Server Wipe

[TranqRex]

15 minutes ago, Demonshadow said:

Except as we have seen, the new servers, unless they are 100% seperate, will just be absorbed into the mega tribes on day one. thus just creating a new character on them wont work. Its fairly simple to fly around a map and place turrets which prevent fresh spawns and poof its their server.

... which is exactly why I specified that in my post a couple of times 

[Volcano637]

4 minutes ago, Bulldogfrag said:

I know the idea of a server wipe excites you not sure why unless you fall in the category of a one who's been wiped by an alpha tribe multiple times. I've seen you post about this topic several times also clinging to hope that they will wipe the servers even though you yourself said you don't play anymore( don't feel like going through these to find that post you made) waiting for full release. All it seems you are providing to this conversation is gas to the fire on a situation that none of us will know till Aug. 8 As for those of us who do play they've seen Jat and a few Mods also comment about not wiping the servers so that is all the information we have to go on and considering the source we feel that they have better information than you do. We thank you for your opinion on the topic hope your wrong but we'll see won't we.

My sources are interviews that devs had. And I have multiple reason for a wipe. Main one being new players. 

If I was going to pay full price for a game I would want a fresh game. And that makes perfect sense. It's not the new players fault people chose to play an early access game. 

EDIT: and yes I do play. I have already said I went back to my old mega tribe. Now my days are filled with the usual boring stuff a large tribe does. 

As far as me being mad about being wiped? That was over 6 months ago and I actually talk to the guy the wiped me on these forums. That argument is old dude.

[YUSHOETMI]

The wipe is coming, brace for impact and have tissues ready for the tears.

No, i'm not trolling, it really is the only logical thing to do business wise and for longevity of the game.  Wipe ALL existing servers, PvP & PvE, rework the pillaring system for PvE and put all servers into clusters of 3 per map, or maybe 5 with no transferring between other clusters. Also reduce the amount of servers (officials) by 1/2 at least.

For those that say the Alpha/Mega tribes will just build again or it will be a temporary fix are simply wrong, most Mega tribes are in the position they are because of duping and glitches, take everything away from them and they will have a hard time rebuilding having to do it again and legit.  Even those that managed to get there a legit way will be hard pressed to rise again as most members will either quit the game or try to start their own tribes to gain dominance taking other members with them.

Ps4 version of the game being "full release" is just a work around to get Sony to allow sales, they're still in EA so by proxy should also be wiped.

PvE players may not feel its fair on them, but is it fair on the new people who join and have nowhere to build because every server is either pillared off or hit every known cap because of greed and stupidity?

PvP players can hardly complain, well except for the Mega tribes mentioned before but i'll enjoy that salt, most players don't have a big enough base or have enough time invested into something that hasn't already been destroyed so a wipe will certainly be beneficial to all concerned.

This is coming from a player who would lose a hell of a lot if a wipe happened, and I totally hope it does, I miss the old days of fresh spawning and servers being full, having to race with other tribes for dominance.  Those where the days that made ark magical, now its just a snore fest on official and I leave my tribe to do what they want why I play unofficial with some close friends testing new things out.

#canyoufeelitcoming?

[Bulldogfrag]

8 minutes ago, Volcano637 said:

My sources are interviews that devs had. And I have multiple reason for a wipe. Main one being new players. 

If I was going to pay full price for a game I would want a fresh game. And that makes perfect sense. It's not the new players fault people chose to play an early access game. 

EDIT: and yes I do play. I have already said I went back to my old mega tribe. Now my days are filled with the usual boring stuff a large tribe does. 

As far as me being mad about being wiped? That was over 6 months ago and I actually talk to the guy the wiped me on these forums. That argument is old dude.

no reason to get upset I'm not saying your lying or anything of that source just using info I had at hand. You see what incomplete information gets you, makes some snicker others mad. As I said we'll all see what happens on Aug. 8. Are the old players any less important than the new?? I could use the same theory that I paid 60 dollars for a game and I get wiped for some new players to join in. Can't make everyone happy but I would keep in mind that it's an absolute slap in the face to the old players PC especially (2 years of breeding and raiding) to wipe the work they've done and the bugs, glitches, and poor server performance we've had to play through to get to where we are. Yes go ahead and scream to the world early access but my point is these have been the player base you've put though hell and they're still here. But ask, will they be if you wipe everything they have?? I promise I will move on from this game as it was a lot of work to get the breeding right for bosses along with the time put into 100% imprinted Gigas and Mosas and quetzals. That would do it for me and I'm sure several others. Hey they got my money already so we'll see.

[Volcano637]

7 minutes ago, YUSHOETMI said:

The wipe is coming, brace for impact and have tissues ready for the tears.

No, i'm not trolling, it really is the only logical thing to do business wise and for longevity of the game.  Wipe ALL existing servers, PvP & PvE, rework the pillaring system for PvE and put all servers into clusters of 3 per map, or maybe 5 with no transferring between other clusters. Also reduce the amount of servers (officials) by 1/2 at least.

For those that say the Alpha/Mega tribes will just build again or it will be a temporary fix are simply wrong, most Mega tribes are in the position they are because of duping and glitches, take everything away from them and they will have a hard time rebuilding having to do it again and legit.  Even those that managed to get there a legit way will be hard pressed to rise again as most members will either quit the game or try to start their own tribes to gain dominance taking other members with them.

Ps4 version of the game being "full release" is just a work around to get Sony to allow sales, they're still in EA so by proxy should also be wiped.

PvE players may not feel its fair on them, but is it fair on the new people who join and have nowhere to build because every server is either pillared off or hit every known cap because of greed and stupidity?

PvP players can hardly complain, well except for the Mega tribes mentioned before but i'll enjoy that salt, most players don't have a big enough base or have enough time invested into something that hasn't already been destroyed so a wipe will certainly be beneficial to all concerned.

This is coming from a player who would lose a hell of a lot if a wipe happened, and I totally hope it does, I miss the old days of fresh spawning and servers being full, having to race with other tribes for dominance.  Those where the days that made ark magical, now its just a snore fest on official and I leave my tribe to do what they want why I play unofficial with some close friends testing new things out.

#canyoufeelitcoming?

Yep I feel it. And I liked reading the post. Very informative.

dont forget about the new players though. I still think that is the main reason for a wipe. Can you imagine some of these poor people paying 60 dollars just to come on to a fully cluttered and dominated server? I mean Jesus Christ that would really suck for them

[YUSHOETMI]

2 minutes ago, Volcano637 said:

Yep I feel it. And I liked reading the post. Very informative.

dont forget about the new players though. I still think that is the main reason for a wipe. Can you imagine some of these poor people paying 60 dollars just to come on to a fully cluttered and dominated server? I mean Jesus Christ that would really suck for them

I actually meant to add the new players in too but only did for PvE weirdly.  It's coming close to the end of my working day so was rushing out the post haha.  Yeah without a wipe they may as well just put on the front of the game as a disclosure: WARNING: You may aswell not bother buying this game as you are 2 years behind everybody else and will be hard pressed to find a base location in the derelict carpark that is Ark official servers! And even if you do find somewhere cool to build, Bob who is level 100 will come and destroy your thatch house with his level 300 Giga for no reason other than thats what good neighbors do! Good luck and have fun!

[Volcano637]

2 minutes ago, Bulldogfrag said:

no reason to get upset I'm not saying your lying or anything of that source just using info I had at hand. You see what incomplete information gets you, makes some snicker others mad. As I said we'll all see what happens on Aug. 8. Are the old players any less important than the new?? I could use the same theory that I paid 60 dollars for a game and I get wiped for some new players to join in. Can't make everyone happy but I would keep in mind that it's an absolute slap in the face to the old players PC especially (2 years of breeding and raiding) to wipe the work they've done and the bugs, glitches, and poor server performance we've had to play through to get to where we are. Yes go ahead and scream to the world early access but my point is these have been the player base you've put though hell and they're still here. But ask, will they be if you wipe everything they have?? I promise I will move on from this game as it was a lot of work to get the breeding right for bosses along with the time put into 100% imprinted Gigas and Mosas and quetzals. That would do it for me and I'm sure several others. Hey they got my money already so we'll see.

I get what you are saying but this game is about rebuilding and replay ability. Even though i am no longer angry about being wiped or what not, I have enjoyed starting over and "replaying" the game. A lot of people have. I still am very much anti alpha however. I don't want them to get wiped for revenge, but I do want everyone to get wiped so we can all enjoy the game again and not have to go join some mega, making the game boring as heck.

from a console stance, I can't wait for ragnarok to come out. I will be joining a closed server and leaving my mega tribe behind. I have gotten onto every new server that happens because this game has replay ability. New players shouldn't be punished because some people don't want to lose their stuff. Everybody has lost their stuff. Once people stop thinking about only themselves then I am pretty sure everyone would want the wipe to happen

[Volcano637]

1 minute ago, YUSHOETMI said:

I actually meant to add the new players in too but only did for PvE weirdly.  It's coming close to the end of my working day so was rushing out the post haha.  Yeah without a wipe they may as well just put on the front of the game as a disclosure: WARNING: You may aswell not bother buying this game as you are 2 years behind everybody else and will be hard pressed to find a base location in the derelict carpark that is Ark official servers! And even if you do find somewhere cool to build, Bob who is level 100 will come and destroy your thatch house with his level 300 Giga for no reason other than thats what good neighbors do! Good luck and have fun!

Couldn't have said it better myself. I just don't get it. Why don't people want to start over? Why don't they care about anybody else anymore? Smh

[Wedge84]

22 minutes ago, Volcano637 said:

And besides anything that anybody has said, dev or forumer, regardless. 

If they weren't thinking about a wipe they would have stayed strong on their stance of not wiping. They would have said in march and 4 weeks ago "there will not be one" that is not the case at all.

I think that is a very strong argument. They read all our posts and even moved them to this topic. If they had decided not to do a wipe, they could just answer with a straight no and be done with it.

I still hop a bit, that they will at least not wipe the PS4-Servers, but I think that is an illusion.

But the most important thing would be to know how the release will go down. I want to know if I can keep working on my new boss rex line or if nothing matters so we all can get crazy and burn our stuff for fun.

[lolyouwish]

Honestly the fact that servers are so developed and controlled by a few tribes is why I never bother with official servers, and never have beyond a few attempts. I have friends who have a ton of fun on the servers, but I like the survival, exploration, and claiming the wilderness parts of the game and in my opinion most official servers are lacking these qualities and have been for a long time. I think it will be discouraging to new players to hop into official servers only to find the world is a small overdeveloped place and what they do doesn't really matter. PvE servers are overdeveloped and subject to rampant pillar spam to control resources, PvP servers are insanely difficult to get established in without a large tribe. Both would be hell on new players and probably turn them off of the game.

And adding a few new servers won't help considering people can and will bring in high level characters and dinos and just do the same thing. In my opinion a widespread wipe is needed with the release of the game. 

[Volcano637]

2 minutes ago, Wedge84 said:

I think that is a very strong argument. They read all our posts and even moved them to this topic. If they had decided not to do a wipe, they could just answer with a straight no and be done with it.

I still hop a bit, that they will at least not wipe the PS4-Servers, but I think that is an illusion.

But the most important thing would be to know how the release will go down. I want to know if I can keep working on my new boss rex line or if nothing matters so we all can get crazy and burn our stuff for fun.

Thank you.

and I totally get that you want to know what's going to happen. I also believe they should just go ahead and said what will be done.

unfortunately I can also see why they probably won't tell people either. If this game didn't get as toxic as it did I could have seen and even understood not wiping but things have just gotten to out of hand

[lolyouwish]

We've all been a new player on the servers, and let's face it. If newbies are thrown into the servers as they are come launch day, we are going to see a lot of rage quits and bad reviews because many (if not most) are going to be tranqed or snatched by someone with a bird within the first fifteen minutes and end up in a cage. And that isn't going to be fun or leave a good impression on first time players.

[Volcano637]

The thing is guys, there is no more survival in ark survival evolved. 

There is only the people that don't have to survive anymore and the ones who can no longer survive.

you join a mega tribe or you don't play. Well speaking on official pvp anyway.

ark is just no longer what it used to be.

it might have been hard to overthrow an alpha before cross ark but it was definitely possible. We saw it happen a lot. Survival was still an aspect of the game.

so yes ark has evolved. It is now ark evolved. The survival is either non existent or insurmountable.

[Demonshadow]

55 minutes ago, TranqRex said:

... which is exactly why I specified that in my post a couple of times 

ahh sorry, its not easy to sort through what everybody has said in a long topic like this,

[lolyouwish]

5 minutes ago, Volcano637 said:

The thing is guys, there is no more survival in ark survival evolved. 

There is only the people that don't have to survive anymore and the ones who can no longer survive.

you join a mega tribe or you don't play. Well speaking on official pvp anyway.

Literally the entire reason I rented a private server for myself and friends.

[Volcano637]

Thank god they upped my rep giving to 20 per day. I am really liking all of this good feedback.

a year ago when I was still salty and I made a wipe thread almost all of the people didn't like the idea. As time has gone by I have noticed people changing as well as I have. I am no longer salty but just caring about the game and the new people coming into it.

there has been a significant increase in people not just wanting the wipe but also the people that don't want it but still realize that is just needs to happen. 

Its just time for a new start. Let's put a breath of fresh air back into this awesome game and all have fun racing to the top and surviving again!

[BulletForce]

There needs to be a wipe no doubt it. There has been too much duping and exploiting by large tribes that its near impossible for anyone else to compete on a level playing field. As well as that new players who purchase this game will no hope of competing with the current mob. 

At the same time the devs need to develop a plan to encourage players not to want to join these massive mega tribes that have sprung up over the last year or so. I'll admit I'm in one atm but its more through circumstance then choice. At the end of the day its impossible to compete with a tribe of 50+ players so you end up joining one yourself. The reality is half the players in these mega tribes aren't even good players. Speaking from my own experience most of them are quasi PVE players that prefer to breed and base build then actually fight. When they do fight its rarely against another big tribe but just some smaller groups. In fact its extremely rare for Mega tribes to fight one another, most of them prefer to ally with each other and play PVE mode. No one wants to risk losing their dinos or their base in a war, so you end up being in a tribe with hundreds of dinos, a massive laggy base and loads of crap that never leaves the vault.

There is also the issue of duping/cheating. The alliance our tribe is in has some pretty unsavory people in it. I've seen names on Teamspeak that were well known for using aimbots/ESP less then a year ago before Battleye came along. Some of them got banned and bought new accounts, most never got caught though. The same is true of our main competitor/enemy tribe. Most of their guys star on youtube videos for cheating/duping/aimbotting you name it. Duping is another big issue I've seen it first hand while fighting against another mega tribe, who suddenly whipped out 100's of TEK dino gates to defend their base. it was obvious what they had been doing and recently a video surfaced of that same tribe accidentally filming themselves duping live on a stream...

I would like to see some kind of penalty for large tribes or a bonus for smaller tribes either through a kind of buff/debuff or some other form. The current situation in ARK encourages players to join these super tribes with no consequences or negative effects. Some people have suggested having map clusters of 3 but the thing is you'll end up with a mini mega tribe ruling over these servers as well. As long as their is no incentive to fight and more incentive for everyone to band together then the situation will remain how it is. Players joining together in droves to create PVE mode on PVP servers.

[Sphere]

On 06/02/2017 at 9:02 AM, BK said:

Coming from an alpha on multiple servers that has personally farmed millions of ingots, and spent tons of hours on bloodlines etc.... my vote is wipe...  a lot of people have abused the dupe... it really grinds my gears when i work extremely hard for my status in ark and some kid is over there duping metal gates  and rare items getting rich on little investment...and the fact that there are items in the game floating around that can no longer be acquired upsets me even though I own some of them.

Fix the glitches.. wipe the servers... fix the center.. come out with a new map for release...

I didn't dupe, I worked hard with the tribe to acquire what we have. And now you want to give us a reason to try other games full time. This is comparable to using nuclear weapons to destroy terrorism in real life. At that point, you're no different to the ones you are trying to remove.

[NONE]

I truly believe if they separate old/new servers and don't allow transfers the old servers will inevitably die anyways, you guys are just paving the way to your own personal pve servers.

 

Established players will not want to play on servers with abusive alphas/alphas they can't hope to compete with. Especially when they get wiped. They will migrate slowly but surely to new servers.

New players will obviously flock to new servers en masse.

A big portion of the alpha population will want the new game experience as well, so they'll come over to re-experience the early game and play on less laggy, better populated servers.

Over time the only people that will be left on the original servers are the people whom are simply playing ark for the pve aspect, and the people whom put a little too much real world worth into their pixelated dino mansions. 

Wipe or no wipe, it doesn't matter. I bet 75% of original servers will be dead within a year of release so long as they don't allow transfers.

 

[Volcano637]

I am glad to see people having conversations and not fighting. This is moving in a good direction.

as one fellow poster said, it is true that most alphas now just want an alliance instead of fighting each other and they just attack the smaller tribes. People have become so afraid of losing their stuff it really isn't pvp anymore. 

[Jerryn]

With very little effort, I can come up with multiple launch solutions, and not all of them involve a 100% wipe. 

I can say with a high degree of certainty that no matter the solution, someone is going to be unhappy, so currently not a huge factor in the white boarding.  I know fully well that none of these are perfect, but thought I would throw them together for fun of it.

But for example:

1.  100% wipe all servers and no new servers:
Result:  People leave(so new servers might not be needed), new players join, organized alphas and megas quickly reclaim their spots(possibly more), organized/experienced tribes and players will become quickly established and late comers will probaly be in the same spot they are in today.  Upside is that PVE griefer structures will be gone and experienced players/tribes will be in a better spot to minimize their impact, assuming the a better solution is not implement by Wildcard.

Variant 1:  New servers also included, which stretches out the time new players will have to learn and get established.

Variant 2:  Wipes are only done on PVP servers, and low pop/utilized PVE servers.

2.  No wipe or wipe of only under utilized servers, with new servers added for new players only.  That is, the new servers are initially isolate to those that pay for the full price game.
Result: New players, and experience players, that buy the full price game will have fresh servers to play on; lots of complaints from those that got the game for pennies on the dollar.

Variant 1:  Isolation is lifted if a player wants to cross over to the new servers(with a new character), and their old character would be deleted from all old servers.  Utilization rates would be based on pre-launch character activity, and thus any cross-overs would cause a decrease in utilization number of the impacted servers, allowing for more recycling.

Note:  Once a server is marked for recycling, a 30 day(or maybe 10 or 15 day) count down begins, and the server is recycled up expiration, no exception; that is, no reset.   You need to move your character and stuff to a new server, if you want to keep it.

3.  No wipes(or wipe of under utilized) and Wildcard offers up paid servers, with admins and priority support.  Paid servers would be free for a set amount of time for those that purchase the full game.  Once the free time is up, players have an option to either pay, or do a one way transfer for their character, some dinos, and some items; but more than a normal move, and you cannot move just items or animals, you have to move your character at the same time.

Result:  New players have isolation, plus managed servers, for those that want to cross over to from the free side.  And some minor wipes for under utilized servers.  And, of course, lots of complaints.

 

Of course, then there are solutions that could include any of these 3 main concepts and/or their variants.  You could do a 3 and with a variant of 2.  So, lots of new servers, plus recycling(wiping) of under utilized, and isolation for newer players, at least initially.

 

[Wedge84]

53 minutes ago, Volcano637 said:

there has been a significant increase in people not just wanting the wipe but also the people that don't want it but still realize that is just needs to happen.

Man, I don't know. I really feel peoples pain. We are a small tribe with four people and we lost everything two times and had to start again on servers with strong alphas. Took a lot of planing and negotiating but we managed anyhow. So in my opinion it's not impossible to start on a server that has run for a while. Most of us did.

On the other hand the problem with the bug using seems to bee a big issue on the PC. But in that case they should first fix all the possible exploits before they do the wipe. If not, they won't change a thing. Exploiters will be on top again and only the people who grinded will be afflicted.

In my case it would break the fun for me. Starting all over again hitting rocks and placing double foundations? I spend enough time doing that. When I am back to zero every time I could start doing a bit of the fun stuff the game is not right for me.

It sure would be different if I would start for the first time in August. In that case building my first thatch wall would be pretty exiting. But I had that part of the game for a year now.

Anyhow, no matter what they do, people will be disappointed. I only hoped, that they would have been straight with us asap.

[mleii]

15 minutes ago, Jerryn said:

That is, the new servers are initially isolate to those that pay for the full price game.
Result: New players, and experience players, that buy the full price game will have fresh servers to play on; lots of complaints from those that got the game for pennies on the dollar.

The problem with this is that on the Xbox, no idea about the other consoles or the PC, this is impossible to detect or enforce.  I already know how I could get around it in at least 2 ways that WC cannot detect or cannot be gotten around if they use certain methods to detect it.

Not saying the ideas are bad, I like parts of what you're trying to do, but this particular part is not currently enforceable on the Xbox.

[Joebl0w13]

5 minutes ago, mleii said:

The problem with this is that on the Xbox, no idea about the other consoles or the PC, this is impossible to detect or enforce.  I already know how I could get around it in at least 2 ways that WC cannot detect or cannot be gotten around if they use certain methods to detect it.

Not saying the ideas are bad, I like parts of what you're trying to do, but this particular part is not currently enforceable on the Xbox.

Doesn't WC have access to date of purchase information? That alone is all they need to indicate a "new" player.

[Volcano637]

50 minutes ago, Jerryn said:

With very little effort, I can come up with multiple launch solutions, and not all of them involve a 100% wipe. 

I can say with a high degree of certainty that no matter the solution, someone is going to be unhappy, so currently not a huge factor in the white boarding.  I know fully well that none of these are perfect, but thought I would throw them together for fun of it.

But for example:

1.  100% wipe all servers and no new servers:
Result:  People leave(so new servers might not be needed), new players join, organized alphas and megas quickly reclaim their spots(possibly more), organized/experienced tribes and players will become quickly established and late comers will probaly be in the same spot they are in today.  Upside is that PVE griefer structures will be gone and experienced players/tribes will be in a better spot to minimize their impact, assuming the a better solution is not implement by Wildcard.

Variant 1:  New servers also included, which stretches out the time new players will have to learn and get established.

Variant 2:  Wipes are only done on PVP servers, and low pop/utilized PVE servers.

2.  No wipe or wipe of only under utilized servers, with new servers added for new players only.  That is, the new servers are initially isolate to those that pay for the full price game.
Result: New players, and experience players, that buy the full price game will have fresh servers to play on; lots of complaints from those that got the game for pennies on the dollar.

Variant 1:  Isolation is lifted if a player wants to cross over to the new servers(with a new character), and their old character would be deleted from all old servers.  Utilization rates would be based on pre-launch character activity, and thus any cross-overs would cause a decrease in utilization number of the impacted servers, allowing for more recycling.

Note:  Once a server is marked for recycling, a 30 day(or maybe 10 or 15 day) count down begins, and the server is recycled up expiration, no exception; that is, no reset.   You need to move your character and stuff to a new server, if you want to keep it.

3.  No wipes(or wipe of under utilized) and Wildcard offers up paid servers, with admins and priority support.  Paid servers would be free for a set amount of time for those that purchase the full game.  Once the free time is up, players have an option to either pay, or do a one way transfer for their character, some dinos, and some items; but more than a normal move, and you cannot move just items or animals, you have to move your character at the same time.

Result:  New players have isolation, plus managed servers, for those that want to cross over to from the free side.  And some minor wipes for under utilized servers.  And, of course, lots of complaints.

 

Of course, then there are solutions that could include any of these 3 main concepts and/or their variants.  You could do a 3 and with a variant of 2.  So, lots of new servers, plus recycling(wiping) of under utilized, and isolation for newer players, at least initially.

 

I like 1 and 2. Well if 2 really has true isolation. Without isolation there is no point to making new servers in the first place. I am 100% for the wipe but I am not completely closed minded to good alternatives. I won't throw a fit if they decide to make new servers instead of wiping but I would be extremely mad if they didn't isolate the new servers indefinitely. Not just for a short amount of time but always separate.

of course the old players won't like it because they won't be able to terrorize the new guys, but hey they didn't want the wipe so they don't belong over in the new servers.

EDIT: unfortunately some people want to have their cake and eat it to. That goes to show you who is greedy though as well