Core Change in the Game?
I think many people are showing concern for the direction of the game right now. It feels as if it is growing stale, and there are a lot of bugs/issues of concern. Some legit, some not so legit. I'm not wanting to debate those. I also don't want to keep harping on the Devs. Whether I agree with their direction or not, it is a tough job to balance things out.
So, what about a fundamental shift in the way the game is played? Some of the best games out there steal ideas from other games to incorporate into their own. This makes their game better, and often allows them to beat their competitors while doing it.
So, why not steal a few things from a horror game that some felt would topple DbD? I, personally, did not think the game had the variety to do it, but it did have some interesting aspects. 'Last Year - The Nightmare'. There is one aspect of that game that I thought would be an excellent shift for DbD. The fact that X people joined up in a lobby, and nobody knew who would be survivor, and who would be killer.
Now, hear me out on how this might spice things up for DbD, and help soothe some of the balance issues.
DbD is mostly split by "mains". Killers think survivors are OP, survivors think killers are OP. The devs have to try and sort through tons of whining in order to look for legit concerns and ideas. The game feels like it is stuck in this two-sided muck now where nobody is happy. What if we cleared out the muck?
Step 1 - Join Lobby - While in lobby, you choose your "preference", but are not guaranteed to get it.
Step 2 - Voice Chat - In game chat immediately hooks all players up in game. This gives DbD the ability to monitor conversations for abuse and inappropriate behavior between players. You don't have to have a mic, you can type old fashioned style. Give players the ability to mute other's mics so they don't hear them. If someone is being obnoxious, you don't have to listen to it. If simple games like Plants vs Zombies can do this, I'm sure DbD can do it.
Step 3 - You learn what role you will have, and choose your characters/builds. From here, the game is like we know it to be. Choose your survivor, perks, addons. Choose your killer, perks, addons and play.
First, change max SWF group to 3-man instead of 4. This protects players in a random setting. You don't want 3 of the 4-man SWF as survivors with a solo vs their buddy the killer. Though many would not abuse the situation, I think there are plenty who would. If someone has an idea of how to protect that solo player in that situation, I'd be all for it.
How does this help? Well, it immediately diffuses killer vs survivor. Everyone plays both. Balance discussions will change fast. Survivors will experience killer, and killers will experience more survivor play. It also adds in a random element that removes some of the edge/animosity that occurs. Some toxic behavior will dwindle just out of the presence of actual voices where actions can often be misconstrued without it. IE: Survivor teabags after you hit them. You take it as toxic and tunnel them the rest of the match. In reality, the survivor was saying "good hit". Or, the killer shakes his head up and down after downing you. You see toxicity, the killer may be saying "nice run". I've had these things happen in game.
The silence between killer/survivor is no longer helping the game. It used to make sense, but who is actually playing this as a horror game anymore? It is a horror genre of a asymmetrical pvp game.
So, there is my novel. The idea quite possibly sucks, but I think there is some merit in there somewhere. I'd like to see the community be more balanced, so we can balance the game. As long as it stays killers and survivors, we'll never have balance in this game as the loudest whiners are usually the ones with the least value to their whine. :)
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