Carnival Hunt — Alpha Feedback: Main Problem and Its Possible Solution

[proven shadow]

I think there are two main problems:

1. Idle teammates who don’t do objectives.
2. A camping/patrolling Killer.
   These issues feed into each other and create unfun loops for both roles.

How it plays out as a Rabbit (with random teammates)
• I try to progress objectives: find gears and open doors to move up floors.
• The Killer patrols key objectives, reliably finds me, and catches me.
• Result: I lose Life Gears and my key, get dropped back to Floor 1, and the door I opened is relocked — a waste of resources.
• Meanwhile, my teammates often do nothing (or at least don’t do objectives).
• Without coordination, a solo Rabbit doing objectives is guaranteed to be punished. Randoms rarely coordinate simultaneous objective pushes on different parts of the map, so most players just hide or loot on Floors 1–2 instead of doing the main objective.
• My only realistic options become:
o Search for scanner (to escape via the Hat later ),
o Keep looting/hiding and hope someone distracts the Killer,
o Or hope someone else opens the path upward.

How it plays out as a Killer (vs randoms)
• Inevitably there’s a phase where Rabbits stop running and stop doing objectives (often around the Floor 2 → Floor 3 transition, but it can be earlier or later).
• Rabbits play ultra safe, spread out across large areas and different floors. SHH often shows nobody; and footstep tracking fails because they’re not running.
• This creates a stalemate: there’s no one to find. The only reliable strategy is patrolling/camping key objects and seeding Impostor traps.
• Sometimes Rabbits never come and I’m effectively “held hostage” for minutes. Usually someone eventually arrives, but all I can do is take their key, eat some voice chat insults, drop them to Floor 1 / cage them, then resume camping.
• It’s dull, but it’s the only truly viable strategy I can identify — and most Killers I meet appear to do the same.

What I want as a Rabbit
• System level pressure so teammates cannot do nothing for long.
• Rabbits have two jobs: push upward and run from the Killer. If you’re not doing the first, you should be doing the second (with brief looting breaks).
What I want as a Killer
• More valid strategies so gameplay is varied and interesting, not just patrol/camp.
• Skill based tools to find hiding Rabbits that SHH won’t reveal.
• Or some guaranteed way to surface a random Rabbit when I’ve already caught another.
• If the core is hide and seek, both hiding and seeking should be engaging.

Possible Solution (Part 1): Idle Pressure Meter + Reveal
• Idle Pressure Meter: If a Rabbit doesn’t progress objectives for a sustained time, a meter fills; it fills faster on lower floors.
• When full, that Rabbit’s aura is revealed to the Killer for a meaningful duration, guaranteeing a chase opportunity. The reveal ends once the chase begins.
• Add a simple “being chased” indicator on that Rabbit so teammates know the Killer is occupied.
• Note: There seems to be a similar meter now, but across my matches it never filled — even when I did nothing all game — so either it’s unclear or too lenient.
Concern:
Will the Killer actually abandon guarding Floor 3/4 gates to chase an idle Rabbit on Floor 1? Not always. Even after starting a chase, gate pings might make me teleport back. And a Rabbit without items often gets caught quickly, buying little time.
Implication:
We need (a) incentives strong enough that Killers are willing to leave gates, and (b) tools that let the hunted Rabbit buy real time for the team.

Possible Solution (Part 2): “Hunt” Mini Event + Reward Cards
• Instead of a plain aura reveal, trigger a Hunt mini event when an idle Rabbit’s meter fills.
• The target Rabbit is notified they’re being hunted, and a few temporary items spawn to help them during the chase (they vanish when the mini event ends).
• The aura reveal switches off when the actual chase begins.
• If the Killer grabs that Rabbit (or removes one Life Gear from them by any means) within a set time, the Killer earns a reward.
• Rewards scale with match time and Rabbit progress (closer to escape = better rewards). The Killer is shown which reward they’ll get in advance.
• Implement rewards as unique purple “cards” that provide powerful one shot or timed effects; most can be activated whenever the Killer chooses.
Example Reward Cards / Effects
• Gain two keys.
• Silence footsteps entirely for a duration.
• Break a rope.
• Lock a door for a set time; it cannot be opened by any means until the lock expires.
• Fake footstep audio near Rabbits across the map to confuse/scare them.
• Gain an additional Rabbit Impostor for the rest of the match.
• Gain an extra Invisibility charge for the rest of the match.
• Reduced cooldowns and/or reduced energy consumption for the rest of the match.
• Extract a gear already inserted into a mechanism and respawn it at a random spot on the same floor.
• Reveal the nearest Rabbit.
• Reset all ability cooldowns.
• Destroy all items in a targeted Rabbit’s inventory.
• Drain all (or nearly all) energy from a targeted Rabbit, transfer it to the Killer, teleport that

rabbit to a random spot on their floor, and remove 1 Life Gear. (If the Rabbit remains out of energy afterward, show their aura to teammates.)
• Temporary movement speed boost on activation.
• Force all Rabbits within a small radius to Play Dead.
• Turn a loot box into a Mimic that cages the next Rabbit interacting with it and removes 1 Life Gear.
• Place a trap on a gate mechanism that can hold a Rabbit for a long time (interaction triggers a skill check to avoid it).
• Place one additional activated Billetter on the floor at a random location.
• Place one additional activated Billetter on the floor at a chosen location.
• Move a random Rabbit to Floor 1 and start a Hunt mini event on them.
• Gain an upgraded one time Active Impostor with infinite lifetime and increased search radius.
• Spawn an extra teleport booth at a location chosen by the Killer.
• Teleport all Rabbits to Floor 1 and reveal their auras (optionally return them to their original positions after a set time).
• Gain infinite energy (timed or for the remainder of the match).
• Set cooldowns to zero (or apply ~85% cooldown reduction) for a duration.
• Gain the ability to kill a Rabbit regardless of their remaining Life Gears. Note: Some effects are intentionally very strong, meant as late game payoffs.

[digital sundial]

Yeah snooze matches have been an issue in all public tests, because new buns are overwhelmed with what to actually do.

I've been suggesting new buns up to X MMR (1.100 for example) should just simply receive ingame help via a highlight on objectives and "quest" promps like in the tutorials that remind them of what to do like "Find a gate / gear"

Then as soon as a player reaches 1.100 for the first time, this help gets disabled.

Would probably help to get newbie matches rolling.