Real's Compilation of Suggestions
Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2015 1:29 pm
Well, I have decided to make a compilation of suggestions for game features for this wonderful game in development. I have spent the majority of my time(which I will admit is very lacking compared to most of the ark community) playing on PvE servers, so I may be limited on suggestions going towards the PvP side of the game, although I do communicate with players and use other people's suggestions. I should be updating and formatting this pretty regularly, but I may not with upcoming school as well as work, etc. I apologize for any repeated suggestions or suggestions for planned features.
As a disclaimer: As I am sure the developers are aware, none of these features are as important as basic functionality in the game. I would much rather have a steady 40 fps and servers that don't disconnect players at every xx:07 and xx:37 of every hour than any of these features, although many of these features should not effect framerate and should be pretty easy to craft if the developers so choose. I'm sorry for the long read, but I'll go ahead and dive right in.
The Suggestions:
Chat:
Customizable/More Channels: I'm not really sure what exactly I'm looking for here, but allowing admins to create and edit channels in their server or making some base channels in chat could be nice.
Ignore List: Well, as a fact of all online chatting, sometimes the chat will get cluttered with people talking about irrelevant things or arguing, etc. It would be a lot easier with the ability to just block the user, but I'd probably recommend that not apply to local chat.
Private Messaging: There is currently no private messaging system other than local and going through steam, so adding one would be good for trading on PvE, etc.
Scrolling Issues: When scrolling through the chat, new messages will reset your scrolling. It would be nice if there were a way to avoid this like a timer on how long it has been since they hit pageup/pagedown or a slight shift in text instead of resetting completely.
Gameplay:
Carbonemys Taming: I have found that taming a Carbonemys takes quite awhile when these dinosaurs have pretty low functionality. I don't know if the devs would rather add functionality or lower tame time, but it's up to them which if either on what to do.
Mailbox: This would be a storage container that things can only be removed by the owner while other players can deposit. Maybe other players could remove with a pin code if there was a private message system, etc. This would mainly be for traders.
Pteranodon Animation: A user in the server I play on mentioned that it would be cool if there was an animation for Pteranodons going down to catch fish. This could be a little bit complicated and it's purely just for making the game look good, so I completely understand and recommend that this not be added until much later if at all.
Taming Strategies: Well, as the game has progressed, many taming strategies have come forward. There's taming by starving at the beginning as well as spamming stimulant and narcotics, etc. Some dinosaurs could prefer to be tamed in different ways, and they'd tame faster whichever way. This is a pretty random idea that could be difficult to implement, but it wouldn't be very hard with some of the preference stuff already in.
Tribe Alliances: This is pretty self exclamatory. It would be nice to have alliances that had terms sort of like the governance system that's currently in place for tribes. The Owners of the tribes could decide if admins could break the alliance or only themselves, etc.
Tribe Wars: Basically just a list of tribes your tribe is at war with.
Waterskin Drainage: I didn't notice this when I was first starting, but I have found that the waterskins often drain completely before I get dehydrated(I haven't upgraded water at all), which practically defeats the purpose. I understand that this is somewhat intended, but the drainage rate does seem a little bit too high.
Inventory:
CTRL + Drag Problem:In the inventory, I have found that if I try to use CTRL + Drag very quickly(to separate meat for example), sometimes the game will put some of the items in my hotbar. This may be because of little mouse movement or some other issue, and it may not be an issue at all, but it does bother me at times when I realize I have had my last few hotkeys filled with single stacks of raw meat. Some possible quick fixes would be to add a split into equal stacks button or key(although cluttering the GUI is probably not good), to simply change the method of adding items to the hotbar, or to look into the cause of the problem of the problem a little more(because my research is lacking) and find a different fix.
Take All Items From Inventory: I have found that sometimes I accidentally press take all items instead of take item or drop item, and I was surprised to notice that there is no warning for taking items. Specifically, I was in the middle of taming a Stegosaurus when I did this, and it happened to be exactly xx:36, and I was disconnected right after taking the items, and the Stegosaurus I had spent 3 hours taming already was completely untamed when I made it back. It's not much of an issue if the lag is not bad though.
Selecting Multiple Items: I have found that going through multiple stacks of items at the same time can be time consuming. This suggestion is to add the simple feature of selecting multiple items at once. In windows, the way to do this would be CTRL + Left Mouse, as well as CTRL + A, but, I acknowledge that the former of the two is occupied with a different key. Although this much is true, I believe that this game is in development, and it would be fine to rearrange keys because I see this as an important feature.
Splitting/Dropping Items: I as well as other players have found that splitting or dropping items would be easier if you could define the amount of items you want to drop on your own. This suggestion is just to add a little interface or something to drop or split x amount of items.
Addressed Issues:
Website:
Automatically Saving Drafts
BBCode
Draft Management
Inconveniently Placed Buttons
Sorry for the long read again, but I appreciate it. Thank you for reading.
[This isn't complete in any way, so I'll add on as I think of things. I don't want to go steal suggestions that are already posted here, so I haven't looked at any of those. I appreciate replies or suggestions below if you would like me to add anything]
As a disclaimer: As I am sure the developers are aware, none of these features are as important as basic functionality in the game. I would much rather have a steady 40 fps and servers that don't disconnect players at every xx:07 and xx:37 of every hour than any of these features, although many of these features should not effect framerate and should be pretty easy to craft if the developers so choose. I'm sorry for the long read, but I'll go ahead and dive right in.
The Suggestions:
Chat:
Customizable/More Channels: I'm not really sure what exactly I'm looking for here, but allowing admins to create and edit channels in their server or making some base channels in chat could be nice.
Ignore List: Well, as a fact of all online chatting, sometimes the chat will get cluttered with people talking about irrelevant things or arguing, etc. It would be a lot easier with the ability to just block the user, but I'd probably recommend that not apply to local chat.
Private Messaging: There is currently no private messaging system other than local and going through steam, so adding one would be good for trading on PvE, etc.
Scrolling Issues: When scrolling through the chat, new messages will reset your scrolling. It would be nice if there were a way to avoid this like a timer on how long it has been since they hit pageup/pagedown or a slight shift in text instead of resetting completely.
Gameplay:
Carbonemys Taming: I have found that taming a Carbonemys takes quite awhile when these dinosaurs have pretty low functionality. I don't know if the devs would rather add functionality or lower tame time, but it's up to them which if either on what to do.
Mailbox: This would be a storage container that things can only be removed by the owner while other players can deposit. Maybe other players could remove with a pin code if there was a private message system, etc. This would mainly be for traders.
Pteranodon Animation: A user in the server I play on mentioned that it would be cool if there was an animation for Pteranodons going down to catch fish. This could be a little bit complicated and it's purely just for making the game look good, so I completely understand and recommend that this not be added until much later if at all.
Taming Strategies: Well, as the game has progressed, many taming strategies have come forward. There's taming by starving at the beginning as well as spamming stimulant and narcotics, etc. Some dinosaurs could prefer to be tamed in different ways, and they'd tame faster whichever way. This is a pretty random idea that could be difficult to implement, but it wouldn't be very hard with some of the preference stuff already in.
Tribe Alliances: This is pretty self exclamatory. It would be nice to have alliances that had terms sort of like the governance system that's currently in place for tribes. The Owners of the tribes could decide if admins could break the alliance or only themselves, etc.
Tribe Wars: Basically just a list of tribes your tribe is at war with.
Waterskin Drainage: I didn't notice this when I was first starting, but I have found that the waterskins often drain completely before I get dehydrated(I haven't upgraded water at all), which practically defeats the purpose. I understand that this is somewhat intended, but the drainage rate does seem a little bit too high.
Inventory:
CTRL + Drag Problem:In the inventory, I have found that if I try to use CTRL + Drag very quickly(to separate meat for example), sometimes the game will put some of the items in my hotbar. This may be because of little mouse movement or some other issue, and it may not be an issue at all, but it does bother me at times when I realize I have had my last few hotkeys filled with single stacks of raw meat. Some possible quick fixes would be to add a split into equal stacks button or key(although cluttering the GUI is probably not good), to simply change the method of adding items to the hotbar, or to look into the cause of the problem of the problem a little more(because my research is lacking) and find a different fix.
Take All Items From Inventory: I have found that sometimes I accidentally press take all items instead of take item or drop item, and I was surprised to notice that there is no warning for taking items. Specifically, I was in the middle of taming a Stegosaurus when I did this, and it happened to be exactly xx:36, and I was disconnected right after taking the items, and the Stegosaurus I had spent 3 hours taming already was completely untamed when I made it back. It's not much of an issue if the lag is not bad though.
Selecting Multiple Items: I have found that going through multiple stacks of items at the same time can be time consuming. This suggestion is to add the simple feature of selecting multiple items at once. In windows, the way to do this would be CTRL + Left Mouse, as well as CTRL + A, but, I acknowledge that the former of the two is occupied with a different key. Although this much is true, I believe that this game is in development, and it would be fine to rearrange keys because I see this as an important feature.
Splitting/Dropping Items: I as well as other players have found that splitting or dropping items would be easier if you could define the amount of items you want to drop on your own. This suggestion is just to add a little interface or something to drop or split x amount of items.
Addressed Issues:
Website:
Automatically Saving Drafts
BBCode
Draft Management
Inconveniently Placed Buttons
Sorry for the long read again, but I appreciate it. Thank you for reading.
[This isn't complete in any way, so I'll add on as I think of things. I don't want to go steal suggestions that are already posted here, so I haven't looked at any of those. I appreciate replies or suggestions below if you would like me to add anything]