Stalker Changes

[Wutever]

So, I had a thought while making lunch.

Arrowhead recently changed two major things about Stalkers, and also made an indirect change:
1. Stalkers are now properly invisible. Their outlines can still be somewhat seen, but during combat or at a longer range you're likely to not notice.
2. Stalker Lairs are no longer pingable on the map before they are revealed, making them harder to find even though you can still visually see them on the map as long as the mission doesn't have Orbital Spores.
3. Due to moving objectives closer together Stalker Lairs are more likely to overlap on higher difficulties. This can result in up to 4 Stalkers being active on the map, maybe more (I've yet to see a triple overlap).

A single Stalker can one-shot a Helldiver wearing light armor if they get unlucky and impact a wall. On higher difficulties Stalkers can roam in pairs from a single Lair. Couple this with horrible visibility on many maps, Orbital Spores obscuring the mini-map, Shriekers, heavies and the increased amount of patrols on the map for any group below four players, and suddenly a funny haha invisible guy can get extremely infuriating to deal with.

My question is, does anybody actually find these changes fun on high difficulties?

Bugs already have some incredibly annoying mechanics to deal with. Was making one of those annoying mechanics more annoying a good idea?

[M200Chan]

I don't really enjoy bugs, but I played some 7 with my squad recently.

The Hunters were the real issue - we were still able to track down and destroy Stalker nests and avoid dying to them fairly easily despite wearing light armour, but we usually play bots so we're not very good at staying alive when you can't see the floor through the bugs.

Then again, I play a lot of games where players can cloak themselves, so part of it may be that I'm used to having to see nearly-invisible enemies.

[0Synergy]

Im fine with the cloak but there needs to be an easier way to find the lair, maybe they should leave foot prints you can trace back to their lair, would help in fog

[Nihil]

Nope. I freaking hate them and stalkers are the most unfun enemies in the entire game. I would rather fight 3 Bile titans than 3 stalkers.

[Graf Erik]

I think, they got far more resilent to damage.

Before the patch Stalkers where dangerous. They could properly mess you up if you werent carfull, or simply looked in the wrong direction. But a couple of shots to the face made them turn around.

But nowadays, even if you see them coming, even if you open fire with -lets say- a Breaker on full auto at 10-15m, they will charge at you and with a single blow take 80% of your health and knock you down even in heavy armor... and then turn around and run away. Anything that touches you before you are back on your feet will kill you instantly.
I'd say a Stalker attack even if you see it coming will cause your dead 50% of the time.
I had them sucessfully charging me even though I've been shooting them with the lmg from 20m. They just ignore an attack that will stagger and take down even a Brood Commander.

I like that they are now harder to spot, but its stupid that you cant stop them.

[Jerran]

nope the changes were silly, and the devs have this weird need to make sure we are blinded somehow on every level and its just boring and lazy

[AngryChair]

I think Stalkers are fine, maybe they could use a little nerf in HP. If you are playing on a higher difficulty and using light armor is only natural a hit by them leaves you on the verge of death. That said, i agree that nests should be more easily seen on the map, if you take to much to find them you'd get overwhelmed pretty fast. Never seen more than 2 lairs in a map tho, and they were never close, but then again i don't play bugs on 9 (i play on 7)

[Wutever]

Originally posted by 0Synergy:

Im fine with the cloak but there needs to be an easier way to find the lair, maybe they should leave foot prints you can trace back to their lair, would help in fog

They usually move towards their Lair when they retreat, but that doesn't always help, especially with the invisibility changes. The Stalker Lair is the only hostile objective that is both very dangerous and very hard to find now.

Originally posted by Graf Erik:

I think, they got far more resilent to damage.

Before the patch Stalkers where dangerous. They could properly mess you up if you werent carfull, or simply looked in the wrong direction. But a couple of shots to the face made them turn around.

But nowadays, even if you see them coming, even if you open fire with -lets say- a Breaker on full auto at 10-15m, they will charge at you and with a single blow take 80% of your health and knock you down even in heavy armor... and then turn around and run away. Anything that touches you before you are back on your feet will kill you instantly.
I'd say a Stalker attack even if you see it coming will cause your dead 50% of the time.
I had them sucessfully charging me even though I've been shooting them with the lmg from 20m. They just ignore that.

I like that they are now harder to spot, but its stupid that you cant stop them.

I'm not sure if this is correct. Sometimes they do feel harder to kill than before, but that could just be placebo. With all the stealth changes AH likes to introduce it's pretty easy to blame unlucky shots on AH nerfing things.

AH have been releasing patch after patch that just makes the game less fun so my main concern is with whether or not they are too annoying now, not necessarily whether they are too strong.

Factory Striders are incredibly strong and scary enemies, but they are generally not annoying and have a bunch of counter-play. Same for Bile Titans. Meanwhile Stalkers lack most counter-play options that exist for other enemies and objectives, especially on maps with Orbital Spores and fog.

[Inardesco]

I always run light armour, never got instagibbed by stalkers.

[deimos]

yep, i enjoy it, now they feel like a proper stealthy threat rather then a fully visible inconvenience

[Wutever]

Originally posted by Inardesco:

I always run light armour, never got instagibbed by stalkers.

Like I said, you need get unlucky and get knocked into a wall head first since the initial hit does about 50% HP, assuming they open up with the knockback.

[[Æsir]Yuulaw]

Yes these changes are amazing and what i wanted from the start, if its too difficult, lower your difficulty setting.

[Imnuktam]

I find them to be my most deadly enemy. Seems every time I go to look at the map or call down stratagems is when they appear from no where right behind you.

They def needed their cloak fixed, they used to be easier to see than any other enemy. If you have the wrong weapons and get 2+ on you, you might as well just nade yourself. Idk if I would change them much except the way they sometimes go into hopper mode like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpaxi5W5-yA

[Midas]

Originally posted by Wutever:

My question is, does anybody actually find these changes fun on high difficulties?

Overall, yes. They shake up the mission flow when they show up, which contributes to making runs more unique. That said, what is 'high difficulties' in this context?

[Vivianite]

yes, the "hearing range" of things like this tipped off how they work, they're territorial like gunships and only really want to chase you down from their home if you're within a certain range. they stop spawning if you're outside hearing range, not chasing, mind you, spawning.

[Cipher Esteria]

Since I like using the Punisher on Higher Difficulty Bug Mission, I always feel sad for the Stalker running into me, as they get stun locked and killed with no problem.