ijsammy
ijsammy
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@Peanits said:
I can chime in here.
Being afraid has nothing to do with it, it's more to do with time management and priorities. Large scale Killer reworks require a huge amount of time between designers, programmers, and QA. In order to do these types of large Killer reworks, we need to sacrifice on other things such as new features, perk balancing, etc. In a perfect world where we could squeeze as much as we want into a single update, these sorts of reworks would probably be more common, but sadly that is just not possible. Everything comes with a tradeoff.
As for why these sorts of reworks aren't the highest priority, this is where it gets a bit more complex. First off, we're at the point where there are 32 Killers in the game and counting. Even assuming that each Killer is played exactly equally, this would mean that each Killer is only seen in a little over 3% of all matches. Spending a significant amount of time on an update that only affects ~3% of matches is harder to justify when it means sacrificing new highly requested features or a bunch of perk updates which could impact all matches.
Beyond that, there is only so much we can do to make a Killer appealing to everyone. Different Killers focus on different playstyles. Some may be focused on setting traps, others on keeping Survivors busy, some on chases, and so on. These different playstyles can help fill different niches. A newer player who's having a hard time finding Survivors might be drawn to The Doctor, for example. Naturally, certain playstyles become more successful in high end matches and others fall out of favour. Experienced Survivors, for example, are less likely to stumble into a trap because they know what to look out for and can predict where the Killer may have placed them. Each power also has a different skill ceiling, so while some allow you to continue improving almost endlessly, others have an upper limit by virtue of their design.
Making each Killer equally strong at the highest skill levels is not the goal. Dead by Daylight is for everyone, not just the few at the very top. Often times these Killers are already doing pretty well in the vast majority of matches even if they fall out of favour in higher end matches. In these cases, buffing these Killers to the point where they are competitive in a high end match would cause them to be far too strong in the majority of matches. This is a net-negative change. While yes, it may be better for you, it makes things worse for the majority of players. Everyone's experience matters, not just those with more skill. In reality, it is not possible for every Killer to be equally viable at all skill levels.
Something else that we need to consider are the players who already enjoy these Killers the way they are. Legion is a perfect example of this. There's no shortage of suggestions to rework The Legion's power to make them stronger. Yet in spite of this, The Legion is consistently one of the most played Killers. While they might not be the strongest in high end matches, there is still a large crowd who enjoy them as is. That raises the question, is it worth reworking a Killer that many people already love to play just to make the people who don't play them happy?
The Trapper is also a special case. He's the poster boy, front and center on all the artwork. He's the Killer you'll face and play as during the tutorials, and he's unlocked by default. This is all very intentional; new players are naturally going to gravitate towards him. His power is very simple and easy to understand, and it tends to be fairly balanced in matches between newer players. He serves a special role of being a stepping stone toward learning the game. Because of this, his power is intentionally kept as simple and intuitive as possible (pick up a trap, set a trap), and he is intended to be fairly balanced in these sorts of games.
All this said, that doesn't mean we'll completely ignore these Killers. We do make smaller balance changes on a regular basis, and larger reworks are still planned to release from time to time. But we do need to keep everyone in mind when making these decisions and consider the role they currently fill in the game, as well as whether or not our time would be better spent on balance changes that could affect all players rather than a select few matches. It would be a different story if there were only a handful of Killers to choose from, but the roster is fairly big at this point. The goal isn't so much to make every last one of them perfect for everyone, but to make sure that there's at last few options that appeal to everyone, regardless of how they play.
Baseline, goal should be killers are fun - being strong or weak, don’t care, is it fun to play a killer where you can’t keep up in chase or do anything with survs but watch gens be done? Is it fun to have killers that have to tunnel out a survivor to stand a chance?
if you’re a bit of a sweaty guy, then sure. But, it’s painful to reach a higher MMR of sweats when you just want to have some fun chases but are limited to a handful of killers to do that.
these Nic Cage perks are fun, they are incredibly silly, half the time useless but fun.
If you took a way the ability to kick victor, and instead gave him (maybe a longer) stun so you could bounce off houses endlessly trying to hit a survivor - that would be actually be hilarious for both sides.
you could make Trappers traps and adjust the spawn parameters so they don’t end up on the edges of a cold wind farm, reduce a little of the RNG, and suddenly the killer is more consistently fun.
Im fairly certain the majority of players don’t find it fun to gen rush while the other side tunnels one out immediately to stand a chance - that is the meta at higher MMRs unless you play the tippiest top of strong killers and it makes games repetitive.