How about bonus incentives for Solo Survivors?
TLDR: SWFs have a strong advantage over the killer and solo players, and solo players have a harder game in general. As an incentive for survivors to play solo queue, how about some small bonus rewards to encourage/reward solo players for playing the more authentic survivor experience? Something like 25-35% extra bloodpoints, maybe even a small bonus of 5-10 iridescent shards or whatever per game. Perhaps a 33-40% chance to recover lost gear from the trial?
Longman version:
So I am very new to DbD, but even after a short time playing the game and reading the forums, the disparity of solo queue players and SWFs is a pretty wide gulf... I don't think you'll find a single killer main or survivor main that won't agree the feel and flow of a solo queue game vs. the SWF game are extremely different, and being a solo survivor is much harder.
Everyone knows the list of advantages SWF comms brings, and there are endless threads and posts about killers bringing nasty perks, using hardball unfun strategies and going tryhard to get some kind of pressure going. Both sides have strong perks to counter each other and SWFs are factored into the balance, so SWFs are here to stay as indicated by the devs.
However as I've started getting paired with better teams, one thing that leaps out is how vs. a SWF I spend so much of the game just trying to find someone. If I break off mid chase cause its taking too long, I can find gens ticking up, but will see no scratch marks, have heard no lockers, rarely get glimpses of people leaving gens.... I can ofc try and search, but a smart survivor will still be hard to find unless I guess perfectly, and it's all wasting time that other gens are just getting done.
Vs. Solo players, I will almost always get to start a new chase immediately as I patrol gens, as Solo Survivors only clue I might be coming is that chase has dropped (which they have to pay a LOT of attention)... if they wait for my terror radius to make a move, its usually too little too late to hide. If they try to anticipate my movement and come off gens to hide before hearing my TR, that is passive map wide pressure, because everyone has to do it or gamble as to whether I'm coming... not just the 1 gen I'm heading towards that gets called out.
When I play solo survivor, I love this feeling of suspense listening out for the TR, and scanning the environment, hoping the killer isn't beelining towards me, all while trying to hit skill checks. I feel like this is the survivors game at its best, where you're having to think for yourself, and it creates a load of tension and forces hard choices. Just playing without comms makes DbD surprisingly immersive...
So instead of bashing on SWFs, I thought the solo survivor gameplay experience should be encouraged, a game where you don't have a Metal Gear Codec built into your inner ear, and you have to survive entirely on your own wits, skill and decision making... so to reward this:
25-35% bloodpoint bonus, this offsets the difficulty of scoring from the game, helps new low level solo survivors get levels to acquire gear and perks from different characters to kickstart their builds.
5-10 iridescent shards (Must meet a minimum score threshold to prevent afk farming). This is a direct encouragement to break up SWFs. It's small, overall is less than you get just for levelling, but it adds up over time. It's also nicer to encourage purchasing cosmetics for survivors, because unlike killers who you bought with iridescents, survivors gameplay doesn't change, giving more shards so you can unlock survivors you only want for perks(or use the shrine) would be a pleasant bonus.
33%-40% chance to recover their lost gear in trials, this makes the naturally punishing solo survivor game less costly, especially for new survivors still trying to fill out their blood webs.
Doing all of this would hopefully have the effect of breaking up SWFs, making the game far more chill for Killers, who in turn don't feel pressured as much to go hardball every game, and maybe even try some fun builds more often. Even if they do go hardball, being tunneled out as the weak link isn't as costly, and is less likely as these bonuses passively increases the chance you'll be paired with other solo survivors, thus are less likely to be the weak link. Finally it would just be a nice gesture to solo survivors to acknowledge they are playing the game in a harder way, so get rewarded for it. :)
Comments
That's more or less equivalent of punishing people for playing with friends, I doubt it gonna happen.
A bonus for playing solo... is a punishment for playing with friends...
Do you want another take on that my guy?
It...is.
The benefit you can only get with solo, is equivalent of disadvantage for playing with friends.
Give an advantage to solo or give an disadvantage to SWF, end result is same, playing with friends will be penalized.
One side has more = other side has less.
Not difficult concept.
This work for killer vs survivor BP bonus, because that's for role needed and it changes.
That wouldn't work soloQ vs SWF. That's still same, never changing bonus.
OK I'll try to explain this another way.
In a SWF you have numerous advantages. It is easier to coordinate gens, it is easier to coordinate saves, it is easier to scout the map and loop the killer, it is easier to track the killer, and it is easier to escape the trial and win the game. You even get the luxury or coordinating your builds for specific team roles with your SWF.
Would you therefore conclude that playing as a solo survivor without all these benefits is therefore penalising the solo queue player? Both currently get the same rewards, have the same requirements to get those rewards, but one is undeniably harder... no one would disagree with that I hope. I would not call it being penalised, but it's certainly a disadvantage.
SWF is what the game is balanced for by the devs own admission. Therefore if you're a solo survivor, you are actively handicapping yourself, as you are playing the game in a manner that is not balanced for you.
If you give solo survivors more points/resources, you're still giving SWFs the rewards the game is balanced for... you're not making it unfair on SWFs, you're giving players playing the harder game mode more resources.
You can look at it as a "oh no I'm not getting as much in SWF! That is unfair!" if you want... but I would say playing the harder game mode should be rewarded, and getting the standard rewards at the level the game is actively being balanced around in a SWF, is perfectly fair. Asking for more as an SWF when you already have all these advantages to help you score, is being greedy.
From this I’m getting that a fun Perk idea that might be right up your alley is a Perk that charges up in chase and upon breaking chase grants you undetectable for a duration. It doesn’t let you come from unexpected angles around the map (in a timely manner) if the chased survivor calls out their position (but I find that a fundamental flaw in DBD’s map design only solveable via some kind of teleportation network), but it would allow a general Perk to act as a TR cloak when exiting chase.
Akin to a Ghostface entering Shroud after leaving chase.
Huh. Wonder if Beast of Prey could get reworked into that.
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I'm not trying to antagonise here... so with all due respect...
It's not a difficult concept to understand that a bonus for the players playing the more difficult game... especially when the game is balanced for SWFs... is not a punishment.
This has the same energy as a child who has been given 3 bars of chocolate by his gran at lunch, only to complain the kid next to him has a *slightly* larger piece of birthday cake.
SWF is harder to play, given the additional layer of complexity of communication, coordination, and increased cooperation threshold. But it is much easier to get the results you want.
SoloQ is easier to play, given the reduced information and tools at your disposal, as well as your own detachment from other players. But it is much harder to get the results you want.
I think the only meta-game progression bonus SoloQ needs is the one it already has: flexibility in its inclusion into your timetable/social circle.
Gameplay-wise that’s another story., and feeds into your complaints about Bloodpoint gain (likely a result of altruism points and general match longevity).
The above is being worked on, it seems. However in the meantime I don’t see the need to promote isolationism over cooperation in terms of general meta-game progression.
In fact, I think providing incentives to encourage social interaction in games is a healthy thing for the community, from the perspective of a business and a player.
Still against integrated voice comms though. Needing to put in a bit more effort in order to socialize filters out low-bar trolls unshackled by anonymity (be it direct or by volume) and helps reinforce the idea that socializing does take some effort, the only downside being that cross-platform communications have an additional hardware gap given audio sources being split across devices. (Though Sony did acquire Discord)
So I guess I’m against general matchmaking voice comms. Not a comms link formed via party formation prior queue.
Don't ask me, "we won't give any advantage to solo or give any disadvantage to SWF because people shouldn't be penalized for playing with friends" was exactly what dev said in the past, I think it's stupid but that's it.
Interesting take, thanks for reading all the way through and providing something tangible! 🤔
The solo queue game being isolationist and having less complexity is an interesting stance. I would argue that because you have less tools and information, your game requires much more critical decision making and experience to win, or at least stand a decent chance of winning. I tend to find the big problem in solo is survivors being too altruistic instead of hiding or working on far of safe gens when injured/dead on hook... Even just getting them to heal is a problem. For example if you have Kindred, and see the dead on hook, injured Nea trying to go for the unhook save, do you stay doing your 70% complete gen even though you're on 0 downs? Or do you go?
As a solo, information perks are king, because you don't have that luxury of comms. Even with you information perks, your allies may not have them, so trying to make a "best" call in a crap situation is a tall order.
Incentivising social interaction is definitely a worthwhile goal, and good for the community, however playing solo shouldn't be discouraging because you get those situations that are just out of your hands. I really enjoy this tense uncertainty in solo queue, so I'm not complaining, but I try to learn playing both sides, and it surprises me how there is certain behaviour/strategies I see SWFs do, that I simply couldn't do as Solo without an absolutely inhuman read... its not impossible for a solo to do them, but it certainly isn't easy, and if you're wrong with your guess, then you're giving the Killer precious time.
I'm not knocking the skill of SWFs at all, or complaining about them really, but there have not been an insignificant number of times where the natural chaos and uncertainty of solo survivor games have led me to say to myself "wow... this guy made a horrific mistake... it'd be rude/patronising not to take advantage of it".
In these moments, as a Killer I'm left thinking that "this guy made a mistake, a mistake he wouldn't have made if he had comms to help, and now the whole team is in a lot of trouble...". I feel like people playing in that world deserve incentives and bonuses for embracing that more difficult challenge. 😁
Huh... thats disappointing ..
Should have probably guessed this has been discussed before, thanks for pointing out this decision has already been made 😔
I still do not agree with the stance rewarding solo queue players is a penalty for SWFs.
Its like Demon Souls half health when undead vs. Embering in Dark Souls 3. They are essentially the same concept, but in one you are having something taken off you, the other you are gaining something extra.
These are 2 very different things, and I'm sure any self aware SWF would not honestly feel upset if their solo counterparts were granted extra bonuses... but maybe that's me giving too much credit 😅
It's not difficult by what game allows.
Fact that players are talking with each other is not allowed by game itself.
You can't detect if they are talking or not.
You never ever want to create mechanic that would players feel punished for playing with friends.
This game is not noob friendly, there is very little players who would install it and play soloQ. Most survivors get to this game to play with their friends, DBD needs that. It's stupid to punish it.
This is like saying I want more BP for playing Pig (any weak killer). I am playing harder version of DBD, but it's my choice. Same for soloQ
Seems I may be a closet masochist... xD
Though I do get is how it may be perceived... and it is fair point this game is brutally hard woth a high entry barrier....
I responded to fulltonon with a similar point(awaiting approval), I personally wouldn't have thought a bonus to solo players would be perceived as a punishment to SWFs... but then again maybe that's an overly optimistic view to take 🤔