Talk:Hunter

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Damage Reduction

Does anyone know how bullet damage is calculated against Hunters? Namely, how much damage reduction do they have against which guns?
Consider the shotgun, against which they tend to fall after 6 point-blank secondary fire shots, they appear to have slightly more than half: point-blank secondary fire = 84 damage, times 6 = 504 damage, compared to the Hunter's 210 HP, that's around 58% reduction.
However, 4 revolver shots downs them just as reliably: 40 damage per shot times 4 is 160 damage, which is a 50 HP difference. That's about 13 extra damage per revolver shot... 169.233.49.73 15:40, October 4, 2010 (UTC)

I'm guessing it varies depending on accuracy and range, as well as type of weapon. Bramblepath 17:25, October 4, 2010 (UTC)

The second test isn't reliable since they respond differently to revolver shot then other weapons. Prtaler (User page | talk) 05:24, 13 September 2015 (BST)

Serious work needed

Right, now we've all met and hated the guts out of these guys, this article needs serious work. Does anyone a) know exactly how much damage the flechette launcher does, and b) have an in-game image of them? I'd again like to note how much I hate these things. Coming Second 20:59, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

I have a bug: When hunters are suppose to be black with blueish-green inside, mine just has black on it. Do I need to download something to make the color work? -- Mega Sean 45

Er, I'm not sure what you mean by 'inside'. You're not supposed to see the inside of a Hunter. >_> --MattyDienhoff 08:43, 4 October 2008 (UTC)

I could be mistaken, but by 'inside' do you mean the detail colors? or perhaps the under side of the Hunter? We can't help you if you dont clarify what you mean by 'inside' -- Thelivingded 14:13, 4 October 2008 (UTC)

Ok... how can I bring the blueish-green color ON the Hunter? On the back and the legs, mine just has black. Does that make more sense? -- User:Mega Sean 45

That makes more sense, yes. Well, the coloured sheen on the Hunters is probably the result of a shader. If your graphics card doesn't support them or there's something wrong with your drivers, you may not see the effect. I couldn't say how to fix this without knowing something about your system. What are your system specs and what settings do you run the game on? --MattyDienhoff 04:18, 5 October 2008 (UTC)

Image

Could someone upload or create a rendered image to be used in the info box? The in-game image really doesn't fit with the other Synth articles (the Strider for example) in my humble opinion. (Strat-N8 07:57, 10 January 2009 (UTC))

Thanks to whoever added the new image, looks much better! (Strat-N8 22:40, 19 January 2009 (UTC))

Episode 2 teaser

I noticed that the Episode 2 teaser (the one you get from downloading the Half-Life 2: Episode 1 files from Steam) has some old videos of the hunter!

BTW: The teaser shown on the Steam website is not the same one as you get with the download (Note the ending scene with the hunter).

--Diamondo25 01:01, June 7, 2010 (UTC)

I reuploaded your image in JPG and with higher resolution. I also uploaded image of jumping Hunter from Episode 2 trailer. Also don't forget to put info template to your uploads or you will be blocked by administrator and your image will be deleted. SiPlus 06:58, June 7, 2010 (UTC)

Plus Diamondo25 we all know that. We just haven't had the time to get around to cover extensively these old trailers. Thanks SiPlus. Klow 08:06, June 7, 2010 (UTC)

The quote

I thought maybe it was misquoted, but then I found:
"ep_02.reb_huntprompt05" "One time, back in the city, I saw a guy take down a hunter with his bare fists!"
Does this ever occur in-game? It's with lines like:
"ep_02.reb_huntprompt01" "You gotta take those hunters out first!"
"ep_02.reb_huntprompt02" "Throw something at the hunters!"
"ep_02.reb_huntprompt04" "Those hunters don't do well against a well-aimed radiator!"
Prtaler (User page | talk) 05:27, 13 September 2015 (BST)

Episode One image

Could someone get an image of it from Mossman's message in Episode One? Rjd1922 (talk) 04:05, 15 July 2016 (BST)

I'll add it to my to-do list. --Barnz (talk) 04:12, 15 July 2016 (BST)

hunter 'death blast attack'

"Hunters have also occasionally been seen unleashing all its ammo in a shotgun-style blast at a target just before death, in the hope of taking its killer with it."

Has anybody been able to replicate this behaviour reliably, or at least know of/have any recordings of it? I distinctly recall the first time I fought these guys this happened and was quite surprised, but I've never been able to get it to happen since. The npc_hunter page at the Valve Developer Community has no mention of it whatsoever, or anywhere else on the internet that I can find for that matter.

Voice line misinterpreted?

I was about to ask whether anybody else shared my suspicion that the line quoted here had been misinterpreted:

A voice line (ep_02.reb_hunters07) clarifies the Hunters' height as 3 feet and 2 inches. However, this is likely just because it rhymes and sounds good, as the full line is "Eyes of blue and three feet two. and they appear much larger than 3'2" (approximately 96.5 centimetres) in game.

In my eyes, it would make much more sense for the line to be: "Eyes of blue, and three feet, too," in reference to the Hunters' three legs, as calling them 3'2" makes no sense. I planned to listen to the line myself to see if its intonation gave any clues, but I couldn't manage to find it looking through my copy's files or searching online. I'm not sure if they changed the name of the file, if it was removed at some point, or if i just plain missed it, but if anyone could either direct me to the file or clarify my suspicions themselves, that would be great.

-BaconSandwichMI (talk) 05:48, 26 August 2020 (MSK)

There is no spoken version of this line. Only the subtitles exist for it in the closed captions file. Otherwise, yes, you're exactly right. This is just bad English interpretation. Marphy (talk) 06:55, 26 August 2020 (MSK)

Hunter "death blast" myth

I have no idea where the hell this comes from. It does not exist, you can deadass look at their code and see it doesn't exist. https://github.com/ValveSoftware/source-sdk-2013/blob/master/mp/src/game/server/episodic/npc_hunter.cpp

I'm editing it out, god help me.

The eyes question

The page currently (and essentially since early 2009, with some changes) states:

• A pair of vertically aligned fléchette launchers are mounted on the Synth's front, and it appears to have three compound eyes on one side of its torso.

And it's one of those things that come up in the community every so often.

However, beside just looking like eyes depending on the observer (and not everyone agrees. For one, they're only on one side), the model data would seem to suggest the two launchers are eyes.

The attachments for them are called "top_eye" and "bottom_eye".

The bones of those attachments are "MiniStrider.top_eye_bone" and "MiniStrider.low_eye_bone" with extra bones called "MiniStrider.topEyeClose", "MiniStrider.bottomEyeClose". They are located insde or right in front of the launchers.

The flexes that shrink or pull back the skin on those two protrusions are "upper_lid_closer" and "lower_lid_closer".

The gesture animations that control the movement of those two protrusions are "g_eyedarts" and so on.

Finally, the source code function UpdateEyes() uses choreo scenes that move those gestures I mentioned to make them dart. Anoter makes them close their eyes in reaction to player's flashlight, using a gesture that makes both top and bottom eye shrink (like the human iris).

I think that's plenty of evidence to declare outright that the real eyes of the Hunter is those top and bottom protrusions. Referred to as eyes, behave like eyes - they're eyes. As for why they fire flechettes out of it - because they're alien synths, it's the Combine. Cvoxalury (talk)

The current wording doesn't read as if it precludes the big blue things as also being eyes, although that means it doesn't specify as such either which is an unnecessary omission of fact. This is a very simple clarification in the wording to make, but what I'm not clear on in your message is what you intend with the current statement regarding the "compound eyes". Do you mean to say this statement is incorrect? The reason for identifying the lumps on the Hunter as compound eyes to begin with almost certainly stems from carrying over a similar observation made for the Strider. I haven't done a massive deep dive on the Strider and related designs to corroborate these "compound eye" identifications, but these clumps are a common motif in Ted's creature design language.

Getting back to your main point, however, we do also have a formal, non-internal declaration of the blue things on the Hunter as being its eyes. This preview refers to the Hunter's "wild roving eyes", the author undoubtedly paraphrasing one of Valve's own statements made to him. However, I also have one additional unique source that offers even more insight into the matter. The Hunter Plush Toy store page describes a bit of its physical appearance. If you're concered about the image with this description not being archived, that's not a problem as I still have the description saved from the email I received when I first bought it. The description is as follows:

“	In the heat of battle, cuddly might not best describe Half-Life 2: Episode 2’s “Hunter”—that 8-foot tall synthetic Combine creature with a penchant for exploding flechettes. Reengineer one as a [x]-inch tall plush, though, and underneath all that armor and killer instinct you’ll find a softie who’s just looking for a place to call home. Ep2’s Hunter features expressive green eye-sensors and posable tripod appendages. Pose your Hunter however you want—ready to pounce, in mid-stride, guarding the dog’s water dish. Just don’t call it “mini-strider”…it really hates that.	”
	– Source  (February 15, 2008)

This is an interesting choice of wording as it indicates the big blue things are indeed the Hunter's "eyes" but aren't actually its "real" eyes, similar to how the big red thing in the Combine Elite's face is explicitly stated to be a "sensor" and, ergo, is not the human soldier's actual eyes within the helmet (which may not physically exist, à la Half-Life: Alyx, but I digress). Ultimately, this just introduces a minor issue of semantics which doesn't change the definition of what the Hunter sees with, but it does offer some nuance to distinguish between its "eyes" and its "eye-sensors". Marphy (talk) 20:53, 24 July 2024 (MSK)

I think the article should not identify the lumps on one side as compound eyes. There's no backing it up (like there is with the blue eyes), if it were to say it has those 'eye-sensors' (referenced) and then also say it has those compound eyes (unreferenced), it would be putting the two on the same level but they're not. Some people think the lumps are eyes, some don't, the sources so far only exist for the blue eyes. If there's no backing up for identifying them as eyes, they otherwise fall into minute trivia. There's also a vaguely sphincter-like orifice or valve on the opposite side of the body, there's a tumour-like growth, there's grills... none of them are described and it's fine because they're not some defining characteristics, they're each a minor contribution to the look (and seeing pre-release material, they often switched places or weren't there, while the top and bottom eyes always stayed). Eyes would be that defining characteristic, that's why it's important not to wrongly identify them. Cvoxalury (talk) 22:09, 24 July 2024 (MSK)

P. S. Who would think it would come down to a discountinued Valve plushie in search for the truth... Cvoxalury (talk) 22:12, 24 July 2024 (MSK)

We cannot preclude the possibility of having to make educated inferences about certain elements on particular subject matters as that's quite often the only avenue available to us. Having exact bone or texture names is not often a luxury afforded to such specific identifications. The key word here, nonetheless, is "educated" inferences. In the case of the Hunter, this clump of bulbous masses is clearly of some significance to the creature's design as it existed as far back as the physical clay model and appeared on the Mini-Strider model when it didn't need to be anything more than a basic featureless silhouette (plus the clumps are much more visible in the early teasers where they're symmetrical on the "face" to boot), hence recognizing a prominent physical characteristic is certainly warranted here in the article. This is not a call to introduce baseless speculation, but we can clearly word statements that indicate what can conclusively be stated based on directly cited sources and what's been left for us to subjectively (but intelligently) interpret with appropriate supporting evidence or comparisons provided. I'll leave the wording ambiguous for now as I haven't had time to greatly scrutinize all of the related assets along with all of Ted's alien designs in general for any adjacent clues, but there's clearly a feature of the Hunter's physical design being communicated here that merits more than just an acknowledgement. I'll mention now, however, that the alpha layer on the normalmap really accentuates the "compound eye" appearance on these bulbous masses, hence this is not a wild assertion to have been made. Marphy (talk) 10:12, 28 July 2024 (MSK)