Community Crunch 356: ARK Roadmap Update, Rhyniognatha Concept, and More!

11 minutes ago, darkradeon said:

This is also another point: ASE took 7-8 years on 1x official to become what it is now. Yes, it may come out now with OP dinos and stats but this is not players fault but about unbalanced game mechanics. How much will have players on ASA to invest their time again on similar mechanics without even knowing how much ASA ongoing?

Yeah they could have easily tweaked bosses over the years to compensate for the dino growth they did try with each expansion coming out, trying to make it a little bit more difficult I guess..

my whole ark playing career has been on 1x official servers, I enjoyed the grind of things, ok it became easier and easier the more they gave us OP things to play with, that does not mean abandon ship and drive a new one before it’s even ready…

Everquest 1 is STILL going strong after 9485748 expansions and a 20+year career even while creating EverQuest 2 to run ALONGSIDE its parent model, do they suck? Who cares people still play them and throw money at them.

 

learn from this Wildcard/Snail Games

7 minutes ago, Randy12 said:

i dont give a raptor about the god dam price. 

make characters import into the remasterd ark with the exp we have already gained.  if u want me to buy it. 

Terrible idea for pvp servers

29 minutes ago, acat said:

Terrible idea for pvp servers

its the exact same as any other official DLC dude....   LDL for first 2 months u can import ur character only...

We were promised early access Ark II in 2021. Here’s some advise...

 

1. Don’t make anyone any promises, even if you are so sure you can keep them. It’s less of a let down when you can’t deliver. This is why Activision has remained as silent as the grave on Spyro 4, despite evidence that they are working on it. 

2. Don’t count your game mechanics before they are developed. Activision taught me this as well. They promised certain features in the Skylander games and when those games released the features they promised were absent or were very different from what they made it out to be. It was a huge disappointment.

3. Don’t let Snail inc dictate a deadline to you. It puts pressure on you to create something quickly rather than perfectly. Just look at Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly. The devs on that game rushed it to meet a Christmas deadline and it came out as an extremely buggy and glitchy game with bad graphics. Perfection takes time. Just look at Red Dead Redemption 2. Rockstar allowed themselves as much time as was need to put out a masterpiece game. That game is so well made, that even people who never bought the first Red Dead or any of the GTA games are buying it. 

4. Listen to the consumers. Consumers and producers have expectations. Producers fund the products, but the consumers buy the product. If the product meets the producers expectations, but falls short of the consumers, then the consumers are going to turn their noses up at it. There are many of us, myself for one, who aren’t going to buy Ark II right away. I’m going to let YouTubers try it first. This point should be heard and understood by the devs, the producers and the investors. If the consumers aren’t happy, then they have wasted their money and your time. Just look at all of the recent flops Disney has put out and continues to put out. They’ve ignored consumer feedback and have wasted their investor’s money. 

I wish you developers luck with your endeavors. A final proverb of wisdom: a wise man learns from his mistakes, a wiser man learns from others mistakes. That is why I have given examples of other companies that have had failures and success. 

Just now, Randy12 said:

its the exact same as any other official DLC dude....   LDL for first 2 months u can import ur character only...

Those are different things tho. New maps as well as that desperate attempt of ldl servers both end up merging with the main clusters. Asa will not merge. The fresh start is what motivates many players (pvp players at least) to buy it. The difference between new chars and highly levelled ones is so big, it would not allow for an even playing field.

¡Muy bien! Aunque no hubo mucho cambio con el precio, pero me gusta que esté dividido y puedo acceder a todo el ASA por $60 y no comprar el juego base por $50 para incluir ARK2, del cual no sé prácticamente nada y no sé si me va a gustar y luego pagar otros $40 por los DLC.

Es mi opinión personal que me gusta ARK y me parece genial que tenga esta remasterización y con eso tenemos la garantía de que ARK seguirá vivo por muchos años más. Me duele perder a mis dinos y progresar pero también me gusta empezar de nuevo lo he hecho antes para recordar los viejos tiempos.
Esto me da tiempo para comprar ASA y recaudar dinero para comprar ARK2 si me gusta, depende de los videos que hagan cuando salga el juego para ver que tal antes de comprar. ARCA 1 ya se como es si lo hacen gratis esta bien pero si no no me quejo es mi plata y me la gasto como quiero en algo que se que disfruto y vale la pena pagar segun yo, y en mi opinion tambien cada uno tiene sus puntos diferentes (lo digo para que quede claro)

Edited April 9, 2023 by DogoAZ

3 hours ago, Bruxse said:

Just because you may buy something at a different time, doesn't mean you are getting charged less it's still a price increase no matter what.. The fact you don't see that, actually hurts my brain cause i can't comprehend someone being that stupid. I wouldn't have an issue with you saying you don't see an issue with the deal if you actually acknowledged the fact that overall ur paying more but u are straight just lying saying it's cheaper and people will save money..

Like come on.

It's only a price increase IF someone doesn't want the DLCs. Which would likely be a very small minority as there wouldn't be much point in just having The Island and the free maps on a remastered version without all the other content. You might as well stick with ASE.

If you want all DLCs and you want ARK 2, then there is a window of $30 that you've saved and right at this present time we don't have a price for ARK 2 in early access. So this would only be a higher price IF ARK 2 costs more than $30 at release. If it costs $30 then the price has not increased at all.

Assuming i've done my math right.

1 hour ago, Xill74 said:

90% of the negative comments here are from players, the other 10% positive comments are from wildcard/snail games employees….

74% of statistics are made up on the spot.

Many have been enjoying this game a long time. But people have to make a living too. Everything can't always be free, and some bugs can't be fixed out of bad or old programming.

Losing a character and dinos sucks when you put in years and I'll feel that pinch too, with less time than most. I pay actual money to those who host the servers I play on, every month. I'll voluntarily give that up in hope of a greater experience.

At the end of the day, for myself, I want to see how good these games and franchise can be. But we can let it die too. Our choice.

I'll be sticking around.

Lots of folks complaining about the price. I get it. Lots of other devs do upgrades/enhancements for free. (Skyrim is sold under a new version every few years, for what it's worth. Legendary Edition, Anniversary Edition, etc.) But for those claiming they increased the price on the base game (Ark 2 aside), your math is a little.... off.

Originally, the price was going to be $50 for the base game, plus $20 for each "pass." Total of $90 for The Island, Scorched, Abberation, Extinction, Genesis Part 1, and Genesis Part 2. Now, it's $60 for all those same maps.

Is Ark 2 now going to be charged separately? Yes. But that's not necessarily a bad thing because it's a separate game. Furthermore, I imagine I'm not the only one who wanted to see some of the UE5 upgrades in the original game without also buying Ark 2. I don't plan to buy A2 on pre-order or even right after it releases, as there are some things about the gameplay I'm not too psyched about. I want to see other players' opinions of it first. And if that means paying for it separately (or not paying at all, if I decide I don't want it), then that's preferable, at least to me.

Now, I'm not defending the decision to charge for the EU5 upgrade after WC allowed some inaccurate information to slip through the cracks, as this was miscommunication on a pretty big level. But I also think it's important to argue in good faith, and with correct information.

Re this statement,( also impacted our decision to sunset the ASE Official Network offline on August 31st, shortly before the ASA launch. Despite ASE Officials representing the minority of players on ARK, it’s an invested and passionate group with attachments to their bases, tames, and characters, and seeing that go away can’t be easy. While we know it’s not the same, we hope making the saves available for unofficial use helps diminish the loss. Our reasoning behind the decision is that those servers are essentially based on old technology and require significant development resources and time for our teams to operate & maintain. In some cases. ) Yes WC we are passionate.  You have so much more to learn about us if that's all you can offer us. Lol move to our own servers . Wow. That's encouraging let's see if our friends want to play on our servers. Oh wait.. Neck minute we cant move away from where they are (tethered) I'd like to see statistics on where people are playing if not official? ?????????

36 minutes ago, Hpflspirit said:

Many have been enjoying this game a long time. But people have to make a living too. Everything can't always be free, and some bugs can't be fixed out of bad or old programming.

Losing a character and dinos sucks when you put in years and I'll feel that pinch too, with less time than most. I pay actual money to those who host the servers I play on, every month. I'll voluntarily give that up in hope of a greater experience.

At the end of the day, for myself, I want to see how good these games and franchise can be. But we can let it die too. Our choice.

I'll be sticking around.

For the HOPE of a greater experience?

we all know how this will go though. They are EXPERIMENTING with ASA to TRY and work out the kinks for Ark2. they literally said this. SO it's one GIGANTIC experiment and you hope it will be a greater experience?

You really don't know Snail or WC very well at all to think that.

Edited April 8, 2023 by Sativa420

This is a hot take, but I'm gonna say I still support WC and most of their decisions with ASA. Just want them to know that not everyone in the community is pissed. I can see a lot of the rational for their decisions and I can agree with/understand a lot of it. 

2 hours ago, KingOfAshes said:

Ok, so at least there is some acknowledgement of the problem this time around. If this was done in the first place, perhaps things wouldn't be as bad.

So, $60 for a remaster is still steeper than I would have expected even including the DLCs, but still a bit better than the original insane pricing. For that premium price though, I expect this to launch as a finished product and not a buggy unplayable mess 2042/Cyberpunk/Ark1 style for ALL platforms. The fact that you have nothing to show for ASA when you're making such a big announcement (coupled with admitting the engine is still too new for you) and even though you're promising an August launch(plus past history) doesn't instil any confidence to be quite honest. This is 100% one of those cases of wait and see what state it is on launch before considering a purchase.

You've also not mentioned any adjustment to the new paid DLC, so I'll assume it's still the same.

Now, I don't play official servers so although it doesn't affect me, I stand with the people who are affected by this anti consumer move to shut them down on Day 1 of ASA as a matter of principle. After all, if you don't stand with others who get shafted,  nobody will stand with you when you get shafted later.  So, at the very least you need to keep those servers up for one more year just like any other company does for a hell of a lot more time with a lot less active players in them. With that premium price you're charging for the re-master, you owe it to your customers and at least try and claw back some respectability and good will.

In conclusion, I firmly believe you need to take one more step at least to meet your customers in the middle. That's the last post I'll make on this subject. As always, based on the actions I see, I'll vote with my wallet as that's the only thing that really counts.

Well said. WC need to give the official players more time... Atleast until ark 2 is released in 2024. Respect us WC some of us have many servers and would be happy to work with you with down sizing in the mean while. This will allow WC to take down some low pop servers etc. 

 

 

 

Edited April 8, 2023 by scottbva

hmmmm welll worded guys very well worded .... however you have 5 months to implement and fix all of the bugs that are almost coded in deep with arkse to even stand a chance of doing all of what u say u 'will' do by release of asa .... or u know delay it as usual - or just not fix said bugs slap a fancy ue5 skin over the top and hope that the real gamers dont notice / care 

 

Good flippin Luck is all I can say ... u couldnt fix bugs from years ago yet now slapping ue5 and 5months of work u reckon u can fix it .... 

 

Oh and still ZERO gameplay / SS of this ue5 variant and 5 months left ... 

 

Still a hard pass from me and 3 other members of my family.

I will add my voice to this mess. You can't deliver Ark2 for years. By this standard it may be years before you can deliver a product to knock ASE off their servers. So we all twiddle our thumbs as the August date to close the servers keeps getting pushed back? This is a mess that has not been thought out at all. You see the dollar sign and jump to a money grabbing post. Then back peddle and go to the equally ill conceived "plan B". Listen to your customer base. We can and will spend money on new products but not when it means losing our bases and tames. If servers are actually underperforming close them. Leave the active servers alone. You guys are (supposed to be) so smart, get it done!

Edited April 8, 2023 by kwhite1024

ay is there a reason you guys aren’t bringing split screen over to ascended? me and my brother were so excited for this and now all hype has depleted since split screen won’t be an option, i know i’m just one player out of many and my comment will likely get overlooked, but it would be really awesome if somehow you could find the time to make split screen on consoles an option. 

12 minutes ago, Sativa420 said:

For the HOPE of a greater experience?

we all know how this will go though. They are EXPERIMENTING with ASA to TRY and work out the kinks for Ark2. they literally said this. SO it's one GIGANTIC experiment and you hope it will be a greater experience?

You really don't know Snail or WC very well at all to think that.

Nope, sure don't. Heard of promises made and not kept, or not addressed properly. I believe that. 

But here's another option...NO experience at all. And if I can't pay my programmers, that's the only way this can end.

Like your gif, but I hope it's not your modded base defense in game. Quite the giga chew toy if so.

We are all missing one point: What would Brian Boitano.. ehm  Vin Diesel do?

16 hours ago, Birdskull said:

No no, they definitely understood the frustration. This is them doubling down. People thought the price was because of the inclusion of ARK2. That's not the case and they are making that very apparent. 
They've removed the inclusion of ARK 2 and increased the price anyways. It's a big middle finger they're trying to pass off as a favor to us. 

It’s actually cheaper

originally it was Ark 2 + ASA for $50

Dlcs sold separately as two bundles of $20 each meaning you got:

Ark 2 + ASA + all dlcs for $90

now they’ve bundled ASA with all the dlcs and removed Ark 2 for $60

Hello, thank you for this feedback.
I had not given any feedback when the roadmap appeared. 
But like many, I had to digest the news first and was anything but thrilled.

I planned to write something about it, but I wanted to digest the shock first and take a good look at all the points before I rant and end up being unfair.

This news makes me happy, even if I don't know yet if I can play ASA.
I don't mind that ASA costs something, but with the 60Dollar I am much happier. (Ark2 is completely uninteresting for me at the moment, that can be postponed until 2030).
Especially after it was also still explained WHAT because everything is changed. 
So I can understand much better. I myself am also fully aware that the many work must be paid.

Thank you for the information and the insights into all the considerations.

It is nice that Ark continues to receive so much love, even if it is unfortunately in a new presentation, but the balancing act is understandable and really a wise decision, because we can continue to play with older PCs.

Will the suggestion list for Ark still be considered, or is it possible to write down ideas for ASA somewhere, maybe there is something you like as a game creator.

I hope for much more interaction with the tamed animals, even if they have no effect in the end. But I'm just a typical farm cuddly animal player. .

Even though I like to play with mods that make life very difficult for me and my animals. (Kanga & The Hunted)

After reading that I believe they havent worked on Ark2 yet at all
It's interesting how Ark1 is ready to go in 4 months and all the DLCs are ready to launch within the next year and yet we havent seen any gameplay teasers from Ark 2 which is scheduled to launch in a year and a half.
I think their plan has always been to relaunch Ark1 in unreal 5 first and generate as much money  money as possible, beating an old horse to death,  before  they do any  serious work on Ark 2 and have just been stringing everyone along.

$60 for an 8 year old game, with better water and grass, is still way too much (and will probably be 50% off within a couple of months because a big chunk of players will refuse to pay).
I can  understand if they reskin the maps, add ruins and features, but I have a feeling, due to the launch schedule timeline, that they wont.

 

Rebuying the "Remaster" for full price or sunsetting an 8-year-old game isn't the issue. It's how you all are going about it. No one communicates! You have lied to us on multiple occasions starting with legacy servers. You are forcing people to give up the community, reputations and friendships we've created over those 8 years 2 months after the new creature is released, not giving people time to enjoy it. Survival of the Fittest just came out on consoles, the carchar just came out in October/November so not even a year old yet by the time the servers close. The Switch is only now getting SE. 

I knew this day would happen, but we were all told it would be after Ark 2 would be released on PlayStation. I'm glad we'll be able to move our animals to private servers. But with: The legacy were said to be untouched then we had to do the Great Migration which caused us to lose what we had anyway because of the server being down for 48 hours with a 24 hour ob timer. The deins were said to be temperamental after raise and they would be breedable at launch when they are passive as everything else and you couldn't breed them for a month. The UE5 would be free. The servers would be up until PlayStation got Ark 2. What's to say the data saves is just another empty promise? What's to say ASA isn't like Skyrim's many releases? Where it still looks like the original, still buggy and unstable despite the rework but with extra shiny bits that could have been easily added to the original game. 

Addendum 
 

I'm not familiar with Nividia Dll, Overwolf and others, so I won't be able to say anything on the subject.
On the subject of official servers.

Anyone can create their own server with the save state. Why don't offplayers just get together and create their own cluster, which corresponds to the official settings.
it is of course a pity that official servers are now completely closed. I myself had played only very briefly on it and I have disturbed the massive leaks and all these pillars everywhere.

Hola, quiero dirigirme a los creadores de este contenido con total y absoluto respeto, al igual que el que le tengo a este juego. Desde el día que se inauguró lo recibimos con mucha ilusión y al poco tiempo de jugarlo disfrutábamos de cada reto que se nos presentaba. Criar dinosaurios sin cryopod, que gran desafío fue ese, para llevar un dinosaurio a su 100% de efectividad teniamos que trabajar muy duro pero eso lo hizo atractivo, el esfuerzo y la dedicación no se pueden describir con palabras aquí. Recibimos cada evolución con mucho cariño. Este juego es el único que conozco que exige de nosotros "sus socios económicos" gran responsabilidad, dedicación y pasión para continuar en él. Mantener nuestro progreso requería que mantuviéramos una base para no perder nuestras más queridas creaciones de dinosaurios. No hace falta decir cuánto tiempo lleva crear nuevas líneas de estadísticas, limpiar estadísticas innecesarias, domesticar dinosaurios de colores para hacer combinaciones. Son años y años de pasión. Como petición personal les pido que encuentre la manera de que renunciemos a todo nuestro trabajo porque queremos abrazar la nueva entrega de ARK 2, no nos despoje de nuestra pasión con la intención de que nos veamos obligados a cambiar. Entiendo que se necesitan nuevas formas de ingresos pero en la forma que lo estáis llevando a cabo nos sentimos despreciados y no respeta is algo tan valioso como es (el tiempo) no hay nada en la vida más cotizado, eso no se compra ni se vende. No volveremos a caer en la responsabilidad de mantener nuestras creaciones sabiendo que algún día nos las arrebatarás. Con gran aprecio por Wild Card y ARK 💝.