ATTENTION DEVS: Emblem Change Suggestions
RE: Feedback on Emblems
I got the information about how emblems work from the DBD Wiki. Gatekeeper 2.6 was explained to me as this by another forum member.
I'm making this post to give feedback on emblems. I took a while to write this post and played a lot as survivor and killer in the 2.6 update. The core issue I see with emblems is one of opportunity. Survivor at highest ranks is a zero sum game, meaning that there are simply not enough points to go around to reward survivors properly. Killer is mostly okay but there are still problems where you safety pip in games where you should pip (this mostly comes down to Gatekeeper).
Anyway here are my suggestions:
SURVIVOR EMBLEMS
Lightbringer: All totems should give 30 points each (Dull or Hex). Exit Gates should give 30 points each (currently 15). Opening the hatch should give 10 points, and you get an additional 10 points for each survivor that is still in the trial (so max 40 points, which could only happen if you open the hatch when Exit Gates are powered).
Just more opportunity to earn this emblem, which is the biggest problem for survivor right now. Makes totems worth doing and rewards survivors playing to avoid NOED. It also rewards killers that have no totems because survivors will still take time to do them. Dull and Hex totems should be equal so that survivors do them regardless if a Hex is in play or not (EG. survivors ignore Dulls to look for a Hex -OR- survivors leave 1 Dull to let NOED proc then destroy the Hex for more points).
Evader: Give 25 points for stunning/blinding the killer. "Stealth" points multiplier should scale based on killer's terror radius. Lullabies should count for stealth (Huntress/Freddy).
Again more opportunities to earn an emblem. If you get a stealth killer or one with a small terror radius you can earn points faster but you are required to be closer to the killer to earn them. You can also earn your points through stuns and flashlights, which could be good if it's a Wraith or something. If you get Huntress, Evader would be earned VERY slowly because of the size of her lullaby, but considering that she is easy to avoid because of the lullaby makes it fair. If you get Freddy then you get rewarded for playing stealthy against him and not being put to sleep.
Benevolence: Remove Basement and Post-Exit multipliers. Instead refund unsafe hook penalties for these instances.
If there was no unsafe hook penalty, then survivors would more willingly makes saves in the basement or during endgame, where survivors are often left to die simply BECAUSE of the penalty. The extra points from a multiplier isn't enough for survivors if the killer is camping meaning it will definitely be an unsafe rescue. With stuff like DS, Unbreakable, MoM, and instaheals being options, there are ways to make a save where it's actually an unsafe hook but everyone still gets away. Survivors would YOLO more in these situations, giving killers more chances to catch them (as if they just leave the guy to die killer won't catch anyone else). Also if a killer runs a basement/end game build it's not an automatic depip for survivors since they can regain those points at the cost of probably dying (which a lot of survivors would take honestly). HOWEVER, I think that if the survivor makes a SECOND unsafe hook on the same player they should get double the unsafe hook points, regardless of if it is Basement or Post-Exit, just because if done twice it's most likely farming and they should be punished.
To anyone saying "I don't want to be farmed" yes you do shut up. If you are in the basement or sitting on the hook with gates open 95% of the time you want someone to basically let the killer kill them so you can get away. Remove the penalties in these situations and you WILL get saved more often.
Unbroken: The 1 point gained for being downed should be refunded if you escape without being hooked. However if you get hooked once then it becomes non-refundable and you are still locked out of Iridescent.
Just because sometimes you can get hit down but still escape. Like if killer slugs you for the 4k but you still find hatch. Or a NOED killer legit catches you just as you touch the exit. It happens and when you lose an entire emblem tier for THAT kind of stuff it's frustrating.
KILLER EMBLEMS
Gatekeeper: Earn 1 emblem point per survivor alive per 15 seconds. Next divide the game into chunks; early, mid, and end games. Early game is defined as any point up until survivors finish 2 gens at which time hatch can spawn for the last survivor. Point multiplier during early game is x2. Mid game is the time from end of early game to gates powered. Point multiplier during mid game is x1.5. End game is gates powered until the trial ends. Point multiplier during end game is x1. Test to find reasonable thresholds for emblem tiers. Award many bonus points for ending the game during early game and award some for ending during mid game. Award some bonus points for each kill earned during endgame.
This emblem is a mess. I didn't really like the way it worked before, and I definitely don't like the way it works now. Killers shouldn't be judged in this category by how well they micromanage survivor objectives. Just how long they can keep the game going with the number of survivors they have in the game.
What my suggestion does is measure the killer's ability to prevent survivors from escaping for as long as possible while putting in checks to make sure the point earnings is equal to the difficulty of the task. Most games are played during mid game, so that's where killers should mostly be judged. Early game wins are rare but would be rewarded more, and IMO should be an automatic iridescent since no one can escape at this point. And the more survivors the killer leaves alive, the more points they earn per second. This discourages killers from tunneling survivors out of the game too quickly so they can earn more GK points. It is still an option but they would need to make the mid game last longer than normal to make up for the dead survivor. This is a lot more fair to the killer because it's a lot easier to track the emblem while playing. If you killed someone early, and it's been at mid game for 10 minutes, you have an iridescent you can almost let them finish the gen because there are no more points to earn. Late game is worth less but you can potentially earn bonuses for killing survivors during this time, which makes end game builds still an option. You just probably shouldn't get more than silver or gold for doing it.
And the reason I don't give exact numbers like the other emblems is because my suggestion calculates things much different than the previous two systems. IDK what the emblem thresholds would be, that would require testing. But I'm confident something like this would make it so killers have more control over how they earn this emblem.
Devout:
1 hook on everyone = Bronze
1 kill = Bronze
2 kills = Silver
3 kills without minimum hooks = Silver
3 kills with minimum hooks = Gold
4 kills without minimum hooks = Gold
4 kills with minimum hooks = Iridescent
A 3k where you got minimum hooks should give gold so that killer's don't have always 4k for this emblem. A 3k where they just mori everyone should be silver, but if you got 9 hooks and a 3k that's a good game and you deserve gold. Let last guy get hatch maybe, no need to be stingy about it if you don't want to be.
Malicious: Give 1 point for grabbing a survivor.
I don't feel like there is much wrong for this emblem, but I do think grabs should give some kind of bonus since it's hard to do. Not sure if this is even a thing with the emblem.
Chaser: Give 30 points for trapping a survivor (Trapper). Adjust values to consider one shot abilities. Remove the camping penalty for end game.
Again I'm mostly fine with this emblem. I know that Trapper has issues with it because his traps catch someone and you never get Chaser for it. I also know that killers like Billy or Myers can have trouble here because of their one shots. This stuff should be accounted for in this emblem to make it fair for all killers.
Since survivors aren't punished for farming at end game, I think it's only fair to not punish killers for camping at end game. Yes, it's dumb, but at this point in the game killer kind of MUST do this, especially if there are 4 survivors left. It's the only way to secure kills, and if survivors still choose to wait at the gates until the guy dies that can rob the killer of Chaser which, in this case, is unfair because killer doesn't have a choice but to camp. If survivors don't have a penalty at end game, neither should killers.
Comments
UPDATE: 4/12
After playing with the new survivor pip requirements, things are better. However, survivor play is still a zero sum game as you're likely to get no more than silver in at least 2 categories over the course of the average game. Emblems themselves need some changes still and I stand by my suggestions above.
Thank you for the detailed feedback. I've passed this along to the team.
@Peanits 👍
Killer's emblem system is fine, in fact it's too easy for Exp Killers. But this heavily depends on which killer you play
Some killers like Trapper will suffer heavily from the new system, because he waste so much time going around picking up traps - Reduce Emblem Points
Survivors emblem system should be easier until rank rewards are in
I just don't like how GK is calculated because if you get a game where they gen rush during your first chase but then 4/3 gen themselves and you snowball from it, you get screwed because they did those 3 gens SO fast and there is nothing you can do about it. Ruin doesn't affect good survivors, if you chase someone they can still pop 3 gens and lock you out of iridescent even if you end up 4k'ing and they don't ever finish another gen.
Devout also needs to be more forgiving just so that if I want to pip I don't NEED a 4k. If I get minimum hooks and a 3k I'm fine with letting the last guy hatch. Usually I just hook the third guy and take my chance finding the last one, but with the way Devout works currently I'm forced to slug for a 4k and I hate doing that. It's boring and just extends the game for no reason. I'd rather kill the guy and hunt down the last one. I'm sure he would rather me do that too, because if I slug that's gonna be a lame experience for him.
It's not a matter of how easy it is, it's more of a matter of the emblems forcing you to play a specific way to get them. GK and Devout are the 2 I had most issue with, and I've see a lot of complaints from Billy players that don't get enough Chaser because of chainsaw.