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Weapons weapons weapons
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As it stands, ARK is a fun game, but it falls into the slump that most games do when they give you 'tiers' of equipment, there's no reason to go back and play with the old stuff. Once you get to X weapon you've pretty much hit the 'best' you can get. Personally that's not how I think a surival game, or any kind of game with character customization should play. I always believe there should be a plethora of weapons amongst all tiers and styles with their own benefits and drawbacks to support you to play with whatever fashion you want. Maybe you don't like guns and you wanna be a badass and hunt with a bow? Well you should be able to without sacrificing 95% of your damage. Obviously the more the better, but a few suggestions I had in mind.

Railgun (HIGH Damage, Low Rate of Fire, Long Reload, Surprisingly Low Ammo Cost)

Modernized Crossbow (Upper Mid Damage, Lower Mid Fire Rate, Lower Mid Reload, Uses Arrows)

Minigun (Low Damage Per Round, HIGH Rate of Fire, Long Reload, Low Ammo Cost But High Need)

Rail-Pistol (Lower High Damage, Upper Low Rate of Fire, Longer Medium Reload, Low Ammo Cost)

Anti-Tank/Rex Rifle (DEVASTATING Damage w/ AoE, Low Rate of Fire, LONG Reload, High Ammo Cost)

Tactical Battle Rifle (Think Longneck with multiple shots, lower damage, medium fire rate, and longer reload)

Knives/Throwing Knives/Tomahawk [Not sure if possible] (High enough damage to take down smaller dinos/people in 2-3 hits but pretty useless on mid to large dinos, obviosuly have to get close)

Blowgun (Large Quick Acting Torpor, Near No Damage, Low Range)

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Armors
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ARK doesn't have a whole lot of choices for your protection, for the most part the only reason to even pick anything other than the highest tier you can make is just for the insulation benefits which don't really make enough of a difference to actually help as it stands. Let's see some choices that give people a 'designation' for what they're going to be suited up for. This might not be possible with the current tools available but here's what I'd like to see.

Heavy Combat Armor - More like what they show you in the start up banner where it's more of a tactical, bullet-proof vest kind of thing rather than strapping metal plates all over your body. (Though yes that has its place) Wearing an armor like this should slow you down a bit and make you less maneuverable, but give you that extra layer of tankiness you need to still be effective.

Light Combat - Like the heavy armor, but with a few less layers. This armor is more for your people who are gonna kite their enemies and try to outrun them. It still offers a bit more protection than just running around in plain leather or something, but not much, but it does let you continue to actually run around.

Medium Armor - Your indecisive middle ground. Not too tanky, and not too speedy. Just enough of both worlds to feel comfortable roaming around and doing whatever chores you need to do without feeling like you're about to get shot once and die.

Taming Outfit - Just a nice little get-up that helps you out with the critters. I'm thinking an outfit with little containers of who-knows-what to help you make that dino think you're its new momma.

Tribal/Decorative Armor - Something for all those primitive tribes or people looking to make an appearance. Maybe you could put baby trike skulls on your shoulders and it would make nearby trikes run in terror. (Only untamed ones obviously)

Again, this might not be possible, but it'd be cool to see a change that makes Flak/Chitin armor reduce damage from dinos fairly well, but not so much from guns, and vice versa for these.

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Decorations/Utilities
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Most bases look about the same. You get your walls up, either a dino pen or you shut them away from the world forever, and then you toss up a few spikes, maybe some lights and turrets if you're a rich ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, and that's about it. There's not a whole lot more you can do for your base beyond that besides change the colors. I wanna see some items to give bases a bit more flare. Have dino skulls you can hang from the walls, bones you can use as decorations, maybe mount some of those guns I mentioned earlier and have differently equipped combat stations for different situations. The possiblities here are pretty much up to whatever you can think of.

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More Traps
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It'd be great to have a way to keep that rex you just lead back to your base to tame in place without having to get up on some perch and hope it doesn't smash it down. Obviously the traps shouldn't keep it there permanently unless they're really high tier, but something simple like a bear trap, a trip wire, a cage you lead it into and then lock the door. Any of these kinds of things would make taming that little bit more of a tactical plan than just kiting and hoping it doesn't bite you long enough to lodge 1000 arrows in it.

That's about all I've got for now that I think MIGHT be possible. The rest of it's just stuff that will have to wait to see what kind of tools become available. If you take any of these ideas into consideration then thanks, and I'd love to hear which ones or any feedback, cheers :)!

I have a request that I've been told is extremely easy to do, just requiring dilligent work. So, you are the perfect person to ask, seeing your work already. I'd like dinos to have different colored eyes. Now doing this for EVERY SINGLE THING would probably take forever, so I'd like to narrow it down to rideable carnivores: T-Rex (This is the main reason- Imagine an albino rex with blue eyes, instead of the fireballs of death), Raptor, Spino would be nice, and anything else you feel generous enough to include. Thanks for your time!

someone did a naked model mod, you should look into that...it be cool if it was part of your mod

Thinking you could probably change the way death alerts work, since it mostly isn't reliable to see big red letter at the top of your screen. Maybe like a little tab that keeps the deaths saved or something similar. Nice work on your mod and best of wishes!

Originally posted by Asherim:

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Weapons weapons weapons
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As it stands, ARK is a fun game, but it falls into the slump that most games do when they give you 'tiers' of equipment, there's no reason to go back and play with the old stuff. Once you get to X weapon you've pretty much hit the 'best' you can get. Personally that's not how I think a surival game, or any kind of game with character customization should play. I always believe there should be a plethora of weapons amongst all tiers and styles with their own benefits and drawbacks to support you to play with whatever fashion you want. Maybe you don't like guns and you wanna be a badass and hunt with a bow? Well you should be able to without sacrificing 95% of your damage. Obviously the more the better, but a few suggestions I had in mind.

Railgun (HIGH Damage, Low Rate of Fire, Long Reload, Surprisingly Low Ammo Cost)

Modernized Crossbow (Upper Mid Damage, Lower Mid Fire Rate, Lower Mid Reload, Uses Arrows)

Minigun (Low Damage Per Round, HIGH Rate of Fire, Long Reload, Low Ammo Cost But High Need)

Rail-Pistol (Lower High Damage, Upper Low Rate of Fire, Longer Medium Reload, Low Ammo Cost)

Anti-Tank/Rex Rifle (DEVASTATING Damage w/ AoE, Low Rate of Fire, LONG Reload, High Ammo Cost)

Tactical Battle Rifle (Think Longneck with multiple shots, lower damage, medium fire rate, and longer reload)

Knives/Throwing Knives/Tomahawk [Not sure if possible] (High enough damage to take down smaller dinos/people in 2-3 hits but pretty useless on mid to large dinos, obviosuly have to get close)

Blowgun (Large Quick Acting Torpor, Near No Damage, Low Range)

----------
Armors
----------
ARK doesn't have a whole lot of choices for your protection, for the most part the only reason to even pick anything other than the highest tier you can make is just for the insulation benefits which don't really make enough of a difference to actually help as it stands. Let's see some choices that give people a 'designation' for what they're going to be suited up for. This might not be possible with the current tools available but here's what I'd like to see.

Heavy Combat Armor - More like what they show you in the start up banner where it's more of a tactical, bullet-proof vest kind of thing rather than strapping metal plates all over your body. (Though yes that has its place) Wearing an armor like this should slow you down a bit and make you less maneuverable, but give you that extra layer of tankiness you need to still be effective.

Light Combat - Like the heavy armor, but with a few less layers. This armor is more for your people who are gonna kite their enemies and try to outrun them. It still offers a bit more protection than just running around in plain leather or something, but not much, but it does let you continue to actually run around.

Medium Armor - Your indecisive middle ground. Not too tanky, and not too speedy. Just enough of both worlds to feel comfortable roaming around and doing whatever chores you need to do without feeling like you're about to get shot once and die.

Taming Outfit - Just a nice little get-up that helps you out with the critters. I'm thinking an outfit with little containers of who-knows-what to help you make that dino think you're its new momma.

Tribal/Decorative Armor - Something for all those primitive tribes or people looking to make an appearance. Maybe you could put baby trike skulls on your shoulders and it would make nearby trikes run in terror. (Only untamed ones obviously)

Again, this might not be possible, but it'd be cool to see a change that makes Flak/Chitin armor reduce damage from dinos fairly well, but not so much from guns, and vice versa for these.

-----------------------------
Decorations/Utilities
-----------------------------
Most bases look about the same. You get your walls up, either a dino pen or you shut them away from the world forever, and then you toss up a few spikes, maybe some lights and turrets if you're a rich ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, and that's about it. There's not a whole lot more you can do for your base beyond that besides change the colors. I wanna see some items to give bases a bit more flare. Have dino skulls you can hang from the walls, bones you can use as decorations, maybe mount some of those guns I mentioned earlier and have differently equipped combat stations for different situations. The possiblities here are pretty much up to whatever you can think of.

----------------
More Traps
----------------
It'd be great to have a way to keep that rex you just lead back to your base to tame in place without having to get up on some perch and hope it doesn't smash it down. Obviously the traps shouldn't keep it there permanently unless they're really high tier, but something simple like a bear trap, a trip wire, a cage you lead it into and then lock the door. Any of these kinds of things would make taming that little bit more of a tactical plan than just kiting and hoping it doesn't bite you long enough to lodge 1000 arrows in it.

That's about all I've got for now that I think MIGHT be possible. The rest of it's just stuff that will have to wait to see what kind of tools become available. If you take any of these ideas into consideration then thanks, and I'd love to hear which ones or any feedback, cheers :)!

Also im just quoting this because I really think you should read this. 10/10 most things here

One thing I would like to see but not even sure if it is possible would be dinosaur scale to level, so a low level dinosaur would be smaller than its higher level counterpart, this way when we do come across a truly high level dinosaur we will know it.

Also it would be good to see re-worked recipes for ammo and cementing paste, either make ammo cheaper or return a higher quantity per craft, but I definitely think cementing paste should be cheaper to craft.

I have definitely seen the posts on weapons and armors, and I have those in my "plans". A dedicated modeller would be HIGHLY appreciated though.

As for the change in cementing paste and ammo, I did very much want t ochange those up, but when it comes to mass quantitites of bullets and explosives for pvp, I don't think that is something I should be messing with. Killing another "survivor" should be alot more work then just hitting an ant, then making 1-2 gunpowder.

I was more thinking along the lines that the current amount or materials to make 1 bullet is a bit unrealistic as we currently use 1.6kg of mats to make a 0.1kg bullet. You have already mentioned that you are looking into the armors, why not make them more impervious to bullets than conventional weapons. Then looking at some of the wepon ideas, if you plan on adding alot of those are you turning the game into a 1st person pvp shooter with an inconvienient dino about? If you are so concerned about the mass production of bullets add sulphur to the game and make it a rare harvest from rocks, this would limit bullet production.

I would greatly appreciate a bit of tweaking of Dino AI so maybe the small to mid herbivores would steer clear or run away on sight of mid to large carnivores instead of just sitting there waiting to be attacked.

A Ghillie Suit Item Skin for Armor!

A Ghillie would be awesome! I'll definitely have to do some research to find out what can be done.

Oh a Katanna would be awesome too! And a Carbon Fiber Sword too!

Or a Carbon Fiber Pike with Obsidian Head.

Fabricated CrossBow!

Maybe Extend the Duration of Shadow Steak from 2 Mins to 5 mins? The same with the Battle Tartar?