If Future DLC is like SE...

[Ulta]

Let's face it. With the upcoming new servers coming, WC has dumped and will continue to dump a LOT of money into just their servers alone. And with their earlier oath on Steam that they will not ever have micro-transactions, this led me to wonder just HOW are they going to make a profit on this? How is WC gonna get the money to keep this many servers going and thus keep ARK alive? Don't get me wrong, it's lovely that they are doing this server thing to please the crowds, but it's made me worried about their future financial standing...moreso when it was spoken that in order to even do this, they need to remove 10% of their official servers. Which brings me to the topic at hand.

The only way I can see that they can make more money outside of base-game sales, is DLC's. Not counting the free ones we've gotten, the only paid DLC we've gotten so far is Scorched Earth, with 2 more DLC's coming in the near future, one before Christmas this year, and another next year. Okay awesome!

But...here's where I'm nervous. SE, while a really neat DLC, is not good enough. I personally have not bought it because I've grown out of the impulse buying mentality long ago, but I know everything there is to know about what's in it and what you can/can't do when you don't have it. And I'm glad I waited. why? Because SE is 20 bucks...and the ONLY thing you get exclusively for that 20 bucks, is a map. that's it...a map. Everything else, the dinos and the items, can all be gotten without having SE, either via trading, or a mod. Sure you need the expansion to be able to craft from SE engrams, which is good, at least it has that going for it. But I personally feel something a bit MORE must be done for me to ever think of buying ark DLC's in the future, even moreso if they try to price it as 20$ (again, 10 would be more reasonable. I'd buy SE for 10).

I want to support WC to help keep ARK alive, but yet at the same time I wouldn't buy another SE expansion for $20 if all I got exclusively was a map. Maybe 5 bucks, or even 10, but not 20...And YET yet...I also don't want them to put items and especially dino's behind a pay wall either! It's like some kind of nagging loophole that I just can't see a way out of.

For all I know though, maybe SE did well. Does anyone have any hard data on just how well SE did? For all I know I could be panicking for no reason, especially since future DLC's will be coming AFTER release and no more of the  'don't release paid DLC in EA' crap coming with it.

So what do you all think WC should do for their future DLC's? Would you buy another SE-like DLC as is at a $20 price tag, or does it need to be lower in price for you to even consider it? Do future DLCs need something a bit more than just a map and easy-access engrams? Would you buy DLC if the only way to get anything in it was the buy it or get it through trades? Or would you be pissed off if you found out you'll never get that new dino just because it's behind a paywall? Is there even a feasible way for WC to give us content in a paid DLC that wouldn't completely cut off the penny pinching savers from content like dinos and items?

Personally, I think they should keep future DLC's as they are now, but bump the price tag down to $10 default...maaaaaybe 15 but that's stretching into the nope side. I know sales are thing though, hence why I made the topic. I would buy SE only if it was $10 and under since the only thing you'd really get exclusively is the map. So many factors to this. What's everyone else's opinion on the handling of future DLC's?

 

[Nickoli1900]

I just hope whatever dlc's they come out with aren't copy/paste dlc's with just a different map. I would love a story focused dlc, like how we wound up on the island, and the events that led us to be there. More lore pls! 

[ehuhoser]

They stated they see a world of many arks, so I'm sure we will see more DLC's, they time is starting to open up more for that sort of thing to add creatures, we will see more from them I'm sure.  They will gain a lot of money from official release as well.  However like many games, server pop dwindles and as such I'm sure you will see less officials and more non officials etc for those wanting to keep it going longer just like any other game.

[OnePotatoChip]

Their future expansions need to be entire new experiences, sorta like Scorched Earth. I mean, SE was harsh. Real harsh, but people loved it. Most did, anyhow. Between the storms and harsh environment, the surprise of Rock Golems and the other beasts and the new gameplay elements provided through the new engrams, I'd say SE was a success. But they need to go bigger. They should learn from the Ragnarok Developers and build maps players can play in, not just on.  

And, as pretentious as that sounded, I think that's the mentality they need to take. That, and a greater investment in the PvE landscape. 'Cause PvP is going to take care of itself. Give PvP players new instruments of killing one another, a map with decent base locations and they're more or less set. PvE is what needs cultivating in the expansions. It's 'Versus Environment' after all. Listen to the Ragnarok Developers on their streams and you'll hear them talking about mini-bosses, mazes, time and deduction-based puzzles and random world events. Yeah, a lot of that is just going to get searched on Youtube, but it's still the right attitude. 

[raaazboy]

I was personally happy with how SE was handled it was well worth the $20 if you ask me becasue even though you can get everything from se on ragnarok you could do it a whole lot earlier on SE

[Arkasaurio]

The fact that they added Ragnarok with all the SE content pretty much, makes me generally think SE was not that well conceived. All of it boils down to they needed money badly due to the lawsuit (I believe) and didn't really think much beyond that emergency. They sacrificed some credibility and good will to make ends meet, and agree with it or not, we're getting a full launch so I'm fine with it. I don't think that just because the first DLC during EA from a small/new studio means that they won't think these things through more in the future. In other words I think/hope SE is the exception, not the rule.

Thinking about the expense of running new servers... does anyone know what the actual cost to run an official server is to WC, even roughly? I personally have no idea, but it's kind of central to this question. I've not worked in gaming, but spent a long time in web tech and the cost of servers is never that major a concern - admittedly I could be comparing apples to pineapples here.

[Jostabeere]

2 hours ago, Nickoli1900 said:

I just hope whatever dlc's they come out with aren't copy/paste dlc's with just a different map. I would love a story focused dlc, like how we wound up on the island, and the events that led us to be there. More lore pls! 

That would definitely be a bad move. Forcing people to buy a DLC if they want to learn the story is a no-go. The full story has to be within the main game.

[Nickoli1900]

Good luck with that lol. I agree with you though, just don't see a way they'll do it. Disc is already finished.

[Oldskool]

I for one literally loved SE. Easily one of the best dlcs ive played in a long while. Hundreds of hours of epic desert gameplay not to mention the wyverns which i love

[Jostabeere]

27 minutes ago, Nickoli1900 said:

Good luck with that lol. I agree with you though, just don't see a way they'll do it. Disc is already finished.

You know, the disc doesn't mean they won't add anything. The disc itself does not contain all files anyway and a big portion of the game needs to be downloaded.

I doubt they ship ARK on like...6 to 8 double layer DVD-Rs given the games size and the fact double layers can hold up to 8.5 Gigs as far as I know. They don't ship ARK on 6 to 8 double layers, right? Right?

[Nickoli1900]

I guess disc players are just screwed out of a story/narrative. I remember my first day playing this game I asked the server are there missions or objectives? What is the point of the game? Lol, everyone laughed and said this game had no point. I had assumed coming in new that there would be somewhat of a tutorial or hints that you need to make tools or something, especially with not having an opening explaining why you were there or a back story. I was really hoping they would have added a story into the game during this EA period. Can only assume if there will be one it would be dlc, like chapter form. Kinda like how Square Enix is doing for their players back stories. Different game genre ofc.

25 minutes ago, Jostabeere said:

You know, the disc doesn't mean they won't add anything. The disc itself does not contain all files anyway and a big portion of the game needs to be downloaded.

I doubt they ship ARK on like...6 to 8 double layer DVD-Rs given the games size and the fact double layers can hold up to 8.5 Gigs as far as I know. They don't ship ARK on 6 to 8 double layers, right? Right?

 

[Jostabeere]

5 minutes ago, Nickoli1900 said:

I guess disc players are just screwed out of a story/narrative. I remember my first day playing this game I asked the server are there missions or objectives? What is the point of the game? Lol, everyone laughed and said this game had no point. I had assumed coming in new that there would be somewhat of a tutorial or hints that you need to make tools or something, especially with not having an opening explaining why you were there or a back story. I was really hoping they would have added a story into the game during this EA period. Can only assume if there will be one it would be dlc, like chapter form. Kinda like how Square Enix is doing for their players back stories. Different game genre ofc.

 

Well, that's a Sandbox for you.

Does Gmod have a story?

[Nexus]

I think DLCs will be valuable going forwards, showing us that there are many other variants of 'The Ark" as well as being a conduit for new content (builds, Armor, animals etc)

Id love to see a map like, an Ark that is somehow malfunctioning or is very old and breaking down creating genetic anomalies, superstorms,swathes of land that has no oxygen or wild temp variations that kind of thing. Many good things they could do here!

[Kapow]

16 minutes ago, Nexus said:

I think DLCs will be valuable going forwards, showing us that there are many other variants of 'The Ark" as well as being a conduit for new content (builds, Armor, animals etc)

Id love to see a map like, an Ark that is somehow malfunctioning or is very old and breaking down creating genetic anomalies, superstorms,swathes of land that has no oxygen or wild temp variations that kind of thing. Many good things they could do here!

Love that idea!

[LameoveR]

1 hour ago, Jostabeere said:

You know, the disc doesn't mean they won't add anything. The disc itself does not contain all files anyway and a big portion of the game needs to be downloaded.

I doubt they ship ARK on like...6 to 8 double layer DVD-Rs given the games size and the fact double layers can hold up to 8.5 Gigs as far as I know. They don't ship ARK on 6 to 8 double layers, right? Right?

didn't heard about blu-ray? 25-128gb capacity.

 

[Griffin1984]

I loved the dlc aswell, it had a complete new map and dino's.

It's true that ragnarok now gives the dlc's dino's but scorched still gives some advantages. First of all, scorched resources are easier to get on SE than on Rag. Secondly SE only asks for 10 possible imprinting kibbles compared to all the other maps with 15. This makes it a bit easier on the dino farm :). And last but certainly not least: The environment is much tougher, there are no safe beaches, temperatures literally kill you, metal bases fry you in secs etc.

You don't really play the dlc for the dino's, you play it for a new challenge  

I hope the new DLC's would be like SE, they can do a lot of things:

 a map with mostly water and just some small islands terrorized by storms.

a map with a ruined city and nuclear storms

a map where you are brought back in time so you can play in the setting of the notes which you can now only read.

I can go on and on, point is i don't believe you have to worry about their finances, i see this game becoming an icon like age of empires, pacman and others (granted they have to fix a lot of bugs before this would be happening)

I know i would pay for every dlc they come with because i love the exploration and challenges when starting over on a new setting and with 3k+ hours i have easily gotten my money's worth   

[Griffin1984]

18 minutes ago, LameoveR said:

didn't heard about blu-ray? 25-128gb capacity.

 

i was thinking the same thing lol

[Jtmorris]

I've easily gotten $20 worth of value from SE - easy. I like your wording on the struggle: more dlc content means exclusive, but it has to be that way going forward to make it worth it for people. I think the $20 price tag was perfect for what I got (xbox). I actually just started a new character on se a couple of weeks ago. Love the map and challenge it brings. 

[Nexus]

I like scorched but wasn't a huge fan of the map. Presently I've got a fairly self sufficient outpost there and can bring stuff over from my main base on center (unofficial PvE cluster), for an eventual Wyvern tame and manticore run.

Dunno I like the desert idea but would prefer a map with desert area rather than a whole desert. I love the tropical theme of Ark and the center, lots of water/falls.

I've seen quite a few requests for a full arctic map, which would be a nice idea also

[wallaby]

b4 they add dlc please add to Scorched Earth it has so few caves to explore and  would greatly benefit from some added caves or bosses  , even just extending the caves would be great because scorched caves are some of the smallest and most boring imo.

[Voidstar]

whatever dlc they will get out i am 100% sure i will like and buy it. Despite the anger moments about bugs nerfs and server downtimes, wc provided me as customer with a game I enjoyed ALOT and that doesn t happen too often, at least for me. As for SE I liked it alot, played it singple player as a challenge. The map was really cool with it s new features and dinos and the immersion was really good [themed map, desert survival]. In future dlcs they need to make a bigger map though.

It s not 20$ just for a map. it also has new dinos, mechanics, [the map obviously], strategies It s not like the center compared to island... What I did not like it was that kinda too many dinos were missing...

anyway can t wait for their new dlc

 

[Yig]

Fairly certain you can learn and craft SE engrams on Ragnarok... which makes sense. Having all the resources available but without the ability to actually craft it just because ur not in the desert... yea, that would be odd. Makes sense on the Island because you can't get the resources legitimately there.

 

For me though, I just wish SE felt more polished. It feels like it was abandoned to some degree after it was released. You still have dinos randomly spawning inside many bases and you still cant get all the tek engrams on it despite it being an official map. SE should have its own kibble tree or something, because right now the lack of certain dinos means that you can't get the proper kibble either for some SE tames. These expansion maps need to feel like they support long term play on just a single map rather than forcing you to throw them into a cluster or else they are lackluster and limited. WildCard needs to go back and polish up SE before they try and release another DLC. Let us know they can put the effort into the DLC they already released before releasing another of similar low quality.

[Jostabeere]

7 hours ago, LameoveR said:

didn't heard about blu-ray? 25-128gb capacity.

 

If they ship ARK for Win10 on a disc, they'll do it on a DVD and not only Blu-Ray. Not every PC has a Blu-Ray player and it would be stupid in a commercial sense to print the discs only on Blu-Rays. That's why not the entire game is on the disc and they can add content you have to download. As far as I know modern games do it like that. Fallout 4 and so on isn't completely on a disc.

[TranqRex]

Don't they (although maybe not WC directly) get a lot of cash from the Chinese version after their purchase by Snail Games? The Chinese version is free to play I believe, but there would clearly be some kind of monetary element to it (ads, micro transactions etc).

[BeardO]

In my opinion they need to do the opposite of SE for future DLCs.  As someone mentioned you play on scorched, you lived on the island.  Make it the other way around.  Future DLC maps should contain everything the island has +.  So that way you WANT to move to the new map, not just go tame up some creatures and then come back.