Should the Alien and predator be more equal in term of strength?

[happypred]

A well-armed Pred with decent hunting experience should have a major advantage over an Alien.

It helps tremendously that they have technology, including a vision mode which highlights an Alien's entire body in glowing green. This doesn't get emphasised enough I think.

Adolescent Celtic was missing a shoulder cannon and acid-resistant gear. Being inexperienced, he took his time trying to savour the kill when he should've hurried to finish his foe before the net dissolved.

The Alien is the superior natural weapon by far. With the right equipment, odds swing back heavily in favour of the Predator. A highly claustrophobic environment, more navigable by the Alien than the Pred and limiting the Pred's range, evens it out.

[Still Collating...]

Not a bad assessment, the Alien uses the environment better and once it get's into engaged range, Alien wins. If the Pred can spot the sneaky buggers and keep them at a distance, they can win.

[Huntsman]

A question would be how one alien would operate against Dutch and his team in the jungle setting from the original Predator film.

[Local Trouble]

A question would be how one alien would operate against Dutch and his team in the jungle setting from the original Predator film.

Jim Hopper's team would have killed it and Dutch's team would have never been sent in.  I think the Aliens are vastly overrated against well-armed soldiers with no reason not to shoot them.

[SiL]

The Alien would attack at night and pick the team off one by one.

The team would quickly work out what was going on and stay awake to blow it to pieces.

Of course, it could have turned a team member into an egg in the meantime, which could infect the local wildlife. The commandos would be fine -- any animal large enough to be a host, not so much.

[Huntsman]

The invisiblity cloak is a huge advantage for a Predator, especially in the heat of the jungle. Same goes with attacking at a distance with a plasmacaster and other ranged weapons. I agree an Alien would have to be even more stealthy as it would 100% need to get in close to kill.

[BlueMarsalis79]

A question would be how one alien would operate against Dutch and his team in the jungle setting from the original Predator film.

Jim Hopper's team would have killed it and Dutch's team would have never been sent in.  I think the Aliens are vastly overrated against well-armed soldiers with no reason not to shoot it.

I still maintain that, had it not been for that "comedy of errors," the marines would have slaughtered the aliens.

See that does not make them threatening to me though, or the film that exciting upon rewatch either, if any narrative involving the military requires people to mess up over and over again for the Aliens to have a shot?

Give me Aliens versus the military again but this time doing everything right and still taking causalities and then you have my money.

[judge death]

In the case of lv-426 even with no errors I dont see how the marines would been able to go in and kill the xenomorphs in the atmosphere processor. They cant nuke it, due to they are there to save the colony and destroying it is out of question.
Walk in with guns is out of the question. Flamethrowers is none lethal to the adult xenos.

[Local Trouble]

See that does not make them threatening to me though, or the film that exciting upon rewatch either, if any narrative involving the military requires people to mess up over and over again for the Aliens to have a shot?

Give me Aliens versus the military again but this time doing everything right and still taking causalities and then you have my money.

I'm not suggesting the military would take zero casualties, but I don't think the Aliens would be able to overcome the clear lopsidedness of going up against a military with powerful ranged weapons.  You'd have to turn them into bullet sponges and I'd hate that.

[BlueMarsalis79]

Or by making them even smarter and extending the range of the acid spitting and making it so the hive in of itself works as a military mechanism, imagine it generating fog, or having sacs affixed to the walls filled with acid, or them traveling through subterraneous tunnels they create.

[Local Trouble]

At some point you're going to have accept that the Aliens just aren't well-suited to ranged warfare.  You can invent as many boobytraps in their hives as you want, but that only works against infantry and only if they're stupid enough to sacrifice their advantage by entering said hives.

How are the Aliens supposed to deal with artillery or air strikes?  Not to mention orbital bombardments and nukes.

[BlueMarsalis79]

By spreading to places you do not want to bombard or just burrowing underground.

[Local Trouble]

[SiL]

Gotta find the hole first.

[Local Trouble]

Have the Aliens ever demonstrated this fabulous burrowing ability in any of the movies?