Predator: Hunting Grounds Trial Weekend Thread

[Voodoo Magic]

I discovered something really awesome about the predator's cloak during the last trial day. Just like from the first two Predator movies, when the predator's cloak is active, and he's crouching, and is completely still, he turns completely invisible. Here's proof of it from a match from the last trial day:  https://youtu.be/2q5mqBgOPEQ

Holy sh*t Sakishiro! I had no idea if you crouch you're totally invisible! That is huge!  Thanks for sharing that video!

https://i.imgur.com/boyRiZp.gif?noredirect

It was nice to get a clear idea of how a soldier appears covered in mud too!

Glad to help my fellow Yautja brothers out.
I've been visiting this site from time to time for many years now. Although mostly "cloaked", lol XD
It's awesome you guys still have this site up. Huge respect for that. Thought I had to contribute with something.
I was born in 1981 and I've been a gamer, and a Predator fan since the late 80's. The first two Predator movies are still very near to my heart. Same with Alien 1 & 2, Terminator 1 & 2, and Robocop 1 & 2.

You had me until Robocop 2... 

I'm actually very excited for Hunting Grounds. Finally a new game with the predator, after 10 too long years (AVP 2010). I think Illfonic did a fantastic job with the predator's movement and sounds. It really feels like you are the predator when you play him in Hunting Grounds (although his crouching movement could use some more work lol XD). Really looking forward to play and improving my predator gameplay further. And also playing against other good predator players with the fire team.

Yeah, I'm excited about it too. A bit nervous about how successful it will be... all I see is Illfonic shooting themselves in the foot marketing-wise.. but overall extremely excited. And, it's canon!  Very, very stoked! 

[Sakishiro]

Aw come on! What's wrong with Robocop 2!? It's over-the-top awesome!

But yeah, I understand what you mean about Illfonic. The demo didn't seem to be ready for gamers who don't know anything about the Predator franchise. It's a shame and also frustrating to see youtubers already bashing the game either by it's graphics, or gameplay. Although some complaints are legit like the too long match making times, and some balance issues. But that can be fixed either in the full game, or post launch.

Illfonic should have pointed out what stuff they will improve upon in the final version, and also give more info on what more features and content we can look forward to. So yeah, their marketing strategy hasn't been great. Hope they will give out new info on the full game soon before the release. Something good to get everyone hyped. Not just us hardcore fans. We need the other players as well in order for HG to be successful. One huge mistake was to make the PC version exclusive to Epic Games. They could have gotten many more buyers on Steam. I really don't understand that move.

So, yup. I'm also quite nervous about the game's success. It's kind of crucial now that this game sells well. Otherwise we might never get an ambitious single player Predator game, or even a new AVP game for that matter...

[shadowedge]

People who know game development, how many things realistically can Illfonic be expected to fix in just one one month given the community's feedback such as buffing and changing the Predator's plasmacaster, improving the cloaking, removing some of the Predator's noise, and the other most commonly requested things etc?

[SuperiorIronman]

People who know game development, how many things realistically can Illfonic be expected to fix in just one one month given the community's feedback such as buffing and changing the Predator's plasmacaster, improving the cloaking, removing some of the Predator's noise, and the other most commonly requested things etc?

Because the game is primarily if only going to be released digitally, this does give them a bit of flexibility going to the day the game goes live. It seems to be server side so players should expect to see a somewhat different meta when the game goes live.

The game's foundation is very unlikely to change within a month of launch.
1-4 players versus Predator.
Various objectives being how they are
Level geometry
Character models being unchanged (they would have to go through the I.P holder for changes)
Item models being unchanged
Voice acting will likely be left as is
Presentation of UI is likely to remain as is though depending on when the trial build was created we could see tweaks. This will likely have been close if not finalized.

Overall though when it comes to the numbers, that all can change; progression of levels, damage, health, or really most things that are variables can be changed freely.
Because we're also a month out and trial is meant to showcase what an "average" experience at that time might be based on then current final builds, progression is going to be warped. In order to see how fast players progress and how they create builds a dev will give players access to certain general tools to see how players react. This will pretty much affect how awards are given during progression and what awards are given. Things the team will be focusing on is damage, health, speed, gear variables, and could stand to make the Predator quieter or delay the time between the Predator's clicks.

Without knowing how the game handles the Predator's cloak I just don't know how it it will change at launch. I don't think it's a model swap but I also don't know if it's turning the Predator clear or how it's handling the FX of the shimmer.

[shadowedge]

People who know game development, how many things realistically can Illfonic be expected to fix in just one one month given the community's feedback such as buffing and changing the Predator's plasmacaster, improving the cloaking, removing some of the Predator's noise, and the other most commonly requested things etc?

Because the game is primarily if only going to be released digitally, this does give them a bit of flexibility going to the day the game goes live. It seems to be server side so players should expect to see a somewhat different meta when the game goes live.

The game's foundation is very unlikely to change within a month of launch.
1-4 players versus Predator.
Various objectives being how they are
Level geometry
Character models being unchanged (they would have to go through the I.P holder for changes)
Item models being unchanged
Voice acting will likely be left as is
Presentation of UI is likely to remain as is though depending on when the trial build was created we could see tweaks. This will likely have been close if not finalized.

Overall though when it comes to the numbers, that all can change; progression of levels, damage, health, or really most things that are variables can be changed freely.
Because we're also a month out and trial is meant to showcase what an "average" experience at that time might be based on then current final builds, progression is going to be warped. In order to see how fast players progress and how they create builds a dev will give players access to certain general tools to see how players react. This will pretty much affect how awards are given during progression and what awards are given. Things the team will be focusing on is damage, health, speed, gear variables, and could stand to make the Predator quieter or delay the time between the Predator's clicks.

Without knowing how the game handles the Predator's cloak I just don't know how it it will change at launch. I don't think it's a model swap but I also don't know if it's turning the Predator clear or how it's handling the FX of the shimmer.

Thank you SuperiorIronman. Good to know. If it is a matter of numbers then at least some of the things that players had issues with can be fixed relatively easily.

Does anyone know if Illfonic will support and update this game after launch? How did they do with Friday the 13th after launch?

[acrediblesource]

Friday the 13th is pretty shit game. I wouldn't expect the same kind of comfort from knowing how they handled that one considering how well made (or not well made) that game was. But expect bug fixes and dlc (whatever those might mean for PHG)

[Voodoo Magic]

Aw come on! What's wrong with Robocop 2!? It's over-the-top awesome!

Just teasing you! 

But yeah, I understand what you mean about Illfonic. The demo didn't seem to be ready for gamers who don't know anything about the Predator franchise. It's a shame and also frustrating to see youtubers already bashing the game either by it's graphics, or gameplay.

Yeah, most of those YouTube "reviews" have not been too enjoyable to watch, unfortunately.

Although some complaints are legit like the too long match making times, and some balance issues. But that can be fixed either in the full game, or post launch.

Agreed.

So, yup. I'm also quite nervous about the game's success. It's kind of crucial now that this game sells well. Otherwise we might never get an ambitious single player Predator game, or even a new AVP game for that matter...

And that's my fear too. A lot is riding on this game. If you can't make a game centered around the first classic Predator film a success, what can you do?  Disney is watching.

[SuperiorIronman]

I'm fully expecting the game to have a two year life-cycle given it's smaller scope and budget. We'll probably get more out of it with single-player additions but I'm expecting two years worth of support.

[Corporal Hicks]

If it can manage more than 3 months of genuine activity, I'll be super happy. That's about how long CM lasted.

[Voodoo Magic]

If it can manage more than 3 months of genuine activity, I'll be super happy. That's about how long CM lasted.

Just 3 months will make you super happy? D*mn brother Hicks, you certainly set a low bar!   

Man I hope P:HG is better received than CM...

[SuperiorIronman]

Hunting Grounds A.I actually works so it's already a win to me.

[Voodoo Magic]

Hah! Good point! 



Damn. I didn't feel this harshness is deserved. I hope we don't have another Concrete Jungle situation on our hands.

PREDATOR: HUNTING GROUNDS IS THE WORST SONY GAME OF THIS GENERATION
https://www.inverse.com/gaming/predator-hunting-grounds-beta-game-review-ps4

[acrediblesource]

The author lives in the alternate universe where drug lords paid for a development of a AAA title or he drops acid after he played and realized hard core drugs is better--So he wrote a jabbing article instead of a good one.

[bendinglight]

People who know game development, how many things realistically can Illfonic be expected to fix in just one one month given the community's feedback such as buffing and changing the Predator's plasmacaster, improving the cloaking, removing some of the Predator's noise, and the other most commonly requested things etc?

It really depends on how many developers are dedicated to the build(s) of the game - as well as their capabilities. Taking an example from my professional working experience with other game developers (D&D online and LotR online), the teams should be compiling updates to the various areas that are in need of improvement and constantly (multiple times a day) deploying new builds along with their teams of testers. I am curious as to how many folks at Illfonic that are part of this release. As for post-release, a portion of the developers will inevitably will be shifted to other projects/games but there should be some developers that stick around to provide updates to the game as additional bugs/imbalances are identified.

Again, the above is my past experience with the online game development but the initial reception is a huge factor. A certain software company that released a MMORPG game that received a poor critical and consumer response ended up being completely canned a couple months later and all developers were either laid-off or shifted to other games within the company.

I do hope that this game has a steady following for at least 6 months before consistent/regular users start getting bored and move onto the next shiny object.

[SuperiorIronman]

It probably will be another Concrete Jungle situation and more or less another Alien Isolation. This is not the game that's made for a casual audience and it's budget and presentation are reflective of that. Hunting Grounds has it's problems but it's meant to be a multiplayer title for the Predator fanbase first. The issue with presenting yourself to the niche audience is that while we'll get it, the rest of the gaming community looks at it and says "why does this exist". The general consumer doesn't look at things with the same biases we do and the general consumer simply does not understand the technical hurdles of game development or how easy it is to change things.

Yes the game will change from Beta to launch, that's why a Beta happens. Writing off a product as the worst of the year because you didn't like a beta where variables are in flux and not all content is available should revoke credibility. An open Beta happens to stress test servers and see how the community interacts with the product in the current state. At the end of the day the developers have been open about what the product is and you should not expect a full game (or a finished product) from a Beta. I understand the game releases this month but being a digital product, why wouldn't they be able to work on this? Even for disk games a day one patch is not uncommon and in addition to that it needs to connect with a server anyways so you will be patching the game on launch and after. The game is not currently gold to the best of my knowledge either so it's not even ready for storefronts yet.

I'm not saying it doesn't have it's problems but this is like looking at a prototype microwave exploding and saying the whole production line will. You're not wrong, but with time before launch who is going to launch like that when time and resources are available?