What Is The Point In The Stalker?

[Imbaland]

From what I can tell, the only real reason the stalker is in the game is to promote real money payment for revives. Today I got my first light flickers, and taunts from a stalker, and I thought "awesome, this is going to be cool", then he suddenly appeared, shot me five times with an automatic rifle, and I died.

It wasn't fun, it wasn't challenging, it wasn't exciting. It was just stupid. The only possible way anyone could have beaten it in my situation was to bug out the AI, which I couldn't find a way to do in under a second.

So is the only reason for this event to eat up revives and seriously annoy players?

[Zedonk]

It puts a twist to the game, some challenge.

He is more likely to show the more bosses you kill (rumored to be this way anyway).

You CAN kill him, and even if not, you just have to survive and kite him long enough

until he is gone. Worst case scenario - he eats up one revive, or you start the mission over.

His spawn rate is rather low, so its not really much that of an issue.

[Thorin]

SO much salt

[FoxStarz]

I personally love the stalker. I died by him the first time I saw him, but after that I figured him out and kill him pretty easily. Just move faster than him and stomp him first. I wish stalkers came in groups of two sometimes, now THAT would be fun.

[Imbaland]

Starting the mission over can be the difference between playing another mission, or deleting the game on the spot. If that is the case, then he should always appear at the very start of a mission. Luckily, this is what happened for me. If he had appeared when I had put more time into the mission, I would probably have been a lot more &!$$ed off.

Wasting 10+ minutes of a players time just to put in a random encounter that they have absolutely no chance of winning in the vast majority of cases is just silly.

I personally love the stalker. I died by him the first time I saw him, but after that I figured him out and kill him pretty easily. Just move faster than him and stomp him first. I wish stalkers came in groups of two sometimes, now THAT would be fun.

I'm assuming you just go invisible and then slash him a few times. Try doing it when you have zero energy, and the only thing you can do is shoot him with either your paris (even though he will output enough damage with his auto aim tracking to kill you before you can pull the bow all the way back), or a pistol (lol).

Edited April 6, 2013 by Imbaland

[greenmanatee]

just get in the elevator and switch floors.

[Zedonk]

Starting the mission over can be the difference between playing another mission, or deleting the game on the spot. If that is the case, then he should always appear at the very start of a mission. Luckily, this is what happened for me. If he had appeared when I had put more time into the mission, I would probably have been a lot more &!$$ed off.

Wasting 10+ minutes of a players time just to put in a random encounter that they have absolutely no chance of winning in the vast majority of cases is just silly.

I'm assuming you just go invisible and then slash him a few times. Try doing it when you have zero energy, and the only thing you can do is shoot him with either your paris (even though he will output enough damage with his auto aim tracking to kill you before you can pull the bow all the way back), or a pistol (lol).

How can starting a mission over be the difference between playing another or deleting the game?

Most missions take up to 10 minutes tops, and that's with having double objectives, running it again is not -THAT- bad.

If you don't want to start over - use a revive.

The Stalker doesn't pick on low levels (players under rank 5), and you are highly unlikely to encounter him

before you have a decent fighting chance.

Yes, he can come at the worst times, something you need to learn to deal with. Either hide/run, or kill him.

He is also much easier if you are in co-op, since you can just have someone revive you, or help you kill him.

[Barnago]

I think the stalker is conceptually really cool but the implementation is super dumb.

The idea of the game having some kind of reactivity to you assassinating enemy leaders (and not warning you about it, which adds to the novelty) on paper sounds really neat, but the reality of having a stalker jump into your game and probably murder you is super frustrating. Most successful strategies for killing the stalker involve perching up on terrain and abusing his line of sight and pathing to shoot him from a safe spot (or some other abuse of AI), because he puts out such a huge amount of burst. The cherry on top is that your only reward for surviving an assassination attempt is that you don't get killed. The mechanic needs to be fleshed out a lot more and made to feel less cheap than it does currently.

I know some people have expressed that he isn't "too hard" to beat, which is kind of a bizarre mode of argument I see a lot on this forum in discussions about game difficulty. Just because there is a way to beat something doesn't mean the design is justified, and it certainly doesn't mean that it's fun or actually a good idea.

Stalkers need to be more interesting to actually engage in a fight (this is a problem with basically all "boss" type enemies in the game. They either have humongous meat bag HP pools, put out stupid high damage, or both), and there needs to be some kind of payoff for beating it that isn't simply the removal of a negative consequence.

People should be excited to see a Stalker, not annoyed.

Edited April 6, 2013 by Barnago

[Katakuna]

So is the only reason for this event to eat up revives and seriously annoy players?

I upvoted you by accident, but I want you to know that I truly meant to downvote you.

[Story4]

Point of the Stalker is to be a punching bag for Rhino.

[Imbaland]

How can starting a mission over be the difference between playing another or deleting the game?

Most missions take up to 10 minutes tops, and that's with having double objectives, running it again is not -THAT- bad.

If you don't want to start over - use a revive.

The Stalker doesn't pick on low levels (players under rank 5), and you are highly unlikely to encounter him

before you have a decent fighting chance.

Yes, he can come at the worst times, something you need to learn to deal with. Either hide/run, or kill him.

He is also much easier if you are in co-op, since you can just have someone revive you, or help you kill him.

I can't play coop becuase the servers lag too much.

I didn't have any revives left because I had used them all.

When you play solo with a Paris and a Pistol, missions can take much longer than 10 minutes.

[SolluxCaptorTA]

He could use work, yes, but it adds more variety to the game. Something this game really could use right now.

[fauxhb]

I can't play coop becuase the servers lag too much.

I didn't have any revives left because I had used them all.

When you play solo with a Paris and a Pistol, missions can take much longer than 10 minutes.

if you play only solo you'll never finish 50% of the missions anyway. the game's not designed this way. i have a lv30 exca and difficulty 5 missions (especially alerts) are too hard for me solo. so is the stalker, when i met him alone, i was toast in half a minute. when he attacked the four of us, some players got confused, but we won.

i just wish he had some special drops asigned to him. potatoes, artifacts, helmets, that sort of stuff.

[Thorin]

When you play solo with a Paris and a Pistol, missions can take much longer than 10 minutes.

If you are playing solo with a Paris, you should be ready to get your &#! kicked some times and to have patience until you know how to play with it.

I should know, I did the same.

All I see in here is salty speech. You got your &#! kicked by the stalker, so did half of the us, by now. Deal with it.

[Imbaland]

If you are playing solo with a Paris, you should be ready to get your &#! kicked some times and to have patience until you know how to play with it.

I should know, I did the same.

All I see in here is salty speech. You got your &#! kicked by the stalker, so did half of the us, by now. Deal with it.

Oh yes, this game will progress nicely from beta to dead, playerless release if everybody just deals with everything that is poorly implemented and more annoying than fun.

Edited April 7, 2013 by Imbaland

[LoRDxDeMoN]

You can solo all content with a pistol.

[Thorin]

Oh yes, this game will progress nicely from beta to dead, playerless release if everybody just deals with everything that is poorly implemented and more annoying than fun.

You must be new here. And your priorities are a bit strange.

Go have a cup of tea, you're making a fuss

You can solo all content with a pistol.

I like your style

Edited April 7, 2013 by Thorin

[MotherCorpus]

Just something good to look at! Mhmmm! ;) But I haven't seen him lately 'cause he knows I'm looking for him. :'(

[Cakes]

Oh yes, this game will progress nicely from beta to dead, playerless release if everybody just deals with everything that is poorly implemented and more annoying than fun.

Not many players solo with a Paris and run out of revives before Stalker comes to test your mettle. I find the Stalker midly amusing, but he often gets staggered to death by the infested swarms on Pluto before he can chase me around and cue the Benny Hill music.

What's the point of the Stalker? Break monotony. Make you pay for your overconfidence by going into missions with low ranked gear for mastery.

[Arzete]

Think of him like the Herobrine in Minecraft. Except more aggressive.

[Pixues]

>Be Rhino

>Lights flicker

>Turn on iron skin

>Smash stalkers face in with Gram

>Stalker dies

[Imbaland]

What's the point of the Stalker? Break monotony. Make you pay for your overconfidence by going into missions with low ranked gear for mastery.

Gotcha. So I'm meant to stay with the default machine gun the entire time just in case a stalker comes around, right?

How fun, so glad the other weapons were even included.

[Cakes]

Gotcha. So I'm meant to stay with the default machine gun the entire time just in case a stalker comes around, right?

How fun, so glad the other weapons were even included.

Default machine gun? Yeah, I guess a few people I know have purposefully run missions with a MK-I Braton to solo the stalker for their own entertainment. I don't think you should though.

[FatRefrigerator]

Imbaland, if you don't like the Stalker, don't farm certain missions. And if you have to farm them, do it in a group. If you don't/can't play in groups, practice your aim and dodging.

[xStonedRaveNx]

I can't play coop becuase the servers lag too much.

I didn't have any revives left because I had used them all.

When you play solo with a Paris and a Pistol, missions can take much longer than 10 minutes.

All i've been using nothing but that for literally the past week. It is freaking awesome. doesn't work on bosses at all, unfortunately. trying to jump over hordes of enemies with depleted or unsuitable weapons to reach objectives or escape is funtacular experience to say the least. as for stalker take advantage his crappy AI by standing on a box if you can't duel him properly.