Scrakes need changing

[PsYchOTicA]

Hello all, I'm new to the forums, well not really I been reading alot of posts but just recently made an account. Love KF it's a great change of pace after playing l4d since it came out, also the devs and their cohorts seem to be greatly involved with the community, definate kudos.

But I'm just wondering about the Scrakes, as they are now they are quite a joke. I mean when they attack, you just take one step back, they swiing and miss, then you shoot and repeat, they really arn't much of a threat unless you are cornered but that's about it. Same can be said to a lesser degree with Gorefasts, they do the same type action as well as stalkers but I can live with that. But the Scrakes are supposed to instill fear. When you hear the chainsaw and that low evil voice you're supposed to be like oh crap! But it's just too easy to avoid them and take them down. Just wondering if there was any way to make them actually swing at you while they are on the move, something like a Fleshpound does but obviously not as deadly. It would be much more intense and put some fear into you when you hear someone shout SCRAKE!!! Anyways that's about it, keep up the great work Tripwire you kick ***.

 

[Perfectblue]

Yes they are very much a joke in their current state, even in higher difficulties.

 

[Evilsod]

Yeah Gorefasts should be easily dodgable since they're your fragbait weaker foes.

But Scrakes are suppose to be chainsaw wielding killers and frankly are less of a priority than Crawlers. The only reason anyone rushes towards them is for the easy money they represent when your playing Support Specialist. They shouldn't stand still to attack when they start to rampage. Ok they'll still be fairly easy to a Support, but at least they'll cause some damage if your not paying enough attention to them.

 

[panzerknacker]

I dont believe I have ever been directly killed by a skrake and I got the chainsaw achievement my first time out. they are weaksauce.

 

[Shade]

they should be able to hit hard do more damge then they do now, not to much more tho. also if they swung more often and when they walked

 

[Blue]

I dunno, I like them the way they are right now. Sure, they are a joke when they are alone, but when facing a group of enemies (especially on harder difficulties) you can easily forget about them in the carnage and just when you killed them all and reload, you suddenly face him again. He has been approaching more or less silently in the background and if you stand with your back to a wall, you just might have a problem. I just love the "What the F... ? How could I forget about a guy with a chainsaw?!" feeling I get in that situation

As for their attack: I think they enrage earlier on higher difficulties and pretty much hit everything around them on all difficulties. So they are either dangerous when you are alone and cornered or when they charge into a formation of players and I think that's pretty much fine the way it is.

In general: Most foes are a joke if you encounter them alone. The combination is what makes them deadly. There has also been a thread about crawlers not jumping enough.

For everything else, there's Fleshpounds.

 

[PsYchOTicA]

Blue I agree on some aspects, but the bad outweighs the good as far as the threat level of a Scrake. You shouldnt have to ignore them, what kind of threat is that, at this point you really don't even have to ignore them because they are too easy to take down in 90% of cases. Then when everyone decides to kill it it's not even worth worrying about at all. I just want that feeling of OMG a Scrake, instead of meh a Scrake is coming no biggie. They remind alot of good ole Jason from Friday the 13th, tough as hell, not fazed by gunfire and keep slowing getting close to you, except easier to kill in the long run.

I still believe they need a swinging animation while running, besides arn't they supposed to be the second biggest threat to the FP (not counting the patriarch), to be honest I worry more about crawlers then Scrakes and that shouldn't be the case.
Let's not forget if you use a chainsaw against it the Scrake is rendered totally useless as it just stands there and takes all the punishment until it's dead. The Scrake definately needs a buff of some kind imo, I want to be scared for my life again when I see them like I did the first time I played, before knowing how simple they are to handle.

 

[Templarion]

Make them able to walk/run & hit.

No stopping when hitting but rushing and killing and the same time. Then they would be big badasses.

 

[PUTZ]

Make them able to walk/run & hit.

No stopping when hitting but rushing and killing and the same time. Then they would be big badasses.

That's what fleshpounds are for.

 

[Templarion]

That's what fleshpounds are for.

But they take much more pain than Scrakes.

Overall, I don't understand this "stop & hit"-mentality. Why in the hell they would stop before they hit? They are mindless zombies and they just want to eat our fresh flesh.

After all, it is all about hitpoints.

 

[Raj]

They were bigger in the mod (atleast looked bigger).
Now they look kinda average.

Anyway, Imo they should be able to catch you once they start running. Right now i think i can outrun them even on level 4 berserk.

 

[Templarion]

They were bigger in the mod (atleast looked bigger).
Now they look kinda average.

Anyway, Imo they should be able to catch you once they start running. Right now i think i can outrun them even on level 4 berserk.

Because they stop before they hit, everybody can outrun them.

I just got an idea, what if they had Grapple-skill like Cloths do?

 

[Chicken]

I was just about to say how in the mod they grappled you and ripped your guts out until another player came along and gave em a good shotgun blast.

It would be great if they added it with better animations than the mod (holding you above his head whilst your legs are kicking) and then a teamate had to damage it a lot to make it drop you. Would be hawt.

 

[Raj]

I was just about to say how in the mod they grappled you and ripped your guts out until another player came along and gave em a good shotgun blast.

It would be great if they added it with better animations than the mod (holding you above his head whilst your legs are kicking) and then a teamate had to damage it a lot to make it drop you. Would be hawt.

Or holding player from his legs upside down and cutting him with the chainsaw.

 

[Reise]

http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/showthread.php?t=32221

In any case, I've discovered that the Scrake tends to glitch out when he's hit by the chainsaw's alt-fire slashing motion.

Once he's hit by it he will almost always just stand there like an idiot and die.

 

[Raj]

http://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/showthread.php?t=32221

In any case, I've discovered that the Scrake tends to glitch out when he's hit by the chainsaw's alt-fire slashing motion.

Once he's hit by it he will almost always just stand there like an idiot and die.

Happens to me aswell... very weird

 

[Kabelis]

Yeah, you can 'kite' or as I like to call 'micro' (term from RTS games like starcraft) against Scrakes just as easily as you can from Gorefasts or Stalkers.

Attack animations really need to be buffed somehow.

 

[Nanostrike]

Yeah, you can 'kite' or as I like to call 'micro' (term from RTS games like starcraft) against Scrakes just as easily as you can from Gorefasts or Stalkers.

Attack animations really need to be buffed somehow.

If you buff them too much, they become unstoppable. Skrakes attack in far larger groups than Fleshpounds, afterall. People talking about giving Skrakes and Gorefasts 'Attack-on-the-move' ability don't seem to realize that it'd make the game VERY close to impossible, even on normal...

 

[Chicken]

Whilst I think that giving gorefasts the ability to move and attack will make the game a lot more difficult I think that it is necessary to let the scrake do it as currently he is just an ammo sponge. Because of the regular running speed and quantity of gorefasts they can effectively mob you but scrakes tend to show up by themselves with other lower level specimens and with the snails pace speed they move at (The charge is made redundant by his stopping to attack) people just take out the lower level creatures by pulling back and/or kiting him. Not to mention how easy it is to take him down with the saw, you would think he would have been given some protection against his own weapon.

 

[krid]

Not to mention how easy it is to take him down with the saw, you would think he would have been given some protection against his own weapon.

Can you think of an effective protection from a chainsaw?

The scrake is actually pretty well balanced. He arrives before the FPs do, and in greater numbers. He's not too dangerous as long as you keep your attention on him, but he does enough damage so that losing track of him can be a fatal mistake. Since he's got enough hp to keep him from going down too quick that makes him an excellent distraction and tank.

Look at the crawler. It doesn't do all that much damage and it dies from a harsh breeze, but it's one of the deadliest enemies in the game because it can sneak up on you and score an unexpected hit or two at an inopportune time. It traveling in packs just makes it worse.

I do think he could use more hp and a bit of a speed boost though. He goes down too fast if people just hit him with a hunting shotgun blast or two, and he doesn't do a very good job of keeping up with the rest of the horde. Ideally, he would have a bit more HP than a flesh pounder. Although it sounds a bit excessive, he doesn't do nearly as much damage as an FP and the FP gets a very long and very fast rage to help it. I figure that makes the FP the much more serious and more immediate threat, while the scrake keeps the team from getting lax on their situational awareness.