Reactions to predators

[Szunti]

I don't know much about predator lore but the marines/xenos reaction to them are ridiculous in my opinion. They are totally ignored running in and out of the FOB/hives. Command/Queen telling us to avoid them and be peaceful.

This makes no sense. We are the badass USCM, the planet was raided as far as we know and here is the first weird armed guy and we play friends? If I point my gun at him, SL and the SO or even the Commander yells at me. Next time I see him chopping off the head of the SL with a sword and the marines around doesn't even care. I am the only one that thinks something is wrong so I get yelled at again when I shoot him.

Is this really what we aim for with the predators? They are just a meme right now as I see. They play with the marines like a clown on the other servers. Some wants to play with them and tries to get their attention, others look away and hope they are not the next victim. Predators are the clowns of CM if you ask me.

[Papa_Pollard]

It is stupid, cause in the movies everyone just shoots at them.

[MeetraSurik]

my first round with a predator was weird my char was shocked and frightened because of the noises and the invisibility the other marine on the other hand ran towards the pred and chased him until he got killed i think i never saw the pred again ^^

[Zilenan91]

People ignore predators because if they kill them they explode and wipe whole squads/hives.

It's not them being deadly that's the problem, it's what happens when they're about to die.

[MeetraSurik]

but actually you char wouldn't know that? And a Pred can kill the marines pretty good too?

[Challenger]

Well lots of people metagame the honor code or recall from past experiences that being the sole marine shooting a predator usually means he plasma casts you, drags you off, kills you, and then your squad blames you (???) for doing it and decides not to go after you.

In general marines are very conflict averse against predators, on the individual level you'll get singled out and killed, on the squad level you'll either lose and get decimated, or worse, win and get annihilated in the explosion.

I try to balance this out by having a character who's very violent against predators (and not in the rush them with a knife type) by overreacting to any hostility they show, trying to pull other marines and squads into the ensuing conflict, exaggerating and screaming about what the preds are doing to us over the radio... and the more I do this the more I realize this is actually a regular level of RP of what a marine would do in that situation.

Doesn't mean I shoot them while talking on first contact or anything, but it definitely means I'm not giving them a chance to stand there and give us some monologue after they just dragged a marine off.

[apophis775]

Part of it is that, you don't fully know what happened. Your're investigating.

And if you just instantly gun down any possible source of answers, you won't get any answers.

But also, if we didn't have some restrictions on players blasting Preds to shit on sight, we'd have to increase the Preds power to compensate so they could still furfill their role. But doing that, would mean there would be nothing to stop the preds from just steamrolling everything.

[Sir Lordington]

Well, generally, you don't just shoot people you find in an AO unless they are hostile. Sure, if they are armed you may hold them up, but the Marines have no idea what happened at the Colony. As Apop said, you don't want to kill your sources of answers. You also don't want to start hostilities with unknowns if possible.

Once proven hostile? Sure, go ahead and shoot to kill. If they aren't doing anything to you or even helping you kill hostiles? why would you shoot them? You should act wary, but not hostile.

[Szunti]

I think the normal thing is to aim your gun at anyone armed and tell them to lie down and drop their weapons immediately. This is what happens in all the movies when special forces enter an area with both hostiles and civilians. I have no idea what happens in real life, but it sounds logical to not let anyone run around with lethal weapons. The only exception would be an other army, but command would probably know about another military vessel orbiting the planet and tell us about them.

Disarming civilians was also required when I started playing CM, but almost noone cared. I guess nowadays we don't even try. I never understood why a scientist wants to hug a rifle and shoots the marines when they ask for it, when he perfectly knows the hostiles are lizards.

[Symbiosis]

I don't mind if I get shot on sight by Marines as a Predator. I try my darndest to be confrontational from the start (skirmishing someone in front of other Marines without the intent of removing the player from the round but likely putting them into deep crit with broken bones) to set the tone that the Preds are not there to be their friends. I tend to keep a human head in my hunting Pouch if the message isn't clear.

The bigger curiosity to me is Queens ordering Xenos to not fight Preds. I've had rounds where the Hive is clearly ordered to not fight Preds and have walked up to Elite Empresses that ignore me. Destroying eggs/walls doesn't even illicit the slightest reaction.

As to why you were yelled at?

There are multiple Preds. Perhaps a Medic saw a Predator fighting Xenos which allowed him to escape... then watched your SL open fire on the Pred provoking him. Or people are trying to defuse the situation. Ignore them... if you want!

[Crab_Spider]

I don't mind if I get shot on sight by Marines as a Predator. I try my darndest to be confrontational from the start (skirmishing someone in front of other Marines without the intent of removing the player from the round but likely putting them into deep crit with broken bones) to set the tone that the Preds are not there to be their friends. I tend to keep a human head in my hunting Pouch if the message isn't clear.

The bigger curiosity to me is Queens ordering Xenos to not fight Preds. I've had rounds where the Hive is clearly ordered to not fight Preds and have walked up to Elite Empresses that ignore me. Destroying eggs/walls doesn't even illicit the slightest reaction.

As to why you were yelled at?

There are multiple Preds. Perhaps a Medic saw a Predator fighting Xenos which allowed him to escape... then watched your SL open fire on the Pred provoking him. Or people are trying to defuse the situation. Ignore them... if you want!

In actual canon, xenomorphs feel pain when a member of the Hive is killed, face huggers included. The Queen in Rogue got pissed off when Rogue started decimating the warriors, the icing on the cake was Rogue stepping on the ovomorph eggs, crushing them. Or when the Queen negotiates with Ripley, begging her not to destroy the ovomorph eggs. Or when the Queen Mother pleads for the life of a single facehugger (this actually happened).

Xenos don't attack predators because they KNOW whatll happen, and unlike Marines, they don't have much leeway. I'm bored

[Gandalf]

I always figure that in a firefight and a rescue situation, a predator wearing a mask and his gear would just look like a human and marines would assume he's a big heavily armed survivor. Shoot first seems weird in that situation.

[Butlerblock]

Most preds roar and laugh while invisible on first contact with marines, which isn't human. No reason not to shoot at some invisible being with a weird voice

[Feweh]

I love when Humans/Xenos engage a predator first and complain when it kills them.

Like bro, come on

[Robotic Potato]

TBH speaking from experience most xenos don't wana spend ages evolving just to be easily killed by a Pred they most likely can't hope to kill, there's a similar sentiment for marines as well for marines usually they try to be peaceful Pred runs off, or starts then from their the whole thing branches off with the marines usually being a bit memey towards them, or everyone focusing them. IMO it's a bit strange

[Szunti]

There are multiple Preds. Perhaps a Medic saw a Predator fighting Xenos which allowed him to escape... then watched your SL open fire on the Pred provoking him. Or people are trying to defuse the situation. Ignore them... if you want!

SL was a "good guy", it was just me who showed hostility. The pred pointed at the SL and said "FIGHT". I missed them for a couple seconds, but next I saw the pred hitting the head of the SL with a sword. Others watched it unconcernedly, but I willl always shoot (actually just targeted, but it ignored me and moved of course) a pred beheading my SL, sorry. Actually it worked too, the pred player was nice, stunned everyone and ran off. Medics could heal the SL.

I love when Humans/Xenos engage a predator first and complain when it kills them.

Like bro, come on

Is this for me? I am complaining about the "Look there kids, a peaceful pred eating the leaves from that tree. No, don't touch it, you will startle it and it can turn dangerous." mentalitiy. Which is ridiculous but forced onto both xenos and marines every round.

[Crab_Spider]

SL was a "good guy", it was just me who showed hostility. The pred pointed at the SL and said "FIGHT". I missed them for a couple seconds, but next I saw the pred hitting the head of the SL with a sword. Others watched it unconcernedly, but I willl always shoot (actually just targeted, but it ignored me and moved of course) a pred beheading my SL, sorry. Actually it worked too, the pred player was nice, stunned everyone and ran off. Medics could heal the SL.


Is this for me? I am complaining about the "Look there kids, a peaceful pred eating the leaves from that tree. No, don't touch it, you will startle it and it can turn dangerous." mentalitiy. Which is ridiculous but forced onto both xenos and marines every round.

Instances such as these are where you're bound by the policy "start shit get hit". Why needlessly attack what is going to decimate you in mere seconds?

[Zilenan91]

The only instance marines can kill predators is in a huge group and hope they can box it in enough so it can't run away. For xenos it's relatively similar because of how strong and fast predators are.


The only problem with both of these is that predators have a suicide bomb that plays no notice or warning to their enemies the majority of the time that instantly gibs in something like a 6x6 radius so it feels very unfair to be killed by them with that. The players who were blown up were punished for winning a fight against a tough opponent which just isn't fun.

[davidofmk771]

I think the normal thing is to aim your gun at anyone armed and tell them to lie down and drop their weapons immediately. This is what happens in all the movies when special forces enter an area with both hostiles and civilians. I have no idea what happens in real life, but it sounds logical to not let anyone run around with lethal weapons. The only exception would be an other army, but command would probably know about another military vessel orbiting the planet and tell us about them.

Disarming civilians was also required when I started playing CM, but almost noone cared. I guess nowadays we don't even try. I never understood why a scientist wants to hug a rifle and shoots the marines when they ask for it, when he perfectly knows the hostiles are lizards.

How would you know what any of the preds weapons are, anyways? The closest thing they have to recognizable as weapons is their melee stock, and I would imagine marines would hesitate to aggressively disarm them just as they would any schmuck running around with a pitchfork or a hammer. The ranged weapons don't really look much like anything a marine would encounter in a normal tour of duty, with the spike launcher looking most like a gun.

You also arent accounting into the fact that marines are neither special forces or are deploying with knowledge of whats happening on the colony besides "It's gone dark and a distress signal was sent out". Marines are men, many taken in because the USCM is desperate for recruits. For every Drake and Hicks there is a Hudson and Vasquez. For every brave and courageous soldier there is a coward and insubordinate. Mix that with the fact that the only hostiles encountered before the fog drops are what most marines would see as simple bugs, and i'm assuming there would be different protocols followed during standard bug hunts vs. CLF ambushes simply to avoid antagonizing rural colonists.

I mean, if you, during a confirmed bug hunt operation (i.e. not xenomorph related), found some farmer just trying to kill the ugly alien creatures that keep chewing through colony power lines, would you immediately put your sights on him and yell at him to put down his gun or calmly call out to him and relieve him of his weapon after a peaceful conversation? RPing the former reaction is fine from a rules/marine law standpoint IIRC, but don't be surprised if your squad looks at you like youre a maniac.

[Challenger]

Keep in mind predators look like this.

http://gadgetsin.com/uploads/2011/07/14 ... jpg?x78359

You can (intentionally) see a lot of their uncovered body. Massive musculature, seven feet tall, a yellow-black reptilian skin and weird hands and feet.
On top of that you have some pretty weird armored plates. Their mask is clearly one piece and very ornate.
Then you have their two bracers, which are clearly some sort of technology or at least have some mechanical use, and the plasma caster mount on their shoulder right next to their head.

What your character sees isn't going to match up with what other characters see - a knight, a priest, a commando, etc., - but it certainly doesn't look familiar at all. And how are ordinary, trained marines going to react seeing something so alien and unfamiliar, with a physically overwhelming, alien stature, effortlessly wearing an ornate fusion of armor and strange technology?

Is everyone supposed to treat it like it just outright doesn't exist, hoping it doesn't prey on them first contact? Is ANYONE supposed to treat it that way?

[davidofmk771]

Well that seems like an issue of predators revealing themselves and acting passively towards humans in the beginning of the rounds. In the movies, preds tend to only turn off their cloaks when they have chosen their prey. Now the whitelist implies that there are many clans, and maybe not all clans wish to hide like the Jungle Clan, but for the most part, before the xeno threat is fully realized, I think marines should only really be seeing this:

https://imgur.com/75LPcvR

In a pitch black jungle. Now, marines yelling at and chasing preds who reveal themselves and quickly run away happens pretty often from what i've seen, and if you want to carry that on to shooting at an unidentified, seemingly-civilized humanoid with advanced technology you cant expect people to see you as anything but an instigator of interstellar war. My only gripe with regards to this issue is the marine's complete unprecedented acceptance of "honor duels" and many pred's insistence on interacting with marines casually. It doesn't seem to fit the mythos (or at least my limited understanding of it, having only seen Predator 1 & 2), and I feel that preds should mostly look down at humans as dangerously witty prey rather than equals, barring extreme situations such as saving a preds life or having mercy during an honor duel.

[Feweh]

2 Marines can severely wound, scare off and potentially kill a predator. (Provided hes hunting)

Just like xenos, stay in a group.

[Kerek]

Yeah, as a pred player, just a few marines focus firing screws us up. Like, really bad. Just stay together in groups, and its MUCH harder to pick you off. And generally, we don't attack you, unless you attack us. Atleast I do. I only attack people that provoke me.

[davidofmk771]

Yeah, as a pred player, just a few marines focus firing screws us up. Like, really bad. Just stay together in groups, and its MUCH harder to pick you off. And generally, we don't attack you, unless you attack us. Atleast I do. I only attack people that provoke me.

Well see, that last part is part of why the OP made this thread. Marines seem so hesitant to attack preds in any case that doesnt involve a direct assault by the pred, and theres a few OOC and IC reasons why. OOC, people are terrified of the powerful weapons and nearly mythologized stamina of preds, and dont want to be gibbed/decapped and removed from the round. IC, people may feel that an unknown humanoid alien should be reasoned with rather than antagonized. Others may feel that it's better to wait for command to advise before running after a large strange figure in the dark.

I can't think of any way to combat this, and some of these reasons seem perfectly rational to me (at least the IC ones). Pred-marine interactions tend to be wonky and strange, and pred-xeno reactions can seem downright lore-breaking, but what can you do in a game with a limited respawn mechanic beyond making a new rule?

[Zilenan91]

2 Marines can severely wound, scare off and potentially kill a predator. (Provided hes hunting)

Just like xenos, stay in a group.

Predators aren't tough, the issue is the SD they trigger when they die. This thing wipes squads and hives.