change in the mutation mechanic in ark 2 i wanna see

[panci]

Hello guys, hello devs,  i'm giving my feedback on one of the most impactful weakness (in my opinion) of Ark:SE: the mutation system

The theme is controversial, someone might say they just love how mutations work, because they are into the loop of infinite mutations; at the same time devs are not changing the system maybe because it seems logic that looping/infinite mechanics keep the number of online players inflated. There's many others players i ve talked with, and me myself, who actually dislike the current system, and believe it's not helping the game in any way.

Before discussing the current system and what i'd like to see instead, don't forget that any mechanics like this, that have a huge impact on balance, it's not isolated. it can't be reworked without reworking dino stats, dino level cap, max dino wild level, boss stats, turret limit, structure limit etc etc etc..

So now the mutation system let a tribe tame whatever level of a dino and let it mutate infinite times until it reaches an absurb amount of point in a single stat (and the only thing stopping dino progression is the hard cap of level 450, and a super high cap in a single stat like 255 points). This is possible because apparently one dino can mutate his own stats (aka genes) letting a non mutated partner add an extra mutation on his stat(gene). that's a genetic nonsense and i think an unintended feature (in place of the 20 max mutation per dino). This lead to 2 major problems:

1) taming good dinos, good stats, is irrelevant.

2) the power of maxed breeded dinos is ridicolously high compared to tamed/newly bred dinos. It negates competitiveness and discourage new players, in small tribes it discourage restarting fresh...the genetic advantage held by estabilished tribes it's too big. Imprinting by itself and mixing good wild stats make the bred dino already far superior to tamed one. Also, from another perspective, with the current system it's garanteed that after a while everybody will have maxed stats.

So i realized i'd rather not having mutations at all rather then the current system. Anyway i like the "concept", it feels "realistic" if well executed by the devs, i think the hard cap of 20 mutation on a dino must be present but for real and not be circumventable in any way. if a dino goes over 20 mutations boom it dies during gestation.

So the ark2 meta would be: You look for good wild stats and you mix them , meanwhile you add the 20 mutations trying to min-maxing them on the desired stats, then if you find a new wild improved stat, you restart the bred line because you have a higher floor and a higher ceiling. this way taming is not only for bobs, it keeps players "living" the map instead of staying in the base, and tamed dinos and fresh lines can still fight against alpha tribe dinos (at least will do for a way longer period).

I'm aware that "everybody will have the same lines" is not going to be solved like this. but that's up to tribes deciding to keep or spread the genes and i like the free economy of ark and the war aspect that favours spreading of genes.

Let me know your thoughts..

 

 

 

 

[DirkInSA]

On 5/1/2022 at 7:13 PM, panci said:

So i realized i'd rather not having mutations at all rather then the current system.

This!!!!

[Dreadcthulhu]

I fully agree that mutations should eliminated or heavily restricted for gameplay balance.  I would like to see a few other ways of boosting your tames. Have substances like mutagen (but have a separate one per stat) that provide small, one time boosts to your lines. Put them in dangerous to harvest areas. Another would be to have quests/missions you could do with your tame, that provide small, non-inheritable stat boosts, similar to imprinting. 

[wildbill]

Only really matters if they have PvP.

Pretty irrelevant to a PvE player. In fact having players with these high level mutated dinos means you have the choice of trading with those players to get one for yourself, since they really have no motivation to be the only ones with the best dinos.

What is really annoying is that certain aspects of the game (like some boss fights) really only work well when you have a mutated dino.

I'd like to see alternate ways to get more powerful tames that don't involve months (or even years) to achieve. Although I see no reason to remove the mutation mechanic from PvE (simply because it ruins PvP for some people).

[MMaas]

Another way to reward breeding over trading is to make the imprint far more personal, like a 100% bonus for the breeder, 20% for breeders tribe and a penalty when it is not in same tribe as the breeder. And maybe even an additional penalty when it is used against the breeder.

Same can be done to taming as well.