Normal difficulty and Flesh Pound

[slavek]

Heck, the fp insn't overpowered in any way!! Sometimes it takes 4 hits ore more untill he kills you... You should have played the mod .....

Wave 13+ had like 90% fleshpounds haha.

 

[Sammers]

Beginner difficulty is way too easy for anyone but Normal is just too hard.

Just takes practice man. Practice and a good team.
The game can't obviously be too easy or nobody would continue playing it. It has to present some kind of challenge.

It should easily be too hard for very new players; those players should have to earn their wins through practice and patience. Stick at it man.

 

[Fail-o-wisp]

I have played this game for 7 hours now and every single 7 wave normal difficulty map has ended to Flesh Pounds raping us in 6th or 7th wave. They are way too overpowered at that difficulty level. Enemy that can take 20+ shotgun blasts and kill you in 2 seconds is way too much. Killing it with 6 men team takes more time than it takes for him to kill one or two of us and then another one spawns and finishes the job.

I used to have that mindset too until me and my pals gained a couple of perk levels and found out what to do and what not.

Here's what you should do:
See a fleshie? Okay. Don't panic. Type "fp" in the chat or say fleshpound in the mic if you have one. Make sure EVERYONE knows a fleshie is here.

Field Medic
Err ... you really shouldn't be touching a Fleshpound as Medic. Not even with a broomstick tied to a ten-feet pole. Focus on healing all your mates while they do the dirty work.

Berserker
You have damage resistance. Pull out your Katana/Axe and alternate fire. Then move away and prepare your next alternate fire. It's all about timing and ducking away.

Commando
Please, please, please do not shoot it with your Bullpup/AK-47. That'll just make it MAD and charge forward at a speed which makes Tyson Bolt(or was it Tyson Gay?) look like a snail. What you should be doing is disposing of the trash Clots, Gorefasts and Crawlers so you don't get swamped by a thousand specimens after killing the Fleshpound.

Pull out your SCAR if you have one and let the Berserker/Sharpshooter/Support/Demoman deal with it. If it comes to the worst and the FP charges you ... UNLOAD.

Sharpshooter
Now this is what you were born to do. As soon as your teammates alert you of the Fleshpound, zoom in with your crossbow and headshot it. 2 - 3 bolts should be enough to finish off Mr. Rage.

Firebug
Please do NOT burn the Fleshpound for reasons similar to the Commando. Take out the trash zeds, and if it gets too close for comfort, pull out your MAC-10. If it chases you, empty the entire mag into the thing.

Support Specialist
In which case a Sharpshooter does not manage to take out the Fleshpound and you do not have a Berserker at hand, you should take responsibility in eliminating the Fleshpound.

Pull out your Hunting Shotgun, and alternate fire. I don't remember the exact number as it's been a long time since I played Support but I believe that around 3-4 shots should be enough.

If you have the AA-12, even better, just unload everything into the Fleshpound.

Demolitions Expert
Plant a couple of pipes on the Fleshpound's path. If it's already raging, proceed to empty your entire drum of M32 grenades into the Fleshpound and toss in a couple of hand grenades for good measure.

Otherwise, you should be taking out the trash zeds until it rages. You don't want to obscure all your teammates vision with a smokescreen do you?
***

Of course, this is purely my opinion and is what I did on Normal.

 

[RainbowCakez]

I always thought Beginner was a mode to teach the players everything about the game. What the maps are, what the Trader is, what dosh is, what the enemies are, and so forth - Where Normal is where the game actually starts, hence the dramatic jump in difficulty - Because at that difficulty, it's where you need team work.
I've just hit 100 hours in this game (yay me!) and I still have difficulty with Normal Mode. And I shouldn't say, just me, but others as well.
I constantly see people die, whether it be from an awful time to reload, or the door busting open behind them, making them be ganked and die. When I first started, I played Normal and we all died before Wave 4. When I discovered Beginner, I could solo everything by just shooting - Which is where I was able to test the variety of weapons.
After about 5 or so hours in Beginner, I decided to move up to Normal where I found I couldn't just run off and shoot things like in Beginner; But I had to stick by my team, and watch their backs - As they would mine, because it took more than one LAR bullet to the chest to take most of them down.

Normal tests your teams abilities and skills, but doesn't make it too easy that you can just run up and down stairs with a Chainsaw as a Beserker, like Beginner.
Eventually, you become good at Normal, that you can possibly solo most of that - In which, you can then move up a level.

I find myself to be pretty experienced right now. I'm not super great, but I'm reasonably better that I should be in Hard+ now; But I still die on Normal due to silly things. Like reloading at a bad time, and such.

 

[Lewt]

It's weird how relevant the OP is, with the last balance patch to make Fleshpounds DIFFICULT again.

Beginner is pretty much just telling you "okay, I get money from killing zombies, some time to go and buy weapons 'n ammo, and those big mean bastards are pretty threatening. Seems like they actually hurt me!" So now when someone makes the jump from beginner to normal, they're spamming bullets, sure, but eventually realize that lesser zombies CAN hurt, so they stay away from fleshpounds and scrakes. Though I suppose it could teach players that the game is too easy and encourage them to use pistols and assault rifles on fleshpounds, but we're assuming they're not morons.

Anyway, Killing Floor should be extremely hard. First waves manageable, sure, but fleshpounds should almost always kill someone. Personally I don't think you should play hard above level 3 - 4, and normal 1 - 2, with somewhat skilled players. Makes fleshpounds a lot tougher, but still gives you a slim chance at success which I have a feeling was intended (but then again I clearly am not in a position to know that). Survival horror just makes me think.. Difficult. Not a turkey shoot.

 

[timur]

Field Medic
Err ... you really shouldn't be touching a Fleshpound as Medic. Not even with a broomstick tied to a ten-feet pole. Focus on healing all your mates while they do the dirty work.

.

well, actually, there is a very valid tactic that involves the medic and the fleshpound, but only should be done if the team is there.

Okay, so you know how on higher difficulties, the FP will rage and insta-gib your teammates, leaving you alone to slowly die, with your god-armor only prolonging your death?

Well, if your entire team is focused on the FP theres a way to save them: when the FP rages, jump into the front, whip out your strongest weapon, and do as much damage possible. This will get it to target you: this is good. You see, this will give your team much needed space and time, allowing your entire team to kill the FP as it is stationary attacking you. And because of your god-armor, you will remain alive after an FP attack. Hell, even on HoE, you will have armor to spare (as usually the FP only lasts long enough for 1 or 2 hits).

Of course, on lower difficulties, I suppose you might not have that problem.

 

[drunkentiger]

well, actually, there is a very valid tactic that involves the medic and the fleshpound, but only should be done if the team is there.

Okay, so you know how on higher difficulties, the FP will rage and insta-gib your teammates, leaving you alone to slowly die, with your god-armor only prolonging your death?

Well, if your entire team is focused on the FP theres a way to save them: when the FP rages, jump into the front, whip out your strongest weapon, and do as much damage possible. This will get it to target you: this is good. You see, this will give your team much needed space and time, allowing your entire team to kill the FP as it is stationary attacking you. And because of your god-armor, you will remain alive after an FP attack. Hell, even on HoE, you will have armor to spare (as usually the FP only lasts long enough for 1 or 2 hits).

Of course, on lower difficulties, I suppose you might not have that problem.

It's sooo nice when your squad has a competent Medic/:IS2:

On Normal/Hard, I like to use the SS + crossbow on waves 7-10... I know I'm doing a good job when teammates start thinking that FPs and Scrakes aren't spawning.

 

[Raziel]

As a Commando, it's a good thing letting your team mates know how much health a FP has left.

 

[Baron]

The jump between Beginner and Normal is huge. I think it's a mistake to make beginner servers. People get the idea in their head that they can solo flesh pounds and hold off 25% of a wave by their self.

Okay, so I'm late, but this still needs addressing. Yes, the jump is huge, but you aren't giving KF players enough credit. 75% of KF players will realize that, if they can solo the big, scary half-machine thing on beginner, it's because they're on beginner.

Yes, the other 25% will whine endlessly about how it's too hard, but they're not wrong either. The jump between Beginner and Normal is huge, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be making Beginner servers.