A Discussion of Predator Equipment

[northcote4]

I figured I'd just start up this little thread in The Hunt to talk about certain predator items with the community, to get some opinions on them. I admit I've no flair for creating threads, so forgive the barebones appearance.

For example, the first item I'd like to talk about would be the predator bracer explosion.

As it stands at the moment, the explosion can only be activated in crit, cannot be activated if facehugged/impregnated, and the explosion is currently only powerful enough to kill T1s, barring the heavily wounded higher tiers. The explosion timer itself is set to about, what, 5 seconds?


So what are some thoughts about the bracer explosion? Too weak? Too strong? Not enough fiery blue infernos? Let's get some opinions rolling.


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My own personal believe is that while I feel the timer and most features of it are ideal, the explosion itself just isn't quite strong enough. For something that's supposed to have the destructive capacity to level entire rainforests, it feels a bit lackluster when it fails to kill even a T2 xeno, doubly so when it actually fails to destroy all your equipment even if you're wearing it.

And as for being unable to activate it while infected? Well, I'll leave that for a discussion about mask knock-offs, if we ever get to it.

[coroneljones]

Agreeing with the points
Needs more range and more fiery explosions of death.

More range would deny meta of running, since you cant run in time unless you are right on the border of it, and more explosions mean xenos are more damaged, and its more worthy

[ShortTemperedLeprechaun]

Yes please. As for the mask knock off, maybe we could secure it better, than with hope, spit, and rubber bands and paper clips?

[Boltersam]

If we're starting with the bracer, I don't think it should be more POWERFUL, per say, but, maybe there should be fire like from the flamethrower spread around the epicentre of the explosion. If there are problems with the items not being destroyed, either give it a slight increase in power, or delete the Predator before the explosion through code, so any dropped items take the brunt of the blast, while there is no chance of the Predator's gear that they're wearing to survive. Think of it as disintegrating.

Next, I think we should do the chainwhip. In terms of power, it is very lacking compared to the other weapons, and its special ability is reflected by the sword, which while the knockdowns are less common, the power more than makes up for it. May I suggest adding more versatile moves, as increasing the damage itself would be a bit much? Maybe, give it a chance of disarming a human if aiming for the arms, and maybe if you attack the chest, wrapping around and letting you throw them.

And the mask....Make it a bit more secure, though I don't know why the falloff was implemented in the first place, it would be nice to secure it a bit better. It's falling off very quickly right now.

[Warnipple]

So I'm not a pred but from a player perspective, I wouldn't mind if preds had an option to have an instant explosion or short beep explosion vs a long beep explosion.

Once again, we can't force people to stand in pred explosions but having a short beep timer would remedy that a bit.

[northcote4]

Happy to see use being made of the topic so soon.

For the chainwhip I have no input, as I've yet to use the weapon myself at all.

But yes, as for the mask fall off... It does seem a little silly sometimes. I imagine it was implemented to balance the resistance to facehuggers, but all the same it seems a little much. My own personal experience has seen it removed from a single strike of an Elite Queen, or two strikes from a Young Drone. Granted I imagine there is a great deal of RNG behind it, given that I've seen Elite Hunters fail to do the same.

[Boltersam]

Happy to see use being made of the topic so soon.

For the chainwhip I have no input, as I've yet to use the weapon myself at all.

But yes, as for the mask fall off... It does seem a little silly sometimes. I imagine it was implemented to balance the resistance to facehuggers, but all the same it seems a little much. My own personal experience has seen it removed from a single strike of an Elite Queen, or two strikes from a Young Drone. Granted I imagine there is a great deal of RNG behind it, given that I've seen Elite Hunters fail to do the same.

A Young Runner took it off on the first strike and then instantly facehugged me, because I thought it wasn't a threat.

It's a bit silly when that can happen. Maybe implement it, so only some Xenomorphs can do it, like Elite and above T1s, Mature and above T2s, and all T3s?

[Toroic]

As an elite crusher I nearly died from a predator explosion, probably losing 80% of my life. I could see elite T2 surviving if they're at full health.

As far as the hugger problem, the solution to getting facehugged is to wear a facehugger that has already infected someone on your face. The brown curled ones, or the ??? in the science building work for this.

I find that heavy armor is only useful against marines, xenos just slash the mask off and decap. I personally like the combistick, but think the scythe, the sword, and the glaive all are great weapons, with the whip being like a worse version of the scythe.

I also love traps, so so much. I don't use any secondary weapons, just upgrade the bracer, but would probably trade for another 6 traps.

[SecretStamos (Joshuu)]

I do not think the bracer needs to change. Some of the melee weapons need a helping hand though

[zskninoh]

Maybe the more upgrades you put into the bracer the more damage the explosion from it does?

[Sarah_U.]

One of the things I hate is the disk, but don't we all xP

Seriously though, only thing I hate with explosion is how unpredictable the radius is. You can,t see how far it reach and a lot of stuff like that. If you're at the border you get full damage too, or at least you get knocked unconscious for a VERY LONG TIME.
PS: Doesn't properly destroy items 70% of the time. I've collected so much items as pred to avoid trouble post-explosion it's ridiculous.