Tried getting into Ark with my GF. Created a private server just for the two of us.
We did like the basic game (I mean, training and growing cute dinosaurs and riding on them, who wouldn't?!), but had to stop after a few sessions as it just became all too obvious that the game was not at all meant to be playable by just two people. At least not if those two people cannot spend more than an hour or two per day on it.
There is just waaaaaaayyyyy too much grind, plants take forever to grow, eggs forever to hatch, you have to eat seven whole animals a day just in order not to starve, etc. - and meanwhile even animals in the starting area kill you in like two bites. And you are constantly flinging shit around (seriously, we named one dinosaur "Gustav the pooper", the boy wouldn't stop shitting). It's altogether pretty absurd.

I know you can tweak all those values in the server manager, and I did to an extent. But when it comes to games, I'm definitely demanding a "dive in and enjoy" experience. The mere fact that with default settings I had to basically run to a berry bush every minute or kill an animal 2-3 times a day in the game in order not to starve was just too ridiculous and broke the game for me.

That was like a year ago. I doubt very much has changed since then.

Empyrion, a much better game IMO - even if still rather rough around the edges - allows you to achieve something much quicker with fewer people and is still very much a survival game where you have to be careful.
Oh, and you need to eat maybe two pieces of bread and a salami per day.

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Hahaha... oh, boy. When mobile devs attempt to put something on an actual gaming market (no matter if console or PC), it almost automatically goes horribly wrong.

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Yes, a step in the right direction.

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I tried playing this game, but that you have to design your own vehicle block by block like building something from the tiniest LEGO bricks was just too annoying.
I really don't like fiddling around like that.

In addition to that "full manual" mode they should offer a lot more pre-built ones and mix-and-match stuff like "prebuilt tank lower part", "prebuilt wings", etc.

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I last played it in Alpha 17 - it was really fun!
Think I'm going to wait a bit more before digging in again, though.

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Quoting: BeamboomThey will have to add a really, REALLY interesting story and locations for me to bother playing this alone. Sandbox games are just so lonely and meaningless to play all alone now that we're used to play them in company of friends.

I don't know. I think there would be room for a real survival game, where survival itself is an actual struggle to overcome. Not just "click berry bush to survive" as in all those recent games.
Like Unreal World, just... looking good and in realtime ;)

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Quoting: g000hDo you guys play Pixel Dungeon [External Link] ? I used to play it all the time on Android phone or tablet, but they changed it to include equipment deterioration, and it was a step too far for me.

I used to play it on my phone, too. It's fine on that, really, but compared to others on desktop platforms, it's very shallow. And the equipment deterioration was just too strong, as if everything was made from cardboard...

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Quoting: Kels

Quoting: TheSHEEEPDoing great, entering the fourth dungeon already, ready to explore? An enemy spawns that is just vastly overpowered for the region you spawn in. It just one-shots you.

I had that problem in ToME too. The worst it got was when they dropped a level 20 troll into the intro dungeon, designed for level 1-3 or so. Even if I got away from it, I was prevented from progressing further and would have been unprepared for the next dungeon anyway. But lesser versions of that happened with distressing regularity.

That's true, but in ToME you have lives to offset this randomness. Three to start with and you get a new life every 10 levels or so, it is simple but really a brillant little thing that can safe your playthrough from the odd overpowered enemy (and would work with traps if ToME had dangerous traps). And it is not so "strong" that it would make the game easy, you can still make plenty mistakes yourself that will cost you one life too much.

I wish every roguelike had that, especially ADOM ;)

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Quoting: BlodofferBut even the most unfairest of deaths is something that people cherish

What is wrong with people? ;)

Quoting: morphles(also food issiue you mention is nonsense/insexperience, jsut take class/race with food preservation and you should never run out of food, you can also buy food, and after certain point it becomes almost 100% non issue).

I'm sorry but that statement is nonsense.
As any true roguelike player, I pick everything at random and then go with the cards dealt to me. And usually, you do not get good food preservation combinations.
Buying food is also not possible since you are utterly broke throughout the entire early game. Just as an example, going to town after the introduction dungeon, you can afford what? 3 bread? Good luck with that.
Later, sure, but reaching late or even mid game is probably the hardest task of ADOM. Once you come that far, only few things are threatening still.

Of course, you can grind the first dungeons, but grind is the opposite of fun or getting better at a game. It is a literal waste of time. You waste time doing something that is not challenging (as you can only safely grind easy areas) therefore not improving your skill as a player, yields barely any rewards and actively prevents you from doing something you actually want to do (progress in the game).
I just don't understand why people like to waste their time, I guess. Which comes back to my question from above...

A bit unrelated, but:
Eating/drinking mechanics are usually not implemented well in games, ADOM is just one of many examples here.
The funniest must have been Ark where (at default settings) you must more or less eat constantly in order not to die. It's pretty hilarious, really.
But ADOM actually gets pretty close to that. With some characters you feel like you need to eat a whole animal every level of a dungeon, so like... after an hour of work or so. Absurd, really.
Unreal World does that pretty well, on the other hand.

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The thing about ADOM that always rubbed me the wrong way was the extreme and unfair randomness.
Having a good run? Getting nice equipment and leveling up well? Walk into a trap you couldn't have seen and die.
Found some nice gear in a dungeon? A few awesome spells? Just starve to death because no food spawned by sheer randomness.
Doing great, entering the fourth dungeon already, ready to explore? An enemy spawns that is just vastly overpowered for the region you spawn in. It just one-shots you.

It's a game where not only making mistakes can kill you, but just random things out of your control.

And that's not because it is a roguelike, but because it is IMO a bad one.
Others show how to do it much better: ToME4, Caves of Qud, Cogmind... hell, even Stone Soup (though that one's a bit simplistic).

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