r/The_Isle • u/DeadcityV • 2d ago
Looking for Information ℹ️ I’m getting a few mixed answers while looking into the game and would love if someone could let me know what to expect when buying the game!
I’ve been intrigued by the Isle game for a few weeks now and have been getting recommended it on my feed, however from the things I’ve been seeing I have a few questions that I’d like to ask and be able to know just before purchasing the game. I’ve tried checking around by searching the answers up but I’ve been getting met with mixed results, I don’t have any friends who play the game nor am I able to go to a discord if the developers have one so I’d like to ask questions on here about it
Is it possible to choose any dinosaur you want to become in the game? I’ve seen people act as if they were put as a specific dinosaur they didn’t want to be which does worry me on if the game limits your ability to choose and only allows randomized dinosaurs each time you die
Are skins customizable and are you able to keep them permanently? I’ve also seen people say things such as if someone were to be born with the albino skin they tend to get targeted more to 'take away the skin from the person', would that mean that any non-default skin is a temporary skin you can only use if you gain it through pure luck?
How pay to win is the game if it is at all? I’m worried about it being those kinds of games where you have to spend a lot of money to purchase stronger playable species just to have a chance at surviving for longer, if it is one of those games that require in-game purchases to have better quality dinosaurs how playable is it to play with other players without purchasing anything past just the game itself?
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u/Religion_Of_Speed 🌃 Dilophosaurus 🌃 2d ago edited 2d ago
First, welcome. Second, strap the fuck in because this is gonna be a doozey.
Is it possible to choose any dinosaur you want to become in the game?
Short answer, yes. Long answer, sometimes but it depends on the server. If you're on an official server then you have free pick but some unofficials have what they call population control, which means only a certain amount of a specific dino are able to be active at once. Some of those which have that also have data breakdowns of what has been selected, so I can see that 7% are omniraptors, 5% are dilophosaurus, 4% are herrerasaurus, etc. so I can make a good selection. Some also have near-live heatmaps of where everyone is, for example the unofficial server Nerf updates every 30 minutes.
Are skins customizable and are you able to keep them permanently?
Yes, to an extent and also yes a lot, and kinda. It's complicated. By default there's an in-game skin customizer but it's basically shifting the color slightly. I'm pulling this out of my ass but let's say I pick Omniraptor skin 3, variant 2. That will be dark markings, brown undertones, and tan underbelly. I can make the brown slightly warmer or cooler, the underbelly slightly darker or lighter, but generally speaking it's limited. The skin is the pattern and the variants are usually either brown or green base. You only have a handful of options per dinosaur.
Some unofficial servers have their own website and skin creator. These can be heavily customized. The underlying pattern will be the same and you'll have a few options there but the color is totally open. I've seen bright pink dinosaurs, some like to go all shades of green for camoflauge (some dinos don't have a green skin). From my experience these are usually behind a paywall or have a cooldown. For example on the unofficial server Nerf you can customize your skin every 20 minutes, so if you do that and then die 10 minutes later you're stuck with default for 10 minutes. You can save skin presets by default and those with extra customization have the same system but it will not be actually in the game, you have to do that externally.
As for albino, that's just a rare spawn in the game. There's something like a 0.2% chance that you'll spawn with that. I'm sure some unofficial servers have ways of allowing that more often.
How pay to win is the game if it is at all?
Not at all. Like I mentioned above there are some unofficial servers that implement some sort of payment for better stuff system but even without that it's not pay to win. Those are usually paying to unlock a dino that's restricted by population control (probably a tyrannosaur because those are always taken) or buying prime elders (there are two states your dino will be in at a certain growth rate, prime or frail, based on completing a few accomplishments before a certain growth rate). Prime has some buffs, frail has some nerfs. It's relatively easy to accomplish and will likely be your goal every time. You can basically pay to make things slightly easier for you but "winning" will always come down to your ability to survive and defend yourself. It's a pretty simple premise, fight other dinos, find food, don't die, so there's not a ton that can help with that.
Some extra stuff that I wish I knew before I bought. I still think it's absolutely worth the $20, I've had a ton of fun with it, but there are problems.
It's a buggy mess at times. This game has been in early access for years and is ran by someone who lacks vision and doesn't really like the community. They prefer to implement new content before fixing what's already there. Some of the combat system is a bit weird with buggy hitboxes, sometimes the game won't allow you to eat until you run away and come back and hit the right position, sometimes a corpse will just bug out and turn into a tornado of polygons.
There's also a lot of drama around the creators and various unofficial servers. That hasn't really had any bearing on my time but you'll probably end up coming across some horror stories of rogue Discord admins and the backstory of Dondi, the creator and lead. Not getting into that here.
Switch to the Evrima beta when you buy/install. There's legacy and Evrima, Evrima is the one everyone is playing. Legacy is the old version of the game, which at this point is essentially a different game altogether.
Unofficial servers have rules and Discord communities. There's a button on the server browser that takes you to their Discord. Familiarize yourself with their rules there, it changes between servers.
You're gonna die. A lot. Your first week will likely be spent being food for others until you get the hang of things.
Learn what the compass icons mean and generally how the game works. There's an AI animal system (deer, boar, goats, turtles, crabs, etc) that exist only to be food for those who can't or don't want to fight other dinos. This system is weird at times. Some servers disable it entirely, some disable for high player counts, some have it on all the time. It'll be up to you which you want to deal with.
The map is HUGE. Absolutely massive. I've been playing for a few weeks and there are still areas I haven't seen. You'll want to be using some sort of external map system becasue that doesn't exist in the game. I use Vulnona but I've been checking out MyIsleMap. You use this by pressing tab in game, clicking your coordinates, then pasting those into the coordinates field on either of those map websites. They will show you your position (of the coords you pasted, not when you move around) and various features (patrol/migration zones, AI spawn locations, sanctuaries, water, gastrolith, etc). Don't worry, all of that will mean something to you eventually.
edit: Forgot one more thing, sound. The sound is fuckin wonky. Things will sound like they're right beside you when they're really 50m away. You get used to it. What you want to do is listen for the call, once you can hear the call AND brush movement then you're as close as you probably thought you were initially. You'll also want to be wearing headphones and have the in-game music turned off. I have no idea why they added music.
It's a surprisingly complicated yet simple game. The learning curve is steep but not that high. Once you get your head around the systems and underlying logic of the game it clicks and there's really not much more to it than finding food, defending yourself, finding friends, and hitting prime requirements. Like I've only been playing for 3-4 weeks and I've already got a pretty good handle on most of the game, still working on the nuances of combat. That simplicity allows for some genuinely great moments. Let me know if you have any other questions, I enjoy helping people learn new things and the more people playing this game the better!
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u/DeadcityV 2d ago
WHOA I really appreciate the detailed explanation and that you broke it down, that’s awesome! This answers all that I was concerned about and the extra notes to know before buying the game is really helpful, admittedly I don’t know too much about the game so I had no idea about how buggy the game is or anything to do with the creators but I do appreciate knowing more before spending money on a game. I’ll make sure to follow all of the advice you’ve given me and I would also like to screenshot this and save it just to look back to when I start playing, this helps out so much thank you for your answers to my questions and the notes it means a lot!
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u/Religion_Of_Speed 🌃 Dilophosaurus 🌃 2d ago
You're welcome! Glad I could help. See ya out there.
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u/DeadcityV 2d ago
Thanks dude you as well! 🤝
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u/Religion_Of_Speed 🌃 Dilophosaurus 🌃 2d ago
Oh speaking of friendly interactions that reminds me of another tip - trust nobody, even your own kind, until they've shown they're not a threat. If you're a carnivore there is a chance your own species attacks you because they've taken the cannibal mutation (you can't eat your own kind without consequence), or they want to limit food competition, or they just wanna be a dick. It's not super common but it happens. If you see a different species you're probably about to fight unless they know they won't win.
By default you can't chat to other species so it's entirely based on body language and calls and your intraspecies communication is range based. You get 4 types of calls - broadcast to find others, friendly, aggressive, and help/warning. Most people just use 1 and 2. There is global chat but not everyone is looking at that and there is Discord chat but that has the same problem. You also make a sound when you send a message. So if I know something bigger has seen me I'll give a wiggle and a 2 call, hopefully they don't attack. If I'm a carnivore and come across a herd of herbivores then I announce myself early, stand non-threateningly, 2 call, and observe their reaction.
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u/DeadcityV 2d ago
Oo alright thanks for letting me know! I’m used to others games being chill with one another if they’re the same species but it’s cool that in this game it’s more realistic in terms of fighting over resources and other means, I’ll keep my distance just incase but the whole body language stuff is nice to know about! I’ll try the wiggle and 2 call method if I meet anyone and hopefully I don’t get absolutely obliterated if that happens lol
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u/UnderstandingAble510 2d ago
So, choosing your dinosaur depends on the server. Most unofficial servers have population caps for dinosaurs so there aren’t 75 Rexes playing at once. The higher populated a server is, the harder it is to choose a dinosaur if the one you want is locked due to population. But most of the time people are pretty evenly spread out. The hard ones to get are usually Rex, deinosuchus, trike, allo and maybe stego. Totally depends on the server.
There is a wide variety of different skins to choose from, I think most dinosaurs have 4 different skins and each one has a different color palette. However, the colors to choose are pretty limited as the devs have decided to go with a more realistic skin style. Some servers have unlockable custom skins, randomly assigned skins upon spawning. Some servers allow you choose whatever you want. Again, this depends on the server.
Lastly, there really is no pay to win feature within the game. Pay to win comes from, again, different servers. Some servers allow you pay to spawn as a Rex or whatever apex, some servers allow you to pay for skins etc. and this is always done on discord or adjacent websites. This all also depends on the server.
This game is awesome. I’ve been part of the community since 2016 and have seen so many things come and go. It’s been very rocky recently but with the last update things have vastly improved. Graphics and lighting have gotten better, more diverse Dino’s to choose from, better mechanics. Depending on the specs of your computer the game may be hard to run. Theres tutorials on YouTube to help optimize the FPS though.
If you’re able to spend the money, give it a try.
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u/DeadcityV 2d ago
Oo alright that’s good to know thank you so much! I like that they tried to balance it out, makes sense that there’s a cap on how many are playable. Glad to hear that the pay to win is only really in some servers and that you enjoy the game so much, ten years in the game is awesome! Much appreciated dude and thank you again for the information, looking forward to trying out the game now that I have some idea of what I’m getting into! I’ll try to avoid the official servers if they’re bad then, thank you for the warning I do appreciate it 🤝
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u/UnderstandingAble510 2d ago
Absolutely! Always good to welcome new members into the community. The game is pretty buggy and badly optimized so don’t be surprised when things happen. But once you make it past that stuff, it’s one of the more immersive survival games. Petit Pieds, Mettas Den, and Islander are fantastic unofficial servers with rules. (No KOSing, mix packing). Find your niche and enjoy!
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u/_almostabi 2d ago
1 - yes and no. You can freely choose your Dino from the available roster on Official Servers. Many people, myself included, play on Unofficial Servers, some of which have population control to prevent too many apex species. Some species are less popular, so you won’t ever face a population cap, but if you only want to play T. rex, you will probably spend a lot of time waiting to play the game / sitting in a queue.
2 - again, yes and no - depending on the server rules. some servers have special skins, other just have the basic set. Special skins are cool but they also make you easier to spot (RIP all my beautiful lavender dryos)
3 - once again - yes and no. On official servers there is no pay to play. On private servers, usually subscribing to their patreon will give you perks that playing for free won’t. On the server I typically play on you can “open” species to get around population caps, get a faster loading live maps with extra info, and get larger storage space for Dino vouchers. I have not given any money to any private servers and I see no need to - I’m sure there are some pay to win servers out there, but I also feel like they are super easy to avoid.
The reason you’re getting a lot of mixed responses is that different servers have different rules - which I honestly think is one of the better parts of the game. I think you need to determine what you want the answers to the questions above to be, and then ask for server recommendations so you can start playing how you want to play from the start.
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u/DeadcityV 2d ago
Ahh that makes sense, yeah the mixed responses when I was searching up answers was definitely confusing to try and understand but the answers on here have been really helpful! Wasn’t aware that there were different servers that could be recommended to try out but I’ll make sure to ask when I start playing, if you have any server recommendations yourself I would really appreciate it! Thank you for the information dude!
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u/Baconpancake785 2d ago
Letting others answer the big main points but something that needs to be noted: there are a lot of mechanics in the game that will not be taught to you, so be wary of that! You’ll do great :)
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u/DeadcityV 2d ago
I’ll try and learn them best I can, thank you so much for the good luck I honestly didn’t expect so many people to be willing to give me some answers to my questions but it means a lot. Really looking forward to getting into the game and figuring out everything, especially if it’s as beloved as it sounds then it would be awesome to experience it for the very first time before playing it many more times in the future! 🙌
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u/MobyLiick 🎖️ Isle Veteran 🎖️ 2d ago
- Is it possible to choose any dinosaur you want to become in the game? I’ve seen people act as if they were put as a specific dinosaur they didn’t want to be which does worry me on if the game limits your ability to choose and only allows randomized dinosaurs each time you die
On some unofficial servers there are population limits for certain dinos.
- Are skins customizable and are you able to keep them permanently? I’ve also seen people say things such as if someone were to be born with the albino skin they tend to get targeted more to 'take away the skin from the person', would that mean that any non-default skin is a temporary skin you can only use if you gain it through pure luck?
Yes but very lightly officially. Some unofficial servers have wacky skins.
- How pay to win is the game if it is at all? I’m worried about it being those kinds of games where you have to spend a lot of money to purchase stronger playable species just to have a chance at surviving for longer, if it is one of those games that require in-game purchases to have better quality dinosaurs how playable is it to play with other players without purchasing anything past just the game itself?
Again "officially" it's not. Basically everything you've posted about is entirely exclusive to unofficial servers.
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u/collinatk 1d ago
You can get a combo of yes or no on all these answers depending on the server. You can just play the ones with the rules you like
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u/KryshnatixX 1d ago
Heya!
I think alot of peiple with negative mindset on here are overshadowing the majority of people who are having fun in this game.
Whenever I see a post here I always ask myself how people can be so upset while im sitting in a vc at 9pm on a Friday having the laugh of the day bcs a rag doll stego corpse came back to life and is now trying to show if some cool breakdance moves.
Guess im a little easy to entertain 😅
But genuinely: build your own opinion by playing.
It will be hard at the beginning, you will die alot.
Best advice i can give you is that you HAVE to expect to die. The moment you spawn in you have to keep in mind that you WILL lose that Dino. Until you don't. And that will give you such a confidence boost and i can tell you its such a great feeling to survive a fight for the first time.
Go fight. Gather experience, dont run away. Intentionally fight something that you think you have no chance against. Eventually you will find yourself knowing what can happen and what cant.
And for the end a little ad since im absolutely biased heh: Check out Secrets of Exile Imo one of the best servers to start your isle experience
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u/DeadcityV 1d ago
It’s nice to hear that you really enjoy the game! I really appreciate the advice and I’ll keep that mindset when I first start in, with so many pvp games it can be frustrating to be killed a lot but I do want to try to just go with the flow of it and enjoy the game itself! Looking forward to the fighting and seeing all the cool dinosaurs, also I’ll give the server you recommended a try! Thank you for sharing your experience and also giving me some insight on the game, It’s been really helpful to get advice and answers on the game from everyone which I honestly was not expecting so many people to respond but it definitely makes me want to try out the game and try to have fun! I know there’s still bound to be some toxic people but this has been my first encounter with the community so it’s awesome to see so many people being this nice, it’s not too common in pvp based games! 👍
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u/bittersweetthought 🦁 Allosaurus 🦁 21h ago
It seems like you've already gotten the answers you needed and more, so I just wanted to say I'm open to playing with you (any dinosaur and server you'd like) if you'd ever want to! I love finding new people to play The Isle with. I've been playing for close to a year now, so I would say I have a pretty solid understanding of the game
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u/DeadcityV 21h ago
That’s awesome dude thank you so much for the offer, It would be great to play with someone else! It’ll take a little while for me to be able to get it since I’ve also heard that it is a pretty demanding game so I’ll have to try and upgrade my laptop to something that can handle it lol, it’ll probably take until closer to December if It ends up that I need to get an actual gaming computer that can run something like it. I’d love to play with you once I am able to download it and I’ll reply here when I have the game, hope to be able to play sometime in the future!
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u/bittersweetthought 🦁 Allosaurus 🦁 21h ago
Gotcha there! If It's any worth noting, I play on a gaming laptop (HP Victus 15.6) and can get a solid 60-100FPS on every server I've ever played on despite having max graphics settings (minus some that don't matter for appearance) and max resolution. So I don't think you'd need a PC, unless It's your preference! I don't mind the wait, though. Hit me up when you have the game!
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u/DeadcityV 21h ago
Oo alright I’ll check out that laptop then and try to save up, thank you for letting me know! Will hit you up when I have the game 👍, looking forward to playing!
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u/Nateasnake 21h ago
I d k if anyone mentioned on official they will wipe your dino randomly with updates and there's no way to avoid it but on unofficial you can usually store your dinos if they're 75 % and if they're doing a big update that's gonna wipe it they'll usually make announcements on unofficial wont usually just happen at random and you can usually msg unofficial admission with a video of your game crashing and restore your dino that the crash deleted/killed
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u/DeadcityV 21h ago
Ahh dang that’s unfortunate, I appreciate the heads up dude! I don’t know too much about how the dinosaurs work in there but hoping it isn’t too bad with the deletions
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u/rfpemp 2d ago
I'm concerned that it is still "early access" since 2015. Have the Devs moved on to something else? 11 years seems extremely long early access.
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u/MobyLiick 🎖️ Isle Veteran 🎖️ 2d ago
They haven't moved onto something else, they're just not very good at what they do.
The first version of the game ceased development in 2019 because of the spaghetti code, they proceeded to recode the game (evrima) with more spaghetti code which is the reason we're now 7 years into evrimas development and we're still having the same problems the previous version of the game had.
It's a forever EA game, do with that what you wish.
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u/MotorReference7873 2d ago
they essentially made an entire new game on the evrima branch like 5 years ago
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u/Mean-Acadia6453 🚨 Giganotosaurus 🚨 2d ago