Balance: what is it?

@Xan84 is my hero. He said it best in another thread, but many terrible predator players think that they should dominate unless all 4 FT players are attacking them, but…

Exactly. The FT doesn’t even get a “win,” if the predator self destructs. Also, there should always be the incentive to continue playing, so if you’re alone there should be the hope of at least getting to the chopper, but indestructible traps and the observant perk basically incentivize leaving if you’re the last alive, because you have no chance to win at that point.
I’ll say it again:
-increase quick claim time to at least 3 seconds
-change observant perk to only show footprints 20 seconds earlier, not the whole mudded duration
-make bear traps destructible
-(new) reduce revive time by 25% for all
FT members

Thats why ive always been of the mindset that one ft member should be able to second wind pred single handedly.

However preds stealth and damage needs to be better to balance that.

a90

5 Likes

I’m sorry man I just don’t agree. When the FT works properly together, with the way the game is designed, a good Predator simply has no real answer to that. FT holds all the cards. I’m not saying the balance is terrible by any means. For the most part I think it’s good. But those proposed changes I think are pushing it the wrong way.

7 Likes

The thing is though, in these kind of games, a bad killer should average at least one kill a match. Not get one every match, but most matches they should. That’s how powerful they’re supposed to be. That even a bad player can get something done as them.

If they’re bad then they should lose by the fireteam escaping. Killing the predator should be a rare occurrence. It should be hard. But it happens nearly every God damn match. Fireteams should be escaping by the skin of their teeth, working hard as a team. But they don’t need to. 2 players that aren’t dumb and using the right loadout, and the predator is normally done for.

The problem is though, even if they can get at least one kill, it gets completely nullified because of the reinforcements. Without reinforcements even bad predators can get at least one kill, and fireteams will be focusing more on getting the fuck outta there, instead of hunting down the predator. Reinforcements make hunting down predators a whole lot easier. I’m telling you, without them it’ll be so much better. Good fireteams can still win, and bad predators won’t be discouraged playing and think the predator is weak because they will actually get a kill most matches.

4 Likes

Its weird because unlike other assyms though you can actually fight back. So while we can look to others for guidance, this is its own animal and needs to be looked at differently.

The thing that upsets me most is that this being a predator game opens up opportunities that people dont realize. You can make pred 1v1able in terms of health, because his real strength lies in his tech. The cloak and thermal give him should give him a significant enough advantage to still pressure without being too op. (That is, if they are reworked to be less worthless). That will also shift focus to smarter and stealthier preds. As it should be. Plus with second wind already in game, you dont have to make it easy to kill pred 1v1. Just second winding pred can buy you time and help you push objectives faster. However second wind needs to allow pred more options to run away. Hes still quite easy to hunt down from second wind. This would change the dynamic of the game in the right direction imo.

Edit

Sorry, I also agree that reinforcements should be removed. But I also think syrettes should turn into self revives, medkits be applicable faster, and pred should be able to stealth kill players if they are standing still and have their back turned to him.

1 Like

I’ll just leave this here …

3 Likes

I completely agree. I’m actually for the high damage the fireteam can do, provided they don’t get to come back with all their gear and start over when the pred is low on resources lol. The fireteam should definitely be powerful. After all predators don’t hunt weak prey. But the reinforcements are just overkill, and completely turn the tides of the match. Any mechanic that rewards the loosing side, is normally broken and unfun.

To make up for it, I’d be down for seeing syrettes turn into self revives. But maybe they can only get one a match, unless they restock with those crates.

But yeah, preds should be squishy just like in the movies, and as you said their strength should lie on their tech.

As for hunting down a pred in second wind…if your whole team is doing it, you’ve won the game. So yeah it kinda does need more options, I agree.

1 Like

Tbh just allowing pred to cloak and jump in trees while second wind would do it. Perhaps also removing the creation of new blood puddles while he heals, that way you cant instantly see where he is, but have to sound whore the medkit.

1 Like

Equally important

2 Likes

Yeah I could see that being much better.

1 Like

As for improvements to cloak/thermal.

Cloak.

Remove directional clicking noises, make crouch walking and jumping from branch to branch fully invis. Leaping, sprinting, and normal movement should still be visible. Also cloak/Decloak sounds should still be directional.

Thermal.

Footprints always visible, mudded or not, however they dont lead directly to FT (they appear a good while after ft leave them, that way they arent too op) and are permanent. Target isolation should be either removed or reworked to properly compliment this change.

This would allow a new strategy that no game has. Walking over your own footprints to confuse predator.

1 Like

They sound like some decent changes. The footprint one sounds kinda cool. Makes you feel like an actual hunter tracking your prey rather than just pressing a button knowing where they are.

Also firing any ranged weapons while cloaked should also make you semi visible. No more sitting in the middle of the ft plasma blasting them. That shit is grade A stupid.

1 Like

It’s kinda dumb but to be fair, the trails the ranged attacks leave behind do reveal the location of the predator. Or at least guide you to where they roughly are.

2 Likes

Exactly. But tbh its just another example of the potential this game has that will be wasted because two things.

A. I suspect the majority of the playerbase too stupid to play with a footprint system like that.

B. All of my suggestions rely on a full and total rework and tbh I have as much faith in illfonic to make smart decisions as I do in the playerbase to hold off on buying city hunter till the game is actually worth playing.

Thats why ive grown so bitter. As shitty as it sounds I feel like ive been booted out of my own hobby by mindless casuals who support shady ass companies, and when a game has potential, that support leads to a serious lack of innovation or creativity. Its not about making good games anymore. Its about making money.

People say I should just fuck off from this community but its not just here. Its everywhere. The whole industry, from multiplayer to singleplayer games is like this now. Theres no refuge for the fallout that is caused by this.

Makes me wanna drop gaming entirely. But tbh when its all you have ever cared about its hard. Because you have nothing else.

1 Like

As do the clicking sounds pred makes when cloaked, but the majority of the playerbase still doesnt know how to abuse that. So you gotta give them something (especially if buffing pred stealth)

Edit

The point is to punish pred for doing things while cloaked, rather than using the cloak itself. And to force pred to act intelligently with said cloak.

1 Like

Great ideas but making footprints visible for this long would explode ps4s

2 Likes

Honestly woulfnt surprise me lol. I suppose it doesnt need to be permanent, but long lasting enough to make a difference. Perhaps a 5 min timer? I dunno.

1 Like

Disregarding OP unironically complaining about observant countering his pig n shit loadout which is exactly what it’s for - pred’s normal vision is too preferable to use compared to thermal to even give thermal much use. It’s not worth draining energy and playing with extremely muffled hearing when you can just tag people and toggle it off IMO

2 Likes