The Problem with The Isle 

Thanks for the video! Liked the respectfull overview (like, not insulting us all the time, lol) I agree with everything, actually. Hope we can work to make a better game, cuz that is our main goal.

24:14 I am glad that my Bepi tea bag made it in

"Chatroom with dinosaur avatars" describes this game perfectly.

A true nature survival game should be entertaining even if you spend your entire session not seeing another player. A nature survival game needs to be 90% PvE, and simply monitoring your food and water levels isn't PvE. I doubt The Isle will ever figure out how to pivot into a true nature survival game. Good vid.

I think The Island should add a 4 stations rotation system (very common in the survival genre) to give the map other dangers besides fighting other players. For example: - Spring: There's a lot of vegetations, giving lots of camouflage and food everywhere, making the perfect (and only available) season for nesting. Players need to plan ahead, find a partner and a place to nest in time before harsher seasons came along. - Summer: Land drieds, making herbivores food spawn less and forcing them to roam the map to find it (promoting the herd migration system). Also, less foliage for carnivores to hide on and the water level decreases, making harder for crocodiles to swim. But is compensated by an increase in thirst, which makes the land dinosaurs more prompt to go for a sip of water. - Fall: If you are a flying type, this season is a nightmare. There's regular heavy storms that makes more hard to fly. Also, there's water everywhere. No way to avoid crossing rivers to move through the map. - Winter: Like summer but without the thirst. There's sudden drops in temperature at night that can take a toll in your health if you aren't very big or chubby. It can be countered by huddling with others to share warmth or staying in a nest until morning.

I really like your suggestion with PVE - Here are some things I am instantly drawn to - Weather / hot and cold dynamics with dry and wet phases (that has been done before and works to an extend) - random carcass/food drops from storms which spawns food corpses that got hit by fallen trees/ fallen fruit, broken logs with insects. - Dinosaurs get cold at night and need to warm up or find shelter / build nests / cuddle with their own kind especially smaller dinos. - Insectivores / Omnivore systems for juvenile dinosaurs that keeps you on your toes. Tree climbing etc for juveniles until they get too heavy. - AI events where random AI dinosaurs migrate / etc this could be interesting to utilize big Sauropods (or any other tank) that are literally migrating AI who influence the environment around them / creating mud, pushing threes, stomping players, leaving huge nests in the forest, providing food or resources by dropping foliage/nests etc. that show certain agression to apexes gettubg too close etc. - replace the hogs and rabbits with dinosaur AI. There are so many small uninteresting dinosaurs that could be used as NPCs that also could have modes like Nesting, Burrowing, Gathering, giving off alarm calls etc. - Make something that could put a challenge on playing apexes. Big apexes do not like to get injured because it can cause secondary issues / environmental hazards for apexes etc. Bipedal and heavy dinosaurs have bigger issues if breaking a leg etc. - almost dying gives you mutilation etc, signaling that you are slower/crippled etc. Apexes that are crippled are easier prey to other apexes. - Apexes that are meant to be played as loners get stressed if more than 2 adult apexes (breeding pair) are present. - For tanks/big herbivores adult males get stressed if there are too many adult males etc. Creating territory disputes. - Mutualism/Sybiosis between certain herbivore dinosaurs that benefit from one another. Big Herbis can drop food for smaller players / smaller players can spot carnivores early / pick off insects etc.

Hey, Smeasel here. been with the game consistently since June 2016 and i've gotta say this video rules. really well written and hits all the most, i repeat THE MOST important issues with the game. its refreshing to see someone tackle the things that actually matter instead of the bogus development speed qualms and playable character numbers. thank you for your hard work. whatever anyone says, just know that what you presented here was objectively correct.

honestly this hit the nail on the head and i'm so grateful and satisfied that someone was able to put my thiughts on this problem into words. great video, i hope it gets seen by who needs to see it

I dont know much about this game, but i think ur spot on about a good pve system solving a lot of its issues. Also it is VERY frustrating to see devs go and blame the players for skipping tedious parts of their game Anyway, fantastic essay, loved the little meme edits and drawings throughout.

This video literally speaks form my heart. As a former isle player I was so hyped when they announced evrima and thought finally they will update their game, make it better and flesh its gameplay out, now almost a decade after release it’s still has the same core problems as day one, it’s really sad.

You've done it. For years I've been trying to grasp what the problem was with this game and I just couldn't put it to words. The game is just boring. Players have always had to create their own entertainment. Don't get me wrong I love combat but spending hours growing something that you may or may not get to use sucks. And when you are growing it's a bush simulator. The diet system just made it more frustrating too. Thank you for making this.

I also want to suggest more realism aspects where players of different species work together in symbiotic relationships like birds and badgers and such. An idea I had was like a deinosuchus can't eat very well because they have food stuck between their teeth and like modern crocodiles, they seek out or allow smaller dinos like a pteradon or troodon to clean their mouth. And they both get a benefit as the small dino gets a little snack and the deino is clean and can eat food at full volume again. But that pulls away from the pvp aspect and gets players to work together.

For me, there's also the issue of carnivores not being able to find any food for me. Whenever I play carnotaurus as a juvenile I can't find food. I'm too small to hunt other players who have been playing longer so they are bigger than me and so whenever I go to fight the AI which is practically non-existent either die or they don't exist or they're too fast for me to catch. Plus the fact of the map is badly designed. I can't find anything. If I lose it say a deer runs into the jungle. I can no longer find it. It's just gone and sent. Doesn't do anything because the footprints just disappeared doesn't work. So the majority of the game is spent me restarting and restarting and restarting just to find an AI that I can eat so that I can then start growing and then eventually die to a player. Because you know bad diet you can't find food. The islands too big. There's nothing in the island

Ive been playing since 2019 when community servers in Legacy were really popular and at their peak. I adored the game and the servers I would play on bc they had /rules/ and the community those servers had focused more on a semi-realism playstyle with a community more interested in roleplaying. There were multiple hotspots so there was more of a incentive to go around the map trying to find where certain groups were, most herbivore groups were either at hidden lake or great falls and most carnivore groups were at the twin lakes and swamp if they werent following the herds. There were large herd migrations to different spots on the map once food bushes ran out or there were too many carnivores to safely nest and everyone had a balance (at least in the servers I played in). The problem is that it was because of the limitations that rules on how to play the game on in these servers was the only way you could get that sort of ideal version of the game the developers want. Servers would host events and focus on the community which the Devs just claim is on the fault of the players and not the base game. I don't think that servers would need to have as many rules on pvp if the game itself didn't have anything else to offer.

I think if either servers were made to support more players, and or they could add competent AI animals into the game, you can actually make it more of a survival experience like Ark, where in the early stages you are avoiding ai and players equally, forcing you to explore the map, and imagine putting higher tier animal AI in common hotspots, like if rex ai were present in the current center of Spiro to make the game more of a horror experience and challenge players who want to play in a more difficult environment.

Even though I don't like bob for the infinite growth and RNG traits, I will say I think it handles 'forcing people to move around' better. Forest fires, tornadoes, floods, storms, droughts, etc. the weather making me move is pretty exciting at times. Also the fact you can run out of food and water by draining resources makes migrating just happen naturally. I remember I'd go to a forest looking for food and see every tree stripped down, realizing a herd of Apatosaurus had gone through. It's a shame everything is a slog, but it beats collecting sticks to grow. But seeing how the isle can't even handle a boring copy-paste map of trees and grass without lagging out, I 100% doubt they'd ever be able to make forest fires, floods, tornadoes happen. I mean the Omni's pounce has been broken and buggy for 3+ years and it still keeps getting stuck in the air and they want to add humans and guns on top of many more playables? Like they even want Herrera to jump from tree to tree but given its size, there's no way in hell it's going to kill anything that anyone plays - it's going to have to wait for a player to run under it and have it jump down at the exact right time. And we all know how fast the Isle is - turning on a dime, teleporting around. It feels like a waste of resources if all the game has is PVP and expects people to spend hours in trees hopping around waiting for a player to meander into the forest. When we all know people are going into the fields. Like they always have. On every map everyone goes to the wide open areas so they can see and not get surprised as easily. Herrera is just going to be so bored sitting in those branches waiting for nothing. The devs never make you want to do anything, they force you to play their way. It's like they don't know what makes a game fun.

People tend to forget a game is supposed to be fun. A game should have various mechanics and some content. Just because something is niche doesn't mean its good.

Oh my goodness, this video absolutely gives voice and puts into words what I’ve felt about these games for a long time. I think these dinosaur sims should take a page from Rain World and focus on implementing AI controlled creatures with really convincing and intriguing behavioral patterns. If you’ve ever played Rain World, you’ll know what I mean. I think turning these games’ worlds into convincing, functioning ecosystems that one could immerse themselves in would go a *long* way to giving the experience some substance.

This was well made. Originally I was following the stomping lands when the lead dev ran away with the money. When I learned that a new team bought the assets from the stomping lands I thought finally someone would make a fun dinosaur game. Since then I have closely followed this game, but haven't really played it much. There was always some major issue that ruined the experience for me. I think the vision this game has is great, but the execution and design are lacking. It doesn't help that the devs and the community hate each other. Creature survival games have a very rough track record. The only devs that will risk investment in the genre are indie devs. Big studios are waiting for a trailblazer to set a standard for the market to follow. After all this time, I hope that game is the isle. Until it sinks or swims, I'll be here to watch it's progress.

Tbh, a lot of what people don’t want to realize is that the isle is also an rp game. Surviving means pack life/herd life. Interacting with members in the pack, establishing a balanced hierarchy, defending and claiming territory, that is all a part of survival. A game that captures this beautifully is Wolf Quest, and I’d love to see The Isle reference some of their mechanics in claiming territory and having real pack versus pack fights with a genuine purpose. I used to be in a full realism RP server and could spend 12+ hours on *legacy* just surviving and rping because it genuinely simulated a real pack that needs to survive. Edit: I also wanna add that rping doesn’t just entail standing and typing the entire time. It varies depending on the type of rp. I’ve been in strictly body language rp packs and both typing and body language. It’s really up to your play style as well!

Always great to see another veteran of the game give out some real banger criticisms about the game, it's really depressing how these problems have persisted for so long. Really good segment about the map design too. The devs being oblivious to why combat is such a focus of the playerbase genuinely annoys me, especially when they make changes that make this aspect of the game worse without actually giving anyone anything else to do to compensate.

Unpopular opinion but they need to incentivize growing and playing as unviable dinosaurs. The way I would do it is to add a spawn currency system. Whereby you earn tokens more or less depending on the prey animal you choose and you gain a small passive income (that would again vary) for every day you survive. Active tasks like getting a component of the diet, herding, migrating to new biomes, being active at night (if nocturnal) would give significant bonuses atop the passive income. Growth states would give a bonus to the passive income as well as a 1 time bonus per event, baby to adolescent to adult etc. Further growth states with combat buffs and new models to display their status. A further expansion on the nutrition system with exclusive high value dietary components spread out to the corners of the map that give far more nutrition and last much longer. Buffs and negatives for hearding / mix packing configurable by server admins. Carnivores would not get the passive income, they would get a percentage of the income their prey earned (but not subtracted from) their prey based on a power difference. The harder the target the higher that percentage, the older the target the more they are worth. Points would be rewarded to the pack that took down a target, 50% divided evenly to all members and the other 50% given to members based on direct damage dealt. Furthermore to even spawn in as a carnivore requires points (more or less depending on your choice) and while you can still gain points as a carnivore the fastest way to do so would be to play as a prey animal. Then much like in path of titans there would be upgrades / cosmetics to your characters that can be purchased through points. These upgrades would all have visible alterations so hunting animals could asses the risk if keen to observe. Upgrades made to you would also increase your base value to carnivores. Would you invest in your prey animal to make more points or save them and risk the bonuses you’ve gained by growing? Would you invest in your raptor to take on harder targets? Of course there needs to be end game content and that would be the hypos, they would cost an enormous amount of points to play as and would give an enormous amount to anyone who took them down. They are the point sink, and would gain no points during their gameplay. Humans would have 4 classes, veterinarians, ranger, poacher, and scientist. Veterinarians could actively heal any dinosaurs and give combat buffs. Scientists would gain points by studying flora and fauna and could give growth buffs, both would have the same mechanics point wise of prey animals, they would also not be armed. Poachers and rangers however would be and would gain points by poachers hunting dinosaurs and rangers hunting poachers, rangers would also gain points for population control with a bounty system if there are too many crocs, or stegos, etc. All equipment could be upgraded, new equipment could be purchased with points, and of course there would be cosmetics. Also like you suggested I’d add in some npc pve content, these creatures would only provide nutrition no points and have boring skin colors exclusive to them so players always stick out. They would consist of herding prey animals (that can be interacted with by playable prey animals for buffs / points) and carnivores that will hunt players to discourage afk growing (with a bias to go after easy prey that hasn’t moved in a while). Lastly there would need to be good map design and optimizations to make the whole thing enjoyable but that’s a given. That’s my take on it anyway.

>Be me, make a galli the first week i get the game. > hide in bushes the first night and eventually reach adulthood > gameloop eventually becomes mangos, explore, water, mangos explore water. > start to get catastrophically bored > go to twitch and ask chat and veteran players what do I do now? > response: "kick babies" > go back to playing Dieno

Out of curiosity, what sort of survival type things do you think dinosaurs did besides "walking, sitting, roaring, and fighting"?

Ooh, been a while since I sat down to watch a good Isle video essay. Looking forward to this. Probably gonna edit this comment with my thoughts once I finish the video. Edit: Okay, I was really scared this was just going to be another "Devs are stupid, add more dinos..." video, and I was very pleasantly surprised to see that this actually openly addressed a lot of issues that I often see the community ignore, or outright claim just aren't issues at all... This was a very good video from beginning to end, and I just want to add that I believe that Gateway and Sanctuaries will make a significant enough difference, and the Elders, Migrations, and Mutations will also go a long way in making players care much more about their creatures than simply to use in PvP, obviously, nothing can be guaranteed... but it still is a good sign that the devs are looking to implement mechanics that will directly counter the cornerstone issues with the game... Other than that... yeah, damn good video.

I think the only way to enjoy The Isle (unless you just wanna PvP) is to join a server with realistic RP rules. That way you actually feel like you're playing a dinosaur, and it makes the game 100x more interesting, rewarding and scary.

I was so ready to hear the usual complaints, and got absolutely blindsided by the choice in topic. I absolutely agree entirely, and I think this is the single most pressing issue that faces the animal survival genre as a whole. Edit: because I cannot enunciated just how on the head you hit this nail. I have played so many games in this genre, nearing up on a decade now, and so many of them have this same issue. I really think this one issue is the single biggest flaw in the entire genre of "survive as an animal" games, and I don't think anybody's truly come up with a solution yet.

The isle used to be my favorite game back when I first got it. I came for the dinosaurs, but I stayed for the people. I loved legacy, not just for the basic fighting gameplay, but for the systems it had in place to encourage people to work together. It was so much fun to join up with random strangers and learn how to work together as a group and strategize. And after a couple months of playing, I had made some very good friends. Unfortunately tho, our friend group broke apart after a year. And playing was never the same after that. Without other people to watch your back and to strategize with, it really became a walking simulator. Evrima only makes this problem worse. No global chat to find people to play with. No way to look at the list of players to invite someone, now you have to find them in person to group up. And some carnis are even encouraged to cannibalize their own kind. As much as I know some people hated it, I think the rules of the semi realism legacy servers really made the game playable for a lot of people. Before, if your pack got into a fight, even if you lost you’d only be down one person and the rest of you could go on to other fights. Now, you could lose your entire group in seconds and be put back on square one without any reliable way to find each other again. I feel that evrima is a game that really only supports solo acts, and that feeds into the problem of it being a combat/ walking simulator rather than a survival game. It makes the social aspect of the game much harder to pull off, so most people don’t bother, but that means that now literally the only thing to do is fight. Idk if I really explained this well cuz I’m mostly asleep, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about lately.

This is why I was looking forward to Path of Titans. It promised MMO gameplay, or at least MMO-like gameplay. Instead, you have what is just The Isle with cooldowns on attacks, much much MUCH worse fighting, and "collect nut" """QUESTS""" that help you grow. On officials it is the only way to grow, but most people hate that and play unofficials because again, the core gameplay loop is grow and fight. It broke my heart, and I was hoping for something much more engaging to finally break this hell the Dinosaur Survival genre has been in, but alas. Most insulting of all, they still claim to have "MMO elements" which is basically just false advertisement...

22:44 this is everything and too few people understand that

I have described similar issues in the past as 'the isle has a lot of polish, they put a lot of attention to detail into everything from your dinos sniffing sounds to animating the little throat vibration when your dino growls, but what can you really do with all that polish when its applied layer on top of layer onto some cardboard instead of a nice, heavy, sturdy wood table?' the suggestions of more ai creatures to make more of a pve atmosphere are really good imo, but no matter what kind of hunt-able ai you add, there will be people who just want that Legacy experience of grow t rex while hiding in a water fall, fight other people with t rex, repeat. if you make pvp an option, some ppl will always opt to screw over another person to combat the hotspot issue, on top of just giving you more things to do other than fight, walk, and sit and talk, these games would likely benefit from having just smaller maps available in general for servers with smaller populations so you dont get so spread out that you never see anybody unless youre in the combat hotspot, which we're trying to avoid. if Thenyaw hadnt been so full of unnavigable thicket, death trap hill slopes, and prone to glitching people under the map on log in, i wouldve preferred it during my time on Legacy before i left for PoT you could also take a page from Beasts of Bermuda, where being around other dinos you arent grouped with causes a debuff of some sort. I would expand upon it so that large gatherings for prolonged periods of time, or places where too many dinos have been recently (is the isle still doing its scent mechanics? maybe the 'smell' of so many individuals could make you nervous) make your dino stressed and prolonged stress makes you fatigued and the fatigue impacts your stats. this could be compounded with Path of Titans' water quality to discourage the congregation of an entire server's population around a single water source. I was pretty active when the water quality was first released and it was kinda nice, not having literally everyone in corpse cove and spine lizard lagoon. everyone was actually traveling and surviving. you kinda still get that, but its not as pressing. I would also probably take PoT's 'find x location' quests and make it so that your dino is craving something from that area or your 'migratory instincts' are telling you to go there and do something. i remember there being talk of being able to like, roll in mud and scratch up trees, doing things that made your dino happy and it would give it a buff in some way. maybe existing in the place your dino wanted to go gives it a buff in that area? if the diet system had been what a lot of ppl wanted it to be, what you eat and how active you are as you grow determines your stats as an adult, we wouldnt have afk growing. the idea is that you have a baseline for many of your dino's stats and what you do as youre growing can either raise or lower those stats. make it so that the less active you are while youre growing (afk growing) the more 'sickly' your dino will be, the further below the baseline that dino will fall, but you should absolutely give people the option to grow these subpar, crappy dinos by being lazy and bush growing. the more you travel and get certain things as you grow, the more some stats will increase to be above or below the baseline, depending on how youre doing things. if you give the option to minmax, there will be people who do it. maybe even tie nesting in by making the hatchling stage really boost certain things later on. like being well cared for early on by successful, attentive parents makes for strong babies and better off adults or smth.

I'm glad it seems more people are looking at the core problem. Personally, I think one excellent way to fix the core problem is just having more AI. In particular, I am referring to AI that actively threatens the player's chance of survival. For instance, having small but powerful night roaming AI to unease the larger beasts, and Perhaps a giant Apex creature (that you could decide just can't be played as period.) To be a constant looming threat over all creatures and growth. This could even lean more into the "horror" aspect some people praise this game for. Who even says the AI needs to be in the form of enemy playables? Something that the roblox game did that I wished had more thought and depth put into it was the weather system. Different weather favored certain creatures better, and natural disasters were a common looming threat you had to be prepared to avoid when they occured. Note how I said was. Arguably the most unpredictable and threatening natural disaster was just outright removed, the other is set on a predictable timer you can just outright look at if you go to a specific location, and most the weather effects now have negligable effects other than to screw over herbivores. Introducing storms and various other weather conditions also allows the introduction of a 'storm chaser' type creature, one that follows closely behind if not outright in the storm to pick at weakened/already dead players. I also have a diagnosis as to why this core problem, and the lack of meaningful solutions exists in the first place, and that is the multiplayer aspect. By making your survival game multiplayer, not only do you make it significantly easier to deal with if you have friends, or just a group of dedicated strangers, but it also allows devs to be lazy and ignore entire sections of content that other games would have to deal with. The reason the devs of these types of games have created essentially a pvp sandbox is because they can put in minimal effort and reap massive rewards from players just hashing it out with each other, not to mention the fact that these types of games have very high marketability, because playing as a dinosaur or other sort of beast is a cool concept. They have no limitations, so to speak, so they tend to just jumble in as much of whats easy as possible, without paying mind to the harder things that would make a game like this fun. My big swing for the fences idea is that an actually fun dino survival game would at the very least have a singleplayer campaign alongside the multiplayer mode, if not solely have the singleplayer. Starting with a singleplayer concept forces developers to have to acually prepare and hone survival aspects into their game, be it some sort of constant threat, requiring strategy to not eventualy starve, or just being hard and brutal on players without just letting the players just brutalize each other.

Dude this is so spot on to how I feel. What makes The Isle memorable to me is the player experience turned storytelling. Some youtubers take great steps to turn a simple gameplay (with no real gameplay loop) into a more narrative experience for watchers, which is what got me interested in the roleplay aspects of the community. That's what made me stick around so long, rather than the actual game being pretty and having the core mechanics of a survival. Really wish there was more non-linear gameplay to explore *on top* of running around as a particular dinosaur

I’m so glad to finally see a wave of criticism coming out for this game in the last couple years. It desperately needs it. I’ve been playing this game since like 2017 when I was like 13 I’m 19 now and seeing the path this game has gone down is upsetting to say the very least. From the map design to the gameplay, and the lackluster development of Evrima or the constant teases of mechanics, creatures, and other concepts that have never come or are likely to never be seen at all. It almost feels like the only reason people keep playing is because of the “promise” of things to come. Not to mention the lack of social features that the isle used to have in a game that relies on being multiplayer to even be played. I could probably go on with more like my issues with some of the devs and how they socialize with their community and more but the game is just depressing when I was younger it seemed so fun and it was exciting to see the potential the game had but now it’s just sad. I’m glad that their are other games in this genre now and people are finally throwing criticisms this games way because for years no one did.

I think the best way i've seen someone describe the issue with this game is, the devs expect real players to fulfill the role of AI to complement the "lived in"-ness of the world. And i have to fully agree with that, from the many clips i've seen of Dondi streaming and explaining his vision for the game that they have it seems they want to have all these systems on all these many dinosaurs like herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, bottom feeders, scavengers, hunters, grazers ect, and they want players to play all these systems to create a working, living ecosystem Thats all well and good except....people aren't going to want to play or engage with 90% of those systems in any capacity when the gameplay loop of said systems is "Log in, look for food, avoid most other people, grow, log off". Who the hell would want to slog through a dozen hours of playing a sauropod that does literally nothing but stare at grass and eat until it grows to max size because the world needs large grazing food sources? Who wants to wait in the distance for someone else to do the fun part of hunting and hope that they maybe leave some food behind so they can scavenge it because the world needs bottom feeders? Who wants to be a carnivore who sits around nesting for hours on hours, defending their nest against other people, slowly draining away their food meter until they're forced to waste their effort by eating their young because, ding ding ding, nobody actually wants to play the walking meal tank whose only purpose is to walk around, eat and survive until you get killed so someone else can survive off you. And don't even get me started on the concept of adding humans into the mix, who the hell would want to play a stego when you can be shotgun blasting Rexes in the face? All in all, and maybe this is pessimistic of me but, these are issues i just don't ever see being resolved because the developers clearly don't understand how people play video games and what actually makes for a fun survival experience. They had a good core idea for the game but it seems to have dissolved to mindless drivel and severe copium by blaming their own players over the years

great video, i think your main point has a lot of weight and truth to it. However! This sounds silly, but I like the isle for being a dinosaur walking simulator with no gameplay loop(i refuse to touch the game that makes you collect sticks), where players drive the interactions. it's so simple and yet it feels like anything can happen at times. i've only just grown tired of the game after 1000+ hrs bc the game became too familiar to me. I've noticed that I always have more fun in the game when there are more players around, which is totally tied to the problem you mentioned about center. the rare times ive played on a server with more slots(like 125, 150), i can be on some weird corner of the map and still worry about getting hunted, and i love that! the problem with relying on players to create their own entertaining environment is a tricky one, but i just love it so much for how unique and immersed it feels in the isle. how people can play however they want and decide their own priorities. define their own fun. I think adding more PvE elements can be a good direction, but if adding AI that is easier to kill than players it will create an environment too lax to encourage PvP. and with the juvie ball pit(i loved that comparison lol), i think the idea is you can engage in more PvP of your same size range instead of having to wait to be big, which sounds good to me. anyway, Sorry for the essay. everything you said makes sense if you are looking for a traditional video game. I will now go stare at my pixelated grass. x'D

the most fun ive ever had in a dinosaur survival game is when i was a megalosaur hatchling some asshole t rex in beast of bermuda killed my entire family but didnt notice me because of how small i was and i had to sneak past it out of the cave and try to survive while being the size of a thimble. the "hiding" part of the game can be so much fun but because of how big the maps are theres so few chances for genuine stealth, which is part of what makes playing as something small so boring imo. being small in a game like this should feel like youre in constant danger, not like you need to seek out danger just to have something to do

If they want people to not AFK grow... Reward them for moving instead of nerfing the AFKing? Proper diet and moving around should increase growth rate drastically.

I think constant growing is a part of the reward that could a player get. Perhaps gathering scars and getting more mutations from the age would be great.

Honestly the Isle could learn a thing or two from a game I've played off and on for years called Wolf Quest. Which, despite still being in development, has many of the things you mentioned that could be used to fix The Isle. Active AI that threaten you, steal your food, attack your young. There are mini events like eagles swooping at your pups that teaches you how to hide them so they don't die, fleas that force you to change your pack's den or risk disease, rival packs that you have to fight with to carve out territory for yourself. You can't just keep still in one place since herds, which are your biggest source of food, migrate often and rival packs with start taking over your territory if you don't maintain it. You're incentivized to explore the entire map. Learning to hunt well, finding a mate and having pups are actual quests in the game in order to progress your wolf's life. And aging your wolf actively makes them better with perks you can get to give you buffs. The gameplay, despite the game being "you play as a wolf", is actually fun and feels rewarding when you succeed at something difficult like hunting a bison or fending off a rival pack from attacking your den. I just feel like that sort of gameplay could really give the isle that gameplay loop that makes it more fun.

I’ve been playing since the legacy days which was a very different time for the isle for sure. But there is one thing that makes evrima differ from legacy in a way that makes the game feel very different from its original concept, and that is the lack of horror elements legacy possessed and the easiness of evrima itself. I would like to elaborate more in the form of a video I’ve been thinking about making. So I will do so. Thanks for giving me the motivation and confidence that I am not alone on this stance (the isle being boring and lacking an endgame).

You're correct on the game needing more PvE elements, but not as much on needing a game design course. The Isle's problem is one of genre: Animal Roleplay. A lot games, particularly survival games, add variety and content with story. Quests, objectives, audio logs, etc. Also through construction with bases and crafting. Animal RP can't really do either of those without breaking the kayfabe since they're not sapient. What the devs should be looking at is comparables of genre: Survival Roguelikes (Catalysm DDA, Project Zomboid, The UnRealWorld) and Role-Based Multiplayer (SS13, Among Us, Werewolf). Games where players find fun by taking a role within a world that provides obstacles, challenges, and creativity, or exploring the concept of 'runs' instead of indefinite play. Freeform is fine to provide, same as city builders provide 'sandbox' modes, but it should be secondary. The Isle could find a lot of success by focusing on the concept of 'roles' or runs, and designing content for them. They do seem to be on that track, designing content and map areas specifically for juveniles for example, but there's a lot more work to do to find a good, meaty core. The first Animal RP game to achieve that will do exceedingly well and inspire a lot of copy-cats.

I liked the original progression system where you had to grow and prestige your way up the food chain, I have no idea why they got rid of it. Offered a solution to two of the game's biggest later issues, Lack of playtime for smaller creatures and overabundance of giant carnivores. Gave a real sense of accomplishment for obtaining an adult of any later game species.

I think the solution might be to turn this game into an intergenerational simulator. Basically instead of connecting the levelling process to a single individual dinosaur you would level up a family line over multiple generations. This way the individual lifecycle of a dinosaur could be drastically condensed, shortening the juvenile stage and maybe even adding old age while your longtime goal would be for your genes (levels) to carry over to the next generation. In addition to that I would suggest having a more developed "offspring mechanic". Eg with every new generation you get multiple offspring which basically serves as your "lives". If one dinosaur dies you can continue playing with one of their siblings until the entire family tree has died out or you reproduce again thus gaining new "lives". Small dinsosaur would have more offspirng (meaning you can die a lot more) and large dinosaurs would only have a few offpsring making weak dinosaurs more viable in the meta. This would also mean you could implement more death mechanics like diseases and death from natural causes since you would only lose one of your "lives" instead of having to start over. Finally I think that family members of your dynasty who aren't actively controlled by you in the moment would be controlled by AI which would solve the empty map problem. It might even be fun to be able to switch bodys on the fly eg if one of your dinsoaur relatives is about to die due to being attacked or starvation or because they got injured you may take control over them and nurse them back to health to ensure your family line has a better chance of survival. It would also allow you to skip boring aspects of the game eg if one of your dinosaurs is currently nesting you might switch to one of your dinosaurs that is in its physical prime so you can do some pvp in the meantime. I think thse change would remove quite a few problems from the game without the need to change any of the core mechanics that are already in the game.

My first thought when I played this game was "wait..... there aren't AI dinosaurs????". This (in my opinion) must be added to the game. PvE is essential in survival games.

If there's one thing I learned from war thunder is that player protests *work*

I do believe making a rewarding nesting system would help, because right now there is no real benefit to it except making you wait longer until you get to adulthood. Something like better stats if you were nested or something similar.

Wow cant believe you were so spot on about sanctuaries their completely broken and don't perform as intended

I agree with pretty much every single point made here and couldn't have said it better myself. However, I was waiting for the devs to get called out on their often atrocious behavior, but I guess that point has been talked to death. It's STILL a valid point though. I love this game, and I appreciate the heck out of the devs for continuing to work on it for all these frustrating years. I honestly do not understand why the hell they're _still_ working on it. But I'm glad they are and I hope it reaches a point someday that all the waiting was worth it. (And I'm not saying the devs have absolutely no right to act the way they do. Their community is toxic as all hell, so they just give back what they get. The problem is when this behavior spills over so that they treat their _normal_ and polite players like garbage, too. They may be a small team but _some_ professionalism would go a long way toward improving their somewhat abysmal rep.)

Maybe they should do small stuff like, increase strength or stamina with every so far traveled, and other stuff to permanently improve stats. This would give reason to travel the map or whatever you're trying to promote even after you reach adult as it would give normally even grown dinos an advantage over another.

Wolf quest has some similar mechanics, such as hunting. But you also have a territory system and long term goals, which are about to get even more interesting since you will soon be able to make an actual pack with pups you raise. Plus, fawn season gives a new way to hunt and easy way to carry a good amount of food back to the den. Animal survival games are often devoid of interest but there are clearly ways to make it fun.

Im hoping they add like actual things for individual dino's to do in this game that doesn't involve pvp, imo the game needs a fear mechanic that's tied to vision and scent, like if a deinochirus marks its territory with its claws and you see it, your dino could get a debuff in attack but maybe a boost in speed idk. Along with that, just make dino's more interesting in general, have them do things beside eat that contribute to your growth, sorta like how ptera has fishing, maybe do that but with other dino's, something that's like a minigame that can help make the game less tedious

Cenozic survival, which is a free roblox game with surprisingly better mechanics than a funded game that's been out for years, has given me far more enjoyment than the nearly 2000 hrs I've spent playing Legacy and Evrima.

the bushes that cover the cliff are so dreadfully awful. Imagine growing a Stegosaurus for hours and then falling off a cliff you can't see

This is why I like realism servers. I feel like it's the fanfiction version of The Isle where people try to inject their own fun. It doesn't fix all the problems, but it helps

Don't know why I was compelled to write this, but seeing CoS mentioned in a Isle video makes me a bit happy, feels like its becoming more of a legitimate game instead of some obscure roblox game.

The old version was abandoned, not because of 'spaghetti code' but because one of the main code devs left the team meaning no one was able to access the code to update it. If I remember right, it's the dev that went on to making path of titans. Which was why Dondi had a tantrum saying that Path of Titans stole his games codes and crap. Which, from what I can see, didn't.

basically every single time I played EVRIMA, it went something like this: -spawn in as any other dinosaur -die horribly to the swarms of pit fighters -spawn in as Ptera, grow to adult size easily because fish are super abundant and uncontested and nothing can really touch you as Ptera -spend entire time flying around shitass jungles looking for fights to watch -either commit suicide or die horrifically. Legacy at least had the "horror" aspect of survival horror, it makes you feel weak, small, like you're always being watched. Evrima just has you sit in a bush before you go join the eternal gladiator arena in the middle of the map

I've always thought about all of these games and how to improve it (specially as someone who tested for a VERY short while for BoB before leaving bc i was having some life issues... and im glad i did, cause geez) because i REALLY want a good creature survival game and I can see most of us are equally starved about something decent. I dont even care about credit I just want these (or some, specially if balancing wise they prove to not be so great as in theory) to be added and games to be more full. Warning that this is going to be LONG bc I've been thinking about these for years and my brain will explode otherwise. - Happiness that can be increased by searching for flowers, playing with bugs, playing/mock fighting with other creatures specially at young stages, certain theropods (like small raptors) collecting shiny rocks on their nests/resting zones, etc -- What happiness does could be a lesser version of BoB's comfort, affecting growth with a minor punishment if its too low (not as severe as comfort), or similar to diets, giving you stat boosts. Maybe even both. - Stuff hidden around the map with random spawns, like small trinkets you can put on or even 1-time-use skins that you lose after dying. - Seasonal changes affecting food and foliage distribution. What edible greens grow, where AI inhabits and what AIs appear more commonly as well as how foliage is less abundant in some areas (specially trees) -- On addition to this, different biomes would be greatly helpful for this as they'd also be affected by said seasons. More rocky areas, some colder that get snowed in during winter-autumn perhaps, large rocky beaches, sparse big-tree forests, new growth forests, etc. Not everything has to be green pastures or thick forests. This would help for example with smaller dinosaurs being able to traverse them easier, so larger carnivores don't always have the upper hand. Canyons (inside) for example would not be preffered by pachys and carnos, but would be a great spot for raptors in theory. --- Small carnivores might find themselves lucky to find some fish washed ashore during the colder seasons due to current changes, on hotter ones maybe a lot of plants grow within the canyon areas which are risky but worth it. They could even give a mild stat boost for the season as long as they're eating them to give players a reason to go there. - Small hiding places. Low-rocks with crevices under and between for small creatures to hide on, fallen tree trunks, small underground dens that are abandoned (like a fox's, not spanning as much as a dryo but as part of the map instead) - A good AI with multiple behaviors like resting hours (varying depending on the time of days they're most active at like real animals), nesting sites (giving the chance for an egg-stealer niche to be more engaging), needs to drink and feed in specific areas and perhaps ways they'd interact with players (like bugs flocking long-necked dinos giving tiny carnivores like young juvies and small raptors to get some free food with the risk of being stomped). I am heavily referencing this off hunting games like "The Hunter: Call of the wild" as I think they do a great job at showing what AI COULD do to a very far extent as its a game that fully relies on the AI to be interesting. - The ability to track prey more reliably, specifically AI (as to not worsen the combat issues ingame) so you can track and sneak behind prey and hunt them for longer periods of time, SPECIALLY giving a chance for small players to go after larger prey. It'd make hunting more engaging (and also for people to stop relying so much on player hunts) --Paired with this, more AI and variety. Stop forcing players to constantly go after others 100% of the time. This also means people would be less annoyed and forced to constantly regrow their dinos and could even give room for chances of fleeing if injured since it's not life-or-death for a meal as much, even with KOSers and such still being a thing. - Slight changes to sight through foliage. Not huge just a small circle around the player being semi transparent, but some games REALLY suffer from the fact that you cant see a palm past your face in most areas, which means nobody goes through them. You cant hunt and you definitely cannot see your way through anything either. This is specially visible in the isle's maps, as mentioned previously with the foliage death pit. - Relying on biology to add behaviors related to dinosaurs. For example which areas nesting happens in and what materials they need to collect for the nest, how some parents might be able to carry all their babies while others cannot (like crocs vs chickens), mating displays that you can respond to instead of just a nesting invite (allowing for you to choose between multiple, even), larger herbs eating rocks to digest better (satiated for longer?), - A way to orient yourself, specially on larger maps. This could be a small minimap or an ingame map you can check with useful information. People wont rely on wikis and fanmade maps if the game actually lets you know where you are. - The ability to just walk over small obstacles. It's wild to be that a log is enough to absolutely mess you over instead of just... raising your leg a bit higher and moving over it. - Resting zones that can be customizable. Being able to find a nice spot and build a resting place (collecting moss, sticks, leaves, you name it) making hunger and thirst decay less or even raise certain stats would give people an incentive to not just do stuff at night (collecting said items to fix it over time or make a new one) but also would make nights feel more worth it for people. -- This could tie into a "good night's rest" boost that affects the early time after resting schedules (either be night or day, depending on what time the dino works with) to encourage people to do it instead of just log out during night time. - One thing I really enjoyed from BoB back when I played it was floods and water depletion. Starting with the depletion, it'd help having small water spots that deplete and refill over time so people can avoid large and dangerous water areas, these could appear after rainstorms and floods. The other is floods. While not to the degree of BoB (because that was WILDLY dangerous, i do not know if it is the same anymore), floods would help displace players with a sense of urgency and give water-based creatures a chance to move around and attack, but also the risk of getting stranded if they go too far from water and it recedes. This one I think can be a lot trickier to implement though. - Weather effects. Most games have 2 modes: Rain and sun (and sometimes fog). But I think weather events could be generally fun. Stuff like eclipses making days dark for a couple minutes, cloudy days making it be a bit darker (specially within forests), severe to mild rainstorms with varying visibilities and noise caused, heavy winds that push you towards one direction making walking against it slower and with it faster, etc. Nothing too wild, but enough to make things less repetitive. - This is just a bit of a personal taste thing, but adding small mutation chances (as some games have done/planned on doing) from breeding affecting how you look would be rad and would make people want to nest a whole lot more. A new color pattern, one extra claw, bigger crest, etc I might add more to this eventually if I ever remember because I have very strong feelings about how most creature survival games fail at being a survival, but for now I will stop this here as I have to work, lol.

I rly miss fighting the Teno AI, they were legit a good and fun challenge as a younger dinosaur

This is an incredibly well put together video and clearly has a lot of work and passion behind it. Keep up the good work!

Don't mind me, just adding some ideas here for what the developers of the Isle could do for PVE: - Forest Fires: Basically needing to escape a fire that has been started (Like from a Lightning Bolt) where the players will need to get out of the area to avoid being burnt, getting crushed by falling trees, or suffocating to death. And when the smoke has cleared (pun intended) that area won't have any food for the herbs, so those who have been staying there will have to adventure to somewhere else for food and such. - Tempetures: Short and simple, colder temperatures will cause the dinos to get cold, and will need to find a way to warm up (Cuddling with other dinos, finding shelter, etc.), even have snow on the ground that will either be hard to treck threw OR have a place for smaller dinos to hide. While the hotter temperatures will cause dinos to overheat and make them more dehydrated, this will also cause the rivers and ponds to be smaller or even dry up, giving a reason for players to wander around the map for new water sources and defend themselves from other dinos that might need water (cause the water will have limited water to it. kinda like how BOB have) - Flooding: Flooding could be a good idea for an event, causing some players to get to higher ground via trees or rocks while also fighting over the little space they have for those higher grounds, while also giving it an area for crocs and other water carnivores to roam and chow down on any dino they find in the water. - STAMPEDE!!: Herb stampede where any dino might get trampled if they don't find cover or get out of there - Illnesses: Not sure how this would work, but dinos could get sick from things that they will either have to wait out or find a cure for. (Cure will be instant while waiting it out won't, maybe even kill the player) Other ideas that might not help with the problems but could be cool to have: - PVP Arena: Basically a cage match between dinos where they are in a colosseum where humans are watching the dinos fight to the death (Once a dino dies, their body disappears and the dinos don't have hungry, thirst, or growth to worry about. Just full adults ready for blood shed.) -Human's Taming Dinos: Strange idea, ik, but when humans do get into the game, it would be cool to have the humans be able to tame either AI dinos or player dinos, even ride some of them into battles with other dinos/humans. That doesn't mean that the dinos will fully be loyal to their human, as long as they are fed, they are good. If not, then jail break along side with some human on the dino meal plan. (of course, the more strong dinos will be more harder to tame and there will be a limit of how many dinos can team up with humans depending on the dino. Like 1 croc will max out the limit while having a bunch of little guys and still have some room for more.

i think a game like this would need a map which you can play around in, in ways that are designed around different sizes and ways of locomotion of your player characters .. like places only small chars can use ... places where you need a high enough jump to go there ... caves that you only can reach if you're able to dive and so on and so forth ...

While only 14 minutes into your video, you've hit the sweet spot when it comes to the issues most (if not all) of us have with this game.

Good video. You definitely address the core issue, but I think in the end there is not that much you can do. I still absolutely love the game. Some idea I have that maybe could work: - A more interesting map with hidden secrets and like you said, AI that make it more interesting to travel around and explore. Maybe even some riddles you can solve, that are not too immersion breaking and give you some AI Dinosaur food as reward. (Idk following some tracks into a laborynth like burrow where you first have to block other exits before you enter and get the prey, otherwise it escapes.) Or a platforming parkour up some rocks and cliffs with a rewarding nest and a mother that protects it in the end. - Building your own hideout. A little bit likes nests, but more permanently. Where when you rest, you'll have a healing boost and other, bigger players can't enter. To build it you'll have to collect the material. - Claiming territory. I know, that one would be contraprodictive to the migration system, but maybe there are some carnivores and omnivores that are able to claim and defend territory with sent marks. Also they could sense if another dinosaur of their species enters their territory. Idk, just an idea I had. Helps having another reason for combat engagement. Also I wanted to mention that Day of Dragon is in active development and since then more then just a assist show of. Maybe you should take a deeper look at how it turned out and what is still planned. It's not 'good' by any means and the development even slower then The Isles, but I definitely wouldn't call it a scam. There is a bigger update coming in a few months I think?

They should add more engaging AI and activities for your dinosaur to do

if you tried saying "take a game design class" on the official discord Dondi would prolly call you a shitbird and personally ban you

4 ideas, Add side quests that dont detriment when ignored but give buffs to your creatures, make them reset after random time periods so people are out searching for them (extra perks?). add permenant wounds (combat has consiquences even if you win) Give more limits on apex numbers and make a game wide quest tracker that rewards players for playing different dinos Make another meter during growth stage (activity ? ) , if your stationary it goes down. if you keep it up while you grow you get bonus stats.

Honestly, i remember having the isle for like a week- and it was legit just chatrooms with a sideshow wrestling match, including a me being a galli vs a spino (I would've won if i didn't get third partied). Later deleted it due to the toxicity and complex ego most admins and community had overall.-. (I swear some individual even started being to hunt me down ingame just cause I liked carnotaurus ._:). also seeing how apparently most ppl said the issues were "the lack of playable characters" is dumb, like what is the point of having (lets say) 20+ characters when the game is incredibly faulty?? It has already been shown multiple times that "Quantity over Quality" isnt necessarily the better option.

One major thing I think that could help this game have a boost of fun is to add more AI dinos (Both herbs and carnivores) which are also very active. Both to hunt, be hunted by and even herd/migrate with.

Probably in the minority here but I genuinely cant wait for humans cause I think that would be terrifying having a dino come down on you. Would almost be survival horror at that point. Plus with humans, you can give them a whole lot more things to do since they have hands so they could build things.

Looks like the devs are taking a right step by adding AI Rex

Is it any surprise the same devs that basically removed global chat in Evrima because they didn't think people should do it, even with personal servers, would blame the players for essentially all the criticism. This is _their_ game so fuck us for wanting to make it fun or at least slightly less hostile. A regional global chat, similar to the calls, would have been a much better way. That or giving the server owner the ability to enable/disable global chat. To just yank it, because they didn't want people to do it, is such a dick move.

This video was very informative and entertaining to watch (especially seeing all of your sona’s expressions)! And to be honest COS is proof that the issue all of these games have is fundamental and isn’t just not having enough playables like you said. Because COS has like a billion of them and the devs keep adding more and more faster than the average person with a life can keep up with, without either grinding yourself to death or giving them your money all the time. 🤪

"The Isle is an early access-" 2015 was 8 years ago...

Exceptionally good summary.

eyy, thanks for making this vid. I've had my eye on the Isle for the sake of fun dinosaur survival gameplay for some time now but have been hesitating to get into it for various reasons. your vid helped save me the disappointment of buying it and finding this out myself in-game. I'll probably keep tabs on the game's state and see if it gets better maybe buy it later.

I've never played it but I've kept tabs on it over the years. I'd love to see a final release but 8 years later it is lagging behind other indie games. I'm hoping that what is out is just a free roam mode while they work on a storyline mode with objectives and an endgame. Maybe even beyond free roam they could implement a PvP mode that caters to that style of gameplay and skip the growth part. If PvP has become the core of the early access game then leaning into as a mode seems to be a good way to go.

I'm still waiting for humans to be added! The game was originally advertised to be a humans VS dinosaurs survival game with PvP, but we still don't have humans after all these years which I think does actually contribute to the game feeling so boring. Having humans as enemies could introduce a lot of ways to actually make the game fun, with possible gamemodes, actual conflict and PvP, and it would turn The Isle away from just being another generic dinosaur survival game. Also still waiting for those mutated cave people monsters and stuff lol, don't think we're getting those anymore but they would be awesome as like a third faction.

Spot on! I didn't mind legacy as much since the communities would do events. It needs a story or journey. I moved to Path of Titans because at least there are different environments to look at (plus nighttime is pleasant). I feel like the PVP is more balanced on PoT. I still really miss things just happening... hypos, events etc.

Solid video. Gonna go watch your other videos.

i never saw a video expain a why i did quit better lol thanks for the public service, i totally agree!! i hope one day we see it shine!

I can think of a few things that would make this game a lot more fun: 1. AI that roam one specific territory and defend it from other players. This could mean herbivores have to fight for food rights, and would make sanctuaries a place where small dino prefer to go. 2. Nesting grounds should be places that, like migration pathways, could be marked on the map, and give players buffs, and special color patterns. This would encourage nesting and give people a reason to nest in rather than grow fresh themselves. 3. Make nesting more unique by giving bipsi or dino the ability to build nests in water, of utah and Herrera the ability to nest up trees. 4. Shrink the map, but give the map more variety in terrain (caves, dunes, ruins) These things are small, but are absolutely things that would help improve gameplay.

1) Make PVP less janky. PVP is an essential aspect of this game whether devs like it or not, it is designed around hunting and killing so its strange that you find yourself clipping through players and glitching all over the place. 2) Add more AI to the game, as the creator stated. This will make nature feel more "alive" and encourage players to hunt things OTHER than players. You shouldn't get ALL of your enjoyment from a survival experience from other players. Part of the experience is SURVIVING. Take a look at the forest franchise or green hell. Some of the most popular survival games out there, and there is literally zero pvp element. That's because there is depth in the actual survival process, and the AI is engaging, terrifying, and *sometimes* challenging. I like the way that you stated that you should be fighting throughout your entire life cycle. Defending yourself from predators as an herbivore or actively hunting things as a carnivore. The AI should be just as threatening as players. 3) On the topic of hunting, improve the actual AI. Make it feel like you are actually tracking something down, creeping up on it, and going in for the kill. Make them able to run and hide and fight back. 4) Add something along the lines of a skill tree. This would give variety in playstyles and possibly even add different attacks or skills. Maybe you could upgrade your crouch speed, or how much you gain from eating, attack damage, etc... This would also allow you to add different attacks or "skills" to each dino. This would give each life a truly unique experience, with side objectives other than just "eat, drink, grow." 5) Add objectives or world events to the game. Maybe some mutant dino that grants a lot of "xp" or growth, or maybe grants you some kind of buff. The idea of an extremely threatening enemy than can be taken down by a skilled player or by a group, not dissimilar to boss fights, would give players a reason to flock out of main areas, and give them an engaging challenge other than just killing other players. 6) Biomes, more variety to the map, certain food and resources in certain areas would again encourage the idea of exploring. Maybe add secrets to the map that players can explore and find to uncover some kind of story. 7) I think the game conceptually is amazing, but as you stated, lacks depth. Adding anything at all that takes away from the main gameplay loop of grow and kill would be beneficial, whether that be secrets, boss fights, skill trees, etc. ANYTHING that adds more depth and creativity for player experience is a plus. 8) Weather. Snow, storms, warm, cold, etc... This ties in to biomes. Certain dinosaurs would excel in certain conditions, where others would be forced to leave and area once it becomes cold. Once again encouraging the idea that you need to move, and engage in the environment, rather than just sit afk. 9) By nature of the game people are going to want to pvp once they have reached maximum growth. The only way to avoid this is a complete conceptual change in the gameplay loop. So if you can't avoid this, build upon it. Add areas on the map, like some kind of flat wasteland that encourages pvp fights, maybe add rewards for killing "x amount of: insert dino" such as unique colors or cosmetics. Maybe implement a system so that when you die you get a certain amount of "points" to spend on that specific dinosaur depending on how long you lived, how many enemies you defeated, etc... that allows benefits such as "increased growth rate" or some kind of permanent stats you can work towards. This way, the more you play, the more you are rewarded for playing. You actually have something to work towards and if pvp is what you want to do than you can accelerate the speed in which you can reach that point through grinding. Look at any successful video game such as: COD, Dead by Daylight, Battlefield, even League of Legends, and you will find that other than the main gameplay loop, there are secondary upgrades and objectives you can work towards to unlock rewards, skills, etc. This is because every time that you unlock a new skill, a new special reward, or upgrade your character, it's a small victory. Those small victories encourage you to KEEP playing, knowing that you have made progress on something, knowing that you are becoming stronger, or more efficient. In RUST, another hardcore survival game, it comes in the form of blueprints. You must unlock blueprints in order to build better items, which in turn make you more powerful the more you play, and more capable of killing the enemies you once struggled with. The downside being that every 2 weeks to a month, the server "wipes" and you must start again. I can see a mechanic such as this being OUTSTANDING for this game. Encourage players to grind and become more powerful, to unlock more skills and reward those who put time into exploring the map, killing bosses and players, uncovering secrets, etc... so that they have something to work towards with actual sustenance, and then reset it every once in a while, to give people the feeling of being back at square zero. Back to being a weak little juvenile, with nothing going for them. The developers MUST add some kind of meaningful variety such as the ones listed into this game, or it is going to fade away and die. You absolutely cannot rely on players to continue playing a game, where sitting in a bush for 4 hours is an optimal strategy, after which you run to the center of the map, engage in janky, unbalanced pvp fights until you either die or become bored and log out. I see SO much potential with this game, so many opportunities and ways to improve it, and while progress is being made, you cannot simply blame your playerbase for everything and default to "well it's just in early access so you can't really blame us." They have created a game, people like the game and want to see it improve. If they care about this game that they have created, they need to listen to the very few individuals who still play the game, and make meaningful and thoughtful changes to it. The fact of the matter is, early access or not, the moment you release a game is when it is most popular. It's fresh, it's new, it's a change from the usual games, just take a look at steam charts. That's when MOST of the revenue floods in, and it's the most important time to make meaningful changes to keep your players and draw new ones in. This game has been out since 2015, and for the most part has had the exact same issues that people still dislike since then. If all that prospective customers see when they notice this game is videos like this, and experienced players can't even recommend it to their friends wholeheartedly, money isn't going to come. If money doesn't come in, devs are working for free, and nobody want's to work for free. So if the devs truly care about this game, I hope they do something significant soon. These are just some of my personal opinions and observations of how other games have had success. I would love to hear what other people think of these opinions, and opinions of their own, and HOPEFULLY devs will SEE some of these opinions and draw inspiration from them.

when I first heard about this game, the premise was that they were going to make two modes, a story mode as a mercenary on a mission and surviving the isle with ai dinos. and the survival mode where you can play as a dino, a mercenary, or a human/dino hybrid. after all this time, and no story mode or human or hybrid gameplay, I really mostly just tuned out of the whole game. until something of real development happens, I'm fine right now just keeping an ear on development but not reinstalling any time soon

"I would rather be catapulted into space than touch Unity again." This aged very well!

As someone who has played the isle for over 1500 hours, I think back to what made that number possible - honestly, the communities I joined back in Legacy, and the rules and gameplay that the community forged within something that, let's be honest, was nothing more than a tech demo - that's what made the game fun. The amount of stories that were created both solo and with other people just because communities made it something more... it makes me sad, because the devs wouldn't be able to make Evirma without the community making this game playable, and oddly, they are doing everything in their power to not make THAT game. It's so easy for me to imagine a gameplay loop for each playable and the entire island, not even in a complicated way - it's just... not something that they would ever do.

I just like roleplaying being a croc. Chilling in rivers eating fish. Other crocs are pretty mean though.

If your game looks like what the mobile version of it should be I think that’s a sign 💀

nice video, i didnt really know the problem in the isle untill i saw this, thank you for opening my eyes😁

another reason why player chose PvP is the lack of AI food (for carnivores) so players simply have to hunt for other players, and the playerbase ask, beg for increased AI count

My issue is nothing to do, the night time is almost basically impossible to play in, and yeah... I don't typically fight, so I just fly around and warn herbies of carnivores, just to make some fun for myself. or just swimming and basking as a gator. But then I just wonder why I'm even there.

Great video and some really useful points for myself and hopefully others who are in the process of making future survival games!

Ori and the Will of the Wisps BASED

I think the devs should give server owners the ability to change growth times.

Been following games like these since The Isle first caught lightning in a bottle. When they were first building momentum I didn't have the machine or the funds to actually purchase these games so I just consumed the media around them. At the time, glorification of these games was something else. Every youtuber or media outlet spat out the same general 'oooh aaaah shiny new lizard', video and or article which appealed to the generally youthful, image stimulated audience. It's been seven years since that started and I had figured we'd get further in that time. When I picked up The Isle finally and found it in a broken, barely altered state, I found myself questioning if this was the same game I saw three years ago. I think that initial pioneering stage blew these early devs egos up into the stratosphere and their heads are so far up in the clouds that they haven't realized that their game hasn't shifted in the time taken to develop New Vegas thrice over. Of course, 'they're in indie studio' is a valid argument- if they didn't have an estimated 24~ million in capital to work with. I think a lot of these changes and rebuttals their dev team create reflect their namesake- an afterthought at best.

Surprised how little views/likes this has. Probably one of the best essays I’ve watched in a bit! Come on, why not make dinosaur games .. fun? What a concept lol

9 months after this vid.. Gateway is Empty, No global chat, no actual pvp playable's lol

I used to grow dinos solely to nest ppl in, but then they removed global chat, so how tf do I find ppl to play with, let alone announce eggs available? You shouldn't be required to download Discord

SeienaBox, what about the ROBLOX game Prior Extinction? To solve the problem of not having much to do and just afk grow they added daily, weekly and monthly quests not to mention the idea of rotten food making you more careful on what you eat so if you eat rotten food you need to eat a lot more. Maybe if the Isle does this it would become less boring?