I'm not here to argue one side or the other. It doesn't matter if you think every game is a matter of tunneling or whatever, because in every case "the other side" will deny that claim, or reinforce it respectively.

I think Survivor Solo Q and Tunneling will always be a thing that can't really be fixed no matter the balance changes Behavior tries to implement. What I really think the focus should be on is game feeling.

What I mean with game feeling is mostly QoL improvements with no real impact on balance. The main issue that being tunneled or being at the mercy of no communication with your Solo Q teammates is very frustrating, because you're no allowed to play the game, making the match seem like a waste of time.

More specifically, gameplay downtime with no agency is fun's worst enemy and universally frustrating: death timers and CC in other games, which for survivors in DBD translates into being hooked, and stuck in chases that feel like they last for ages, scoring in only a single category at the end.

But even in games with death timers, you can spectate and watch things go down.

My main ideas to try and dive into changes that will not alter the balance progression of a match, but will severely impact game feel are:

• Rewarding Chases

When a chase ends, there could be a Bloodpoint Score event that calculates the Generator progression that was completed during the chase, and rewards the survivor accordingly. Just like when a survivor is healed and the killer gets some measly Bloodpoints based on the time they stayed injured (but not such an astronomically low number).

This makes games that feel like you've been chased all game (whether it's arguable if true or not, it FELT like it) more rewarding as you have the chance to score in more than one category, and also you feel accomplished in seeing a number that correlates to your "chase efficiency".

And a Riskier and Harder to Implement Change:

• Hooked State and Astral Projection(?)

When a survivor is hooked, they're not playing the game. At all. There's nothing they can do other than stare at their screen or wave their arms around to try and feel like they're actually playing a video game and not watching paint dry.

Now we've had our share of "magical" survivors that introduce new mechanics to the game (Boons and Incantations), and down the line you could tie a new QoL mechanic called Astral Projection to them. Bare with me.

When Hooked, a survivor can press a button (let's say the Active Ability button) to Project their ethereal and invisible image on the map: enter a different version of the map, like the Dream World, notifying the other players that their camera is not on their hooked body, but will be pulled back if unhooked.

This won't allow them to interact with objects that will progress the match (repair generators, unhook, heal, cleanse/bless totems, etc), but they are free to wander around the map and perhaps do Archive Glyphs.

What this changes: Survivors on hook no longer just stare at their screen, but can do something (even if minuscule), even their Archive missions to make the match feel less like a waste of time. Behavior spends resources designing and detailing the maps, would be a nice change for you to observe it with peace of mind.

I enjoy playing the game, but it's often now that matches feel like a drag and things go south with really nothing you can do. Could it be a skill issue? Perhaps, which is why these changes don't impact the 'real gameplay'.

tl;dr: Matches should never feel like a waste of time, rewarding bloodpoints based on gen progress done during chases and introducing a new mechanic to dilly-dally while hooked might be the first step towards actually addressing the issues that plague Solo Q.