Just me or is the meta really stagnant?

[MrDynamicMan]

It seems like since launch the meta hasn't changed much. The only things I can think of are quetz + gig over Rex + argie when they where added, fishing and Beaver. It just seems like there are a lot of very useful dinos being added but not being used. 

[TheRealTFreezy]

The problem is that the Dino's they are adding have small roles to fill while the original (or close to it) Dino's do it all. 

First of all, flying is op. Period. They are many ways they could go about balancing flying mounts but I'm not sure what's best. Pteras are the best battle mount hands down, fast enough to avoid turrets, can pick players, more damage than an Argy using the barrel role. Only downfall is potentially lower stamina and health all made up for by speed. Argy is in a weird place because it's beaten in pvp by all other flying mounts but in pve is makes many tasks trivial. No fear of alpha Dino's due to the ability to run, taming anything smaller than a mammoth by picking it up, and you can eat anywhere on the map with high stamina. And then there is the quetz. The second most op dino in the game. High health, high stam that can recharge in air, makes all things in pve trivial with the farming glitch, exploit, weight thing (not getting in that argument here) and picking up just about every dino you need short or rexes. And then in pvp it can tank both with its health and saddle builds, the rider can't be picked because you can encase them, and they are faster than an Argy in most cases. The quetz should be a slow farming dino, high weight and stam but lower health and far less speed. It should be an air raft or the hover carrier from the avengers.

then you have you original roles of a tank turtle or siege Rex and you now have all you need. The biggest problem in my opinion is that land Dino's are in such a horrible place right now in the pvp and even pve meta that flying Dino's need an overhaul. If you made land Dino's relevant again that opens up options like Rex or allo? The kapro would have some serious utility with removing people from their land mounts, the rhino could be used as a big time damage dealer to big tames and the bronto would be an amazkng mobile battle base. The possibilities would be endless and while many Dino's still would need to tweaking to keep them relevant they would be much more minor than the tweaks needed to get me off my ptera and onto a kapro for my next pvp battle.

[LilNastyGurl]

PvS (player vs stranger) Meta is stagnant, but so are all the metas in pretty much every multiplayer game. You can't make it not stagnant, that's the point of metagaming. In personalized groups one can make a worthwhile PvP gaming experience, but on Official and amongst random people you can't organize with, the tried and true things that TFreezy mentioned are always going to be there. 

[TheRealTFreezy]

2 minutes ago, LilNastyGurl said:

PvS (player vs stranger) Meta is stagnant, but so are all the metas in pretty much every multiplayer game. You can't make it not stagnant, that's the point of metagaming. In personalized groups one can make a worthwhile PvP gaming experience, but on Official and amongst random people you can't organize with, the tried and true things that TFreezy mentioned are always going to be there. 

While I do agree with you a bit I don't think the one or two Dino's that make all other obsolete have to be there. I agree some with always be stronger than others but there are things that can be done to adjust and balance more than we are now. 

Also, this game is so time consuming if you play anywhere near official rates that pvp against people you know just ruins friendships. Obviously if you do it then there is fun to be had for some, but for others there isn't. I personally like pvp against people I don't know, if I win I feel accomplished, if I lose then I start again. I am actually starting to try out extinction servers to see how that fits a good pvp experience. 

But on the other side I've played on servers where there were high rates and people were willing to pvp friends and such and at that point you just don't care much about your Dino's or your stuff. Oh you lost a quetz? You can have another bred one in 12 hours. Oh you lost a ptera? That's a 20 minute tame with kibble you have 1000s of. It takes away meaning. And don't forget these are my opinions, you can totally disagree and that is the beauty of ark, it's play however the hell you want ha. But with official servers there needs to be a balance. I have ideas that if anyone cares to hear I'd be willing to post or discuss but they would make this post far longer than it currently is so...

[Mctoozle]

I played on a primitive+ noflyers server for a while and the game was way better. All dinos had much more influence. Rafts were huge. The terrain played a much larger part in the game as well. Resources could be blocked off at certain cliffs and choke points. The game is so much better without barrel rolls, quetz exploits, and c4 turtle drops.

[TimeSpiral]

2 hours ago, MrDynamicMan said:

It seems like since launch the meta hasn't changed much. The only things I can think of are quetz + gig over Rex + argie when they where added, fishing and Beaver. It just seems like there are a lot of very useful dinos being added but not being used. 

Yeah, the meta is stagnating for a bunch of reasons, and a bunch of interesting reasons. One of the most obvious--but perhaps less discussed--reasons is the persistent world. Because there is no win condition, or a "not losing" condition. Because there is no win condition you don't actually have to fight, you really only have to defend, and if you're choosing to fight (i.e., launch an attack) then you're probably pretty certain you're going to win (i.e., you're favored for some reason). This creates a stagnant situation where people "turtle" in sprawling metal bases covered in turrets.

For instance, on our server, all the established tribes pretty much farm and build, and all the action happens at stone tech an below. Then, when a big--now Cross Ark raid--does happen, it's: drain bullets while dog-fighting, then attack-move gigas into other gigas or other not-gigas. It's pretty lulz. 

1 hour ago, LilNastyGurl said:

PvS (player vs stranger) Meta is stagnant, but so are all the metas in pretty much every multiplayer game. You can't make it not stagnant, that's the point of metagaming. In personalized groups one can make a worthwhile PvP gaming experience, but on Official and amongst random people you can't organize with, the tried and true things that TFreezy mentioned are always going to be there. 

Have you played Starcraft II? Just curious, really. 

[Ep1cM0nk3y]

I think having the giga and quetz are two big reasons the meta is so stagnant. More utility/viability needs to be added to other tames so that it's not a "i need a giga to tank, kill, eat stone.." but rather a "i need this tame to soak up damage,  these tames will be my dps, these other tames will be my seige,  while still other tames provide support whether that's land or water based etc etc. 

[Smash]

7 hours ago, TimeSpiral said:

Yeah, the meta is stagnating for a bunch of reasons, and a bunch of interesting reasons. One of the most obvious--but perhaps less discussed--reasons is the persistent world. Because there is no win condition, or a "not losing" condition. Because there is no win condition you don't actually have to fight, you really only have to defend, and if you're choosing to fight (i.e., launch an attack) then you're probably pretty certain you're going to win (i.e., you're favored for some reason). This creates a stagnant situation where people "turtle" in sprawling metal bases covered in turrets.

For instance, on our server, all the established tribes pretty much farm and build, and all the action happens at stone tech an below. Then, when a big--now Cross Ark raid--does happen, it's: drain bullets while dog-fighting, then attack-move gigas into other gigas or other not-gigas. It's pretty lulz.

All true. 

It's even worse on unofficial.  Unlike official where everyone is still on their first (or maybe 2nd if you were playing from day 1) , most unofficial players have done all the rebuild gameplay about 50 times.  They know the meta back to front (and how 1 dimensional it is).  This is why they need to wipe there serers, so they can see how progression works with all the new additions since launch.

[Tatsu86]

I can pretty much agree with TFreezy & NastyGurl. Metas take a while to change and typically do stagnate for a while. Ark's meta has been in-place since I started playing it almost a year ago. It's always been about Gigas, Quetzals, Turtles and Turrets. Wyverns have changed things up a little, but they aren't going to replace Pteranodons anytime soon, especially since Pterandons can be bred & Wyverns (at this point and time) can't. Yeah, if you're looking for a unique fight, don't do it on officials with strangers, they're not brave enough to try new or risky tactics that might even go so far as to change the game up and make it fun. It's always a contest to out-do the main stand-bys of dinos.

I'll never expect to hear raid stories about people fighting on Trikes, Argies or Direwolves, It's always the same dinos. Always. I do think that extinction servers are / were a good step into shaking things up on Ark by reducing the time to build & making people change up their strategies, but just short of employing a game mode that changes those dinos, the only thing that will stop them is some really hard nerfs, or total removal.

[TheRealTFreezy]

15 minutes ago, Tatsu86 said:

I can pretty much agree with TFreezy & NastyGurl. Metas take a while to change and typically do stagnate for a while. Ark's meta has been in-place since I started playing it almost a year ago. It's always been about Gigas, Quetzals, Turtles and Turrets. Wyverns have changed things up a little, but they aren't going to replace Pteranodons anytime soon, especially since Pterandons can be bred & Wyverns (at this point and time) can't. Yeah, if you're looking for a unique fight, don't do it on officials with strangers, they're not brave enough to try new or risky tactics that might even go so far as to change the game up and make it fun. It's always a contest to out-do the main stand-bys of dinos.

I'll never expect to hear raid stories about people fighting on Trikes, Argies or Direwolves, It's always the same dinos. Always. I do think that extinction servers are / were a good step into shaking things up on Ark by reducing the time to build & making people change up their strategies, but just short of employing a game mode that changes those dinos, the only thing that will stop them is some really hard nerfs, or total removal.

My direct goal with playing extinction is to play with the meta. Try to do some new stuff. I'm going to lose everything in a month anyways so why not try to have some fun. I just started so I have no real stories but I will (hopefully). 

And while everyone hates the nerfs and hates having their precious pvp machine turned into one of many options it's what needs to happen to make all those other Dino's worth the time investment needed to actually get them. 

Who has some ideas on how to "fix" the meta?

[OnePotatoChip]

2 minutes ago, TheRealTFreezy said:

My direct goal with playing extinction is to play with the meta. Try to do some new stuff. I'm going to lose everything in a month anyways so why not try to have some fun. I just started so I have no real stories but I will (hopefully). 

And while everyone hates the nerfs and hates having their precious pvp machine turned into one of many options it's what needs to happen to make all those other Dino's worth the time investment needed to actually get them. 

Who has some ideas on how to "fix" the meta?

There are some simple things that I think would help:

1. Hard nerf on the Pteranodon's speed values. That or remove the ability for it to lift players besides the rider.
2. Fix the predator spawn rate. Endgame animals should be endgame, and not things you run into every five minutes. Rarer spawns would lead to increased value and perhaps even room for other animals to obtain some relevance. (ie. Carnos/Raptors should be common, while Allosaurus and Spinosaurus fill out uncommon with the Rex sitting in rare and the Giga in exceedingly rare). Rarity is sort of a band-aid fix, I know, but it'd help. 
3. Deeper flight mechanics that take wind, updrafts and the like into consideration. Flight is more popular because it presents the least risk and quickest return on value. There's no terrain to compete with and you remain relatively safe. Let's have it throw players off their animals. If the sky has no predator, then it should be a predator itself. 
4. Emphasis on specific roles. While there should be some decent wiggle room for diversity's sake, no one animal should be able to Do it All. And if you're trying to circumvent that through breeding, then prepare to weight six generations before you even notice progress.  (ie. Speedy Pteras with decent weight should be a long and grueling process)
5. Fix the pathing and animal AI. Please. 
6. Investing in Fortitude should have a scaling 'resist pick' factor. Or 'remove from saddle' factor. 
 

[TheRealTFreezy]

12 minutes ago, OnePotatoChip said:

There are some simple things that I think would help:

1. Hard nerf on the Pteranodon's speed values. That or remove the ability for it to lift players besides the rider.
2. Fix the predator spawn rate. Endgame animals should be endgame, and not things you run into every five minutes. Rarer spawns would lead to increased value and perhaps even room for other animals to obtain some relevance. (ie. Carnos/Raptors should be common, while Allosaurus and Spinosaurus fill out uncommon with the Rex sitting in rare and the Giga in exceedingly rare). Rarity is sort of a band-aid fix, I know, but it'd help. 
3. Deeper flight mechanics that take wind, updrafts and the like into consideration. Flight is more popular because it presents the least risk and quickest return on value. There's no terrain to compete with and you remain relatively safe. Let's have it throw players off their animals. If the sky has no predator, then it should be a predator itself. 
4. Emphasis on specific roles. While there should be some decent wiggle room for diversity's sake, no one animal should be able to Do it All. And if you're trying to circumvent that through breeding, then prepare to weight six generations before you even notice progress.  (ie. Speedy Pteras with decent weight should be a long and grueling process)
5. Fix the pathing and animal AI. Please. 
6. Investing in Fortitude should have a scaling 'resist pick' factor. Or 'remove from saddle' factor. 
 

1. I actually think the ptera needs more than just one of those. I also have liked the idea I've heard of making the barrel role resist damage instead of deal any. I also think the quetz shouldn't be able to have anything build under its platform. Above and on it would be fine but once it dips below where the platform sits then it shouldn't be able to fly.

2. I love this idea. Really think higher end tames should be far rarer and I also think that higher levels should be rare. Levels 5-40should be more prevalent in the south but not be the majority. Levels 45-100 should be the norm, and then 105-135 should be rare with 140-150 being very rare. That mixed with rarer end and spawns really would change the game dramatically. But the fear would be that making them rarer would increase the gap between alphas and lower tribes bigger than it already is.

3. While this is a good idea I don't see it as possible at this point in the game. So much would have to be added to make it so these new mechanics could be added. Now I'm not totally sure since I know very little about game design from a technical side but it sounds very difficult. I just think fliers need a blanket nerf to weight and stam. 

4. I think this has been happening with new Dino's but because of the general do it all nature of the original Dino's we need some specific game design changes and really some nerfs to get to this point.

5. I mean, yeah. 

6. This is an interesting idea that I haven't heard. Could be interesting and if done well might make people think twice to pick people. Could make it so on a failed pick the bird could lose all momentum and get slowed for a short time to where a good coordinated team could take advantage.

[waterKeeper]

What could be interesting is if the the extinction servers had a randomized list of untameable dinos (or don't even let these spawn at all, because it's a random map). It could be a potential new meta every roll. 

[zacmanthedamned]

I think the biggest issue with the ARK meta as it stands is that it's so very focal. Ultimately, PVP games are going to have an aggressive meta, but the meta for ARK is boring - Take a look, for example, at Dark Souls. The Meta in DS1 had several builds; You'd have Giantdad, you'd have Parry-Spam, you'd have Poise-break-stunlock, yes they were meta builds, but there were several.

In contrast, ARK really only has one meta - Quetzal/Turtle Combo (or Rock Golem if you're nasty), with Wyverns and Pteras as backup. Maybe a GIga or two if the target is in a location that can reach it. Hit offline. The meta is highly singular, and lends nothing to tactical gameplay decisions - You just build yourself towards the meta "win button", then thrash the server until a 70/70 invasion with the same methods hits, or you get wiped by map-glitching turds. There's no variance to the meta because there's no reason to vary on the immensely powerful current formula.

[Ep1cM0nk3y]

They really need to remove the giga, or make it similar to a rex but instead of getting high rates of meat,  have it be seige specific, like was said earlier in this post,  things need more of a niche/role. Move seige to more dinos (pachy, doed, anky, chalicotherium should all hurt up to stone at some rate, remove said tames abilities to gather berries as they are now), give damage mitigation to your bigger and armored dinos as well so is not always turtle turtle. Quetz need to be able to use a catapult or ballista in case someone builds in a hard to reach area,  unless they make a new flyer that can lay seige. Seriously buff paracer and brontos, give them the ability to have plants on their platforms again. Basically nerf the OP do everything tames into more specific niches and give use actual viable tames for combat besides the norm.  That way you increase a players options and you can progress thru different kibble trees instead of the same old path to power. Oh, and pteras shouldn't be able to pick anything up #nerfbarrelrollplz

[CriD]

I would love to see some officials with no flyers enabled. 

I always feel like flyers just take away from the game. You can scout 90% of the obvious good spots in either map in a few minute flight. Farming would be harder and choosing the right dino would play a huge role. 

Imagine scouting on land mounts only, some bases would take awhile just to see it in its entirety.

Raids would be more PvP (if its online). Way more choices in the war as well.

Another thing that I think would help, make gigas in rideable. They enrage as it is, showing that they are never fully tamed since they can turn on their rider. I think it would be awesome if the only way to control it was whistling. People could still giga spam but it would be a lot more taxing on the players.

Just a few things I think would make the game a lot more fun.

[LilNastyGurl]

Well taming wise yeah, however, pissing off a Titan and luring it to an enemy's base was one of the ways so many alpha tribes lost their status on a few official servers. Even if you can't tame it, it's still a nervous thing to see one of The Mountains That Live wandering by your metal 25x25 box.

That changed base building drastically, which was actually good. Metal-boxes with sentries everywhere were dangerous because Titans could close the distance and kill, where Gigas failed (Quetzals with Rocketeers onboard were unaffected.)

[TheRealTFreezy]

A few things I've thought about that could help overall (get ready this is a long one):

PVE

- dino gathering should be more specific, much like the doed, he only gets stone. The ably shouldn't be able to get berries and neither should the beaver, I would also say that the ably shouldn't get flint and metal due to it being really the only late game farming game due to building out of metal and needing flint for gunpowder but there isn't anything yet that could replace it. 

- fliers need a weight and stamina nerf. Quetz should have to land to regain Stam. Make the Argy the only flier with any decent stam but all weight needs a reduction to make farming with a flier take similar time to grabbing a weight paracer and walking to metal. So now you have two options, fly back and forth 4 times to get the metal you could in one trip with land Dino's. 

- stemming from the point above, land Dino's need a weight increase. Specifically the bronto and paracer as those should be the go to farming carriers.

PVP 

- the flier nerf from above would hit pvp pretty hard and should really. I never want to disable fliers because that is one of three combat options and the awesome part of a huge battle is having people in the ground while there are people in the air fighting also but they need to be less useful.

- I like the turtle tanking thing, makes a useless tame useful. But we need more options. The doed works but isn't the best and the anky should not only take reduced damage but deal damage to big targets (already confirmed to get a broken leg mechanic on big Dino's in tlc patch) and the trike needs reduced damage from the front and a charge attack.

- and I think the anky and doed should do damage to all structures. Including metal. However they do very minimal. Like 1 damage per swing or something to give them more utility and more options than spam rockets.

- broncos should get turrets and plants back on their platform, they should be mobile bases and that a huge part of base defense. You could even count each turret as two structiresto make it a choice, more turrets? Or more protection for the rider and tribe? They also could use some speed but that's not huge. 

- and lastly you need to give early Dino's more abilities. I know it's coming in the tlc patch but hopefully they go far enough

and as a bonus thought I've been trying to figure out how we can change it so wiping isn't so frequent and I think I might have an idea. What if the base as a whole, and this can count once you have a certain amount of structures placed together, takes a percent less damage per 5000 damage taken or something. So for example, you blow a hole in the wall of someone'a base, you've done 15000 damage total, now the rest of their base and all things inside take 3% less damage. So if that's all the damage you do then getting into boxes would be fairly easy but if you want to wipe their entire base it will get progressively harder and take more and more explosives. Just a thought.

[LilNastyGurl]

Its so weird that Ankys and Doeds can destroy solid metal nodes up on the mountains but struggle to break a reinforced wooden door. How Titanos can obliterate Metal Behemoth gates....but struggle to step over rocky terrain (along with the Bronto). How only 2 land dinos in the entire game can look at a stone foundation and go "I can wear that down over time." I'm pretty sure a Stego's Thagomizer could wear down some of the stone, even if it can't outright break it. 

The Ptera should have been more like the Ichthy. A super-fast scouting and travel mount that's piss poor for combat. I still like the idea of a sky drilling monster that can wipe out wild dinos, pluck enemy fliers and send them to their deaths, carry over 400+ pounds of gear and rocket across the map at 250% speed, but that creature should not be the Pteranodon, which unlocks at Level 35. The Ptera is a perfect body retriever and tame saver, and cuts out all the B.S. that comes with the grind (running back and forth for prime when taming in the seas and mountains is miserable on landmounts) but in combat it just feels too much.

The Quetzal? I'm not even going to bother explaining this one. You guys already know.

There are some really slow herbivores that nobody uses BECAUSE they're really slow. It doesn't matter how much weight you give a Bronto. If it's going to get stuck on every rock on the way to the hills and only wipe out obstructive trees ONE AT A TIME, of course nobody is gonna wanna use it. Same with Stegos and their ONE TREE SWING. Yeah, these dinos weren't Greyhounds in real life either, but giving them options to deal with annoying terrain would be great.

[OnePotatoChip]

6 minutes ago, LilNastyGurl said:

Its so weird that Ankys and Doeds can destroy solid metal nodes up on the mountains but struggle to break a reinforced wooden door. How Titanos can obliterate Metal Behemoth gates....but struggle to step over rocky terrain (along with the Bronto). How only 2 dinos in the entire game can look at a stone foundation and go "I can wear that down over time." 

The Ptera should have been more like the Ichthy. A super-fast scouting and travel mount that's piss poor for combat. I still like the idea of a sky drilling monster that can wipe out wild dinos, pluck enemy fliers and send them to their deaths, carry over 400+ pounds of gear and rocket across the map at 250% speed, but that creature should not be the Pteranodon, which unlocks at Level 35. The Ptera is a perfect body retriever and tame saver, and cuts out all the B.S. that comes with the grind (running back and forth for prime when taming in the seas and mountains is miserable on landmounts) but in combat it just feels too much.

The Quetzal? I'm not even going to bother explaining this one. You guys already know.

There are some really slow herbivores that nobody uses BECAUSE they're really slow. It doesn't matter how much weight you give a Bronto. If it's going to get stuck on every rock on the way to the hills and only wipe out obstructive trees ONE AT A TIME, of course nobody is gonna wanna use it. Same with Stegos and their ONE TREE SWING. Yeah, these dinos weren't Greyhounds in real life either, but giving them options to deal with annoying terrain would be great.

I don't even like the idea of the sky drilling monster that zips around, because then that'd become the meta. It might just be me, but there shouldn't be a one stop shop tame that'll make everything obsolete. I understand that a meta is inevitable, but more things should fit inside it rather than relegate all that's necessary to a few animals. 

I agree on the slow herbivores, though. Brontos and Paracers should bulldoze trees and smaller rocks that're in their path while Stegos and Trikes and the like should auto free themselves when stuck on trees. Land animals need to be made more appealing. Or coding needs to be rewritten or something.

[TimeSpiral]

I favor buffs over nerfs, as a general rule. So keep that in mind while I address a few things.

1. As a concept, we need more counter play. Right now you tech up to giga, and now you have the best land dino. Simple as that. Unless somebody truly spams you with a dozen 150+ rexes, you're not losing your imprinted giga with a red saddle. You're just not losing that thing. Instead I would like a scenario where if you see someone with a giga build, you should be able to select a different build that the giga build is weak against. Now, technically, the giga cannot attack up, so teching to fliers is a counter play, but it's really the only counter play. 
2. Counters could be accomplished with damage types. We already have some damage types, but they aren't really creating effective counter play. What if the giga did bonus damage to large and behemoth sized dinos, but suffered a massive debuff vs. medium and small dinos? Now, instead of a pack of raptors getting one-shotted and doing nothing, they might be able to get some work done. Give some of the small dinos a slashing damage type, or armor piercing damage type that doesn't work well vs. other small dinos, but wrecks large and behemoth dinos. You know, more ideas like this would be awesome ... you'd actually have to scout your opponents and plan your defenses (though cross ark makes scouting opponents actually impossible sometimes). 
3. Humans are far too weak. You cannot fight dinos as a human. Again, let's work on damage types to create counter play. Let's make all guns (bullets) do bonus damage vs. fliers. If you could pull out an assault rifle and do meaningful damage to a dragon, quetzal, or ptera, then people would do it, but right now, at 1 ingot per shot, it's just not worth it. (1 ingot per shot is outrageously expensive for how weak the guns are)
4. Give x-plants more versatility. Maybe by fertilizing plants with black pearls (or something, you get the idea) they can shoot corrosive blast damage (as a damage setting). This will specifically damage structures, including metal. However, the corrosive blast would not blind, slow, or damage players or dinos.
5. Stealth. There aren't enough stealth options in the game. If someone has turrets you actually have no choice but to shield or drain. Radar jamming or stealth would be an interesting mechanic. Now you might have to worry about a stealth tech running up to your building and c4-ing it. You'd have to take other measures, like building detection devices (or tames), or other types of barriers. 
6. Saddles should break. Simple as that. Hope you brought supplies to repair your saddle. All saddles should be able to be repaired on the dino they fit. A broken saddle debuffs movement, armor, and attack. Introduce more attacks that specifically damage armor.
7. Fliers being strong is fine, imo, even though I know that is a controversial thing to say. Air superiority is always a good thing to have. But instead of nerfing it, let's consider adding buffs to the ground game and defenses to create counter play.
8. Cut all costs and taming times in half. In other words; make the evolution event permanent. And for those saying the double xp is too much, fine. (But power leveling makes that moot anyway)
9. Friend vs foe. This isn't really related to buffs vs nerfs, but it's a serious problem in large-scale conflict. It is almost impossible to tell friend from foe. There should be a battle-mode toggle that has a clear visual indicator for friendlies. 
10. Another pet peave ... cut the spyglass draw time to near-zero. For real. Combine the insanely-slow draw time with the lag, and the silly-small field of view, and you have a truly broken device (that is also one of the most important items in the game)
11. Allow all behemoth dinos to "knock over" vaults. Vault walls are just stupid. This wouldn't break them, or damage the item contained within, but the fact that a giga or bronto cannot just walk over or past a vault wall is insanely stupid. You want to delay an attack? Build a real wall.  

[eESTlane]

yep, meta needs nerfing. 

giga is too powerful right now. 400 base dmg while rex is at 60. looking at that, giga needs to be cut in half. and since they've promoted giga as rideable, they really can't back off of that anymore, after a year in the game. so, i propose smth better, but it somewhat involves saddle durability. i propose that when enraged, giga will throw you off and "bite" the harness around him doing dmg to it and decreasing the durability to the point of breaking the saddle, unless maintained. and when it does break in a dire situation, you'd be left with whistle commands. for instance, primitive has 50 durability and if enraged, giga will snip 40 points out of it. i really REAAAAAAAAAALLY can't wait the durability of the saddles to kick in, on all dinos. 

quetz needs a serious platform nerf. noone is using them as "airstations" which is what they used to advertise when quetz was first introduced. really, nothing solid should be allowed to build underneath the platform level as they would obstruct the wing/head movement (same for plesi and mosa). only make ladder use possible. also, building pieces need to weigh a craploads more. it will have a positive affect on all the platform builds. which leads me to bullet soakers. force feeding when food is full is, well, stupid. 

ptera needs definitely a speed decrease. barrelroll is still OP.  that size bird shouldn't be able to carry 2 persons, especially on dodo kibble. i've noticed it among other dinos as well. the % increase per lvl up is too great. they need to half that, on all dinos. both through TE and exp.

bronto, realistically, should be allowed to have underhanging builds, but only on the sides. another popular demand is customizable saddles like the PimpMyDino mod. so with greater armor value comes more coverage both to the rider and the dino.

turtle, as they declared, will hide in its shell like doedic and snail does, at which point they probably take less dmg. no harm done there. more herbies with shells and strong bone areas (trikes head) should have protection like that. the current 0 dmg to rider is fictional  

 

101 ways to go on about it. don't really like the balance devs have done so far. wonder how the TLC patch will play out.

[Cullis]

5 hours ago, LilNastyGurl said:

Titan and luring it to an enemy's base was one of the ways so many alpha tribes lost their status on a few official servers. Even if you can't tame it, it's still a nervous thing to see one of The Mountains That Live wandering by your metal 25x25 box.

If an alpha has a base that doesn't melt the titan in a few seconds, it's no alpha. It's halpha. 

Honestly. I was once involved with reducing an absentee alpha tribe base to scrap, and one guy raptored up with titan and went into the wrong spot. The thing died in a few seconds. 

Titans are really kind of weak, defensively. 

_______________________________

ITT: people who aren't creative at all. 

Meta might be stagnant, but bear in mind that people who know meta-breaking stuff won't raptoring say anything. I know of dinos that are arguably better for land pvp than the giga, but I won't say what they are. Neither should you, if you have a clue. 

 

54 minutes ago, TimeSpiral said:

I favor buffs over nerfs, as a general rule. So keep that in mind while I address a few things.

1.  
2. Friend vs foe. This isn't really related to buffs vs nerfs, but it's a serious problem in large-scale conflict. It is almost impossible to tell friend from foe. There should be a battle-mode toggle that has a clear visual indicator for friendlies. 

 

Umm. How about you paint your armor. Also, why? Friendly fire is a real thing, and soldiers have to take care to avoid it. Why should the game dumb itself down because you guys don't want to improve your logistics (war paint or signs) or communication? 

 

[Cullis]

57 minutes ago, TimeSpiral said:

I favor buffs over nerfs, as a general rule. So keep that in mind while I address a few things.

1.  
2. Humans are far too weak. You cannot fight dinos as a human. Again, let's work on damage types to create counter play. Let's make all guns (bullets) do bonus damage vs. fliers. If you could pull out an assault rifle and do meaningful damage to a dragon, quetzal, or ptera, then people would do it, but right now, at 1 ingot per shot, it's just not worth it. (1 ingot per shot is outrageously expensive for how weak the guns are)
3.  

It is .5 ingot per shot. And guns aren't weak. Minigun is one of the strongest weapons in Ark. BP Fabricated sniper rifles are very strong. So are quality longnecks when wielded by people who know what to do. 

And I'm not even talking about metal arrows. We had a teammate one-shot an enemy 230 ptera after he was picked up. Guys we called out of server for help sniped a 250 giga with a compound bow. Etc. 

Stop being lazy really  I see guys farm 60,000 raw metal in less than an hour every day. 

[Shrekasaurus]

 I can't wait for the TLC pass and seeing other dinos being useful again and not outclassed in every aspect. Gigas should be nerfed as needed for the balance of the game. My personal opinion is that Gigas should be only 3 feet taller than a Rex and should be the Health of the trio (the trio being Giga, Rex, and Spino). The Rex should be power and weight and the Spino should be speed and stamina (plus it can swim). The Giga could just have a butt-load of health, better than the Rex and Spino. The Giga can also still damage stone. But I think many larger dinos should damage stone, even trikes and stegos. Especially Brontos. Like previously suggested, make turrets buildable on Brontos and Paracers again and make them plow through rough terrain. 

This is from an older thread by the way...