Im all for a checkbox that just says “enable enc 50 perk”. More admin options the better.
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If they want to change this perk (which I love and have used almost exclusively since launch) then they had better make this a RPG rather than a SandBox.
Here is my reasoning.
As it stands, players have to spend months farming and collecting goods to build, and maintain their own personal empire.
If you remove, nerf, or slightly degrade the quality of the encumbrance perk you will effectively increase the time it takes to gather resources.
That means more time spent to achieve the same task.
That means its harder, and more rewarding.
But that also means when your (insert list of horrible words) decay system obliterates their base (eventually) that player will rage on a level you have yet to experience.
I will not play this game an hour longer the day that encumbrance is nerfed and the cancerous decay system remains unchanged.
Is not like I’m playing the game much anymore, so my opinion wouldn’t count too much… but IMO, playing this game would be an absolute hell if you had to run back to your base every 20 mins with limited amount of materials in order to be able to gather the amounts that are needed to progress.
I’m not one that likes to use followers (reason #1 why I stopped playing seriously ~9 months ago) and missing other options to be able to haul mats with no encumbrance, I can’t see how people would think it’s a good thing to remove it? I simply can’t wrap my head around that.
IMO what’s perhaps needed is some way to balance it? Maybe debuff damage while you’re encumbered? Maybe take more damage? Maybe not being able to roll, or only “fat” roll? Maybe have a constant drain on stamina while running (and a higher drain on sprinting)? Not sure… but complete removal? It’s way too detrimental to the game play IMO.
Well, I think I have a sort of “middle ground” opinion on it.
It’s a specialized perk that, due to its position at the very end of the perk list, requires massive investment to get. This is fine. It allows you to do exactly one thing, though admittedly, it allows you to do that thing insanely well. Those things together makes for a (generally) balanced perk.
No doubt my lack of problems with the perk stems from my being a PvE player, where others having this perk has exactly zero impact on me (minimizing the impact of others’ playstyle choices while still playing with others is the reason I picked PvE in the first place).
This may all sound like a “firmly in favor of” opinion rather than middle ground, so here comes the “but…” part:
For me, it has become a very, very situational perk (I basically only use it for HUGE building projects, or when moving base). In that sense, it almost feels like a “wasted” perk given that there are only 35 total in the game, and I wouldn’t be too sad to see it go.
But if it goes, there are some activities that go from being annoying to borderline impossible, unless we see other changes to bearers/caravans or similar systems.
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I would prefer that the Momentum perk remain as is. There are a number of reasons behind my selection. For one, in order to have the perk active a player must sink 275 out of their 390 Attribute points, that is 70.5% of their total pool into Encumberance. This makes the player more vulnerable, especially in PvP against an opponent with a combat loadout. Another reason is the over zealous approach to nerfing period. Nerfs have already ruined the usefulness of numerous good perks, such as Nimble Tumbler, Fierce Vitality and Salting The Wound, without crippling yet another. The other reason for me personally is rooted in my mode of play. For Singleplayers such as myself and Solo players it is godsend. I dont have a friend or clan to share the duties in my Singleplayer game, I am a one man workforce. I have to do all of the harvesting, the fighting, the building, the thrall capturing and the crafting and prep work on my own. To compound all this, I am very limited in the amount of time I get to play and on a normal week I generally only get to play for several hours on saturday and sunday. I cant speak for everyone, but for me this perk is invaluable for saving time and reducing grind. For me personally, the only thing about it I would like to see changed is for it to be made compatible with Mounts.
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The 5th encumbrance perk basically makes any points spent in encumbrance wasted. Also the 3rd perk in it is kinda pointless too if you get the 5th.
Yes I know you can still carry more until the point where you are over encumbered, but it doesn’t matter. When you need the 5th encumbrance perk you are 100% going to be over encumbered anyways.
A lot perks in this game are really questionable. The most notable one is where you get extra armor when dodge rolling. Hello?!? Wtf? I am DODGING an attack with the roll. I am not supposed to tank anything whilst rolling. So why give me extra armor?
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Pretty much this
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There is missing an option: I dont care at all, as I never used it and have no plans to use it.
Well that is the newest perk, which replaced the old “dodge counts one class lower”.
I think FC had no better idea 
I have a question why in heck would they get rid of a perk that has been in the game since start anyway? So one game dev does not like it, thousands hate the new thrall system, lots of players do not like the new thrall system, lots of players do not like the new roll, lots of players do not like that we get no communication so one dev not liking something does not mean it will all change.
Seems just dumb to me, or are they going to redo the whole perk tree? Changing something like perks after 2 years seems just not like it would be a good idea with a player base that many use it, but then again that gross roll got added.
Unpopular opinion but I find it warps the game around it. I use it all the time and I think that’s bad.
Yes I can respec and change my build but why would I? This one allows me to do so much farming with little to no stress regarding farming. I can load up on 100k+ materials and call it a day. It makes building huge castles far too easy, it allows you to take everything of value from a clan.
That’s why I find it OP and game warping (not exactly game-breaking) but many aspects have to be balanced around it. It would be far better to simply have more inventory slots on followers instead of being able to max out 200 slots in a player inventory.
I’ve had instances where my overencumberance can’t be measured in the text box. I had over 3000%. That alone seems a tad broken and game warping.
Another avenue to look at would be to cap the % of overencumberance you can achieve. Like a hard limit of 400 or 500% overencumbered.
The way it is now can be improved and it should be looked at.
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So give thralls more slots instead of players? Doesnt that make it HARDER to chase down a thief? My thalls dont have stamina, I can run faster, the thrall teleports to me and has WAY more health if it does get caught whilst running. I dont see pvp upside here. All I really see is pve downside.
Also it still takes a long time with the 5th perk to build large structures. Removing the perk would just make it more tedious, not stop people. All that is now is a punishment for anyone who enjoys the building aspect of the game.
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liked the light roll 
or
liked the quivering arrows
or
liked the Lying bastard sword…
Every “balance”/change/nerf will result in someone unhappy.
Thats the opposite of justification. Thats pointing to bad behavior to justify bad behavior.
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Players have outright wished death on me IRL, bursting through my foundationless floor with a scream into the mic of an epithet, and then about how they were going to massacre my ranch inhabitants while I sleep, and they still never foundation wiped me. To reinforce what I’ve said earlier, I’ve played PvP since EA on the PC – with the last 7 months in peace – and have never seen a foundation wipe outside of trespass. You’ve really gotta be angry at someone to waste all those treb shots and mats killing every last foundation.
The last wipe I witnessed was in fact on my PS4, some poor fellow built a humble hut at the base of a big tree in Noob River. Ran him right off the server and back to Ark. (Recently, I built a platform on my PC official PvP in the tree way above in tribute.
) I do find it interesting about @WhatMightHaveBeen’s claims on the PS4. I know you play on XBox; a couple of my crossover friends say they’ve seen it on your console a bit too. It seems to me consoles would be more of a hotbed for this as they’re later-adopters due to how launch went down. 
The Momentum Perk is a necessity, as it is a Quality of Life perk for the player of the Single Player game. I’m going to drop @Shadoza’s name into this discussion as well, with hopes of illuminating the subject from his inimitable perspective.
There are gates that I imagine can be put in place to make Momentum less insanely preternatural, but to remove it would not only be unpopular*, it would harm the experience of the unsung people who play the base game, their way.
* Argumentum ad populum would be my central objection to polls, as I also disclosed elsewhere.
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Nope… Thats being upset because the nerf hit you…
Like with every update, I get sth “destroyed”.
BUT: Funcom mostly makes changes not for fun… They think about it. They have the numbers to see, how much XYZ is used (or not used at all) and are balancing things around that (well, lets hope so).
Good example: Serpentman things. They were cheap to craft AND STRONG. Which wasnt balanced at all…
Was I happy with the changes? NO.
Was it better for the game? Probably yes.
Many others are still pissed (or quited) because of the removal of the light roll… You have such examples in the whole game and with every patch.
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Being upset that a nerf hits you is entirely justified if the nerf did not fix an imbalance in the game (as much as I hate that word). No one suffers because people have that perk. No one is victim of the 5th encumbrance perk. There are no bosses that can be cheesed because of the 5th enc perk (gawd if that were the criteria, we’d have no thralls by now…).
Removing the perk will not just hack off me, it will hack off a lot of people. Let the roll be your guide (which they already rolled back heavily); when you change a core mechanic this far out of release, you risk alienating old players at the opportunity of gaining players who… what exactly? Point me to a thread where someone says, “I would buy this game if it weren’t for the people who can max encumbrance and carry lots of resources/mats.” There are no potential customers with a nerf to that perk; only potential lost customers.
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My personal (PVE vanilla only) point of view:
Moving a base:
After quite some time I recently started to respec for the perk because I am reducing one main base and moving things to new location. While it is nice to carry alot (more) I ran into a problem called “max number of inventory slots”. Trying to transfer few chests of armor or weapons or dyes proved to be much more time consuming than transffering 3000% (not quoting but mentioned above by @Candle ) enc worth of stone or other basic material.
In this case I would rather see the perk to simply increase encumbermance to like 500% (also mentioned above) and not theoretically infinite, but also increase max inventory slots.
Farming:
Personally I find slots of a T4 bearer to be sufficient for my needs. Obviously, when I am in a build/upgrade base mode, I need WAY more than worth of a 1 bearer pack.
What I do is: farm to fill bearers slots. Return to base, throw stuff into appropriate stations. Repeat. After repeating it x times, I take out the products and start producing walls, foundations ect. Nice option for a short break.
After that, repeat (if I am still in the mood).
About spending points:
My personal philosophy is to have a general build and dress for the occasion (also eat fish 
)
Wearing epic flawless 4 part enc armor (original base game or dlc) + bearer pack = 12 point
eat + wear warpaint = 6 points
total = 18
Making modifications by using some special armor (silent legion, warmaker versions or legendaries) or (few) legendary weapons gets the total even higher. That would leave quite some points to spend to make a proper (not best) build for general use and have enc perk 5 at hand when needed.
Conclusion:
- I do not mind having perk 5 as it is. But would welcome some changes.
- I would not think it a big game changer if it would suddenly dissapear and be replaced by something different altogether.
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I’m not disagreeing with your points in general, but this one needs a correction. My farming spec requires me to spend only 164 out of 390 attribute points on encumbrance. That gives me the encumbrance of 38 and the remaining 12 come from my armor and bearer pack. If I don’t want to wear the pack, I can eat one of the many rhino head soups I have in my fridge and farm pack-free for half an hour. Incidentally, that means I could lower my investment into encumbrance even further, but I don’t like being dependent on temporary buffs from consumables.
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I don’t know if the foundation-wipe raids are a widespread problem or not. I know at least one player on these forums has posited that they’re the biggest problem caused by the 5th encumbrance perk and I’ve also seen at least one thread complaining about repeated foundation-wipes.
Like I said, I started this thread to get everyone’s input, especially because all my ideas about balancing this out in PVP are based on my guesses and other people’s stories.
Which brings me to another point:
As I also disclosed elsewhere, the polls here are meant to be informative. I knew from the start a lot of people wouldn’t take them that way, but I thought it wouldn’t matter, because we’re here to discuss things and anyone who actually referenced the polls as an argument would get a reply from me explaining that they’re not
The reason why I included the polls in the first place is because I really want to see the distribution of people who aren’t satisfied with the status quo, i.e. how many think the perk should be removed, how many think it can be changed, etc.
Lesson learned for the next time (if ever): include the polls without the status quo option and explain why the polls are missing that option. I made a mistake there and I apologize for it.
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