Tension, Strategy, & Depth In Dead By Daylight
While this is somewhat related to the PTB, it's a broader conversation so I'm putting it in general discussions instead.
There's a comment that I see repeated about the notion of anti-[X] additions, whether it's about tunnelling or slugging or in some cases camping, where people object to the idea of removing… one of the three things in the title. Usually strategy and depth, but for this particular PTB the notion of "tension" is being invoked as well.
This is a little separate from citing "player agency", which I could make a whole other post about. That's its own thing.
So, here's the thesis statement: I don't think removing tunnelling and/or weakening slugging actually do much to harm tension, strategy, or depth in DBD. I actually think it helps those three things. For the sake of this post, though, I'm only looking at tunnelling- as slugging is set to be preserved as an option, just one with a cap on its value, I don't feel I need to discuss it much here.
Another quick addendum: Tunnelling here is defined as "chasing someone soon after they're unhooked to capitalise on their vulnerability, often but not always to remove them from the match in three hooks".
We'll start with tension. I don't think the argument that the killer being able to tunnel someone out builds tension really works out all that well, and the reason why is fairly simple: Tension needs the ebb and flow to function.
When someone's being tunnelled, there's no tension because there's no real variance to build it, there's no ebb and flow. It's known exactly what the killer is doing + will continue to do, so you know precisely what you're doing (generators, if you're not the one being tunnelled), and there's not really any tension about what the outcome will be either.
The survivor getting tunnelled is gonna die. They might last a while, but that doesn't make a huge difference unless they're cracked and can actually run the killer for multiple gens while at a disadvantage to begin with.
Contrast that to a killer that's spreading their pressure (and, dare we dream, also maybe playing in unpredictable ways- more on that later). The tension comes from not knowing exactly where the killer's going or who they're about to target, especially in solo queue but even in SWF until someone gets eyes on the killer.
You're sitting on a generator, and you don't know where the killer is. You don't see any chase indicators, so where are they? Coming for you? Going for a teammate? You can hear the terror radius - is it getting louder? If it is, does that mean the killer's coming for you or just patrolling nearby?
Now, I'll take a step back and acknowledge, the tension in DBD does take a back seat once you're experienced. It's a part of the game, to be sure, but once you get more aware and especially if you're on comms, it's not as big a deal anymore.
My point is, tunnelling weakens the already less-relevant tension by taking all questions and decisionmaking out of the equation. There's no uncertainty, it's samey and predictable.
Next, let's look at strategies.
A big stink gets made a lot about how this is removing strategy from the killer role, with more incensed critics putting it in a line of strategies that supposedly get removed.
The point I'd like to make here is that even if we're unreasonably charitable to tunnelling and consider it just a legitimate strategy and not a massive balance problem… it's still a weight bringing down the breadth of strategy in this game because it's basically always the best, "correct" way to play because the situations that make it not the best way to play are few, far between, and difficult to recognise until you've already started tunnelling.
Even assuming it to be a legitimate strategy, it still harms the variety of killer strategy by providing a one-size-fits-most tool that's easy to attempt and difficult to counter. Add in that the last part is only true because tunnelling is noticeably unbalanced, and we have a very clear conclusion: Supporting strategy in this game means addressing tunnelling in some way.
This also actually helps depth, so let's talk about that next. Is it weird to use the bold there? I set the pattern, I need to continue it.
There are obviously a lot of ways that depth manifests in DBD, but I'd argue one of the most important areas is recognising your opponent's build and gameplan. Some of this is still intact regardless of tunnelling; you can keep track of which Exhaustion perk a survivor has, or which regression combo the killer's running, and use that to both adapt your gameplan around what they do have, but also around what they don't have.
What tunnelling harms is broadly very simple: A killer who is going to tunnel probably didn't bring a build for any specific playstyle, just a generic set of perks. There's no gameplan to deduce - it's broadcast very quickly and is easy to discern - so there's no reason to assume they'll be running perks for any specific gameplan either.
If we take tunnelling completely out of the equation, suddenly there is no "best" way to play. Sure, some things are weaker than others, but the things near the top are much closer together than any of them are to tunnelling- this means survivors get more depth in identifying + adapting to the killer's gameplan + perks, but also killers have more depth in choosing their gameplan + perks.
So, to recap. Are any of these things going to individually catapult upwards exponentially? No, it'll be small increases, people already do engage with the breadth of this game's strategy and depth for the most part. It'll only be a small increase, but it's the inverse statement that's more important here: That means tunnelling is a decrease to these things, not an increase itself.
Tunnelling causes issues for the things people often cite as the things that need to be preserved whenever addressing tunnelling comes up. Addressing tunnelling properly would be a good thing for the game because it removes the homogenising, tension-draining single tactic that there's no reason for killers not to employ.
Now, I want to be clear this isn't necessarily a defence of any specific changes in the current PTB, it's more broad than that. This conversation has been ongoing for much longer than this PTB has been up, and I'm responding to the idea of removing tunnelling from the game.
TL;DR: Tunnelling harms tension, strategy, and depth. Removing it gives more breathing room for those things to flourish going forward.
Comments
I don't think it should be made entirely impossible, as it kind of was on the PTB. That just inevitably opens up room for abuse, and makes lose/lose situations.
Having such dire penalties just for killing someone within 6 hooks (which is entirely possible without tunnelling), or for hooking someone twice in a row (which just leads to people sitting on gens being de-facto invincible due to the repercussions of killing them for any reason) eliminates the tension entirely, as Survivors are left completely safe by these measures, and have no reason to fear the Killer no matter how reckless or stupid they might play.
However, I do like the angle they were taking with the hook obscuring mechanics, and the Elusive effect. It doesn't make it completely impossible to tunnel per-se, but it does make it a giant pain to do so. It makes it far easier for an unhooked Survivor to get away, but does not put some kind of crazy shield around them.
I think the gen penalties were well meaning, but overbearing. Having someone dead by 6 Hooks is entirely possible without hard tunnelling, and I think that needs to be reduced to 4-5 Hooks instead. The "last hooked" status also needs to be removed on a Conspicuous Action, to prevent Survivors from being able to have unconditional shielding on Death Hook.
The system should punish people for trying to tunnel someone out off of a hook, not for hooking survivors twice in a row who have reset and gotten back into the game. Any protection that lets Survivors do objectives while being considered as "getting tunnelled" removes any kind of tension while active, as evidenced by DS back in the day.
Like I said, none of this is meant to be a defence of the specific changes on the PTB.
Moreso to say, IF it is possible to remove tunnelling outright without any negative side effects, it should be done. Tunnelling is, at best, a necessary evil we need to accept is possible while minimising it as much as possible.
The penalty for a sub-6 kill was extremely mild, to the point where, if this were installed tomorrow without anyone mentioning it and no UI indicating it, I doubt anyone would even notice.
The gen block was far more punishing.
I don't think it is possible to remove it outright without any negative side effects.
They can make it harder, sure, but there's no way to make it impossible without any potential to abuse the mechanics.
Probably. I mostly wanted to make the case for tunnelling adding nothing valuable or worthwhile to the game, since that's a position you'll see the inverse of fairly regularly.
In the case of hard tunnelling at 3-5 gens, maybe.
In a more tame sense, though, it does add tension to the game. Looping when the stakes are high and the killer wants you dead specifically can be intense and fun, and being a huge pain by bodyblocking while the killer is tunnelling someone else is also very satisfying.
It's the edge cases that bring the most frustration, getting someone out of the game super early isn't fun, but tactically trying to tunnel someone out at 2-1 gens remaining still leaves room for Survivors to leverage pressure and counterplay via bodyblocking/taking aggro.
I could see that becoming true with proper safeguards to make that chase not substantially easier than chasing someone else, but it isn't true right now, which is a big part of the problem.
It's not as though you couldn't get that tension from the killer doing anything else to turn a match around, after all.
This is the sort of well-articulated take we need.
I agree. Tunneling doesn't generate tension for me. If I'm the one being tunneled, I'm just annoyed and frustrated. If I see it happening to someone else with 5 gens up then I just sigh and go "here we go" while feeling defeated. It's actually more monotonous than regular gameplay. What's tense is being on a gen and hearing the terror radius growing and deciding if I'm going to try to crank it or run. Cleansing a hex totem and hoping the killer doesn't come check on it is tense. Tension in horror comes from the suspense of not knowing what's coming. Knowing exactly what's coming is the opposite of tension.
As killer, I try to keep everyone alive as long as possible with spreading hooks. My goal is to hook everyone once first then go from there. I like tight, even matches. Ideally, everyone dies in fairly quick succession once we're down to one or two gens. That's tension. Will I get rid of them fast enough or will they get the last gen done? Will they get to the exit gates before I can? I don't slug for hatch. That's also tension, seeing who will find it first.
I don't think the tension necessarily weakens when you get more experienced. I think the fear does. I started survivor fearful and now I'm not, but I still feel tense when the last few seconds of a gen are left and the terror radius is blaring.
The only time I've ever gotten any thrill from tunneling as a survivor was at end game. For example, I had a match last night against a Micheal with permanent tier 3. Had almost no hooks at end game. Committed to tunneling me right off hook because he needed to try for a single target to get 1k. Dodging him with vaults and hitting him with pallets because he was desperate and sloppy was exciting. But that's end game. That's when stakes are totally different and you have will-you-live-will-you-die moments of truth.
I also agree tunneling removes depth, as it's repetitive and generic and allows for little to no skill expression from killers. It's also masking problems with certain killers. Everyone's argument has been "how will low-mobility killers win now?" If that's truly an issue, then let's uncover it in the numbers. If those killers suddenly plummet, then they could be on the table for reworks.