Nerfing swf/ buffing all killers isn't the answer
So I see swf is always being complained about on here , people want the killers buffed to be equivalent of the best survivors of the game but doing so will kill solo play, randoms are already bad enough about DC and giving up on first hook so how would this help? If anything you would lose half the player base and end up facing swf in every game instead of occasionally because believe it or not more than half the base do just play casual and if the game gets any harder for them what's gonna be the point in playing? I feel like there has to be a better way to balance this game without totally throwing solo play out the window I know I don't want to face a try hard SWF in EVERY game I play.
Comments
The most sensible suggestions I've seen involve buffing solo survivors up to the level of SWF, then buffing killers up just so they don't fall behind.
Imho, SWF shouldn't be nerfed or removed, it should be embraced and balanced around.
This guy knows what's up.
I actually at this point would just prefer bug fixes, new generic perks added for each side to adjust the meta to a more balanced state, and small tweaks to weaker killers making them at least viable at every rank not just a chore outside of certain ranks.
It's extremely hard to do that correctly without buffing swf though, technically you're buffing survivors I thought the same thing before but in the end it only makes the survivors stronger and then we're in the same predicament with killers being slightly behind where they should be , at this point I'm starting to think the game is impossible to totally balance without one side or the other having too much power
PvP is always hard to balance, the margin of error is razor thin, and asymmetric PvP is even tougher. It will never be perfect, but we can try to trim down the outliers.
The main benefit of SWF is information sharing, so that would be my focus for buffing solo survivors. Give them more data to work with regarding their fellow survivors and maybe a small amount of extra killer detection. Something like a brief reveal of the killer's aura for all survivors if one survivor gets into a chase, or make Bond base, stuff like that.
Things that will help solo survivors replicate the kind of coordination SWF groups are capable of, which in turn elevates the game's overall level of strategy. My examples need work but they're in the general vicinity of where I think things should go. Not necessarily buffs to technical performance, but an increased data flow encouraging informed decisions.
The lower tier killers should probably get some kind of non-chase mobility buff to help them apply map pressure, because that seems to be the primary difference between high and low tiers from what I can tell. I'm not sure how to work the whole thing out and there are people much more qualified than me to stab at it, but it's how I see things.
The issue with buffing solo is you can't buff them to the point of voice coms and organized teamwork with familiar players.
The game is currenty balanced around survivors not knowing if another teammate is going for the hook save or not. It is the unknown plus uncoordinated action that gives the killer pressure.
I like to know what they can do for killers to place them at this level? Make them faster? Ability to see survivor auras outside a perk? Allow one hit after certain amount of gens completed?
How will the dynamics of the game be changed to compensate for Pandora's box being opened three years ago?
Oh, also solo survivors should definitely get a BP bonus. Nothing too crazy, but a nice little reward, calculated post-game like BBQ (though not as high of a multiplier), to say "thanks for sticking with the hardest mode in the game".
I don't think the goal is necessarily to put solo survivors exactly on par with an experienced SWF group, but to mitigate the misery of not being in an experienced SWF group.
4 solo survivors can actually achieve a level of info sharing that rivals a SWF group, but they have to build for it. Most solo survivors aren't going to commit 100% of their build to teamwork perks, because they can't rely on random teammates to make it worth their while. You could be an amazing healer or team supporter, but if your teammates throw you under the bus to save their own skin, it means nothing.
So I think the best thing that can be done for the long term health of the game is to encourage solo survivors to embrace teamwork in the mold of SWF groups, and I think the best way to accomplish that is to give them some tools to do so without requiring painful sacrifices in the loadout menu.
The people who are suggesting to just straight nerf SWF (impossible actually as SWF doesn't have any actual game mechanics) and buff killers are usually just killer mains who don't know what they're talking about and just had a bad game (usually not even at the hands of SWF) so they are mad.
That's not to say SWF isn't a real problem, but it's blown way out of proportion. On the other hand, in the interest of advancing the game the reasonable suggestion in my opinion is to buff solo survivors with aura-read perks. For example, make Bond and Kindred baseline. Rework these perks (like Kindred could become a variant of Camaraderie where the rescuing survivor uses the perk and slows the hook down if he comes near the hook).
Then balance killer around the newfound perks. this levels the playing field a little between SWF and solo, making it less of an issue.
I still think giving survivors built in Bond and kindred will drastically buff SWF , an example let's say you're being chased and you're trying to explain where exactly you're at to your friend to flashlight, well with that buff they no longer have to go hunting in the direction you told them they can visualize better than you telling them, also so now instead of being cautious going to the hook having some sort of unknown on where exactly the killer is even when being told you know right where they are and can see what they're doing and they didn't even have to run a perk to make those things 10 times easier, people say those perks are useless but I know people who run those even in swf to make it easier on everyone just because you can tell your team one thing and the killer immediately do something different then what you said but when you can see exactly what's happening you have that much more information without sacrificing anything