The Defiitive Answer RE: Official Boss Difficulty VS. Unofficial VS.Singleplayer

[zzzmarshmallow]

I am simply curious because of the vague nature of the official difficulty values for bosses in ARK. Since I can't find a definitive answer, I am hoping someone can now share some insight.

1. Is it true that Singleplayer settings checkbox + 5x difficulty override do not affect the bosses in any way (it affects tamed dino stats/xp/breeding only)?

2. Is it true that there is no difference between official & unofficial (& PC dedicated) boss stat multipliers (so using Singleplayer settings checkbox on dedicated server with 5x difficulty override is the same as official for boss stat values)?

3. Is there a difference between official and singleplayer/non-dedicated bosses? I have seen invisibleqc's boss stat data figures mined from the game code:

But still Ark players have anecdotal posts saying both yes & no for example:

particularly intriguing is this reddit post which has extensive testing and found no difference in singleplayer/dedi:

but also the last comment in this discussion with PFM saying he found no difference:

This reddit post (although it may be wrong because they don't acknowledge the hard-coded resistance & damage multipliers given by invisibleqc) is curious as well because the patch notes are not clear and I wonder what the true interpretation of the following patch notes is when they write "multiplayer" (do these patch notes nerf SP then nerf dedi/official to match it?):

Version: v254.3 Released - January 31, 2017
Singleplayer/non-dedicated bosses are reduced in damage and effective-HP by 67%

Version: v261.0 Released - 7 July, 2017
Rebalanced all boss HP and damage to scale from 1x (Gamma) to 3x (Alpha) in singleplayer. This does not include The Center double boss arena, which has 35% less HP and damage than it's individual Island counterparts.

Version: v264.2 Released - July 29, 2017
Fixed boss scaling for multiplayer sessions (approximately 67% easier)

4. If the difference is real, is Freespirit correct in applying his calculations to Singleplayer to match the official difficulty?
 

Quote

 

game.ini changes + SP settings = OFF + Max Difficulty = true + Difficulty Level = 1.0 + Difficulty Override = 5x
DinoClassResistanceMultipliers=(ClassName="SpiderL_Character_BP_TheCenter_C",Multiplier=3.0)
DinoClassDamageMultipliers=(ClassName="SpiderL_Character_BP_TheCenter_C",Multiplier=3.0)

DinoClassResistanceMultipliers=(ClassName="Gorilla_Character_BP_TheCenter_C",Multiplier=3.0)
DinoClassDamageMultipliers=(ClassName="Gorilla_Character_BP_TheCenter_C",Multiplier=3.0)

 

Thanks for reading and I hope to get to the bottom of this once and for all.

Edited June 21, 2023 by zzzmarshmallow
added invisibleqc comment source

[Pipinghot]

3 hours ago, zzzmarshmallow said:

I am simply curious because of the vague nature of the official difficulty values for bosses in ARK. Since I can't find a definitive answer, I am hoping someone can now share some insight.

Here's one man's opinion: When in doubt, invincibleqc is right.

He's not perfect, but honestly he's given so many right answers he might actually be the most-right-answer person on these forums. If someone shows data (or especially anecdotes) that seems to prove him wrong, I'd start by questioning their methods and assumptions, chances are darned good that hey did something wrong. I'm not saying he's 100% correct, but the smart money bets on his answers.

[CervantesMor]

I would have said the exact same thing. the answers and data provided by #Invincibleqc are always precise and reliable results, when he intervenes in an answer he knows exactly what he says and knows where to extrapolate data and formulas.

 

PS: you have set this topic well, following a good research thread.

Edited June 22, 2023 by CervantesMor

[SunsetErosion]

I remember debating this to a certain level before. Did some testing and thinking back then also with Pipinghot:

 

[zzzmarshmallow]

Cheers everyone for the responses!

19 hours ago, Pipinghot said:

Here's one man's opinion: When in doubt, invincibleqc is right.

 

14 hours ago, CervantesMor said:

I would have said the exact same thing. the answers and data provided by #Invincibleqc are always precise and reliable results

I have to agree with you both there -- whenever I'm searching for a technical answer about Ark I try to find one of invisibleqc's responses 😅 very knowledgeable and thorough!

 

4 hours ago, SunsetErosion said:

I remember debating this to a certain level before. Did some testing and thinking back then also with Pipinghot

I did see that thread it's very interesting! I appreciate all the math in your response. And I never would have thought about dino torpidity fighting bosses at low levels!

[zzzmarshmallow]

I am still curious about the testing done by redditor Arfirst:

Quote

 

Maxwilddino Lvl 120, no Singeplayersettings enabled

	Singleplayer	Non-dedicated	Dedicated via ASM
Broodmother HP	324k	324k	324k
Broodmother Lvl	1	1	1
Rex HP / Rex Dmg	31,4k / 350%	31,4k / 350%	31,4k / 350%
Broodmother Dmg to Rex (Melee Attack)	63 - 224	63 -224	63 - 224
Rex Dmg to Broodmother	200	200	200
Spiderlinglvl	400	400	400

Maxwilddino Lvl 120, Singeplayersettings enabled

	Singleplayer	Non-dedicated	Dedicated via ASM
Broodmother HP	324k	324k	324k
Broodmother Lvl	1	1	1
Rex HP / Rex Dmg	57,7k / 605%	57,7k / 605%	57,7k / 605%
Broodmother Dmg to Rex (Melee Attack)	63 - 224	63 -224	63 - 224
Rex Dmg to Broodmother	374	374	374
Spiderlinglvl	400	400	400

 

I can replicate the SP, non-dedi and dedi tests, but it wouldn't help in comparing the numbers to official where I believe there's no floating damage text to gather the data. Also there is no way I could do this on official and I don't know anyone who plays it, and of course it's shutting down soon. But if official should match dedi servers, as per invisibleqc's statements, then how can the hard-coded nerfs not show in these results?

Quote

I could not find a difference in Boss difficulty between hosting types. No Trace of the proclaimed 2/3 decrease of Boss Dmg and HP, which i think was part of some patch notes?

I may have to test it myself anyway to see if the numbers really reflect Arfirst's conclusion. If I get the same results, is it possible all unofficial/dedi/non-dedi/SP is nerfed and official bosses really are almost 10x harder than anywhere else?