Facecamping has pervaded DBD since its release, and this anniversary, Behaviour announced a planned change to the game's core mechanics to disincentivize camping.
The changes are not live, or in any PTB, and there has been no date announced for it; nor has there been any demonstration of its particulars yet. As of yet, we've just had the concept described to us.
The summary, from their website:
With this update, whenever a Survivor is being face-camped by a Killer, a meter will build over time. This meter is only visible to that Survivor. Once it’s completely full, they will be able to escape from a Hook without need of another Survivor, gaining Endurance and the Haste Status Effect. Note that this system can activate in both the first and second Hook stages.
WHAT IMPACTS THE METER FILL-RATE?
The meter fills when the Killer is nearby, with the rate of fill increasing based on the Killer’s proximity to the Hooked Survivor. Please note that this will not impact instances of proxy-camping, nor the times when a Killer is actively defending a Hook from a group of swarming Survivors. In fact, the presence of other Survivors in the vicinity will reduce the meter fill-rate, though the rate itself will never be negative.
WHAT DISTANCE QUALIFIES AS FACE-CAMPING?
A Killer being fewer than 5 meters away from a Hooked Survivor will significantly increase the system’s fill meter. Between 5 and 10 meters, the rate of fill will still raise, albeit not quite as quickly. If the Killer is more than 16 meters from the Hooked Survivor, the system will not activate. Please note that the presence of additional Survivors will have an impact on the rate-of-fill, slowing it down.
WILL THIS INTERACT WITH PERKS?
If a Survivor can self-unhook as a direct result of being face-camped, they will be able to use any Perk that triggers following an unhook – for example, Dead Hard and Off The Record. Survivors who escape via this system will also be granted the Endurance status as usual.
WHAT ABOUT TWO-STORY MAPS?
As it stands, this system will remain active and function as intended on Maps with multiple floors like The Game or Midwich Elementary School. We’d like to clarify that this may possibly lead to edge cases where a Killer is falsely punished for face-camping, so we will be monitoring this closely following release and adjusting as needed.
What are your thoughts on this system? Do you think we'll see it hit live? Do you think it can be abused? Crucially, will it fix face-camping? Or do you think tunneling will become the next point of blame for people's fun?
Back on Reddit, it always felt like the conversation on this change was bizarrely 50-50. For everyone excited for it, there was someone clucking their tongue, believing in strange ritualistic beliefs like:
There's some moon logic people go on to assume this could ever be bad for the game, and I say that as someone who plays killer anytime the queue bonus is on that side. I eventually just learned that phrases like "Loop around the hook" tended to come from dishonest people that don't actually participate in chases/looping, and don't understand the risks at work.
There's some truth to the statement about Bubba (He has been able to do a sprint that hits both through the base Borrowed Time effect, and then downs the survivor), but at the very least it means the 3 other members of the team can completely focus on generators.