Another Major update coming to The Center!

[YungNation]

Centre map is by far my fav. 

[Musketeer]

evilmrfrank.. awesome stuff this update is so needed, especially the boss arenas and the dinos.

Just one question though...

Since the redwood was added to the center our in-game gps hasn't been in sync with in-game map. Basically map location is not the same as gps location. WIll that be ever fixed?

[Bogger]

21 hours ago, iAmE said:

Any chance of actually balancing The Center vs The Island and Scorched Earth?

The sheer amount of resource advantage and dino density makes the map in high demand, and is probably something that should be looked at, particularly as it is part of the PvP network. The map affords a relatively large advantage. 

Maybe because it's bigger?Nothing wrong with resource distribution on centre,it makes it viable for competing tribes and players to live more spread out without one tribe being able to hog a single resource,or cut them off...maybe that's why it is so popular,it's much better than wildcards own maps.

[iAmE]

1 minute ago, Bogger said:

Maybe because it's bigger?Nothing wrong with resource distribution on centre,it makes it viable for competing tribes and players to live more spread out without one tribe being able to hog a single resource,or cut them off...maybe that's why it is so popular,it's much better than wildcards own maps.

Oh, no I don't disagree that the resource distribution on The Center is better then The Island/Scorched Earth, but it doesn't change the fact that, in PvP, having a Center Server is a near insurmountable advantage assuming both tribes are similar in other regards, due to the huge resource advantage (Both in Materials and Dinos) that The Center gives. It's a pretty big deal outright. 

As I said earlier, the Developers tend to go with the "Path of Least Resistance" in any major change, which is generally nerfing/gutting things. I'ld personally like to see them make the Island/Scorched Earth competitive with The Center, I just don't think it's likely to happen. 

[Grayroad]

1 hour ago, iAmE said:

Oh, no I don't disagree that the resource distribution on The Center is better then The Island/Scorched Earth, but it doesn't change the fact that, in PvP, having a Center Server is a near insurmountable advantage assuming both tribes are similar in other regards, due to the huge resource advantage (Both in Materials and Dinos) that The Center gives. It's a pretty big deal outright. 

As I said earlier, the Developers tend to go with the "Path of Least Resistance" in any major change, which is generally nerfing/gutting things. I'ld personally like to see them make the Island/Scorched Earth competitive with The Center, I just don't think it's likely to happen. 

The difference is not as great as you sound it out to be. On the island map the volcano is much stronger single point allowing to resource harvesting time efficiency. I do know that some tribes are not forward looking enough and actually block resource spawns in the volcano.  Id rather see few small metal rock clusters + few random single obsidian rocks added to the Island map rather than go all out nerfing the center resources. 

Allso SE is very strong for silica pearls. 

[iAmE]

5 minutes ago, Grayroad said:

The difference is not as great as you sound it out to be. On the island map the volcano is much stronger single point allowing to resource harvesting time efficiency. I do know that some tribes are not forward looking enough and actually block resource spawns in the volcano.  Id rather see few small metal rock clusters + few random single obsidian rocks added to the Island map rather than go all our nerfing the center resources. 

Allso SE is very strong for silica pearls. 

Well, to give you my personal stats. I can harvest, basically, for three hours on both maps, and come out with roughly double the metal farming on the Center. I will give, that if you're just farming for 20-30 minutes the Island's Volcano is much better then anything from the Center, but for Alpha tribes, particularly ones that frequently have more then one team farming at once, The Island isn't big enough, and the Center has a much larger resource pool to draw from. On The Center you can easily have two people farming Metal, and if they talk before hand, they can farm indefinitely and never see each other. Same isn't true on the Island, as two people farming at the same time can easily put all the mountain tops on cooldown in short order.

It also still doesn't address the overwhelming advantage Center has for taming/dinos. I straight refuse to tame anything but water dinos on the Island. It's not worth the time compared to The Center. 

[Zythara]

Your including all of the new dinos, but does this include an update to the existing loot chests so that there is a way to get better quality saddles for them as well?

[DankestKhan]

Thanks. I really enjoy this map over The Island and am looking forward to it becoming even better!

edit: but maybe keep eels out of this map

[ivansev]

Amazing! Thanks

[Jinky]

Any idea when the jumping puzzle will be available in dedicated server? Spent ages mastering got to the end and no rewards ? 

[Massmerize]

@evilmrfrank

as a halfway happy member of an pve official* center server I want to:

• thank your for this great map
• thank you for the upcoming update - definitely looking forward to it.
• want to ask you on your opinion on the recent flyer nerfs especially considering the Center map. And if you are going to address the open matters. If so I'd like you to look at my post which i've copied (bit edited) from my previous post in

  Re-balancing the Fliers, Mk. 2!

• thanks again.

TLDR: Flyers are still not viable on The Center. How bout taking a different approach.

 

In my humble opinion though Wildcard is taking an approach that is a bit to easy:
as many people on steam/reddit already mentioned you are trying to fix different illnesses (flyers to strong fighting wise in pvp / flyers make content trivial in pve with the same medication (same flyer stat nerf [+slightly buffing them again]).

i know it's more work for you but you can't, well technically you can but you shouldn't, trivialize this illnesses the way you do

You have to take into consideration that there is a different flyer usage necessity in the multiple different playmodes of ark, namely:

PVE: Scorched Earth / The Island / The Center
PVP: Scorched Earth / The Island / The Center
and though I haven't played it yet I'd guess the same goes for Primitive+
not to mention unofficial servers as well...

• the resource nodes (like obsidian, metal) are in different altitudes and locations on Scorched Earth/The Island/The Center and are not always accessible without flyers
• the travel distance between the regions (snow/caves/redwood/volcano/center/the world scar/ etc...) varies on each map and has different difficulty levels on traveling in between them (from "easy to ride to" to "impossible to reach with a land dino")
• also please take the average gaming time of a gamer into account, as you are working as well give it a shot and play on the evening for 2 hours for a few weeks on one of your official servers and set up a nice base. you should notice that you rethink your choices of what you want to do, depending on how much time you have when playing with a time constraint.
• the intention for using a certain flyers varies often (painting a tall building / trading with somebody / helping somebody who is stuck, dragged away, disconnected during flight, and many others/ taming a useless dino / retrieving lost inventories / fighting environment because it looks cool / admiring the scenery etc.) "Just to give an example here out of my personal experience: I wouldn't help a stranger being stuck between to rocks on the top of "the center's center" if it takes ages to get there and the risk is extreme." What I try to explain is: Please be aware that you are heavily influencing way of how the game is experienced by simple "stat changes" and that it flying is not always used for the sake of progress.
• there are probably people out there who want to play solo/in small groups/huge tribes -  make flyers viable for all of those types
• Increasing difficulty curve on the ground/water in the last patches while leaving it easy in the skies. I'd just guess some players don't wanna be grindy hardcore Dark Souls Survivers who fight of Eels, while their unconsious lvl 150 Thylocaleo tame is getting robbed your precious Titanoboa Kibble by an Ichthyornis, on a raft that is getting munched on by a Leedsychtis, next to the beach where your house is getting smashed by a lvl 5 Giga... (dear community feel free to complete this story)

Therefore I'd like to take the various multitude of great ideas from the community which I've read here/reddit/steam into account:

• weather effects to influence the usage of flyers and land dino's
• buff land dino's instead
• make land dino trains easier to use
• adjust the mapS(!) to make land dino's more viable
• (untameable) arrial threats
• change kibble so that it (also?) needs resources which are obtained by killing different dinos (prime bronto meat was one example given i think) instead of making everyone wanting and waiting around dino eggfarms, if certain resources can only be farmed by certain dino's / are easier to obtain with certain dino's it would make them obiously more interesting, same goes for ressources like (onions, caveberries, and other unaccessible/unharvestable by flyer objectives)
• create different survival difficulties instead of making the game more difficult with each patch. the learning curve is not bad for "older playerss" but for new players i'd guess the learning curve is getting way to steep.

I know that those mentioned points are more work for the WildCard Dev's than just adjusting stats, but if you expect this game to be a grind for us, make it a grind for yourself as well please.

Thank you for reading this.
Thank this community for it's great ideas.
Excuse me for not providing you with sources because I'm a lazy raptor and i hope somebody else can take care of this.
Excuse my wording as English is not my native language.
Excuse my needs for fast and viable fliers as i am a sloppy, lazy, pve, the center, casual, scrub and really happy with the way it was before 256.

BR.
Massmerize

*official = just evilmrfrank's mod which is = still not as good supported by WC as it should be IMHO.

P.s: Why exactly did you put the game on sale just before this patch? Was it really a try to cover up the player numbers? I think the community would be quite unhappy if the true story behind this would be revealed... just guessing here though...

Edit: thank you guys'n'girls for the upvotes / quotes and comments - please take into account that 90% of the ideas are "borrowed" from the community and i just summerized them in my post. They are not my own ideas even if I'd wish so

Edit 2: if you are interested in the results in player numbers i found this very interesting page here - feel free to quote it to others - and please be aware that there was a sale just before the patch which should have led to a massive increase in numbers i'd guess: http://steamcharts.com/app/346110

Edit 3: not valid anymore

Edit 4: I am still unhappy with the flyer speed even after a slight buff.

[ArkMasterSavage]

About time! I'll be waiting!

 

[wickedcpa]

Great news!!  Thanks for the information Evil!  A couple of things I have noted (being a redwood resident):

1.  Many places in the map are "squishy" (i.e. your character tends to sink into rocks or land)

2.  Dinosaur's sometimes spawn from the sky  - I know that dino's can fall from above, but these fall from the middle of the map in the trees, rather than from the usual cliffs - this can sometimes result in dinosaurs on tree platforms.

3.  You mention underwater rocks - but currently we cannot harvest rock underwater.  We can harvest oil nodes.  Are we going to get the ability to harvest rock as well?  What about sea-kelp or plants for our veggie needs underwater?

4.  With respect to new dinos - I am guessing that means Thylo's in the redwoods (gulp) - will they be prevented from spawning inside treehouses?  Mine is created using fence foundations, walls and ceiling tiles and I am afraid - very afraid I will log on to a nasty surprise.......lol

I agree with some of the other posts about flyers on the Center.  The nerf is hitting us hard because of the vast distances, resource availability at lower altitudes and the terrain being less friendly to land travel (especially in caravans).  I'm not going to whine about it - but some improvements to land-based travel would be GREATLY appreciated.  Between the flyers not making it across the ocean and the rafts being attacked by the new Moby sausage's of the sea - its gotten hard to travel from the redwoods to anywhere else on the map........

Thanks again for all of the info and the test server - I will try to log on this week to check it out!

 

Wickedcpa

[Matikas]

cant wait it is freaking awesome!

[Volcano637]

On April 7, 2017 at 8:02 AM, evilmrfrank said:

I have always been a huge believer in being open and clear about changes that very clearly effect players and I've also seen a bit of confusion about exactly what is and isn't coming in the next major update to The Center so I was hoping to clear some things up. The below list is split into 3 parts, things I know are definitely coming in the next update, things I hope to get into next update if time permits, and the last one are things I wish I could but probably do not have the time for. I do not currently have a release date yet for this update but I believe it's towards the end of the month.

TLDR: Lots of awesome stuff -- Server information can be found at the bottom of this post.

Definitely coming in next update:

- Giant new ocean expansion: This makes the oceans in the eastern edge of the map over 3X deeper. Why did I focus on this exactly? I knew the underwater bases were incoming and I thought it was a very unique gameplay feature the game hasn't seen before and wanted to give players some really amazing places to build new bases. The oceans never truly felt like oceans before, more like deep lakes so wanted to expand on that a bit more as well with truly deep/dark oceans. The kind of areas you'd expect to find angler fish and other deep sea life This new area provides tons of VERY large flat spaces for player bases, as well as another interesting source of obsidian around some volcanic vents. As with any area of the map I did not provide every resource type here so although you have heavy access to rock/oyster/obsidian you do not have access to metal down here other than the small amount you can get from rock. This is to encourage players to move about the map more and make no single area too powerful or important over others.

- Adding missing dinos: There are a number of missing dinos on the map that are currently not spawning, before you ask "does this include this or that" yes, yes it does include that and this and that too, (even eels, but in lesser numbers :P).

- Improvement to current bosses/element: Since the release of the difficulties/element for The Island there have been several complaints about the bosses on The Center or the lack of, as well as the element amount being rather low in comparison. This upcoming update will drastically improve that giving players the ability to now select different difficulties for the bosses with the current boss fight giving slightly more element and harder difficulties giving a bit more. Adding harder difficulties has also allowed me to give a little more options in regards to what tek gear can be gotten on the map.

- Explorer Notes: These will include all of the dino dossiers but none of the lore related ones.

- Lots of random bugs fixed This time around this mostly includes various holes around the map that players are using to glitch under the map or get out of the world.

Hopefully coming in next update:

- The reintroduction of the jumping puzzle This one has been a long time coming and tons of changes have been made to this since it was last enabled to keep players from cheating. The ramps heading up have been removed to stop dinos that can jump far from jumping up it, added a pool of water for players to fall into on the way back down. Also thinking about changing this so that this is a one time thing every 12 hours per server instead of once per player every 24 hours. Will likely put something in this room to show if it is currently available or not but this will stop all of the remaining issues we had with this being cheated in the past.

Small chance of it coming in next update:

- Adding some of the boss fights from The Island This one is a huge "maybe". I know it is one of the most requested features atm for the map but it is not in any way an easy thing to do, some of them may be pretty straight forward but some such as the dragon boss may not ever be possible for technical reasons. One of the biggest reasons this is difficult to simply copy them over and set them up actually comes down to how they are setup. If you look at the boss arenas and their place in the world they are placed underneath the map on The Island, The Center has dozens of layers of complexity under the map so copying the boss fights over directly may simply put them inside one of the very large caves or ocean expansion areas etc... Will need to look into this more heavily to see exactly how hard or easy it will be in the end but chances are only some may be able to be copied over.

If you feel like anything is missing from the above list or have any issues in the map specifically let me know

-------------------

The server is called: The Center Temp Beta Test Server of FUN and it will be listed as an Unofficial Server.

You can direct connect to the server here via: 

steam://connect/192.227.156.12:27015

You can download the updated workshop file here:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=894188347

If you'd like to pop on early and check out the map, you're welcome to do so as it's the server is online now.

So if you're able to log on and help us out, that would be much appreciated! 

Definitely glad to see you guys working on the center and not the flyer nerf things are fine with flyer but the center has needed more attention for a lot longer time 

[l1l1th85]

On 07/04/2017 at 4:02 PM, evilmrfrank said:

I have always been a huge believer in being open and clear about changes that very clearly effect players and I've also seen a bit of confusion about exactly what is and isn't coming in the next major update to The Center so I was hoping to clear some things up. The below list is split into 3 parts, things I know are definitely coming in the next update, things I hope to get into next update if time permits, and the last one are things I wish I could but probably do not have the time for. I do not currently have a release date yet for this update but I believe it's towards the end of the month.

TLDR: Lots of awesome stuff -- Server information can be found at the bottom of this post.

Definitely coming in next update:

- Giant new ocean expansion: This makes the oceans in the eastern edge of the map over 3X deeper. Why did I focus on this exactly? I knew the underwater bases were incoming and I thought it was a very unique gameplay feature the game hasn't seen before and wanted to give players some really amazing places to build new bases. The oceans never truly felt like oceans before, more like deep lakes so wanted to expand on that a bit more as well with truly deep/dark oceans. The kind of areas you'd expect to find angler fish and other deep sea life This new area provides tons of VERY large flat spaces for player bases, as well as another interesting source of obsidian around some volcanic vents. As with any area of the map I did not provide every resource type here so although you have heavy access to rock/oyster/obsidian you do not have access to metal down here other than the small amount you can get from rock. This is to encourage players to move about the map more and make no single area too powerful or important over others.

- Adding missing dinos: There are a number of missing dinos on the map that are currently not spawning, before you ask "does this include this or that" yes, yes it does include that and this and that too, (even eels, but in lesser numbers :P).

- Improvement to current bosses/element: Since the release of the difficulties/element for The Island there have been several complaints about the bosses on The Center or the lack of, as well as the element amount being rather low in comparison. This upcoming update will drastically improve that giving players the ability to now select different difficulties for the bosses with the current boss fight giving slightly more element and harder difficulties giving a bit more. Adding harder difficulties has also allowed me to give a little more options in regards to what tek gear can be gotten on the map.

- Explorer Notes: These will include all of the dino dossiers but none of the lore related ones.

- Lots of random bugs fixed This time around this mostly includes various holes around the map that players are using to glitch under the map or get out of the world.

Hopefully coming in next update:

- The reintroduction of the jumping puzzle This one has been a long time coming and tons of changes have been made to this since it was last enabled to keep players from cheating. The ramps heading up have been removed to stop dinos that can jump far from jumping up it, added a pool of water for players to fall into on the way back down. Also thinking about changing this so that this is a one time thing every 12 hours per server instead of once per player every 24 hours. Will likely put something in this room to show if it is currently available or not but this will stop all of the remaining issues we had with this being cheated in the past.

Small chance of it coming in next update:

- Adding some of the boss fights from The Island This one is a huge "maybe". I know it is one of the most requested features atm for the map but it is not in any way an easy thing to do, some of them may be pretty straight forward but some such as the dragon boss may not ever be possible for technical reasons. One of the biggest reasons this is difficult to simply copy them over and set them up actually comes down to how they are setup. If you look at the boss arenas and their place in the world they are placed underneath the map on The Island, The Center has dozens of layers of complexity under the map so copying the boss fights over directly may simply put them inside one of the very large caves or ocean expansion areas etc... Will need to look into this more heavily to see exactly how hard or easy it will be in the end but chances are only some may be able to be copied over.

If you feel like anything is missing from the above list or have any issues in the map specifically let me know

-------------------

The server is called: The Center Temp Beta Test Server of FUN and it will be listed as an Unofficial Server.

You can direct connect to the server here via: 

steam://connect/192.227.156.12:27015

You can download the updated workshop file here:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=894188347

If you'd like to pop on early and check out the map, you're welcome to do so as it's the server is online now.

So if you're able to log on and help us out, that would be much appreciated! 

We are having the tlimit of tamed dinos on the server again, dont know why, since the last patch... Server i play is the off the center 636.  We can see the number of tamed dinos per tribe, and even if we dont have 500, we are not able to tame or breed... I dont know if u already know anything about this but we would like to be able to tame again... Ty for the amazing job! 

[tmfdclan]

Are you ever going to fix the "Light Shadows Popping Bug" in the redwoods on consoles?

[ohaimynameisjosh]

Recently a buddy of mine set up a taming outpost on a center map server.  He told me I should jump on as I would love it and I have to tell you, he was right.  I think this is probably my favorite map of the three main so far.  The redwood area in particular blew my mind.  I absolutely loved the landscape, the changes from one area to another in all biomes and how the waterways allow for the map to be accessible by BOTH air and sea.  Such a great build and I am seriously considering putting a lot of extra time into setting up a full base on an open server.  PLEASE WC, if you are listening, open more Center Servers up for Xbox/ PS4.  All the xbox servers are pretty full!

 

[mgnt232]

Is the PC getting this first I imagine? Play on Xbox, would really love to get more than 12 element for the HARDEST boss battle in the game lol
If anyone can clear that up, would appreciate it.

Also south snow cave has no dinos as well

[Dustiest-Ninja]

Do you ear that Princess? Those are the shrieking eels!!

[evilmrfrank]

Just a quick update as its now know a bit more clear what is and isn't going into the update.  First of all it has been confirmed that the jumping puzzle has been disabled still until it can be fully tested sometime in the future, not much I can do on this one just needs time put into it that we currently don't have to ensure it doesn't break balancing drastically again  Second of all, dragon boss will most likely make it into the update after all, it is implemented and working as far as I can tell, just needs some testing to ensure

[Nexus]

1 hour ago, evilmrfrank said:

Just a quick update

Cant wait but do tell - whats the jumping puzzle?!

[pielord]

1 hour ago, Nexus said:

Cant wait but do tell - whats the jumping puzzle?!

To get to it, find the surface entrance to the new cave at around 52.6,53.9, it's a small tunnel in some ruins. One of the walls in the tunnel has collapsed a bit and left a hole - that's the entrance. Walk until you get to a point where you can see some more ruins and some lit fires, with a pathway down from the ledge you're on on your right. There will be a staircase up and a hole in the wall beneath that. The staircase leads to a potential loot crate spawn, so it may be worth checking, but the hole in the wall is the way towards Underground World

the jumping puzzle is a great way to get good bps well it was before

[Nexus]

Cheers @pielord will be interesting to check it out when it makes it back in

 

[BlueJayCommander]

I still find the center to be more enjoyable then the normal map so I'm glad your still updating it