Advice from an Elder - Clarifications and Rulings Not Otherwise Listed

[Sneakyr]

So, I had a chat with /N in our discord a bit ago and I had him clarify a few details which were either incredibly old rulings or were never written down altogether. For the sake of those who don't know these now and the preds of the future, I'm going to go ahead and record them here. Some are more important than others, but I'm recording these in the order they were asked with a bit of commentary here and there in italics. If another elder contradicts or has something to add, I will edit this post. If someone wishes to request clarification on any of these points, go ahead.

1. Throwing Back Prey
a. This is to be reserved for prey that were weak, rather than strong. You dishonor them if you do not take them as trophy if they put up a good fight.
b. For the weak, it makes sense to throw them back so that they may become worthier later.
b. This also applies to honor duels.

2. Honor Duels
a. Duels should be reserved for matters of high honor, if you feel it has been questioned for whatever reason. They aren't only duels that must be fought honorably.
b. There is also a key difference between isolating your prey for a one-on-one hunt and dueling them.
c. At all times, dueling on the ship should have a second pred observing.

3. The Ship
a. Unless done for an event or with Elder permission, humans should not regularly be brought to the ship and should it is not wise for them be dueled on it, but is acceptable.
Personally, I take this to mean that it would not be an issue if you brought one up to present them with a trophy for their victory or to infect them with a xenomorph as long as they were immediately taken back down.
b. For dueling areas and bloodsports, the lodge is the way to go.
c. Never bring marines there without another predator present to assist you.


4. The Lodge
a. Lodging IS mandatory.
b. It is recommended to not hunt right away and instead RP with survivors, gather materials, or find some other way to amuse yourself.
c. The ideal time to lodge is after the marines have initially scouted the colony - they will not have the manpower to launch a full-scale offensive and fight the xenomorphs at the same time. If they do it anyway, they can be easily defeated.
d. Trophies are to be kept in the lodge - the ship trophy room is to be reserved for artifacts, a fallen predator's weapon, or exceptionally valuable trophies.
e. In the event of a lodge attack, consider the following:
(1) How many marines / xenos are attacking?
(2) If it is less than half of the main force, can I fight them off alone?
(3) If I cannot fight them off myself, can someone help me?
If you have answered yes to these questions, defend the lodge. If you are overwhelmed, it is not dishonorable to retreat if a bracer detonation would kill/wound too many.

5. The Hunt
a. Immediately engaging the marines is unwise and will lead to them hunting you quickly.
b. It is recommended to build up tension first - clicking, moving through shadows, etcetera. It is unwise to place yourself into a situation where you will be forced to break the tension. One of the key tricks of horror is that the more you see of a monster, the less scary it becomes. Keep this in mind when hunting and building atmosphere.

6. Wounded Brothers
a. If you find a wounded predator after they fought well and have almost succumbed to their wounds, do not treat them via the ship's surgery room.
b. Injecting a crystal into them is acceptable.
c. Helping another predator unless they have ended their Hunt is dishonoring them.
d. If they are too weak to continue fighting and a crystal cannot help, they should succumb to their wounds.
e. Elder approval for special circumstances overrides this, such as preparing to retrieve gear from the Almayer or after a lodge attack.
f. It is always allowed to heal and recover yourself and others if hunting down a predalien. Quote: "The predalien is a big deal. It's equivalent of a special event that happens in the middle of the round."

7. Miscellaneous
1a. If you haven't upgraded your bracer with the proper translator level, you cannot understand humans or xenomorphs ICly (even though gameplay wise, you can).
2a. A level 1 bracer upgrade is required for humans and a level 2 bracer upgrade is required for xenomorphs.
3a. This also applies if you lose your bracer where you previously had a translator.
1b. As with most things, Elder permission in-round can overrule most of what is said here.

8. Contested
1a. At time of writing, Elder Feweh has authorized the taking of slaves while Elder Apop has not. If either two (or both) were to comment on this point, I'd appreciate it. 1b. /N stands at a middle ground, but has also said that Feweh and Apop make the rules while he merely operates off of previous examples.

[Renomaki]

I honestly think 4d is a load of bollocks.

Unless you mean the secondary Trophy room (where all the strange trophies are spawned at round start), I swore that when talking with Snype, the trophy room on the ship is a place to display our trophies with pride (why else did he even add it for?). Leaving trophies on the planet is not only risky due to the possibility of them being stolen, but also not very respectful of them. Why leave that crusher pelt in some dusty old chest when you could proudly display it in the EMPTY TROPHY ROOM?

Hell, seeing how much of the trophy room we fill up is a fun little goal of mine whenever we play. The more displays we fill, the more successful our hunt! It is a nice way to measure our performance.

I do agree on the whole "avoid hunting early on" thing, though. I like to focus on spooking survivors and the odd batch of marines while I wait for xenos to mature. I always like seeing how I can fuck with the marines during their patrols.

[Steelpoint]

This is an interesting read but all can take from this is that a lot of the 'playstyles' and tactics are very much up to interpretation based on who you are talking too.

[Sneakyr]

I honestly think 4d is a load of bollocks.

Unless you mean the secondary Trophy room (where all the strange trophies are spawned at round start), I swore that when talking with Snype, the trophy room on the ship is a place to display our trophies with pride (why else did he even add it for?). Leaving trophies on the planet is not only risky due to the possibility of them being stolen, but also not very respectful of them. Why leave that crusher pelt in some dusty old chest when you could proudly display it in the EMPTY TROPHY ROOM?

Hell, seeing how much of the trophy room we fill up is a fun little goal of mine whenever we play. The more displays we fill, the more successful our hunt! It is a nice way to measure our performance.

I do agree on the whole "avoid hunting early on" thing, though. I like to focus on spooking survivors and the odd batch of marines while I wait for xenos to mature. I always like seeing how I can fuck with the marines during their patrols.

Yeah, /N means the main trophy room. While /N IS an elder and therefore has a lot of pull, ultimately Feweh and Apop make the rules (according to /N himself) so take everything here heftily but also with a bit of salt until one of them comes in and ratifies it, makes some changes, or takes it apart altogether.

[Feweh]

What are you asking clarification on, almost all of these are accurate.

Except dont bring marines back to the ship to give them a trophy and dont mass collect humans as prisoners/slaves.

They arent even really slaves, theyre more cattle for the hunt and games. Fight them, breed them into larva to fight or force them to fight one another.

Humans arent really slaves in the meaning of slave labor. Rather they are slaves to the Predators games.

[forwardslashN]

I honestly think 4d is a load of bollocks.

Unless you mean the secondary Trophy room (where all the strange trophies are spawned at round start), I swore that when talking with Snype, the trophy room on the ship is a place to display our trophies with pride (why else did he even add it for?).

Snype does not play a predator and the ship was designed based on what some players wanted to see. You are supposed to store your trophies in the lodge, not the ship, during the Hunt. If you are done with the Hunt, feel free to pack them up and take them to the ship. I see the trophy room on the ship as only worthy of the greatest trophies or artifacts, not every xeno pelt you find, but I don't necessarily think it's awful if you do put common trophies there in the absence of an Elder. Now, if there is an Elder present, I think it is far more preferable to show them only the best of the best.

However, while you are Hunting, you should stay on the planet/whatever area, protect the lodge, and display your trophies there. It should be the area other hunters return to so they can see your trophies; lately it doesn't seem like many bother even constructing a lodge, and that is a shame. The ship is a cool place, but it's not where you should spend most of your time. Having an area in the game where the predators are, and can be tracked to, by anyone is partly the reason for this. There's nothing inherently wrong with marines or xenos assaulting a lodge, provided they can live with the consequences, and it adds an actual faction presence to the play field.

Except dont bring marines back to the ship to give them a trophy and dont mass collect humans as prisoners/slaves.

Also agree with this.

[Feweh]

I think a huge reason people stopped making lodges is that the Ship became much more versatile and cooler.
It was myself who laid out the basic plans for the ship and gave them to Snype. I did this with the intent to open Predators up to more potential for special events and other things to do, ie; Cells, Eggs and Surgical.


However, another major issue with lodges is just the fact that theres not much to build anymore and the fact that Fog on LV really hampers building locations.
In the past Predators could build more complex lodges, but now you cant build tables and numerous other misc items.

[forwardslashN]

LV can be adjusted by Snype to feature better lodging locations for predators, perhaps even protected by the fog from marines and xenomorphs. That would be the easiest solution. Maybe give each teleporting location a potential lodge zone, where the predator is placed on top of the fog, so they can go in or out, depending on what they want to do.

[Feweh]

LV can be adjusted by Snype to feature better lodging locations for predators, perhaps even protected by the fog from marines and xenomorphs. That would be the easiest solution. Maybe give each teleporting location a potential lodge zone, where the predator is placed on top of the fog, so they can go in or out, depending on what they want to do.

Ya.. pretty much any attention devwise towards Predators is non existent, and probably wont happen

[forwardslashN]

Ya.. pretty much any attention devwise towards Predators is non existent, and probably wont happen

It's a five minute change, tops. I can talk to Snype if you want.

[Snypehunter007]

It's a five minute change, tops. I can talk to Snype if you want.

I'll have a look but I can't guarantee anything, I've got a lot of assignments to do.

[forwardslashN]

Sounds good then.

[Symbiosis]

The place that stands out as a Predator lodging area more than anything else is the far eastern jungle area by the river, north of the cargo containers. If we're able to wait for the fog to drop to build the lodge there and rather spend our time stalking/gathering/RP'ing I think that would be an ideal solution.

As far as the Trophy room... I think a great part that Predators often play in a round is to provide ghosts/observers a good show. The Trophy room is rather great for that. Be it a Mature Rav/Crusher or some wonderful Trophy (Commanders Mateba, maybe, or PMC Equipment) from the Humans, I think the Trophy Room helps flesh out the story. Due to the limitations of what we can build I like to take and store things there. I agree with Reno on that piece.

Slaves/Duels on the Ship - being able to provide an area without interruptions has been great for reducing unnecessary collateral damage. I know in the last few weeks we've pitted marines against each other, had honor duels on the ship, and even had a Marine kill/loot/escape. While the latter is likely something we're trying to avoid by having another Pred on the ship, I'm of the heart that it creates a cool story for the player - and generates RP, so it's a good thing. (Plus Yautja are notoriously arrogant, expecting a Human to beat them is likely the furthest thing from their mind.)

Just my two cents!

[Renomaki]

While I can understand that no one wants the trophyroom to be littered with worthless junk, there are some trophies that are just too valuable to be left planetside.

A marine head? Bah, nothing. But a crusher that you been chasing down for the past 15 minutes and finally managed to kill while fending off his fellow xenos? THAT goes in the trophy room, because it was an accomplishment. If putting a crusher pelt that I worked hard for to get in the main trophy room is a problem, then that makes me a bit sad, considering that even before the ship rework, I used to put my valued trophies in the trophyroom... Mostly on the floor, because there was no room for them elsewhere.

That doesn't mean I don't use the lodge, though. Setting up a lodge is still an important part of my hunt, because it serves as a safe resting place when you need to recharge your bracer or drop off supplies. I do admit that making lodges can be difficult, though, with Big Red being the hardest because there aren't a lot of really decent places to set up camp that I know of yet... I have no problem finding spots on LV, though, and Ice is stupidly easy to hide away on.

[forwardslashN]

A marine head? Bah, nothing. But a crusher that you been chasing down for the past 15 minutes and finally managed to kill while fending off his fellow xenos? THAT goes in the trophy room, because it was an accomplishment.

I'd say that's an exceptionally valuable trophy and belongs in the trophy room.

[Sailor Dave]

Plus it's a great opportunity to tell the story to your fellow hunters.