Worried about the PVE game getting too easy

[duegrom]

Having put quite a few hundred hours into the PVE game it is definitely now far too easy, so I wanted to share a couple of ideas that could improve the longevity for PVE players. I know some people think that the answer to long term challenge is to go PVP but frankly this has never appealled. Watching the million different ways people can screw each other over in PVP is just depressing.

1. Weather: My main base is on the coast of Frost Fang, this gives me easy access to Polymer (Penguins) and Iron, but is a little sucky for swamp access. The weather can change a little, and occassionally it gets cold for a few hours. As things stand I almost never need to wear armour (maybe a pair of fur boots for flying around the ice) This suggests to me that the weather is nowhere near extreme enough. I would love to have a server setting for adjusting the weather severity and durations or alternatively a proper season model. This would force players to maintain a variety of different armour sets for all occassions, in addition I would be forced to take the weather into consideration in my base design, today it isn't even a factor.

2. Dinosaurs/Alphas etc: When I first started playing the fear factor was hugely important. Now the only thing that gives me any concern is wild Giga (on the very very rare occassions one spawns on my server) Alphas are just fodder for my eagles and Ptera's. Could we have another setting for alpha difficulty please or another level above alpha's. I appreciate not everyone will agree with this so make it a server setting so those who want the extra challenge can have it. I would also like to see all the other species get alphas, particularly Flying and Swimming creatures. Once you are airborn in Ark there is nothing that can really threaten you which to some degree kills the game. Plus alpha (or something deadly) flyer would require further planning in base design. Today all you need to do is build a metal fence and nothing can threaten you.

3. Resource distribution. One failing in so many games is that they construct an amazing world but provide no incentive to actually explore and master it. Ark does better than some but the availability of resources is too great, greater localisation of resources with specific challenges to get them would increase the satisfaction in building and create the opportunity for greater risk. I think the caves could play a significant role in this.

In general I love Ark and have a nice little server with a few friends, I hope that for once the Dev's will seriously consider the mechanics required to keep it interesting in the long term. I do worry that the current direction seems to be to add more trivial items instead of continuing to develop the amazing enging, as I think it is the engine that really makes the game.

[Primeval Stasis]

I definately think that harsher weather is a must for pretty much any survival game, but it feels like it would be especially awesome in ARK. Maybe eventually some natural disasters, though those should also be a server option.

Dangerous flying creatures would be great too, since even at a low level I felt very secure in the skies.

I have mixed feelings on the 3rd part (not for PVE but in how it would affect PVP). Maybe have a setting that increases scarcity, that way it doesn't have to interfere with PVP.

[Shane]

I continualy restart the game so often just too keep the survival aspect turning into a grind slash bore...

Dont mind the grind for some reason until things start costing more than the effort, this removes fun from the collection and chore aspects. So i disagree with the resource collection unless the values required is adjusted as well. I fail to see any enjoyement in collecting huge amounts of something and do not link it too survival.

The weather effects in ark are brilliant, its the effects on the character where it doesnt work as well, for example i am still impressed with a dense foggy night, but 20+ fortitude (with expection of snow biome) and some basic cloth armour and the continual your cold warnings become pointless.

But this game in the early stages is so much more fun than when your Lv.50 +

[Grimm]

Getting anything metal constructed is a chore in itself. Stone, Chitin, Cementing Paste, Metal...

I always feel like I am repeating the same thing over and over every day just constructing a base. Not sure why it feels like making metal structures, or rather the cementing paste for them, is totally out of ratio for it. 800 stone to 400 chitin yields only 100 CP which is only a few metal structures.

But that 800 stone that is EASILY acquired now on a Doed, will yield much more in stone. I understand the defenses provided from metal, heck, we run our server (Official) as the top tribe, but the chore that is to make metal structures really kills the game.

I'm still unsure about the unofficial servers with increased resource yield.

[SireSteelHell]

it isnt easy for the low levels still, so many new players join, and get killed by the thousands of compys or millions of bugs, over and over and over and over etc etc etc

[Shane]

What they need too do is add a new untamable dinosaur for the land, sea, air...

That will keep the higher levels risky and therefore remove the safe warm fuzzy feeling of security when you have all the technology at hand to handle it.

i have same feeling about the air when im on a argentavis, my only enemy is running out of stamina lmao

[Kyle]

+1 to op

[Mou]

Within the last 700 hours of playtime, I always sticked to the same tribe.
We discovered major bugs, which yet are not know very well but allow us to farm in ridiculous fast ways. Cleansing the Frozen Thooth and Frozen Fang of iron within 15 minutes. No this is no joke and the bug reports are out as soon as we looked deeper into it for a better description.
We even discovered on how to raid enemy player bases which are completly planted with turrets. Noone dies, only one dino is requiered.
The building system also allows to create nearly indestructable boats. They are hard to build but there was none beeing destroyed by enemies so far.

So what I wanna say with it? You get used to every little aspect of the game and explore things that are rather interesting but spoil the game so much it gets boring. Change things? I'd do that later on when they fully released the content so the balance can contain every aspect, and not only the major ones leaving big holes like those things I told about - most of the things we discovered are marked as: Fixed. No, they can still be abused with various preparations...

[duegrom]

Yesterday I was flying around ganking everything on my eagle and I realised more clearly what I was trying to say, I think it all comes down to the fight/flight mechanic. Do I fight or do I run? The only time when I have to make this decision now is if there is a high level Alpha Rex (where I have to be bit more careful) or a Giga. If this was just that the Argentavis and Pteranadons were overpowered I wouldn't keep using them, but it's the same on my Sabretooths, Direwolves, Ankylos, Sharks, basically everything that has been tamed with a few levels on it. This needs to be addressed somehow please, because without the fear factor the game turns into a bit of a minecraft (albeit a beautiful one) and every fight becomes the same. I understand that in any RP game the player needs to feel the progress of going from being a noob to being a god but the tamed Dinos make this too easy. Solving this seems pretty tricky to me but perhaps one way would be to enable the Dino's to randomly level up their mellee damage in the wild so that the fights become less predictable and riskier. I also think the max levels need to be looked at because we are now breeding high level dinos and that will make even the trickier fights trivial.

I love the building side of sandbox games (and this still needs some polish in ARK) but as Shane said it has to be relevant to the game (PVE for me) not just for the sake of building. These games REQUIRE that the players can set themselves meaningful goals, it doesn't really matter what, making the industrial forge was a good example because it was worth it, the effort of gathering the materials just increased the satisfaction of having it more. These goals are the backbone of the emerging storyline with the player at the centre of sandbox games . During my first month in ARK playing solo I can think of many memorable events, like when I moved from the south to FF by raft, I built a little shack on the north side off FF and spent the nights dealing with T-Rex's and freezing to death, huddled around 3 campfires and so happy when the sun finally came up.

On PVE the hostility of the ARK is what drives the player to set goals, so the more hostile it is the greater the challenge and the more goals the players can set and acheive, again I understand that at the beginning the game felt extremely well ballanced, I always felt like there was so much I needed to do, time passed very quickly. Now I'm level 91 it's all just too easy. So I'll say again the two main things I would love to see is that the weather/envirnomental conditions become much more challenging (perhaps just in the north) and that the wild dinos are seriously buffed in some form. Perhaps having a server option to just ignore the fortitude stat would help.