WHY DO PREDATORS HUNT ONLY THE ALIENS

[outordinary]

Well I apologise for that, but I've been playing constantly and I've been for a xeno buff because xenos were getting wrecked hard, and they were buffed, they're more tanky and the crusher is more OP now, for example, the "loadsa AFK larva" problem is not that common as it used to be, aliens have started to win more, on lowpop too. And yet, when I come to the forums there're still these "X are marine players, bias11!!, Y are marine players, bias1!1!!" posts and threads like these, and all that kinda shite - it's just making a bad impression and makes me personally think that people that post nothing but that, and don't suggest anything are just bitching for the sake of it.
also edit - first, I urge you to not pull the "you weren't there when X happened", second, you and Peachy mentioend that victories come from "playing smart" and "having good tactics and teamwork". That's how victories are supposed to be achieved, no? Right now, imo, it takes effort to win for both xenos and marines, what, that's not good enough for ye, or do you prefer aliens mindlessly rushing and huggerspamming, or marines rushing the hives 30 minutes in?

I'm saying when people ignore the remaining problems because one side starts to get a brain and do the working tactic more which leads to a spike in wins, that's the big deal. No I don't want the nostromo xeno murderboner machines back or marines rushing the caves. Just like everyone else I want a balance.

[GGgobbleCC]

Regardless of opinions it would be nice if everyone could remain somewhat civil.

I have played a number of rounds as a Xeno over the past number of days, while none of them had Predators in them, I do believe this post is perhaps showing a gradual change in how the Xeno side is played. Whether this is a good or a bad thing is up for you to decide personally.

From what I've witnessed and experienced I can tell you that playing a Xeno is difficult. I've had to try and play smarter than I ever have done while playing Xeno and still managed to be a part of the major victories that have been occurring for the Xenos. Rather than taking this as a sign that either side needs to be Buffed or Nerfed, I believe it shows how close the balance between the two sides is.

The outcome of a round now comes down to which side plays smart and which side has the most experienced players with them.

However, I think the problem runs a bit deeper than just a bad round where it felt as if the Xenos where being hunted mercilessly by a Predator. The Xenos lack of numbers generally makes life difficult, but it is possible to win, as has been proven over the past number of days. The lack of coordination and communication that is prevalent in most rounds on the marine side is why, in my opinion, rounds are lost by the marines.

If either side somehow manages to offset their, lets call them handicaps, then it leads to a perceived feeling by one side that the other is overpowered. For example, if the Xeno teams lack of numbers is offset by experienced and robust Xeno players, then that can have a huge impact on how effective that team is. Likewise, if the marine side has some competent command staff or SL's, the marine team's usual lack of communication becomes less of an issue and a marine victory is more likely.

However, throw in a third party, in the form a of a predator, it can make the round change drastically as they are very powerful in their own right. This is how I believe it should be. Due to the immense sway that the predators hold over the outcome of a round it is important that they are restricted and vetted accordingly, hence the white list.

That being said, perhaps more needs to be done to prevent a predator from swaying a round too far in a specific factions direction. Perhaps.

Either way, the balance has never been more equal in my opinion, both sides have the ability to win, and to lose. The players are what make a team now, rather than objects they wield, which I take as a step in the right direction.

I don't see how that means its balanced, if you have to be smart to even have a chance as an alien to win whereas marines can be suffering massive brain damage and still pull out a major doesn't strike me as balanced in any way shape or form

[Fritigern]

I think this thread should be closed. This thread is salt made manifest.

[Jack McIntyre]

Right since this was made during or after the round coronel and myself were on, we didn't really touch the xenos that round. We weren't really bothered by them so we were letting them grow and we only fought them when they attacked us first. I think coronel did kill one that was getting ready to attack that was a boiler, but the whole round we literally fought marines most of the time. We had a duel with the marines, coronel fought against the marines and I was watching with our hound and some of the other marines until a smart gunner saw this, and although we can say they didn't know honor code, most of the time the marines want to murderbone preds to get credit and try to earn some rep. So he starts spraying me and coronel down when the other marines were just watching so we respond with fighting back and the rest of the round turned into us fighting them due to marines then trying to cause war against us seeing us as hostile. So most of that round you are talking about, we fought the marines, we killed some xenos, but most of it was self defense since the marines had provoked us by shooting at us, and then trying to hunt for us.

[LordeKilly]

To be honest, the reason why you don't see a lot of predators hunting marines is that they go for small outlying squads and stragglers for single combat, or just decimate the marine in a second.

Also salt.

[Arachnidnexus]

I've managed to avoid being killed by the new predators as a xeno by simply ignoring them. Make them feel unloved and unwanted.

[outordinary]

(Entire post)

That is what I am trying to say.

I don't see how that means its balanced, if you have to be smart to even have a chance as an alien to win whereas marines can be suffering massive brain damage and still pull out a major doesn't strike me as balanced in any way shape or form

It does make it fun as all hell and makes the major victories greater. The slew of majors a few days ago, was there for most of them. Knowing you play for the harder team with TWO opposing forces and winning is a grand feeling. What the argument is about though, is for the non-robust and the times when marines aren't suffering brain damage. The rounds with good leadership, competent squad leaders, highpop and a predator on the side to boot, those are the rounds that need balancing, whether it means nerfing the pred gear, adding a certain xeno quota for when they can appear etc.

I think this thread should be closed. This thread is salt made manifest.

Also salt.

Thread has long gone away from being salt, its discussion now. Very civil and quite informative.

I've managed to avoid being killed by the new predators as a xeno by simply ignoring them. Make them feel unloved and unwanted.

According to SAS and most of the other whitelisteds, that isn't an option unless the entire team ignores them. Not every xeno will ignore them though.

[Azmodan412]

Snip

Well, there was that one time where a predator went after the whole xeno team when one hivelord, who was NOT the Hivelander, attacked said predator.

[Abbysynth]

Hi,
Predators are not against one side or the other. They are supposed to (and do!) fight both teams equally. If the players commenting in this thread played both sides equally they would see it as well. Consider them more like a force of nature, or the force of RNG - sometimes you just get really, really unlucky. For instance, yesterday there was a single lone marine running for the shuttle while I was playing Pred; I was sneaking onto the Sulaco to retrieve two dead Predator's equipment. I gunned him down just before he got to the door so he wouldn't throw me out or shoot at me or whatnot, and unfortunately I then saw the 4 xenos chasing him just as the ship took off. It's not something that's planned, it's just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

That being said, I actually never kill anyone that doesn't attack first, so anyone who dies has only themselves to blame.

[Jen_Llama]

WHY DO MARINES HUNT ONLY THE PIZZA MRES

[monkeysfist101]

WHY DO MARINES HUNT ONLY THE PIZZA MRES

Because it's about the only one the marines can take 1v1. All the other MRE's turtle behind the tofurkey.

[Egorkor]

WHY DO MARINES HUNT ONLY THE PIZZA MRES

they actually hunt the protein substitute.

[Jeser]

Dunno, I rarely saw preds neutral to marines, most of the time we are trying to kill them. I remember when I keep sniping pred on Sulaco with another smartgunner.

Also, you should make difference between lowpops and highpops. They are so different, taht can't be compared and need their own rules, imo.

[outordinary]

I'm observing pred players more now, on lowpop I do see more of an attack who attacks us thing. The only problem is it is a little difficult to coordinate not attacking the "invisible host" without being meta about it. You will always have some not so bright xeno throw a slash or disarm at it.

[Egorkor]

xenos will want to pop a pred to gain glory, and the others will just join in hoping to zergrush.

[RoswellRay]

My only problem with preds is when there are several on low pop rounds,there is really no way to compete.

[outordinary]

I don't think its a glory thing really. Its hard to kill one unless you are a ravager and have a bit of help. There isn't really any glory in your kills as a xeno even if its a predator. Its brownie points for yourself, but after that round nobody really acknowledges you. Others will join in because they want whatever is harming their sisters dead.

[Egorkor]

My only problem with preds is when there are several on low pop rounds,there is really no way to compete.

well in this particular round marines angered the pred a lot, especially when they rushed the lodge in full force.
tried to limit our kills because it indeed was too lowpop until other marines joined.

[RoswellRay]

well in this particular round marines angered the pred a lot, especially when they rushed the lodge in full force.
tried to limit our kills because it indeed was too lowpop until other marines joined.

Can't speak for earlier in the round but to be fair it wasn;t rushign the pred lodge it was chasing the pred that kept harassing us since we we're never going to kill it defensively.

[Egorkor]

yeah, you just ran into the lodge and then the elder got angry.
there wasn't much of a choice for us because aliens were at 4 most of the round, so.

[forwardslashN]

I think this topic has ran its course, so let's share our awesome predator encounters:

Xenohive was getting mauled by the marines because of low xeno population later at night/evening, which left us with about six all together. A billion braindead larva though, as it often happens. In the mean time we had seen the predators running about, and repeatedly told one another not to screw with them since we were so weak and outgunned by the hosts. And then it finally happened: the marines organized a huge offensive with two SADARs, about 10+ marines, and so on. We tried to stop them, but they just destroyed our hive little by little and kept going.

It came down to three xenomorphs, the queen, a crusher and myself included, as the rest were killed. Just as the marines were about to push into our final defensive line to free their friendlies, we put forth the best crusher defensive I've seen in a while. We annihilated the assaulting force and nested eight marines. Sadly, we did loose the queen toward the end. A few more sisters joined the fight, and were were able to hold out and start rebuilding, nesting the small reinforcement that came through a bit later. That still left the predators to deal with, and our scouts reported that they were actively fighting the marines. So, now with numbers on our side, we began a slow march toward the shuttle landing zone.

Right as we were moving to hydro, and I was guarding the queen, a human wearing predator gear tried to shank us--we absolutely gored him in about five seconds, leaving him with four limbs less of a complete package. And sans a head. The queen then proceeded to form a defensive hive inside of the hydro dome just as we moved to the nexus to begin destroying fortification. Surprise, two predators with hellhounds, in addition to the marines, were guarding the nexus! If you know anything about hellhounds, those things are super robust. So began our second great battle, with the predators rushing us and killing a few xenomorphs right off at the start. We rallied together near the hydro hive and actively fought with the predators, and with the queen joining the battle managed to easily dispatch a wounded yautja...leaving the other one. The same predator who presumably killed the crusher from the hive defense.

This other predator was smart, and also a guerrilla fighter. Whenever it was outnumbered or disadvantaged, it would cloak and run off. We had to form a small hunting party, including a praetorian, hunters, and a few others to potentially corner it somewhere. Every time I would tackle it down, it would cloak and bait us across the river where it had the speed advantage, typically firing off shots with the plasma caster to take down the weaker castes. I was a crusher at the time, and my charge did not work in the water at all. Still, we were able to scratch it now and again. Eventually the other xenomorphs either gave up, were gravely wounded, or dead, and the queen was about to call the shuttle to us (the marines had long since fled the planet).

Right before I retreated to the landing zone, the predator and I had a short duel near the river canal. I took a beating, but nothing life-threatening. I imagine I hardly damaged the yautja given how weak my slashes are, but I kept at it, knowing that I had a lot of ground to retreat to nearby. A praetorian from earlier joined the battle trying to stun the predator, but because of the river it could not evade the head hunter for long. It was quickly downed. I desperately attempted to save the praetorian by dragging it back to the hive, and came really close, but the predator was too quick, and finished off the wounded praetorian right at the gates of the hydro hive. I had a feeling though. Revenge was to come soon enough.

I escorted a hivelord to the landing pad where the rest of the xenomorphs were waiting, including a ravager. When the shuttle landed, the marines called for an immediate evacuation (earlier on they called for a distress signal and received the Iron Bears), and we picked off about four hosts who somehow managed to wander in trying to flank us. It was a bad idea for them, considering our numbers, but it did delay us from launching the shuttle for a minute or two. Two predators showed up right as we were about to launch the shuttle, again, delaying the launch. In hindsight, it was perfect timing.

The new predator, one that we have not encountered before in combat, attempted to bait us out of the shuttle, but this tactic ended quickly and poorly for it. It was stunned and beheaded and de-limbed in the span of a few moments, which left only one predator to deal with, the same one I skirmished with earlier. But we had no time to fool around, so the queen launched the shuttle as we all scampered on board. That's when I noticed a transparent outline trying to gain access to the shuttle right as the engines were coming to life. I really admire the predator's bravery, because that was a very non-coward thing to do. I immediately clawed the cloaked yautja. What resulted next was a huge xeno pileup--we managed to knock the predator's mask away in the resulting struggle, and I had a face hugger in my other claw just for this moment. I quickly hugged the predator before our ravager had a chance to behead him, and just as quickly began dragging the wounded yautja to the rear of the shuttle where the nested were kept (you cannot nest preds, but we never tried).

BOOOM!

The self detonation knocked down a lot of the xenomorphs present, but it killed only one. Mostly because I was dragging the predator rearward, so the other xenomorphs were in the front of the shuttle and away from the explosion. And because I was a crusher, I hardly flinched.

We arrived at the Sulaco and barely scraped a major victory given the time limit, right after the pods already departed. I then accidentally crashed through a wall in the hanger and was sucked into space.

And that's the end of that story. Crusher crushers all.

[outordinary]

Very cool story, sure do feel sorry if anyone in a similar situation doesn't have a crusher, a group of xenos, a robust person controlling the crusher, or a equal minded team to assist said robust person. Where were the hellhounds in this encounter also?

[forwardslashN]

Yeah, having a crusher/ravager certainly helps a lot. Especially if they are competent. As for the hellhounds, I am not too sure. We killed one pretty early on, but the other one kept goring everything around it, myself included. I had to retreat to recover because it almost killed me, and when I returned it went down to a spitter/hunter without my assistance. Hellhounds are often more dangerous to a xeno than a predator. They are like runners on steroids.

Oh yeah, I think the best moment out of all of that was when I took the very first predator's mangled body and dragged it in front of the elusive predator. It definitely wasn't happy with me after that.

[MrGabol100]

I've never seen a non-friendly predator, everytime something happened it was because the marines attacked them.