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

[BlueMarsalis79]

Not yet. But they did in Aliens Phalanx, as a "Oh f**k." moment when they started burrowing into their holds, narratively it works for the Alien without developing power creep by making up an "Alien King" or any of that bigger means better nonsense.

[SiL]

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

I never said anything about them digging their own.

[Local Trouble]

If you're willing to go scorched earth - to people and infrastructure - there's very little the Aliens could do.

That was a good thread.  Also, SM didn't seem to think the Aliens can recognize vital infrastructure.

[SiL]

Big if.

[Local Trouble]

True, which is why they'd probably try containment first if the Aliens nested somewhere that the military was unwilling to sacrifice.  Starving them of hosts would be an option.

Mines and sentry guns would be useful there.

[BlueMarsalis79]

I doubt you would have any luck waiting them out.

[Local Trouble]

Okay.  Let them venture outside of their safe zone and see what happens.

[judge death]

If we follow the comics they can indeed use tunnels and underground bunkers as nests and they also shown ability to dig tunnels and make nests underground, as well as surface egg silos/hives amongst several different style of hives.

I agree with SM that the hive resin is a living thing of itself, its likely like aliens extinction releases spores that make it possible for the xenos to track humans that has been inside the hive, and allows them to communicate from one end of the hive to the other, making it possible to move xenos around for surprise attacks.
So sneaking inside without being discovered is unlikely.

Removing hosts and wait them out: we know from novels, movies and comics they hibernate for pretty much eternity so they wont starve to death and they arent stupid so they wont just walk in front of the sentry guns without enough numbers or a reason to do it, most likely they would just find a new way out or create one.

[Immortan Jonesy]

I agree with SM that the hive resin is a living thing of itself, its likely like aliens extinction releases spores that make it possible for the xenos to track humans that has been inside the hive, and allows them to communicate from one end of the hive to the other, making it possible to move xenos around for surprise attacks.
So sneaking inside without being discovered is unlikely.

Interesting, and IIRC eggs (or Ovomorphs) are living things too.

[judge death]

I agree with SM that the hive resin is a living thing of itself, its likely like aliens extinction releases spores that make it possible for the xenos to track humans that has been inside the hive, and allows them to communicate from one end of the hive to the other, making it possible to move xenos around for surprise attacks.
So sneaking inside without being discovered is unlikely.

Interesting, and IIRC eggs (or Ovomorphs) are living things too.

Yep, I agree on their eggs arent eggs but a living thing thats purpose is to keep the facehugger alive and hibernate until a host is nearby and then wake up and release the facehugger. Its tendrils it grows is what it uses to nurture itself. Hence they can open and close their petal opening.
Seem to have sensors that feel heat and movement from hosts, but no inteligence to speak of.

[Local Trouble]

Removing hosts and wait them out: we know from novels, movies and comics they hibernate for pretty much eternity so they wont starve to death

A bit hyperbolic.  Outside of the queen in AvP (which was preserved through technological means) when have we ever seen an Alien hibernate for so long?

and they arent stupid so they wont just walk in front of the sentry guns without enough numbers or a reason to do it, most likely they would just find a new way out or create one.

They walked in front of sentry guns in Aliens.  Unless what you're suggesting is that they know about the sentry guns in advance.  But then we should also assume that the human military is fully aware of what the Aliens can do as well.

[BlueMarsalis79]

It ups the stakes and ups the tension and quality by proxy I think.

[Local Trouble]

What does?

[judge death]

Outside of the queen in AvP (which was preserved through technological means) when have we ever seen an Alien hibernate for so long?

We see several cases in games, novels and comics. In the novel out of the shadows they have been hibernating for hundreds of years, in the comics we see several times of them hibernating from 20 years up to 100 years and some cases that indicate even longer.

They walked in front of sentry guns in Aliens.

Two reasons:
1: they didnt know what sentry guns was and they had the numbers for going for a human wave tactic that we see humans use in attacks against strongholds in ww2 up to even today, they thought they could easily attack them headon, which they did first time but the bulkhead/gate stopped them. Second time they realised their losses were too high and changed plans and adapted and now seeks ways around, learning like the xenos in resurrection did.
To me its clear they learned their lesson and changed tactics.
2: they had a large number of xenos and trying to attack headon made sense from tactical position especielly based on the marines performance earlier in their hive where their weapons wasnt that effective.

[Local Trouble]

Oh, I fully acknowledge that the Aliens can eventually win if they just Zerg rush the military if said military is only a few soldiers that are rapidly running out of ammo.

A well-supplied and prepared military is going to be a different story.  Of course, that would also make for a pretty boring movie, unless you happen to have a military fetish like Michael Bay.