Offline raiding - buff dino defenders

[Decado]

Having just lost my offline base raided virginity, I really wonder what the point of having dino’s defending the base when they’re so utterly easy to be killed. I’ve watched videos of players just mowing through an entire horde of them no problem. I don’t know (yet) who raided our base, but we had something like 20+ dinos in the base, all of which were killed, and I would bet money that there was only a handful of attackers, and they just owned the dinos in the yard without issue.

I propose the following as an interim solution to offline raiding: if no-one from the taming Tribe is online, buff the dinos considerably. Similar to a mate boost, IF the game can determine whether the Tribe is online or not – apply a substantial buff.

Something along the lines of – the dino’s take 50% less damage from players, but also do 50% more damage. Make defensive dino’s actually worth having, as opposed to them being a massive timesink and disproportionately easy to kill.

If any of the Tribe are connected, the dinos should be as usual.

*edit - Ultimately, if players choose to raid a base that's devoid of players but full of dino defenders, it should be a bloody difficult challenge. The time spent taming those dinos should actually mean something. It's unrealistic to have connected players around the clock - but the current level of defensive measures need to be revised. Even better if they can be adjusted if its determined the Tribe is offline (though i doubt it's checkable from a game point of view).

That and air defences need to go in ASAP.

Thoughts? Terrible? Flame on? Like?

[Makeke]

I agree, way too easy to rek them.

[Decado]

I firmly agree that there should be an onus on players to do everything they can when creating a base to make it as defensible as possible, while also agreeing that losing everything is a risk of being on a PVP server.

But in saying that, the design of these games is to encourage people to fight other people. To create a defense and crack someone elses - including human defenders. It's simply not possible, not with players in different timezones. But measures need to be in place to make attacking empty bases due to offline players (aka people who SLEEP) - drastically more difficult - comparable to attacking it when defended by players. The defensive dino's (a key element of ARK) should be looked at first here I think.

[Hannibal]

Well, depends... a high level dino oneshots a player atm, how much stronger you need them? better to fix up Ai movement and that stuff, because atm u can just aggro dinos to a wall or something and stab them through, no need to fix their hp or damage, need to fix their logic.

[bob]

Originally posted by Hannibal:

Well, depends... a high level dino oneshots a player atm, how much stronger you need them? better to fix up Ai movement and that stuff, because atm u can just aggro dinos to a wall or something and stab them through, no need to fix their hp or damage, need to fix their logic.

this right here is my main problem with keeping dinos right now. let's make it possible for them to defend themselves in the first place, and then see how they do. although i do like the OP idea, just think we need this fix first in order to test the degree to which the dinos of sleepers should get.

[Bongs]

Still doesn't help. The dino ai is just dumb. A SMART human can exploit in multiple ways:

1) A high point to kill from range

2) Run into water, make them drown, or kill with tamed sharks from below

3) From the air (in the claws of a bird, shooting)

Unless dinos can use guns, it will NEVER be balanced. (sadly)

[Rinera]

Originally posted by Tunnel Snake.:

Still doesn't help. The dino ai is just dumb. A SMART human can exploit in multiple ways:

1) A high point to kill from range

2) Run into water, make them drown, or kill with tamed sharks from below

3) From the air (in the claws of a bird, shooting)

Unless dinos can use guns, it will NEVER be balanced. (sadly)

The first one, unless your base is directly under a hill, you should build a taller wall. If it's at the bottom of a hill, make spikes and traps on that hill... The second one is just silly since you already have no wall.

The third one is the only issue you can't really deal with unless you cover the whole thing, which is fairly tricky and time consuming.

[Beirut_Papa]

Sad thing is this can be easily exploited, offline combat, what would stop someone from bringing in a group of dino's to your base and then go offline... They would get the buff too I would assume so the buff's would be pointless to have...

[Wolf]

I think if an attacker can hit your dino. Your dinobshould be able to hit back. Except maybe dilo and dodo vs pike range and stuff like that. Bit player attacking rex through wall. Then rex should be able to attack player as well.

[Killda]

bump, official servers should implement better base protection as top priority of current alpha fixes

[Fratous]

as someone mentioned earlier, the real issue is the dinosaur AI is very, very easy to exploit.

you building a wall seems to do more harm to yourself than it is the invaders since the dinos head just sticks through and can be easily killed with ZREO means of defending itself.

this is even the same with the Trex, if not worse.

our most successful defense pre-wipe from any ground raids was several spinos that simply walked over the wall and killed anyone that thought they could be cute with that exploit.

however, there is practically nothing the dino AI can do vs a single guy on a bird.

half the time the AI bugs and doesnt even fight back the bird that is hacking away at it.

i speak from experience, because there is NO WAY IN HELL two guys on birds should be able to melee to death 6 tamed spinos, a bronto, and 2 rex's on aggressive

and lastly if one bird rider picks up his tribe mate with a bow and alot of arrows, thats it, the AI of your dinos just falls over. they just sit there, look up at the rider and take every single arrow in the face without moving.

really sad to see in person, but im hoping the devs can improve the AI enough they wont be so easy to just exploit, or clip through walls/gates.

[Decado]

The problem as i see it is that these dinos, which all take us hours and hours to tame, are easily killed when we're offline and asleep or what not in a disproportionately easy way.

My thoughts were if it could be recognised 100% of their owners were offline, then by increasing their damage and drastically decreasing player damage, it might actually be of some challenge to kill them, and they might just might be of some value as they were intended - ie defending a base (in addition to the other things they do).

Of course i also agree that players will still exploit them/kill them without return from the air etc.

I just think it's poor when someone has spent an entire night taming a Rex/Spino or similar, only to lose it to some solo archer whose under zero threat or not even challenged.