Vindruva
Vindruva
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Shelter woods' size reduction was great, anything else was not. I'm shocked that the groaning storehouse didnt get the same treatments as disturbed ward, which had one of its pockets significantly shrinked.
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The realm was already too strong for survivors before the update (with wreckers yard being the only relatively balanced map) and the update made it worse. The two changes i liked are both on gas heaven: no breakable wall in the front of main, removed hill, but the amount of pallets is a net loss for killers anyway
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It's not even the increased pallet count that i was the most surprised about, but the fact that grim pantry didnt get shrinked like other huge maps (shelter, DW and torment creek). But still, there are too many pallets on both of these maps, altough they're not as unplayable as crotus prenn maps
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this one is fine, both maps needed it. Shattered square feels a bit too safe at times but other than that, good job!
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Absolute tragedy. The one good thing is the size reduction of distrubed ward - the map was way too big and shrinking one of its pockets was a great choice. However, the number of pallets, especially on father campbell's renders the game unplayable for most killers. The latter was already known for having too many strong filler pallets and the update made it even worse
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I think the removal of 1 scanline was also a great change. Made her much more engaging to play and solved her biggest issue which was that she was way to easy to pick up
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@ThatRyanB said:
https://us.v-cdn.net/6030815/uploads/7MUI0WBMW3DK/dbd-designpreview-sm-banner-1920x1080.png
Click here for Português Brasileiro, 简体中文, Français, 日本語, and Español.
Welcome back to another edition of the Skull Merchant Design Preview! As we mentioned in our recent status update, we received a great deal of valuable feedback from you on our initial rework proposal. Today, we’re excited to share an evolution of this rework!
This places a considerable focus on Skull Merchant’s role as a high-tech hunter – a modern slasher, if you will – who uses the tools at her disposal to generate a network of information as she keeps tabs on her prey, weakens them, and then goes in for the kill when the time is right.
Let’s first dive into the specific changes:
WHAT’S CHANGED?
- We’ve removed the Killer aura reveal when hacking a Drone.
- The Global Detection Power detects Survivors who are running or walking, keeping this consistent with how Drones detect players.
- Stealth Drone scan lines are now visible, but will not extend entirely down to the ground, providing a visual indicator for Survivors to crouch-walk as a counter action.
- Skull Merchant has two different types of Drones:
- 5 deployable Stealth Drones, as previously mentioned
- 1 Drone Buddy (name pending!) that hovers directly over her shoulder. Note: This is not a separate AI-controlled entity.
- Stealth Drones function as previously stated, but Drone Propulsion only injures – not downs – Survivors.
- Any Survivor hit by Drone Propulsion is tagged and tracked with a Claw Trap.
- Claw Traps can be removed by Survivors following a held interaction.
- Skull Merchant gains an activatable ability that fires an EMP dart from her Drone Buddy.
- This ranged attack has a small AOE and downs Survivors tracked with a Claw Trap.
- The EMP dart does not hurt Survivors if they are not tracked with a Claw Trap.
Sound interesting? Let’s break this down by looking at it in the context of an example chase from the perspective of Skull Merchant:
DEPLOY AND DETECT
Your first order of business is to make use of the tools in your arsenal to figure out where Survivors are. You begin by deploying a Stealth Drone and piloting it to a high traffic loop, where you leave it passively scanning. Switching focus back to Skull Merchant, you head towards another loop, activating your Global Detection Power in hopes of catching a Survivor heading to their first gen.
https://us.v-cdn.net/6030815/uploads/KUI0CVR2BROW/killer-redlightgreenlight.png
Both the Global Detection Power and your passive Stealth Drone detect separate Survivors, notifying you of their whereabouts on your radar. You’re now perfectly situated for a chase...
TAG AND TRACK
Switching focus back to the idling Stealth Drone, you see the Survivor who was detected running away. Making use of the Stealth Drone’s increased movement speed, you give chase.
Mid-chase, you see an opportunity to strike, launching your Stealth Drone forward with Drone Propulsion and hitting the Survivor. Not only does this injure them, but it attaches a Claw Trap to them. This inflicts the Broken status effect and tracks the Survivor on your radar.
https://us.v-cdn.net/6030815/uploads/6NXWPBOPDGVL/killer-dronepropulsion.png
While Drone Propulsion can’t be used to down a Survivor, this opens them up to her other ability...
USE EMP DART TO DOWN
At this point, Skull Merchant could take matters into her own hands and hunt down the Claw Trapped Survivor by hand with an M1 attack, but where’s the fun in that? Hovering over her shoulder at all times is her prized Buddy Drone, which hides a secret weapon.
By charging up and releasing the activatable ability when in control of Skull Merchant, her Buddy Drone fires a short-to-mid range EMP dart that hits with a small AOE. If a Survivor is being tracked with a Claw Trap, the dart will activate this fearsome contraption, downing them. Good hunting!
https://us.v-cdn.net/6030815/uploads/QW3K6M9U65KI/killer-buddydronerangedattack.png
A SURVIVOR PERSPECTIVE
All that’s well and good, but if you’re a Survivor, how are you supposed to deal with these high-tech tools?
- Stealth Drone passively scanning an area? Either crouch-walk to avoid the scan lines or hack it to send this Drone back to Skull Merchant’s personal stores.
https://us.v-cdn.net/6030815/uploads/GGD11LPZ7AXI/survivor-standstillorcrouch.png
- Hear the Global Detection Power notification? Same as above – begin crouch-walking or stop moving altogether to avoid having your location given away.
- Notice a Stealth Drone being piloted? Keep to tight loops and be ready to juke to prevent the Stealth Drone from attaching a Claw Trap to you.
https://us.v-cdn.net/6030815/uploads/SWFE6Q5D9L47/survivor-dodgedrones.png
- Afflicted with a Claw Trap and see Skull Merchant approaching? Be ready to juke her EMP dart. It has a short charge time, so use this time to put an obstruction between you both.
- Afflicted with a Claw Trap and feeling hidden? Hold the interact button to remove it.
https://us.v-cdn.net/6030815/uploads/HR5M401R5UYB/survivor-clawtrap.png
With that, we’d love to hear what you think of these changes! We’ll be keeping a close eye on all our community channels and relaying any feedback back to the team, so don’t hesitate to share your thoughts with us (i.e. in the replies right here)!
While we won’t be running a survey this time, we are taking note of the feedback you shared from the last iteration to inform future surveys.
See you in The Fog!
The Dead by Daylight Team
Here are my final thoughts about the changes as a #1 claw-trap down SM main, all in one place:
- drone dash is anticlimactic, goofy and needs to be replaced with a static beam attack. Effectively can accomplish the same while being much more thematic and resembling laser tagging, a part of her almost all SM mains adore the most.
- RLGL shouldn't fully be countered by standing still/crouching and shouldn't be countered at all by doing gens/healing. You can make so she has to earn this power by scanning/hitting people so it's less passive, that way you can also buff it, for example give it a minumum, uncrouchable duration of 3-5 seconds that gets extended for each survivor individually if they move. Making the entire duration crouchable, makes the power lackluster against good survivors while stomping the newer players, which is exactly what she does right now.
- Im assuming the clawtraps still have some battery so people can't just remove them instantly
- Bringing back clawtraps and changing the way of downing survivors from the previous version is a massive W and removes a lot of frustrating parts
- This rework sounds kinda cool but it definitely doesn't make her more simple which I thought was one of the goals. New players will be having a hard time from the sheer amount of knowledge required to fully understand what she does
- Give her proper visual/audio cues in chase, cause this is something the current SM is missing, arguably her biggest flaw right now
- The drone buddy is cute and I will be naming her Petunia