If Future DLC is like SE...

[Gilgamesh908]

1 hour ago, Jostabeere said:

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.

The disks aren't for PC only consoles, PC users will still use Steam to download their copies.

[ilShadow]

I semi liked SE, it provided some difficulty to start, moreso than the island, you had to battle the weather a lot, the heat, the dehydration. My biggest problem with SE came from the lack of dino's, some that would have made sense, like Allo. The other problem with SE was the colors of the dino's, a lot of them stood out against the landscape, and if they had made map specific, and region specific colorations i think it would have made a huge difference and made the Dino's there a little more special.

For Example, Rex in the snow biome should be whites and blues with some grays and blacks mixed in as secondary colors, makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint. SE should have dino's that are riches in tans, browns, slate, and reds. I would probably play on it more that way.

[Ep1cM0nk3y]

17 minutes ago, BeardO said:

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.

Disagree, new paid dlc must have a reason to buy that is seperate and unique so that there is a reason for it.. island is meant as the hub/home of sorts,  take that away and you just competed with and hurt your own servers..

[lvirusl]

13 hours ago, Ulta said:

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?

 

maybe they should finish the game first before they dabble in making another subpar dlc for a game that is full of bugs and exploits.

[Yig]

I don't think Wild Card is concerned with their DLC content being used in DLCs. The point of buying and playing a new map is for the environmental hazards and the map itself. Don't be surprised when new DLC dinos end up on Ragnarok as well. The Ragnarok Devs seem to want to have a sort of full ark experience on one map sort of feel to it. I doubt the desert region of Rag is going to be nearly as harsh as SE was and If the next two expansions are water and ice then I doubt Rag's ice and water areas will be as tough. With Rag you sort of get bite sized biomes of everything rather than expansive full deserts with special mechanics you have to live by now such as heat stroke, not being able to build full metal, and other weather effects. The lightning storm aspect taking out defenses and the need to build in lower tier materials until end game when u can layer is what makes SE unique. If people look at a DLC as just the place you go to get the new dinos then they certainly won't have much use for em. But I like the fact that DLC maps means u can add in new mechanics that EVERYONE on the map has to deal with... not just people in certain regions. I suspect that when the desert area is added to Rag you won't see turret killing lightning storms that only effect the one area. That would make anyone who lives in the desert at a big disadvantage. You play DLCs for the unique environmental experience.

[Pachycephalosaurus]

Hope they come out with a frozen DLC. The snow areas on maps are the cooliest looking areas in Ark

[Jostabeere]

1 hour ago, Gilgamesh908 said:

The disks aren't for PC only consoles, PC users will still use Steam to download their copies.

I remember WC saying the Win10 copy will use Games for Windows and not steam so they can have a cross-plattform between Microsoft on PC and Microsoft on XBox. And as far as I remember a lot if not all Games for Windows games comes as a disc.

[BeardO]

1 hour ago, Ep1cM0nk3y said:

Disagree, new paid dlc must have a reason to buy that is seperate and unique so that there is a reason for it.. island is meant as the hub/home of sorts,  take that away and you just competed with and hurt your own servers..

If the island is meant to be home and you are always required to have a base on it then I'll go ahead and uninstall the game now. 

[perk8504]

12 hours ago, Jostabeere said:

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.

I don't see much difference between selling a full priced sequel of a game to get more of the story and selling DLC to get more of the story...

[Ep1cM0nk3y]

23 minutes ago, BeardO said:

If the island is meant to be home and you are always required to have a base on it then I'll go ahead and uninstall the game now. 

It's not necessarily required, but it is easily the safest experience all in all, plus they already said it's the only one with the tek cave for ascension.. 

[Ulta]

1 hour ago, BeardO said:

If the island is meant to be home and you are always required to have a base on it then I'll go ahead and uninstall the game now. 

WC has said that they are wanting to purposely exclude certain content from future maps because they want the Island to be the 'all inclusive' map, kinda like yet not-like a beginner's haven that is also making vets need to stay on it if they want every bit of content WC makes to a degree (except certian things like DLC dino's and items). It's dumb I know, but can change. At the moment the only thing missing on DLC maps is notes, Ascension, and depending on the map, a boss or two. I can live without Ascension though for now.

But that's not the topic on hand. It is surprising how many people have said that SE is good. Perhaps I did underestimate it, since as I've said, I've not played on SE. I can easily look at a video and see what's in it, but playing in it is another matter. I still would like a liiittle more something though. They did take a good step in the right direction when it came to SE's weather. Unique content like that concerning the map is a bigger hook factor in changing my mind about buying it (well that and needing my friends to get it....hence th lower price for me). But the map itself seemed too...small and not creative enough. Rag's map is wonderfully large, has so many places to explore, and is just creative and fun to play on. SE is...tiny...and as someone mentioned, not a lot of nice caves to explore.

Also to the person who wanted the price figures, read this article. http://www.pcgamer.com/ark-survival-evolveds-design-lead-on-huge-server-wipe-reversal-and-new-structure-post-pc-launch/

He mentions figures in that, something along the lines of $100,000 to keep the Legacy servers running and another $100,000 more to host the new upcoming servers. To me that seems like a lot, but I guess if Jeremy claims it's do-able for them, then I guess they got SOME spare reserves. Or he's completely confident that their future sales will go well, either on base game or on their DLC (or some other known factor).

2 hours ago, lvirusl said:

maybe they should finish the game first before they dabble in making another subpar dlc for a game that is full of bugs and exploits.

Maybe you should read a bit more, because they aren't planning to release more DLC until months from now. So don't'worry your head off about them picking working on a DLC over bug fixes. Unless you've been ignoring all the patches they've been doing, in which case, I can't help your ignorance.

Perhaps I am worrying too much. Next I see a sale, I might get SE just to try it solo (solo play is kinda boring though, but we'll see. Might get it when it's down to 5 bucks).

[BeardO]

1 hour ago, Ep1cM0nk3y said:

It's not necessarily required, but it is easily the safest experience all in all, plus they already said it's the only one with the tek cave for ascension.. 

They are starting to make it required and I think it's a step in the wrong direction.  I haven't played on the island in a long time because there are so many better optimized maps out there.  If they made it so mod maps couldn't have ascension then I wouldn't still be playing.  Locking people into a specific map is just a bad idea.  And you can say live on the center and come to the island to ascend, but honestly that is such a mega pain in the ass considering the location of the cave from the obs.  Its just not feasible to transfer to the island and walk your dinos to the cave.

[FenTheReaper]

12 hours 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!

Blowout soon, fellow stalker.

[Ep1cM0nk3y]

@Ulta SE is actually bigger than the island.  I personally like it because it feels kinda like the snowy regions on the island, element (extreme temp) and wild spawnwise,  the weather effects are a nice touch,  it has a flavor to it. Better loot too, imo.. tho I know how to get the good loot on the island. The dunes are fun with being able to run and run,  killing death worms is fun (I'm kinda biased, feels like a western to me lol). Overall higher difficulty pve and pvp wise, so usually less ppl, feels more like survival

[lvirusl]

20 minutes ago, Ulta said:

 

Maybe you should read a bit more, because they aren't planning to release more DLC until months from now. So don't'worry your head off about them picking working on a DLC over bug fixes. Unless you've been ignoring all the patches they've been doing, in which case, I can't help your ignorance.

Perhaps I am worrying too much. Next I see a sale, I might get SE just to try it solo (solo play is kinda boring though, but we'll see. Might get it when it's down to 5 bucks).

They have a lot more then a few months worth of work to fix at the rate that they are currently fixing the "bugs" They have been fixing minor issues that are easy to fix and making balance changes. The major issues are still untouched(bad meshes, code optimization, crashes and leak, exploits, duping, lost characters on transfer, etc)

[Ulta]

3 minutes ago, lvirusl said:

They have a lot more then a few months worth of work to fix at the rate that they are currently fixing the "bugs" They have been fixing minor issues that are easy to fix and making balance changes. The major issues are still untouched(bad meshes, code optimization, crashes and leak, exploits, duping, lost characters on transfer, etc)

That's just subjective. You don't work for WC, for all you know they could take 5 months, or have all that fixed in 1. It's just speculation, and I for one don't bank on speculation as fact. Regardless, WC will do what it wants, and I'm sure bug fixing and optimization is something of a 'sooner' rather than 'later' issue when compared to making DLC. But again, speculation, and saying they won't fix it all before the next DLC is just a pessimistic outlook at best.

But that's off-topic. To add a bit more to the convo though, if the next DLC is like...a harsh snow area, then they'd need to include similar weather patterns and maybe some sort of surprise mechanic, add new dino's that can still be gotten even if you don't own the DLC, new items...but the biggest thing is the new mechanics. I think that's what will keep ARK fresh for future DLC's the most.

[Jtmorris]

Good discussions. 

Back when they released SE, of course the controversy was: why would they be working on an expansion when the main game is not finished? 

Truth be told, though they would not release another dlc, they certainly continued to work on it and just not talk about it. They are a business after all!

Perhaps it's time to start another thread asking the community what they would like to see in future dlcs? Truth be told, like the op implies, if they just sell a $20 map, that won't fly. So it would be great to hear what people would like to see with a $20 dlc Ark. 

[Ulta]

5 minutes ago, Jtmorris said:

Good discussions. 

Back when they released SE, of course the controversy was: why would they be working on an expansion when the main game is not finished? 

Truth be told, though they would not release another dlc, they certainly continued to work on it and just not talk about it. They are a business after all!

Perhaps it's time to start another thread asking the community what they would like to see in future dlcs? Truth be told, like the op implies, if they just sell a $20 map, that won't fly. So it would be great to hear what people would like to see with a $20 dlc Ark. 

That's....what this topic is about. Did you read the first post at all? (You must have cause you sorta half-quoted me) It ended with me asking that very question. What people want in future DLC to make it worth a 20 price tag, or if they need a lower price tag to even consider buying, etc. etc.

[Nickoli1900]

3 minutes ago, Jtmorris said:

Good discussions. 

Back when they released SE, of course the controversy was: why would they be working on an expansion when the main game is not finished? 

Truth be told, though they would not release another dlc, they certainly continued to work on it and just not talk about it. They are a business after all!

Perhaps it's time to start another thread asking the community what they would like to see in future dlcs? Truth be told, like the op implies, if they just sell a $20 map, that won't fly. So it would be great to hear what people would like to see with a $20 dlc Ark. 

I agree, another map will not make me fork over extra money.

[lvirusl]

2 minutes ago, Ulta said:

That's just subjective. You don't work for WC, for all you know they could take 5 months, or have all that fixed in 1. It's just speculation, and I for one don't bank on speculation as fact. Regardless, WC will do what it wants, and I'm sure bug fixing and optimization is something of a 'sooner' rather than 'later' issue when compared to making DLC. But again, speculation, and saying they won't fix it all before the next DLC is just a pessimistic outlook at best.

Hardly speculation dinos falling through floors have been around for more then 2 years you're going to say that they can fix the amount of problems that still exist in the game that fast. Especially since they are trying to hire 8 more positions on their website to help make ark work. They are short handed and have bitten off too much.

[cfrostyscriv]

Money will be made via selling DLC's individually or by the season pass depending on which the customer wants to do, as with most season passes it will only last a year and more than likely cover 2 to 4 DLC's.

They said they have 2 DLC's alrady which the pre order pass will cover and more DLC's planned.

[Insomniak]

Eventually the new expansions will have to be something else other than maps. Don't get me wrong I like variety etc but honestly there's only so many players and right now, especially with ragnarok I think it's spreading that player base too thin. I would like to see more AI based expansions in the future instead- example.. imagine being in a pvp battle and both sides are attacked by npcs with full tech or ARs and a bunch of dinos. Random attacks by AI driven npcs would work for both modes, any map, can scale with any area or difficulty. Also in an expansion I would love to see instanced end-game caves etc. that can drop TEK as well. What do you guys think? 

[Ulta]

2 minutes ago, Insomniak said:

Eventually the new expansions will have to be something else other than maps. Don't get me wrong I like variety etc but honestly there's only so many players and right now, especially with ragnarok I think it's spreading that player base too thin. I would like to see more AI based expansions in the future instead- example.. imagine being in a pvp battle and both sides are attacked by npcs with full tech or ARs and a bunch of dinos. Random attacks by AI driven npcs would work for both modes, any map, can scale with any area or difficulty. Also in an expansion I would love to see instanced end-game caves etc. that can drop TEK as well. What do you guys think? 

This is a pretty interesting idea, albeit it's hard for me to back such an idea under the assumption that it needs to be bought with real money. I would rather such things be actual free content, not paid content, cause at that point, it would turn Ark into a 'Pay-to-win' deal. Pay 20 bucks for an instance dungeon with wonderful loot is P2W if I ever saw it...

It's debatable though. I do want more than just maps, but not something that's pay to win. That NPC idea is a step in the right direction, albeit not something I'd pay for. Maps actually seem like the best middle ground when it comes to 'content you pay for' that doesn't give you a leg up over those who can't afford it. This is why I made this topic. It's actually changing my mind about SE's worth as a map DLC at least!

[AngryChris73]

I bet one will be primal survival, you're all dinos with a new map, dino specific items, advanced weather and climate patterns with a few new dinos.  Then maybe another one based of mythological creatures like minotaurs and hydras.

[Nickoli1900]

14 minutes ago, AngryChris73 said:

I bet one will be primal survival, you're all dinos with a new map, dino specific items, advanced weather and climate patterns with a few new dinos.  Then maybe another one based of mythological creatures like minotaurs and hydras.

Primal Survival would be fun to try out. I was excited when I first saw the trailer for it.