Dino Storm as a 2013 player: thoughts and ideas

[Arkhan]

1. INTRODUCTION
Hello everyone! I've been a Dinostorm player ever since 2013, back when you'd get coins for completing quests instead of dd and the max lvl was 25, and now that it's almost 2025 I would love to share some opinions regarding this golden age game that I enjoyed in my early adolescence. It'll be quite long so read at your own pace and if you feel like my feedback on the game is unnecessary, nobody stops you from closing this thread. It's just some opinions about a silly dinosaur cowboy game, don't take it to heart! I still love the game to bits, even if I have no motivation or time to play it.

2. PERSONAL HISTORY
I would consider myself a veteran of the game only because I've known the early beginnings of Dino Storm, nothing else. I'm not a PvE or PvP pro, I'm not an active member of this forum or game (anymore), I'm not a coder and my experience is very limited: since the start I fell in love with the coelo and I never changed my main dino, I didn't even have a rex. I sparingly tried other dinos, weapons, techs and implants, and my playtime after 2017 diminished so much that I'd only play twice a year for a few hours. I was someone that preferred playing alone and I never spent a dime on this game, I also participated in many nasty wars back then. Because of all these reasons, take all my feedback with a grain of salt as I could be entirely wrong about some mechanics. If that's the case, correct me (respectfully)! I'm not trying to arrogantly say my opinion is better just because I'm a veteran. I'm writing all of this simply because I was really attached to the game when I was 14-15 and I'm glad it's still up, it really has been a pillar of my past years, however it's a pity it never got the hype it deserves, and unfortunately there are things that I'm not so fond of now that I logged back in and played a bit.

3. GENERAL ISSUES
This game is multiplayer, and it's not for people who prefer to play (mostly) alone.
- The lack of players (I played in EU 2), clans, wars and overall activity makes getting sheriff-only dino/clothes a long and boring task.
- Hunting is 10x more difficult now if you don't have someone helping you hunt for materials. Lengthening the cooldown for Health Gain this much was a mistake, because specific dinos are now preferred for PvE and there isn't balance and variety in using different strategies to hunt. It's either "deal as much damage as you can" or "have as much health as possible to survive". Some dino skills are ridiculously weak for both PvE and PvP.
- The whole non-PvP side is a disaster: all you do is level up, hunt for materials hoping to get good loot from higher level alphas (many times they drop nothing after a long fight and this can happen 5 times in a row), finish upgrading and do the same 3 quests over and over again. Protect this, kill that and go back and forth grabbing stuff from the ground. It is fine the first time you play but doing this for 55 levels is not worth your time and effort, even with Dino Storm Plus. Players lose the excitement of such an interesting game at lvl 15 simply because it's frustratingly monotonous, it's a shame.
- if coelo is the weakest dino in overall stats, why give the opportunity to upgrade it? The coelo's highlight, speed, is pretty much useless. In PvE it's impossible to use speed (so a different strategy) because it's hard to get away from the combat mode that slows you down. It's also hard to circle around and kill with the gun, because hunting areas are usually packed with alphas that will chase after you.
- Travelling is excruciatingly dull if you don't use travel gates which in my humble opinion cost too many dds if you want to get from Moujak Mountains to Dinoville or viceversa. Let's remember we need a high amount of dds to upgrade all pieces of equipment we have (in total 8 things to upgrade per level) but we lose a big chunk just by travelling to Dinoville, which is oftentimes required and selling materials 5 lvls below you doesn't give much. If I'm lvl 45 I'm not selling lvl 45 materials, duh.
- Not enough stack capacity for stones and materials to upgrade. Back in 2014-15 a 25x stack was fine due to lesser requirements for upgrading and buying guns, dinos, techs and implants. With lvl 55 it's just annoying having to get 100+ materials and having to go back and forth to sell or go to Dinoville's storage. I shouldn't feel forced to use gold coins to hunt comfortably.
- What's with the odds of dropping materials and stones? it's way too randomised. I could kill many lvl 38 enemies as a lvl 35 ranger and I still risk of wasting my time dying AND getting nothing from the fight. It's overwhelming.
- The storage shouldn't have the same number of slots as our inventory, it's supposed to be a storage, meaning it can contain more than our portable bag.
- Events are the exact, same old events from 2014, recycling can only go so far..
- The storyline which should be an important aspect of the game, is nonexistent.
- This is far more personal but I feel like a ranger can become a sheriff even without being in a clan.
- Graphics. I understand that it's a small team of developers gaining little from this game, and you can't expect much from a browser game either. Browser games are prehistorical nowadays, it matches the dinosaur theme at least that being said, I don't expect a graphic overhaul of the game because I still like the aesthetic as it is, just please make Goldfields less eye-straining, it's really hard to focus on a blinding orange/yellow screen for too long.

Now, I won't complain only but also give some hypothetical recommendations/ideas that you could take into consideration. They're not guaranteed to work 100% or even be possible to implement but an idea is a storm of thoughts, not an organised project. These are just thoughts to inspire you.

4. POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS/IMPROVEMENTS
- Divide PvE and PvP mechanics: what works for PvP doesn't work for PvE and viceversa, so making a difference to the two can be beneficial for overall gameplay and enjoyment. Keep the slow down mechanic for PvP, take it off PvE. Shorten the Health Gain cooldown and balance dino and gun variety in PvE. In certain hunting areas, avoid packing alphas together.
- Implement a simple yet interesting story. How are evolved humans living with dinosaurs? How do they domesticate and ride them? Is this a parallel world? What was the purpose for creating laser guns? Are there other types of dinosaurs other than our available roster? Is there a bigger threat that causes humans to ride dinosaurs and shoot with plasma guns? There is a lot you can work on, there's a lot of potential here.
- Add variety both in events and gameplay: with the addition of a set storyline, it's easier to then come up with new events that revolve around imaginary celebrations that happen in this Dino Storm world. Eradicate the bandits (more like a dungeon feel), competitions on best dinosaur, races, small temporary events showing up every hour like fastest and most proficient hunting session that give out rewards, helped the most civilians with side quests, obtained the most dd, PvP tournaments, you name it.
- Increase the drop rate for upgrade materials and stones and increase stack capacity: when killing an enemy that is a higher level than you, make the killing of them rewarding. Add a 5% success of dropping what you need with each level higher than you, a set 20-25% for alphas. Make it worth killing alphas so they're not just a nuisance. Increase stack capacity to maybe 50x for materials and 100x for stones. That way managing your inventory is easier and you can carry other objects and/or clothes. Makes hunting less irksome.
- Add the possibility for players without clans to become Sheriff: OR, add a completely new type of elections for clanless players to become "Protectors" of Dinoville, basically the police department. Following that and the wild west vibe, have "WANTED" posters with players killing the most people as outlaws. It would encourage chaos lovers to go against Dinoville and be the villains.
- Improve the coelo, centro, brachio and para to be more useful both in PvP and PvE.
- Do some smart travelling: teleport immediately to the map you need to go to by using a travel gate and dds (Ex. from Dinoville travel immediately to Moujak Mountains). Cost will be based off the player's level or dds available. Teleporting to a travel gate in the same map will cost much less due to vicinity. You can still use the portable teleports to avoid paying dds.
- Increase storage slot number to at least 30.
- Make the game enjoyable for solo players too.
- Insert a tab where we can see all active players in a server (something similar to Minecraft's TAB button).
- Make event skins capable of being used in the triforge.
- Improve UX design and overall graphics to fit it all better, keep the "old 2010's game" vibe in mind.

These are just the few ideas I could come up at the top of my head, I'm sure that there would be more if I thought it through. For now this will do the trick.

5. CONCLUSION

Overall, there is too much focus on end game content than actually making the game fun. Dino Storm has a lot of potential and it could attract many players if it didn't have such striking issues with gameplay and storyboarding that make it, well, boring. Making a game harder without reward isn't fun, it's frustrating. You can improve an easy game without having to amp up the difficulty. What's important is to be original and add variety, because that's what makes a game attractive and unique. Of course that takes a lot of attention, time and effort, if even considered. Thank you all for reading, I loved writing so much for a game I deeply cared about. If you have anything to add (may it be something I forgot, a correction, some new ideas or disagreements) feel free to comment! A forum is made to discuss. Until next time