Earthquakes...ugh...

[banggugyangu]

When I first started on Aberration, Earthquakes were cool.  It was a new type of weather event that was refreshing.  Now, 4 months later.... I'm done with them.  The items that drop from the walls are trivial.  I'm so well established that I ignore stuff that falls.  There's also no real danger posed unless you're afk.  All earthquakes serve to do now is annoy me.  I occasionally remote into my computer at home while I'm working to launch ARK and do imprints.  I don't know if anyone has tried to operate a game over Remote Desktop.... but gurk...  It's a slideshow at best.  Any game is fundamentally unplayable.  Imprinting, however, isn't difficult.  When earthquakes happen, though, I'm often shaken across my base away from the dino I need to imprint.  This means I have to walk ~20 foundations at .5 frames per second to reach the dino again.  My problem with all of this is earthquakes are simply too frequent.  Watching the imprint timer, it seems like they happen between 2 and 5 minutes.  I simply wish that it would be doubled to 5~10 minutes between quakes.  Most people won't even notice the change, but it would reduce the frustration factor by a large amount.

On the other hand... if a quake happens right as a glow pet hatches.... goodbye glow pet baby... just claiming the thing becomes fundamentally impossible, let alone feeding it...

[Dreadnaught]

Fog and rain on the island were cool effects until they got old. Heat waves, sand storms and electrical storms were novel until the newness wore off. The lightning on the center seemed neat until it wasn't.  Anyone noticing a trend here?

[Vaculity]

Well, new stuff gets dull over time. Its no surprise here.

[LouSpowells]

I hate it when video game developers have mechanics that make it inconvenient for me to play their game via remote desktop at half a frame per second.

[WolfBrink]

It's literally driving me crazy. I would take any other weather effect other than earthquakes. They're so mundane. They literally start every time I'm trying to build something and all it does is result in me tossing down my controller and waiting it out.

Getting extremely ridiculous. Either get rid of them and replace them with fog, reduce the timers, or add in an option in the settings to to scale down/turn off weather effects that don't have an effect you directly with a debuff. I'd take a constant sandstorm at this rate over them. Lol.

[banggugyangu]

16 hours ago, Dreadnaught said:

Fog and rain on the island were cool effects until they got old. Heat waves, sand storms and electrical storms were novel until the newness wore off. The lightning on the center seemed neat until it wasn't.  Anyone noticing a trend here?

Heat waves and sand storms both offer a real threat to the player.  Fog offers significantly reduced visibility.  Electrical storms create pitch black situations at night.  Earthquakes just make you drunk for a few minutes... other than being annoying, there's not really any other game play affect from them.

 

@LouSpowells  It's not inconvenient, it's just annoying.  There's no threat because of  the earthquake unless you're swimming other than trying to access a baby's inventory.  I would be far more accepting if there was a real gameplay mechanic to them, but there isn't.  It's just an annoyance.

[Phyrist]

Quakes pose a threat... 

 

Wiki

"Another danger presented by these earthquakes is that of falling while climbing with the   Climbing Picks. You can remain attached to a surface with the picks during the earthquake, but you will notice that with each tremor your survivor will shake. If you attempt to move with the picks during one of the tremors your picks will detach from the surface you are climbing and you will fall. It is possible to climb during the earthquake if you carefully time your movements between the tremors."

 

If you are singleplayer or Admin on unofficial

Cheat ce stopquake

Cheat ce startquake

[banggugyangu]

11 minutes ago, Phyrist said:

Quakes pose a threat... 

 

Wiki

"Another danger presented by these earthquakes is that of falling while climbing with the   Climbing Picks. You can remain attached to a surface with the picks during the earthquake, but you will notice that with each tremor your survivor will shake. If you attempt to move with the picks during one of the tremors your picks will detach from the surface you are climbing and you will fall. It is possible to climb during the earthquake if you carefully time your movements between the tremors."

 

If you are singleplayer or Admin on unofficial

Cheat ce stopquake

Cheat ce startquake

That's not a threat... it's a mild inconvenience.  Sandstorms:  If you're flying at altitude when a sandstorm starts, there's a good chance you're going to plummet to your death.  Heat Wave:  Caught out without ghillie?  Not on a flier and out doing something?  Hope you have a full canteen or a tent.  Fog:  Oh... why hello there, Mr. Giga..  I see you noticed me 5 minutes ago, but I didn't see you.  Electrical storms:  Same as Fog, except with Rock Golems.  These are all real threats.  Earthquake:  Meh,  I guess I'm waiting here for a few minutes.  Oops  I fell, good thing I have this glider suit on at all times anyway.  Even if something like rocks fell from the ceiling that did damage akin to a rock golem's boulder at random, that would be a real threat (no stone structure damage, though, please...).  I'm ok with things like this if they actually have real game play effects, but just being annoying isn't adding anything positive to the game play experience.

 

Also,  I'm on official.

[Phyrist]

If you dont have a functioning glider during a quake and you fall mid climb with the Pick. Thats a threat. Because you plummet to your death. Its a threat if you are standing near a cliff edge and get shunted off the side.. Theres a threat if you are in a rush to mount a dino being chased by something and a quake happens.. You may die cause unable to mount said dino during quake...

 

The deeper you go into the depths of aberration the shaking gets worse.. And so worse threats.

 

Im sorry but just because you dont like something and find it annoying doesnt mean its useless..

[banggugyangu]

1 hour ago, Phyrist said:

If you dont have a functioning glider during a quake and you fall mid climb with the Pick. Thats a threat. Because you plummet to your death. Its a threat if you are standing near a cliff edge and get shunted off the side.. Theres a threat if you are in a rush to mount a dino being chased by something and a quake happens.. You may die cause unable to mount said dino during quake...

 

The deeper you go into the depths of aberration the shaking gets worse.. And so worse threats.

 

Im sorry but just because you dont like something and find it annoying doesnt mean its useless..

Not having a fundamental piece of equipment for aberration is simple unpreparedness.  Also, unless you're hanging from the underside of something, you should be able to remount a wall as you're falling with no consequence other than a little bit of altitude lost and perhaps some durability.  If what you're climbing would be a concern for durability, you should have extra picks on hand anyway.  Before you try to make the comparison to a tent for scorched earth, it's not the same.  Few people travel without a glider suit on aberration, and that has nothing to do with earthquakes.  On the other hand, few make all travels on scorched earth with a tent.  In regards to inability to mount a dino during a quake, I'm sorry, but no.  The shaking is not enough to cause this unless you struggle to mount dinos outside of an earthquake as well.

 

As far as the shaking getting worse as you delve deeper, I live on the crystalline lake just outside of Element falls.  I spend a lot of time in the rad zones including, and primarily, graves of the lost.  There's no discernable difference in the shaking of those zones compared to the portal and fertile lake.  Sure, the explorer notes allude to this being the case, but as with other things, it simply seems to be a detail to make the story more colorful rather than an actual aspect of the game.

[LouSpowells]

3 hours ago, banggugyangu said:

It's not inconvenient, it's just annoying.  There's no threat because of  the earthquake unless you're swimming other than trying to access a baby's inventory.  I would be far more accepting if there was a real gameplay mechanic to them, but there isn't.  It's just an annoyance.

A real gameplay mechanic like being unable to climb the walls in the cave while the earthquake is happening? Or a different gameplay mechanic?

[Phyrist]

To all those NOT on officials.. Ive already posted admin commands for singleplayer and unofficial servers so you can stop quakes when they start.. Or continuously with an rcon script.

 

https://ark.gamepedia.com/Earthquake_(Aberration)

Again.. From the wiki. Direct quote. Maybe you should reread the info there..

"In the upper areas of the map the movement is almost imperceptible but as you go deeper into the map it becomes disruptive enough to make it difficult to mount a dino. "

 

Have you tried Reclimbing with picks during a quake when you get knocked off? Cant grapple mid air during a shakeshakeshake.. You still die. Real threat for those with broken chest piece or no glider at all.

 

You keep comparing SE weather and saying how youd better be preppared, otherwise gonna have a bad day in SE weather...

 

You then start saying how as long as you are preppared in Aberration you neednt worry about the quakes.. (Contradicting your previous claims of quakes not being a threat and only annoying.) Im saying.. Its a real threat to those who are not preppared. Just like SE weather is a threat.  Just like Fog hinders visibility, quakes hinder Movement. The whole premise of Aberration is movement limitations..unlike SEs restrictions and limitations. THEYRE DIFFERENT MAPS and thus different mechanics and thus different threats..

 While it is Annoying to you as you are established Now.. Some people arent established and it is a real threat to them.. 

[banggugyangu]

6 minutes ago, LouSpowells said:

A real gameplay mechanic like being unable to climb the walls in the cave while the earthquake is happening? Or a different gameplay mechanic?

You can climb walls while the earthquake is happening, you just have to time it right.  Again, unless you struggle at the game in general, the earthquake offers no real threat.  It's simply annoying.

 

It's also the only weather effect on the map (inferno on the surface doesn't count, and neither does the radiation).  This is the key problem.   Weather effects happen around the same frequency on the other maps, but there are more of them, which makes the frequency of one particular effect less common.  Earthquakes happen all the time.  What negative aspect could you possibly imagine for halving the frequency of earthquakes?

[SpecTimsauru5]

Those earthquakes are frankly disappointing, I was hoping that when rocks would fall, we would be getting pelted by the large ones that are normally harvestable, it would be annoying but it would make us cautious of the tremors when they come. I also thought that (although really hard to do) earthquakes should temporarily open cracks in the ground or walls.

[banggugyangu]

2 minutes ago, SpecTimsauru5 said:

Those earthquakes are frankly disappointing, I was hoping that when rocks would fall, we would be getting pelted by the large ones that are normally harvestable, it would be annoying but it would make us cautious of the tremors when they come. I also thought that (although really hard to do) earthquakes should temporarily open cracks in the ground or walls.

There are enough holes in the ground and walls already.  We don't need a weather effect adding more :-p

[SpecTimsauru5]

1 minute ago, banggugyangu said:

There are enough holes in the ground and walls already.  We don't need a weather effect adding more :-p

the holes would be a bit much I admit, but couldn't we get pelted by larger (deadlier) rocks? It would be annoying, but we would be careful for the next time.

[banggugyangu]

I was more referring to the ability to get under the mesh.

[Theplaymaker]

I think it would be awesome if earthquakes were more dangerous, it could be quite interesting.

[LouSpowells]

3 hours ago, banggugyangu said:

You can climb walls while the earthquake is happening, you just have to time it right.  Again, unless you struggle at the game in general, the earthquake offers no real threat.  It's simply annoying.

It's also the only weather effect on the map (inferno on the surface doesn't count, and neither does the radiation).  This is the key problem.   Weather effects happen around the same frequency on the other maps, but there are more of them, which makes the frequency of one particular effect less common.  Earthquakes happen all the time.  What negative aspect could you possibly imagine for halving the frequency of earthquakes?

I wasn't proposing any negative aspects of halving the frequency. 

You said you would be far more accepting of earthquakes if there was a real gameplay mechanic behind it, so I mentioned the gameplay mechanic behind it. 

[banggugyangu]

19 minutes ago, LouSpowells said:

I wasn't proposing any negative aspects of halving the frequency. 

You said you would be far more accepting of earthquakes if there was a real gameplay mechanic behind it, so I mentioned the gameplay mechanic behind it. 

Then why come in here with an aire of superiority on your post when my original post suggested halving the frequency?

[Phyrist]

Then why come in here with an aire of superiority on your post when my original post suggested halving the frequency?

(A very simple solution to alliviate some of your quake frustrations.. DONT play using remote desktop!)

What i have seen.. Is you displaying Elitism...

 

10 hours ago, banggugyangu said:

Not having a fundamental piece of equipment for aberration is simple unpreparedness.  Also, unless you're hanging from the underside of something, you should be able to remount a wall as you're falling with no consequence other than a little bit of altitude lost and perhaps some durability.  If what you're climbing would be a concern for durability, you should have extra picks on hand anyway.  Before you try to make the comparison to a tent for scorched earth, it's not the same.  Few people travel without a glider suit on aberration, and that has nothing to do with earthquakes.  On the other hand, few make all travels on scorched earth with a tent.  In regards to inability to mount a dino during a quake, I'm sorry, but no.  The shaking is not enough to cause this unless you struggle to mount dinos outside of an earthquake as well.

 

9 hours ago, banggugyangu said:

You can climb walls while the earthquake is happening, you just have to time it right.  Again, unless you struggle at the game in general, the earthquake offers no real threat.  It's simply annoying.

 

By saying youre always preppared and never concerned about quakes.. That you never mistime a climb mid quake.. Where as its literally a threat and gameplay mechanic that poses Danger to players under the right circumstances LIKE ALL WEATHER... 

Just cause YOU are established enough and preparred (what about when the situation occurs when you ARENT preppared or simply unlucky ,glider equipped to broken chestpiece mid fall off a cliff, run out of non broken Picks...or since you like comparing SE so much-quakes AND storms are both weather mechanics of the game.. What about when you are low on water,  or without a tent.. Or flying without a jerboa to detect weather events.. being unpreppared for the map specific gameplay mechanics can happen) that you feel you are better than  the nooblets and people who have broken gear and are simply unlucky.. Those who do actually die due to this weather mechanic... Sounds hypocritical to me... when you slam others for supposed superiority...

 

But ill conclude with yes.. Everyone's entitled to an opinion. And if your opinion is that quakes are nothing short of annoying..OK. I respect your opinion...what ive been arguing is not against you voicing your opinion, ive been arguing for a DEFINITION of Threat (IF people Can die because of it its a threat)

 

MY OPINION is that quakes are a necessity for the maps Feel, are not too common at all (i have played many many SE hrs to compare weather), and forces players to alter their way of play style hence Evolving. Its even in the name of the Game. Ark Survival Evolved.

[banggugyangu]

13 hours ago, Phyrist said:

Then why come in here with an aire of superiority on your post when my original post suggested halving the frequency?

(A very simple solution to alliviate some of your quake frustrations.. DONT play using remote desktop!)

What i have seen.. Is you displaying Elitism...

 

 

 

By saying youre always preppared and never concerned about quakes.. That you never mistime a climb mid quake.. Where as its literally a threat and gameplay mechanic that poses Danger to players under the right circumstances LIKE ALL WEATHER... 

Just cause YOU are established enough and preparred (what about when the situation occurs when you ARENT preppared or simply unlucky ,glider equipped to broken chestpiece mid fall off a cliff, run out of non broken Picks...or since you like comparing SE so much-quakes AND storms are both weather mechanics of the game.. What about when you are low on water,  or without a tent.. Or flying without a jerboa to detect weather events.. being unpreppared for the map specific gameplay mechanics can happen) that you feel you are better than  the nooblets and people who have broken gear and are simply unlucky.. Those who do actually die due to this weather mechanic... Sounds hypocritical to me... when you slam others for supposed superiority...

 

But ill conclude with yes.. Everyone's entitled to an opinion. And if your opinion is that quakes are nothing short of annoying..OK. I respect your opinion...what ive been arguing is not against you voicing your opinion, ive been arguing for a DEFINITION of Threat (IF people Can die because of it its a threat)

 

MY OPINION is that quakes are a necessity for the maps Feel, are not too common at all (i have played many many SE hrs to compare weather), and forces players to alter their way of play style hence Evolving. Its even in the name of the Game. Ark Survival Evolved.

The situation where you're not prepared? If you can't wait out the quake while climbing, then you didn't prepare for the climb. That's on you, not anything else. If you're going to be climbing something that a quake could kill you on, you should have extra picks anyway.  I'll accept the climbing situation as the only viable time that you're at risk of dying during a quake other than swimming because falling off a cliff during a quake is simply because you're not paying attention.  The only time it becomes a real threat is during your first drake egg run when you might be time pressed to climb as quickly as possible. A quake at the wrong time will definitely spell death. That doesn't account to quakes being a genuine threat. 

As far as comparing to other weather effects from other maps, not everyone uses Jerboas, there are other shoulder pets that offer viable reasons to not use a Jerboa. It's not the same as running around without a light pet. Not having a Jerboa to warn you of an impending sand storm is not being ill-prepared. Not having a reliable glider suit and/or extra picks when you're climbing something where fall damage will kill you is, though. Weather events on other maps happen about once every 10 minutes. This is typically 1 single weather event every ~10 minutes picked out of multiple options. Aberration has a single weather event that happens as often as 1.5 minutes apart and as much as 6.  While watching the imprint timer, I timed it each time and never saw it break 6 minutes between. My whole point was that they're too common. They're far more common than a a general weather event on any other map, and about 6x as common as a single weather event. If the weather events were to cycle on other maps, each event would be about 30 minutes from the last time that event happened.  At the longest, quakes happen 5 times as frequently and at the shortest 20 times as frequently.  As I said, I would be happy if it was every ~10 minutes like the general weather events on other maps. 

 

Also... I don't "play" the game on remote desktop. I use it to log in and do imprints when I can't physically sit down at my computer. I don't expect to have the game be playable remotely.  I would prefer to not have to spend 15 minutes trying to walk across a building in that state, though, because I logged in 10 minutes before imprint due to server lag and 4 earthquakes happened in that time. 

 

Also, in what way do quakes, or any weather events for that matter, affect play style? It's literally a situation of "wait it out" for pretty much every weather event with the addition of "don't stand near an edge" for quakes. 

[Phyrist]

"The situation where you're not prepared? If you can't wait out the quake while climbing, then you didn't prepare for the climb. That's on you, not anything else. If you're going to be climbing something that a quake could kill you on, you should have extra picks anyway.  I'll accept the climbing situation as the only viable time that you're at risk of dying during a quake other than swimming because falling off a cliff during a quake is simply because you're not paying attention.  The only time it becomes a real threat is during your first drake egg run when you might be time pressed to climb as quickly as possible. A quake at the wrong time will definitely spell death. That doesn't account to quakes being a genuine threat. "

with all your specially preparred  gear broken during a spelunking and no way to get home to repair your gear.. Thats on the player?? Being unlucky enough to have a quake happen at the wrong moment is on the player? You just confirmed the definition of Threat. Being able to die in the right circumstance. 

 

"As far as comparing to other weather effects from other maps, not everyone uses Jerboas, there are other shoulder pets that offer viable reasons to not use a Jerboa. It's not the same as running around without a light pet. Not having a Jerboa to warn you of an impending sand storm is not being ill-prepared. Not having a reliable glider suit and/or extra picks when you're climbing something where fall damage will kill you is, though. "

 

Jerboas give a few minutes warnimg before a potential storm that COULD dismount you before you can land to safety.. Killing you by fall damage. Thats a Threat via not being prepared by not having a specific shoulder pet, yes other pets are better in other areas.. But jerboas give warning for storms. Which is almost* necessary in SE especially for the low level players (we are not talking about specifically end game players), light pets are in Aberration, different maps have different utilities for the map specific dinos.

 

"Weather events on other maps happen about once every 10 minutes. This is typically 1 single weather event every ~10 minutes picked out of multiple options. Aberration has a single weather event that happens as often as 1.5 minutes apart and as much as 6.  While watching the imprint timer, I timed it each time and never saw it break 6 minutes between. My whole point was that they're too common. They're far more common than a a general weather event on any other map, and about 6x as common as a single weather event. If the weather events were to cycle on other maps, each event would be about 30 minutes from the last time that event happened.  At the longest, quakes happen 5 times as frequently and at the shortest 20 times as frequently.  As I said, I would be happy if it was every ~10 minutes like the general weather events on other maps. "

 

I have not noticed the quakes happening THAT often. I will do my own timing tonight and return with another set of quaketimers.. If you think about it. Aberration is underground.. Theres no sky for rain clouds.. Which is why theres only one weather. aberration is supposed to be progressively harder than SE which was harder than TheIsland. So if you consider increased quake frequency to be part of the increased difficulty then i myself dont see a real issue with the threats of quakes and how fredquent they are... besides annoying people (you) during the quakes.

 

"Also... I don't "play" the game on remote desktop. I use it to log in and do imprints when I can't physically sit down at my computer. I don't expect to have the game be playable remotely.  I would prefer to not have to spend 15 minutes trying to walk across a building in that state, though, because I logged in 10 minutes before imprint due to server lag and 4 earthquakes happened in that time. "

 

Technically. Yes. You do play the game remotely. By logging into remotedesktop so you can launch a GAME so you can do some of the game mechanics(imprinting) remotely while youre at work.. is in itself playing the game. 

 

"Also, in what way do quakes, or any weather events for that matter, affect play style? It's literally a situation of "wait it out" for pretty much every weather event with the addition of "don't stand near an edge" for quakes. "

 

it affects play style because you are forced to PLAY a certain way, with certain gear.. (Quakes are situational dependent if you are near a cliff. On a cliff. Trying to imprint etc.) Where as on other maps with different weather you dont need the same PlayStyle. You dont need to prepare for quakes on SE and vise versa.  It changes and evolves. Like the game implies youre supposed to do. 

[AdligerAdler]

Yes earthquakes are annoying. Thank god WC got rid of the camera shaking though. I had to look away from the screen because of motion sickness. But IMO they're still much less of a pain than rain, fog, cold, and pitch black nights in the woods on The Island. I come home from Aberration, where the game is playable all the time, to my Island server where I can't do much when it's raining at night and I'm outside. When it's raining AND foggy at night I stop where I am, put my controller down and wait til it's over. Since I know the friendly weather on Aberration I have a harder time liking The Island.

[metallicruz]

For some reason the earthquakes tank my fps.