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The Official PlayStation Podcast made its debut on the virtual airwaves last Friday – though technically it’s just their first release under that name! And in its inaugural episode under the Official PlayStation Podcast banner, Illfonic’s CEO Charles Brungardt and Chief Creative Officer Jared Gerritzen join to talk about how Illfonic and Predator: Hunting Ground is doing!

The discussion starts at around 15:30 minutes in and lasts for 10 minutes. The pair confirm that Illfonic is working on the game from home and keeping safe. They felt they had an advantage in working like this due their experience in communicating and working from three different Illfonic studios anyway.

They confirmed that further balancing has been worked on following the feedback from the trial weekend. They specifically mentioned complaints that the Predator was underpowered (though they did find in their backend data that in terms of overall wins, the Fireteams and Predators were very nearly split down the middle). The difficulties with matchmaking were also discussed, and they commented on how the trial was incredibly useful in fixing that prior to launch.

It was confirmed that the trial build was already an older build that was 6 weeks old, and that some issues identified during the trial had already been fixed but not rushed into the trial build at the last minute. They also revealed that Hunting Grounds had gone gold ahead of its release on the 24th of April.

While they’re focused on making the launch version of the game as good as possible, Illfonic also discussed the importance of the post-launch support and following the feedback from player experiences to further refine the game.

On the same topic, lead designer Jordan Mathewson also recently spoke to ComicBook.com about the feedback from the trial weekend and how they were using that information going forward.

"I think the biggest things that we took away from it were some balance," said Mathewson when asked about the response to the Hunting Grounds trial. "A lot of it was coming down to, 'This is how we’ve been playing for quite a while now, I really want to see what happens when other people get it.' Sure enough, there were some balance things that we took into account, and we’ve been making some adjustments. And a lot of usability and other feedback that came back was really great. So, we’re doing everything we can to address those things.”

When asked for specifics on the game's balance, Mathewson referenced the arsenal of weapons available to the Fireteam and the Predator. He said IllFonic chose specific weapons to be used in the trial that the developers had lingering questions about, and seeing players use them helped answer final questions regarding which ones were "a little bit too much." He mentioned the grenade launcher which dominated Fireteam loadouts once it was unlocked as one example.”

Make sure you stick with Alien vs. Predator Galaxy for the latest news on Predator: Hunting Grounds! You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to get the latest on your social media walls. You can also join in with fellow Alien and Predator fans on our forums!

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Didn't you post a different version of this article not 20 minutes ago?

Nope. My only news post today.

I'm interested to see what balance changes they make from the trial to the full release, if any. One thing that I think contributes to the idea that the plasma caster does no damage is that since it's a charge-based weapon, you can never really tell just how much it's done to a player when you hit them as the Predator. You could charge it up halfway and hit the same person twice and potentially do massive damage in reality, but if they're then able to run behind cover and heal it gives the Predator player this impression of "well I just hit this guy with two charged-up shots and it did nothing."

It can also be hard to do follow-up damage sometimes just because all the players look the same, so it's not really possible to focus your attacks to try and weaken one rather than just going for whoever's in range at any given time. It's one of the reasons I think the game would benefit from more vision modes like other Predator games have, or at least some sort of "scan" ability that lets you determine the HP of an individual target so you could go after specific targets.

And given that each fire team member can literally go into a match with 5 healing items each for a total of 20 for the whole team (and that's without taking into consideration the health kits you find on the map) some sort of "tech" vision mode that highlights ammo crates and any medkits or ammo pouches that the fire team puts down might be good too, in order to make it easier to spot and destroy them.

I do like that you can blow up ammo crates as the Predator though. I'll definitely be doing that a fair bit.

Perhaps some sort of spotting, or focusing feature, that lets you tag a specific enemy.

Yeah it's good that you can tag all the human players in thermal to differentiate them from the AI, but that was a bit of a problem with the "claimed" text on the right side of the screen being too indistinct too. It would tell you if you'd taken a trophy from someone which you would think in theory would help you keep track of who you'd killed and how many were left, but it never updated or changed in any way after the reinforcements were brought in, so you could end up getting confused about how many players were actually still alive since you could still have peopled listed as "claimed" who were actually still alive.

Any news on graphics and key mapping settings?

It doesn't matter, this game will flop.

Quote from: Dyre on Apr 20, 2020, 10:31:20 PM
It doesn't matter, this game will flop.

You should hold out for the Robowar game.

(https://ilzinefilo.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/robowar-2.jpg)

Quote from: Dyre on Apr 20, 2020, 10:31:20 PM
It doesn't matter, this game will flop.

Jealousy will get you nowhere.

Quote from: Voodoo Magic on Apr 21, 2020, 12:48:47 AM

Quote from: Dyre on Apr 20, 2020, 10:31:20 PM
It doesn't matter, this game will flop.

You should hold out for the Robowar game.

(https://ilzinefilo.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/robowar-2.jpg)

---

Quote from: Dyre on Apr 20, 2020, 10:31:20 PM
It doesn't matter, this game will flop.

Well the perpetual Call of Duty fanboys at IGN already gave the Hunting Grounds beta the thumbs down, so thats a given. As much as its cool to dismiss the bias of IGN, they are the authority on gaming reviews, advertising and hype.

From what I recall though this game is a reskin of the Unreal 4, Unity Engine so would be interesting to know the production budget against gaming sales.

Quote from: AVP-CAPCOM on Apr 21, 2020, 07:50:03 AM
From what I recall though this game is a reskin of the Unreal 4, Unity Engine so would be interesting to know the production budget against gaming sales.

I believe you meant Unreal Engine 4 (game engine) made by Epic which was used for P:HG development (not reskinning of Unreal game).

Unity (game engine) is made by Unity Technologies.

I nver liked IGN---ever. Extreme bias on their reporting front leaves me to believe if nobody pays them or sponsors them to do it , they will destroy a game. They are affilitated with CNN and you know basically everything on CNN is trash.

I hope that the graphics improve and the stealth kills dont remain buggy. I loved it overall. Hopefully they add single player hunting down the road like Friday the 13th

Quote from: Sexual tyrannasuarus on Apr 22, 2020, 04:22:02 PM
I hope that the graphics improve and the stealth kills dont remain buggy. I loved it overall. Hopefully they add single player hunting down the road like Friday the 13th

I didn't think the graphics needed much improvement - I was/am playing on the PC - but I wouldn't be surprised if that was the case on the PS4.

Same here (for the single player) - would be great to have that be part of their future content deliveries but not holding my breath. I would be happy with their focus being 100% on the MP aspect to future tune balancing/bugs/etc.

Quote from: molasar on Apr 21, 2020, 11:48:21 AM

Quote from: AVP-CAPCOM on Apr 21, 2020, 07:50:03 AM
From what I recall though this game is a reskin of the Unreal 4, Unity Engine so would be interesting to know the production budget against gaming sales.

I believe you meant Unreal Engine 4 (game engine) made by Epic which was used for P:HG development (not reskinning of Unreal game).

Unity (game engine) is made by Unity Technologies.

When you download Unreal 4 Engine the link insists you download Unity Engine instead so there is some business to business, cross compatibility going on there.

That's because Unreal 4 engine requires knowledge of coding and C++ (for seasoned commercial game designers) whereas Unity is for individual modders and a lot is pre-set code and brushes.

Its not uncommon for studios producing AAA titles, to use other people's game engines, rather than inventing their own. Some posters here at AVP-G think using Unreal 4 for P-HG was a lazy choice and a glorified fan-game.

I think this is what is making some posters hesitant to purchase. Me personally I still play the PC game avp-2, as its the same game, just with aliens as well.

Quote from: AVP-CAPCOM on Apr 23, 2020, 07:27:35 AM
When you download Unreal 4 Engine the link insists you download Unity Engine instead so there is some business to business, cross compatibility going on there.

The game runs on UE4, not Unreal 4 Engine. Are you sure you were downloading it from the official website because there is no link to an Unity engine there?

Quote from: AVP-CAPCOM on Apr 23, 2020, 07:27:35 AM
That's because Unreal 4 engine requires knowledge of coding and C++ (for seasoned commercial game designers) whereas Unity is for individual modders and a lot is pre-set code and brushes.

IllFonic is the most familiar with UE4.

Quote from: AVP-CAPCOM on Apr 23, 2020, 07:27:35 AM
Its not uncommon for studios producing AAA titles, to use other people's game engines, rather than inventing their own. Some posters here at AVP-G think using Unreal 4 for P-HG was a lazy choice and a glorified fan-game.

Nothing new here for me. I am a gamer since the early 80s. IMO those some posters are out of their mind thinking that using a commercial engine is a lazy choice. Completely detached from reality. I guess jealousy feelings play a big role here.

Quote from: AVP-CAPCOM on Apr 23, 2020, 07:27:35 AM
Me personally I still play the PC game avp-2, as its the same game, just with aliens as well.

AvP2 the same game with aliens as well? I miss something here.

Quote from: molasar on Apr 23, 2020, 10:42:15 AM

AvP2 the same game with aliens as well? I miss something here.

Gameplay-wise, AVP2 has more maps, more weapons, and a multiplayer mode dedicated to Predator vs Marine gameplay.  That's kind of all that Predator: Hunting Grounds is offering.

Quote from: Alien Grand Master on Apr 24, 2020, 03:44:02 AM
Gameplay-wise, AVP2 has more maps, more weapons, and a multiplayer mode dedicated to Predator vs Marine gameplay.  That's kind of all that Predator: Hunting Grounds is offering.

The first time I played AvP2 was in 2001 and I do not remember it being special gameplay wise for its time. Definitely it is not a better Predator game than P:HG.

Also regarding more weapons. Are you sure about it? And which AvP2 map is more interesting (more complex) than those in P:HG?

Why are you two comparing 2 almost completely different games to one another
Sure AVP2 is the better game but still, it's not a good comparsion

Wow, finished playing it and it's much, MUCH IMPROVED over the beta.

It's 1:32 AM. Goodnight!

Quote from: PAS Spinelli on Apr 24, 2020, 05:27:34 AM
Why are you two comparing 2 almost completely different games to one another
Sure AVP2 is the better game but still, it's not a good comparsion

You are right about these two games being completely different i.e. they aim to do different things but P:HG is closer to the first two Predator films than AvP2.

Also stating that AvP2 "is the better game" is very questionable. If I was not a fan of Alien or Predator as a gamer since the early 80s, I would not be interested in it in 2001 at all. And no PC gamers I knew back then were hyped about it. Generally they played it, then jumped to a new shinny thing on the horizon.

iv posted on the PlayStation blog when the trial came out for predator hunting grounds seem good ,but now im 5 games in and only one time did I see pigs to heal .its a challang now but the healing or amount to heal isn't there{ no pigs! } and the fire team is like really hard to kill now for some reason and its starting to lag a lot maybe double the pig amount in the game? or heals buy one? and maybe up the damage of the wrist blads buy like 15% thank you

I had more "Predator Vibe" playing AVP2 than PHG so far.
Haven't felt the predatorish thing but definitely tasted the COD style and ACM unfinished states for now in this game.

if you guys ar following what going on in the game that second wind is BS now all the fire team has to do is track you down to kill you and with there being a timer plus only getting quarter health is not good it takes too long to heal plus you have to do it twice please take out the timer for the second wind o and when the predator heals the fire team should be able to kill you