Marines and predators

[Gary Higgens]

It depends on the circumstances.

If the predator approaches a squad of marines peacefully, while the marines aren’t in combat, then the marines should keep their guns trained on the predator and initiate conversation. If the marines order the predator to keep his distance and the predator continues to approach, its up to the squad leader whether or not to open fire.

If the predator attacks a marine for any reason, then all marines should consider the predator hostile and shoot all predators on sight. The only time this doesn’t apply is if a marine goes rogue and attacks a predator during negotiation/against direct orders. Even then, the marine should be arrested and punished for insubordination. I wouldn’t just let the predator rip him apart.

If a predator approaches marines in active combat against Xenomorphs, its up to the squad leader whether or not to open fire. This is justified because the marines are already fighting aliens, and the predator is definitely “alien” yet different to Xenomorphs.

Honor duels aren’t something marines should ever engage in and is an out of character issue. It just doesn’t make sense in any scenario in character.

This is my own personal guide on predator interactions as a marine, not official. Keep in mind that while you know predators are overpowered in every way and will wreck your shit, you shouldn’t let this effect your decisions in character.

Best of luck to you, I hope this was helpful.

[Ghostdex]

It depends on the circumstances.

This. I pretty much agree with all of it

[Kesserline]

In 7 days laps maximum, my squad got 75% incapacited by Pred's nukes and butchered. Why ?

First : Preds start harassing marines nearby. Delta intervene. Preds start fleeing, we track them down with 4 marines and myself. One of the marines shot the pred, in the back of the head with buckshot. Pred is not pleased. I decided to fight to the death for avenging all of my marines butchered in front of my eyes. The pred ripped off my arm, I pick up a nearby SMG on the ground and keep shooting at me. (Perhaps he recognized the badassness of the situation) He killed me, but feel some remorse and drag my body back to a nearby Delta Medic for me to be revived.

Second encounter : a pred decided to uncloack in front of my Spec SADAR. Spec Alan Jones drew his rocket launcher. Pred decided to roar agressivly towards him (the entire squad was near or around the encounter). Spec SADAR shoots. Pred gets knifed and shot from every corner of the area. Pred die. Delta squad nuked. 25% casualties. 50% injured.

Third encounter : a pred attacked and killed one of my delta squad engineers. We tracked him down to the SW Jungle Temple (bad misunderstanding, we found a second pred, not the pred guilty of murder, but we couldn't know). We raided the place for revenge, and killed the pred. Delta got nuked again. 25% casulaties, 70% injured. Delta had to withdraw completly from the planet for 10 to 20 minutes.

____________________________________________

My policy as a SL : if a pred dares to hurt a marine freely, KOS. If a marine goes rogue and attack the pred for no valid reason, I try to peace it down, but, I refuse the marine to be killed by the pred. I'll try to disarm the marine. Marine Law, no Pred Law within USCM.

Even if the preds tends to murder 50% of my squad, I don't care. I'm just sad that I have to lose 10 players because the pred decided to harass marines and RP forces me to intervene. RPly, I can't let an unknown hostile killing marines and said "Welp, not my problem ! Ecksdee !". So, preds are KoS when they tend to do that.

Gameplay (meta) would make me consider the fact that Preds are too dangerous to be cared of, and I should prefer losing 1 or 3 guys getting picked off y preds than losing 10 guys fighting them off. But eh. I really can't stand having my boys killed (RPly and IRL).

So, if you are in Delta, while I'm SL. Pray for no preds in the round, because you might get killed in a PredVsMarine fight, because of that policy.

[OatzAndHoes]

People are way too metascared of preds. As Heckenshutze said preds aren't that hard to kill with teamwork and the right weapons. If you have AP ammo, slugs, incendiary weapons, or throwing knives you can reasonably take on a pred and win. I got my first solo pred kill by surprising one with a few bursts of charged AP to the chest. It was running away after the second burst and was dead by the third. I'm not that great with melee weapons so I don't use them often, but I know of quite a few players who've solo'd preds in melee fights by using a well timed fireaxe/machete.
As soon as preds prove hostile marines should be shooting on sight, and if you're a player who won't shoot a hostile pred unless it is coming directly at you I generally consider you to be a coward and less robust than others. You're letting down your fellow marines every time you don't shoot a hostile pred because it just means it's going to attack one of your buddies later. Nothing gets my blood boiling more than a pred attacking a single marine in a group and half the marines not helping because they're too pussy. You're using metaknowledge of pred strength to let your buddies down and save your own ass.

[Skimmy2]

People are way too metascared of preds. As Heckenshutze said preds aren't that hard to kill with teamwork and the right weapons. If you have AP ammo, slugs, incendiary weapons, or throwing knives you can reasonably take on a pred and win. I got my first solo pred kill by surprising one with a few bursts of charged AP to the chest. It was running away after the second burst and was dead by the third. I'm not that great with melee weapons so I don't use them often, but I know of quite a few players who've solo'd preds in melee fights by using a well timed fireaxe/machete.
As soon as preds prove hostile marines should be shooting on sight, and if you're a player who won't shoot a hostile pred unless it is coming directly at you I generally consider you to be a coward and less robust than others. You're letting down your fellow marines every time you don't shoot a hostile pred because it just means it's going to attack one of your buddies later. Nothing gets my blood boiling more than a pred attacking a single marine in a group and half the marines not helping because they're too pussy. You're using metaknowledge of pred strength to let your buddies down and save your own ass.

Pretty sure people meta fear the pred because they are notorious for nuking all of your hopes and dreams, not because the pred is "OP plz nerf"

[Shyguychizzy]

Pretty sure people meta fear the pred because they are notorious for nuking all of your hopes and dreams, not because the pred is "OP plz nerf"

Many instances Meta fear at times. Ill be giving scenario due keep in mind I am mainly Marine and Predator based to avoid bias of assumputions.

Scenario: Predator has just successfully beheaded few of yer delta marines. Dismembered marines and corpses with blood marks laying around. As a good old private who was there from first contact (Presuming you were there from round start and not late join). Witnessed such acts with only few of you marines the surviving patrol. How would you act? In a legit note could be, 1. Scared Shitless due the carnage and severeity of the deadly force. 2. Have a broad fear prior due to appearance. 3. Be in short revengeful. 4. Go in guns blazing hoping to kill it with uer buds for sacrfice. 5. (Other players opinions) 6. Etc. 6. Could ignore it but eh.

At times meta fear is good and bad on marine part or predator part. Knowing masked killer hunter was reported taking heads of marines of others while you and buddy alome and yah see the pred all alone. But thats just a little of my input. Dont get me started on Metagrudge/MetaPredHunting Nonsense.

[Steelpoint]

I think the 'predators exploding' is the main reason why Marines can be hesitant to engage one.

Hearing the Predator initiate its self destruct is not reliable, I was a Predator once and I did not even hear another Predator's bracer engage to explode when I was close by.

I think the SD sound needs to be made far louder and more hearable.

[Gary Higgens]

I think the 'predators exploding' is the main reason why Marines can be hesitant to engage one.

Hearing the Predator initiate its self destruct is not reliable, I was a Predator once and I did not even hear another Predator's bracer engage to explode when I was close by.

I think the SD sound needs to be made far louder and more hearable.

Can you explain the mechanics of the self destruct? Is it an item that you click on that instantly starts the SD? Does it have a delay/cast time? Is there a way to prevent a predator from using it or interrupt the use? Can it be used while the predator is stunned, armless, or nested?

Asking because we had 5 predators self destruct in yesterday’s round and it seems like it’s too easy. I think people would be more willing to role play hostilities against predators if the death nuke wasn’t a guarantee or could be stopped.

[Renomaki]

Can you explain the mechanics of the self destruct? Is it an item that you click on that instantly starts the SD? Does it have a delay/cast time? Is there a way to prevent a predator from using it or interrupt the use? Can it be used while the predator is stunned, armless, or nested?

Asking because we had 5 predators self destruct in yesterday’s round and it seems like it’s too easy. I think people would be more willing to role play hostilities against predators if the death nuke wasn’t a guarantee or could be stopped.

The thing is, without that "death nuke", people would constantly hunt down predators like a fly to a fresh baked pie. The hunter would become the hunted by every motherfucker on the planet, everyone wanting to loot it in one way or the other.

Aliens would swarm it the first chance they get in order to get predaliens, knowing that the predator in question won't be able to do anything to stop said aliens from surrounding him and tacklespamming him until his mask falls off and he gets infected.

Marines, on the other hand, would hunt down predators to steal their armor, specifically that hugger-resistant mask so they can rambo through eggfields and make combat hugging impossible. Having access to predator weapons would be nice too...

The ability to self destruct is a necessary evil in order to protect both themselves and their gear, making sure that their gear is kept out of the wrong hands and that their bodies go untainted by xeno infection.

[Gary Higgens]

The thing is, without that "death nuke", people would constantly hunt down predators like a fly to a fresh baked pie. The hunter would become the hunted by every motherfucker on the planet, everyone wanting to loot it in one way or the other.

Aliens would swarm it the first chance they get in order to get predaliens, knowing that the predator in question won't be able to do anything to stop said aliens from surrounding him and tacklespamming him until his mask falls off and he gets infected.

Marines, on the other hand, would hunt down predators to steal their armor, specifically that hugger-resistant mask so they can rambo through eggfields and make combat hugging impossible. Having access to predator weapons would be nice too...

The ability to self destruct is a necessary evil in order to protect both themselves and their gear, making sure that their gear is kept out of the wrong hands and that their bodies go untainted by xeno infection.

I never said that the self destruct should be removed, I just want to know how it works because it seems too easy to do.

Predators would still be strong against aliens. Predators are extremely fast, can cloak, and can retreat to their “lodge” or ship or whatever that place is if they are being overwhelmed. In the event that they are swarmed by large amounts of aliens and fail to retreat, they have their self destruct. The problem with this is that it seems to be a 100% chance to detonate and it is easy to activate, which in my opinion is unhealthy for the game. It makes aliens never want to attack or even interact with predators because they’re essentially walking bombs that go off no matter what, and no alien wants to die to something they can’t prevent.

This is bad for predators as well. I haven’t played as a predator, but personally I would have more fun hunting aliens who actually fight back and having to use all my tools to survive rather than just being ignored by eveyone. The whole idea of aliens swarming predators on sight to infect/kill them also fits lore wise and makes much more sense for role play.

As for marines, if they want to steal predator gear and are able to kill predators that easily then that’s just how it goes, but keep in mind that not only are predators much stronger than marines, most of the marines will be fighting the xenomorphs. If a marine manages to beat a predator while having all those disadvantages, then that marine has earned that gear. The predator can also use the same tactics to avoid being overwhelmed by aliens on marines (cloak, speed, caster stun, armor).

You seem to ignore all the advantages that predators have in your post and act like the self destruct is the only thing keeping them alive, which just isn’t true at all. And even if it was, if predators have to rely on blowing themselves up to deter people from attacking them, then predators need a rework, because that’s not fun or healthy for the game.

Again, I’m not asking for self destruct to be removed, I’m asking for it to be made more difficult to use and trigger, because right now the self destruct discourages interaction with predators and prevents unique scenarios from playing out (marine with predator tech that WY might want to steal, predaliens that predators have to team up to hunt).

Also, if we look at this lorewise, it doesn’t fit. Predators don’t explode every single time they die or get infected, because if they did they would be very boring and cheap.

[Renomaki]

SNARF

I can't help but get the feeling you haven't really experienced predators as I had.

See, I AM a predator. I played lots of games and experienced all manner of excitement and frustration (mostly frustration), and if there is one thing I learned about predatoring, it is that predators are much weaker than one might imagine.

For instance, there are two ways to prevent self destructs that are quite common, one more than the other. The first one is ripping their arms off, which you might think would be a hard task to achieve until you remember that Ravagers (THE predator killer and the number one cause for infected predators) have an RNG ability that allows them to instantly rip off any limb they target no matter how little damage said limb has. It is this reason why I personally avoid ravagers during hunts due to how sudden and easily it can happen, ruining your entire round and turning you into the xeno's bitch, them swarming the hell out of you and beating the shit out of you until they can infect you, which then results in 20 minutes of HELL as they spam tackle you towards insanity.

The second way to do it is to knock a predator out, which as I had witnessed in the past countless times, can be surprisingly easy to pull off with the right tools. The daring marine with a knife or bayonet-affixed rifle (or maybe even a baseball bat) has a chance to KO a predator in melee combat, which can happen just as suddenly as a ravager charge. And this KO can be stacked, meaning if you get your lights knocked out even ONCE, then chances are you are dead. Keep in mind, a predator has to be awake to trigger his self destruct, so if marines just ganged up on a predator and bayonet-charged his ass into a corner more often, you can bet that marines would find themselves with predator loot much more often (loot that mostly won't even reach the Almayer due to how a lot of marines just meta the gear and use it to their advantage rather than give the research staff something to RP with).

And while we are on the topic, all that speed and armor and firepower you talk about? Yeah, means nothing if you find yourself suffering from a shocking amount of pain. Predators are still mortal, and they feel pain. If aliens spit acid on them, it hurts, and when marines riddle predators with a large flurry of bullets, that too stings quite a bit. It is true that a predator's greatest strength is their speed, but I had many times where I underestimated a situation and ended up either dead or forced to detonate due to being unable to get away to recover due to being in too much pain to run. It brings back memories of an awkward time where I tried to fight a small handful of marines, only to get slaughtered because they shot me up too badly and I couldn't get away, all the while they chased me down with the clear intent to loot my body when I died... So I go boom to deny them that. And don't even get me started on flame throwers...

Speaking of which, predators don't just go boom because "oh nu I'm dying". They go boom because they don't want their bodies to be looted and their tech stolen. If you played AvP 2010, you probably knew that one of the objectives of the predator story is to find your fallen comrades and trigger their bracers, giving them a proper death and denying grave robbers a chance to nab some high-tech loot. Later on in said story, you blow up an ENTIRE COLONY, wiping out the local predator temple in the process because it had been tainted by humans in their attempts to study it. And if you ever wondered what would happen if humans managed to successfully reverse engineer predator tech, Predator: Concrete Jungle shows why predators are so protective of their tech.

Predator explosions aren't fun, I don't enjoy it as much as everyone else (because it is pretty much admitting failure during a hunt and giving up before you are further humiliated, similar to how some Japanese warriors and generals would commit suicide in a desperate attempt to ease the dishonor of failure rather than go on living in shame). But at the same time, it is a necessary evil that we all have to deal with and accept. At least I try to be careful not to blow up the marine ship or FoB when I do go kaboom, but then, every predator has a different personal code and idea on how to hunt.

[Ghodere]

Put your bracer in your pocket and open the dialogue window. People have been using that to blow up bombs while downed and/or delimbed in SS13 for the best part of a decade at least.

[Sneakyr]

Put your bracer in your pocket and open the dialogue window. People have been using that to blow up bombs while downed and/or delimbed in SS13 for the best part of a decade at least.

This just isn't correct. You cannot remove your bracer by yourself.

[Ghodere]

This just isn't correct. You cannot remove your bracer by yourself.

While I’m not intimately familiar with predator gear, this bug report

https://gitlab.com/cmdevs/ColonialMarines/issues/1641

insinuates that this is possible and seems to have been well received.

[Sneakyr]

While I’m not intimately familiar with predator gear, this bug report

https://gitlab.com/cmdevs/ColonialMarines/issues/1641

insinuates that this is possible and seems to have been well received.

Unless I am somehow massively retarded (not a foregone conclusion, I suppose), there is no way to remove your own bracer, from clicking on it, to clicking and dragging, to gnawing on the damn thing. However, if your arm is cut off and you pick it (the bracer) up, it can be put in your pocket. This also applies to the bracers of other predators. This, I assume, is where the report came from.
P.S: If you put it in your pocket, you can't take it out by yourself, either. Maybe unrelated, but I think it showcases that you can't remove it yourself.

[Kris P Kreme]

Personally id steer clear of it out of fear untill i see it kill someone, then i run away while shooting at it praying that im faster then my squadmates. Remember pals, you dont have to outrun the predator, just delta squad.

[Expired Torpedo]

Honestly i think this whole situation stems from preds not really behaving like predators.
In the movies where are shown that predators usually stay cloaked while hunting and attacking their prey. Other times being that when one would actually reveal itself to a character, said character would fucking die (in most cases).

in CM you have preds walking up to entire platoons of marines and then uncloaking itself right in front of them. IC this doesn't make any sense because from what we're shown in the movies and games. Predators usually would stay cloaked and try not to be seen. they would try to cause disarray in a group either by killing members of a group one by one or ambushing them and then fucking slaughtering them with their gadgets and cloaking tech.

in CM it feels like preds aren't even trying to be preds. I've rarely seen a pred isolate their prey or stalk a group, slowly killing them one by one. they just don't behave like preds,

a great example of ideal pred behavior that actually made me feel like me and the members of my squad where actually facing a predator happened months ago. in which me and the members of bravo squad got ambushed by one in tcomms. The pred actually used the environment to his advantage and would mostly try to stay hidden at one point he nearly killed 2 people just by shooting one of those explosive canisters they were standing near. this of course led to most of bravo (SL included) charging out of tcomms and into the jungle. we're the preds basically mopped the floor with us. dashing around in the undergrowth, shooting at different members of the squad, actually trying to take out key members of the squad, killing the smart-gunner because he went where no one could see him. in a few moments we were fucking blitzing out of that jungle.


honestly if preds just actually hunted marines and xenos instead of 90% of the time, helping the marines or just completely ignoring xenos and dicking around with the marines. Encounters with them would actually make marines and xenos feel like they're being hunted. instead of the standard encounter being "Space jamaican pointing at me in research" or "Sisters of the hive, please ignore the large tallhost dicking around with a speargun"

[Crab_Spider]

While I’m not intimately familiar with predator gear, this bug report

https://gitlab.com/cmdevs/ColonialMarines/issues/1641

insinuates that this is possible and seems to have been well received.

It's exclusive to predators only.

[OatzAndHoes]

Pretty sure people meta fear the pred because they are notorious for nuking all of your hopes and dreams, not because the pred is "OP plz nerf"

Dude just walk away as soon as you hear beeping it's not that hard. I've never actually been killed by a pred explosion because I leave when it starts to blow itself up. And no it's not meta, the prednuke is supposed to be pretty obvious, hence why Arnold escapes it in the movie.

[Skimmy2]

Dude just walk away as soon as you hear beeping it's not that hard. I've never actually been killed by a pred explosion because I leave when it starts to blow itself up. And no it's not meta, the prednuke is supposed to be pretty obvious, hence why Arnold escapes it in the movie.

The "meta" is why Marines dont attack them in the first place, not surviving the explosion.

[Mook476]

The amount of times I have seen memerines meta rush pred lodge, and than complain about getting killed when they meta rush is toooo high. There's also memerines who specifically pred hunt which is garbage. It's easy to bash on pred, and not see the other side you should try to open your eyes and see it from our standpoint as well.

[edda]

I'd just like to add that I once got shot by a marine for shooting a predator. Not FF, but rather as in, "Stop shooting the pred or I'll shoot you."

I was pretty salty.

[4thsurviver]

Dude just walk away as soon as you hear beeping it's not that hard. I've never actually been killed by a pred explosion because I leave when it starts to blow itself up. And no it's not meta, the prednuke is supposed to be pretty obvious, hence why Arnold escapes it in the movie.

I think the sinister laughter also helped get the point across and the build up of energy before the explosion.

The worst pred explosions I've seen were on ice a pred cloaked in front of DS on the northeast side where there was no defenses got shot by its sentry and stood there a bit getting shot a few more times and then rushed towards the DS and self destructed. The second was a time two preds were going all out on Alpha squad and had them pinned in T-comms on LV. They were firing their casters at the doors and Alpha returned fire. Eventually one suicide bombed the building and took the entire squad out. Most were dead and a few were crit. I was stuck in and out of consciousness buckled into a chair and was left behind when the wounded were evacuated until the xenos came 15 minutes later.

It was those rounds that made me weary of the destructive force of the pred explosion although looking back it was more the preds using it as a weapon rather than a last ditch to being mortally wounded.

[Avalanchee]

Predators are something like.. Pineapple on Pizza. It might look scary but it's sweet.
Predators are my jam <3

[WinterClould]

The only way to talk to a non-human is from a position of power and dominance above them. Only when the xeno scum knows it's place bellow humanity should it be engaged in communications. No respect, no honor, just bullets, bullets, and more bullets, till you bring them to their knees.

Basically if you see someone talking to a pred, shoot the fuck out of it.
You see an honor duel happening? Back your marine pal up and shoot the fuck out of that pred.
You see someone getting kidnapped or anything that looks remotely like quality RP? Kick down the fucking door because it's fucking go time. Yell out "Eat lead cock bite!" And start shooting anything that isn't human.