Dead by Daylight promises a lot of improvements for solo players and removes the most annoying gameplay mechanics. The times of button-mashing are over.
With its now 6 years behind it, Dead by Daylight has transformed from a little horror gem into a genre giant. In the 4vs1 killer game, the darkest horror licenses gather – but the gameplay still has some annoying traits. The developers have now revealed what is to be improved in the coming months and have taken a look into the future.
The most annoying mechanics of Dead by Daylight will likely disappear.
The end of the eternal button pressing
When playing as a survivor in the comfortable position of having a teammate keep the killer occupied for a long time, the gameplay at the generator can be rather frustrating. This is mainly because the left mouse button (or the corresponding button on the gamepad) must be held down continuously to keep working on the generator.
A new option in the upcoming patch will change that. Those who wish can now set options so that such actions become permanent with a single button press. You click once and then stay at the generator until you press the button again.
Of course, skill checks will still appear during this time, where you must press the action button in time.
However, this way you have one hand free when repairing the generator and do not have to keep the mouse button pressed for over a minute at a stretch.
In conjunction with this, there will also be the option that continuous actions (like healing, repairing generators, cleansing totems, etc.) automatically cancel when you start sprinting. It cannot happen that you “accidentally” get stuck at the generator when you actually wanted to escape because you have not gotten used to the new setting yet.
The end of the annoying “wiggle spam”
Another annoying feature of Dead by Daylight is the “wiggling”. Survivors can struggle free when carried by the killer. This involves rapidly pressing two buttons in quick succession. This is not only not fun but also leads to finger pain after a while.
Therefore, the wiggle mechanic will also be transformed into skill checks, similar to generators or the second phase on the hook.
The skill check is, however, a permanent phenomenon while the survivor is being carried, with 2 hit zones – left and right. Each time the survivor successfully completes a skill check, the wiggle meter fills up further and the skill check goes in the opposite direction, where the second hit zone must be hit; back and forth, alternating.
Matchmaking should finally improve
Although Dead by Daylight has been using “SBMM” (Skill-Based Matchmaking) for quite some time now, there is still criticism regarding the matches. Often, the matches feel unfair, and when a player disconnects, all other survivor players are punished because they are likely to lose, and their rating will drop. Therefore, there are three main changes that the developers are working on.
Improvement for replacements: When a player leaves a lobby, Dead by Daylight tries to fill it as quickly as possible and often disregards quality, resulting in players joining who are far below or above the rating of the rest of the team. This will be changed in the future.
Improvement regarding disconnects: Disconnects in a game are still not well handled. Adjustments will be made so that the change in rating is not so severe when someone quickly loses due to a disconnect.
Easier matches after long breaks: Those who have taken some weeks or months off and then return to Dead by Daylight are not as skilled as before. The rating has not been affected by this so far, making the first matches hard and devastating. Over time, the rating should decrease due to inactivity, allowing for a more pleasant re-entry into the game.
Solo players should have it easier
A little later – likely not until many months have passed – the developers want to make a series of improvements to support solo players on the survivor side. They are currently at a strong disadvantage. Depending on skill rating, there is a 15% difference in the likelihood that you will survive a match.
To offset this difference, they want to provide solo survivors with more information so that they feel more included in the team action. An idea is to have an icon on each survivor’s portrait that provides a rough idea of what the survivor is doing: such as whether they are working on a generator, opening a chest, or hiding in a locker.
However, this is only a concept at the moment, and the developers want to keep this discussion open and gather feedback from players.
The goal is not to give survivors more advantages and make the killers’ game harder – it is simply to balance out the disadvantage for solo players among survivors a little.
The first of these changes can be tested in the Steam version of Dead by Daylight starting tomorrow evening (01/05/2022), when the PTB is expected to go online.
What do you think of the proposed changes? Good and sensible ideas? Or is it unnecessary?
