Some of what I'm bringing up is already in the work's and being developed and some stuff is just basic Lore changes and rule proposal.
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The Basics:
There is no set Lore as to why the Predator's are currently on the Colony in CM and this creates a bit of a issue for their rules of engagement. However the accepted reason for their purpose in-game is much like the premise of Alien Vs Predator the movie, they're there to kill Xeno's for their ritual passing and the Humans are simply a nuisance in the way.
The Honor Code works as the basic principle of granting every WORTHY Prey a fighting chance. Xeno's are considered the most honorable because they fight purely by their own brute strength and do not use any form of technology. This is why the Xeno's are BRED and fought using the HONOR Code and are also used for the Young Blood's as a initiation into Blooded Status.
Honor Code here: viewtopic.php?f=57&t=2693 (It's the same as on the Wiki basically)
Humans/Marines are NOT considered HONORABLE, they are NEVER given the Honor Code unless certain circumstances apply. (End of Predator 1, Predator 2 etc).
What devoid's a prey of the Honor Code you ask? TECHNOLOGY & DISHONORABLE STRATEGIES
Technology part is clear, any use of ranged weapons or vehicles to fight a opponent is dishonorable simply because the opponent is no longer using his OWN abilities.
Dishonorable Strategies would be attacking another opponent in a group, so a squad of Marine's attacking a single Xeno or Predator.. This is COWARDICE as you are no longer relying on your OWN abilities but on other's as well.
You can clearly understand now what validates the HONOR CODE and why Marine's clearly do not fit under this Code. (Some exceptions apply)
What does it mean exactly? Predator's do not have to HONOR fight Marine's, they should be able to cloak attack, fire plasma weapons freely and set traps.
THE ISSUE - Is that in CM the HONOR CODE applies to Marine's and we cannot do any of the above. Essentially, we have to fair fight any marine by de-cloaking and attacking them fairly and hoping to god the RNG instant-knocks out a marine before he can pump 3-5 bullet's into us. Yet, 2 bullet's will disable our cloaks and 3-5 bullet's causes permanent internal injuries, coupled with a cloaking system that most Marine's can see now. (You can see the balance issue already here)
You'll understand further on as to why this is a issue for Predator's.
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Predator Mechanics In-Game
The Predator mechanics are very bare boned right now, aside for killing and running around *roaring to scare Marine's. There currently aren't any objectives aside for your own personal set one which is honestly in my opinion the biggest issue. One of the worst issue's is the fucking RNG for our melee weapons, sometimes you insta-behead someone, other time's you knock them down and usually you outright miss a stab/slash while standing right beside a marine. (More on this later)
Predator's suffer from one EXTREMELY difficult issue in-game.... We have the same health and medical system as the Humans. This mean's that we suffer internal damage, fractures, breaks(?) and require surgery. Currently 5/9 deaths are from internal Lung damage and I end up suffocating from 3-5 shots to my chest. This all seem's fair of course and make's logical sense for the Lore, Predator's are not tanks and would go down with a few bullet's to the Chest. However, this is BYOND and when you have 8 dimensions to fire from as a Marine, you have a really good chance to hit AT LEAST something. Narrow this down to 2-3 tile radius when you know where the Predator is.
Essentially the Predator's need this lore friendly: Medikit / Medicomp
The Medikit is an indispensable item of the hunter's inventory. It includes wound staplers, surgical blades, a crystallized-medicine burner, emergency breather and surgical hypodermics.
The med-kit contains enough tools and supplies to perform minor surgery and repair superficial wounds, extract bullets and shrapnel, or even cauterize a lost limb. While short on pain killers, the kit is highly effective.
Another MAJOR issue is the lack of RP that Predator's can really engage in. Lore wise, Predator's have a universal translator that they can use to speak to Humans with. Right now, I can't RP or do anything with Xeno's or Humans. All I can do is create suspense by cloaking, *roaring and scaring marines. This isn't so much RPing as it is being good at creating more suspense and event's. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Predator's should be chatting with Marine's... but just maybe Marine's will be less FULL ROBUST mode on Predator's if they know we understand them to a degree.
The WORST mechanic that I have a issue for is the RNG for melee weapons, how is that I'm standing beside a Xeno/Marine and I miss with my fucking wrist blade.
This is the most infuriating thing because it doesn't allow you to plan strategies out properly. I never know if I'll be able to take that one Marine down or Xeno at that exact moment purely because I'll either miss stabbing him or I might get super lucky and insta-behead him. It's illogical for a hunter at that level to be beside anything and have to rely on the RNG, even the Xeno's don't miss their targets... fuck bullet's don't miss when you're standing right beside them slicing them up.
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Xeno vs Predator
Xeno's are the Predator's strongest and biggest adversaries in the proper lore. Predator's respect the Xeno's so much they practically worship them and build temples and statues of them. In proper Lore they are the only way a YOUNG-BLOOD can achieve BLOODED status.
In our game of CM the Xeno's are pathetic against Predators and a waste of time to fight. Xeno's can do nothing against Predator's at Tier1-2 and even at Tier3 unless you're a Ravager you cannot really stop a Predator. This is for numerous reasons, first off is tier 1-2 have a hard time doing internal damage to Predators and most of the wounds inflicted are superficial. The second is the lack of damage, it takes me 2 shots to down a runner and 3 for a sentinel. It would take Xeno's WAY more to take down a Predator and the problem is... it's supposed to be a HONORABLE fight, yet it isn't fair to begin with.
The Balance issue for Xeno's is that all their skills and attacks are skilled and ability based. This mean's Xeno's need to work for their kills and infections.
Marine's on the other-hand simply click and do damage, rarely planning any ambushes or strategies beyond running straight at opponents.
This causes issue in-game which are apparent.
1. Xeno's run from Predators and never attempt to engage Predators which is incorrect and wrong by Lore.
2. Xeno's are boring to hunt because they can often outrun Predators so it becomes a game of chasing a wild rabbit around the map.
3. Xeno's require little strategy aside from stabbing and dropping traps.
4. Xeno's have to rely on purely ability attacks to disable a Predator
Main issue is that Xeno's should be the tough one's, they should be the one's willing to fight the Predator's head on and battle. Right now it's the opposite, how many Xeno's do you see chase after a Predator? Contrary how many Rambo Marine's do you see willing to run at a Predator gun blazings? Notice the obvious issue here, it should be the other way around!
Something that has been over-looked is that Xeno's can see Predator's while cloaked. Xeno's sense heat and don't see like Humans do, meaning the cloak does nothing against Xeno's. In-game for CM, Xeno's cannot see Predator's while cloaked.. this is a potential balancing feature that can be fixed.
Mandatory Awesome Xeno vs Predator Fight Scene Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBO04JXfYS8
(Obviously BYOND Mechanics would never work this way, but you understand the point)
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Marine's vs Predator's
Something of importance to understand is that Marine's in the Comics/Books/Movies are never fought with the Honor Code, if it wasn't clear from the first paragraph the Marine's are the most dishonorable prey the Yautja fight.
With our rule's Predator's HAVE to give Marine's the Honor Code on our server, this means we cannot kill or harm any Marine's while cloaked or plasma cannon them. This is a serious issue because if you've been reading, 3-5 shot's take down Predator's or cause serious enough injury that where fucked the entire game. This logic doesn't make sense for numerous reasons. Currently if you are hunting Marine's, I knowing do the math in my head before engaging... often time's I just know I'm going to get shot at least 2-3 time's before taking down my opponent and I have to weigh it out if it's worth it or not. There's never a engagement with Marine's where you don't get shot, where as Xeno's I'll often walk away completely fine.
Some obvious issues:
1. A predator would never De-cloak and run at a opponent with a ranged weapon.
2. A Predator would never give the Honor Code to a squad of Marines or a single Marine using a gun.
3. A Predator would never knowing get injured to kill dishonorable prey.
Marine's are hunted, they are however just hunted as SPORTING FUN. Yautja view Marine's/Humans much like we would hunt a Bear in the forest, sure it can hurt us if we went at it with a knife.. but at the end of the day when you're hunting a bear you have a gun.
Marine Guns: The Marine gun's are probably the strongest weapons in the game, even the Plasma Cannon we have for Predator's is weaker I'd say than the Gun's.
The gun's the Marine's use cause internal injury, bleeding and often fractures. This means that they're incredibly strong against any character who uses the Human Health system ex, Marines and Predators. Xeno's do not have a unique health system, so they simply take damage based on a Hit point system.
Plasma Cannon falls short for a couple of reasons. (Even on MAX Setting)
1. No bullet Shrapnel/Fractures/After Damage
2. Marine Armor absorbs the Plasma Attacks
The problem here is that once again XENO's do not block any of this damage, it works purely off of a hit point system so the Plasma Cannon is great on Xeno's... but SHIT on Marine's.
If you haven't seen Predator's hunt Human's here's a good sum up of all their kills in the Movies. If you notice, none of these humans are given the Honor Code because they're either using weapons or in a large group.
Predator 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zrw7D-YXlo0
All Marine's here are hunted by Cloaking and Plasma Cannon. This would be the most accurate and lore friendly to our CM Server as most of our Marine's are squad based as well.
Predator 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wob-xLyfxRo
This is a perfect example of a Predator on Earth to simply hunt "For Fun", notice none of the humans are given any sort of Honor code - BESIDES for the one's who use melee weapon's against him.
Alien VS Predator: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8AzlF4murw
This ACCURATELY show's essentially what our server has established. Lore wise I'd say this is the most friendly and precise to Xeno's, Humans and Predator's all being on the colony. Notice how none of the Human's again are treated with Honor Code, all kills are with Plasma Cannon's, Cloaked and Ranged Weapons. The only Prey that are attacked and engaged without cloaks/ranged weapons? The Xeno's.
A accurate quote from the Wikia:
"Jungle Hunter in Val Verde during 1987, who killed all of the humans in Alan "Dutch" Schaefer’s team, and possibly Jim Hopper’s team, while cloaked. Only Dutch was challenged to a fair fight. Another example is the City Hunter, who also killed the majority of his victims during his 1997 Hunt in Los Angeles while cloaked.[citation needed] It can also be seen that the Youngbloods do not pay heed to this rule as evidenced by Alien vs Predator, in which most of the humans were killed by cloaked Predators)"
There's a couple of things to sum up here with all this knowledge I've now provided you with.
1. Predator's should not be giving Marine's Honor in CM.
2. Marine's/Humans are usually killed by any means the Predator feels.
3. Marines/Humans who show Honorable intentions ARE given the Honor Code
4. Given the BYOND Mechanics, Predator's cannot de-cloak to fight Marine's as 3-5 Bullet's will kill them.
5. Marine's are the most dishonorable prey.
6. Gun's are absolutely the strongest weapon's in the game for damaging Predator's.
It's with this that you can understand now that there is a Balance issue. Xeno's should be far more powerful and the real enemy of the Predator's yet Marine's are benefiting from all rule's and a Honor Code that doesn't apply to them. To top it all off, because of the BYOND Mechanics, they have even a greater advantage against Predator's than Xeno's do.
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Balance & Issues
Everything I've mentioned sounds great and all but how do we properly balance out Xeno's getting buffed against Predator's and Marine's getting de-buffed or excluded from the Honor Code?
Someone made a good point last night regarding Predator's essentially being the ANTAG'S of SS13, just on CM. The difference is that the people in the Predator position are supposed to be intelligent and fair. This is your first line of balance and the people who are white-listed for Predator. Problem with Balance right now is that the Rule's are very bare and are more "Guide-Line's", this leave's a lot GREY areas with Predator behavior.
I thought this was pretty accurate, someone's on the forum's posted it.
The most notable Balance is that Xeno's need to suck less against Predators and Marine's need to be toned down simply by a rule alteration that shouldn't be in place.
Perhaps Predator's should follow a different healthing system than the Human's do that will balance it out fairly?
Essentially you'll never be able to balance out a character like the Predator that everyone will be Happy with solely because it's a exclusive White-List position. People will always be upset or angry that they've been killed and cannot play in that position. It's inevitable that they'll always be issues and the only way to ensure proper balance and by making sure the people White-Listed have enough common sense and maturity to not be an asshole.
The biggest issue and reason I wrote this was to clear some things up and hopefully get a couple of rule changes in, especially for the Marine's getting the Honor Code.
I've noticed a incredible amount of people don't understand the Lore or even the mechanics of a Predator which lead's to a lot of complaints. If people were more involved and understood that if they have a weapon on them and fire the weapon they are now free-game, it would clear issues up.
Even most of the staff, while bless you all for your moderation and dedication.. they don't even understand the rule's themselves. Every time I've played as Predator I've had at least one member of staff contact me about something I did that was completely legit, it's right in the rule's and the lore but they aren't grasping the concept of it and I have to stop and explain my actions.
The only way to fix these issues are by clearing the grey areas up, unfortunately this is something Apop and Rahlzel will have to sit down and discuss so that EVERYONE is on the same page.
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In Conclusion
Predator's are a fun and interesting twist to the CM server.
They suffer from under-development and a lack of real objectives aside from scaring Marine's and slaughtering Xeno's.
The Dynamic as I've clearly stated are very backwards, Xeno's should be the real opponents and Marine's should be the side hunt which should only be done to balance out the game if Xeno's are getting slaughtered.
Marine's have a EXTREME advantage due to their weapons and ability to essentially "kite" Predator's into taking massive amount of damage before being engaged.
The RNG for hit's is awful, especially when Marine's and Xeno's don't have to worry so much about it.
The rule's and Honor Code need's to be re-worked to properly balance out the CM server.
BYOND Mechanics are possibly the biggest issue for the Predator and the general balance of the game.
White-listed Predator's will be the biggest safeguard against the Balance of the game.
I hope if you've read all this that it has enlightened you to the real situation of Predator's. I know it's difficult to see it from all 3 sides, Xeno's, Human's and Predator's.. especially when you can't play as Predator. I can only say that I try to be as fair and even as possible considering I've had the privilege to play as all 3 on CM.
TL;DR? : There is none, read some Yautja lore and what I wrote so you can contribute to this discussion.
Basic Yautja information here: http://www.jokerdesigns.com/thehunted/yautja/index.php
