Solo Survivor Buff List
This list is compiled from various places on the forums along with some idea's of my own. All of these are designed to give Solo players the information that SWF players already have, from the PoV of a SWF group these changes should be purely QoL and should never change the max or min potential effectiveness of any survivor group. Assume Killers would be buffed appropriately in response to these changes because that is the entire point. I will add to the list as I find more. Please state your thoughts and any further ideas here.
1: Action Icons
Personally my favorite idea. Simply make it so that whenever a survivor is doing an action their portrait changes to reflect the action being preformed. This includes: Being in a chase, breaking a totem (potentially distinguishing between hex and non-hex), doing a generator, sabotaging a hook, opening a chest, opening an exit gate, healing or a Killer specific action such as removing RBT. The icon would change for a half second when the action is completed to distinguish it from partial completeness
The Killer would not see this information and on his end everything is like it is right now.
2: Totem Counter
This one is extremely simple. Whenever a totem is broken have a global indication of it for the Survivor's. It could be a sound effect or it could be a number that counts up. It doesn't really matter, the important part is that somehow they need to know about it.
3: Perk preview
Also simple. You need to be able to see the perks of other survivors in the lobby. Preferably some way of seeing it mid game too. But that would probably mean going into the pause screen so whatever.
4: Item info
In game the survivor's need to be able to see what items they each have and what addons are on it. This lets them take into account potential synergies ect much like with a Perk preview. Because chests are a thing a lobby preview doesn't cut it.
5: Survivor Aura's
More specifically seeing aura's near by downed survivors and hooked survivor's. Probably just within 16 meters so that complex save tactics can be properly executed without VC. For example you could see a survivor in position to go for the save. However the Killer is right there, so you distract him and let your buddy go for the unhook. If you combine it with the 1st thing then survivor's would be able to do this almost as reliably as a SWF group simply because they have the information required to do so. Note how this doesn't make any perks obsolete since even Kindred has tangible benefits that this doesn't help with such as showing the Killer's aura.
Comments
As a solo I don’t feel like I would need any of this maybe just a built in kindred to avoid a group at the hook. Other solos might feel differently though
You probably don't need that NOW. But devs are going to keep nerfing survivors and buffing killers around SWF. Guess what's happening once the game is balanced around SWF without any buffs for solos? It's gonna be a straight up stupid experience. It's already very common that solos doesn't make it to the endgame and take the hatch.
Also a solo survivor here. Without any more Survivor Nerfs or Killer Buffs and how the game is at the moment the only real thing I want is a built in kindred (I don't care about the killer) I just want to know when a survivor is going to unhook or not. I do also need a totem counter. People seem to think NOED is easy to counter. At high ranks when you are solo you have to basically cleanse all 5 totems yourself because most people just gen rush. I get that that is not super hard however when you have cleansed 4 totems and you have to look around the ENTIRE map counting the broken ones you see just to make sure the killers clutch perk doesn't go off it is really time consuming and you don't even get any emblem points for it. You might end up giving your team 4 escapes because you cleansed all the totems by yourself but you don't get rewarded for it.
I’ve escaped plenty of times at R1 with a team as a solo, got hatch more but still. It all depends on the teams efficiency. The problem before was people being at R1 with no business being there. Due to over altruism against juggling killers. Both were boosted. None of them knew how to work through ruin(meaning hit the skill checks), none of them knew how to survey an area to make sure it was truly safe to unhook(and not how is it where you can get a safe unhook , but still create a snowball due to higher mobility killers), they didn’t know stealth, or how to decently run a killer chase. They were pipping up off a single category basically but not even decent at the others. You should be versatile at R1 or red ranks , and they were not.
^This. It's gonna be bumpy for a while, but eventually everyone will settle into their proper ranks.
U completely ignored my point and are talking about different things.
@HavelmomDaS1 I didn’t ignore your point, my point is you had more ######### matches as solo in red ranks due to boosted teammates. Solo isn’t as “nerfed” as everyone is making it out to be. People love to exaggerate. Solo isn’t hard if you play like you have a brain. Solo is harder than swf for sure, but you have to realize when you play solo you must makes moves that either benefit your survival, and keeping your team alive long enough to help insure it. Solo isn’t hard when you realize your accountable for your own in game mistakes Bc you can’t depend on the team Bc to them you’re “the random in the group” it doesn’t matter how efficient you are ,you’re expendable to them. Sometimes when you get an unselfish group they acknowledge your efficiency, and they’ll do what they can. I wouldn’t be surprised once people figure out pipping that soloing should be much better, not worse.
There are perks you can use in game to close the gap between solo and swf here’s a few:
bond, alert, aftercare, empathy, premonition
if you pick one for team aura , and one for killer location then you can add whatever else you want to as the last two slots. There you go gap closed. If you can’t take a lap before last gen for noed or learn when to let them get the door or break noed , and when to let them die(looking at you swf in the basement, and snowballing each other, Bc snowballing is never the answer to your problems), then you’re going to have a hard life as solo.You don’t have a team when you solo , you have YOU. It’s supposed to be harder. You can do better as solo than you can as swf if you’re game knowledged enough. My point is you don’t need all that if you’re skilled enough. You just have to be observant and think your moves through.
And again you COMPLETELY missed my point and assumed things out of nowhere. Please read carefully again.
Your working towards bringing solo's to the swf level, but killers aren't even near swf level. If you want these things added to solo there would need to be some massive killer buffs along side them.
I personally don't think bringing solo's to swf levels is the best solution though. Extra information given isn't going to make the game more fun. An amount of unknown and surprise is lost in this.
That "massive killer buff" would be a mixture of adding a second objective + individual buffs of extremely weak killers.
It goes all hand in hand.
Also, I prefer balance over "unknown and surprise".
I was quoting "unknown and surprise" not because it's literally unknown but to convey a point. There are quite solid game aspects lost from this that aren't feelings but actual mechanics. I always prefer balance as well, but this isn't the way to go about it imo.
The point is that if you are in SWF then you can avoid taking those perks thus giving you 2 extra perk slots. Then you can also drop self care for a total of 3 saved perk slots. That over 4 players means SWF effectively have 12 extra perks over solo's
There is sadly no other way to balance DbD. No matter how many limitations you bring towards swf, voice communication will not only always compensate that but also still be stronger.
I only can see a balanced DbD by adding a second objective, giving solos some more tools and rework killers like freddy
I understand your point, but you don’t understand mine. We’re just going to have to agree to disagree. They’ve been slowly balancing around swf for an entire year and I’m doing just fine as solo. Because solo is dependent on your own skill, and not the skill of others covering your @$$, that’s why people think solo is getting harder when it’s not. Ofc if you’ve been playing swf more with a good team than solo , then solo is going to seem like a circus. Ofc matches go less well naturally when you solo Bc the communication barrier. I gave you the tips and tools you need to perform better as a solo and be more team included , or You can keep arguing with me. It’s your own fault if you don’t take advice when it’s given to you. I’m not your mom though play how you want. If you don’t enjoy solo then don’t solo, get a good team if you feel like swf is better. To each their own.
The only buff I would like to see is being able to see our teammates' perks in game so we can play around that. Seeing it pre game will cause a lot of issues, people dodge some perks or builds.
The other suggestions are too much imo. Totem counter can be tied to small game. You have perks like bond and after care etc.
Ok, so we’re going to buff the heck out of the solo UI to compensate for supposed massive killer buffs to combat SWF.
So what happens when those killers go against SWF who now have built in totem counters and buffed aura reading?
Furthermore there are tons of high quality solo players. Personally I find myself getting less kills against solo players because they simply do gens and leave. They don’t mess around with being toxic or overly altruistic.
Solo doesn’t need all of these buffs. Give them default Kindred, that’s about as extreme a buff that is needed.
You know. Kindred is a much more extreme buff than any of my suggestions. Especially considering that most of them are just things that should have been there from the start.
SWF's with these features are no stronger than SWF is now. They already had access to that information through VC so they aren't being given anything they didn't already have.
So you basically want to say that there is no difference between an optimal, skillfully organised SWF with VC and 4 random but skillfully solo survivors? That's ridiculous. Please rethink why majority is complaining about swf beeing an issue in dbd. Never heard any killer complaining about solo survivors beeing to strong. Guess why.
SWF already have all those informations, so it's not going to change anything. It will make only swf groups stronger who aren't really communicating anyway in the first place. But those count as solo survivors.
AND EVEN if they would be stronger, due to those changes solos and swf would be closer than ever before, which allows more buffs for killer to compensate.
Imo the only one solo survivors truly need is the totem info.
I feel like solo survivor is fine with the majority of killers. It's only Noed that causes so many problems because you have no idea how many totems are done, and nobody wants to be the guy to do all 5 alone because you get no lightbringer for it which means depip with the new scoring system.
Nurse/billy/iri heads/moris. Yeah all that is questionable. However I don't feel that as a solo survivor I need too many buffs against Pig, Trapper or Wraith without NOED.
@HavelmomDaS1 I’m saying that you can have a crap swf team just as much as you can have a crap solo team, the only difference is you can build your team with swf , you can’t with solo, it’s luck. So ofc if you have a good swf team you’re more likely to escape with more than 1 person. With solo you can’t pick your team, but solo doesn’t affect how YOU play.
The easy way to buff survivor
Just let survivor have a in game voice chat in the game without using discord or something else
I'd want that too but apparently it's just us or something
Agreed. Everything is better than the voice coms
The thing is, just adding voice communication kinds forces solo survivors to communicate in order to compete against strong killer. But what when someone doesn't have a mic, speaks different language or just don't want to talk and hear random people? Then we have the unbalance all over again. Therefore we need to close the gap as much as possible without adding voice coms.