Introducing the Kentrosaurus & A Message to the ARK Community!

23 hours ago, DragoValhar said:

This all being said, I love the game, 1200 hours would tell ya that. But the way you released Scorched Earth was dirty and you know it. I don't like the Paid Premium DLC precedent this sets for Early Access Games, and I'm banking on you guys actually needing money right now. Hype Train to the max, and then at the end of the trailer on the live stream "Get it now on Steam." Flipped off my twitch app on my phone, (app eats data like a hungry giga), turn on my steam app, go to the store page and then have the price tag thrown in my face. It took me a minute to register that.. "Huh.. Paid DLC.. In Early Access..  The hell?" I pulled the brakes hard on that and a lot of people who have gotten bled dry by DLC trains like Battlefield and CoD probably did to. You guys really need to communicate intentions a bit better man. Screens have been found of Desert Biome being listed in the Core Goals. I knew I saw it in there before and pulling it out of the notes is a sneaky move. Feature Creep is a thing and I know you guys are way behind schedule at this point. 

I have precisely the same sentiments. I have NOT purchased 'Scorched' yet, however. But it is not because I do not want to continue supporting your project. I am just broke at the moment. I will do it this one time though when my money is right.

But I IMPLORE you, nay ... I BEG you: Please do not go down that road any further. Grab another investor, rob a bank wearing anything but Dinosaur masks, hell....ask every current player to donate $2.00 ....whatever you have to do...but please do not get yourselves backed into a corner with content creep and run the coffers to empty, while making hollow husks of promises made. The base of the game still needs work (I know you know better than I) and while it is WONDERFUL how when I take a break from ARK, I know there will be 459 new things waiting for me when I come back. Sometimes that break is only for 7 hours!! Sometimes months....I would like to see some of the long standing bugs go away for once and for all before I see more new stuff. I have had that thought a lot while playing. But you guys know what you are doing, you're the pros.

You have done an AMAZING job thus far. You have permanently altered the landscape of games with this work of art. That is a fact. Be proud. Stay the course. This whole Scorched fiasco aside, you guys have an A+ in my book and I remain a faithful supporter.

2 hours ago, ciabattaroll said:

 

I don't know how you stay sane sometimes ciabattaroll.. I've literally stuck a loaded rat trap on the desk to deter me from replying to a great many of the absurd comments or conclusions people come up with on this forum. 

Too bad i'm "too cheap to pony up $20" as a wise man from your company once said. 

No but in all seriousness, it looks great. But nobody likes to get pay-walled because you're suddenly shifting your focus and updates onto a $20 expansion instead of the base game which is still in Early-Access. Could it have been added to the new game like The Center was? Sure. Would you have made as much money? Nope. So, yes, naturally it looks like a grimy money-move.

Thankfully, Wildcard is very generous with producing high quality content in an impressive time frame. If they keep that up, I wouldn't minding spending ~$20 per year on expansion content.

Just remember to keep PR to the PR folks and QA to the QA folks.  

 

I myself have come here to state my thoughts on this topic.

As a 16 Year old boy who has 1800+ Hours on ark, I do believe launching a DLC in EA was a horrible decision especially since you decided to not inform the community of your game about it prior to doing so, However instead of sitting in the dark letting us fester in the dark. Your logic behind launching this DLC is strong in my opinion, However with this DLC being out and with how much effort youve put into it as far as the communtiy has seen means, You should be pumping out more updates on a more consistent basis. Because the DLC youve realized essentially is a new game, Running alot of the same software and codes, But design wise it is practically a new game. Finishing this off here is a tip, Launching a DLC prior to 2 months after your game is done would probably be the end of your current community, Though youve made alot of money on this game already

10 hours ago, bluefunambulist said:

Playing on my MSI Apache GE62, GTX960, 12 GB of RAM, I noticed a jump in FPS, from floating around 30-35 to around 45-50. So maybe it's an individual setup type of thing?

I don't think so. I have one of the most powerful PC available on the market (without SLI). It's just bad optimisation and recent patch which decreased perfromance for many people. Thus they had to patch it as well.

im tired of quoting the "I want it now and fixed crybabies"... look if you like ark support them with positive feedback. if not then sit and stew and dont play the game. The point is Team WC didnt reach in your pockets and take your money. grow up people there a great game in development with a hard working staff. Again if you dont like giving money for a dlc fine. Read the the print on development games. It clearly states they can stop development at any time all your whining is doing is pointing out how self entitled you all are. my 7 year old is more patient than the few of you and he has been waiting for Terraria to get their crap togather for a long time. my point is no one made you get ark in development form and no one made any of you get the DLC so if you cant be helpful than stop brining down the people that ARE trying to help the Devs! the more you bring bad press the less funding they get. Get real people! Some times i think some of you just want this game to crash and burn. I for one with my family will continue to support this game and its Developers even if i have to donate myself monthly as a pay to play mmo. Before some of you few "johnny butt" hurts decide to take this personally and unleash your 2 cents back to me for being a hardcore fan boy or what ever other childish excuse you will have for hating on my oppinion, remember that as much as i am a supporter I am that ....A SUPPORTER OF THIS 10 out of 10 Epic Game.i bring more than tears when i post.

On 9/6/2016 at 0:58 AM, DragoValhar said:

About the expansion ARKs, I'm hoping there isn't going to be an absurd number of these.

I finally bought the expansion yesterday after a lot of thinking on it. The content is good, it might be better priced at 15 bucks, but seems fairly solid. All the new weather effects are nuts. Some cool creatures are around to tame and travel with, Got a friend on the The Center server I run a Jerboa. Map looks great and I can't wait to manage to snag some high level wyvern eggs. 

This all being said, I love the game, 1200 hours would tell ya that. But the way you released Scorched Earth was dirty and you know it. I don't like the Paid Premium DLC precedent this sets for Early Access Games, and I'm banking on you guys actually needing money right now. Hype Train to the max, and then at the end of the trailer on the live stream "Get it now on Steam." Flipped off my twitch app on my phone, (app eats data like a hungry giga), turn on my steam app, go to the store page and then have the price tag thrown in my face. It took me a minute to register that.. "Huh.. Paid DLC.. In Early Access..  The hell?" I pulled the brakes hard on that and a lot of people who have gotten bled dry by DLC trains like Battlefield and CoD probably did to. You guys really need to communicate intentions a bit better man. Screens have been found of Desert Biome being listed in the Core Goals. I knew I saw it in there before and pulling it out of the notes is a sneaky move. Feature Creep is a thing and I know you guys are way behind schedule at this point. 

Long story short, I bought Scorched Earth on the hope it'll help you along in the development. Despite my very real concerns that you and your studio are headed in a bad direction. I don't want to see any more core features disappear off the patch notes to be shoved in a paid dlc and unavailable (without admin commands) to the buyers of the original game other than by trading with other people through this "gateway" or whatever. 

Speaking of this "Gateway", I'm assuming it's the only way to get the SE items over to non SE maps (without admin commands) as both player and dino inventories are wiped upon upload to the ARK. I spoke to my Server Hosting web team and they neither offer this feature or have an ETA on this feature nor know how much they will charge. So unofficial server owners are a bit left in the cold by this. 

Hope you take time to read this and I hope it makes sense, getting a bit late here so I may be a touch hard to understand in a few spots.

-A concerned Survivor

Scarcely have I seen such an eloquently-worded message on these forums. Not that I've been here all that long, myself. Still, you've made an excellent point, and even put some of my own thoughts into better words than I could.

I, too, bought the DLC primarily because I suspected that WC might be in need of funds for continuing development. However, I will admit that despite my usual distaste for desert-themed maps and games (I prefer the lush green of a forest), this content has exceeded my expectations so far. The variety that WC has found for something so "lifeless" as a desert is impressive.

I'm a dragon fanatic. I love dragons. As a person who has very strong opinions on the differences in draconic species, I have to give loud a resounding round of applause to WildCard for simply making the distinction that the creatures in Scorched Earth are, in fact, ELEMENTAL WYVERNS. While wyverns don't traditionally have a "breath weapon", WC was very careful to specify that these creatures are using glands in their mouths to produce the breath effect that would normally be native to a dragon.

This alone went a long way to convincing me to buy the DLC.

I take my dragons (and draconic species) very seriously. <3

(By the way, does anyone remember how to get the dino request thread? I know they've probably settled on everything they want to release at this point, but I would still like to drop a name in the proverbial hat.)

Edited September 7, 2016 by Oreochema
Updated Info

Bought the DLC, it's amazing! and hard... and a pain in the arse to join past 6:30pm GMT... but I was happy to pay for it and am happy with most things that have been done to the game.

 Keep up the good work Wildcard!!

 

Also, doesn't it state on the Main Menu screen for Ark (xbox) that the game might not ever be finished/released... we have all known since the very beginning, this might be as much as we get...

2 hours ago, LordVargar said:

im tired of quoting the "I want it now and fixed crybabies"... look if you like ark support them with positive feedback. if not then sit and stew and dont play the game. The point is Team WC didnt reach in your pockets and take your money. grow up people there a great game in development with a hard working staff. Again if you dont like giving money for a dlc fine. Read the the print on development games. It clearly states they can stop development at any time all your whining is doing is pointing out how self entitled you all are. my 7 year old is more patient than the few of you and he has been waiting for Terraria to get their crap togather for a long time. my point is no one made you get ark in development form and no one made any of you get the DLC so if you cant be helpful than stop brining down the people that ARE trying to help the Devs! the more you bring bad press the less funding they get. Get real people! Some times i think some of you just want this game to crash and burn. I for one with my family will continue to support this game and its Developers even if i have to donate myself monthly as a pay to play mmo. Before some of you few "johnny butt" hurts decide to take this personally and unleash your 2 cents back to me for being a hardcore fan boy or what ever other childish excuse you will have for hating on my oppinion, remember that as much as i am a supporter I am that ....A SUPPORTER OF THIS 10 out of 10 Epic Game.i bring more than tears when i post.

Do you know how many bugs I've found? You support the game how you want, but if you seriously cannot grasp bad feedback as a positive thing on the road to developing a product you don't understand how this works. Submit your review, and carry on. 

Watching Reddit & Co (TM) go hogwild on you for daring to want to make a living on a product has been infuriating. It's everything people mock the gaming community for -- entitlement, overreaction, drama, religious crusades -- all rolled into one, and it's horrible to watch it happen to a developer that's released such an ambitious, massive game, been so responsive, and struggled with so much stuff outside the development process. It's just that old entitlement the community has for some reason decided to build its house on. All I can offer is that next week this will die down and the attacks will start somewhere else. Who knows, maybe a woman will release a game again and we can move back there.

You shouldn't have to justify wanting the funds to continue development on a game that is absolutely massive for its asking price. I'm sorry you feel you have to, I'm sorry for the vitriol, and for what I doubt will be the last time, I'm embarrassed to be part of the gaming community.

All these people are demonstrating is that the more you give, the more people will take.

Wow, ok. I'm just going to say in a very black and white manner that under no circumstances can something of greatness be accomplished without good and bad feedback unless you want slaves in which case you could build a pyramid or great wall no problem. I will try not to overreach with examples because people will call them too dramatic.

The lack of the communities input would be devastating unless WC wanted to create and release a game like this without income generated by the early access risk takers. We have all invested time and money into the creation of this thing now and are very much "entitled" to an opinion. I'm not being censored when I voice that opinion nor are most reasonable people or I would quit. I don't want my money back, I got that in entertainment but my time I have been using that to help not to tear down the work of hard developers. That time is valuable and I will continue to help find a few bugs here and there but even I am burnt out and no one is yelling at me. For that, I feel bad for the staff and wish them the best. ARK is still one of the most played games on steam so there is always that. 

That's all I've got left, I think I have communicated clearly what I wanted to and I've also voted with my wallet for what it's worth and I'll assist when I feel like that has been earned more than the several original copies I purchased for myself and others. 

I still believe in you ARK team.
I played your game for a few hours originally, but chose to wait for the final release since, well, my beloved dino-companions kept getting stuck inside trees.
I cant wait to see the finished game this december, when it has been polished into perfection. I even bought your DLC to further fund and support you.
 

 

On 9/5/2016 at 9:53 PM, ScyThE619 said:

 

you know what was worse? the two exciting things that was expected for the 246 patch got pushed back (ansel support was an amazing surprise though) but i had nothing new to play with after a month of waiting, that means i have to wait again till i get payed (on friday) to play this exciting SE Expansion pack($20 usd is not much in america but in my country its $130 that is an entire week's commute and lunch)

 

$20 is like $130? Shoot i'm saving up and moving over there ha ha 

I like ARK, I do. Burned many a night few months helping to find bugs, and don't regret a day of it. I care about the game enough to be furious when I heard that.

However. Early Access means your game is in a state where it shouldn't be considered finished. The entire focus of everything going on aught to be finishing the base game before anything else goes on. Had ARK been finished and more or less bug free, I'dve bought that expansion sight unseen. I've spent twice that for single aircraft in DCS, As it stands, I'm going to wait until the game is released and has the stability and polish to match. Then drop all the DLCs you want.

Not that most of what's in that DLC applies to me: I stay away from public servers like the plague even without the dragons.

Yay archaeopteryx. My second favorite prehistoric creature 

Haven't got the DLC yet, gonna wait a bit for the teething pains to die down. But...

You said the redwood update for xbox had been delayed; and as you have to go through Microsoft not known for brilliance, speed, or efficiency in it's internal processing (By that I mean paperwork, before people jump down my throat. though I do have to sigh disappointedly at certain Microsoft software) it is entirely understandable to want to get a few more bugs sorted before throwing it into that particular sinkhole. (Which reminds me, can we have some bait types? stuff that increases spawn chance or lures creatures into your trap?) But I am starting to feel a little worried.

PC gamers have theirs, so they're unlikely to be fussed, PS have problems enough (And NO i'm not going there), but I am hoping you haven't forgotten your promise to us, delay or no delay, just a little message on your official site saying: "Yes, we're still working on it! Just give us a little time." or "Not now, we have shifted our plans a little and work will resume at X time." Or even a little "We haven't forgotten you Xbox players. Keep Surviving." Just to set minds at ease.

Had plenty of time to prepare, but now wondering where the expedition storm went.

I'll take everything said with a grain of salt until they actually follow through on a patch.

 

Here is a helpful suggestion for the future: If you discuss content that is going to be in a paid DLC in your developement diary for your alpha game... mention it is going to be DLC!.   The amount of expansion content that was mentioned in previous development diaries is staggering.  Also, the community can tell you to go raptor yourselves in advance.

13 hours ago, hawkeye00021 said:

Do you know how many bugs I've found? You support the game how you want, but if you seriously cannot grasp bad feedback as a positive thing on the road to developing a product you don't understand how this works. Submit your review, and carry on. 

not to mention constant crashing for some of us, texture bugs, players losing saves sometimes 100s of hours of work lost, joining session loops for 10 minutes until i get a message saying connection lost, falling through the world, etc...yeah ok 10/10 my @$$, i dont understand how people think were still mad that we have to pay for dlc..thats not why we're mad at all theyre missing the entire point.

5 hours ago, UnvaluedMammal said:

thats not why we're mad at all theyre missing the entire point.

The problem is this is a bandwagon Mammal, while a few may have a genuine grievence, those who followed have devolved it. It all got passed along like a round of Chinese whispers with each rant getting more and more complex and distorted til we come at last to purple monkey dishwasher.

 

Really hope the developers read this post and take it to heart. Been gaming for 25 years and played so many mmos that I can't even think of them all some of those for tens of years. At first I didn't want to play Ark .. Brother in law actually had to buy it for me on xbox after telling him I wasn't interested didn't seem like it had the depth of other mmos I was a accustomed to. Well couldn't tell you how many hours I have on ark now but I have not played a single other game since I was lvl 10 on the beach x many months ago. You guys are doing something right and I think you know as well as the community knows that ark is something unique to the gaming world. Early access, beta or whatever it is really doesn't matter to me or anyone else here or they wouldn't be playing and bitching. Far as the paid dlc goes .. servers aren't cheap.. Should have charged more. 

On ‎9‎/‎6‎/‎2016 at 10:47 AM, Lewiatan said:

You say they optimised game a bit by recent patch? Heh. I have I7-6700k, MSI GTX 1080, 32 GB RAM. Before this September update I had 39 fps on epic settings on The Island. After the patch the performance was decreased by 6 fps at least. So, where is that optimisation? The only thing they optimisaed a bit is their shiny DLC. 

aaaaawe ur shiny pc aint working, well xbox is working amasing since launch for me,

Random ARKs yes!!!

 

I honestly love the expansion and considering how much work was put into it, I can't complain about much other than Scorched Earth lacking the wide array of dinos that the Island/Center have. For what you get, $20 is a solid going price. I support what you all are doing and look forward to seeing future developments. I will be supporting you!

Will we ever get to see herds? Herbivores often herd together, and ide love seeing a herd run from a t rex. Or having to seperate one from a herd to tame it.