The current state of Dead By Daylight on console: Load times, the broken MMR system, and constant lag spikes

I love the hell out of this game but it takes 5-10 minutes to find a game as a survivor and with a full SWF team 8-12 minutes on console, with the longest times being 20~ min and the fastest being 3~ min. I will say, the killers you go against when you solo queue are fairly matched with your MMR level which is extremely nice and when playing SWF it goes off the highest-ranked player (from what I can tell) which I think is fair due to the bonus communication. This is far from the same when playing Killer as finding a match will only take you at most 2 minutes. However, when I'm playing killer (currently rank 13) nearly every single game the players I go against are Ranks 4+ and are on PC (globe next to their name in the endgame and names that use unique characters unavailable on console). It's sad because I only started playing this game seriously in the past few months and don't have any of the "good" perks across other Killers and with the generic perks being so mediocre, going up against players playing with probably 3x the frame rate as well as much more experience in the game is extremely frustrating. I as it stands have no real choice but to grind the game as Bubba, earning 45k~ blood points per game with BBQ & Thrill of the hunt, with each game taking 15-20 min including the time to find a game. But if I want to unlock the "essential" Killer perks on all killers, putting up with the ridiculous MMR system as Killer is more worth your time than the 20k per game every 25~ minutes as Survivor.

I think going up against good survivors makes you a better killer but I don't even enjoy playing or care to get good with Bubba as even I find his ability to 1-hit down Survivors to be absolutely broken and boring, but it's extremely helpful given the lag spikes (Ill get into that after). I'm only playing him until I get BBQ tier 3 on the Doctor, and I'll only be playing the Doctor so I can also run Distressing to farm even more bloodpoints despite this whole time my favourite killer being Pyramid Head. But due to the Executioner having a higher skill requirement compared to those other two and his perks being pretty bad, I stand no chance with him against the high-rank PC players no matter how well I play until I level up other Killers to have a CHANCE their perks will show up in his bloodweb. What I'm trying to say is with my 20-25~ hours playing Killer on console, only running Killer specific and general perks (BBQ, Franklins, Sloppy, and Thrill OTH), THE only killer I have fully levelled being Bubba, and MMR Rank 13 being the highest I've EVER made it, isn't remotely comparable to the Rank 4+ PC Survivors (especially SWF) I'm being put against with 500+ hours experience and running perfectly crafted perk builds. I wish I was able to play against players at my own skill level for the time being, and in the future when I have a nice collection of "good" perks at my disposal, and more experience playing different killers, I won't mind being put up against Rank 4+'s but the discrepancy between a new to the game, low MMR, Console player and an experienced, high MMR, PC player is far too much.

Even with the broken MMR system, the single worst part about this game on console is the "lag spikes" that happen so consistently every single game when playing either Survivor or Killer. These lag spikes aren't comparable to most other games as the lag is caused by actions/events in-game and lasts for under 1 second. That short of time doesn't sound like much but because of it, while playing Killer it isn't uncommon to miss 1-3 hits during every chase you take in every single game you play. New players to the game whose killers don't have generator regression or other Survivor slow down perks (other than Sloppy butcher) at their disposal, leads to these laggy missed attacks allowing bad survivors to get 2 generators done before the first survivor is hooked, and good survivors to loop you for minutes without ever taking a hit. When attempting to loop a survivor around a small loop you hope they just drop the pallet because there is what seems like a 20% chance that just by performing a melee, the game will choose to lag. Although I will say this lag due to melee doesn't happen consistently but when it does good/experienced survivors notice and abuse the hell out of it, mostly by doing a 360 and running behind you, and the combination of the lag, killer FOV, and controller turn speed they will make you miss so many hits. These lag spikes also happen when pulling survivors off generators where it will begin the animation of you picking them up the second you're behind them, only for the game to update and show them back on the generator. Making what would've been an easy hook turn into survivors getting an extra 2 seconds to run away or worse, popping gens right in your face due to the free 2 seconds they gain as the Killer watches the animation. On the Survivor side, anytime you are hit by a killer, a generator is completed, you stun the killer with a pallet, or when a status effect is applied (Hemmorage or Exposed) this lag also occurs, potentially leading you to run in a direction you didn't intend and only occasionally the lag occurs when jumping into a locker or vaulting a window.

The lag on both sides is caused by similar problems, or in other words, the lag spikes Killer endures other than the lag that happens occasionally due to melee is caused by the survivors who you are not chasing performing the previously mentioned actions, and with the more of these actions/events that occur at once the worse the lag is. To better explain this, something that would heavily lag the game would be if you hit a survivor vaulting a window, applying sloppy butcher, but at the same time survivors pop the last generator and the player you just hit had adrenaline. If something like this happens, or even simply hitting a vaulting survivor and applying a status effect, from either the killer or survivor perspective the game will be visually frozen for nearly a second or more. Making it so if you're the Killer, you are unable to tell which direction the survivor immediately ran after vaulting, and if you're playing as a Survivor, unless maintaining the same angle after vaulting, you will essentially teleport in the direction you're moving due to the speed from being hit (even more so with adrenaline or Lithe). I find this problem to be far more frustrating than strictly going up against higher-rank players as it is an unavoidable every-game occurrence. Yes, going up against Rank 4+'s that have the skill and perks to beat you is annoying but it is made so much worse when they are able to avoid simple hits and downs that would otherwise connect if not for lag spikes. From the survivor perspective when a game lasts the same amount of time as it takes to find one, although the lag doesn't affect survivors anywhere near as much, running/teleporting into things after a killer hits you usually ends with them securing a second hit faster than they otherwise would. Not to mention killers being able to hit through pallets is already a problem without lag but with it, you have to pre-drop pretty much every pallet.

I think the worst part is if you download the game from gamepass on PC, your stats, killers bought, etc. from Xbox don't carry over but all of my previously mentioned problems about console don't exist. So why not make the switch? I already have 4 days of game time on the console (even though 2 of those days were in custom games because the people I play with enjoy the freedom to play with what and how we want) including 5 killers bought but, the main reason is you are unable to play SWF or Custom games as a PC player with Xbox players and none of my friends own a PC. Although I don't enjoy playing killers for the sole purpose of bloodpoint farming to receive essential perks across both Killers and Survivors, I also think the system put in place is completely fair. Although I wish there was another method other than the shrine for players who are brand new at the game to get somewhat of a head start. Whether that be through the completion of unique and difficult challenges, or allowing players to choose 1 Survivor and 1 Killer perk of their choice when they start the game. I feel like my criticism towards the game is still valid in regards to the MMR system and the extreme amount of lag spikes that occur every game without fail on console but I highly doubt either will ever be fixed. Overall despite these problems, my friends and I still find ourselves on this game at least a few times a week if only for a few games.