So about the ARK Genesis mission thing

[Zeratul12]

So about the ARK Genesis mission thing

"Further the ARK storyline while adventuring through unique and diverse biomes via an all new mission-based game mechanic"

 

Now I initially thought this meant the game was going to be getting a story mode, but now that I think about it, it doesn't make any sense. First it is VERY late in the game to do this and would be a big shift for the studio, and secondly it would take more effort than they are willing to do. So then Im thinking what could it be then and the answer was obvious in hindsight; milestones. 

Conan exiles has a "Journey" menu that gives you a list of objectives that you unlock, most of it just standard tutorial stuff and things that help you learn about where you can go for materials and unlocking new blueprints. A lot of it was just building something, going to specific zones, or killing a boss creature.

If this is true then it would be great for new players to learn the game, but to veterans who have been playing for months or years, theres nothing really of value for them.

 

If the devs have already gone into this I apologies as I have only recently gone back to ARK for a bit.

[TinyHippo]

I don't believe they've gone further into this than that stating some kind of mission system.
I also don't think they're going to do what you've thought up though (at least not entirely like that)

Genesis will be the 4th paid dlc, so obviously it will be primarily played by people who know how to play the game, as newbies would likely be on the island or another free map. They know this, so they won't be using a system which primarily benefits new players.
It's possible that they use a little milestone system like you thought in addition to the other mission things, but I don't expect milestones to be the missions.

My expectation is that the missions system would replace supply drops similar to how orbital supply drops replaced normal supply drops on Extinction.

[Demerus]

2 months from release and still no additional info...

[caleb68]

58 minutes ago, TinyHippo said:

They know this, so they won't be using a system which primarily benefits new players.

the key would be to make it benefit both new and old players. Other games have managed to do this, where the reward, and difficulty of the mission itself was based on the players level, rather then a fixed difficulty, even some MMo style games use that method.   Others have done group missions where the difficulty is scaled on the combined levels of the players, and the players/creatures damage was scaled for that players level vs creature.

Personally I don't expect anything spectacular with the mission system that will be coming, I see it more as a 'go to point A, kill dino, go to point b, collect item' simplistic mission type.  They may have some 'ideas' on how to beef it up a little but, i still only see it being a simple one.  Look at other Snail Games and how their 'mission' systems work, look at Atlas, which is built off ark and its mission system, even though its been out for awhile, its still a very basic very blan mission system.

The best mission system that i've seen so far however was a choices have consequences system.  Every mission you chose to do, had a equal reward vs. negative point to it.  If the game was more robust and had npc factions in it, that would be a very interesting system to see implemented in it, where some missions would have negative impacts of certain factions while giving positive impacts on others, others giving a negative/positive impact on all factions.   It makes the game more challenging, especially if you like to be a goody goody, or a evil dominator, personally I always tried to play those games to get a even 'good/neutral' standing with the factions.

But hey who knows, perhaps they will totally surprise us with the mission system and have some robust thing that not only benefits the old players but the new players as well, one with a main quest line that intuitive and keeps the players sucked in to the end, that can't be blown through in a single day, with radiant side quests that can be headed out to do (save a villager from certain death type thing). 

Personally, I'm going to expect a simple, basic quest system.  If thats what it is, I won't be disappointed, if its more then that, i'll be pleasantly surprised.

[TinyHippo]

15 minutes ago, caleb68 said:

the key would be to make it benefit both new and old players. Other games have managed to do this, where the reward, and difficulty of the mission itself was based on the players level, rather then a fixed difficulty, even some MMo style games use that method.   Others have done group missions where the difficulty is scaled on the combined levels of the players, and the players/creatures damage was scaled for that players level vs creature.

Personally I don't expect anything spectacular with the mission system that will be coming, I see it more as a 'go to point A, kill dino, go to point b, collect item' simplistic mission type.  They may have some 'ideas' on how to beef it up a little but, i still only see it being a simple one.  Look at other Snail Games and how their 'mission' systems work, look at Atlas, which is built off ark and its mission system, even though its been out for awhile, its still a very basic very blan mission system.

The best mission system that i've seen so far however was a choices have consequences system.  Every mission you chose to do, had a equal reward vs. negative point to it.  If the game was more robust and had npc factions in it, that would be a very interesting system to see implemented in it, where some missions would have negative impacts of certain factions while giving positive impacts on others, others giving a negative/positive impact on all factions.   It makes the game more challenging, especially if you like to be a goody goody, or a evil dominator, personally I always tried to play those games to get a even 'good/neutral' standing with the factions.

But hey who knows, perhaps they will totally surprise us with the mission system and have some robust thing that not only benefits the old players but the new players as well, one with a main quest line that intuitive and keeps the players sucked in to the end, that can't be blown through in a single day, with radiant side quests that can be headed out to do (save a villager from certain death type thing). 

Personally, I'm going to expect a simple, basic quest system.  If thats what it is, I won't be disappointed, if its more then that, i'll be pleasantly surprised.

Yea that's really pretty much what I expect too.

Go somewhere, kill/find/grab something, get reward. With various difficulties for different loot of course.

In Ark, I don't really think we'll have a "choices have consequences" to the extent you're talking about just because of how it works. The only real (non-social) consequences from anything currently is the risk of losing tames/equipment when you do it. I don't see them locking you out of engrams/items/tames because of the choices you made, although they might do that temporarily. The only other consequence of doing something would be potentially a higher risk of being attacked by creatures, which isn't something they've done before and something I just thought of, but it'd be cool.

The best way I think they could do it with a reward/consequence system would be this:
>You go raze a blade wasp nest
>As a reward, you get some loot, and maybe a blade wasp egg from the nest
>As a result, blade wasps are particularly mad at you and will occasionally spawn around you and target you in packs for the next few hours
>Also as a result, blade wasps are untamable for the next few hours

And that'd be pretty great, but it's not at all what I expect.

They did say they weren't going to add npcs (if we had npcs that adds loads of possible mission types) but we have HLN-A now so who knows if they changed their mind or not.

Of course though, as you put it:
I'm going to expect a simple, basic quest system.  If thats what it is, I won't be disappointed, if its more then that, i'll be pleasantly surprised.

[TinyHippo]

1 hour ago, Demerus said:

2 months from release and still no additional info...

We can expect more info on it during the Extra Life stream.

[Zeratul12]

The only trouble with a typical quest system in ARK is the same thing that plagues it; the toxic players/trolls. PVP will be a nightmare of dodging other players and trying to do a quest without being caught or getting prayed by enemy turrets that are near the objective. On the flip side doing stuff like this in PVE will be just as bad because of players build obnoxious mega bases that cover a few square miles. 

 

Also the risk vs reward of the quests would be another thing all together. Like you a quest tells you to kill a Giga and you get rewarded with 100 metal ingots, 

[TinyHippo]

23 minutes ago, Zeratul12 said:

The only trouble with a typical quest system in ARK is the same thing that plagues it; the toxic players/trolls. PVP will be a nightmare of dodging other players and trying to do a quest without being caught or getting prayed by enemy turrets that are near the objective. On the flip side doing stuff like this in PVE will be just as bad because of players build obnoxious mega bases that cover a few square miles. 

 

Also the risk vs reward of the quests would be another thing all together. Like you a quest tells you to kill a Giga and you get rewarded with 100 metal ingots, 

Well of course other players will always be an issue unless missions take place in predefined areas with building disabled. Then again, if they're in predefined locations then that just allows a different kind of trolling of baiting gigas to objective locations.

The only way around that really would be if the missions took place off the map like non-Extinction boss fights do, which is possible but I don't think that's likely.

Also I know you're exaggerating anyway but I think we can hold off on complaining about risk vs reward until we actually know what the risks and rewards will be.

[Bill876]

Hey guy ummm is the tracking missions on the Xbox one broken or is that just me. When I begin the mission there just it no footprints to follow