Wiping Officials: The big Reddit discussion

[BobRoss]

3 minutes ago, Flaminraptors said:

What and that makes there dinos/structures destroyable? I mean thats fricking awesome but I never knew it was a thing, if I did I probs woulda played PvE more than I actually have 

yeah its like inviting someone to a tribe, you both agree to a war, you set a timer for when you start and a timer for how long the war will go, during that its practically pvp, you kill dinos structures take loot etc

[Sinark]

wipe all servers is good reason back to normal life but i hope it doesnt happen

 

[wesley0444]

A month ago some guy came to my server and told me that he knew a whole inventory dupe and wanted $100 PayPal to share it. We told him to go away. Yesterday he posted a video showing it happen on official servers, he showed that he has endless amounts of everything, vaults and field of replicators. For the past 5 days he's been clouding loaded characters, spawning on random servers and filling a vault on a beach with 1000s of tel structures and the most game breaking stuff he can find.

 

Fix the dupes, wipe the ark.

[JetJaguar]

3 hours ago, BobRoss said:

you're quite dense arent you? is there anything you do not understand about this?

Please be more rude while attempting to force your opinion on me..

[BobRoss]

23 minutes ago, JetJaguar said:

Please be more rude while attempting to force your opinion on me..

im not forcing anything onto you, let me break it down:

'you are comparing a fully released game with multiple expansions to a EA game? Early Access means its still getting developped while you play it.' this is a fact, you cant deny the game is still being developped and WoW isnt.

'you know there are alot of players who intentionally dont play EA games because they dont like their time to be wasted right? you're basically giving all these players the big finger.' another fact, there are players who hold out on EA games because there is the risk of losing stuff because of glitches etc. these forums can testify to that.

'You would be right if the game was already on gold release and people were asking for a wipe 1 year after. then i can say you are right and that they should have bought the game earlier.' this is my opinion about a hypothetical situation. so not really of any value

'but not now, right now we are testing the servers so they can iron out the bugs and glitches, so they can add content and hear our feedback on it and after everything is done and the game is 'finished' and ready for release' another fact, this is what EA is for, to test and give feedback.

'they should wipe it all and give the game a fresh start free of creatures obtained in ways that is impossible, duped items etc etc.' now this is the only part of that entire text you could see as my opinion. and im not forcing it onto you in any way. you are just spouting around nonsense like 'WoW doesnt wipe when i buy it' and 'there are no people duping in pve' or 'duping in pve isnt impactful because there is no competition'. these are your opinions which you state as facts. and not one of them is IN MY OPINION valid.

 

[Musketeer]

I love the game. I've been playing and supporting it since its early days. Wiping PvE servers makes no sense whatsoever.. it would be just Wildcard's betrayal of their longest supporters to please toxic minority in this community. Best people in this community would most likely leave the game.

[BertNoobians]

the people here demanding for a wipe, do you own a pve base you worked 2000+ hours on and why do you want others to loose this progress?

i hope wildcard makes a smart decision and doesnt listen to those with only 500 hours into the game that come complain on the forum out of jealousy.

[BobRoss]

11 minutes ago, BertNoobians said:

the people here demanding for a wipe, do you own a pve base you worked 2000+ hours on and why do you want others to loose this progress?

i hope wildcard makes a smart decision and doesnt listen to those with only 500 hours into the game that come complain on the forum out of jealousy.

i have had 1300 hours on a pve server and i left it because i didnt have enough time to play official anymore, but i was always prepared to give it all away and i still support official wipes at release when they fixed all the issues. 

and 500 hours on 1 server is equally important as 1000 hours. every opinion is equally valid. 

 

[BertNoobians]

12 minutes ago, BobRoss said:

i have had 1300 hours on a pve server and i left it because i didnt have enough time to play official anymore, but i was always prepared to give it all away and i still support official wipes at release when they fixed all the issues. 

and 500 hours on 1 server is equally important as 1000 hours. every opinion is equally valid. 

 

so you dont even own a base and demand a wipe.

[BobRoss]

1 minute ago, BertNoobians said:

so you dont even own a base and demand a wipe.

if thats everything you take out of my entire text than thats fine by me, no atm i dont own a base on PVE official anymore, Yes ive played alot of PVE unofficial. YES I WOULD STILL SUPPORT OFFICIAL WIPE EVEN IF I STILL PLAYED ON THAT SERVER. 

 

[powerstuck]

2 hours ago, BobRoss said:

im not forcing anything onto you, let me break it down:

'you are comparing a fully released game with multiple expansions to a EA game? Early Access means its still getting developped while you play it.' this is a fact, you cant deny the game is still being developped and WoW isnt.

Oh boy...that could be a long debate. But WoW being patched about every month and releasing expansion every 18 months isn't being developed.

 

I wonder, how would you people feel if the day the game releases, devs say well, thank you for your participation in the alpha/beta phase, now please go and buy our amazing game so you can play it. If you do buy it, you recover your character and everything you have, if you do not, your current licence will be disabled a week after the release and you will not be able to play it anymore. 

[BobRoss]

6 minutes ago, powerstuck said:

Oh boy...that could be a long debate. But WoW being patched about every month and releasing expansion every 18 months isn't being developed.

 

I wonder, how would you people feel if the day the game releases, devs say well, thank you for your participation in the alpha/beta phase, now please go and buy our amazing game so you can play it. If you do buy it, you recover your character and everything you have, if you do not, your current licence will be disabled a week after the release and you will not be able to play it anymore. 

i would feel bad but that wont happen, let me quote you from the steam site on early access

'You keep access to the game, even if the game later moves from Early Access into fully released.' this is copy pasted from their website, you can find more here http://store.steampowered.com/earlyaccessfaq/?l=english

what they can charge you for are additional DLC's but thats the same with released games already.

and to answer your first sentence:

there is a huge difference between released games that release expansions in the form of DLC's and an EA game. the first is a fully finished base product which continues to expand upon its core features. the other is an unfinished game with core features and mechanics that havent been (fully) implemented yet. 

[powerstuck]

5 minutes ago, BobRoss said:

i would feel bad but that wont happen, let me quote you from the steam site on early access

'You keep access to the game, even if the game later moves from Early Access into fully released.' this is copy pasted from their website, you can find more here http://store.steampowered.com/earlyaccessfaq/?l=english

what they can charge you for are additional DLC's but thats the same with released games already.

and to answer your first sentence:

there is a huge difference between released games that release expansions in the form of DLC's and an EA game. the first is a fully finished base product which continues to expand upon its core features. the other is an unfinished game with core features and mechanics that havent been (fully) implemented yet. 

I wonder what Scorched Earth is...

[BobRoss]

2 minutes ago, powerstuck said:

I wonder what Scorched Earth is...

a DLC, did you read what i typed at all? they can charge you for additional DLC's its right there, 3th paragraph

[Spedizzo]

If they are going to wipe servers then whatever, but can they make a statement and stick to it? Because they said they would NOT wipe servers except for low pop ones, and that they would add more servers because they have the resources to do so.

Yes it is alpha, but I think it is fair to tell the players if they will be wiping official servers so I and my tribe mates know whether or not to spend the next X amount of time in our life breeding worthless dinos and wasting even more hours of our life so we can just quit the game now. That is fair isn't it?

This isn't a pick-up and play fps game we are beta testing. This is a game in which we all invested a lot of time emotionally and invested so many hours, especially those of us who have been here for day one and have played legitimately. 

I hope they can find a way to weed out those who have done inappropriate things, or find a way to do some damage control without having to effect us all, because I know quite a few of us who will be done with a wipe and just move on to other games. The last 2K+ hours have been fun but also exhausting

[Volcano637]

On 3/20/2017 at 5:48 AM, JetJaguar said:

There are a good number of threads on the Ark Reddit calling for official server wipes. And when I mean a good number, I mean like every other post is a thread about a wipe. A majority of it seems to stem from the duping that’s going on or has recently occurred. Theres enough of a hoopla being made that Jen responded to some of the posts: At the most recent convention, Jeremey/Ark devs mentioned that they are still deciding what they want to do with official servers when the game is "released": Add new servers? Wipe? So that post Jat put up months ago seems null and void. See the video here http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1024229/-ARK-Survival-Evolved-Lessons

What is frustrating in all of this is that PVE does not work like PVP. I can 100% understand the frustration of someone duping Tek gear in PVP. This would affect YOU if YOU play on that same server. But on PVE? Is duping even going on with PVE servers? Whats the gain on PVE if it is? Just to look cool?

PVE seems to be another animal entirely. I cant imagine what duping would accomplish on a PVE server. But that’s not quite the issue. On PVE, people have spent months if not since the games release, building huge elaborate bases, working breeding lines, etc. To see this all go away will suck if a complete wipe is forced on all the officials.

I cant quite understand what a wipe at this point would accomplish: Would you get that prime base spot you could never get because someone else has been there? Would the pillars NEVER come back again on any server? Would alpha tribes vanish forever? Would the folks who’ve spent thousands of hours in game be forced to spend thousands more to get breeding lines going again? Would the tamed dino count never reach 4,000 again on servers? Would the platform cap never be reached?

I truly hope when considering a wipe the devs realize the major differences between PVE and PVP gameplay and whats all involved in both servers. I love the game but with the amount of time Ive invested in it, I don't think I could start over yet again from scratch. At that point I'd be visiting other games Ive been ignoring to play Ark. Frustrating but no intention on trying to reclaim all those hours/days once again..

 

I have also posted a lot of official wipe posts and most people on here say the majority doesn't want it. They were wrong of course atleast now anyway.

months ago the wipe community was smaller and the minority. That is not the case now. We are the majority and I am saying that the wipe will happen. And there is no reason the devs should worry about, or even care if some people stop playing because of it. For the majority it will be the bad people that stop anyway. Too many people whine about losing their progress but all a wipe means is that they will be in the same boat as anyone else. 

The funny thing is it is those same people that tell all the others to get over it. Pretty soon it will be time to tell those people to get over it.

the wipe will happen. Mark my words

[wesley0444]

I can see so many people coming back to this game if it were to get a nice day reset. To an open playing field so thought all the duping and old broken stuff in the game.

[JetJaguar]

While I am sure a wipe will make some people happy, it will also drive a chunk of players away. The majority of the wipe threads and issues are on PVP servers; not PVE.

[wesley0444]

Right,  PVE should see no wipe imo.

[Arkasaurio]

For some reason I'm always drawn to throwing my 2c into these discussions, but have noticed it rarely does any good.

WC has access to all kinds of data that we has players don't, so ultimately they'll try make the best decision on this for them (it's a business). That should be the best long term decision for the community, so let's hope they chose right!

Based on what WC has said (no wipes, wipe maybe low population servers, maybe we actual will wipe, etc.) and how divided the community seems, they have one easy solution that allows them to keep their promise that they will only wipe low pop servers AND give full release players a chance at fresh severs. All WC needs to do is release new servers (or repurposed low population servers) for full release players (and any EA players that are willing to start over) and put them on a separate cluster.

In that system, EA players get to keep what they've built on legacy servers, and the influx of new players get fresh servers. There's also no reason full release players couldn't join legacy servers, but the key is NO TRANSFERRING between legacy servers and full release servers.

I have no evidence that's actually what they'll do, but given that it would allow them not to do a full wipe, give full release players a much more even opportunity, and quarantine dupe items (or any other sort of EA thing they don't want in the final game), it would make a ton of sense. Personally, though I've got plenty of BPs I'd miss, I still want the opportunity to start from zero (with everyone else) under the final release build of the game.

 

[Spedizzo]

Again, if they are going to wipe they need to make an announcement and not let people waste their lives. There are actually players SLEEP DEPRIVING THEMSELVES to get 100% imprints. Early access or not, that is actually happening and goes beyond the realm of beta testing or whatever. There are people who are utterly attached to this game and not only would quit but would be devastated if they lose their fairly acquired status.

I don't understand why they can't delete certain duped items/fix the dupes and then release new servers in a separate cluster upon release anyway like they were going to do anyway.

And surely they have or can implement some sort of inventory tracking system which can identify the most duped/duped items and ban the people who created or possess the bulk of the duped items?????

[SmokeyB]

There is a lot of talk about wiping the servers, and a lot of arguments either side so I had an idea that could please both sides. 

My idea is to wipe all the servers but instead of bringing them back as the same maps bring them back as a different map on each and every server. This way people who wanted a wipe get their wipe and people who are bored with ark and played thousands of hours won't quit because they will have a thousand new maps to explore, they will be building back up on a fresh map so not as boring as starting again on the island or centre. 

It will add a lot of fun to the game as each server will be different instead of all the alphas being built in the same spots, leading to more interesting raids and defences. It will also help small tribes hide from trolls as they can't just transfer over and instantly know the map and where to check. It will give a point to owning more than one server because you won't just be alpha of three Island maps you will be alpha of three different maps. Also when people get wiped they will be less likely to quit because every ark would be a new adventure and the exploration is half the fun. 

They already have PG maps all they would have to do is make 1000 PG maps that they have checked to be balanced with each other for resources and such and release them with a wipe. They could even leave the island and centre as servers 1 and 2 for the strongest tribes to fight over. 

Would people be more in favour of a wipe if it means new maps along with it? 

[Juggernaut]

They aren't going to do separate server clusters. It costs them money to host and those old EA servers will die out due to low population caused by all the exploits the people used to build on them. No one is going to want to play them and they will slowly die out. Plus sorting through all the info to track down each duper and all their items is near impossible. Plus think about the affect they had on others by duping, they basically abused the system and raided people constantly with no recourse further driving people away from the game. The Devs wiped all the severs backed in 2015 when there was a massive dupe bug caused by the server transfers that was implemented then and it is happening again. They don't test/can't find all the bugs and when something like this gets by it causes a major issue across the board. Best bet in the future is to limit server transfers to small clusters, maybe 1 of each map in case something like this happens again after official release, or else they will have to wipe every server again. 

[Keogh]

11 hours ago, Flaminraptors said:

How do you war on PvE?

It's pretty much the same way you invite somebody to your tribe I think except you need both leaders from diff tribes then you can choose declare war after that you can choose when the war will start and how long it will last from your tribe settings don't quote me on this ive been on PvP for a long time now so I'm not exactly sure about the way it's setup but it's definitely there me an a friends tribe did it before just to see how it worked.Hope this helps you out ?

[iDizzy81]

I would have to agree in the aspect that when the servers launch, official servers need to be wiped, the transfer systems should be retooled and the slate should be clean for everyone. Not only has the duping issue caused a major disruption but server transfer abilities in general has thrown a kink into the system as well. The ability for many top tiers to be able to ban together to lay waste to others servers as a whole has created another issue entirely. While I'm not saying it shouldn't happen, it clearly does not allow new players who purchase the game post shelf release to have a fair footing into the official world. In my eyes, it screams that the survivor's time is not valued at all, despite allowing the officials to continue on, currently and post release.

While this will more than likely be met with backlash, and to each their own, it's just how I personally feel and a major reason why i've recently decided to give up on officials in favor of dedicated servers. As a father, full time employee, writer to a website and aspiring content creator, the time I do spend in the Ark needs to feel valued and not seem as something that I allow to spend days to weeks worth of hours just to be taken in an instant. In the end my concerns are part of the allure of the risk vs reward system, though I feel the developer can look at another MMO like Ultima Online to figure out ways to get around it without taking away the RvR.