Alpha Creatures

[Cvr 3]

Alpha Creatures

I can understand the idea of having rare and powerful creatures roaming the islands, giving players a chance for good experience and an abundance of their normal materials, however at the moment, they seem way too powerful.

They outright do obscene amount of damage compared to the members of their normal species, often killing you in one or two hits.
The health they possess is so great that most weapons are effectively useless against them, and the only thing I've experience consistently works are fire arrows, and often a few of them. Always having to rely on the same tactic;

1. Find the alpha, if it did not find you 
2. Make fire arrows 
3. Find a spot close to its location, where you can climb/jump an object it can not
4. Bait the alpha there and then finally burn it to death.

You can't really contest them in the open world, and this in combination with the fact that they spawn so frequently you can end up with multiple within the same view-distance just makes them tedious content.

 

Suggestion

I would love the scenario where, you encounter an alpha and experience a small sense of joy, because in front of you there is this rare creature, which you do not see every day, which if killed will give you a good chunk of experience and  some sort of loot. So you call in some friends and together you go hunt for it, starting at its last seen location.

I want to fight an alpha, a stronger than normal individual of their type, not a deity possessing an animal.

I assume that one of the reasons the alphas are so absurdly strong is due to their level, but I can't know for sure, so my suggestion is;

• Reduce alphas strength to be around a level 50 - 75 "wild animal" of their species. They would still be strong individuals but not overly powerful
• Reduce their spawn rate, so it aligns with 5-10% of the current one, making them more elusive and rare
• Increase the experience you receive from attacking and killing them by 200-250%, due to lower spawn rates the reward goes up.

 

These changes would still make keep the alphas stronger, than the normal spawning animals, of their species, but not in a way where an alpha rabbit can take on a wolf. Remember its still just a rabbit.

[WhuShuBungBung 3]

yeah pls nerf the hydra to. so i can fight it in the wild, also if you could just drop cyclops hp to about 2-300. because there to hard.

[Fizzenator 7]

Fast aggressive alphas is all you can complain about in this game but that goes towards the argument that wolves, lions, and tigers move too fast. You need armor to withstand a beating but you can't move fast enough with armor to get anywhere. I think you should continue to investigate more efficient ways of dispatching alphas such as trapping them in a pen with a ramp and no way out. Place a swivel gun and load it up with grape shots = ez mode = ez xp = cost effective compared to armor breaking or arrows/guns 

 

-If they nerf the difficulty, expect nerfing the xp along with it. I like where it's at, you just need to think of better ways to dispatch your alphas. 

Edited January 14, 2019 by Fizzenator

[YoBerg 4]

Regular wolves pretty much 3-shot me in fur armor (we're up north). An Alpha wolf on our island killed 6 bears in two hits, 3 giant snakes in one, and proceeded to skullf*ck me and my ally company (roughly 6 guys) for the better part of 40 minutes until we put about 150 carbine and pistol shots into it. Was using the cannon, until i found that the cannon did less damage than the carbine. In between having its way with us, it proceeded to slaughter every single living thing it came across...

 

Now that i know about fire arrows still being effective, and now that swivel guns have purpose in PvE, it might not be so hard...but holy crap i had less than a second to react when it came out of nowhere from across the island....if anything, we can say it makes for some crazy stories lol

[capn_creepy 2]

Alphas are definitely too common and also appear to have zero tether range. I ran an alpha giant snake in two laps around one of the larger islands yesterday and even after aggroing to another mob killing and eating it, it still remembered that it really hated me at a distance where i was unable to see it anymore. 

 

In Ark, alphas were not that bad because they basically only existed in a few forms. theres literally alpha everything in this game and with rng you can pull up on glowing red islands at times where everything in sight is alpha... that can not be the intentions of the devs. Alpha predators only would go a long way here, reducing the spawn rate considerably would also make them seem more interesting instead of seeming like normal. Tether needs to exist on alphas or some equivalent mechanic. If i can get so far it cant see me, and jump in water, then a boat and sail  500ft off coast, the damn snake shouldnt eventually show up eating my planks. I aggrod an alpha vulture and when i go under water he seems to forget about me and fly all the way back to his original tether location, i sent a friend to watch him because it was all the way across an island. as soon as i stepped on land it somehow instantly knew from across the map and raced towards me. This can not be intended.

Damage is fine, alphas should not be capable of being handled by hand period. You wouldnt fight a bear you saw just eat every animal in sight indiscriminately with your flintlock and sword.