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ARK So Far -and The Good, the Bad and The Ugly


NanoTrev

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ARK So Far -and The Good, the Bad and The Ugly

I've been playing ARK for a while so I'll go ahead and make a more general review. Last time, I gave my two cents on Extinction, which overall felt underwhelming but brought something more to do to the game in the form of tower defense mechanics with the drops. The following review I have will be an honest attempt to be contructive as well as listing off some things I'd like to see. I'll touch on the bad and the ugly first and leave you with what I enjoy. Red will be the bad and Green will be the good.

Right now the state of ARK to me is hard to describe. There's a lot to do early on when you're building your base and working down through the engram lists as you level. It's quite exciting, really. That first fight that you have with a Carno and win is still exhilirating. I savor the nostalgia of the combat you have with other beach Bobs who are on the same level as you. All that, while you all race to the top. It's only when you get to Flak that things just start to slow down, but they're still fun. Then, you defeat your first Island-era boss and get Element and other drops. Before you know it you're on your way up the TEK tree after firing up your industrial cooker and things get a whole lot more pleasant if you can stay afloat without being raided.

Basically, if you're a beach Bob and you're not getting killed every five minutes, it's a grand ol' time working up from there as you have plenty to work toward and plenty to occupy yourself with. It's great to slip under the radar of someone bigger than you to eventually stand at their level in bloody combat. Blood for the blood god. Skulls for the throne! Glory to Slanesh!

Then, things get really, really boring. Tower defense can only go so far as awesome of an addition to the game as it was.

So, if you're no longer a beach Bob and you're at the height of ARK domination it's just a game of logging on to feed everyone, making sure your competition is throgoughly flattened to the pavement where you've curb-stomped them, and logging back out. It's fun to rule over an entire server on your throne of skulls as you drink the blood of your enemies. It's fun to be on the winning side, but I've also been on the other end of the spectrum. However, a lot of that's been taken care of on Official servers with the introduction of servers just for beginners.

However, I do have high hopes for Genesis. It would appear that with the departure of Jeremy and the gang, things are still going swimmingly. I'd dare say they're even improving. That, and scenario-driven goals seem like a really great thing to come to ARK.

Besides my hope for Genesis, when I hit the zenith for the TEK tier things get very slow. After that, things stagnate and there really is nothing left to do. Except install mods.

Mods have become the lifeblood of ARK and I see this as both a good thing and a bad thing. Kraken's Better Dinos adds the ability to walk backwards on an Argentavis and the like. However, despite this obvious fix to a flawed (albiet beautifuly remastered TLC) 'dinosaur' the dev team hard largely ignored such fixes and has yet to implement them into the game. Approach modders. Ask if they wouldn't mind you using bits of their code should you give them credit. I bet they'd be flattered!

With that said, you've done an awful lot of work fixing meshing since HOD revealed just how easy it was to do. It's a lot of work, and I appreciate the continued effort that goes toward it.

The game is great as long as there are things to do. Period. That's my #1 major, game-breaking qualm is that once you hit the top there is very little which is threatening to you to fight against and you're pretty much punching bosses and stealing lollipops from beach bobs at that point onward. Congratulations. You have TEK gear and you've beaten the big-bads of ARK. The story is what keeps me hooked and it was amazing getting to experience Aberration first-hand and interact with the fabled violet rivers. Give us more things to do at max level. More stories! More danger!

Full steam ahead. Room for improvement in my next segment and some things I've really enjoyed. Some of these things I've already touched on but shall explore a little more.


AI and Pathing:
The AI appears lacking, as I've seen most people comment on. They just barely have any sort of avoidance with the terrain and have little to no goal other than 'wander' or 'eat things.' This was touched on briefly by the development team with a passing comment of '..it wouldn't be that hard to mod hunger meters in for the carnivores.' If it's so easy to mod in, why don't you put it in yourself? It should be a base component of the game. Half of the gameplay in the low levels consists of running from things or getting them stuck in trees or on rocks because the AI can't figure out a way around them. The lack of interaction between animals when they're attacking you also seems a bit wanting. I'm fairly certain a raptor wouldn't actually stick around if a Tyrannosaurus rolled up behind it nor would a Carnotaurus forsake the possible meal a raptor could provide it. There's no "...if I'm going down, I'm taking you down with me by getting the attention of something bigger!"

I mean, the carnivores don't attack corrupted dinosaurs, and corrupted dinosaurs don't attack carnivores, because all corrupted dinosaurs really are is reskinned dinosaurs with the carnivore AI slapped on.

The lack of herding or anything beyond the typical wandering or 'attack everything' AI.

What could fix this:
There was a component of the unreal engine that was disabled that would've given modders and developers alike access to advanced pathing. Why was it removed? The game could be so much more with that put back in. If you were to even mix in say, Velonasaurs socializing or maybe Pegomastyx stealing from one another, it would add more flavor and immersion to the game. Add an animation to the Rex where it scratches itself. Any number of things would do. Just look at the monsters in Monster Hunter for inspiration or maybe even spend a few hours watching urban wildlife in the city.

The head-shake on the Managarmr when it's out of stamina was a great touch, as was the steam from the Velonasaur's nostrils though I wish both had a smidgeon more in terms of showing fatigue. Maybe some heaving sides as they breathe deep to recover? Still cool, though! I also take note of the Velonasaur's head-shake when it first notices something it wants to attack.

Inverse Kinetics:
IK is what causes the body of a dinosaur to move with the terrain. Have you watched a Brontosaurus move over a rock and have its ballon-leg suddenly teleport onto the rock while the rest of his body floats along at the same angle? That's IK. It is the most rudimentry, barebones IK, but it is IK. Half of the game's dinosaurs, if not all of them, could use an IK rework. For me, the start of the Extinction brought noticably worse IK, or perhaps it's when I first noticed how flawed it was. Rock drakes run up slopes at times with their tails at 45-degree angles, most often in the air or the front half of their body taking on that role instead. The Basilisk is missing its IK entirely now and will move along as if it's on a flat plane of existence no matter what surface it travels across.

What could fix this:
Please, just look up the plugin 'Dragon IK.' It would make the game beyond immersive and in reality it should just replace ARK's IK with something top-notch. Just watch the demo videos. I know I've bothered you guys about this day in and day out but it would make your game so much more immersive. I've tried modding it in myself but the ADK doesn't accept plugins. It would be amazing if you included this in with a player-character TLC. With how little attention this has gotten, is there really nobody around who knows how to work your IK? It feels like one of those things at a workplace where everyone has their own idea on it but nobody has really come together to have a discussion on and get everything straight.

 

Animal Variety and TLC:
I love the variety of wildlife you bring to the game and the unique mechanics you give them. There's not much else to say to this other than the fact that I admired the creativity behind most of the Extinction animals. Though, there are some amazing original Island natives such as the Tuso, Raptor, Spino and Argie. TLCs were definitely the way to go. The Raptor pounce changes them from something that's laughable to something that's a viable threat to the player throughout their ARK experience even as they become easier to kill. Rock Drakes are a spectacle of Aberration and getting one changes the entire game to the point where they become what is probably the most valuable asset to the player. They're easily in my top five. As we touch on Rock Drakes it's hard not to think about Deinonychus (child relation in the kit to the raptor needs fixing) which adds some great utility early on in the game. As long as I can snatch an egg, I can build in higher, much safer locations much less get away from enemies much more easily. Though, it would be nice if Mosas and Tusos weren't magnets for everything in the ocean despite being some of the nastiest animals on the ARK.

The Environment:

With the exception to some parts of the city in Extinction and the Island in general, the maps from and including Scorched Earth onward were fantastic. I loved the elements of having to adapt to heatwaves along with the day-night cycle in Aberration. The spore fields also added a bit of fun in that it was something we had to have on the back of our minds. Honestly, you probably could have borrowed the Meganura swarms from SOTF though it seems that with one of the Mysterious Mysteries that you may already be utilizing that idea. The landscapes were breath-taking and the level of creativity could inspire people to create fanmade novels.

The weather also brings much-wanted immersion. I often find myself leaning back in my chair as I admire the clouds rolling in just before a thunderstorm or the pleasant ambience of rain. 

The Story:

Nothing caught my attention more than exploring the winding caverns of Aberration or the ruins of Scorched Earth. The fabled places where Helena, Diana, Rockwell, and the rest had been. The cutscene at the end of Extinction was an added bonus and it had me on the edge of my seat when I saw that Rockwell's Obelisk from Aberration had survived as it meant he was likely still kicking with his own goals in mind after the purification was supposedly complete.


The game is great. It's why I'm still playing and taking the energy to write this. I've learned a lot about game development and I understand ARK is your virtual offspring you've been shaping and molding into perfection. Honestly, if some of the improvements are too much for the aging system, why not use the profits from Genesis and Extinction to make ARK 2 behind the scenes? We're all begging for more to come and you're finally starting to put the bow on the gift that we invested in since Early Access and I'm loving it.
 

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53 minutes ago, Truthgamer10055 said:

Almost everything you said was accurate you did miss some important stuff 

what you said VERY VERY WRONG was extinction being underwhelming it was the opposite 

besides that good review man nice job

Extinction as a whole wasn't bad. What was underwhelming was the city and the lack of work on the buildings not to mention the violet rivers of Element that were missing- something that was even mentioned in the explorer notes on the map. Parts of the city you could tell were rushed as there were structures that had been copy-pasted that didn't mesh properly. They could have also made many more places to explore, such as being able to enter into some of the towers even if what you could explore was just a few rooms' worth. I guess I just expected so much more from something we'd been so hyped about seeing since the Aberration ascension was revealed.

Why not give the city its own day-night cycle? If that had been the case you could have installed a console that with enough Element you could turn the lights in the towers on at 'night.' Better yet, keep the lamps off until everything takes a breath of life from the Element again. Imagine walking out after 'sunset.' Suddenly, as soon as you leave the shield, it's daytime. You sit there in shock as the sun blazes down on you with an intensity that was even greater than what you'd experienced in either of the proto-ARKs or the city. More ambient tweaks would have been nice as well, such as dust blowing across the wasteland being more common along with some harvestable animal corpses that were partially either decayed or oxidized.

Now, the animals? Top notch. I was genuinely impressed by the Velonasaur and friends. As soon as you're out of the city? Mind blown. Meteor showers and increased hunger and thirst decay. The proto-ARKs were great as well though I was left wishing that the desert biome had a heatwave like Scorched Earth had boasted. Despite being a critic of the wastes, I was pretty happy with them as a whole. The silica nodes were also a nice touch as I wasn't expecting to be able to mine what I needed in place of pearls. The location of those nodes was also pleasing as it fit the general theme of where they were located. That entire area felt artificial as if humanity had tried altering nature and with the introduction of Element things took off on their own rather than conforming to what we wanted it to do. Life, found a way. The dead tree near the hot-springs was also a cool choice of landscape design along with the fallen obelisk in the Sunken Forest.

Lastly, I wanted to point out that I absolutely love the facial expressions on Gachas. I need to have one at my base almost all the time just so that I can enjoy that smile. While the Managarmr could have been more draconic, I love the 'Moonhound' reference and the design it was given. The ice beam, even while nerfed, blows the cool factor out of the water. Now, if only wyverns were as accurate. :P

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1 hour ago, NanoTrev said:

Extinction as a whole wasn't bad. What was underwhelming was the city and the lack of work on the buildings not to mention the violet rivers of Element that were missing- something that was even mentioned in the explorer notes on the map. Parts of the city you could tell were rushed as there were structures that had been copy-pasted that didn't mesh properly. They could have also made many more places to explore, such as being able to enter into some of the towers even if what you could explore was just a few rooms' worth. I guess I just expected so much more from something we'd been so hyped about seeing since the Aberration ascension was revealed.

Why not give the city its own day-night cycle? If that had been the case you could have installed a console that with enough Element you could turn the lights in the towers on at 'night.' Better yet, keep the lamps off until everything takes a breath of life from the Element again. Imagine walking out after 'sunset.' Suddenly, as soon as you leave the shield, it's daytime. You sit there in shock as the sun blazes down on you with an intensity that was even greater than what you'd experienced in either of the proto-ARKs or the city. More ambient tweaks would have been nice as well, such as dust blowing across the wasteland being more common along with some harvestable animal corpses that were partially either decayed or oxidized.

Now, the animals? Top notch. I was genuinely impressed by the Velonasaur and friends. As soon as you're out of the city? Mind blown. Meteor showers and increased hunger and thirst decay. The proto-ARKs were great as well though I was left wishing that the desert biome had a heatwave like Scorched Earth had boasted. Despite being a critic of the wastes, I was pretty happy with them as a whole. The silica nodes were also a nice touch as I wasn't expecting to be able to mine what I needed in place of pearls. The location of those nodes was also pleasing as it fit the general theme of where they were located. That entire area felt artificial as if humanity had tried altering nature and with the introduction of Element things took off on their own rather than conforming to what we wanted it to do. Life, found a way. The dead tree near the hot-springs was also a cool choice of landscape design along with the fallen obelisk in the Sunken Forest.

Lastly, I wanted to point out that I absolutely love the facial expressions on Gachas. I need to have one at my base almost all the time just so that I can enjoy that smile. While the Managarmr could have been more draconic, I love the 'Moonhound' reference and the design it was given. The ice beam, even while nerfed, blows the cool factor out of the water. Now, if only wyverns were as accurate. :P

You can go in some destroyed building I have but I was disappointed with I could go in any working buildings (I didn’t care that much because of hype and how amazing extinction was)

 

I cant say about the mesh of the city or copy pasting

 

And violet rivers is a metaphor 

 

a day night cycle would have required a fake sky removing a  important part of the atmosphere Because you couldn’t see out side of the city but it could have made going in the wastelands so much more interesting because it would have been the first time you have seen it 

 

ambient tweaks they have a lot sanctuary the lights on the building turn on and off the wastelands has dust blowing already 

 

you are right about about how amazing the creatures are 

 

my favorites are 1 mek 2 managermemrer 3 enforcer 

the mek is so amazing 

 

but still nice review man

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I appreciate the kind words.

I've yet to find one of the rectangular towers you can actually enter. As for the lights? Yes, I know they flicker on and off. Some form of interaction with them aside from harvesting them would have been nice.

By dust, I mean to say a more noticable disturbance. Something that would indicate crumbling soil conditions.

The violet rivers existed in Aberration. The same rivers existed in Extinction lore. They just didn't include them in-game.

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2 hours ago, NanoTrev said:

I appreciate the kind words.

I've yet to find one of the rectangular towers you can actually enter. As for the lights? Yes, I know they flicker on and off. Some form of interaction with them aside from harvesting them would have been nice.

By dust, I mean to say a more noticable disturbance. Something that would indicate crumbling soil conditions.

The violet rivers existed in Aberration. The same rivers existed in Extinction lore. They just didn't include them in-game.

 

Ok

ok 

ok

this is not true the one who waits talks about an element vein under sanctuary not molten element and molten element was made by humans and not natural element natural element is black purple spikes and spires 

the one who waits uses metaphors and riddles a lot 

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