How much has it changed from Release?

[Kage]

Howdy folks,

So my last play date of this game was 8/15/2015 and I believe I randomly got on one day just to see things and had been off well before that... I randomly check back in from time to time to read random updates and such as I did enjoy the game, but couldn't put the time into it...

History

So total we had a group of 4-5 IRL friends playing together when last we played... Lets see we stopped right around Ants were released right after...

We are all adults with lives and could only pour 4-5 hours tops every couple of days or so... sometimes more on the weekends...
But we all were rather dedicated so keep in mind we HAD a group of people and we still quit

Our Issues

• Taming time - this was our biggest most concerning issue... We just couldn't take 4hrs (Depending on level and such) to tame a dino just to have it dead the next day we logged in... We just couldn't take it... even with having ample supply of whatever the dino liked... it would take our whole evening just to tame certain dinos... on large dinos sure... we understood but 4+hrs for a low level trike... NO just NO!
  
• Resource gathering - Chitin was our main concern (though as I understand ants solved that problem)... but stuff took too much to make and didn't drop enough and it was a grind to get anything and build anything worth while... only certain dinos gathered things and they weren't all that great like the Anklo could be too slow...
  
• Offline raiding - We started this up soon after it came out so it was ridiculously popular... and we were constantly contested and hounded by people who were A. kids out for summer or B. in a different timezone/country... We defeated quite a few and held off rather well... and when we were ONLINE we handled people quite decently... but once we were off... our stuff would often be obliterated... ("what a Fing casual") I know I know... whine whine... but the only other option was PVE servers and the just upcoming "primitive" servers... But our group LIKED PVP but we were only getting PVS (player VS sleeper)... and with our minimal time allowed and after quite a few base wipes we just had to call it...
  
• Overpowered Air - This was actually mostly fixed before we quit making them take more damage and such... but they could still swoop in at night time and mess up stuff or pick up dinos that still would never attack them and drop them into the ocean to drown. We were constantly working towards a turret but even then they could fly outside the range and drain the bullets and of course there was the resource thing...

The Question

So I just randomly saw the notes in the updates: Note: we have added several new "PvP-OfflineRaidProtection" servers, which are permanent, to gather feedback on the new offline raid protection mode. Please try it out and let us know what you think!

This really excites me as I believe this may allow us to start ARK back up as it would solve part of our issues we had with the game.

So what else has changed on the above list?
Have taming times gotten better? Did they introduce anything like a skill tree or something to improve the times?
Are there more and better dinos for gathering do they gather more than doing it yourself (like mining)?

Obviously Offline raiding would be off the table if they get it right...

I understand there is a list of changes and I will likely begin reading many of them but considering my time away of this constantly developed game...
Some actual player insight would be greatful!

Thanks in advance!

[Tenoshii]

They introduced kibble to improve taming times and quality of the tame. Depending on what you're trying to tame, it can get a little grindy collecting the materials.

There's a stone and cementing paste gathering dino now. Hell, you can even lot cementing paste from beaver dams as well.

I haven't tried the offline raid servers so not sure about those.

Pteras are still very strong in pvp.

Sounds like a reasonable unofficial server is what your group would be after given your available amount of time to play.

[Max-Power]

The game is a lot different. Too many changes for my lazy ass to list.

but you could have avoided a lot of the things you listed by not playing on an official server. You will have a much better time on a server with better tame times. With the better tame times, it is easier to tame dinos that make resource gathering so much easier.

PVP is also generally considered to be better on non-official servers. Basically, Official servers are where you go to get griefed.

[Kage]

Originally posted by Tenoshii:

They introduced kibble to improve taming times and quality of the tame. Depending on what you're trying to tame, it can get a little grindy collecting the materials.

There's a stone and cementing paste gathering dino now. Hell, you can even lot cementing paste from beaver dams as well.

I haven't tried the offline raid servers so not sure about those.

Pteras are still very strong in pvp.

Sounds like a reasonable unofficial server is what your group would be after given your available amount of time to play.

Oh I remember hearing about kibble.. just forgot about it... will have to look more into that. I figured they would have put in a taming skill of sorts by now but I guess not... (In the beginning we were hoping they would make it to where you could branch out into certain paths like 2 tamers, 1 builder, 1 gatherer, etc)
and I've seen a couple of the dinos in the listings, but a cementing paste gather should be neat.

And server wise thats why I am excited about these PvP-OfflineRaidProtection servers . You see we LIKE offical servers as there does tend to be more people and just a broader community where as with non-offical it can be a toss of the dice in a lot of aspects (some of my peeps have been shafted in this regard on other games so not really able to suade them)... though I am aware of the listings and what not for people inviting others to their servers so may check into those especially with the changes...