The role of Bosses in Hunt; A discussion

[Badass_Ben]

What do y'all think the proper role for bosses is in this game?

1- An excuse to draw players together for PvP
(Bosses should be weak, not much of a challenge in of themselves)

2- A definitive presence
(Bit of a challenge, primarily drawing players in but dangerous in of themselves)

3- "Our battle will be legendary"
(Bosses should be "BOSSES"- Capable of wiping even veteran squads if they are careless)


Right now, bosses dont really have a "role" to them
If you are a veteran player and know the meta methods for killing a boss, they fall under "1"
You can wipe them in well under a minute (Ive seen the Spider beat in around 5-10 sec of combat)
To me, this detracts from the lore and immersion of the game
If all you gotta do is throw a bomb and slap it with an Axe, why are we paying these deadly Hunters to go get them, in such amounts that they turn on each other?
Additionally, the speed at which bosses can be killed encourages rush tactics, which kinda go against the identity of Hunt: Showdown

If you dont use the meta methods for killing bosses, then they fall under "2"
They take quite a bit of ammunition to kill, and therefore time
They really wont kill you though, unless you are completely careless


PERSONALLY< i think the game would be more interesting if they fell under "3"
(Yes, i understand that we cant discuss bosses and their difficulty without considering additional players preying on you at the same time- this option would require some additional tweaking)

BUT, if the bosses were "BOSSES"< that were like an "oh ♥♥♥♥" moment
That would add a lot more depth to the game as you would have to PLAN your boss killing strategy
Like the infamous "Leroy Jenkins" scenario, your team would have to actually put together a PLAN for taking out the boss

The game economy I think would be a lot more interesting if it was fairly common for NOBODY to successfully escape with the bounty, simply because the boss wiped out everyone who tried

[FrappeWarrior]

well first we need to agree on the old PvP or PvE argument..which we never do. and im not trying to open this argument here but the answer to your question is directly linked to this.

Hunt is a PvP game, all the AI elements in the game are there to compliment PvP and the bosses being the most important as their purpose is to serve as main a objective for players to converge to and fight each other for. now i know there are a lot of arguments on both sides and everyone is entitled to their opinion im just gonna link this video which is from way back in 2017(!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giguwjdoidU
you can hear the devs stating that! at 8:00 "this is a competitive multiplayer with AI" and at 8:50 "our game is not a boss fight game, a souls game" "they adequate a hotspot of action" so you can see Hunt has always been a PvP game.

with this out of the way and to answer the topics question, it should be "2"

right now, as you said, is more of a "1" which is ok as it serves the purpose of a focus point but it doesnt compliment pvp much. as its so easy to kill it doent really affect pvp fights. by making a bit more challenging it would create more interesting PvP fights around it

i like what they did with scrappy and and the hoarder attribute and i would like to see the other bosses updated in a similar way. not necessarily a direct buff on their damage or HP but an indirect one by changing the surrounding area. they can make the butcher spawn random fire patches, the assassins lair extremely dark and blah blah or whatever you get the idea.

[Xscha]

I think bosses being around 1 is fine. Hunt has those moments in gameplay where an AI, either directly or indirectly kills you. Examples being immolators and hounds most of the time coming from a mile away and dealing damage enough for you to get shot. Those games, at least for me, are enough to sometimes end my day of hunt. I wouldn't want that on a constant or even more common than it is now. sometimes, it even makes me mad my ENEMY dies to things like that, because of them now not contributing to my KDA/pvp time.

[HettyWainthrop]

Theres been talk of a hardcore mode for Hunt now for ages,maybe making the boss significantly tougher but with higher reward in this mode (if it appears) would be the way forward..
I personally would like to see more options like this as opposed to just more bosses,skins etc..i dont think a hardcore mode (no hud,tougher ai etc) would be that difficult to implement and it would give the vets somewhere to 'go' thus alleviating some of the mismatching in skill level in BH
Obviously this is the internet so i may be wrong :)
Happy Easter everyone!

[Spicy Crab]

I think it's a 2. If you get careless, you can easily get killed, especially by the Assassin

[Wayward Son]

It's obviously #2 as intended.

The problem which you're all ascribing to the bosses is in fact a problem with the multiplayer modes offered by Crytek. If they actually had a solo BH and a separate duo/trio BH, rather than a weird singular semi-merging of all three, then the boss meta issues would be fixed instantly. Why? Scaling. Somewhat unfortunately, in order to keep the game on some kind of fair and playable ground for solo hunters, the game has no scaling of difficulty; you encounter as many monsters and the same weak bosses as a group as you would if you entered solo. It would be a relatively simple matter to implement difficulty scaling if the servers were split firmly into solo and multi.

I don't necessarily like this idea myself because I genuinely enjoy having to be stealthy and thinking more tactically if I'm going up against duos and trios. But I don't see another way to implement a more difficult or "hardcore" meta without making the game almost impossible to play solo. IDK whether or not solos are much more of a minority these days, it's quite likely, but I don't think they should simply be relegated to QP so this solution may well be the most agreeable to all.

[GRU-Vy]

Bosses are in a good place damage and health wise. They used to be alot weaker in early development. Concerntina was the most effective and silent way to kill bosses. so then it got nerfed and people used a large dynamite, then they changed the boss ai so it would roam faster even when players leave the lair. So then nitro was the go to, then they neefed the nitro ammo pool, added the peep sight then nerfed the damage range. Then people used the avtomat, then they nerfed the ammo pool. Then people used melee weapons.

People will always seek the path of least resistance. The bosses hit harder now, have an enraged mode and move faster. The sticky bombs are intended for bosses, their long fuse time is useless for pvp but i think they may get nerfed. The bosses dont need to be any stronger otherwise people wont really bother fighting them. People will only attempt bosses on an empty server or people will just camp and wait for someone else to do all the work.

[lizheng616]

Wayward Son님이 먼저 게시:

It's obviously #2 as intended.
I don't necessarily like this idea myself because I genuinely enjoy having to be stealthy and thinking more tactically if I'm going up against duos and trios. But I don't see another way to implement a more difficult or "hardcore" meta without making the game almost impossible to play solo. IDK whether or not solos are much more of a minority these days, it's quite likely, but I don't think they should simply be relegated to QP so this solution may well be the most agreeable to all.

I've suggested before the idea that the boss AI should act differently when fighting trios, duos, or solos in the lair. For trios and to a lesser extent, duos, boss AI can be much smarter, more accurate, faster at decision making, more aggressive etc.

[Eos]

I think bosses shouldn't be hard, but it should take some time to kill them.
Maybe make them invulnerable in their enrage phase. So even sticky will do enough damage to next enrage but no further. Then I would give them some AoE attack on the entire boss lair at the end of each enrage phase if they didn't hit anybody. To force you to leave the lair on each enrage.

[Paper King]

scrapbreak is the only bosses that can create a challenge , as It can block some area preventing retreat ... the others 3 are way too easy

[Spicy Crab]

GRU-Vy님이 먼저 게시:

The sticky bombs are intended for bosses, their long fuse time is useless for pvp but i think they may get nerfed. The bosses dont need to be any stronger otherwise people wont really bother fighting them. People will only attempt bosses on an empty server or people will just camp and wait for someone else to do all the work.

If you think about it, Scrapbeak is the nerf to the sticky bomb. You kill the boss fast, that is true, but you'll have no supplies to endure the inevitable siege.

[₦ | cpt.morgan]

the function of the boss is to carry the bounty. with that money, you can equip your hunter: weapons, legendary hunters etc.

and if the money system in this game were balanced as example: no free weapon unlocks, no clue money reward etc. it would make also a sense

players would be also faster go extract and not camp endless in the boss lair, because money would be play a more important role.

the boss does not have the function as is always claimed here:

• To bring players on one place
• As PVP Holder
• AS Healthbar revive maschine or as a bodyguard

the problem is, that they need more special attacks, to make the boss fights more interesting, (butcher, spider, assassin) like with scrapbeak.

They should not are super strong, but a little bit more challenging.

I also agree also with the sticky bomb ♥♥♥♥, that they are too strong. Sticky Bombs should be open world items, that you can only found in loot boxes

[Badass_Ben]

Knin3님이 먼저 게시:

Game needs to nerf those damn sticky bombs, ridiculous it takes 75% damage off. ppl spot the boss throw one shoot it twice n its dead, game over

That is honestly my biggest issue more than anything
SImply fixing that would be a good overall change

[мпз-агент бесов - 1]

throw sticky and kill boss in 30 sec, boss is useless.

[Badass_Ben]

FrappeWarrior님이 먼저 게시:

well first we need to agree on the old PvP or PvE argument..which we never do. and im not trying to open this argument here but the answer to your question is directly linked to this.

Hunt is a PvP game, all the AI elements in the game are there to compliment PvP and the bosses being the most important as their purpose is to serve as main a objective for players to converge to and fight each other for. now i know there are a lot of arguments on both sides and everyone is entitled to their opinion im just gonna link this video which is from way back in 2017(!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=giguwjdoidU
you can hear the devs stating that! at 8:00 "this is a competitive multiplayer with AI" and at 8:50 "our game is not a boss fight game, a souls game" "they adequate a hotspot of action" so you can see Hunt has always been a PvP game.

with this out of the way and to answer the topics question, it should be "2"

right now, as you said, is more of a "1" which is ok as it serves the purpose of a focus point but it doesnt compliment pvp much. as its so easy to kill it doent really affect pvp fights. by making a bit more challenging it would create more interesting PvP fights around it

i like what they did with scrappy and and the hoarder attribute and i would like to see the other bosses updated in a similar way. not necessarily a direct buff on their damage or HP but an indirect one by changing the surrounding area. they can make the butcher spawn random fire patches, the assassins lair extremely dark and blah blah or whatever you get the idea.

Good contribution

Thats a fair point by the devs, and I cant just demand that their whole game model change

But we agree that "1" is kinda lame for these bosses

"3" may definitely be TOO much

"2" is definitely the best sweet spot. We just need to make it "2" for everyone, not just noobs