Alien behavior - how does it know where I am with such certainty?

[Lex]

I took a video of it hounding me hard for 2 minutes straight. Why did it check my room at all when there are plenty of other perfectly acceptable rooms? Why was it so sure I was in there? Why'd it keep coming back?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN1QVISyjr0

[I'm Ant]

In the new alien film it uses echo location making clicks outside human hearing range the sound waves bounce around in all the corners and sides and bounce back to the alien head it's brain puts it all together as an image just like a dolphin does. It can also smell or hear your breath thats why you need to hold your breath in the lockers.

In the origianl Alien Ridley wanted us to not know how the alien senses its surounds just to make it more creepy

[TamTroll]

might have been because you were walking instead of crouching? i've been crouching basically almost all game and this doesn't happen to me (very often.)

mechanichally it's because of an invisible leash. the alien can only wander so far away from you at any given time depending on your difficulty. could be you just got very unlucky with the leash.

[BROOD-SkorpioN]

Originally posted by Lex:

I took a video of it hounding me hard for 2 minutes straight. Why did it check my room at all when there are plenty of other perfectly acceptable rooms? Why was it so sure I was in there? Why'd it keep coming back?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN1QVISyjr0

The alien is tethered to the player in order to make sure it stays as a constant threat throughout the game.

The video you're showcasing is perfectly normal. The alien leaves you alone several times during that 2 minute clip. You struggle to advance because:
1. You waste precious time going in and out of lockers.
2. When you're out of the locker, you have no plan of action.
3. You take too long to do anything.

In order to not struggle as much, you need to:
1. improvise a quick plan of action whenever you enter a new area. This includes a backup plan in the case of the alien getting in the way.
2. Use cover instead of lockers in order to avoid line of sight with the alien. It is safer and saves precious time.
3. Be more decisive with your actions. If you're out in the open, you need to always be on your way towards a clear and defined location/objective. If you don't know where to go, you need to be behind cover.

Originally posted by Your Mother:

might have been because you were walking instead of crouching? i've been crouching basically almost all game and this doesn't happen to me (very often.)

Walking is actually preferable to crouching when the alien is not close enough to hear your footsteps. You quickly cover more ground that way, which reduces the number of encounters you have with the alien.

[Hays]

Im playing this game on hard difficulty. Not even using lockers cuz he always finds me there :(.
The good trick i found is to crouch right by the door. The alien walks in and turns around and goes out :D

[¤ βℓооđч ¤ Nico-Kun!]

Yeah, using lockers isn't actually a very good idea; something I learned the hard way. It takes too long to get in and out of them, plus it makes tons of noise. It's better to just hide behind stuff. Heck, I've found it useful to crouch behind the Alien, walking in the same direction he goes; that way, you're always aware of where he's going, and can see when he goes back into the vent. Still, you must be ready to quickly hide behind something in case it decides to turn around (also, you still want to keep some distance).

[Hays]

Originally posted by ¤ βℓооđч ¤ Nico-Kun!:

Yeah, using lockers isn't actually a very good idea; something I learned the hard way. It takes too long to get in and out of them, plus it makes tons of noise. It's better to just hide behind stuff. Heck, I've found it useful to crouch behind the Alien, walking in the same direction he goes; that way, you're always aware of where he's going, and can see when he goes back into the vent. Still, you must be ready to quickly hide behind something in case it decides to turn around (also, you still want to keep some distance).

Im at mission 10 right now. Im not even counting how many times i died. But man that alien does not give a ♥♥♥♥ and kills you over and over and over. Then you reach the save point and the feeling is great. Also if you get spotted there is no point in running cuz you are already dead. Ahh and the game started so easy

[truz]

Lockers don't work for you guys? I found them really reliable against the alien, just not the humans or androids. This seems to be one of those stealth games where line-of-sight rules supreme, for better or worse. Whereas the Alien sometimes spotted me while completely under a dark desk or peeking/spam-peeking corners, the cabinets and lockers were always a 100% chance of success (just don't accidentally tap spacebar when the alien is close - it turns into an insta-suicide key). I don't think that climbing into a locker even truly makes a sound they can hear, spite what the sound effect coupled for the animation would have you believe. Same goes for using save points.

[Hays]

I tried the lockers a few times and he always found me. But now i have the flamethrower so i hope it gets easier from now on. I could be totally wrong for saying that

[truz]

The flamethrower makes things easier, since there's now a margin for error during alien encounters. Just be sure to tap fire!

[¤ βℓооđч ¤ Nico-Kun!]

Originally posted by Truz:

Lockers don't work for you guys? I found them really reliable against the alien, just not the humans or androids. This seems to be one of those stealth games where line-of-sight rules supreme, for better or worse. Whereas the Alien sometimes spotted me while completely under a dark desk or peeking/spam-peeking corners, the cabinets and lockers were always a 100% chance of success (just don't accidentally tap spacebar when the alien is close - it turns into an insta-suicide key). I don't think that climbing into a locker even truly makes a sound they can hear, spite what the sound effect coupled for the animation would have you believe. Same goes for using save points.

The Alien can hear you going into the lockers. The first time I used the locker, was in one of those circular hallways in the early game, with rooms to the sides. The Alien was walking around the hallways, and when I heard it was close, I quickly hid in a locker. Lo and behold, the Alien entered the room, stood right in front of the locker (as I was holding my breath), and then BAM, it opened the door and killed me. This was on Normal. Meanwhile, in my current playthrough on Hard, I've been avoiding lockers, simply hiding behind crates and such, and the Alien rarely spots me.

[BROOD-SkorpioN]

Originally posted by ¤ βℓооđч ¤ Nico-Kun!:

The Alien can hear you going into the lockers. The first time I used the locker, was in one of those circular hallways in the early game, with rooms to the sides. The Alien was walking around the hallways, and when I heard it was close, I quickly hid in a locker. Lo and behold, the Alien entered the room, stood right in front of the locker (as I was holding my breath), and then BAM, it opened the door and killed me. This was on Normal. Meanwhile, in my current playthrough on Hard, I've been avoiding lockers, simply hiding behind crates and such, and the Alien rarely spots me.

The alien cannot hear you going into lockers, but if you use them often it will start searching inside them. The loud open/close locker sound is designed that way to provide psychological tension.

[Lex]

Originally posted by ¤ βℓооđч ¤ Nico-Kun!:

The Alien can hear you going into the lockers.

Most of the sounds in the game are inaudible to NPCs: lockers, crates, doors, vents, etc. The only exception I think is the Alien can hear your scanner if it's extremely close (<0.10).

Anyone know if the Alien can see your Molotov's idle animation like it can the flashlight? I use the Molotov as a flashlight usually and it's worked well except once but I think that may have been because I hid too close to a combat area.

[Unicorn's Glory]

Originally posted by Your Mother:

might have been because you were walking instead of crouching? i've been crouching basically almost all game and this doesn't happen to me (very often.)

Originally posted by BROOD-SkorpioN:

Walking is actually preferable to crouching when the alien is not close enough to hear your footsteps. You quickly cover more ground that way, which reduces the number of encounters you have with the alien.

I wouldn't be so hasty to tell the op that, walking generates noise very moderately. Crouching in rooms like the medical bay is ideal to be honest.

ALSO, OP STOP GOING IN THE SAME HIDING SPOT. That A.I. is not dumb, try being creative and have a game plan in case ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan, if you have flairs use them to distract the damn thing.

[NinthElement]

You can always use the Unpredictable Alien mod if you feel the tether is sacrificing too much realism for the sake of challenge. This will reduce your encounters with the alien as it wanders a wider area of the map.

[BROOD-SkorpioN]

Originally posted by BlueBerry Load:

I wouldn't be so hasty to tell the op that, walking generates noise very moderately

Did I not say that walking generates noise in the post you quoted? Pretty sure I said:

Originally posted by BROOD-SkorpioN:

Walking is actually preferable to crouching when the alien is not close enough to hear your footsteps.

I do 100% stand behind the advice of walking instead of crouching whenever possible. Sticking around for too long because you were crouching and thus were too slow to leave the room can easily get you killed.