Okay so I’ve been playing this game for quite a bit today and I’ve come to a few conclusions that I would like to share here. The game when it works actually feels really fun albeit with a few shortcomings that I will describe here. I would like to say the work that’s been done is really good and the Predator feels mostly fun to play and being a part of the fire team is cool. The matchmaking is completely borked and we got to have dedicated servers OR something needs to be done about these que times BUT I do have an answer for this below.
All right now getting on to my knit picks so I think everyone can kinda agree that the Predator is a little under powered right now it seems like the devs wanted the Predator to play a more stealthy kind of sneaky and pick people off kind of approach....well it doesn't work like that any person who has half of a brain will be sticking with their fire team.
There’s no opportunity to honestly play this play the style that the devs want you to play. It kind of always ends up with you just dive-bombing into the middle of The Fray and trying to hack away and do as much damage as you can and get away.
I think what needs to happen is there needs to be a couple tweaks and needs to be a couple more tools added and maybe a few more objectives that can be implemented to kind of make it so that there are opportunities for some various game play interactions. Now I'm not saying buff the freaking Predator so he does a million damage 1 hits everybody and I'm not saying nerf the fire team so they use bubble guns . All I'm saying is there's some tweaks that need to be made to kind of bring the Predator up to the level of the fire team if not more. Because here's the thing the Predator supposed to be his omnipresent scary terrifying creature that we don't know where it is but it's always watching.
Right now the Predator honestly feels like a huge joke I'm talking people actually end up hunting the predator they're not scared they are not particularly worried about it at all honestly I've played a couple matches myself this stuff is just dumb. I think that's just a reflection of how they actually built this character , so I feel with a couple tweaks we can get to a point where the Predator feels fun to play and thrilling to fight against but still rewarding for both.
So I don't know what it is they have to do on their end but what I think is maybe for melee, buff the damage up just just to hair bit since they can already parry your strikes. Make it so it maybe it takes one or two less hits with certain weapons to down or maybe make it so that if you hit someone from stealth and they're not aware of you you do more damage like a back stab or something like that then maybe it would have you would start to see a dynamic start to change between the predator and the fire team.
Now one of my biggest gripes with this game is the fact that there is no solo mode at all everyone can s*** on evolve all they want but if you hop on evolve right now you can completely play as a monster or a hunter completely solo by yourself against the AI. I'm not sure if it would be possible with this game seeing how the AI in this game is actually pretty trash that's a well-known thing, it's not something surprising ,everybody knows the AI is garbage. However I have 2 things, 2 features that if added to the game I feel like could make this game absolutely legendary.
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What you can do is basically make matchmaking an option it’s not something you have to actually do here’s what I mean . Make a solo mode( program a solo tab with features) to play as the predator and the fire team. I know some people want offline but I feel in order to keep the XP gain the same as matchmaking it needs to be online no way around it.
Now playing the predator in this solo mode you will not be playing against an AI fire team but it against the AI on the hunting grounds maps . The Predator will have objectives he has to complete other than killing people. like either blow up or retrieve stolen technology from a downed ship or his ship that the cartel wants to sell on the black market. Or helping a wounded blood brother in the hunt.
OR he has to Target these cartel warlords and because they are these high value targets they will be really beefed up and heavily protected. Like they’re going to have like perks and armor and they’re going to do a lot of damage and so on so forth. That would be the objectives for the predator in the solo mode so it would make a still challenging and fun. And if spotted the AI would be on the look out constantly for the predator and it would make for some intense awesome solo game play.
ALSO there will also not gimping XP ! the XP should remain the same between matchmaking and in Solo
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Now with the fire team I feel like you should be able to play as a member in a fire team solo by yourself or co-op with others with no player controlling the Predator basically. I don’t know how they can do this but the Predator will be controlled by AI and it’s load out will be completely random so whatever kind of Predator you’re fighting in Solo you don’t know until you actually fight it. That would be a way to make it challenging in a Solo mode and also still fun and rewarding. The objectives would be the same for the fire team as in matchmaking, complete your objectives and get the heck out of the jungle before you get skinned alive.
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Now regarding matchmaking itself the only difference between matchmaking and solo is that you are playing globally with other players. Whenever you lose OR win you earn these Rank points. These rank points can be used to buy exclusive cosmetics that unlike the credits in game can ONLY be earned in matchmaking. Obviously winning nets you more rank points and the amount varies depending on the victory or loss. So if you are playing the predator and you managed to kill some of the team but some escaped you get ta certain amount of points. So lets put it like this , just an example.
Total victory: 85 ( all of the fire team hunted )
Partial victory: 70 ( some of the team escaped , at least 3 of the team were killed , it does not matter if its the same person and you did not go into second chance mode)
Self destruct and at least a kill: 65 (taking into account how lucky you have to be to get a kill in self destruct mode. If you got kills prior to self destruct it doesn’t not change this amount. Just like the enemy reinforcement is something that should sting, having to self destruct should too)
Survive: 60 ( only 2 kills but you lived to hunt another day and did not go into second chance mode)
Self destruct and no kills : 30 (self destruction is a result of sloppy game play and is worse than surviving there is no honor in death )
Death : 25 ( does not matter if you got kills or not)
The same goes for the Fire team. So as the fire team completing all objectives with no losses and killing the predator gives the max amount to earn. Losing just one person instantly brings it down to the second teir of reward and making it out alive. We should not be rewarding re spawns it should sting every single time the team has to make a reinforcement. Here are some examples
Total Victory: 85( objectives complete and extraction, predator is killed and lost no team mates in the match)
Partial Victory: 70 ( the predator was forced into second chance state at least once , but is alive and completed all objectives , extracted and lost no one)
Lowered reward: 65 ( objectives completed and extracted but suffered a loss )
Lowered reward: 60 ( objectives completed and extracted but lost only 2 members)
Lowered reward: 30 ( objectives completed and extracted but loss 3 members with one living to tell the tale)
Lowered reward:25 ( no one made it out of the jungle)
this would mean the game cannot launch with a teammate missing, noting the more serious aspect of matchmaking VS solo or private games.
Now I really feel like this would make this game from a good game to be in excellent game. I have a little bit of something for everyone.
I firmly believe that this is something that is doable however it’s totally up to the devs on whether they would like to pursue this. It is quite a bit of work but with a team of 30 dedicated people I think this can be done.
This could easily turn form being a generic isometric experience into a definitive Predator experience. If anyone has any feedback they would like to give please by all means reply and we can share and talk and discuss this. If anyone with even more or any other ideas please share.
I hope the devs read this and know about the massive potential this game has. Thank you all for reading this and I hope you have a swell Day/Night/Evening mates.