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I do really love the idea of side objectives in a game, the only problem is they don’t seem to be implemented as well as they could be. Most of the time their either barely noticeable and you can almost ignore it (Nemesis Vaccines) or other times their extremely frustrating for solo queue but easy to shut down with comms (The Box). I’m not against more complicated powers in the future but most aren’t particularly fun at the moment
I think they are fine as long as they don’t win the game for you
I don't know why people have such issues with Pinhead. There's no excuse with the updated UI to complain. It's easy to see what your team is about pretty quickly. If someone is doing nothing or being a loser teammate I know about it within 2 minutes.
I like the extra dimension that special basekits bring to the game. Pinhead's gives not only a secondary objective for survivors, but for pinhead as well in guarding the box in addition to gens. Nemesis is pretty vanilla by himself, so the addition of zombie minions gives him a little more spice (though they do often prove to ultimately be worthless). Wesker's infection thing is kinda nothing to really worry about compared to himself, just feels like a cherry on top in any match I see with him, not often coming into play beyond pressuring survivors to stay as far away as they can while maxed. (I do not have Nemmy or Wesker for context, so if there's some depth I'm missing then that is why)
Plague is interesting in that it changes how you typically play, since she can still smack you but it's not as efficient as her maxing out sickness on you because after that you're busted until you have to use a fountain, which heals you completely so it makes medkits and related healing perks significantly worse against her than other killers, and on top of that, if everyone keeps healing at the fountains too often, then you arm plague with her super puke which is basically a death laser that will mow down any fool that she spots. It's both simple in execution, but complex in strategy about the best times and places to heal instead of "me get smacked, me hide in corner and heal".
Singularity is lookin' to be pretty neat to play, but the EMPs are currently a tad OP (I've only managed to play against bots since the killer q is so massive in the ptb right now, but it seems to be the case with human players too), cuz every time I try to use my cameras they're already taken out by someone. But hooboy, once you get someone sticky, it's a blast as you have to figure out the best time to teleport to someone, and it also will force survivors to play differently as well since they can't just camp palettes like other killers, forcing them to shift-w and predrop lest they get da poke. He looks like a blast to play as and against (granted, I rarely play survivor).
I like the complexity in matches because it adds more to the game than "hold m1 to repair gen"/"hold shift-w to escape killer", but not so much that it's a whole new game. It's usually just enough to cause you to have to approach a situation a little differently than others, making certain perks a bigger risk n' reward. Nea's crouch perk that currently escapes my mind is great for pyramid head and hag who's terrain-based abilities slow survivors to a crawl, but isn't a ton of use against anyone with tracking abilities and perks, for instance. Certain killers you want to heal against (twins), other killers you don't or can't (legion). Aura perks aren't effective against stealth killers, etc. I won't prattle on any further.
tl;dr: I like the extra layer to the game killers can add.
I honestly think Pinhead's a bad example when trying to figure out if "complicated" basekits are healthy or not.
Pinhead's baskit is heavily rng-based (disregarding add-ons, Pinhead can't see the box unless he's nearly on it and even in SoloQ it only takes one person to dedicate themselves to get the box, with maps being more clustered and large over time even if Pinhead knows some of the predetermined box spawn it's almost entirely down to luck if he'll be able to force a Chain Hunt since actively looking for the box instead of pressuring Survivors will just waste time 99% of the time and Survivors will find it first anyway) and as such is not the greatest example of something being "healthy" or not. He's obviously a SoloQ destroyer but it's mostly due to lack of imput required and the random factor of it rather than the complexity.
Wesker and Nemesis for example have extra items and they must be used if they ever get infected, however there's no random chance, disregarding add-ons the number of items and uses is always the same and it's not a guaranteed loss if Survivors take too long to cure themselves (in fact againt Nemmy a lot of Survivors don't bother to use vaccine until the Nemesis goes tier 2 or 3 in order to slow down the process) and the Killer has to actively interact with Survivors to make those items relevant unlike Pinhead who can play has a pure M1 Killer and easily win against SoloQ teams because nobody got the box in time.
It's part of the reason a lot of people don't like him: No matter how shit the person playing Pinhead is, the game will be miserable and likely result in a loss if nobody gets the box (which basically guarantees to start a chase if he warps to it, giving free pressure even if he never presses M2 and is complete shit at chasing). It slows the game down with no imput from the Killer and if by chance the Killer stumbles upon the box early in the match then there's really not much to do (got lucky in a game once playing Pinhead on R.P.D., game started normally and in the first 20 seconds I walked over the box in the 2nd floor of lobby, 3 people instantly DCed after the Hunt started and I don't blame them.)
Same goes for Plague and Singularity, if the Killer never uses their power then they can't get the free slowdown and benefits from it. At least a modicum of skill and imput is required in order to even use this "complicated" basekit.
However I do think that Killers can't be too complicated, adding an extra item or mechanic when interacting with a Killer's power is fine and encourages Killers to use their power but if they added another Killer that forced Survivors go through several steps in order to not insta-lose then it might become "unhealthy", Pinhead is already on the edge due to how he doesn't need to use his power at all to get at least some result (person going for the box is one person less on gens, free slowdown with 0 imput).
Very solid discussion vid! Honestly the topic is kind of a double edged sword cause I feel in terms of unique power, they’re kind of out of options to make a fully original power without mixing in powers that other killers have or making something complex. I mean on one hand the solo queues tend to get destroyed by these kind of killers, but on the other hand the base game itself has remained relatively unchanged for many years and it really could benefit from having a consistent side objective for players to do. You could argue that totem perks and scourge hooks do this, but not every single player is gonna necessarily bring in these perks. At the same time when it comes to these killers with the complex side objective powers, I feel as though that it boils somewhat down to a long existing problem with the game and its balance which is SWFs on comms. The game has never really been fully balanced for it and really it is like bringing in a 5th perk. I know some will argue that comms don’t mean anything but much like several perks in the game if you don’t utilize it well, then yeah you’re not gonna reap the benefits of it. Sure you could also argue that there’s the new UI but really it’s not the same as being on comms, I don’t know where you’re at being chased, doing totems, gens, etc.
I think phrasing it as “healthy” isn’t the right approach. Complicated basekits provide a change in the flow of DBD, which I think is necessary for the continued longevity of DBD. But, as you mentioned, because it is a direct change to the regular mechanics of Gens -> Chase -> Hook -> Escape, it runs against Solo Q. Complex basekits provide definitive limits, which can provide guaranteed counterplay that most survivors enjoy, but can also have high snowball potential for killers who play correctly. I think that if we had Huntress copy-paste skin #7, DBD would already be dead like Friday the 13th. While the complex mechanics are challenging and rewarding they are, at a minimum, expanding the game's conceptual understanding of what is possible. Plus, like you said, it creates a roughly “fair” place for the games baseline to rest. Overall, I’d say that having more is better for DBD – so long as BHVR playtests it . . . Cough Cough Skull Merchant Cough Cough