Length of chases in DBD
I tend to find a disconnect between how long most people want chases between the killer and survivor to last and how short chases realistically need to be for the killer to have a chance of winning a match.
ie how long people want chases to last currently would mean the killer would lose.
So where's the sweet spot? What would y'all say is long enough for a "fun" chase but still realistic enough that it gives the killer a chance of winning with all his chases lasting that long?
In the games current balance I would say you need a hit or a pallet in 15 seconds or less if you want to win against actually "good" survivors. Taking longer than that and you're losing the game. Which the irony here to me is that like 90% of the killer roster can't get those things in 15 seconds or less through shear holding W time much less adding good looping in. Hence where the camping/tunneling comes from.
Unfortunately I don't think most people would have fun with sub 15 second chases which is where the issue comes in.
Comments
A survivor wanna min chase (of fun looping) if not more. Getting down quickly by the killer make u feel one of two things.
●"I'm playing badly! a skill player wouldn't go down this quick"
●the killer is op or annoying cause he's to strong in chase
i personally hate trickster because of this
That's kind of the impression I get from most people but a minute chase is not even close to viable for the killer unfortunately. I'm curious to see more opinions on the time length.
Which is why bHVR says tunneling and proxy camping are approved strategies, and while they try their best to ruin face camping.
You are intentionally playing nice for no gain, the game is not balanced around it if you go no opportunities.
You are a Killer, not a Babysitter.
I would be fine with long chases if the game had a dedicated 1v1 mode (e.g. queue for 1v1s in matchmaking).
Currently yeah, you need to be getting downs in 45 seconds or less or you are just going to lose due to efficient survivors. Which is why I play killers that have very strong chase.
Considering survivors actually doing well and are objective focused; I'd say chases have to top at 30s.
Generally, as a Killer if I don't get a hit or take out a pallet in 15 to 20 seconds or less I abandon the chase and go back to gens. I run generally one and maximum two gen defense perks (and I don't use Eruption) so spending any longer than that in chase will cost any chance of doing well. If I see a Survivor by a strong loop who's made themselves noticeable I generally ignore them as I'm not going to spend a minute chasing them while gens go uncontested.
People have to pick what they prefer. You can have either:
(a) A short time in chase; or
(b) Oppressive level of gen regression; or
(c) Tunneling and camping.
Without at least one of the above the Killer will lose. Personally I'd rather face (a) when I play Survivor so I try to do that as Killer as well.
I made a very similar thread on this topic fairly recently:
In conclusion I think most people agree that a majority of the killer roster can’t down good survivors quick enough a lot of the time. When you add in low mobility on large maps then you end up with killers under pressure and needing the first chase to go EXTREMELY well in order to not lose 1 or even 2 gens before the first hook. This is where the slowdown meta and camping/tunnelling do all contribute to the vicious cycle of gameplay that often occurs.
Ideally the game would feel generally more “chill” on both sides but alas I don’t see that happening.
i think the majority would go with B. Half the time someone go down quickly at the start u get a dc. This regression era isn't that bad! people just hate being incapacitated by eruption
I honestly think that this is something that can only be determined experimentally. Someone could run a test where once chase begins, the killer and survivor just do nothing for a certain length of time before the survivor is hooked, and then see how that affects the outcome of the match.
That sweet spot you mentioned would also probably be affected by generator speeds too. You can really feel the difference from the killer side when a team has 4 BNPs and when it's just three Blendettes in the corner.
For a hit or down you're saying?
I mean for a hit, I'd prefer if that was the down time but that just seems like wishful thinking for any killer without a 1 shot.
That's kind of why I see the more ideal solution as fixing map design so that gens will take longer so that the survivors can enjoy long chases without it costing the killer the entire game. Rather than what we currently have which is unfun and super short chases combined with camping/tunneling in order to keep up with the gen speeds.
Oh man 30 seconds for a down even sounds like a loss to me. That means for that one hit or pallet (not even a down) you lost 90 seconds of gen time (30seconds x 3 other survivors). That means you're losing 1 gen per hit, ouch lol. I agree that's how long it can take most often, hence all the camping/tunneling/gen regression stacking.
And this is before we even get into how much time you lose in locked animations. Pick, carry, and then hook. that's like 15 seconds x 3 other survivors = 45 seconds of gen time every hook...that's wild.
I agree, as far as objective times go the killer has to find ways to overcome that gap.