Critiques, Questions, And Hopefully a Discussion on the Genesis Part 2 Map

[dtadrunk]

Hello All,

I just wanted to pose some questions and/or critiques on things I have observed within Genesis Part 2. I wanted to do this in part to start a discussion or hopefully gain some insight that I am missing.  I would like to say that I have 1,200+ hours into the game and I have loved every expansion thus far, and I am currently level 80 on normal settings. This is not meant to be just a complaint thread but I want answers to questions I have as I want to like this expansion. Most of my friends and I have contemplated giving up on this map for the following reasons. 

 

Cons/Questions/Critiques: (This is not an exhaustive list)

 

The Map:

The map is huge, but to what end?

·         Where are all of the well thought out and interesting areas ie; coves, caves, nooks and crannies, PoI's, etc...?

·         What is the difference if I put a house on the southeast of Eden vs the northwest of Eden?

·         The map feels rushed.

o   It feels like a terrain paint brush was used to paint a blank map and a bunch of Dinos dropped in.

o   The map feels like it has no diversity, if you see one part of the map you have seen the entire map Eden and similar situation to the Rockwell zone.

o   The dinos are the only thing that seems to make the map dangerous. Where are the areas you must prepare for? Snow, Lava, etc... 

 

 

A few missing items?

o   Where are the Bees? (This has been added today)

o   Where are the dung beetles?

o   Where is the redwood?

o   Why are Thylacoleos walking around with no trees to perch in?

o   Why are Bloodstalkers walking around on the ground?

o   Why are Gacha's roaming around on the surface next to Predators and Shadowmanes.

o   Where are the Biomes? Snow, Lava, etc. 

o   Why are there less missions and less variety to the missions than Genesis Part 1?

o   Why are the missions available at all terminals and not different areas of the map?

o   Why do we have loot tables with saddles for dinos that do not exist in this map?

o   What is the purpose for the ambergris? Is it assumed we will be jumping from map to map in the future to use items on this map that have no purpose for this map?

o   Where are the caves? Are missions now the Caves? Genesis one had tons of little PoI's and caves with baddies. Remember the Space biome with all of the PoI's in the asteroids? Or the ocean biome in any of the maps that had so many areas to explore and everything felt and looks different?

 

 

Imbalance?

o   Why did we decide to give everyone everything? Doing this has negated a lot of the utility dinos. Ever since I got the mining drill off my first drop I havent had to tame any utility dinos. 

o   People say that we are given all these things (Tek Suit, Tek Items, Resources) because it’s the end of the Ark Saga and we are assumed to be end game players already. But why and to what end? We rush through the map faster disregarding half of the content that made Ark so fun to begin with.

o   Where is the challenge?  Is it only the end game? The only challenge I feel exists is when you cannot hit a bird with arrows because of hit detection :P. It doesnt feel like a Survival game anymore.

 

All these items compiled together makes the expansion feel rushed and not as thoughtful as previous iterations. I hope that most of these things I have listed can be refuted and that I have misjudged this map. I really want to love this map, but I need to see why I should.

[h1nsmann]

This map is a bad joke. "the island" two years before the release of the ea game.

 

Thanks for your work. More than half of all plants grow on stone.

[BVKnight]

You have too many points to respond to individually, so I'll just try to speak in general. I think the answer to your question probably lies in the name "Genesis Part 1 and Part 2." They are two parts of a single expansion, not two different expansions.

Where are the biomes? In part 1.

Where are the other creatures? In part 1.

Why is Part 2 so open/easy/homogenous? Because part 1 was so cloistered, difficult, and varied.

 

My guess is that this is primarily to do with the lore and the ending of the story. Part 1 was about surviving the most brutal challenges Ark can throw at you.

Spoiler

Now that you've conquered those, in Part 2 you get to "wake up" to the real world and take on your final foe.

To that end, the map is open so you can build a big base to raise your dinos.

The map shortcuts you to end game because what really matters in this expansion is using tek and breeding your army.

The map gives you new items (Maewing, incubator, mutagen) to make it even faster to breed a super army.

 

From the trailer, I assume that a big portion of this expansion is taking on some really difficult missions, and having to breed the strongest dinos you've ever made in order to take down the final boss. Everything I have listed here seems to be a helping hand to get you started down that road, and that makes me think it will be even tougher than Part 1.

 

If the Gen 2 boss isn't the most difficult one yet, which makes all these shortcuts necessary, I'll be a bit disappointed too. But right now I am assuming it's going to be brutal.

[Gfnjr]

The more I play Gen 2 the more disappointed I get.  This map offers zero challenge to me,  and the 1st map I lost desire to keep playing.   I miss the early days where to get crystal for example you had to actually go to a harder section like top of a mountain and worry about a Giga,  Rex or whatever.  Why would I craft electronics when I can walk outside my base and kill Tek dino's.  I don't have to explore,  I don't have to craft many things anymore.  Half of the craft-able items are almost obsolete.  Gen 2 massively needs SEVERAL more aggressive dino's/creatures to keep you on your toes.

I desperately want to keep playing but may be forced to use mods to up the challenge.  Even with that the map is the same thing over and over.  If I were the devs I would have added like 20 new items and several more creatures,  that's what keeps me interested.    How about more resources,  different crops to tend?  Something to keep the items in-game more meaningful.  That has simply been lost. 

I can only hope ARK 2 goes back to it's roots from early days. 

BTW I don't mind all the Tek stuff I just want a challenge.  I actually have enjoyed starting with Tek suit for many reasons.