What I think the devs should do to revive the game
- Ranking system
Clearly this is the number 1 issue. Only after you fix this we can talk about balance changes. At the moment you're view of the game is broken, because statistics are inaccurate, since everyone, noobs and pros are all over the place.
First get rid of steam achievements for rank to stop rank hacking which is so easy to do. Move them to your server where you can have control over them.
Secondly sit down at a table and brainstorm what requires skill in the game. Obviously, repairing gens, healing, unhooking teammates that are not being camped, killing survivors, doesn't require skill. Winning a chase does require skill for example. Prioritize whatever requires skill and make that count 80-90% towards pipping. Forget about dictating the gameplay with pips, it was a terrible idea.
I would focus on the length of the chase, you get points or lose points depending how long or how short the chase was. And this counts for most of the points towards pip, everything else a lot less.
- Matchmaking
Region lock everyone to their continent. I have to dodge every time 5-6 lobbies to find a game as a European, because I mostly get Asian killers with 400 ping.
- Fun factor
You nerfed all survivors to balance SWF and the result is SWF is still too strong, while solo survivors are DC'ing every game and suicide on hooks.
Gens take too long to do. While it's ok for balance, its not fun to spend half the game repairing gens and other half healing. Shorten the gen times by 30% and add a second objective. Like collecting a part from the map.
Healing takes too long. You buffed perks like sloppy butcher, tanatophobia and it takes forever to heal which is boring. Not to mention survivors are reserved of doing activities that might get them injured, so they don't have to heal. So you reduced the complexity of the game also. I think self-care should cancel any effects those killers perks have and just work normally. Those killer perks should only work on survivors healing each other and survivors that don't use self care.
Pallets. You nerfed the vacuum, you removed double pallets, you removed a lot of pallets, you added view blockers, you made a lot of pallets unsafe. This is cool for noob killers but what happens if you're unlucky and you're not the first survivor to be chased in the match for several matches in a row? Most of the pallets are already broken from the first chase, which means if the next survivors don't know the chase area from the previous chase, they'll end up going to the same place, find no pallets and have a short and boring chase. This could happen several matches in a row. I would just bring the vacuum back, that way survivors can make use of unsafe pallets and force a stun. Currently they're just a death trap and completely useless.
- Balance
Stop making major balance changes until you fix the ranking system.
Afterwards make balance changes strictly oriented towards SWF.
The idea to give solo survivors as much information as SWF has is stupid. In SWF you can control what everyone does based on that information and you have the guarantee they will do it. With solos you don't have any guarantees.
Comments
Wrong forum man, the only Dead games are "Dead Garden" and "F13", DbD isnt dead so it cant be revived.
Wrong topic. Noob killer topics are somewhere else. This is for old experienced players trying to help devs solve the current crisis.
It's slowly making its way to the cemetery though lol.
1) Ranking System
You got this right, I suppose, and I have no objections.
2) Matchmaking
Eh. I play no matter the ping, does it suck when I teleport right onto a hook? Sure, but sometimes you might not have a lot of options to play.
3) Fun Factor
4) Balance