ARK: Review Evolved, Winter Wonderland

[Buster]

Time for our my traditional revies of the seasonal events. This one will be a bit different as it will be shorter than most, again divied into the good, bad, and ugly.

Im sure a lot of people will disagree with me on this one but whatevers.

The good:

The new landscape was just breath taking, the snow covered trees and just the stark change from fall to winter really was impressive.

The colder temps I felt were also a great addition to the event, and honestly I really hate saying this(It really sounds snobby) but a lot of people complaining about the cold need to learn to play, I explored the various places in the south and daytime temps were in the high 50s low 60s, and easily survivable with basic shelters and campfires.

The new spawns, having the mammoths, argies and penguins migrate all throughout the map was a great touch, it added a sense of animal migrations, even more so when certain animals stopped spawning before that was corrected. While unintentional added a nice touch in my opinion.

The epic LOOT, raptor claus was a huge blessing and I feel the devs nailed it with the loot here, the presents were fourth coming and chances were high that you could score something epic, not to mention the crafting materials and coal were also accessible as well, thus avoiding the major grindfest of previous events. And while people may complain that the dodorex is game breaking, they need to realize they are playing a type of WAR game and losses are to be expected, even though it maybe exceedingly frustrating.

Persistence, I am pleased that this time holiday loot will remain in the player inventory this time, allowing use for future occasions.

The neutral: The new years ball drop, While I love the concept behind this the fact remains that many people seemed to consider it lackluster, although personally I would have loved to get some top hats,(I missed the event) but I think more could have been included in celebration, since I missed this aspect I don't really have an opinion on this, hence the new and hopefully one time use category.

The bad: This one is going to be rather short.

Insect spawns and creatures, while I recognize there was a lot on the devs plate at the time this was being worked on, the fact that the ants, scorpions and dragonflies, frogs/snakes were active during this season was an oversight, these animals should have been removed/ or in hibernation till the event was over, if people needed chitin the caves could have been the source for these animals where they would be active all year. Maybe next year?

The ugly:(more subjective)

The event length, this event was far too short in my opinion, granted while the raptor claus should be disabled and soon, the fact that the winter map is supposedly ending in a few days leaves absolutely no time for work on a spring time map and weather conditions, various spawns or mechanics. Especially since we were spoiled with a few months of the epic fall landscape.

In conclusion I found this event to be one of the best events the devs have created, right next to the halloween event, with the new landscapes, dynamic weather and spawns, and the epic loot. I was also disheartened and appalled at the major, major amount of negativity that many forum posters had towards this event,(The steam forums come to mind) while there was some constructive feedback over 90 percent of it was nothing but whining and crying, and I sincerely hope that the developers will ignore these people, whom seem to have no sense of fun/take the game way too seriously, and continue on with these events which add a little more fun and charm to something that would otherwise be monotonous.

[Golem]

This was one of the worst events ever conceived.

All because of the Dodorex.

Not only Dodorex is a rehashed content, its a nuclear weapon. On PVP servers alpha tribes were constantly taking over the drops guarding them with turret-filled quetzals not allowing anyone to get their hands on the coal because a single Dodorex is able to single handedly wipe the strongest tribe on a server before you say "merry chirstmas".  This led to situation where alpha tribes got all the loot and all the coal, the good alpha tribes just kept the coal and gave out other loot, the bad alpha tribes kept everything giving them even more power with unique blueprints of fabricated shotguns, fur armor with sick hypo insulation, scuba chests with ridiculous durability enough to spend entire night underwater, fabricated sniper rifles with huge damage, high quality shields and swords and high quality saddles (out of which many of them are impossible to craft).

Christmas content was lazy - alpha raptor dropping drops, getting those drops was the only way of participating in the event fun.

I am not mad about it, i know the dev team was busy with Xbox release. I just hope this is the last time we see tameable dodorex on pvp servers.

[panteni87]

Although i almost completely disagree... +1 for the phrasing and balance. 

I still think the events should be optional, and if they do a new years event, take into consideration the countries that are not the US... The americacentrism is logical since Wildcard is based in America, but they should be aware that there was a large player base in Europe... seems to be dwindling though. 

[sAd]

All in all I agree with you, buster.

But I also agree with Golem about the DodoRex and the Situation to get the presents.

The event itself was nice, landscape was nice and who was talking about its too cold? I had it more often that I got the message that Im too hot! (little flame) due full journey furarmor..xD

For our small server it was easy to collect enough presents for everyone.

But when I imagine the big servers..and all the battle about some coal...idk.

For small Servers perfect - for big servers not so perfect.

 

[Leonhardt]

6 hours ago, Buster said:

Insect spawns and creatures, while I recognize there was a lot on the devs plate at the time this was being worked on, the fact that the ants, scorpions and dragonflies, frogs/snakes were active during this season was an oversight, these animals should have been removed/ or in hibernation till the event was over, if people needed chitin the caves could have been the source for these animals where they would be active all year.

Pretty much 90% of the population of the island should have been hibernating.

Dinosaurs did not live in arctic climates, and known data suggests that they would have hibernated would they have been subjected to winter.

Thankfully Seasons were invented by Thomas Edison, long after the dinosaurs died out.

[NukeZX]

6 hours ago, Buster said:

The bad: This one is going to be rather short.

Insect spawns and creatures, while I recognize there was a lot on the devs plate at the time this was being worked on, the fact that the ants, scorpions and dragonflies, frogs/snakes were active during this season was an oversight, these animals should have been removed/ or in hibernation till the event was over, if people needed chitin the caves could have been the source for these animals where they would be active all year. Maybe next year?
 

ummm, just no.

 

We got a player on our official PVE server who places gates in front of underwater caves and recently put his Quetz farm in front of cave entrances, especially the volcano cave to block players.

And if he does see you going in on the rare occasion he does not have the entrances blocked, GL exiting the cave that session.

 

I agree with you but only when the devs are/have active moderators which can be contacted in a timely manner in case PVE griefers block entrance to these places.

And no, I (and many others) have sent many mails etc about PVE griefers, and no, it was NEVER fixed nor were the griefers ever punished.

[ImpureFrost]

I loved all the events except turkey terror. Ark:Fear Evolved and Ark:Winter Wonderland were so fun!! I loved these events. Tameable oync's and araneo's.. New use for bug repellant.. PUMPKINS! Raptor claws.. Presents... MISTLETOE! The way Ark Devs created these seasonal changes were breathtaking i play on the lowest settings and it was still so amazing!  I hope they can continue the events as for easter and 4th of july (america)

[FireStormRising]

I really enjoyed the snow and the landscape. It is simply beautiful.  I enjoyed the weather changes and occasional blizzards.  Of course, I also enjoyed the Autumn leaves, as well.  And now, I'm looking forward to Spring.  Of course, a private PVE server makes everything easier during holiday events.  

Now that you mention it, having some stuff hibernate or be less plentiful would have been interesting, but likely too disruptive on PVP servers.  

In general, I think the game graphics are beautiful and I really appreciate the changes from time to time......and Xmas trees and presents and holiday lights!

[panteni87]

2 hours ago, Leonhardt said:

Pretty much 90% of the population of the island should have been hibernating.

Dinosaurs did not live in arctic climates, and known data suggests that they would have hibernated would they have been subjected to winter.

Thankfully Seasons were invented by Thomas Edison, long after the dinosaurs died out.

I hope you're speaking kiddingly... but i've read enough bullpoo to often not see the difference between satire and reality...
If this was funny... no comment
If this was a serious comment.... check your facts

[Icwhy]

1 hour ago, ImpureFrost said:

I loved all the events except turkey terror. Ark:Fear Evolved and Ark:Winter Wonderland were so fun!! I loved these events. Tameable oync's and araneo's.. New use for bug repellant.. PUMPKINS! Raptor claws.. Presents... MISTLETOE! The way Ark Devs created these seasonal changes were breathtaking i play on the lowest settings and it was still so amazing!  I hope they can continue the events as for easter and 4th of july (america)

care to show us a picture of your oynics and or araneos? I call bullocks because they are still tameable and doing so is a bugfest

[Lionheart]

I would have liked winter to stay a bit longer, but it's taking its toll on new players. All we hear about in global is noobs complaining that they have no food and dying of cold.

[Peregrine]

I didn't enjoy it AT ALL. Now, credit where credit is due: it LOOKS breathtaking. It was absolutely beautiful. But it got old fast and I missed my lush green forest. I don't generally live in the northern biome, for a reason. Argents spawning all over, even herbivore island, was interesting but also got old fast when I started losing dinos to them, because of COURSE my base on the south beach was never build with wild argents in mind. The fact that the temperature dropped so vastly was annoying for most players and deadly for new players who had nowhere to spawn without dying of exposure. Yes, it was eventually patched to be warmer, but really, just like today's balance changes, it was a change that really showed off the devs' lack of thought or foresight before just shoving changes up onto the servers and hoping for the best. And lastly, the event itself - Raptor Clause - was just kind of boring. Some extra supply drops? Whooo, I guess... Overall, despite how aesthetically pleasing it was, the event was extremely underwhelming.