Predator is still WEAK! Please fix the balance.

#1

Hello everyone thanks for the replies. I made a new post and a questionnaire about balance. Check out the post here please:

I played the trial weekend and I’ve played the game heavily since it released not long ago.

During the trial I was afraid the Predator would remain too weak for release. My fears have come to pass…

The first 5-6 games I played as Predator I dominated the fireteam, killing 4 man teams several times. So from the onset I thought perhaps the Predator had been buffed or something had changed. What I came to realise that it was the quality of the players I was vsing, perhaps they were just new to the game and didn’t know how to fight back. After several hours the fireteam went from totally incompetent, to impossible to beat. I am convinced that the Predator is too weak and that if the fireteam is just average or above skill level then the Predator is doomed.

From my recent experience I can see how it may appear like the Predator is OP. But if you play enough games and see the full spectrum of player skill out there I think you will come to agree with me that the Predator is way too weak and for the game to be of any interest to people, the Predator must be strengthened.

Before I get backlash saying I don’t know how to play the Predator class, or I am just not a good player let me state that I’ve put a lot of effort and time into improving my strategy and skill in this game. So this post and my opinion is taken seriously I have to explain why I think I am a good enough Predator player for you to listen to me. At the start of a match I will go destroy medkits and ammo. I try my best to trigger an alarm in the base I guess the fireteam is going to attack to make it more difficult for them. I use cliffs and rooftops as cover to take charged shots with my plasmacaster. I hide my laser behind cover until the last second and bring the laser out onto the target so they have minimal response time. I have hit, downed and killed players from a whole base away with my plasmacaster, so my aim isn’t too bad if I don’t say myself. If I come across a boar I kill it so I can come back and eat it for HP later. I throw vocal mimic tools around to distract and confuse the fireteam before attacking from another angle. I have tried a wide array of weapons and perks. No matter what I do, the result is clear. If the fireteam are total noobs I completely destroy them. If the fireteam are average or better I might be lucky to kill 1 of them, which to my frustration is to no avail when they call for reinforcements. I am not claiming to be the best Predator player ever, but I think I am skilled enough for my opinion to matter.

So why is it so hard for the Predator to win in this game? I think there are many reasons and it’s a complex problem. It’s not as simple as giving the Predator more HP.

I can understand the idea that the Predator is supposed to die quickly if the fireteam focuses all their fire on them and that the Predator is not some invincible monster tank, that’s okay. Focusing on a hit and run style of play should be encouraged, sure. But the real problem is the Predator’s ability to hit is lacking.

Compare how challenging it is to land a hit with the Predator’s weapons and how much damage they do vs the fireteam’s weapons.

Let’s start by saying that the fireteam’s guns are pretty decent. They are automatic, accurate, they spread a bit to be forgiving, they have plenty of ammo and they do decent damage.

The Predator’s ranged weapons on the other hand are very difficult to use…

The plasmacaster only does decent damage when the shot is fully charged. To charge a shot the Predator has to be walking very slowly with his laser out, like a big slow dumb target. To make this work you generally have to be on top of a roof or behind some cover to release the shot at the last second around a corner, when you do this it becomes even harder to land a hit, with the already difficult to aim plasmacaster. Even if you target the fireteam member well, it’s likely they have now seen your lasers and are now in a full sprint away from the explosion. The plasma takes flight time to travel to the target, so there’s a good chance the target has moved a great deal while sprinting or strafing and firing back.

The netgun is fun and all but it breaks on corners and weird hitboxes of clutter around the level. If you’re using heat vision its very hard to tell if the net has hit the target or if it broke on something. Even if you land a net, striking the netted fireteam member as they run off towards their teammates with your wristblades is very hard as the blades just don’t track well when your target runs. To switch your weapon after you have landed a net to say the elder blade feels clunky at best. As you are trying to move towards the target and switch to another weapon it sometimes glitches and does not switch and you have to try again, all the while you are getting shot at by their teammates. Before I get backlash for attacking a fireteam player who is not isolated… Let me say that when against average fireteam members it is very unlikely that they ever split up and provide such an opportunity. At the best they are in groups of 2 with the other members not far away. It also now seems surprisingly easy to break out of the net. By the time I have netted 2 fireteam members, the 1st netted guy has broken free.

The handheld plasmacaster is horrible. As far as I can tell it is like firing an uncharged plasmacaster (which has a very narrow bolt and must hit dead on) while also being very difficult to aim. Especially difficult to aim against fireteam members that are strafing or sprinting around. Meanwhile the fireteam has no trouble shooting you after sprinting and strafing around because their weapons are automatic, spread well and are hitscan.

The smartdisc, while being way easier to control now is still incredibly difficult to hit a fireteam member that is sprinting and strafing around constantly. Most often the positions such as ontop of a roof or cliff where you have cover to throw the disc in safety, are too far away from the fireteam. The disc falls short before it can even travel close to the fireteam and have the chance to hit. Despite all this I have actually landed a few good hits with the smartdisc. I got some head and chest hits, but the damage done seemed to be insignificant. The players were not downed, they just continued running around, strafing and sprinting as usual. To throw the disc from cover means that the disc will likely get stuck on something, meaning you have to venture out to retrieve it. This always gives the fireteam a great chance to fill you with bullets…

Another problem I find with this game is that the Fireteam can complete the objective and run to exfil incredibly fast. Their mission can be done in 6 minutes. Meanwhile it can take a minute or two to even find the fireteam. Then it can take a minute or more to make a planned approach and attack, unless of course you just Rambopred it and run straight at them swinging wildly (which works with noobs, but will lose you the game very fast against any average players with aim.) To make this problem worse there’s been many times when I’ve used the isolation scan to find the fireteam, but the isolation scan returned nothing! I am unsure if this is an intentional design feature. Maybe you can’t use it against mudded fireteam? I have no idea?! Maybe the isolation scan just bugs out sometimes?

Another weird one for me was that it was so difficult to find boars and if you try to melee them, my god do they run fast! The boars run faster than sonic the hedgehog! Sometimes your only hope is to plasma them and hope they don’t run!

There are scores of other issues such as how your leaps often bounce off something stupid and getting stuck on dumb terrain… but I hope this is a good starting point. Again let me be clear that I don’t expect playing as the Predator to be a walk in the park. I don’t expect to be a predator tank that just soaks up damage but as it stands I feel like I don’t have many good options when it comes to reliably dealing damage. It feels so difficult to land a hit and the punishment so severe if I miss that I’ve given up. It gets to the point where I just let the fireteam exfil while I go kill a couple of AI for XP because even getting close to them and trying to land good damage is a chore and unrewarding. Sometimes the chance of killing them with self destruct is much better than trying to attack them with anything else. So the game has turned the Predator into a laughing suicide bomber. At least the laugh is cool I guess…

This major imbalance will kill the game. Players will drop off servers within weeks if the game continues like this. Fireteams will get bored of winning too easily and Predator players will get bored of struggling, despite them trying every strategy and weapon available, only to be defeated and mocked time after time.

One last time I want to emphasise that on the surface the Predator seems powerful. As I mentioned my first few early games I won easily. But as soon as players start to level up and become experienced with how to play and what to expect there is no competition. An average fireteam becomes incredibly difficult to defeat.

Maybe some people out there think that it’s awesome that it’s so difficult to play as Predator. Maybe they’re the kind of people that like playing Sekiro or Dark Souls and they enjoy dying 1000 times to beat the game… But for me it’s the equivalent of trying to play flappy bird while being shot at by 4 grunting morons with automatic weapons. It’s so unfair and difficult that it doesn’t feel fun at all. At the end of the day the game has to be fun for people to continue playing and for it to be successful.

So what do you think?

28 Likes
predator is weak
#2

Well said

4 Likes
#3

Thanks mate!

1 Like
#4

Isn’t there a whole tank predator class get him before anything see how he plays

#5

You mean the beserker class. I find this response just silly to be honest. If you read my post you would understand that I am saying Predator is weak for many reasons. When i say weak, i dont mean HP Tank. I mean his weapons suck and the dynamics of the game are stacked against the Predator as soon as the Fireteam is average or above skill level.

Also if the only way to play a fair game is to play as only 1 class of Predator that you have to unlock at level 40+, I don’t see a future for this game.

5 Likes
#6

I think that the problem is not “how hard to kill” can be the predator, but “how much damage the predator can deal to the fireteam” we must simply take a look at the movie… the predator must remain in the shadow until he can kill someone… because nobody know about him… in this game all the team know about the pred and play to make teamwork… so is an action game, not a stealth game… at this point the difference must be the equipment… the predator equipment is not deadly as it must be. Plasmacaster has not automatic aim, so the damage must be much higher, god that cannon must be the most powerful pred weapon… in the movie is one shot, one kill, if it fails and no hit the soldier, the explosion must smash the target away… but this never happen. same story for all the equip… the predator need to be more deadly, the fireteam need to be less omniscent about pred and a little bit weak if we talk about damage. Its not normal that the best predator strategy is go in skirmish at the 90% of the time, cause all pred weapons are not deadly enough to kill in one shot.
If you hide too much, the fireteam escape
If you try to use the long range weapons they spot you witout take enough damage…
a pain in the ass …

11 Likes
#7

I agree. The Fireteam needs to be afraid and running from the Predator. Not the other way around. The Predator needs to deal some serious damage with weapons that are not so easy to dodge. it needs to make the Fireteam think carefully about poking their heads out.

10 Likes
#8

Le prédateur et trop faible abuser les atous serre à rien sont arsenal aussi aucun dégât les commando tro puissant font arrêter vos connerie régler le jeux très vite je sui niveau 40 et franchement je me sui trop énervé dessu je me sui pas amuser et j’ai pas gagner une manche avec le predator alors faite vite de régler sa

#9

Well said. As you said, there is no future to the game if they continue going this way of balancing. Unfortunately, people still don’t know how to create ideal game about predator(

If this game going to die, then we will wait for another 3-4 years(maybe more) until some studio will mentioned that there is a predator universe

3 Likes
#10

Je sui d’accord mais carrément c’est les commando qui chasse le prédateur c’est le monde à l’envers lol

#11

Si sa continue comme sa il y auras plus personne dans quelque jours

#12

Eh little buffs I think predator still strong from my experience to much will make him overpowered

1 Like
#13

Predator is weak, and I’ve seen this all too many times before, in other games, so I put in my refund as soon as I could, and thankfully the folks at EPIC listened to my points about the game and asked for my invoice number to process it.

One big reason as to why I put in this refund, is because Illfonic didn’t listen to ANY of the feedback here, from many people, on the Predator’s negative points, for example; his loud noises, keeping him from actually stealthing, the Predator being weak and unable to play well with only his claw and plasmacaster, and his atrocious health (his health probably wouldn’t be so bad, if his equipment was actually strong). (Before you say, “unlock the Berserker”… know that you shouldn’t be forced to do that to actually play the game).

ANYTIME you attempt melee, it’s a suicide mission for a group that’s staying together and playing properly. This is because all a player has to do is walk backwards away from your attacks and you will whiff everytime, WHILE you’re getting shot up. The Plasmacaster is sorta fun to use, but not efficient enough against players who know to look out for it, after they know you won’t melee (because it’s too dangerous to melee).

I played the base Predator all night last night and into the morning, and found that 3v1 was actually way more entertaining than a 4v1, because the back and forth felt more organic, and even when I lost some matches, I was still having fun BECAUSE of that back and forth we were having for about 3-4 hours out of the night. But as soon as we switched back up to 4v1, it became a frustrating nightmare again.

Illfonic didn’t listen to anyone on these forums in regarding the Predator’s weakness, and I wanted to like this game. But with that red flag of just not listening, or responding, or even an attempt at being transparent with the community, I can’t go forward with this game right now.

If they actually fix the predator, and I can see visual gameplay proof of this with a base LVL 1 Predator being able to strategize and do just as good as a combi-stick Predator (because difficulty shouldn’t be locked behind equipment, it should only change your strategy), then I’ll come back and re-purchase this game.

11 Likes
#14

I honestly think they need to remove the spot function all together. It takes away so much from the Predator’s strength and mystique.

8 Likes
#15

This is what my overall feedback of the game over all and what I would try to implement. I am in the general area that the Predator needs to have some changes, also changes to the Fireteam for better balance. The Predator needs to have his health and damage output raised. all the unlocks should be cosmetics only. not gear. some sort of soft targeting of players is needed. Fireteam members needs more limited resources, like if they get an injury by a Predator, they’ll bleed out unless they use a limited number of medpacs. The nastier the weapon used. The faster the bleed out. No respawn bullshit. Or at least not have every single dead fireteam member come back fully locked and loaded undoing all the work even a good Predator player done during the match. I want the game to be good and succeed but not in the state it’s in now gameplay wise

6 Likes
#16

There’s nothing wrong with gear unlocks.
But that should all be earned and then enabling the player to alter their strategy only… not give them an edge in battle. Someone shouldn’t have to grind in order to start winning.

I started getting better with the Plasmacaster late in my gaming session last night, but even in getting better with it, along with my maneuvering ability, the Fireteam still was slaughtering him, because you could weaken them with it… but then just going in for the melee was suicide most the time.

There was a few fun moments in sessions as well, but the amount of frustration over fun, is pretty off-putting. There’s a lot to do with this game… and I think Illfonic needs to really account for getting the base LVL 1 Predator to be just as dangerous feeling, as a LVL 42 combi-stick Predator.

3 Likes
#17

Genuinely hoping Sony can deliver my refund, they probably won’t though.

However I completely agree with what you’ve said, the ranged damage output for Predator is simply too low with such a low rate of fire. A fully charged bow shot only takes away about 70 health, sounds decent right? But the ability to instantly heal yourself with a syringe completely negates this. The bow also has drop off, which is fine, if a headshot was rewarding to kill in one hit, yet it’s not.

Melee hits are very inconsistent and don’t often connect, combine this with Fireteam’s ability to parry and you don’t have much of a chance. I’d like to add that the melee from Fireteam is extraordinarily high and can genuinely kill a predator within five hits, this means should a member parry your attacks they can melee you straight after when you are defenceless. This is completely over powered and needs to be nerfed heavily.

Another thing, it’s extremely disheartening at how little of a chance you have to take out a player calling in reinforcements, the timer is too quick so unless you’re already chasing after the last member you’re not going to have a chance.

As of now the berserker seems to be the class to use, there’s little movement penalty and it return you get more health. Though you might need to sacrifice part of your perk setup.

Speaking of perks, impenetrable or whatever it’s called is an absolute necessity irregardless of class and setup, I can’t imagine how much quicker you’d die without it equipped.

Overall I’ve resorted to playing fireteam exclusively, as more often or not we end up killing the predator with only a few games that involved the predator rushing and spamming melee actually worked.

3 Likes
#18

I have same opinion. More easy play as fireteam then play as predator. In addition predator have huge problems with weapon switch mechanic and movement in this game. At least, in this case, you need to add Friendly Fire to FireTeam, because players can shoot at a predator and other enemies without risking killing their partner. It is also necessary to limit the amount of resources, such as shells and first-aid kits. It is worth to change FireTeam classes, such as support, which only this class can carry a supply of a cartridge for your friends and a medic, who carries first-aid kits and only he can heal and completely restore the team’s health, I repeat: only a doctor should completely restore health, other classes can use only adrenaline adding, for example, 50% HP. These restrictions will already help the Predator not to be a victim of noobs. Also, playing as a predator, you constantly impersonate hissing and crackling, with very loud steps, as if the Indian tribes would be drumming while hunting you.

6 Likes
#19

Totally agree. I’m not even at your play level and I’m already feeling that I might never be a good predator player… Mostly, I think it is due to its weapons, they feel like a joke, they are very hard to use and cause very few damage. I think full charged plasma caster, smartdisc and javelin throw should one hit any enemy. Also it bugges me how often the humans run so fast I cannot hide from them to heal lol

2 Likes
#20

I think the speed that the fireteam can run is a total joke. They can cross the map in minutes and exfil within 6 mins. The rate that stamina recharges is crazy too high.

Maybe the reason why the developers gave the fireteam high speed and stamina is to run from the predator self destruct. A suggestion to fix this… Give the fireteam the option to drop all their weapons and gear for stamina and speed boost. So when the Predator goes self destruct they can drop all and run full speed. But normal speed and stamina should be much much lower so the Predator has a chance to catch up to them. Also it gives the Predator a chance to hit them with his weapons. As it stands Fireteam players play like its an action game like destiny or halo or something. They run around constantly and allow very little chance for the Predator to actually connect a hit.

5 Likes