Address some of the balancing issues with the new Hide and Seek game mode

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The New Hide and Seek Gamemode revealed at Gamescom today seems pretty interesting, but I would like to bring up some of the problems and issues with it. Overall, The Hider seems to have a very big advantage, and this would cause a big issue with the gameplay. It might be better to see how it plays out in the ultimate release and then fix the balancing in the following update afterward, but from what it looks like, there are some issues with the mode.

In case you are wondering what the game mode is, here is the reveal trailer and here is a video explaining it. There was also this gameplay footage that was revealed too.

By far the biggest issue with this game mode is the balancing of the Hider’s powerup. I at first thought having 5 Seekers and 1 Hider would be pretty unbalanced, but the even if they find the Hider, the Detection Meter fills up very slowly and as a result, the Hider can almost always get away after using the Chase Breaker. There are powerups both sides can use to address the balancing, but I feel like the Hider’s ability is a bit too powerful. The seekers have a radar that constantly points to the approximate location of the Hider, and can ping the hider’s location for 20 seconds. This might sound pretty OP, but the Hider can do something even more powerful. Their Chase Breaker can forcefully brake/slow down the seekers for 20 seconds, disable their radar and ping, and ghost their car through props. By the end of the 20 seconds, the Hider almost always gets away and Seekers are unable to keep up, so decreasing the brake/slow down time to 10-15 seconds would probably be better.

I touched on this previously, but the Detection Meter is the other big issue with this mode’s balancing. The way it works is when your location is pinged, all the Seekers need to get within a certain radius of the Hider to build up the meter, and the meter builds up quicker if there are more players. If it maxes out, the Hider loses. However, the buildup of it is extremely slow, meaning that the Hider can use their Chase Breaker and get away nearly every time. IMO, the meter should build up slow with 1 nearby seeker, a decent amount faster with 2, pretty fast with 3, and rapidly with 4 or more.

My other issue with this mode are that the selectable cars for the Hider are very limited, being limited to 4 offroaders:
Jeep Wrangler
Ford F-150 Raptor
Chevrolet Colorado ZR2
Mercedes-Benz X Class

There should be more cars available to drive, as having only four traffic cars to search between makes it a lot easier for the seekers (especially if a meta arises and one Hider car is better than the rest). There should be more variety mainly, as only offroaders is pretty boring. Here are some of my personal suggestions (the best compromise would probably be 6 total Hider cars, so comment down below what you think the best 2 are):
Subaru Legacy Traffic
Volkswagen Beetle (both the normal and taxi version)
Volkswagen Bora
Volkswagen Golf GTI
BMW X5
Ford Bronco '75 Traffic
Ford Transit
Mitsubishi Galant

These are just some of the traffic car suggestions that I have. The lack of indicators for the Hiders also poses a somewhat significant issue as the Seekers will be able to find them more easily whenever a Hider takes a corner. The game mode is supposed to have an emphasis on “driving naturally” when the Seekers can’t find you, but how can you do that if you have no indicators or turn signals? It doesn’t make too much sense. IMO, they should use the traffic car models and not the normal ones, since they actually have built in turn signals, and would make the gameplay a lot more interesting. They might have to tone down the abilities even more though, to get this to happen.

On top of the Hider cars being limited, while there is a diverse choice of vehicles for Seekers, many of the cars are completely useless or obselete. From what it seems like, the Seekers can choose between any of these 12 cars:
Ariel Nomad
Audi RS6 Avant
BMW M4 GTS
Chevrolet Camaro ZL1
Ford Bronco '21
Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder
Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X
Nissan GT-R R35
Puegot 205 Turbo 16
Subaru WRX '04 (Blob eye)
Toyota Land Cruiser AT37

Based on this selection, there are a lot of options but it will likely be the case that the RWD cars (SLS AMG, M4 GTS, Camaro ZL1, etc) will be completely useless and not serve a purpose, since keeping up with the Hider offroad is important to catch them before the finish. Plus, the AWD cars have much better traction.

These are just some proposed balancing changes. This game mode has potential, but hopefully at least some of these issues should hopefully be addressed before its release.

(Update: Some more gameplay footage has been released and the balancing is a lot different than what I initially thought. It looks to be a lot more of the exact opposite, where the Hider has a really big advantage over the Seekers. I made some pretty major edits to this page, but most of them are based on the gameplay footage that was revealed not too long ago.) This gameplay also confirmed Hider cars being pre-upgraded, and really showed how overpowered the Hider’s Chase Breaker ability truly is.

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I thought the mode would start with 1 seeker and whoever would get caught is turned into a seeker, like cops ‘n robbers.

Also; why can’t we choose our own liveries? I get driving stock cars, but liveries? If someone wants to drive around as a police car, why not? It makes it harder for them because they stand out so much. On the other hand, someone can choose a grey car to blend more into traffic. Visual upgrades should at least be allowed to add light bars.

And yes, I also agree all traffic cars (the licensed ones anyway, not buses or trucks) should be drivable. Bring back the mighty VW Bora, Mazda 3 MPS and Subaru Legacy GT!!

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I presume having cars with such disparities serves some hidden purpose that is as yet unclear to the untrained eye? It’s not a mistake or somethin’.

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A gameplay reveal of this Hide and Seek mode came out not too long ago, and it turns out the balancing was the exact opposite of what I expected. Instead of the Seekers having a big advantage, the opposite is the case for the Hider. As a result, I had to edit the page massively to accurately reflect the balancing, and how I think it should be changed.

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Probably should have waited with the whole thing until the mode is available to play and base it on actual experience instead of watching videos I guess.

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That’s sort of what I’m doing. If it releases in its current state, we will see how it will go in September. Hopefully it doesn’t turn out the way I’m expecting, and that the gameplay is balanced.

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Update 2: The gamemode is now released. I’ve played two rounds as a Hider and one as a Seeker and the balancing is unfortunately how I predicted it would be. Being a Hider is very easy providing you know what you’re doing and manage it well. You can literally go offroading the entire game and never be seen. On top of this, the Chase Breaker is, as I unfortunately predicted, very powerful. Even if you don’t play well you can still get out of any situation using it. The cooldown is now 40 seconds instead of 20, but the slowdown itself is what makes it unbalanced. As a Seeker, its also not too difficult if you know what you’re doing, but the Detection Meter still fills up too slowly, and it takes a lot as a Hider to somehow screw up and lose. I didn’t know this, but the Detection Meter can actually go down if the Hider isn’t nearby, which in my opinion is something that is unnecessary and should be removed. My predictions are, the mode will probably die within these first few weeks, and people are going to get bored of driving around the map in circles trying to find the Hider.