Community Crunch 447: Community Creature Winner, LiveOps Update and more

Voting was rigid.. 

No one wants this crappy dino..

WC already made there decision and put it to a 'VOTE' to make us feel apert of the creation of the game.

The Coelophysis should have won!!

20 minutes ago, Bajinda said:

Would it be possible to consider changing  the next "creature vote" to  be all about abilities? Imagine letting the community  summit  list of abilities and no artworks.  What does it do. How big is it? How do you tame it. What does it eat. Buff? Saddle Perks?  Yes this could lead to comminity voted "chimera"  but I think it would not only be a particulary fun vote but could also point out toward what players are looking for in creatures/what is lacking in game without the constriction of looks. Once this is all sorted then let us vote on what it looks like / have the studio summit  a series of possible wip and we get to vote withing those propositions. Have a glorious day. 

Hold separate voting rounds for species first, and abilities second, was suggested a year and a half ago when the first Community Votes started, and sadly the suggestion fell on death ears because WildCard doesn't care about the quality of the winner AND doesn't read our comments anyway.

On the other hand, I think saying "no artworks" at all is very hard.
Oftentimes it's useful to visualize what a creature does (just look at how easy it is to picture what the Acinonyx or the Coelophysis do thanks to their graphics :

Plus, many times, the appearance of the creature dictates its abilities (and imho that's usually the best ones).

An example I love to quote is the Armadillosuchus (also a Shockal submission, by the way, but the submission seems to be hidden). The reason why the Armadillosuchus works so well is that its shape very much says "wrecking ball" ! The creature is big, round, heavy, and IT SHOWS IN ITS ACTIONS.

Boy did I like that creature. It was just so cool and made me take notice of Shockal's suggestions. I'm sad the rest of the illustrations were lost in time ; I had only tweeted about that one so I have no trace of the rest. But you can picture what I mean.

The solution, imho, could still be to vote an additional round :

First round : species
People would submit a creature. They can add pictures (either from an image search, or commissioned art, or their own creation), or simply link to an external description (Wikipedia, paleo works, etc.). It's also a good time to provide a size comparison (especially if you think that your creature should be a different size than its Earth version), or maybe also insist on stats ("this creature probably doesn't have a lot of weight given its size", "as a flyer, it probably needs a lot of stamina").
This would particularly benefit from a gallery view.

This gives a rough idea of the species and how it fits into ARK. If people want to shun big carnivores and specifically theropods, that's the time to submit everything else.

Second round : abilities
Submissions are closed. The creatures that placed in the Top20 or Top30 (or even Top50, depending on how large we want to be) of the first round get to continue the voting process. THESE CREATURES ARE SHOWCASED IN A COMMUNITY CRUNCH, yes, all of them, with nice little thumbnails, so that everyone can see at first glance who remains in competition and what it looks like. Promote the damn thing to voters before a minority gets to decide.

If your creature reaches this round, then and only then, you can now describe its abilities. Other people, of course, can also add suggestions to your post in the comments, as they always have. If your creature didn't move to this round, you can suggest the abilities you had in mind for a creature of a similar species ("I love your Ceratopsian, congrats on going to the second round ! I was planning for my Ceratopsian to have these abilities, see if there's one you like, I think they'd fit").

This narrows down things and at least now we're all on the same page about what the creature looks like ; but you still get to have many options (for instance if two sauropods get to the second round, then they can have wildly different abilities).

Third round : finalists
The Top10 of the previous round gets to actually be ranked. Proceed as usual, imperfect as this may be.

Winner announced
Hopefully people are happier with it because we have collectively had control over what exactly we were looking for.

On top of that, I think it could be very nice to actually follow the process of developping the creature. WildCard could stuff up their Community Crunches by letting us see it taking shape. One week we have the first draft of the concept art ; we give our first impressions before it's finalized, and the result is shown a while later. Then maybe have a livestream on that poor Twitch channel that's barely used outside of Extra Life, and have the 3D artist(s) showcase a bit of how they work. Then show the result. Then the animation work. Then let's be crazy, have a dev implement at least one ability in a stream. In a later Community Crunch, hold a vote on the type of saddle or let us pick between two sounds. There's no reason for a Community Voted creature to be a secret. Buy some easy goodwill.

It's NEVER gonna happen, but I think it would be a much better process.

5 hours ago, TyranntX said:

Oh goodie, another carnivore we don't need 🙄

WC, please ban carnivores from all future votes if you want my respect back

they don't want it

4 hours ago, DragonMasterX said:

They want a new raptor they need to get the Utah Raptor out and close all the rest of the raptor designs out and do new dinosaurs all together after that

Utahraptor is already in the game

Not any hate towards the creator of Megaraptor but the fact that we got another "common type" carnivore is kind of disapointing, it would have been so nice to have something else like a new flier or a new herbivore since we kind of lack that variation right now.

5 hours ago, TyranntX said:

Oh goodie, another carnivore we don't need 🙄

WC, please ban carnivores from all future votes if you want my respect back

Today guys, appearance won... but this could be a lesson to understand that cool artwork and surrounding memes are useless if the creature is basically nothing already seen... anyway✋💪 to those who voted for the stick insect of damn it!

5 hours ago, MattCashWereFox said:

The worst  thing about it is the fact that valguero already have deino as a unique map dino , it's so stupid to even think about putting another of that sort , honnestly i'm starting to think the votes are rigged , there is no way that people are so stupid .

Yes you are right, like all those who, like me, did not need a theropod unless it had certain, real, characteristics... the schorched version was better

5 hours ago, ladyteruki said:

I don't believe in the "rigged !" conspiracy theories (if WildCard was rigging the votes, they would never have elected the Shasta for The Center imho), but I do think it's worth talking about why the Community Voted creatures, although they're supposed to be popular, so rarely are when they win, and are often barely used past the point of novelty when they're first released. I see the Gigantoraptor being used in the long term ; the others, really not as much. This has less to do with the way these creatures are made (some conform pretty nicely to the original pitch, even if their appearance is modified), and more with the voting system.

Starting with the fact that only a few hundred people seem to decide who gets into the Top10... maybe the votes should happen WITHIN the game, to encourage participation from a wider part of the playerbase ? Or at least let the submissions appear in gallery view for easy browsing. Something.

EDIT :

It won't clog anything, Shockal said it was the Acinonyx' last ever submission.

My friend, how are you? However, you also have to take into account the popularity of the creature itself, the megaraptor as a species is very well known to the general public also thanks to its mysteriousness due to the lack of finds. But you're right about the voting, the votes should take place within the game, not to the first person who passes by and says "oh a dinosaur!" and ruins the statistics... however, I'm really sorry for the acinonyx, he was a veteran of the contests and seeing him go away like this makes me really sad... PETITION TO HAVE HIM ANYWAY!!! LIKE CARCA

5 hours ago, OverRannus said:

I’m annoyed, out of all the designs. This one was lacking the most. No real special features, absolute pop culture version of the creature and was promoted the most by outside help. I’m glad we got a Megaraptor, but making it a glorified Nightfeeder with really nothing else about it. Xenoceratops had awesome abilities, the cheetah had several abilities up its sleeves, the Giant Stick Bug was an Ark itself with some very good utilities, The Coelophysis was an assassin and would’ve been our first free companion. I don’t mean to speak ill of the submission as I always hoped to get Megaraptor to win in one of these designs. It just didn’t feel right for Val with this design, especially with the Deinonychus.

Congrats to you anyway!!! I hope the implementation of it in the game does change my mind!!! And I’m really glad you won!!!

You're right bro...except for the insect... those only deserve fire if of these proportions, for me the only one that was saved from the category was the bastion beetle.

Edited March 1 by Ermerus

5 hours ago, ladyteruki said:

Ah, I hadn't thought of that tbh. Can people use his ideas and just submit them as is ? Is that even allowed to reuse someone else's art ?

5 hours ago, ladyteruki said:

Ah, I hadn't thought of that tbh. Can people use his ideas and just submit them as is ? Is that even allowed to reuse someone else's art ?

yes, you can do it but it is always advisable to ask the original creator first and cite him in the presentation, just for the sake of correctness.

4 hours ago, TyranntX said:

And it will undoubtably be nothing like the original submission and be just another annoying gimmick tame. Resulting in people who voted for it to not be happy and complain. its a perpetual loop... one that will only be cured by... say it with me now everyone "Banning Carnivores From The votes."

you know, as much as it bothers me too, I would say that banning him from the vote is a bit unfair and not very democratic my friend, as much as he is not that great, the creator tried hard to create something and the artwork must have cost the poor guy a lot. if he won now it's right like this, I would opt to insert a creature like the cheetah like they did with the carca..

4 hours ago, LittleSpicyOreos said:

To those that voted for a cheetah: Team Acinonyx (as posted by RaephClark and team) is getting a mod so a CHEETAH WILL COME!

Well then it depends on who does it and above all... if she will be canonized

4 hours ago, ChrisBManos said:

I can see that, but we can't just say stuff like that

Not the theropod stuff, but the stuff that said brain dead or mush for brains.

That's not cool.

You're right about that. The people have spoken but that doesn't mean they can't fix things...

4 hours ago, TyranntX said:

It may be "rude" but it is still a fact. This has happened WAY more times than you realize. The creature that should have LOST won the vote, it's not going to be anything like the suggested submission, it ends up sucking in game, people get p!ssy, next vote starts, lather, rinse, repeat. People who don't want theropods are sick of it, they don't want to see a vote go to waste when it could have gone to something that's either fun, useful, or both. Megaraptor is neither, so it will undoubtably fall victim to the same slop as before. As I've said before, its an unending cycle with these carnivore votes... and the only way that cycle is ever going to be broken is if carnivores are just banned from the votes altogether.

...and the enlarged creatures

Ok the megaraptor is going to Valguero should seem interesting I think , 

 

So which is the next map to get a creature vote Ragnarok , Crystal Isles , Genesis Part 1 or Genesis Part 2 ? 

 

Also is there a chance that astraeos will get a creature vote ? 

1 hour ago, ladyteruki said:

Hold separate voting rounds for species first, and abilities second, was suggested a year and a half ago when the first Community Votes started, and sadly the suggestion fell on death ears because WildCard doesn't care about the quality of the winner AND doesn't read our comments anyway.

On the other hand, I think saying "no artworks" at all is very hard.
Oftentimes it's useful to visualize what a creature does (just look at how easy it is to picture what the Acinonyx or the Coelophysis do thanks to their graphics :

Plus, many times, the appearance of the creature dictates its abilities (and imho that's usually the best ones).

An example I love to quote is the Armadillosuchus (also a Shockal submission, by the way, but the submission seems to be hidden). The reason why the Armadillosuchus works so well is that its shape very much says "wrecking ball" ! The creature is big, round, heavy, and IT SHOWS IN ITS ACTIONS.

Boy did I like that creature. It was just so cool and made me take notice of Shockal's suggestions. I'm sad the rest of the illustrations were lost in time ; I had only tweeted about that one so I have no trace of the rest. But you can picture what I mean.

The solution, imho, could still be to vote an additional round :

First round : species
People would submit a creature. They can add pictures (either from an image search, or commissioned art, or their own creation), or simply link to an external description (Wikipedia, paleo works, etc.). It's also a good time to provide a size comparison (especially if you think that your creature should be a different size than its Earth version), or maybe also insist on stats ("this creature probably doesn't have a lot of weight given its size", "as a flyer, it probably needs a lot of stamina").
This would particularly benefit from a gallery view.

This gives a rough idea of the species and how it fits into ARK. If people want to shun big carnivores and specifically theropods, that's the time to submit everything else.

Second round : abilities
Submissions are closed. The creatures that placed in the Top20 or Top30 (or even Top50, depending on how large we want to be) of the first round get to continue the voting process. THESE CREATURES ARE SHOWCASED IN A COMMUNITY CRUNCH, yes, all of them, with nice little thumbnails, so that everyone can see at first glance who remains in competition and what it looks like. Promote the damn thing to voters before a minority gets to decide.

If your creature reaches this round, then and only then, you can now describe its abilities. Other people, of course, can also add suggestions to your post in the comments, as they always have. If your creature didn't move to this round, you can suggest the abilities you had in mind for a creature of a similar species ("I love your Ceratopsian, congrats on going to the second round ! I was planning for my Ceratopsian to have these abilities, see if there's one you like, I think they'd fit").

This narrows down things and at least now we're all on the same page about what the creature looks like ; but you still get to have many options (for instance if two sauropods get to the second round, then they can have wildly different abilities).

Third round : finalists
The Top10 of the previous round gets to actually be ranked. Proceed as usual, imperfect as this may be.

Winner announced
Hopefully people are happier with it because we have collectively had control over what exactly we were looking for.

On top of that, I think it could be very nice to actually follow the process of developping the creature. WildCard could stuff up their Community Crunches by letting us see it taking shape. One week we have the first draft of the concept art ; we give our first impressions before it's finalized, and the result is shown a while later. Then maybe have a livestream on that poor Twitch channel that's barely used outside of Extra Life, and have the 3D artist(s) showcase a bit of how they work. Then show the result. Then the animation work. Then let's be crazy, have a dev implement at least one ability in a stream. In a later Community Crunch, hold a vote on the type of saddle or let us pick between two sounds. There's no reason for a Community Voted creature to be a secret. Buy some easy goodwill.

It's NEVER gonna happen, but I think it would be a much better process.

the concepts were cute of the creature... but I just can't like the oversized beasts sorry😂

28 minutes ago, Ermerus said:

you know, as much as it bothers me too, I would say that banning him from the vote is a bit unfair and not very democratic my friend, as much as he is not that great, the creator tried hard to create something and the artwork must have cost the poor guy a lot. if he won now it's right like this, I would opt to insert a creature like the cheetah like they did with the carca..

This vote was rigged from the beginning, and you want to talk about fairness? No, ban carnivores from all votes going forward, we have enough of them and its bad enough that this one won at all.

38 minutes ago, TyranntX said:

This vote was rigged from the beginning, and you want to talk about fairness? No, ban carnivores from all votes going forward, we have enough of them and its bad enough that this one won at all.

it would be enough to ban theropods, not all of which are carnivorous, let's not exaggerate... but above all the giant insects

You guys need to make it so that we can't vote more than once, please consider this for the next vote

Megaraptor. I am glad it won.  Valguero I shall now call Raptor map. It will have the raptor, the aberrant raptor, the tek raptor, the Deinonychus, and now the Mega Raptor. If they do not make it so you have some kind of buff if you have 1 of each in a pack it would be a shame.

Edited March 1 by Greatchawhee

53 minutes ago, Greatchawhee said:

Megaraptor. I am glad it won.  Valguero I shall now call Raptor map. It will have the raptor, the aberrant raptor, the tek raptor, the Deinonychus, and now the Mega Raptor. If they do not make it so you have some kind of buff if you have 1 of each in a pack it would be a shame.

April 28th will be known as Raptorment Day

Honestly ark players are so disappointing! They just keep adding the same dinos you guys are so bad at voting! Why add another carnivore not only that valguero already has a special raptor deinonychus why add another we needed something else like a herbivore or a flyer or something different..... so disappointed you guys suck 

Naaaah, you're kidding. The Megaraptor, really ? Because you guys enjoyed the jumpscares of the Microraptor so much, you just had to get a bigger version ? I better not hear you people whine once that dino specifically elected for being an a--hole becomes a permanent nuisance that you all beg your admins on unofficial to stop from spawning...

Okay but now that we've just voted for yet another big mean carnivore, can we please collectively agree to prioritize something else next time ? Please for the love of God, can we vote like we have brains, and actually get something original that WildCard would never think of implementing themselves ?

1 hour ago, AnnH said:

Okay but now that we've just voted for yet another big mean carnivore, can we please collectively agree to prioritize something else next time ? Please for the love of God, can we vote like we have brains, and actually get something original that WildCard would never think of implementing themselves ?

To be fair, people do vote for the more unique creatures, that's why maevia and the cheetah both won round 1 of these votes (aka the majority of voters wanted them as their number 1 creature). Sadly ranked voting does what ranked voting does, and we just end up with yet another high damage raptor-esque theropod (again)...because not enough people dumped the mega at rank 10.

If they actually follow the submission, I bet people will start spawn blocking this thing; as you say it reads as a giant microraptor/purlovia style nuisance (that also tracks you down). Sounds irritating as hell. I'd guess a lot of people that voted for it didn't even read it's abilities, and just voted for 'raptor-y dino with big teeth & claws'

Edited March 1 by Kaiarra

3 hours ago, Azenitor said:

You guys need to make it so that we can't vote more than once, please consider this for the next vote

 

yea man half of the ppl do not even know how to vote and then if you do, you accidentially vote for the megaraptor

 

not rigged hahaha

So cheetah had most votes but thanks for complicated voting system we will have another boring raptor like theropod carnivore...

We need more herbivore and we need more unique carnivore creatures like cheetah but look like community prefer boring carnivores or huge late game dinos only.

3 hours ago, Maggiplaysark said:

Oh my god just give us a f*cking flyer. Who the hell asked for a damn megaraptor? We got enough terrestial carnivores as it is

As someone whose favourite dinosaur family are megaraptorids, I asked for one. I get It, people are tired of carnivores, but if this dude won its because people wanted It to, me included. Im probably going to get a lot of hate by licking and voting this boy, but I dont care, Im just happy one of my favourite dinos will come

7 hours ago, Ermerus said:

the concepts were cute of the creature... but I just can't like the oversized beasts sorry😂

The Rex of Ark is 22 meters long compared to its 12 meter long accurate counterpart? Spino is 24 meters compared to its 15 meter counterpart, even Carno is like 13 meters to its 7 meters irl and Bronto is the size of Ramarak from Kong Skull Island. Every creature is oversized to a degree whether Giga sized or just double its normal size. So it really doesn’t matter about oversizing a creature if everything else is too. So that shouldn’t matter. But I understand your point as I was one who did the same.

7 hours ago, TyranntX said:

This vote was rigged from the beginning, and you want to talk about fairness? No, ban carnivores from all votes going forward, we have enough of them and its bad enough that this one won at all.

I mean yeah, but that’s just as unfair. There are people who work very hard on their carnivore designs too. Albeit a fair amount of them never make it to the top ten. But cutting a genre of animal from the creature vote won’t help.

If anything of changing rules, they should just open up the number of votes and do two creature votes.

First being Carnivore votes, including stuff like pterosaurs and aquatic species in the vote and deciding from there like any other vote.

The second being a herbivore vote for all herbivorous creatures. This would double the amount of creatures but also give a fair advantage to the herbivorous creatures of Ark that get condescending views towards players.

I was hoping for cryodrakon or aerotitan or maybe even a ceretopsian because the megaraptor is good but realistically if you are flying around on a wyvern what is it gonna do. The azharchids are hostile (other than the quetzal) at least they would put up a challange

8 hours ago, Nickevon said:

Ok the megaraptor is going to Valguero should seem interesting I think , 

 

So which is the next map to get a creature vote Ragnarok , Crystal Isles , Genesis Part 1 or Genesis Part 2 ? 

 

Also is there a chance that astraeos will get a creature vote ? 

1.: id. Rag's voted creature is the giant bison

2.: I think no

1 hour ago, MbR224 said:

1.: id. Rag's voted creature is the giant bison

2.: I think no

Are you sure ? I don't remember Ragnarok getting a creature vote .