Captain Jack Shadow

I wouldn't call this the best survival game, nor is ARK. Do I want the game to be easy? No. Do I want it to be tedious, or frustrating? No. Hitting a stone 10 times to get a small amount of resources, as opposed to hitting it a few times and getting the same or more resources, is not hard, or challenging, it's tedious. This is why I would never join a Mega Tribe/Company. The first time somebody handed me a tool and told me to go mine something, I would tell him where to shove that tool. I value my time more than some people, it would seem. I have more pride than to be a slave in a Mega. There is also nothing challenging about a Mega doing an offline raid against a smaller group. And here's the kicker..that's not even PvP. It boggles my mind why some even think it's PvP. It's simply not. I am getting to the point that I think many people are hiding from real PvP by playing "PvP" in games like this. Here's what would be amazing....the Megas actually arrange fights between each other with roughly equal numbers. That's real PvP. Even a 3 vs 4 chance encounter is PvP. Anything short of that, just is not. I suppose that when you bring 20 people and there is a lone defender, that is technically PvP. If you feel good about it, you are the type that will mount a mouse you caught with a mouse trap, on your trophy wall.

Often people choose low hanging fruit to vent their anger and frustration at, and they do this for a variety of reasons. These are legitimate complaints, and they know that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. They don't want to say what's really bothering them, for fear of an out of control debate, or somebody ridiculing them with something like a "Git Gud," comment, or worse. They may not even know why they are frustrated...they just know that they are. For instance, many people had huge problems with Mass Effect Andromeda, but nearly all the hate was directed at the animations...because it was easy, safe, low hanging fruit that you could criticize without being attacked for your criticism. Nobody could defend the animations. The real issues were way deeper than that, and this is proven by the fast that after the animations were fixed, the hate continued. But that is a whole other debate. Right now, the issue is that people did not come here to play another ARK. They just didn't. They came for the ships, and they are frustrated by the fact that they spend huge amounts of time doing ARK things, and almost no time sailing ships. I would say this is the main issue. The second issue is that most people do not want to play in a Mega Company, being a slave, locked into one tiny aspect of the game, with the hopes that as a result, you get to go do some PvP once a week. Sorry, I have a real job. I am not looking for a game that does what it appears they are trying to do here, and if it does happen, I won't stay. Maybe in some unofficial server, where you can fix every screwed of Dev decision through options and mods, but as it stands, only somebody who wants to be a slave in a Mega Company would want to be on official. I'm actually having a reasonable good time on an unofficial. The third issue is how broken so many things seem to be. You say that his is to be expected. I say BS. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that we didn't come here to battle modern navy ships with our 16th to17th century ships. That's what a SotD is. It's not what I am looking for, and I guarantee you that if they made an announcement that SotD were being removed from the game for good, a collective cheer would go up from the majority. It also doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that they were way too OP. Why start with them being so plentiful and so OP? What was to be learned from that? Why allow wolves to hit so hard when you are wearing full metal armor? Doesn't take a rocket scientist to know this is wrong. Why make the most necessary resource...fiber...so difficult to find. I cringe every time somebody says, "we need more fiber." It's just a total pain. It saps my enjoyment of the game. People are tired of EA being the excuse for every bad decision.

This is a Brigantine. Modern, but has all the characteristics. The Bowsprit...on the front of the ship, which allows for the 3 triangular sails, which are front to back, the Flying Jib, The Jib (or inner jib), and the Fore Stay Sail. This could be added in one piece, as either the Bowsprit, or the Jib. Or two pieces with those names. Makes the ships look better, and more iconic.

With the skill tree, the abomination that it is, not everyone has a blunderbuss, and so for many, that's not an option. To be honest, however, I haven't really looked for it yet. I will give a look now, however.

Oh yeah, and the Alphas, they don't enhance the game at this point. They are a nuisance. For instance, I was traveling on foot across the large island we are on. I was near the coast, on an area that had a lot of rock, and an alpha snake appeared out of nowhere, and hit me before I could even react. As a result, I lost everything I had on me. At times, it feels near impossible to move from one spot to another because of the hyper aggressive and strong predators that are literally everywhere. It is sapping the fun from the game. It isn't that this happens, it that it happens so regularly.

You aren't playing the same game, then. I had full metal armor on, and wolves nearly kill me, and I am a level 42. The pistols work good, and it is best to have two loaded at all times, but if you miss against a high level wolf you are dead. My issue isn't with the wolf's damage, it's with the lack of protection in metal armor. Metal armor should just about negate the bites of Lions, and Wolves. I've also noticed that wolves and lions will randomly run away from me, but there is no rhyme or reason to this. I had a lvl 38 run from me, but then a level 14 came at me like a hell hound, not 5 minutes later. My other issue is that the sneak skill isn't very useful. We tested it, and there is very little difference in how animals aggro to you. Not enough difference to warrant wasting points on it. I would like my Ghillie suit, thanks. Of course we wouldn't need them if the animals didn't aggro from such long range. I have stood on a rock, looked around, saw no wolves or lions, even using the spyglass, and so I get down, start mining the rock, and as I finish, I turn to find another rock only to see a wolf charging me so fast, I barely have time to get a weapon out to shoot it. The glitchy way they move when close to can also make them hard to shoot. I will deal with that, but it's the way they aggro from such long range that bothers me. I have also learned to take the hit from them, in order to get a better shot. By this, I mean, learn to not panic and don't shoot as fast as you can. If they are too close to you, charging you for a bite, the bite will make you turn a bit, making your shot miss...so take the hit, and as you bounce back, line up the shot and shoot. Take the hit, line up shot and shoot. This is not as effective against 2 wolves, as you are often near death from just one wolf. The optimal situation is to be on top of a large rock so they can't get to you, but if you don't see them first, this is unlikely to happen. Simply put, their aggro ranges need to be reduced...a lot. This may not be realistic, but then it doesn't take a lot of arrows to the face to make an animal stop attacking. Unless it's rabid, or trapped, one arrow into it, anywhere is going to make it stop attacking.

I would be the first to agree that you don't want every object to clip into or under the mesh, but the basic structures are different. And part of the need has to do with the snap points, at times. The reason I was having to do this, is because we were trying to make a taming pen/trap. While yes, you can use a dino gate...ramps also work, and better when one person is doing this. We have used this method on flatter ground, but the issue is that you have to place foundations out from the wall so that you can use roof tiles as a ramp. A fix would be to allow those tiles to snap to the top of a wall and go down, as an option, as opposed to only going up. Only half stairs go down from the top of a wall. A good fix would be to allow an option for the roof tile to be a ramp. Let's not even get into the fact that taming itself is not challenging, it's frustrating, with the way you MUST use a taming pen to tame, and the clipping of the animal's head into structures means that sometimes, you simply can't feed it. They need to remove the need to get to the mouth to feed, unless they want to fix their collision system so that you can actually get to the mouth. Also, that doesn't work for anything but single player, in YOUR game.ini file, right? Does this even have a single player? Anyway...for that to work, the server owner has to put it into the server's .ini file, right?

1. We are talking about real Pirates. Real Pirates did not prefer a fight, and modified their ships to be stealthier and faster. They tipped their ships more often than the Royal Navy did...a lot more often. Why? Speed. Speed is life. They did these things so they could avoid a fight with the Government Navies. And the whole point of raising the Jolly Roger...The Black, was to give the opposing ship the opportunity to cooperate. This is true for all pirates. They are after the cargo, not a fight. How they act, however, is dependent upon how the governments, and companies they are raiding, act. In Asia, it is possible they fought more, if the code their was a lifetime of dishonor for losing a ship to pirates. I have not researched the pirates of that area of the world...just the Caribbean Pirates. The point here, is that the game can reward and encourage this type of play, through that reputation system. The one that even you agreed would be good. The point here is that gamers do what works, and stop doing what does not work. I have seen this time and again over decades of gaming. I have seen a Devs hard work be made pointless, because the Dev team didn't take into account that, for instance, a turret on a bomber will not be used, if it can't destroy an enemy plane, and the enemy planes won't respect it if it is not a danger to them. 2. Your and You're To help you since I like you. 3. A PvP game is more fun when it's actually PvP. Have you noticed that you can't just claim somebody's territory that has a building on it, with somebody sleeping inside? You have to actually kill them. That is at least a step in the right direction. ORP should be a thing. It can be set differently. On most servers, it did not prohibit offline raids, but it did make it a whole lot more expensive. The defensive turrets get a buff, and structures get a buff. Once you log back on, that buff goes away. The enemy is not unaware of the buff, and they are not unaware when it is deactivated. If you prefer PvP, and not PvE disguised as PvP, you would be advised to bend a little further. 4. You do not need skill trees to enhance trading and bartering. You need what's already in the game, along with more incentives to trade based on YOUR Island having what others need, but not having everything you need. These skill trees do nothing but limit what you can do. So I will only play on an unofficial server that boosts you skill points so that you aren't locked into a small area of the game, which means I have more fun. I already see the handwriting on the wall...the official servers will be a mess of restricted gameplay, and toxicity. Those who actually want to enjoy the game will avoid it. 5. People did not come here to play ARK. They came for the ships. If the Devs fail to understand this, it will end up being a niche game with small community. The more you keep people off those ships, the less inclined they will be to play it. That would be like keeping people off T-Rexes, Gigas, Wyverns, and Quetzals. People would have stopped playing. Taming them was somewhat challenging, but not frustrating. It didn't take you long to get them. At least not on unofficial servers. Making them take long on official simply punishes those who come to the game late. The problem is thinking you can mix Single player game time progression with an MMORPG. If you are going to do that, you better have some New Player Servers for people to level up on, before they go to the main arena. 7. No, Rafts do not carry much. Three people on a raft with their combined hauls equals that raft isn't going anywhere. We always have to dump part of our loads on the ground. Even with boosting the carry weight of the raft. Even if we all use our own raft, this is the case. But that's realistic. You aren't going to carry much metal on a raft. Then you add in that you go with the wind going from one spot on the island, to fighting the wind on the return trip. And how will that help us, since our base is in the middle of a large island. Still takes a lot of trips to get everything to the base, from our port area? We thought about taming elephants, but pray tell, how do you get any animal onto a ship? Elephants are not on our Island. This game is a long way from Prime Time. 8. The PvE ships should have been Pirate ships with something distinct about them that makes them recognizable. In addition, for the Pirates in the crowd, there should be NPC Merchants to chase and sink, with them even giving up randomly if they take enough damage. Those SotD should still be more rare than they are, as they are not something anyone is going to fight right now. Have you seen the HP on them? A red one was camped outside the bay that one of our Allies use to build ships. It was level 30 with over 100,000 HP. Most people couldn't even sink that with a well crewed Galleon. It's like fighting a modern warship with your 17th Century Sailing ship. It's a little bit stupid...or maybe a whole lot stupid. When H.O.D. says they are OP, you know they are a lot OP. 9. I am OK with PvP on the water, so long as it makes sense, and if the water also contains NPC ships indistinct from the player ships, it will make it easier for normal players to get to and from without PvP, when they aren't interested in it. The issue is really that your ship, when anchored near you Island, is a sitting duck with no ability to defend itself. If you set up in a narrow bay, the opposing side will take cannons to shore, and set them up where your bow or stern are facing. If the ship pivots on its anchor to bring the cannons to bear, the guys on your ship will open up with your ship's cannons. But, the other issue is that if you get sunk on the sea, more often than you don't, people will stop using ships to transport anything. You have agreed that trading and bartering will be good for the game. To do that, you need to get to the destination and back, more often than not. Much more often than not. That's just a fact.

A good suggestion would be to put all of the Megas on the same server. Make the other server(s) for smaller Companies, and limit their size. I do know I will stop buying these kinds of games if they only cater to large streamers. Another thing would be for gamers themselves to wake up and stop playing the role of slave just to be involved with the streamer. You are in effect, agreeing to be the house boy for some low level celebrity. I would think that most men would have enough pride in themselves than to allow themselves to be a slave.

Seems many here don't know what S+ is, or what it's benefits are.

Which is why I found that the best game experience was on unofficial servers that had rules governing game play. PvP was allowed, and even encouraged, but killing tames, especially passive tames, just to kill them, is discouraged. Base wiping just to base wipe, is discouraged. In most of those servers, if you pissed off enough people, they would ally, and wipe you. Call it, PvP with a Gentleman's sense of fair play. And it's not a bad thing, because you don't really want to run people off. Empty servers are boring. I left containers inside the base unlocked, so they realize they can save their C4, and I keep what they didn't take. I mean, if they are in, they are in and they are taking what they want. I saw no value in locking those containers. It just means that even what they were willing to leave behind, is now going to be gone too, if they have to blow up the container or crafting station to get into it.

That is why I suggested throttles specifically designed to limit, and even break up Mega Companies. I think there is a reason that unofficial servers exist, and their numbers dwarf official servers, and that has to do with lack of vision on the part of the Devs.

Well, as I have pointed out in several posts, they don't seem to have a good vision. First, let's start with an economy. If you want an economy, the game has to have many throttles in place to control PvP. You can't have ships constantly going down if you want an economy. People are here to sail those ships to distant islands. If this is too hard to accomplish...if they are bullied by the largest orgs, the largest orgs will be the only people playing in a year. People WILL NOT grind and grind for a ship, only to lose that ship easily. If they routinely lose their ships, they will stop caring about those ships. That will be death for this game. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand that. This is actually why so many people have spent significant money to back Star Citizen. They seem to be the only company that understand the needs required for a robust economy, and PvP, and how there has to be repercussions that increase exponentially for PvP, and that not all PvP is equal, and thus the repercussions shouldn't be equal. I would like to see this game develop a similar mindset.

Boats are not worthless and if we want to see a robust economy system, we will need to move away from a pure PvP mindset. Ships are not worthless, and thus the title of this thread. Do not underestimate how attached many people will be to their boat. For the game to be MORE interesting, you need people to care MORE about their ship, not less. The ship needs to be an investment. It is the way in which you do business in a game with an economy, and a lot of water that needs to be crossed in order to do business.

1) No, this is not true. I know you are not dumb, but you aren't using the critical thinking, I am sure you are capable of. You DO NOT need these ships to be destroyed A LOT. You just don't. Pirates didn't even want to sink ships. They wanted the cargo. Sinking your ship was punishment for not cooperating. But you are correct that the number of ships does need to be controlled in some manner. Best way? Taxes. You pay a tax on your ship. The more ships, the more the taxes, and this increases exponentially with each ship, regardless of company size. The size of your ship would also affect how much it causes the taxes to increase. The big companies will squeal and whine, but be honest with them that they are trying to strike a balance, and encourage medium and large companies, while discouraging ultra small and ultra large companies. They can also make this tax affect alliances, such that small companies can form an alliance and still be OK, but large companies cannot split into several companies and form an alliance. Now how would taxes be enforced? Well, a new form of SotD could be created, but these would be larger Galleons that are OP, and they constantly hunt you down for not paying taxes. Or, a more fun way would be for flyers to pop up. Bounties. If you accept the bounty as an Admin or Owner, your Company now has an Offensive and Defensive buff against the offending Company's assets. A significant buff that would encourage you to go on the offensive, and even form a temporary alliance to do so, if necessary. 2) Thank You. 3) Sorry, disagree with you. It isn't safety, it is good gameplay we are after. Grinding should not be the focus of the game, and forcing that is a sign of lazy Devs. 4) You simply want something different than most people, and that's OK. We will not all agree. Most people agree that they do not want to be permanently locked out of a majority of the game, and DO NOT want to be forced into Mega Companies just to be able to play the game. As it stand now, I am level 40, and do not have nearly any skills I need in order to enjoy the game. I AM NOT going to help fund a game that forces me into a small part of the game. And some of these things, you just aren't going to do often enough to warrant spending the points on them. You ARE going to be constantly attacked, and so we are forced to spec into combat and sacrifice trade skills, and carry weight, etc.. If they go in the direction you want to go, YOU will be safe at sea, because you will be the only one there. 5) This was an option. People like you simply don't think things through. You want ships to sink in high numbers, but then want the skill tree, and resource gathering to be so punitive, that ships simply won't be built enough for them to go down in high numbers. Think Man! Think! You can't have it both ways. Ships either need to sink less, or they need to be built more..CHOOSE ONE. 6) That is at least better than going to bed and finding your ship destroyed upon your return, because an AI protection can never actually protect. 7) Depends on where you do the building. Where we built, people were constantly PvPing, and we spend as much time repairing what was built, as actual building. Also, we moved to a non official, which also has the 3x harvest, but also a slight boost in skill points, and we have to travel significant distances on a large island, to find some of the resources we need. With no large carry weight Dinos to help, this is no easy chore. Rafts can't carry much. Sorry, but you are just plain wrong. Those building fast have large Companies. The majority want to play in a group between 6 to 12 people. They want to game with friends, not strangers. They do not want to be forced to trust, or follow people they do not like or trust. Force them, and they will find another game. Not like there aren't a ton of options in video games. 8 ) No...JUST NO. Why do you want them to be watered down? Sighting a SotD should make you crap your pants. The sight of one should make you immediately run the other way. Going after one should require teamwork, and large ships with a lot of guns. They NEED to be rare and very dangerous. If it gets to the point that anyone can take one down, they cease to be scary. 9) You will never get there with ships that are routinely sunk. This is common math, and why countries pursued pirates. Risk vs reward. Who is going to load up a ship with hard earned resources, if there is a better than average chance it will be sunk after leaving port? Common sense man. If you want a merchant system in place, you are going to have to accept that his game can not be all about pure PvP. It has to be PvEvP, with control mechanisms on the PvP aspect. 10) Thank You.

At present, there are many things that an owner needs to be able to limit to trusted players. At present, only the things you could limit on ARK, can be limited here. For instance, we had not decided on a name for our Brigantine, and a brand new recruit walked up to it and named it, "Ni--er Boat." This is actually how I know for certain that the ghost ships were intended to do a soft wipe. You see, I notified the Devs, and they did not immediately act on that to allow a name change. This was 4 days before the update that gave us the idiotic Ships of the Damned in crazy high numbers. 2nd way I know is that when the reports came in of the destruction, they did not immediately turn those ships off. Like it or not, they could have done that in minutes if they wanted to. 3rd was is the timing...right after they limited the skill tree. But I digress. Here are some things that you cannot lock players out of, that you need to. Helm Sails Retractable Ladders Specific Beds Cannon Firing Certain Crafting stations Interacting with specific tames etc... Needs to happen.

What would be better is to have servers that limit Company size, and limit the impact of large tribes. I have already suggested a reputation system that would limit the impact of a large company, and in fact, discourage large companies, as much as the game mechanics already discourage solo play. Obviously, this is something that would need to be think-tanked, but it is worth doing. Meta gamers ruin games, and I personally believe that sometimes, developers need to tell these large Groups, just because the mechanics allow something, doesn't mean we do. Do not do this or we will punish you for doing so. This might, for instance be...do not split up your large company, and act as one company. They actually know when you do this. That was the problem with the 6 man servers. The problem was that they did not lock players out of one or the other. You could take you character to the 6 man, and then back to the new ones. Your ACCOUNT should have been locked into one or the other, whining about be damned. Just like it was a cop-out for them to not address the pillar spam on PvE servers, and I suspect these guys...Grapeshot...will make that same mistake. The flags are largely a PvP mechanic, but it needs to be adjusted for PvE. Limit each Company to 2 or 3 flags. Maybe do it like this. 2 flags labeled as home flags, which allow you to have a base inland, and a port. Then allow one expeditionary flag per other island, and these CAN be destroyed by other players, and there is nothing you can do about it. Those expeditionary flags are just for tax collecting. If not destroyed by other players, have them randomly decay. Make a very random timer. It could literally decay 10 minutes after you place it, or last a week. As it stands, one player could literally take over the whole map, and that's just being lazy on the Dev's part. PvE players pay their money for the game, so the mechanics should not be treated as an afterthought. Another thing they can do is force the Mega Companies onto one server. They want epic...give them epic. As they add servers, do this, and manage it, and add servers for large Companies, and medium companies, and yes, even one for the 6 man companies. Do not allow accounts to play on more than one. Accounts...not characters.

LOL, seems I touched a nerve. But, no replies because you know it's true.

Scam? LOL You can go on their site and see exactly what is being worked on, and what is not, and what percentage of tasks on each thing is done...for instance, 45/53 tasks complete. All you prove is that you don't know what you are talking about when you say things like that..so yeah, let's just stick with something you might know a little bit about. But yeah, LIKE Star Citizen is already providing, this game will be better with consequences for actions.

From another conversation....Raiding bases, ships, etc...that belong to players who are offline, is NOT PvP. It's PvE. But in this case, the level designer is another player, not a professional level designer at the game studio. So, in my experience, a good single player game played on the higher difficulty settings, presents far more challenge. Defeating turrets in ARK was boring. Just a process that everyone knew. While some players were better "level designers," the fact remains that it was predictable. Unlike in a single player level you haven't played before, the AI in a game like ARK, and likely this game also, is known and predictable, and so the methods to defeat it are completely known. Use Stegos to soak turrets, because you know what the max ammo is. Or, grab your Flak, beer, shields, and C4. Known procedures that if followed, make the AI nothing more than a delay of the inevitable. I know some will be offended over this, but you know it's true. And, you know that ORP would end the predictably easy raids. New player protection would also enhance PvP, because you know as well as I do, that a new Company with players in cloth and boys, is no match for your metal armor, guns, swords, cannons, etc...which equals pointless...no challenge. But I digress...

And again, it would not be hard to have a form of ORP in this game. It already exists for this game engine. But it can also be done in other ways. I mentioned some of them, and I also acknowledged that the freeport being a safe zone does not mean you have to have hundreds of ships sitting there. If it is a safe zone, and you are offline, the ship can be despawned after a while. It doesn't have to sit there forever. If need be, random thick fog can roll in regularly, and during that time, the offline ships disappear. No there is less immersion breaking.

No dumb dumb. I want ORP for Atlas. I want people to actually PvP, not PvE and convince themselves they are Uber PvPers. Get it now? And no, even Star Citizen is going to have ORP. How is this handled? When you leave your ship at a landing pad, and log off, the ship eventually disappears. Done when nobody is actually looking. When you log back on, you go to a terminal and request your ship to be delivered to the landing pad. When you go to the pad, there it is. Even now, in true Alpha state, there is truly intense PvP action. But the game is also going to have a more realistic set of repercussions. You act like an Outlaw, you are designated an outlaw. There will be two types of space, lawful and lawless. You aren't truly safe in either, but you are safer in the one you align with. And it's not just ships. That's just the tip of the iceberg, as it will have everything. Those who want more PvE than PvP, so the Mine, do Cargo, Science stuff, Medical stuff, Salvage, Exploration, etc...but it also has Marines, etc... You are a person, and what you do is up to your...fly, fight as a soldier, mine, etc...much like this game could do also, with the right mechanics. All I want is true PvP action, not logging off, just to see that somebody who knows the proper steps, like 90% of the players, simply targeted my group, and easily bypassed the AI to remove our ship from the game. And yes, AI is always easy to bypass. It's the reason most PvP players say they prefer the PvP side of a game that also includes a single player side, which means battling AI. The game is pointless if people mostly avoid actual PvP, by instead engaging in PvE action, targeting bases where the owners are offline. Once again...that's not PvP, it's PvE. True PvP players should be demanding ORP, so that the PvP aspect is actually preserved.

Wrong! Says the guy who has no clue how much ORP enhanced PvP action. Let me clue you in, Sport. When you raid a base where the occupants are all offline, you aren't actually PvPing. You are actually PvEing, with the only difference being that other players set up the E (Environment) for you, not a level designer at the game development company, which also means it is likely to be less challenging than a good single player experience created by a professional. My experience with it is that it is boring. Follow the prescribed steps, and the pathetic AI is easily overcome. Yeah, that's the kicker...Ai in a PvP game is more of an afterthought, and so less challenging than a modern single player game on the harder modes. Keep raiding the assets of offline players, while they are asleep, and convincing yourself that this is actually a challenge.

I feel pretty certain they have some merchant mechanics planned. We are on a pretty big island in an unofficial server, and there are some villages and ports that have ambient crowd noises there. I am assuming that they will end up being areas to do business with NPCs.