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

3 hours ago, Cyberra said:

ASA is still paywalled behind a new console. A console I, and many others, cannot afford. We are being locked out of the upgrades by that. How is that fair?

 

Since you're ending the game anyway, how about making the Gen2 missions optional like on Gen1 so we can run the boss when and how we want instead of being forced to grind through the missions while having our progress reset by bugs you never fixed.

 

Will we get to keep our characters, too? I've put a lot of work into my official character.

This! ^^^^^

15 minutes ago, Nexas888 said:

Because some of us are willing to give the sequel a shot regardless, and it comes with a fix that's been begged for for years by the entire community. Is there a downside? Sure. Is there a definite upside? Heck yeah there was. 

But is the upside worth condoning and supporting a bad faith practice that may embolden more bad faith practices? Had it gone through, had they sold off a preorder of A2 with ASA and it turned out to be an absolute trash fire they could easily have saved face with investors and share holders by saying it was a hit by showing those bloated numbers from players that bought ASA and couldn't get a refund without sacrificing the game they wanted

Edited April 8, 2023 by CosmicSkeleton

I'm dying to know more about the dynamic water system and how boat-building will work!
PS: Hire me as a DevTester. I am ready.

Sheesh...some people need to work on their math and reading comprehension skills.

Does it suck that ASE official servers are getting shut down? Sure, but they weren't going to run forever. They've given a date and all of us will be able to take the save data and continue in hosted servers if we HAVE to maintain our original collections/bases. I have over 11,000 hours on Official PVE over 5 years and I've made my peace with it.

My main issue with the original announcement was being forced to buy Ark 2 (which frankly from the game play changes they've mentioned including the 'dark souls combat' I have zero interest in) if I wanted to play ASA. Not to mention the original plan was pay $50 bucks THEN pay another $20 for scorched, Ab and extinction and then ANOTHER $20 for Gen 1 and 2.

$60 for ALL the maps in a game I *know* I'll enjoy that's going to run and have content added to for years is a fair deal to me. It's not just 'the same game' with a new coat of paint if they're making changes to it beyond graphical updates. If you're still mad you're not getting essentially a new game with all the maps for free, take your save data and move to a private server.

1 minute ago, margifish said:

but they weren't going to run forever.

Everyone knew that already. The issue isn't that they're being shutdown, that was inevitable. Its that they're being shutdown to be immediately resold to people, some of whom lack the resources to get it even if they wanted to. It's essentially forcing the issue in an incredibly hamfisted way. The fact that I as someone who plays unofficial can see that while people I presume are official players cannot is worrying. I can tell if ignorance on the matter is genuine or willful.

So a few things to unpack here. 

First of all let’s start with the positives. The $60 price point is much more appealing for a remastered/remake of a beloved game. After all people have been paying more than this for things such as Dead Space, RE4, and TLoUPt1 for games that give far less amount of hours in gameplay. The inclusion of all current maps in one set price is satisfactory to me. As I said before, I have no issues with supporting the game financially since it is my favorite and most played game. I’m excited for the prospect of a cleaner, smoother running version of Ark, especially since SE crashes for me every 30min and when I log out weirdly enough. Most of the highlighted points sound nice and I look forward to seeing an improved version. 

Now for the negatives, starting with the sunsetting of Official as my heart goes out to these players, especially long-term. This of course was an inevitability, however I do think the notice these players were given was absolutely awful. I believe the Official servers should be kept up 6 months to a year after ASA’s launch, giving SE Official players time to try out the new version of the game and make the decision on whether they want to switch versions, and also giving ASA time to release the maps for all Official servers to open up on so those players could build up again.  Unfortunately it feels your official players get the short end of the stick and stand to lose everything with a chance they gain nothing.

Which brings us to the older console players. It’s unfortunate for these players, especially those who can’t afford to get a new generation console despite them no longer being in too short supply. That being said, it’s also what’s to be expected as the industry moves forward. Older generations become obsolete overtime, the hardware can’t keep up with the latest technology and eventually those consoles die out. There is no fix for these players, so at the very least I hope there will be a dedicated team to working on the serious bugs and crashing issues in SE so these players can still enjoy their game. 
 

Again, I am excited for the prospect of a smooth-running, visually upgraded version of Ark. But as an unofficial player, I suffer far less from than transition than others and I hope everyone at Wildcard and their partners keeps those other players in mind going forward.

I want to be clear about one issue here old Xbox generation can’t move to the new version of ark starting with me and a few of my tribe mates and I am yet to see anything about it that on it own tells me you don’t care about the older console anymore and prepared to loss them  it’s sad because me and a lot of people have invested a lot in this game . You decided to move on without any regards to what this will this do to our game experience so I no longer able to play with anyone because you shutting down official servers that are ment to be available for ark survival evolved that is already paid for in full this part is important for multiplayer to function in this game if you no longer doing that I don’t see that point of playing it anymore specially when I am not able to join multiplayer with people I have spent years in this game playing with so this means we forced to quit the game and move on we no longer giving this game anymore of our time . Best of luck in replacing ark with a better looking ark.

Ho letto più di 7 articoli ancora non ho capito se ci saranno server ufficiali in ark ascended e se perderemo tutto anche riacquistando il gioco,non sto capendo più nulla

Edited April 8, 2023 by LadyJ0ggers

Personally I don't think the unbundling has anything to do with WC/Snail listening to the community hahahahaaha sorry reading that was funny. listening to the community hehehehe. WC has a deal with MS Game Pass for Ark 1 and Ark 2 does this include ASA? Probably not but if bundled then maybe so. I don't think i have seen anywhere in these releases that it will be on game pass as a day one release.

3 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. 

I definitely would agree if I wasn't on psn, but ark2 wasn't even included for ps5, so in reality I get the game and the docs for 20 dollars cheaper than what it was, so it actually benefits me, and honestly I don't think that they'll ever release ark2 tbh, it just a joke at this point, but who knows. But I still wish ASE official would still be up this was the only game that I could never delete.

I think majority of people that has been invested in playing on the official PvP 1x/smalls/etc network for a long time would agree wether or not they wanna admit it that even if any sort of data transfers would be possible it would just not be a good idea.

Emotional attachment set aside, all the duping and rmt of endgame structures, capped teksuits, hexagons, blueprints, ridiculous meks, tames and so on has been the nail on the coffin for many of even the most dedicated players. 

Server performance is just next level awful on active servers and just transfering a slotcap of items  makes many servers blow up. Dataloss is so common people just shrug it off by now. Rendering and many actions in general with current engine on a full server would desync it so hard game becomes completely unplayable at times. 

The hacking, botting and meshing? I don't even wanna touch that subject with a 10 mile pole, I hope that a new engine, recoding and a more active reinforcement could somehow lead to improvements to that but only time will tell.

The list of things if you look at it all for what it actually is I think makes it justifiable to just put an end to it all for good.

 

Yes, words are just words at the end of the day for what's to come and how they decide to tackle this mess. However, these experiences from both players and development is something we cannot overlook. Me among many wish all these bad things we suffered through could somehow be what will lead to the game becoming more enjoyable again later on, even if it means we will be back on the beach punching trees again for it.

Im gonna stay tuned for upcoming months, the thought of a more stable and legit version of Ark regardless of price tag and pixel loss is something Im genuinely looking forward to try out.

Edited April 8, 2023 by Sikkendkit
Typo

Slightly better but still a load of raptoring poop, studio wildcards "dev team" are a joke at this point hell blizzard no matter how raptored up that company is at least are alright devs and its hard to be worse than blizzard but you did it. 
 

Just a repeat of atlas, take ark change a few things slap a new name on it and sell it like its a brand new Game

Asa plus ark 2 before 50+20+20=90

Asa after 60 + ark two 70 = 130

That's how u convinced snail to let you change it. You have zero confidence in ark 2. Do you hate your player base?

 

uhh still nobody wants ASA, like at all. Everyone has been suffering with the god awful performance of Ark 1.

in 2020 you announced ark 2. in 2022 when it was suppose to come out you pushed the release back to 2023. its 2023 now and you say we arent getting ark 2 until the end of 2024. and we have to buy ark 1 again?

this whole time you are wasting resources on ark mobile and ark for switch and now you have to redo the switch version all over again lol. And you wasting resources converting Ark 1. Instead of making ark 2. 

Like you are gonna run out money again after asa is done you won't know what to do because you havent even started ark 2.

4 hours ago, PaleoGamer said:

Still no migration plan? I have "only" about 1200 hours invested on SE - but there are people with tens of thousands of hours, and a good part of them breeding!

 

Why not a "one way, single time" migration? Even if the bases were left behind (snap points been upgraded and all), the tames (and gear) surely could be imported. A one time, one way, format filter for tames/gear shouldn't be that hard.

 

4 hours ago, PaleoGamer said:

Still no migration plan? I have "only" about 1200 hours invested on SE - but there are people with tens of thousands of hours, and a good part of them breeding!

 

Why not a "one way, single time" migration? Even if the bases were left behind (snap points been upgraded and all), the tames (and gear) surely could be imported. A one time, one way, format filter for tames/gear shouldn't be that hard.

Um, that is sort of impossible, given that they are using a totally different type of formatting for this game, UE5, NOT UE4. It wouldn't be fair to do it that way anyways, it is a completely different game, a remaster of the game, but still. I have almost 4k hours on official btw

There's no pleasing some players... 

I'm mad hyped! I'm so happy to see one of my favorite time sinks getting a remaster! 

Also some of these QOL upgrades to be added sound amazing!! 

New breedables? Better babies? Better creature pathfinding AI? New community voted SCORCHED EARTH creature??? 

 

Can't wait to see screenshots and trailers ❤️

ex·tor·tion

1. the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats.

    

   Plain and simple, that's what this is. You are forcing your player base to purchase a game they already own, once again, just because you constantly see how passionate we are about said game and you think we all will. Coming out with this CC and changing the price is completely missing the point. The price isn't what people are upset with. 
   So, let me spell it out for you: 

    

   - This was said to be a FREE upgrade that would port over our ASE saves (characters, dinos, etc.)

   - You are losing a decent portion of your fanbase who can't upgrade to next gen consoles because of cost, much less purchase ASA.  

   - You are sunsetting Official servers that people have grinded HARD on for 8 years. I seriously doubt anyone that works at Wildcard plays the game as hard as most of us do. Do you realize how much work goes into stat mutations for a tame that takes TWO weeks to raise?! Or how much work it is to find the Explorer Notes on EVERY. SINGLE. MAP. so you can max out your character? And we're all just supposed to accept losing it, starting over and paying to do so. 

   - You have made it public, as per this quote, "We also recognize that ARK 2 has some pretty significant design changes from the original game, which may not make it as appealing to everyone ", that you realize Ark 2 is not going to be a success for everyone who enjoys ASE. And yet.. we are being forced to lose what we know and love. This is the biggest middle finger to all of us. If you know the majority of your fanbase is not in favor - what are you doing? Either keep Official servers or streamline Ark 2 to be similar to Ark 1. 

   - There has been no real apology. No accountability. No claiming responsibility for Jeremys statements. No real communication; just this sloppy, disappointing Crunch. 

   - There are plenty of games that have and will upgrade to Unreal Engine 5 that are NOT charging their players to upgrade. So, why are you? I can answer that, actually. You are being run by a greedy company called Snail Games. Who, by the way, will only continue to lose money because you are headed down a path with many losses (see their current stock price, as an indicator). The excuse of "it would cost resources and time" - your players would pay for the port. We'd donate, you'd hire people to help. It's a simple fix. Which is a horrible excuse to begin with - Fortnite did it without any data loss and it was completely free. 

   - Console players do not want cross-play. There is enough issues on PC alone, there's no need to intertwine them and make everything 10x more complicated. 

   - Given the state that ASE is in and how your team just abandoned updating and taking care of it, why should anyone want to financially support ASA? It'll be the same buggy mess, just with better graphics and mods. It was already admitted that your team is inexperienced with it, so we're supposed to believe it'll be mastered and a full, playable ASA will be available at the end of August? And we have to pay for it, again. Whose to say you won't wipe those servers once Ark 2 finally drops?

   - There has been a petition going around with over 5,000+ signatures on it petitioning for you to keep Official servers alive. This is 5,000+ people who have dedicated their real life time AND money into your very, very flawed game for YEARS. We have supported you all of this time, we tell you what we want and you continuously choose to ignore that. Prim+, broken. No skins on Tek suits. Stingy with Evo events, even now when the game is literally ending in four months. Lag, rollbacks, losing characters on transfer, exploits, randomly getting kicked out of your tribe, boss fight issues, teleporting issues, anti-meshing issues. The only thing that ever mattered to Wildcard was PvP - the rest of us got the short end of the stick, every time. 

    

   The sad part is that this list isn't even exhaustive and I already know this message will never actually get read. Even in the small chance it did, nothing would change. This was essentially a way for me to vent my frustrations and express that I, personally, will no longer be supporting Studio Wildcard, Ark or Snail Games. This is basically my goodbye to a game that I've loved for a long, long time. 

    

   Rest in peace. 

So the Ps players get screwed on this deal!? How is that fair for us? 

4 minutes ago, Steeldragon256 said:

So the Ps players get screwed on this deal!? How is that fair for us? 

As much as I'd prefer not to, on this one thing I'll play devils advocate for these buffoons. That fault there lies on Sony's part for not securing rights for a same day release.

I hope you guys add new achievements to ASA. ASE's achievements were limited to the island and none of the dlcs added additional achievements. I hope to see new achievements as that would give additional motive to play. 

hey buddy, guys, pals. I don't think you're getting the message here. I play on official because my pve self is attached to an entire network of servers that i can hop to if one gets too toxic, or if someone basecamps, say, the metal cave in the desert on 194 and nobody ever does anything about it, despite all the tickets we send in. you know, stuff like that. What i'm saying is that the server network gives an out if the wildcard team fail in some way.

I can't do that on an unofficial server, or even a cluster. on unofficial I just have to hope that the people running it are good at what they do, or don't play favorites, or don't one day decide to tank all of my hard work because they felt they didn't get enough donations to think it's worth keeping the whole thing up. I've yet to see unofficial setups last longer than a year, ever.

But hey, i get to try and host my own now and also hope that my small group of friends will join in and help keep the server up while also trying to deal with your janky code? OH THAT'S THE SOLUTION I'VE ALWAYS WANTED, except not. Not in the slightest. if I wanted that headache, I would have already have done it.

 

So hey, let's talk in your language, the language of money.  for 60$ i would pay to have a FULL transfer of ALL my stuff and various bases to ASA, that is reasonable. However you're going to pave all the time I've put into this and time is money as they say, so... 0$. Zero Dollars would I pay for this product, where I have to start over again. for the issues that you are raising, and the choice you are forcing me and others to make, you should discount ASA by 100% for existing users.

Those are the only two legitimately ethical choices, and the only choices I won't talk endless garbage about you making.

5 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. 

From what I can tell, they took off ARK2, raised the price of the bundle and added all DLC's with it vs individual prices for the DLC's.

Well done Wildcard , i am happy with the Change of the Price for ASA i dont need Ark 2 in the Bundle and i hope you have some plans for the Dino Ai for ASA not only in the way of Pathfinding. 

this is pathetic. what a joke.

2 hours ago, margifish said:

Sheesh...some people need to work on their math and reading comprehension skills.

Does it suck that ASE official servers are getting shut down? Sure, but they weren't going to run forever. They've given a date and all of us will be able to take the save data and continue in hosted servers if we HAVE to maintain our original collections/bases. I have over 11,000 hours on Official PVE over 5 years and I've made my peace with it.

My main issue with the original announcement was being forced to buy Ark 2 (which frankly from the game play changes they've mentioned including the 'dark souls combat' I have zero interest in) if I wanted to play ASA. Not to mention the original plan was pay $50 bucks THEN pay another $20 for scorched, Ab and extinction and then ANOTHER $20 for Gen 1 and 2.

$60 for ALL the maps in a game I *know* I'll enjoy that's going to run and have content added to for years is a fair deal to me. It's not just 'the same game' with a new coat of paint if they're making changes to it beyond graphical updates. If you're still mad you're not getting essentially a new game with all the maps for free, take your save data and move to a private server.

pve is a joke. try fighting and defending and actually EARNING your way then having it all taken.