Vanessa Posted August 31, 2017 Share Posted August 31, 2017 Dear Devs, I love your game. I play it way too much and I've been playing it since the very beginning. I actually just checked on Steam and noticed I have over 1000 hours on it and cried a little bit. I think the game you delivered at launch is incredibly fun, immersive and has been much improved with Early Access. I write this so you understand where I'm coming from and take it as constructive criticism with the goal of improving the game I love. With that in mind, please take a few minutes to discuss internally the fog mechanic as it is implemented right now. I don't have a problem with the concept of fog. In moderation, it adds to the atmosphere of the game, provides variety and even some very interesting situations, especially in pvp. The problem I see is in its implementation, and it's twofold: First, it makes the game look awful. Ark is, at least for me, an absolutely gorgeous game. I am fortunate enough to be able to run it with all settings maxed, and the scenery sometimes is breathtaking. Looking down atop a high mountain watching waterfalls and entire forests with foliage moving with the wind while dinosaurs roam about and light rays dance around your field of view is a joy to behold. You guys did a fantastic job with that. And then 3 times every single day I'm not able to see anything because there's fog - essentially endless smoke that makes everything look terrible and replaces the breathtaking scenery you've worked so hard to build with a greyish/brownish smog that you have to stare at for 10 minutes doing nothing. Second, it happens way, way too often. On my server at least, it happens AT LEAST 3 times every single day. Sometimes four. I've counted five once before I logged off in disgust. It makes no sense. There's never 4 fogs in a day, ever. In fact I got so annoyed by it that I decided to research fog frequency for you. So to help your analysis and hopefully successfully complete my personal crusade against this terrible mechanic, here's a study of the prevalence and behavior of fog in the real world: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/242592499_fig2_Figure-2a-Annual-average-number-of-dense-fog-days-at-National-Weather-Surface-Airwaves You will notice that even on very foggy areas, there are only 20 days of fog per year. Compare this to 3-4 fogs per DAY on Ark and you can see how it would have a detrimental effect on immersion. Now obviously I realize that talking about realism on a game that involves your person being abducted by aliens, thrown into a zoo of sorts and have you shoot dinosaurs in the face and then force feed them meat/berries/mushrooms/poop so they can do your bidding forever and help you kill a giant arachnid and a poop-throwing monkey is utterly ridiculous, so let's discuss it in terms of game mechanics instead and avoid me some embarrassment. Instead of a subtle, beautiful effect that would enhance the beauty and atmosphere of the game, perhaps present only in lower terrain, fog as it's currently implemented is simply show-stopping. You can't do anything because essentially the scenery is replaced by smoke. It starts abruptly and ends abruptly. There's no difference between regions with and without fog. The whole island is covered in it. For some weird reason, it seeps even inside my base. You can't do any exploring, or anything rather than being indoors or around your base, for several minutes. You could argue: "oh but it's challenging". Well, I'm not sure about "challenging". I don't recall a single instance where I was killed by fog. I can recall several instances where I was very annoyed by it. This is not "Ark: Fog Evolved" or the island of Lost (OR IS IT?! the plot thickens...). If you'd be relying on this outdated game mechanic to provide challenge to this game, you would have bigger problems. Let's be honest then. The fog is horrible, and when you have to stop what you're doing 3-4 times per game day because of it, it's just frustrating and annoying. Not challenging. Just annoying. And it's particularly a pity on such an otherwise beautiful game world. I'm pretty sure the root of the problem of frequency was the recent implementation of a 50% chance of fog every time it rains. I'm pretty sure it's also raining more than before as well. So add 50% chance of fog with rain, with increased rain frequency, on top of the overall chance of fog without rain, and you get to where we are: fog 3-4 times per day and a rather irritated girl on the other end. My suggestions to solve the problem: Decrease the frequency of fog. Make it more relevant by limiting its occurrence. Heck, maybe lengthen the duration of the fog, but make it much rarer. This would have two effects: increase the strategic value of fog and dramatically decrease the annoyance factor. It would be more of an event when it happened, but happen less often so it's more relevant. Ideally, make fog a gradual effect, that starts very subtly then slowly creeps in, then slowly fades away. It would give players warning that it's coming, and it would be much more natural. If you could make it vary in terms of altitude, that would be great as well, and also have the added bonus of making it beautiful to watch, much more consistent with the beauty of the rest of the game. Obviously Im not sure this is feasible or what the performance cost of doing so would be, but I leave it as a suggestion. At the very least, give us players control of the frequency of fog on our servers via ini settings. If for some reason I cannot fathom you are happy with how fog works on official servers, at least unofficial servers would have the option to tailor its frequency to their personal preferences. Thanks for reading this very long winded post about something as exciting as fog on a video-game. If you're a player, I commend your patience and level of boredom. If you're a developer, 1. I love you for the game you've made, 2. please fix fog Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LokiTDD Posted August 31, 2017 Share Posted August 31, 2017 Seconded Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yippee38 Posted July 3, 2018 Share Posted July 3, 2018 Agreed. Fog is fine, in moderation. We don't have that now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CitoaK Posted July 3, 2018 Share Posted July 3, 2018 My issue with fog. DILO is the reasoning behind having fog underwater? It's not even possible. Stupid mechanic of the game... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MandaBear Posted July 3, 2018 Share Posted July 3, 2018 The fog and rain both on the island is ridiculous ? The rain is not soft thing lines like it is supposed to be (as is evident when you look down during a storm or witness the centers storms) but instead thick white streaks across your screen. Then the fog ALWAYS HITS and you cant see where you are going. If its at night and I'm ever flying when the fog hits, I land and have to wait for it to stop or else I worry I'll fly into bases as others have. Tbh I wouldn't have a problem with the frequency of either if they would just fix the rain and lower the intensity of the fog. I'm not sure why its still a problem either considering those have been a huge issue since the dawn of ark it seems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToXiN Posted July 3, 2018 Share Posted July 3, 2018 No one likes the fog. No one ever liked. But the devs are way too proud to remove it. They think whatever they do is correct. They only change things if there is a huge outcry by the community and there is no other way to calm them down. Unfortunately fog is gonna stay in game... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WisdomofEden Posted October 3, 2018 Share Posted October 3, 2018 There's always the option of using a fog remover mod! This mod works amazingly well and is extremely small :D Here's my review on it ^_^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMXCDxFRoC4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShakerDazzy Posted October 3, 2018 Share Posted October 3, 2018 What a wonderfully written, witty piece of constructive criticism. Down with the fog! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glerian Posted October 4, 2018 Share Posted October 4, 2018 Oh wow, yeah I totally agree. I have a problem with the rain too, but the fog makes the game almost unplayable for me, at least while it is present. Having to stop whatever I am doing simply because the game activated a feature is absurd. And yeah, the frequency is insane. I counted 6 rain showers in a 24 hour in game period the other day. And if that was a very occasional thing, I would not mind. But it rains every single day, usually multiple times a day. But it has never gone a full 24 hours without rain. And that is bizarre in the extreme. It breaks immersion, causes annoyance, and brings on the really unwelcome fog. Not a good aspect of this great game! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demerus Posted October 4, 2018 Share Posted October 4, 2018 agreed, they should devwipe the fog for being unintentionally annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Baklap Posted October 4, 2018 Share Posted October 4, 2018 Im so happy the fog is disabled on the server i play on totally forgot how annoying it can be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DomiDarko Posted October 6, 2018 Share Posted October 6, 2018 On 10/3/2018 at 3:27 PM, WisdomofEden said: There's always the option of using a fog remover mod! This mod works amazingly well and is extremely small Here's my review on it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMXCDxFRoC4 Yeah, but I had very bad luck with anti-fog mods. Either they were removed without any hint or reason or they didn't work... I gave up on no-fog-mods. And the setting the devs gave us isn't working for me as well - at least on Ragnarok where we've been playing for about a year now. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdligerAdler Posted October 6, 2018 Share Posted October 6, 2018 The dense rain sucks too. Rain in combo with fog is terrible. Rain in combo with fog and night makes the game unplayable when you're outside. *puts controller away and does something else* Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RipRavage Posted October 6, 2018 Share Posted October 6, 2018 Everytime I see the horrible blinding fog I say to myself, "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS, TUROK DINOSAUR HUNTER FOR N64" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oldster Posted October 6, 2018 Share Posted October 6, 2018 Is it significantly better on Ragnarok unofficial? Just marveled as it rolled subtly through the redwoods, for the first time in days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingDuck1 Posted October 7, 2018 Share Posted October 7, 2018 Epileptic fog to boot, i feel bad for kids that do take seizures and can't play the game because of it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iStephano Posted October 7, 2018 Share Posted October 7, 2018 Exactly, you won the internet today! I feel the same about that annoying fog. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamron Posted October 8, 2018 Share Posted October 8, 2018 On 10/6/2018 at 4:39 AM, AdligerAdler said: The dense rain sucks too. Rain in combo with fog is terrible. Rain in combo with fog and night makes the game unplayable when you're outside. *puts controller away and does something else* Exactly. Dark foggy rainy nights means I’m either switching servers or playing another game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeftBlindEye Posted October 8, 2018 Share Posted October 8, 2018 Moderation is the key here. How many of you remember that ridiculous snow event a year or two ago? None stop snowing for months... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WaightZer Posted October 8, 2018 Share Posted October 8, 2018 The fog is sentient, with the mindset of a troll. It even said hello to me inside the cave under the sea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wikus Posted October 8, 2018 Share Posted October 8, 2018 Agreed. It's rubbish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiImZech Posted October 8, 2018 Share Posted October 8, 2018 fog should be recolored instead imo make it not as hard or something. main trouble with fog imo is its too dark. make it a shade lighter should help a lot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeftBlindEye Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 Yeah making it lighter would work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sphere Posted October 9, 2018 Share Posted October 9, 2018 They should make the fog red and the rain red, for Halloween. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeftBlindEye Posted October 10, 2018 Share Posted October 10, 2018 red fog and red rain! that would be sweet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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