Background: There are three big topics that have to be improved for ASA in my opinion: performance, balance, anti cheat. A breeding rework could help a lot with the first two of those.
Breeding without a mutation limit, as it is in ASE, ruins the game in several ways. As soon as you have found a decent dino pair to start the breeding line, you basically never tame that dino again. So it invalidates taming. The power gap between highly mutated dinos and tamed ones is just too big. This also means that pve becomes extremely easy. Nothing provides a threat anymore. Furthermore, it is almost pointless to join older pvp servers. You can not compete with tribes that have those advanced lines, no matter how skilled you are. The (nearly) unlimited mutating allows for ridiculously powerful dinos, it is neither fun to use them nor to fight against them. They are so strong that they invalidate the majority of open world base locations. It is just too hard to defend against them, especially with the turret limit of 100. Due to how strong breeding with unlimited mutations is, tribes have no choice but to breed themselves if they want to stay competitive. That results in having hundreds of breeders, which in return has a massive negative effect on server performance. That amount of necessary breeders also further invalidates land bases and is a big factor supporting the cave meta. Caves are the only places where you have enough space for so many dinos and are able to defend it all with the 100 turret limit. Lastly, breeding in itself is an extremely boring and time consuming process, feeling like a second job and possibly causing unhealthy gaming behaviors.
Suggestion: Disable all stat mutations. Keep color mutations for those who like it. Allow us to only combine stats of wild tames into one dino.
Alternative suggestion: If it is asked too much to fully remove stat mutations, put in a working limitation (as it seems to have been intended originally). Now this could be done in multiple ways. [First thing coming to my mind there is simply a check if one parent, or both combined, are below max mutations. Only then a new mutation is possible. But that would mean people make several lines of the same dino, one for every stat they want to improve. Then combine those clean lines into one so they have max mutations on each desired stat, ending up with an overcapped mutation count and still a big amount of breeders needed.]
A much better and cleaner way of introducing a working mutation cap could be this: instead of a global mutation count, make it stat bound. A dino can get for example 20 mutations in each stat it has. 20 in hp, 20 in stamina and so on. If the baby inherits the fathers hp stat, the game checks if the father is below mutation limit on his hp stat. If yes, the baby has a chance of an hp mutation. If it gets a mutation, it has the fathers mut count plus one, if not it has the same mut count as the father. The mutation count of the mothers hp stat does not matter here, because the baby got the fathers hp. Every stat gets treated like that.
If you breed for hp mutations, but get an oxygen mutation on the way, it doesnt matter, you can keep the dino, because that useless mutation doesnt ruin anything, it doesnt make the line „dirty“. Overall less breeders are needed, and its a less confusing and frustrating process.
Mutations could be shown when you hover over the respective stat, like this for example:
In consequence of such changes, other aspects of the game (like bosses) might have to be adjusted for balance. The 450 level cap would not be necessary anymore.
Suggestion
acat
Topic: Breeding rework
Background: There are three big topics that have to be improved for ASA in my opinion: performance, balance, anti cheat. A breeding rework could help a lot with the first two of those.
Breeding without a mutation limit, as it is in ASE, ruins the game in several ways. As soon as you have found a decent dino pair to start the breeding line, you basically never tame that dino again. So it invalidates taming. The power gap between highly mutated dinos and tamed ones is just too big. This also means that pve becomes extremely easy. Nothing provides a threat anymore. Furthermore, it is almost pointless to join older pvp servers. You can not compete with tribes that have those advanced lines, no matter how skilled you are. The (nearly) unlimited mutating allows for ridiculously powerful dinos, it is neither fun to use them nor to fight against them. They are so strong that they invalidate the majority of open world base locations. It is just too hard to defend against them, especially with the turret limit of 100. Due to how strong breeding with unlimited mutations is, tribes have no choice but to breed themselves if they want to stay competitive. That results in having hundreds of breeders, which in return has a massive negative effect on server performance. That amount of necessary breeders also further invalidates land bases and is a big factor supporting the cave meta. Caves are the only places where you have enough space for so many dinos and are able to defend it all with the 100 turret limit. Lastly, breeding in itself is an extremely boring and time consuming process, feeling like a second job and possibly causing unhealthy gaming behaviors.
Suggestion: Disable all stat mutations. Keep color mutations for those who like it. Allow us to only combine stats of wild tames into one dino.
Alternative suggestion: If it is asked too much to fully remove stat mutations, put in a working limitation (as it seems to have been intended originally). Now this could be done in multiple ways. [First thing coming to my mind there is simply a check if one parent, or both combined, are below max mutations. Only then a new mutation is possible. But that would mean people make several lines of the same dino, one for every stat they want to improve. Then combine those clean lines into one so they have max mutations on each desired stat, ending up with an overcapped mutation count and still a big amount of breeders needed.]
A much better and cleaner way of introducing a working mutation cap could be this: instead of a global mutation count, make it stat bound. A dino can get for example 20 mutations in each stat it has. 20 in hp, 20 in stamina and so on. If the baby inherits the fathers hp stat, the game checks if the father is below mutation limit on his hp stat. If yes, the baby has a chance of an hp mutation. If it gets a mutation, it has the fathers mut count plus one, if not it has the same mut count as the father. The mutation count of the mothers hp stat does not matter here, because the baby got the fathers hp. Every stat gets treated like that.
If you breed for hp mutations, but get an oxygen mutation on the way, it doesnt matter, you can keep the dino, because that useless mutation doesnt ruin anything, it doesnt make the line „dirty“. Overall less breeders are needed, and its a less confusing and frustrating process.
Mutations could be shown when you hover over the respective stat, like this for example:
In consequence of such changes, other aspects of the game (like bosses) might have to be adjusted for balance. The 450 level cap would not be necessary anymore.
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