Hi all! I've been following this game since 2016, and it has come a hell of a long way. I really admire the developers' dedication to quality. That being said, I wanted to focus on two large aspects of the game. This post is loosely based on a guess that what players enjoy the most, in most to least respectively, is being around other players, successfully hunting / defending yourself, and then immersion.

Growth / Death Time

I know that a lot of us agree that the map can feel very empty and without much to do. It's very hard to find people except around the center of the map. I don't think the problem, at its core, is the server population, though. With that in mind, I think that it's imperative that players are dying and killing more often, and reaching full growth far less often. If players on average are dying more often, then they are killing more often as well. The game should be more thrilling! While being full grown is cool, currently the game is in a state where you don't do much of anything until you're an adult. If there are more juvies or subs running around, that changes. It also changes the feeling of reaching adult from "Alright I can do stuff now" to "Yes! I reached adult!" This is also dependent on player interaction.

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Player Interaction

I'm going to make another guess that most of us don't come on The Isle wanting to roam the world alone. We want at least a few friends, right? Knowing that, there needs to be a way for players to cross each other more often. I think the developers want players spreading out more, but I don't think that's more important than player interaction. Players want to be around others, and if it's a call between having max stats (roaming for diets) and being able to see some action, I bet most if not all would choose some action. This doesn't necessarily mean a smaller map size, though. As long as there is a good and relatively consistent way of finding other players, it's fine.

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Goals

Currently, the single long-term goal of the game is to survive. But what about short-term goals? There is finding food and water. It could also be surviving from an enemy player attacking you. Other than that and other specific if/then instances, there isn't much. Today, in real life, the meta is constantly doing something. That's why we use phones on the toilet. That's why we browse Reddit or other media constantly. We hate the idea of doing nothing. All of this applies to The Isle. While we're running around the map looking for those short-term goals, there isn't anything else that can keep us busy. There isn't much depth to survival other than when you're in combat. This absolutely does not mean that there should be more debuffs or vitals to worry about. Food and water is already enough to worry over. Instead, there should be other optional things to do that ideally add some strategy to non-combat play.

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TL;DR

Players should be killing each other, dying, and growing to full growth less often. There should also be a way for players to find each other easier or more commonly. Finally, there should be some depth or strategy to non-combat gameplay.

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Ending Thoughts and Suggestions

First of all thank you for reading through, and let me know what you think! To end this out, I wanted to talk about some specific suggestions I have to achieve the above. I also wanted to emphasize the fact that the developers are the ones with all of the data. At the end of the day, they are the ones with the heat maps, statistics, and whatever else. The best we can do is trust in their decisions, and hope that they remain active with the community. Anyways, onto my suggestions. These are all just possibilities, so they can conflict.

• Make the map smaller, or figure out a way to allow for more players on one map. I don't know how true it is, but a friend told me that a different game split up their map into different servers and found a way for it to be seamless without loading screens, and you could still see other players. I don't know how doable this is.
• Work with the scent or tracking system to allow for an easier time of finding players farther away, but add many more mud pools so that you can't be tracked endlessly while running from someone. In addition, it would probably be a good idea to starve faster if people are finding each other easier.
• Add a consumable that spawns randomly around the map, allowing for greatly increased scent range.
• Add some strategy to natural disasters. Lightning strikes could be more common in higher areas and places covered by clouds, so you should avoid them if you can. There should also be a subtle way to tell lightning is coming, like dark clouds. Floods could start with dams starting to overflow or a cyclone showing off in the ocean. Forest fires could start with smoke columns, etc. Cold weather, where young dinosaurs are vulnerable unless they are sheltered or need others' body heat.
• Activities / playing between pack mates, actually playable. Or maybe in-fighting that doesn't do much damage but has strategy. Activities like this could increase bond as a benefit, potentially increasing the range you can see pack members' nametags, or something else like that.
• An autowalk button, so that we can talk/type while moving. Additionally, the ability to move with the dinosaur info screen open.
• A slight buff for lone wolves. Potentially increased scent range, without all of the scents from pack mates to interfere. Or higher stamina regen, like adrenaline.
• Possibly, an apex dinosaur sooner rather than later. Preferably one that is slow but packs a punch. There should probably be a limit on how many can be played at a time until they regulate themselves, but currently The Isle is missing a lot of that "OH SHIT THERE'S A REX RIGHT BEHIND US" thrill factor. Just the possibility adds suspense.

I've spent way too long thinking on this post, so this is all for now. Thanks again for reading!