Me and my friends usually play ark in smaller groups and tend to not go all in on the end game. We’ve had a couple of bouts and were quite familiar with how the world works and how to progress. And that bothers me. Ark has such a fantastic world to explore and interact with, but it feels like the game tries to keep you indoors making hats/narcos for exp rather than taming, breeding and exploring.
As such, id like to try to change the experience distribution. The idea is to reduce exp from crafting and make up for it by supplying exp for killing/looting/taming/breeding, and preferably with some type of diminishing return to favour exploration and taming/breeding the more unconventional creatures.
Ive familiarized myself with the editor and done some basic stuff but I have no idea how the game handles experience or how it is structured. If anyone knows I would very much appreciate to learn how its built and where I can manipulate it in the game file hierarchy.
What triggers experience gain? Is there certain events or triggers i can hijack?
In terms of modifying variables- look in the Character Status Component. There are many different multipliers for how much XP is gained from each source. As far as I can tell, there is no way to ‘hijack’ experience events- they look hard-coded- but for your use there is a BPNotify Experience Gained Event in case you need to access the graph.
Thanks a lot for the tips! If modifying the character status component, is there any way of doing this while keeping it as a slim mod! I.e. can I import these changes somehow through the designed openings or am I looking to replace core functionality?
Sorry for my improper terminology. I just got started with ARK modding and Im far from a professional dev
i got another tip to use a buff and place it on all players. If so, would I be able to create functions on that buff that grabs the player object, and thus gain access to the Character Status Component that way?
Don’t worry about not being a professional- persistence is key, not initial knowledge! (Coming from someone who was in your shoes about a year ago)
On another note, that buff idea would be a great way to go. In general, some cleverly placed and used buffs are very helpful for getting around bits of code that you’d otherwise need a Total Conversion or Core Mod to change.
Alright, using the hints I’ve gotten I can probably manage to slap together a buff that changes exp gained from different sources on the PC and thereby reducing craft exp. One point down! Awesome!
But… really basic question incoming: How can I place the buff on the PCs when they spawn without changing core files? I dont think i can access the constructor on the PC, maybe theres some kinnd of event I can listen for and act on that? Or can I set that up in a custom game mode? Again, not familiar with how to best go about these things in ARK.
