Looking for a way to buff/nerf certain creatures

[Ethonodon]

I'm setting up a small PvP server that focuses on being grounded in a more set timeframe (wild west) that relies more heavily on ground transportation and slower paced gameplay. To do so I'm looking to buff platform saddle creatures (so that awesome mobile bases / tanks aren't just sniped to death by a rifle) and to nerf flyers to make them a riskier method of travelling and to also make them much less effective at quickly crossing the entire map. IMO vanilla fliers completely ruin the pacing of the game as they make travel completely trivial, so I'm looking to thwart the "I'm going to just instantly take a secure private jet to quickly zoom to the other end of the map" pacing the game normally takes.

To achieve my vision, firstly I need to make platform saddle creatures much tankier. I've zero modding experience so I guess I'm asking if there's an existing mod that accomplishes something similar, something in the .ini I can change to achieve this, or if there's a simple method that could work if I just went and made the mod myself. I've thought of a couple ways I could implement this:

A) A passive bullet damage resistance for designated creatures (I just want the damage resistance to bullets mainly), but I do not know if this is possible to do

B) Increased health values for platform saddle creatures- this is something I feel like could be changed very easily, I just don't know how to do it

C) Platform saddles granting significantly increased armor, effectively giving anything wearing said saddle more health

 

The second thing I need to do is nerf flyers. There are three primary things that I want: 

-Reduced max health (similar to point B above, this is something I feel like should be absolutely doable)

-Reduced stamina values

-More grounded flying (I believe Classic Fliers does this, but if anyone knows a better flying mod that might be cool)

 

Again, I have zero modding experience. If any of these changes sound like something a new modder could easily load up the editor and change, I'll do it and just make the mod myself. Some of these changes sound like something that could be edited just in the game.ini file, but I'm not well-versed enough in the Ark .ini to have any clue how I might go about that.

 

Lastly, if there are any mods that sound like any of these changes at all, please let me know about them.

 

Any help provided will be greatly appreciated. Thanks!