Dreadcthulhu

One thing that should be noted is that the actual limit for mutations in a stat will be 254 levels on official, since the mutation counter is separate and will almost always be starting at zero when you start mutating. (The exception would be if you started mutating with a wild baby that had a mutation, then you start with 2 levels) - odd numbers of mutation levels simply are not possible. Also, since the mutation levels are separate, its going be possible to make creatures that are stronger than the ASE versions were; any of the single stat creatures, like stegos for health or gigas for melee will now be able to have 254 mutation levels + 50 or so base levels in their key stat, and still be under the level 362 hatch sweet spot. Perhaps that will lead to devs rebalancing those creatures, making mutation levels give less of a boost to the stat.

The mutation counter and the actual mutated stats are separate things. The mutation counter always gets passed on, but the new mutated stat has a 55% chance of being inherited. The patrilineal counter is always the fathers pat & mat added up, likewise the matrilineal is the mother's pat & mat added together. Plus it goes up by one when a new mutation occurs.

All of the old maps are included with the purchase of ASA, though it looks like they will have optional extras you can buy, like the wild west themed adventure pack for Scorched they mentioned. New, official maps will likely cost money, and some of the "premium" paid mods they plan on introducing will likely be maps.

You are comfortably above the minimum specs, and should be able run the game fine with some tweaking.

To be fair with most tames you are pumping them full of narcotics and then forcing them to eat while unconscious; some brain damage is to be expected.

Base movement speed has been raised noticably; that makes avoiding early game threats pretty easy if you maintain even a mild amount of situational awareness. There is also always herbivore Island that you can raft or swim too that is super safe & has everything to get you up to flak & basic firearms.

First off, you have a bit of a misunderstanding of how mutations work. A mutation does three things to a baby game - it raises the level of the baby's mutation stat by two levels (this is new for ASA, in ASE it raised a base stat level by two), changes a random color region, and ticks the mutation counter up by one (either on pat or mat side, depending on what tame triggered the mutation). In that video he showed 3 mutations on the melee stat, which is why the melee stat showed 6 mutation levels, there were 3 color changes, and 3 mutations on the counter in the ancestry. Secondly, mutation levels act like base levels, in that they add fixed amounts to a stat. They are not percentages of the base stat. It looks like they have set dire wolves to gain 5.3 percentile points per mutation level. Thus since each mutation bumps the mutation stat count by 2, you get 11.6 percentile points added. Starting with higher level creatures will not change how much melee a mutation adds. Interestingly, it would appear that they have set mutation melee levels for wolves to be slightly higher than the base levels, which add 5%, though that could be an artifact of how the melee stat gets a bonus based on taming effectiveness (with bred tames getting that bonus as if they had 100 % TE), someone else will have to tease that out. The mutation health levels do seem to be adding the same amount of health as base levels. Edit - I noticed a minor math error I made - instead of 5.3 percentile points per melee level it should be 5.8 percentile points.

So my understanding is that some unofficial console servers used berry bush seeds as an in game currency, since it was in the game files but otherwise unused, correct? And people are concerned about being able to do the same on ASA? Well, even if they took the bush berries out, the console version will support mods. It looks like the Steam version of ASE has several currency/trading shop mods, so I am sure someone will make a dino dollar (sauropod shekel? yuty yuan? pelagornis pound?) mod you can use on your server.

Aside from the Tapejars method above, another option to tame a quetz is to use an argy, hop off in flight near the quetz, and then grappling hook your own argy, and use whistle commands to get the argy to follow the quetz while you tranq it.

No, there would be no base smashing. After a server update the server cluster ID for the console servers and the PC servers would be changed to the same ID, so you could transfer your character over to previously PC only server (and PC players could then transfer over to the formerly console only server) just like any other server transfer.

The devs have specifically addressed this concern; console players will have their own separate server cluster for the first few months, then the console cluster will be merged with the PC cluster.

Yeah, just buy a long HDMI cord & a wireless KB&M. I do that while sitting in front of my TV in a big comfy recliner, keyboard on my lap, mouse on right arm rest.

For the Fenrir, I do think they should keep it as non-breedable, but yes it should get a stat boost - one easy way to do that would be to set them as fully imprinted (for that 20% stat boost) and also set whoever earned the Fenrir as the "imprinter" so they get the extra 30% attack/defense bonus when they ride it.

Personally, I think they should go with more rolling wipes; we all know everyone wants to play on a new map when it first drops, meaning lots of servers for that map are required, but other older maps end up being empty. It would be better to periodically shut done low population servers, with say a months notice (and use the in game messaging, not just post on website/social media), and condense down less played maps, similar to how legacy condensed down, to free up servers for the hot new map. Losing your base is annoying, but if you have your character, best gear, and tames moved over it is not a big deal. Maybe even stuff like better dino upload mgt, like an "upload all tames" (at least for PVE) function could be added, to make moving easier, along with longer time allowed in upload, going to say 2 weeks instead of 24 hr when server migrations are happening.

Well the devs did mention that the levels from mutations are not going to just add more wild levels (like existing mutations do), but instead have their own "multiplier", which I take to mean that mutations will be their own separate levels, adding a specific amount to a stat that can be different than a wild level. They also mentioned that these can be used to buff or nerf different creatures. If they choose to make mutation levels for health & melee count less than a wild level for most combat creatures, then even maxed out creatures would be a lot less OP than they are now. Will be interesting to see how it all works out.