My hot take on balance as of right now

#1

Okay before I get started I would like actual constructive criticism or well though out replies I do not want this post to turn into a toxic wasteland, thank you in advance.

Okay having played since beta and playing both sides pretty consistently I can say for a game that is a little more than 4 months old, balance is not entirely broken yet. Yes fireteam has alot more toys and “buffs” but a good Predator will still most likely win(dont quote me on that), Im not going to get into bugs right now, I am talking about balance on Predator and Fireteam side. So honestly Fireteam has always been pretty boring once you get a build that works and the initial parnoia of Predator goes away it becomes repetitive, and not fun. Now as of patch 2.0 Fireteam while still relatively boring is atleast a little bit more enjoyable than it was before which is good. For a 4v1 game to work and succed both sides need to fun to play which I think illfonic is slowly getting there.

Now honestly buffs and nerfs on both sides aren’t going to be viable in grand scheme of things, there are some glaring issues on both sides of the coin that either need to be reworked or fleshed out a bit more for example. Ai is one of them, it isn’t great by any means and just increasing the damage of ai isnt going to help the balance, I’m not going to shit on Illfonic saying there bad devolpers that has been done to death and it solves nothing. But I do know they are extremely passionate about this project and I do see them trying balance the game. It is difficult there’s going to be bumps and alot of questionable balance changes that not everyone is going like, look at Dead By Daylight balancing that game has been 4 years in the making and is still going, so Predator Hunting Grounds being a little over 4 months old having a questionable patch is part of the process.

Predator at this point is 50/50 if your new to the game its going to be difficult to get the hang of, this game is not newcomer friendly on the Predator side of the game from what Ive seen. The tutorial gives you basic of what the Predator can do but it doesn’t prepare for what your going to be dealing with ingame, the recently added hints on the loading screen was a great idea and Im glad they have it. Also the map for the Predator is its worst enemy you are always fighting the map, and illfonic has a good foundation for it but I feel the excution was a little hit or miss, and that is what I feel for most things on the Predator side, it has good intentions behind it but poor excution, but there still alot of time for it to be ironed out so Im not too worried it will always be an issue, I do not think the Predator should be able to jump into a fullly decked out fireteam and kill them all in one go. Yes I think stealth needs a rework cause currently cloak is not as usefull as it should be. I think they way they changed large pouch and other perks was good move, they are trying make it so people use more creative builds but the meta on both sides makes it pointless to try to be creative. I do think if the Predator got more gadgets and utilitiy this recent patch wouldn’t be as bad but the Predator does not have as many options to engage or mess around with the fireteam. Mimicry wheel is just for fun at this point there are rare occasion when it works but not enough to be an actual tactic, audio deocys are useful in very rare occasion mostly cause there is no way to change what is outputed from them, and people with headphones can usually tell which one is fake pretty easily, there is no strategy besides throwing it where you are not and thats it its half usefull and I feel it should be more fleshed out. However compared to Fireteam the Predator does not have as many gadgets as they should, they should have the advanatage in the utility and the way they approach combat.

Niether side is op, but niether side is close to there full potential, here is a quick bullet point of what I think would help is here.

-More ultility for Predator
-Make Fireteam more fun to play(2.0 was a good start but there room to improve)
-rework stealth on both sides
-make taking a camp stealthly more rewarding
-increase match time but also dont fill with it time wasters make it have a purpose
-60fps on console
-bot fill ins incase someone leaves the match prematurely
-practice mode for both sides
-and keep making the game fun to play

I don’t expect everyone to agree with me everyone has there own opinion and thats okay but please dont rip each other apart just because someone doesnt agree with you. We as a community are going to be one of major factors that keeps this game alive and thriving, yes we are at rough patch but it will get better, dont give up just yet this game is still pretty early on in its life and if you read all of this thank you!

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#2

Uh. That wall of text is kinda hard to read lmao.

But as far as balance goes.
Starting off with your points, unless a.i. gets serious improvement, I’d vote against this.
It wouldnt help getting a bit ft member with current a.i.

The main balance prob atm is some if the ft guns do too much damage.
I think lowering them to their damage output with silencers would help out a lot.

If not, then pred needs more mechanics and abilities to compete with the ft dps.
Someone stayed it perfectly, the predator Should be able to overwhelm the ft with his tech.

Right now I feel predators arsenal is way too simple.
I also dont think the status effects in this game are rewarding enough.

Like I feel the fire from the wrist launcher should burn harder, basically do more damage, or last a bit longer.
Maybe if you tap interact you can put yourself out faster.

So ya. I’d just to love to have more options in match with the predator.
Since a lot off ppl dont want him to be a tank, let’s make it so he can fully focus on an indirect fighting style.

2 Likes
#3

I agree the ai is problem that should be addressed soon cause that is half of balance issue lies within the ai, I should of explained a bit more about ai sorry.

#4

Lol my phone posted my reply before I was done. I added a bit more.

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#5

My bad, adding damage reduction to silencer would help it would make snipers not as much as of threat as they are and yes 100% Predator should be op in its ultility/tech but I also think illfonic was trying to make ft more interesting which they did but I think they will add more tech for Predator soon especially if we get the falconer drone this month cause from some there was no point in playing ft now there sorta of is.

#6

The only thing I dont agree with is trying to make this a stealth game for FT. I think stealth should be an option but shouldn’t encourage you to play any certain way. It should be up to the FT to plan accordingly.

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#7

I was mostly refreing to when you enter camp but other than that, yes stealth should be option not forced for ft.

I think of should of elebarated on certain points more, its hard for me to get my thoughts onto paper/text.

#8

I have fun playing ft with ppl, solo it’s ok, nothing special.
Btw silencers do lower your damage.

Il have to test it out again, but it’s the Reason you dont see ppl who play ft a lot go with silencers.

The game needs to run smoother on ps4, shits pretty janky tbh. Ft would be funner if it felt more challenging.
I and quite a few other ppl have been saying it for a while, longer and more complex missions would be a good start, also like @Coffee2Go has been saying for a little while, adding randomization to the missions would also help out to.

Such as the missions never take place in the same location.
I’d also like random events during the match too.

Like more random a.i.
The a.i. gets different equipment sometimes,
If it’s a stargazer mission, let their be some pred hunting squads that are dangerous for the ft and pred, and the last idea il type in fir random events would be wild animal attacks. XD. Just cause that shit would be hilarious.

Right now tho, and I know the topic is balance so sorry for going off it a bit, on ps4 performance really needs a strong focus. Otherwise I dont see any of this working.

As for pred, I just really want to be able to set up more traps, like waaay more, and have different gear options in a match.

I would like more abilities too.
I would totally switch out my slam for some kind of dash attack, or an ability that is pure utility.

Stuff like that.
Hell I would love to be able to collapse trees and buildings on top of ft xD.

2 Likes
#9

I agree with all your points but would like to add a bit more on AI.

Aside from the actual intelligence itself which no doubt needs a rework, i would like some rework to enemy design. As it stands right now, a lot of enemies in game have a ton of armor, and ballistic masks (or just ballistic masks) which heavily encourages spraying for center of mass rather than headshots as either way you are going to be emptying a clip just to kill one of them.

This is exhasterbated by the effective range system for weapons which seems to steeply drop off, turning smgs into pea shooters if you arent point blank.

The sheer amount of bullets you have to dump into enemies feels really unsatisfying. But they are clearly meant to waste your ammo.

So id suggest less enemies with ballistic masks. More encouragement to accurate shots to conserve ammo, and kill enemies quicker.

And for the love of fuck make headshots that dont hit a helmet an instant kill at all ranges. Nothing like dinking an enemy like its csgo and im using an m4a1s

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#10

Unless they make the a.i. way deadlier, I cant see it as a good option to make a.i. easier to kill.

Btw I mean way deadlier in terms of them not being easy targets. Like they shoot from cover, and attack in a smart fashion.

If they decrease the numbers, which I’m kind of against, then maybe have them hit a bit harder.

Also, not spawning right behind or on top of the ft maybe. Depending where the ft is and the mission.

Just thought I should clarify.

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#11

I can’t stress ps4 performance enough. 60 fps is required for crossplay against PC players. If not the fps needs to be locked at 30 on both platforms without losing a single frame.

3 Likes
#12

That would my most pressing issue as of rn is framerate, variation for mission in general is a good idea and ai being more variad and not just a roadblock.

Im tired so sorry for the short posts, I wanted to get my thoughts out before I forgot.

#13

Lmao get some sleep and check on it tomorrow.

1 Like
#14

I agree that balance is not too far off right now. I don’t think the game is like, totally broken. Like some people. But it’s heavily FT favored atm and not because they are just entirely op. There’s just a few things that need to be tweaked. I had 2 matches today where I left, like in the chopper game over, within 4 minutes. Like literally 3 minutes 50 something seconds and we were gone. This needs to change. And right now I stand by extended mags don’t need to be a thing. You have more than enough rounds per mag in some assault rifles to solo wind the predator. I’m ok with mag dump killing a predator, but having more than enough rounds seems excessive and takes away from the idea of needing teamwork to take down the predator.

Games like this, one side getting washed is kinda the nature of the beast. It’s super super super rare to have close games. You either stomp or get stomped, because being slightly better than someone at games like this goes a super long way. I think we might see some closer games more often if the FT experiences pressure from not having insta complete missions, and having this one man army attitude sprinting after predators confidently with there 45 round mags(I’m guilty of this). I’d enjoy feeling pressured, or even hey. A little scared at times, when playing as the FT. At the moment that’s entirely non existent

#15

supposedly Devs were in a pub match today and they all died to AI. So, I’d say is safe to say they’ll be working on it.

I honestly don’t care about the damage they deal or how stupid they are, but the fact they can see and shoot through walls, smoke does not have any effect on them and they spawn literally in your ass… well… that shit is just annoying AF

devs were identified cause they all had the Mythical “Mandalorian” mask

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#16

I think they need to make pigs spawn in smaller groups more spread out across the map instead of one big ass herd

#17

Consistently too.
Not buffet or extinct.

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#18

fireteam is boring if you play solo, duo + is pretty fun because you have to work together and cover each other for winning. Private match is the most fun as you can play with good predators having a challenging match. If you have many people on friend list it will be very funny. I don’t think fireteam is that boring, is just people don’t like to play alone with players that go random in the map without pay attention on what is happening. Playing in group is completely different. Obv if you are too good and kill pred in 30 secs, just play private and invite good preds, croos play invites work now, so you have have evena larger choise. The same thing can be applied for Pred, once you get good it will become boring to kill people that don’t know where you are shooting from or just 1 vs 4 with wrist blade, private can give to you a good challenge if you ask some teams.

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#19

As for balance argument, I put my idea of how helping high level scenario without affecting too much the random/casual side. Right now the game is not that broekn for pubs, the problem is that it is for high level players. Fireteam now is close to unbeatable, and this because it was already in advantage before the patch, now with the new bane, tick skin and double time even a good Predator will struggle to kill only one member. Traps now don’t help you that much for deleting their reinforcements, that force you to rush 1 vs 4 and win as quick as possivle with medic perk, because as you know, ft can finish missions in 3/5 mins (even while fighting with the Pred I am not joking). I think some things should be nerf because pre made teams are now more frequently for both pc and ps4. Reinforcements and missions as well as bane are beyond broken, they can restore their ENTIRE kit and finish missions in 3 mins, plus if you try to go for melee range you get melted, but if you play range just 2 SAWZ headshot and you are half hp with no mask. About gadjets, I think it’s ok ft get more gadjets, the more ft content they add the more people will play then and queue stick to 5 mins avarage and not 15 like before.

#20

I feel like the game is almost close to being balanced. Maybe Illfonic could try and improve on the perks and damage output of the predator next.

Also, a ranked mode needs to be added already. Playing fireteam or predator can get boring when you’re constantly winning against noob players. My most memorable matches are the ones where I actually had to sweat really hard to win.