Give Survivors Unique Traits: "Quirks"! Come Share Your Ideas!
This is part two of my crusade of threads regarding the game's uniqueness when it comes to the norm. Here is a link to the previous part about generators, skill checks, and more:
@Trwth said:
Dead by Daylight was released in 2016. A game featuring four Survivors and one Killer. The objective of the Killer is to stop the Survivors from completing the generators and escaping by any means necessary and using a wide array of abilities. The Survivors must repair all of the generators.
This is one of the few threads I'm going to be uploading talking about updating the game's old features to something more engaging. In this thread, we'll talk about skill-checks.
As a Survivor, most interactions will require you to hold down the action button(M1, most commonly) until the bar is completely filled, thus completing the interaction. Occasionally, you must quickly react to hit the skill-check to prevent your action from being set back and alerting the Killer. This feature has been in the game since its release and has always been... quite boring for the Survivors. Not only that, but it is very easy and poses no challenge to most players. It needs updating, a rework.
My idea for changing interactions. Some may stay the same, such as unhooking, cleansing a sickness, etc. But here are a few ideas for just some of the interactions. One last thing before I begin: I want you, the reader, to post your ideas down below. This is a discussion, after all.
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Skill Checks
A short detail I should add before I start. Skill checks will stay, but will become more of an attention-grabber to Survivors. When a Survivor receives a skill-check, rather than it appearing in the middle of their screen as normal, it will appear on whatever object they are interacting with, thereby forcing them to look at what they're doing to see the skill check. This makes it so that skill checks have a more fitting role in making sure that survivors are paying attention instead of just holding down the action button.
Generators
This is an incomplete idea of mine. While repairing generators, instead of holding down the button, you simply press it to begin repairs. Upon beginning to repair the generator, the Survivor will always instantly receive a skill-check immediately. If this skill-check is succeeded, then repair progress will begin to increase. If not, then the generator will explode and the Survivor will be knocked off of the generator and must try again. Failed skill-checks cause more generator regression than failing the minigame below. Skill-check success zones become smaller the more progress has been made.
While repairing the generator, survivors will receive a minigame where there are eight bars balancing along a straight horizontal line. These bars slowly move off of the line as repairs continue. The survivor must navigate these bars back to the center of the line to prevent them from straying from the center line. If any of the bars move too far from the center line, then it will flash red for a moment before causing the generator to explode and regress. Failing the minigame this way will cause the generator to passively regress as if the Killer had damaged it. Interacting with the generator after a failure or when the Killer damages it will automatically have whichever bar that had gone too far still in place and flashing red. No generator progress will be made until the bar is moved back onto the track. As usual, during repairs, a skill-check will occasionally appear.
Also, generators will take longer to repair alone.
Lastly, the Killer can use offerings to increase how many bars will be in the minigame. Perks and add-ons will also affect how many bars there will be, the speed in which they move, and how big they are.
Totems
Hex and dull totems will not have any skill-checks as usual, but it does require the player to focus and do more than hold down a button. When cleansing a totem, the player must hold down the action button to complete the action. The minigame for totems will have the player take part in a game of herding. A circular 2D arena will be placed on the Survivor's screen and there will be a cluster of hex energy(I don't know what to call it) that will hover around the arena. The Survivor takes control of a circular cage and must keep the clump within its boundaries as it hovers around. As progress is made, the cage shrinks in size, making it more difficult to contain the energy. If even a little bit of energy is out of the boundary, then no progress will be made.
Hex: Thrill of the Hunt will create an additional effect. Not only will it take longer to cleanse the totem, but it will shrink the Survivors' field of view moderately and will cause two clusters to appear and bounce around the arena. In return, the Survivor must control TWO cages: one using their primary controls(WASD/Left-Stick); and another with their camera controls(Mouse/Right-Stick). This makes totems extremely dangerous, especially against stealthy Killers.
Jigsaw Boxes
This last one may be a bit disappointing, but all I have for you is an idea. Jigsaw boxes will first always inflict Survivors with the Oblivious status effect, just for a quick adjustment. Okay, so now for the real thing. The Jigsaw Box will have a more difficult variant of any minigame in the game chosen at random to be presented to the Survivor interacting with it, such as the generator or totem minigames. Additionally, the Killer may equip add-ons to present Survivors with unique mini-games that are also even harder than the previous. All of that, while also receiving a barrage of skill-checks that inhibit their progress further.
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That's about all I've got for you. I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas! This is an odd subject, so let's keep this judge-free, alright?
Some interactions that I haven't mentioned that you could work with: healing, chests, sabotage, opening exit gates disarming traps, snapping out of it, waking up, mending, sealing portals, and cleansing a sickness.
Thanks for reading!
As of right now, all Survivors in Dead by Daylight have no different traits that make them unique, aside from appearance. Their perks are the only somewhat difference they have, but all perks in the game can be applied to any character as long as they are on the corresponding role. The other difference is appearance, which some players use as an advantage, like playing as Claudette or Adam to camouflage with the environment using their darker appearance. This should be changed to make character choice on the Survivor's side have more of an effect.
When a Survivor is pitted against a certain Killer, they must adapt to whatever the Killer throws at them and adjust to make sure they know what they need to do to survive. Killers should be no different when they see a certain Survivor. So, here's my proposal: Quirks!
Quirks are the Survivor's more-or-less Power. They don't have a huge effect like Killers do, but it lets them have an ability that corresponds to their given role(Dwight as a leader, Claudette as healer, etc.). Here are a few Quirks that I've come up with that you can use as examples. I'd really love it if some of you readers out there shared your ideas down below!
Anyway, let's begin...
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Dwight Fairfield Quirk: "Trial and Error"
Dwight's repair, heal, and sabotage speed is reduced by 10% while working alone.
While performing co-op actions, Trial and Error receives charges. For each second of co-op action, Dwight receives 2 charges for up to a maximum of 60 charges.
While repairing, healing, or sabotaging by himself, Dwight uses one charge per second if he has any and his interaction speed is increased by 10% as long as he has charges remaining.
If Dwight escapes while Trial and Error is fully charged, then all bloodpoint gains are increased by 50%.
Meg Thomas Quirk: "Running Pace"
Meg's athleticism grants her stamina beyond compare. While outside of the Killer's terror radius, Meg runs 20% slower, but she recovers from Exhaustion while running.
This effect only applies while outside of the Killer's terror radius.
David King Quirk: "You Only Live Once"
In a place like this, David might as well find some thrill in the dangers lurking about. While in a chase, David gains one charge for each second he is chased, up to a maximum of 60 charges. Getting hit by the Killer removes 30 charges and pauses its progress for 10 seconds.
When performing repairs, healing, sabotage, searching chests, cleansing totems, or opening exit gates, David does them 15% faster and consumes one charge for each second he performs interactions.
If David escapes while You Only Live Once is fully charged, then all bloodpoint gains are increased by 50%.
Nancy Wheeler Quirk: "Insightful"
It is imperative that everyone is on the same page. Nancy and any other Survivors standing within an 8 meter range will be affected by Insightful. While within range, any auras read by a Survivor will be shared to all Survivors and Nancy.
This effect persists for 15 seconds after all Survivors leave Insightful's effective range.
(This last quirk I'm presenting augments Sole Survivor, Laurie's perk, by including it into her kit by default. This thread also comes with a rework idea down below, while still including its synergy with Object of Obsession as it's supposed to be.)
Laurie Strode Quirk: "Suburban Disappearance"
The Killer's horrifying ability to kill off Laurie's friends strengthens her will to survive, disrupting the Killer's aura-reading. For each killed and sacrificed Survivor, Laurie's aura cannot be read within a certain range.
- 1 dead Survivor: 32 meters
- 2 dead Survivors: 54 meters
- 3 dead Survivors: 128 meters
Increases your chances of becoming the Killer's obsession.
The Killer can only be obsessed by one Survivor at a time.
Sole Survivor (Rework)
As more of your friends fall to the Killer, you become shrouded in isolation and the Killer's aura-reading abilities towards you are disrupted. When a Survivor is hooked, you receive a token, up to a maximum of 4/5/6 tokens. Any time when your aura would be shown to the Killer, a token is consumed and your aura will cannot be read for 5 seconds.
When you are hooked by the Killer, you lose all tokens gained. You cannot gain tokens while hooked.
Increases your chances of becoming the Killer's obsession.
The Killer can only be obsessed by one Survivor at a time.
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That's all I've got for you for today. I've been thinking about giving Killers this trait too, but I wasn't completely sure. But hey, that's what this is for! This is a discussion after all! Let me know what you think down below, and be sure to comment down your ideas when you get the chance! This is a judge-free zone!
Thanks for reading!
Comments
I like the idea but David's passive is pretty much useless. If they did add passive abilities into the game it would make the survivors much more interesting and maybe some characters like Quentin and Tap will get some usage if they have good passive abilities.
Sounds like you got this idea from my hero academia
I really like the idea of giving Survivors unique abilities, but the problem is that we're way too far into the game's development to do something like that. Doing so will suddenly make the Survivor characters much less equal to each other, and if the Survivor you've already put all your resources into gets an ability you don't like, you are SOL.
Claudette: You Can't See Me
Killer can't see Claudette for the rest of the game until it's time for taunting at the gate
I think these are cool ideas but I also think the more complicated a power/perk/quirk whatever is, the more difficult it is to balance. I would be happy with something simple, like different survivors receiving small passive boosts to certain actions which are in keeping with their character/existing perks. So Dwight might get a 5% bonus to generator repair speed when repairing with another survivor, Meg might get 5% bonus movement speed (or if that's too strong, 5% bonus movement speed under certain circumstances, such as only when she is healthy), Claudette might get 5% bonus to healing speed, Jake might get 5% bonus sabotaging speed, etc. It would give survivors a bit of variety without being too broken or difficult to balance further down the line.
I do not believe this would be a good idea.
Giving survivors unique abilities would make everyone just run 1 or two survivors who have the better quirks than the others (similar to the limited useful perks on the survivor side).
And if your favorite survivor that you got cosmetics and perks and spent bloodpoints on gets the crappy end of the "Quirk" bargain?
Well, guess you better spend the same amount of hours on someone else that you dislike, then.
Claudette's should be squeaky shoes so you can hear her.
First off... No. This concept isn't great for the health of the game. @Mat_Sella and @TAG makes all the relevant points about this from the survivor side.
Secondly, Your change to Sole Survivor would make it a better Disruption. You might as well make that Disruption instead, and come up with something different.
Third: Killers would have to take this into account. Seeing Dwights on Gens would force them to go after them, for fear of a gen rush, and perks that are already counterable, like BBQ and NOED, would be useless against Lauries and Nancies. Too many things to take into account with all the second chance perks in the game.
I actually didn’t. Is there something like this in MHA?
My thoughts exactly, @Mat_Sella
Maybe David’s passive is a bit too difficult to use. I was trying to feed into his risk-reward playstyle, but I might’ve been too harsh on him.
Perhaps. It would be nice though.
Yeah, I see what you mean. I would say that it would only be fair if every Survivor got a good quirk, but knowing this game, that’s a bit of a stretch since there are only so many things each Survivor can get that is different.
Hey, it was worth a try.
Yeah, I see what you’re saying about the quirks. They were a good idea at the time, and maybe they still are and just need tweaking so that they’re small and don’t have a huge impact like perks do. I have another proposal to make in a thread I’ll be making later that applies to both sides, so we’ll see about that.
As for Sole Survivor, I definitely agree. I still think it needs a rework, but what I did is way too much. I realized now that it completely negates BBQ no matter what, and it requires no skill to use. Not only that, but there’s no drawback, which is what all obsession perks should have.
Lastly, this isn’t really that relevant, but I’m saying it anyway. Lauries, maybe, but Nancy’s quirk doesn’t block aura-reading, it shares it. So if Nancy runs Windows of Opportunity, then everybody within 8 meters also sees the auras that she sees, which in this case are the vaults and pallets. Laurie’s on the other hand, her quirk does absolutely nothing as long as everybody is alive.
But yeah, I still agree with what you’re saying. I just felt like saying all of that.
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We dont need any meta survivors in game. Its fine how it is.
Oh god, that’s a horrific thought actually.
I was referring to Nancy countering NOED and totems in general due to aura sharing and maps. : P
No worries. I prefer discussion. : )