At the moment, with the relatively new Bloodcult, a common trend I see in rounds is the cult being very "unga", and despite being given tools to operate silently and grow their numbers in secret like a cult, they're rewarded just as much for going loud due to their quick access to very powerful weapons and defensive items. I'm not saying a cult shouldn't eventually go loud, in fact they should when they're preparing to summon in order to secure their summon area.
At the same time, the cult isn't rewarded that much for actively going after their sacrifice targets. They can usually just grab them near the end and summon rather quickly. I think it would be a far superior system if the cult started out unable to create certain items at their Forges and Altars until they had sacrificed a certain amount of their targets:
After the first sacrifice, Flagellants Robes and Shielded Cult Armor would unlock, as the Flagellants is a very powerful item for conversion that also makes it pretty much immediately obvious that a cult is present - gating it behind one sacrifice would give the cult incentive to actively pursue the first sacrifice. Likewise, Shielded Cult Armor is a powerful tool for direct conflict, which the cult should probably avoid until after they've started hitting their sacrifice targets.
After the second sacrifice, the Mirror Shield would unlock. This item has always been a massive pain, being completely effective against the majority of tools that Security starts the shift with (tasers and disablers, and being mostly effective against lasers), and while it has a drawback if the shield is shattered, it's still all-around a massively powerful item that can turn a cultist from a realistic target for security to subdue to someone that is very hard to subdue without killing. This power-spike would be best received after the second summon, when cult can expect to combat the entirety of security and possibly an ERT while securing their summon area.
I'm of course open to criticisms or more effective ways to both limit the cult's early-game potential to snowball while giving them a drive to pursue specific targets to increment their strength.