ASA Plusses and minuses

[jaye63]

I realize it's early access. This is more of a completed/needs work statement than a critique

Plusses
Breeding stats and being able to upgrade your base stat keeping taming a thing throughout the game
Fewer engrams or combined engrams that make it more interesting for building
graphics are a HUGE improvement
Taming babies
Console commands for fog, clouds and grass that make rendering the game with an older PC achievable.
crossplay

Minuses
oppressively high sound volume for the start up video on the way to the main menu
erratic spawns making some dinos that were common(spinos for one) frustratingly rare and leaves player fighting for sails vs tames
lack of alphas on carno island and an overabundance on the rest of the map
no fall damage
insecurity of stat cap(255) actually ending up being adjustable for unofficial
cross play
unexplained damage number variances (explained= armored vs unarmored. I am speaking to the numbers that make no sense)
no manageable speed settings for dinos IE- stat is unobtainable in breeding.

Overall, I changed my mind from having no interest in ASA due to the difficulties presented doing an unofficial server to realizing that it did get better and looks somewhat promising. I am enjoying seeing WC adopt flexibility by putting in the ability to personalize unofficial servers instead of saddling them with adjustments design for PvP on officials. That deserves the biggest pat on the back.
 

Edited December 20, 2023 by jaye63
punctuation and improperly phrased

[Joebl0w13]

24 minutes ago, jaye63 said:

erratic spawns making some dinos that were common(spinos for one)

I'm a bit surprised by this one. I'm finding them spawning far more often and in places they never did in ASE. 

[jaye63]

21 minutes ago, Joebl0w13 said:

I'm a bit surprised by this one. I'm finding them spawning far more often and in places they never did in ASE. 

yeah, it's erratic. Spinos are rare, rexes, carnos, brontos and raptors are on hyper spawn. And I've been on other servers that are well balanced but the spino was a an example of the extreme. We're luck to have 2 on the map at any given time. If Im in err that this is a programming thing and is actually a setting that we may have adjusted incorrectly, I can make that adjustment and edit that line out of this.

And there is a lot of overspawns.  The only consistantly "normal" spawns we're seeing are Gigas and Carchars.

Edited December 20, 2023 by jaye63
forgot a phrase.

[Joebl0w13]

3 minutes ago, jaye63 said:

yeah, it's erratic. Spinos are rare, rexes, carnos, brontos and raptors are on hyper spawn. And I've been on other servers that are well balanced but the spino was a an example of the extreme. We're luck to have 2 on the map at any given time. If Im in err that this is a programming thing and is actually a setting that we may have adjusted incorrectly, I can make that adjustment and edit that line out of this.

Well the spinos seem to spawn in popular places to build. So in the old days, players kept blocking them. The bronto spawns are a little crazy. The new map has so many more trees and the foliage hides a lot of the spawns I'm finding. It's flat out harder to see or spot anything.

Edited December 20, 2023 by Joebl0w13

[Scheneighnay]

My tribe investigated the lack of spinos.

We concluded that they're getting into fights with barys and losing because hitbox/AI problems often prevent spinos from hitting them.

It goes beyond spinos, just some dinos can get into a position where they don't even try to attack when they should be able to. Like they just lodge themself into the side of their target and stay there without attacking.

[CervantesMor]

In the Server I am in it is difficult to find both Spino and Rex, but this is due to the reckless construction of bases right above the main Spawns, I barely managed to place a couple of pillars in some main points around the Redwood where already on the third day they were starting to set up bases... which today are right above many Spawn (some even block the flow of the river), this is just to say that the main problem is ourselves who don't care where we build, we don't tell the tale that "I started Ark today without knowing these things" because if on the third day you already have a base around Redwood it means that you know the game well and know how to play it well!! Both good and selfish/not very clever (...) ....

[Joebl0w13]

Just now, Joebl0w13 said:

That makes sense. Good find. 

 

3 hours ago, Scheneighnay said:

My tribe investigated the lack of spinos.

We concluded that they're getting into fights with barys and losing because hitbox/AI problems often prevent spinos from hitting them.

It goes beyond spinos, just some dinos can get into a position where they don't even try to attack when they should be able to. Like they just lodge themself into the side of their target and stay there without attacking.

That makes sense. Good find. 

[Joebl0w13]

1 hour ago, CervantesMor said:

(some even block the flow of the river)

That can be reported to the CoC team. I think they are pretty underwater right now with all the cheaters. 

[jaye63]

It's unofficial and it's been a struggle to match ASE rules with ASA. The most difficult is that the rule for base size in ASE was epic render range from one side you have to be able to see the other. ASA has an epic render range of at least 5x that.