Probably Not many people asked this before besides we can already play as student preds anyway
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Still, playing an apex role is an interesting concept. The only problem is, what exactly will you need to do to win? Eat all the students? Unless they'll actually try to escape, it would be just boring, and coding an AI that will be capable of searching for keys and opening doors sounds like quite a task.
I initially thought about playing as an apex would be finding your “target” for a set amount of time (And it would be crowded, like 20 or 30 students).
If the developer wouldn’t want to code the entire AI that searches keys and unlock rooms, some of the students will be locked inside of rooms where you’ll have to find the keys to unlock it (And one of them contains the target that’ll blend in the students that makes them less suspicious, but they’ll still attempt to crouch and hide in obscure places).
The lore stated that one of the students knows too much, so the apex predator is tasked to eat them before they’ll escape and spread the news.
Honestly, just being able to play as an apex pred would be nice. Whether it would be a 'free for all' style. Or a 'hide and seek' style, which is admittedly. What this game is more centered about in overall gameplay.
But 1 thing in particular still bothers me to this day. Which is unfortunately, a lack of replay-ability. I personally believe that something relatively simple could be introduced. Which are rewards for completing a 'match' against specific preds.
Best example I can give would be a 'Golden/special' apple from escaping normal/nightmare Belle. Which basically grants you a full stomach on nightmare mode. Making pred students a viable option again, rather than heavily relying on 'regular' student. Simply because he doesn't generate extra 'noises' while trying to hide.
Oh yeah, the lack of replay value is something I agree, especially after 100% all Modes (Normal and Nightmare, including Double Preds and the secret easter egg challenge). It’s just that after that… Well, there’s nothing else you can do except doing the stages that you already did.
“Best example I can give would be a ‘Golden/special’ apple from escaping normal/nightmare Belle, making pred students a viable option again, rather than heavily relying on ‘regular’ student.” I also agree with this too, back when you start off with 100% hunger in the previous builds.
It is possible to beat it with low hunger, but due to speed penalty (And trying not to alert the predator by running), it feels like a slog. Only exception is playing as Tulpy, which makes this easier and is literally the best playable predator imo.
I think the coolest way to add playable pred's would be for the Ghost to add a new mode where you start off as a generic female student that wants to become a Apex pred so in secret they devour other students to built up weight into she is BIG enough to challenge the current Apex preds & take there place. the Dev would llike have to increase the total student by 4 time, add teachers (they would be twice the calories) & a principal (could give out missions for you to do if they are the one's to catch you or could be a final Super Pred that comes out when you defeat the other.) out to full out the school & make it a more challenging as well as it would be your goal to not get caught devour other students by the teachers or they will set one of the Apex pred's onto the generic female student that you play as & will send more as you built up the heat as you get caught consecutively after into you are being hunted down by all four Apex pred of them at the same time (if possible). the Dev should add some more helpful items like make the paper ball a throwable item that can stun the target for a short time or a energy drink to boost movement speed & digestion would be cool. I hope Tulpy will be play in the future as she is best girl in my book!
the AI already knows how to open a door it is just sheer coincidence that they do it, if they decide a key gives them better survival chances than whatever they are holding they have a chance to pick it up, and if they are running away they will actively use the key if they run to the door it unlocks, but the odds are so low I've only HEARD them do it once on nightmare when I was hiding from the pred and heard a door get opened down the hall leading her to sprint off before she rounded the corner to spot me in the bathroom
the best way to encourage this action is to place items in well traveled areas like the middle of the halls, the AI will look at the item while standing and make their choice to pick it up, it's why I clean out rooms and slap everything in the hallways when I unlock a room lol
Wait, I thought I heard a door click whenever I was hiding in a couple of rooms in either Normal or Nightmare Modes respectively. Although, as you said, the chances of that happening are very rare.
If it’s possible that the AI could grab the key, go to a set path to the direction of where the door is, and unlock it to find more keys, then this shouldn’t be that hard to implement.
that's not how the AI works, they identify the nodes in the room as being available when they have the key in their hand and then have to choose to go to one of those nodes while panicking from a pred because that is the only time they use their interaction (you sometimes see them drop their paper due to this) before they will unlock a door
making a more specific AI that would identify key locations and lock onto it would be hilariously bad considering all it takes is one random student with the only key available to make it an easy win, as the "target" would either derp out and stand in some random place forever, or it'd be latched up against the random student's back
there's also the fact there should be a penalty for eating the wrong students when considering this type of a mode, considering the inversing of penalty means keeping stuff down is harder the more students you get wrong until you are left in a crazy apple state which allows the target to walk around without issue