Honestly, I was about to make a thread on the need for some sort of stalker buff (I still may do that), before I saw this thread.
The stalker and the crawler overlap roles, not only because of their tendency to go undetected, but also because their movement speed is enough to catch you. However, the similarities end there as the Crawler leaps to CLOSE DISTANCE and lands an attack, whereas the stalker does the idiotic pause to attack behavior which is more than documented in that video.
Also, Slappy, I haven't checked any stats or specifics on damage, but even standing completely still I'm almost certain a crawler will deplete kevlar faster than a stalker. Although it may only seem that this is the case because you have to be braindead, afk, or already surrounded by a horde for a stalker to ever land an attack on you.
Whether they're coded to or not, I tend to notice Stalkers trying to hit squad mates from behind rather than frontal assaults. Then again, I'm not a programmer so take that as you will.
I still stick with my stance on them since they're an early wave specimen and should be dispatched with a slightly greater degree of difficulty than a Clot.
Stalkers and crawlers sometimes spawn in locations where other enemies will not, such as above the tunnels on west london, this "flanking" you think you see is completely accidental and because it is only due to spawn location players can stand in front of one and easily mow down stalkers.
Hey I got an idea! Lets stop pissing and moaning about it.
I mean c'mon guys yes stalkers might seem uselss are first but if your using anything other than the commando perk they can give good scares... The stalkers scare me more than any other creature in KF. Your actually the first person Ive ever seen complain about the stalkers..ever.
I have only had this game for a month, and I started with commando. I then switched to playing a lot more sharpshooter and I didn't realize commandos had an ability to see stalkers because it is quite literally a useless stalker ability to begin with. As a sharpshooter a stalker has never snuck up on me, because the shimmers are flippin easy to see, and the stupid sound effects "give us a kiss" completely give her away.
Seriously, when you are near death and a medic runs to your rescue, you think "Sweet, what a good medic our team has."
When a Fleshpound is charging at you like a bat out of hell and a sharpshooter takes his head off with the bow, you feel like "Aweome, thanks man."
Nobody has ever thought "Wow, thanks for picking off those two stalkers Mr. Commando, I was a goner!"
If you believe that the degree to which an AI enemy "scares you" should be used to determine balance changes to keep a game interesting to the fullest potential... then you should be playing Hello Kitty: Island Adventure.