Dead By Daylight's Biggest Mistake: (Windows of Opportunity Change)
The devs are planning on changing the perk Windows of Opportunity into a perk that only reveals the aura of windows. Essentially, making it a mostly useless perk. And with that, they might have just made one of the biggest mistakes they could have ever made.
But why?
It is no secret that Windows of Opportunity has been one of the most used perks across of all of DBD. But why is that? Was it truly overpowered?
The answer is no.
But to see why nerfing this perk is DBD's biggest mistake, we first need to understand an age-long problem with DBD.
As DBD is an asymmetrical horror game, the game introduces a unique problem that symmetrical games don't have. The asymmetrical factions of DBD; killer and survivor, both have a different learning curve:
At a lower ELO, playing killer is generally easier for a beginner player than is playing survivor. Where as, as both factions get better at the game, survivors eventually start gaining the upper hand.
The reason why this happens is actually quite easy to understand.
It is that, for a beginner player, it is SIGNIFICANTLY easier for a beginner killer to follow a beginner survivor, than it is for a beginner survivor to properly navigate dozens of randomly generated maps while looking backwards for most of this.
This singular aspect creates THE BIGGEST skillgap between low level players and high level players.
Therefore, it is also significantly harder for beginner level survivors to locate loops, which nowadays, are pretty mind-game-able for the bigger part. Many beginner players will severely struggle even finding more than 1 pallet during looping without getting hit. They simply have no idea where to go.
Windows of Opportunity has been the golden standard for helping bridge the skillcap in the learning curve between killer and survivor and creating healthier overall game outcomes.
Considering how brutal the process is of learning so many random generated maps, means a large majority of the survivor playerbase will spend most of their time still in the process of properly learning these maps, and therefore, will need perks like Windows of Opportunity, to help generate those healthy game outcomes.
It can take a survivor 100rds of hours before they start feeling comfortable knowing the layout of all the maps.
The beautiful thing is, Windows of Opportunity is not OP. It is exactly the expert level survivors that have no need for this perk. Organized and competitive teams are already calling out which pallets were dropped. This perk truly only helped the weak and vulnerable. The solo players and the learners. In other words; the people that needed it most.
Therefore, the Devs should not feel intimidated by the high pick rate of this survivor perk, thinking that somewhere they've screwed up with the balancing. This perk and its pickrate are the story of its success in helping neutralize one of DBD's longest and oldest problems; which is, the unequal learning curve between killers and survivors, and has been at the centre at fixing that.
I really hope that the Devs revert their decision around Windows of Opportunity, as for me, as someone with over a thousand hours, I won't be missing this perk, as I no longer need it. But I fear for my new friends, who don't know how to play this game yet, that their single handed best learning tool has just been dragged to the gutter, and will now instead lay on a pile of other unused and dead perks without a purpose. I really hope the Devs realize the crucial role this perk has played and why it should be left alone as DBD's healthiest designed perk.
Comments
It's Windows of opportunity, not pallets of opportunity
Still it needs to be separate from five moves ahead.
I kind of agree but I thought Windows was ok. Maybe I'm just entitled idk, regardless I'm excited for the 50+ perk changes.
It was already separate. There can be multiple pallet perks, just like there can be multiple healing perks, gen speed perks, etc. Five move ahead is less beginner friendly due to the cooldowns, but had other advantages, while WoO was more beginner friendly, so they were already meaningfully different.
Plus the fact that WoO is on Kate, which is significantly easier to unlock for newer players.
Windows of Opportunity is now literally just a dead perk, as if designed by people who don't play this game.
The name Windows of opportunity is not meant to be literal. It’s a phrase.
Still can be taken literally.
Oh my god they really are killing every perk possible for survivors. Most maps only have like three usable windows max and one of them is shack.
If you want them to feel more separate that bad, keep the FMA change where it only shows pallets and leave Windows alone. FMA is more for experience players in the first place, and if they can see the positions of the pallets they probably have a decent idea of where the windows are as well, although a lot of experienced players probably have a decent idea where both are even without the perk and mostly use the perk for the fast drop animation.
Windows is the new player perk, it wasn't very useful to experienced players. You might call it "braindead go to yellow" or whatever, but if you started out this game maining survivor then you'd know it takes hundreds of hours to get a somewhat decent idea of where windows and pallets can spawn on the 50+ unique maps. That time gets even longer when you don't have the perk to show you where those resources are in all your games and instead you just have to run around like a headless chicken, end all your chases in 20s because you're running in a straight line, and then you never learn where anything is.
In fairness, WoO Still shows you the things you can commit to memory: windows. They can still learn from it. Pallets are something newer player should be learning may or may not spawn in given spaces, and they should be checking those spaces if near them.
Though admittedly I'd be more okay with the WoO nerf if it was combined with something like a small in-built, non-stacking Finesse. Just as FMA has a faster pallet pull.
That is exactly not the lesson they need to be occupied with learning. You grossly underestimate what beginner survivors actually look like. You're unconsciously talking about intermediate survivors here.
https://youtu.be/mCPgHBg4jG4?si=Smrkzc_AmsclNKzxThis is what beginner survivors look like, and they are a large portion of this playerbase;
I'm not going to disagree here - however, is your logic here that the game should be balanced around these players? I don't want to start arguing points you aren't trying to make as that would make me rather disingenuous and ranty.
People have been asking for a meta shake up for over a year. WoO is the most used survivor perk. Of course it was going to get nerfed and it certainly deserves to.
Nope, my point is that Windows of Opportunity is already perfectly balanced. That the perk mostly helps those that need it the most; soloQ players without coms and Beginners, and helps solve one of DBD's fundemental issues; the unequal learning curve.
Due to that inherent learning curve, leading to low elo stomps by killers against survivors, this perk uniquely helps alleviate that fact.
Due to the time it takes to bridge that learning curve caused by survivors having to run backwards navigating a randomly generated map, it will take a long time to learn the maps, which is why, rightfully so, this perk will be the only perk that is justified in being played so much, without there being any need for nerfs. As its playrate is caused by it solving a fundamental issue with DBD's learning curve, and doesn't break overall game balance. It in fact fixes it.
Yes, which shows that this decision comes from blindly looking at data without comprehension.
In this post, i've explicitly layed out why WoO is UNQUELY justified in being a high pickrate perk, without the need for any nerfs.
For most perks, a high pickrate signifies strength. However, for Windows of Opportunity it does not. It signifies the large flaw of the unequal learning curve due to random map generation, and how survivors and killers interact with that aspect unequally in difficulty. And this perk helps those lower elo survivors, that disproportionally struggle against low elo killer stomp create healthier matches.
Yet the perk itself doesn't offer real power to the strongest of survivors. That is why this perk is uniquely justified in being a high picked perk that should never be touched.
That's fair. But nothing is stopping those newer players from running both WoO and FMA either if they want the same information. Let's be realistic, newer players aren't thirsting for that Dead Hard slot, etc.
I wonder why they didnt just make it have a CD like it used to have lol
They should just make it back to old windows. Where it turns off after a fast vault
I think Windows did deserve a nerf, however I believe the proposed change of it only revealing windows is the wrong way to nerf it and makes it not worth using.
The most important part of Windows was knowing which resources are available. You only need to see a window once in order to know it's there for the rest of the match. On the other hand, seeing a pallet somewhere early in the match doesn't mean it will still be there later.
Making the perk only reveal windows, therefore essentially removes the primary draw of why the perk was useful at all. Window spawns and availability is much more predictable than pallets, and on some maps windows are very static/don't change much with the map generation RNG.
There are other ways this perk could be changed that would bring it down but would still preserve what makes it worth bringing, such as reintroducing the cooldown it used to have several years ago and/or decreasing the reveal range. But completely removing pallets from it just kills the perk imo.
they just love killing any sort of enjoyment for solo q and newcomers to this game…how about we make the ######### perks better instead of nerfing the ones people like to the ground so they wont be used anymore..why have hundreds of perks when only select ones are picked…maybe revamp the dead perks..
WoO and FMA are on completely different survivors, one of which is new and full price (and likely will be for years). It's unrealistic to expect new players to grind to get not only Kate but also Tae-Young for these two perks. Not only that, while FMA does have the nice pallet drop effect, the aura reading goes on cooldown and so it doesn't quite fill the spot one perk used to hold.
I'm fine with FMA getting changed to pallets, I think that makes more sense and differentiates it a bit more from WoO. However, especially if that is already being changed, why is WoO being changed, especially to only show window vaults? Talk about a useless perk.
Tbf, defending WOO because of new players is not a good argument. I had many new players as friends and even when they had that perk they run away from pallets and died in few seconds without learning much from it. It's all a way to update tutorial to be more upgraded towards new dbd. I do agree that this perk is not overpowered (it's literally zanshin tactics for survivors). But it's main strenght isn't to pinpoint where the pallets are, at least not for me. It's main strenght and what makes this perk so frustrating to play against is the fact that survivors know exactly where chases happened and what areas have no resources anymore, preventing you from running into deadzones, rewarding killers for getting rid of the pallets. If you have survivor running into shack because they know there is still pallet up just because of this perk it's not very skilled gameplay. If survivor runs into shack and see the pallet is broken and die because of it it's nature of decreasing resources over time. My issue with pallets is that each map generates too many different variants making it nearly impossible to learn the layouts. If you have maps like Gideon, trickster's delusion or RPD where most pallets always spawn in the same place (not always anymore), it's much easier to memorize. But if you are on Badham there are so many spots where pallets can or don't spawn that learning those layouts isn't matter of hundreds hours. It's way more. If all maps are more static, it would be way easier for overall playerbase to learn the maps. The fact that you can spawn on Coal Tower and have 10 pallets around main building one game or 2 pallets around main building the other game is something that will always be too problematic. Saying that swf has afvantage is also not very true, most swfs are casual players who barely strategize or play competitively, they are mostly friends who want to play after work or at free time. The comp swf is closer to solo q where all 4 survivors are simply just very good players. I personally think that this nerf may be too hard, but time will show. No one says this perk can't be revisited in the future after nerf. Perks like save the best for last, nurses calling or adrenaline are example that none nerf is permanent. Let the time show. But from my point as killer main this game shouldn't be balanced around giving free informations. It's why I'm not huge fan of aura judgments either. It removes a lot of randomness from the game.
WoO only revealing windows is an amazing change and will incentivise people to run different perks instead of clutching with something they don't need for 1000+ hours. Realistically WoO should only be ran for your first 200ish hours to understand how structures spawn but it is such a clutch that some people just refuse to ever take it off and learn. Now, once you learn how windows spawn, it will be easier to switch out for something more beneficial. It will not be useless for the people who have just installed. It will be still be a beginner friendly perk, and it will give less of an advantage to people who have a better understanding of the game.
To combat that issue with expecting new people to grind for 2 characters, I suppose the could make Kate a base character for fresh installs or give fresh installs the opportunity to unlock someone like Feng or Kate etc. for free when they complete the tutorial.
Vaults are an infinite ressource although pallets aren't though. Add to that, the windows aren't present on every maps.
You forget WoO gives to survs more info than just where the pallets/windows are available: during match you can identify where are the breakable walls still present on the maps (very useful on Meat Plant where some deadends are hidden behind a 'gold pallet' for example), where the killer is currently looping & where are the empty spaces…
All the info will be gone as soon as this perk will be changed…
I'm not sure I like this change. I've long since graduated the WoO learning program and haven't equipped it for some months, but it was instrumental in me surviving longer than 10s in the very early days, and since getting an idea what kind of structures/tiles I should expect to have pallet spawns.
I get that it can foster a bit of braindead play, and stifle players in general if used as a crutch beyond when needed, but the new take on it, while providing some passive value, is going to essentially zero this perk's pick rate and remove the best training wheels the game has. I reluctantly agree that some people forget what the genuine new survivor experience is like these days. I'm fortunate in having my new-survivor experience be fairly recent.
The solutions I'd prefer to see, as it is a bit too much at present, are to:
Split the perk in two, giving FMA pallets only and WoO windows only. I dislike this increases the barrier to getting full resource read but it's at least still a viable option at significantly more opportunity cost, which I'd call a reasonable nerf.
Or:
No longer show dropped pallets, removing a bit of the certainty of where resources are in the late game and thus some of the value it provides beyond helping new players.
Or:
Make it last 15s upon entering chase, then place on a fairly lengthy cooldown. Maybe reduce the radius a little too.
My exact point is that Windows of Opportunity, despite its high pickrate, is uniquely justified in its position to not require ANY nerfs, at any point and in the future. The main reason is this:
Windows of Opportunity doesn't boost survivor strength to a brand new level. It mainly helps soloQ players and learners who are absolutely struggling due to the inherent difference in learning curve caused by the long learning path of learning to navigate dozens of randomly generated maps backwards in an optimized fashion, compared to killers mainly having to follow a survivor on their path.
Due to blindly looking at stats, they wrongly assume its high pickrate signifies strength; it doesn't. When a perk is signified by strength, it pushes survivor strength to a newfound max potential, like you'd see with Shoulder the Burden;
Perks like Shoulder the Burden push survivor strength to an all-time high and gives them access to powers they couldn't already had access to for free. Unlike windows, which can be completely replaced by comms and map knowledge that you gain overtime.
In both graphs, the closer the lines are together, the more well balanced the game is, which is the ultimate goal. The bigger the gap at any X point the higher the unbalance at that ELO, so therefore, the bigger the problem.
I hope therefore that these graphs help illustrate the concept that a perk can BOTH HAVE a HIGH PICKRATE (as seen by the large period where Windows of Opportunity is valuable for learners, and simultaneously NOT BE OVERPOWERED). Not only that, but the high pickrate of Windows of Opportunity is A NET BENEFIT for overall game balance and nerfing that perk WOULD harm the overall balance of the game.
What you do want for balance is to nerf the perks that push Survivor's MAX strength, like Deliverance, Shoulder, etc. if you care about game balance (which they are already doing);
(Although I'm not a big fan of nerfing all the things that people have come to fall in love with. I'd much rather have buffs on killers who have slowly simply fallen behind)
This is why it's so important to not blindly look at statistics and overall pick-rates, but have an in-depth understand of what role each perk plays in the game.
So to formulate my argument clearly; Windows of Opportunity, due to its inherent role in uniquely solving the learning curve in-balance between killer and survivor, without boosting maximum survivor strength, and therefore having a positive overall impact on game balance, is uniquely justified in having a high pick-rate without the need for any nerfs, now and in the future.
If you want to intentionally get it wrong, sure. Shows the "quality" of your argument tho.
Nerfing windows is the most ridiculous thing I have heard in a while, and that's including the Judgment just being buffed.
I'm not sure if any arguments about Windows being useful for beginners hold that much water.
While I myself have considered it a valid "training perk" in that respect, unless the new player bought the relevant DLC pack or is on the Switch, Kate isn't basekit.
In that respect, the current version is Maps are probably the better tool to show players where pallets and vaults are. They are basekit and show both.
Windows shows information like dead zones, when a teammate is burning all the resources around you and when a teammate is slugged in a pallet. I play windows and no exhaustion perks my hours over 15k. There are more uses than just go to yellow... BHVR is of target with nerfing windows. Why not nerf the whole concept of blood lust? Lmao
Not to mention the minimal amount of windows on The Game map. Only showing windows world be ridiculous. About the same usefulness on Midwich. The Dev team clearly has typically been much more heavy handed with survivor changes. Killer perks are modified like 0.2s here +20% there cool down yada yada.. Survivor perks, are like cut what makes it useful altogether or remove half of that, should be good.. We'll test it for a few days on Steam and neglect the entire game base. Zanshin Tactics will remain and everything is balanced..🤦🏿
windows was busted since survivirs dictate chase and because they do they just runto endless yellow making them seem better than they actually are also low and high mmr survivors used it since it's extremely good
agreed it is so stupid and they 100% won’t reverse it back. All the people saying it’s fine are the people that have all the time they want to play but most people have to go to work or school and can’t memorise maps like that and some people just want a normal experience. It’s very silly because the ptb is always for more skilled pc players who won’t use it anyway so Bhvr won’t revert it back to how it was. And also the idiots saying “ it’s called windows of opportunity not windows and palettes” how are you guys so stupid, it is not literal it is a saying. New and solo q survivors already have a difficult time and even with swf people still use windows as it is difficult to learn the maps. Less and less people are playing survivor leaving killer queue matchmakings taking ages and soon enough with the way bhvr keeps making survivor more unplayable there just won’t be anyone playing survivor
WoO is incredibly overused and, after 10 years of perks, provides too much benefit. This is a welcome change.
That PTB and pc player comment actually has a lot of foresight. That's well thought out. That will make it even worse getting a general image of how it affects the playerbase.
It in fact provides very little benefit. It doesn't push survivor strength to anything it cannot already have access to for free. Comms and general map knowledge already replace windows completely. Windows mainly has value to learning players who experience the unequal learning curve of DBD, and a change to this perk damages overall game balance.
Considering the brutal process of learning to run a dozen of randomly generated maps backwards will take a long time, and requires them to see many iterations of those same maps, and therefore, it will always be a frequently used perk; for the right reasons, due to that learning curve, and not because of its power-level.
Because when it comes to increasing max survivor power potential, it actually does very little, unlike perks like Shoulder, DH, sprint burst, which do push maximum power level for survivors.
Where is this logic for perks like Pain Res, Corrupt, and Lethal which have been at the top of the meta since release?
Or killers like Blight, Nurse, and Ghoul for the same.
If they want to shake up the meta, they need to actually make meaningful changes that promote different playstyles and different enviornments for what's needed to succeed. Not simply pick whatever random perk killer CCs are crying about this month and dumpster it.
Most of the changes were unnecessary for survivor and the majority are all trash buffs that wont entice people to use those perks. Only 1 or 2 perks may have gotten something useful. the rest just proves this game is killer sided and promotes more killer toxicity through making it easier to grief survivors through tunneling. Sad how all useful killer perks got massive buffs but survivors did not. Heck they are even punishing survivors for being toxic but not doing anything about the killers they are saying its ok for killers to be toxic but not survivors. If these changes go live i see this population of survivors dissapearing.