but I think a simple "No" would cover a ton of different situations, like not opening a gate, not getting an unhook, etc.
I think possibly the most important though is the ability to say what perk you had. It was one of the most upvoted comments on the original chat wheel announcement, yet they didn't add it. I'd love to comm that I have We'll Make It so the teammate lets me get the save, or Deli so they don't have to unhook me, etc.