The core aspects of the game felt better at launch.

To preface, shoutout to the devs for their hard work. I really like spiderdude, and sawmill is a lot of fun.I've played since the discord release, but I'm just now writing this because of all the renewed interest.

That said, I have three major complaints

1. Scrap progression feels meaningless now. On launch, there was a lot more you needed to scavenge for. Getting a crafting recipe every time was a bit too clunky, but every player could make a fairly expensive item + upgrade their class tool significantly. This made it so going off the main path for scrap was worthwhile. It gave survivors an interesting decision;risk losing their current investments to get slightly stronger, or just chug through and hope. Currently, you're pretty well off just gathering scrap on main routes. At most a single player is spending ~20 scrap per fiend kill attempt. Assault can spend a little extra for a helmet, but otherwise, theres just not many options.

2. Fiends just warping out after a kill feels silly, especially with the recharging shields. This isn't an ability rooted in slasher lore or anything. There was a gameplay problem with fiends dying during the animation, but being completely invincible and then poofing out isn't much better. Before this change, killers had to make meaningful plans. They laid traps for an escape route, committed at proper times, on proper targets, etc. A lot of that feels lost now, and against a lot of teams, it's a fine gamble to charge in and hope one of them dies first.

3. I really don't understand the plan with spells. A lot of them are kinda busted. For 250 tokens I can buy 0 fall damage, and save it for a map like bell tower. I can hold onto it until the exact moment i'm about to take fall damage, and then commit it. Some of them are just a bit unfair. Instantly revive yourself (potentially) multiple times per game. Passive healing. Double punch damage. They're essentially 0 risk, you use it when you need it, and you'll get value. It's not like you're risking the possibility that you won't need it when you bring it in. The fiends not having a similar tool also makes it so they're strictly an advantage, rather than upping the ante.

Possible solutions are

1. Just put the scrap progression back in, I don't think anything more is needed. Possibly give fiends progression options as well, with points acquired by ambushing/trapping/killing.I play both survivor and killer, and it added enjoyment to both for me. Survivors had the risk management element, killers had the satisfaction of undoing their progress. I liked it.

2. I think theres a lot of more interesting ways to address this issue. Making fiends immune to most damage, while vulnerable to explosions and fire (which will also kill the survivor) is a fair compromise, and gives more identifiable pros/cons to different sources of damage. The warp out is completely unnecessary imo. Maybe a slight, temporary damage shield after executes. Maybe a slight movespeed buff after executes so they can get away or push the attack. Theres a lot of tiny tweaks that could make executes feel a bit more fair for both sides.

3. I get people enjoy grinding, but the game needs to commit. The game can't be balanced around one side sometimes having things of varying strength in their favor, as soon as they need it, without the fiend being able to plan around it. A brute chucking someone off bell tower just to find that they activated 0 fall damage isn't very fun. The killer feels cheated, the survivor feels...dirty. Asymmetrical doesn't justify a "get out of jail free" card existing without also a "go to jail" card existing.

Just in general, I think the game is too afraid of the fiend being killed. When survivors don't know which fiend it is, the game becomes a lot more tense. I enjoy not knowing who the fiend is as a survivor, as much as I enjoy surprising people as a respawned fiend. One ambush and one execute should be a goal for a great killer life, not this sort of "never die, hit and run, wait for shields" style.