Reasons for low Population? (Partly!) Player's Fault

[alice12345]

Sightseeing quite a bunch of official PVE servers, old and new, some are so hostile against anyone starting there, I left after couple hours to never return. I experienced, amongst other things:
- Vast areas fully pillared out with apparently neither bases nor resources around.
- No spots to even place a campfire, despite taking a couple hours to run around
- Locked Gates blocking Bridges, blocking Paths to connect areas of the map to each other for no apparent reason
- Locked Gates blocking Caves with vital resources in (crystal, and so on)
- Locked Oil Pumps (seriously? 2 pumps right beneath each other give more oil than one tribe ever can use... yet I saw this setting, both of them locked)
- Blocked Spawn Points: Once I spawned inside a Tek Base with at least (!) 50 bodies around, no open doors. This must've been goin on since a pretty long time (Customer support is discontinued? What Customer Support lol? This is why I wrote "partly"). Server lagging so badly that even suicide been futile, rubberbanding inside this giant metal trap been all this spawn point was good for. First and last visit to this server.
- Chat posts like don't you dare go even close to "my" island, once I see a raft I pull Wyverns to your base...
- Chat posts like new people finally finding a spot and be pillared in by other players, for fun...

IF a player base on a server is that hostile, people leave. The maps are huge, yet if couple tribes permanently block areas, not to build on, just so, if there is no chance to get anywhere without birds they will be left alone at some point. IF tribes think WC will keep up servers for 5-15 members of a tribes claiming everything, now we saw, that is wrong.

And it WILL happen again, on the legacies, on the new servers, I don't think anyone is safe. It's just not worth it catering your tribe folks if you can't play nice with others. Want a server with only 5, go private. So it is up to the players, partly - if there was better customer support the most hostile would be restricted, but I never saw that happen. It all comes down to people being able to create a lasting environment, that means, a community on a server with people not taking more than needed, or not.
 

[Klakky]

just happened, my SE server 699 was a really friendly server, came online first time in 5days over 15 new players and my base is surounded by foundation+pillars

[Ian990]

That's actually pretty funny.. they haven't realised yet if the don't attract more players they are ultimately putting there server on death row.. or maybe they want to enjoy all that unused land for just 3 weeks before it all gets wiped clean for everyone else to enjoy. 

[CyanicEmber]

It's true, you play the role of tyrannical overlords and you get overthrown. Karma will hunt you down.

[Ep1cM0nk3y]

8 minutes ago, CyanicEmber said:

It's true, you play the role of tyrannical overlords and you get overthrown. Karma will hunt you down.

That's why our island server survived the kill list.. we have an alpha and several large tribes that have banned together to provide a (semi) safe environment where we help others as long as they aren't poop heads and don't block fareways or caves..

[ReturnToArk]

we tried to start another game on a seperate pvp server from lvl 1 at one point just to do something fresh and new.  Every other day was "wipe day" on that server where 3 tribes that were allied scouted the whole map and killed anyone else they could find.  They would even take down a 1x1 wood hut as we build one on the beach to see if they would do it.  I smiled pretty big when I heard the server was getting wiped.  Getting your rocks off wiping stone and wood bases with your gigas and explosives is funny, but also sad.

In many cases it is absolutely the players fault.  I still maintain the main reason is because WC understandably want a wipe of the legacy servers contaminated with ddos raid and duped everything.  It sucks, and yes it is their fault, but the duping ruined the servers.

[Jamagh]

I remember around January SE server 757 had a great community. then it began. people with [][][][][] names started showing up and dragging rock elementals to peoples bases. For no reason other than to destroy their hard work. The community turned away from everyone. Those of us that could place metal behemoth gates around our bases. I watched as people left. In the coarse of a month what had been a lively server with chat going all the time, became a ghost town. If people did talk, they were new people asking for help. They would stay for an hour or so, then they would leave. Those of us that stayed only come on now to refresh bases and feed things.

 

[Jamagh]

@raptorjesu666 I agree, if it was set to regions then we would not have had to deal with that. Maybe things will be better with the new servers. Going to be hard doing things alone with no tribemates. Did it on the center 595, just don't like starting over with nothing.

[rottenc0rpse]

3 hours ago, alice12345 said:

Sightseeing quite a bunch of official PVE servers, old and new, some are so hostile against anyone starting there, I left after couple hours to never return. I experienced, amongst other things:
- Vast areas fully pillared out with apparently neither bases nor resources around.
- No spots to even place a campfire, despite taking a couple hours to run around
- Locked Gates blocking Bridges, blocking Paths to connect areas of the map to each other for no apparent reason
- Locked Gates blocking Caves with vital resources in (crystal, and so on)
- Locked Oil Pumps (seriously? 2 pumps right beneath each other give more oil than one tribe ever can use... yet I saw this setting, both of them locked)
- Blocked Spawn Points: Once I spawned inside a Tek Base with at least (!) 50 bodies around, no open doors. This must've been goin on since a pretty long time (Customer support is discontinued? What Customer Support lol? This is why I wrote "partly"). Server lagging so badly that even suicide been futile, rubberbanding inside this giant metal trap been all this spawn point was good for. First and last visit to this server.
- Chat posts like don't you dare go even close to "my" island, once I see a raft I pull Wyverns to your base...
- Chat posts like new people finally finding a spot and be pillared in by other players, for fun...

IF a player base on a server is that hostile, people leave. The maps are huge, yet if couple tribes permanently block areas, not to build on, just so, if there is no chance to get anywhere without birds they will be left alone at some point. IF tribes think WC will keep up servers for 5-15 members of a tribes claiming everything, now we saw, that is wrong.

And it WILL happen again, on the legacies, on the new servers, I don't think anyone is safe. It's just not worth it catering your tribe folks if you can't play nice with others. Want a server with only 5, go private. So it is up to the players, partly - if there was better customer support the most hostile would be restricted, but I never saw that happen. It all comes down to people being able to create a lasting environment, that means, a community on a server with people not taking more than needed, or not.
 

I agree its all about community, but I'm afraid people are greedy.  In the end of the day its down to us to make a difference.

[JetJaguar]

3 hours ago, alice12345 said:

Sightseeing quite a bunch of official PVE servers, old and new, some are so hostile against anyone starting there, I left after couple hours to never return. I experienced, amongst other things:
- Vast areas fully pillared out with apparently neither bases nor resources around.
- No spots to even place a campfire, despite taking a couple hours to run around
- Locked Gates blocking Bridges, blocking Paths to connect areas of the map to each other for no apparent reason
- Locked Gates blocking Caves with vital resources in (crystal, and so on)
- Locked Oil Pumps (seriously? 2 pumps right beneath each other give more oil than one tribe ever can use... yet I saw this setting, both of them locked)
- Blocked Spawn Points: Once I spawned inside a Tek Base with at least (!) 50 bodies around, no open doors. This must've been goin on since a pretty long time (Customer support is discontinued? What Customer Support lol? This is why I wrote "partly"). Server lagging so badly that even suicide been futile, rubberbanding inside this giant metal trap been all this spawn point was good for. First and last visit to this server.
- Chat posts like don't you dare go even close to "my" island, once I see a raft I pull Wyverns to your base...
- Chat posts like new people finally finding a spot and be pillared in by other players, for fun...

IF a player base on a server is that hostile, people leave. The maps are huge, yet if couple tribes permanently block areas, not to build on, just so, if there is no chance to get anywhere without birds they will be left alone at some point. IF tribes think WC will keep up servers for 5-15 members of a tribes claiming everything, now we saw, that is wrong.

And it WILL happen again, on the legacies, on the new servers, I don't think anyone is safe. It's just not worth it catering your tribe folks if you can't play nice with others. Want a server with only 5, go private. So it is up to the players, partly - if there was better customer support the most hostile would be restricted, but I never saw that happen. It all comes down to people being able to create a lasting environment, that means, a community on a server with people not taking more than needed, or not.
 

I play on a server that is not being closed down. I can understand some of your frustration but:

• Our server was very very welcoming to new folks. The end result was a large player population that gave us platform caps, tamed dino caps, people building literally, outside your back door, people building at spawn spots, on top of resources, etc.

I originally LOATHED the idea of pillar spam and would get in arguments with some of the guys who did it.. But as time went on and I started to encounter some of the same BS as I mentioned above (Guys building on metal resources, opening my behemoth gates to find a guy building right up against me (As close as you could get), and a major spawn spot for rocks by my base being built on, I realized that some form of "protection" is needed.

Unfortunately, that is just the nature of the game. You can be nice and welcome new people. You dont have to shower with them with free dinos; let them earn them the way you earned them. You can guide them or suggest a build spot while still putting down some pillars to prevent resources going poof or people building up your ass.

[powerstuck]

Wildcard's complaint department is closed. Never reopening.

[Specter229]

16 minutes ago, powerstuck said:

Wildcard's complaint department is closed. Never reopening.

Except it is reopening, for the new servers. 

[CCRogerWilco]

I think the official servers are mostly a very toxic environment. Wildcard has no clue how to design a game that balances these things. The game design seems to bring out the worst in people and discourages friendly, cooperative behavior.

The only way to play for me is with friends on my own dedicated server.

[SmokeyB]

If you think about it when the new servers are out they won't be wiped for low population for ages so all the strong tribes that locked down a server in legacy will be able to move and completely wipe a new server without worrying about player count. 

[OnePotatoChip]

16 minutes ago, CCRogerWilco said:

I think the official servers are mostly a very toxic environment. Wildcard has no clue how to design a game that balances these things. The game design seems to bring out the worst in people and discourages friendly, cooperative behavior.

The only way to play for me is with friends on my own dedicated server.

I wouldn't even say it's a Wildcard issue. It's a sandbox issue. When you let people do whatever they want, there's going to be those individuals that ultimately just wanna ruin someone's fun. Why? Because they can. 

[CCRogerWilco]

Just now, OnePotatoChip said:

I wouldn't even say it's a Wildcard issue. It's a sandbox issue. When you let people do whatever they want, there's going to be those individuals that ultimately just wanna ruin someone's fun. Why? Because they can. 

But you can design a game to reward that, and you can design a game to make it hard and not reward it.

This is a game designed such that:

• You can have 1000s of hours of effort wiped in a instant without even knowing who did it or being online to defend.
• You can knock someone unconscious and keep them like that and force feed them to keep them alive for weeks. And they can't even make a new character to escape.
• People riding dinosaurs with lasers on their head are fighting people in loincloths.
• It is impossible to trust someone. No safe trading mechanic, people in your tribe could steal everything, friendly fire.
• etc.

I could make a very long list. All of these things could have been designed differently. Imagine for example a system that respawns things 24 hours after you've been raided.

[OnePotatoChip]

9 minutes ago, CCRogerWilco said:

But you can design a game to reward that, and you can design a game to make it hard and not reward it.

This is a game designed such that:

• You can have 1000s of hours of effort wiped in a instant without even knowing who did it or being online to defend.
• You can knock someone unconscious and keep them like that and force feed them to keep them alive for weeks. And they can't even make a new character to escape.
• People riding dinosaurs with lasers on their head are fighting people in loincloths.
• It is impossible to trust someone. No safe trading mechanic, people in your tribe could steal everything, friendly fire.
• etc.

I could make a very long list. All of these things could have been designed differently. Imagine for example a system that respawns things 24 hours after you've been raided.

Oh, see, you're talking about PvP. There's no 'friendly or cooperative' play in PvP, save for between tribemates that know one another. That's why it's called Player versus Player. It's all about competition and people will do anything to get ahead in competition. If you're looking for more sedate PvP, there's the tribe warfare function in PvE. War lasts for a set amount of time and, once it's over, the PvP ends and it's back to PvE. 

[RageQuitter]

50 minutes ago, OnePotatoChip said:

I wouldn't even say it's a Wildcard issue. It's a sandbox issue. When you let people do whatever they want, there's going to be those individuals that ultimately just wanna ruin someone's fun. Why? Because they can. 

Exactly, it's the poop side of human nature and can be found in a lot of online games, the need to win at all costs and all that.

If I played on a server that was on the kill list I would be talking to all the decent players on there and looking to set my own community up on an unofficial server, if enough were interested and you know they're long term players and not going to disappear (says the fella called RageQuitter ) and prepared to chip in a few quid/dollars a month you could easily set up a cluster so you can transfer between maps, have a good community (both PvP & PvE) and if WC do release all the save data you could migrate the data then go on as admin and get rid of all the crap and unwanted bases/dinos then just carry on, the only downside is a lack of trading with anyone on the official cluster but you'll not have to go through the hassle of finding a good legacy server not on the list with room, you'll be safe from any further server culling and will be safe from any toxic players coming on trying to take the server or just trolling.

[Jerryn]

Only going to say this once, keep the racist/nationalist comments out of this thread and forum. 

When you make generalized negative comments about a race, country, religion, culture, etc., you say a lot more about yourself than you do the ones you are stereotyping.

[Ulta]

5 hours ago, CCRogerWilco said:

But you can design a game to reward that, and you can design a game to make it hard and not reward it.

This is a game designed such that:

• You can have 1000s of hours of effort wiped in a instant without even knowing who did it or being online to defend.
• You can knock someone unconscious and keep them like that and force feed them to keep them alive for weeks. And they can't even make a new character to escape.
• People riding dinosaurs with lasers on their head are fighting people in loincloths.
• It is impossible to trust someone. No safe trading mechanic, people in your tribe could steal everything, friendly fire.
• etc.

I could make a very long list. All of these things could have been designed differently. Imagine for example a system that respawns things 24 hours after you've been raided.

Ah if only WC would actually do that. But sadly they seem to think that how the game is right now (especially in PVP) is 'okay'. I know it's not though, for all the reasons you stated. They could reward being nice to players. I agree. But right now the game rewards you for being a douche, even in PVE (rampant land claiming, kiting, resource blocking, etc.).

Until they address it, if ever, I can't even think about touching any official servers.I hope WC can see that they need to make some changes, because the community they are attracting is gaaawd awful, especially with a PVP tag on it.

[DemonLordCronos]

I was on 512 for a while and a tyrannical alpha tribe blocked everything. If they saw you had tames they wanted or didnt want you to have it was either give them up or get wiped.

[alice12345]

9 hours ago, JetJaguar said:

I originally LOATHED the idea of pillar spam and would get in arguments with some of the guys who did it.. But as time went on and I started to encounter some of the same BS as I mentioned above (Guys building on metal resources, opening my behemoth gates to find a guy building right up against me (As close as you could get), and a major spawn spot for rocks by my base being built on, I realized that some form of "protection" is needed.

Unfortunately, that is just the nature of the game. You can be nice and welcome new people. You dont have to shower with them with free dinos; let them earn them the way you earned them. You can guide them or suggest a build spot while still putting down some pillars to prevent resources going poof or people building up your ass.

I actually agree with that, it's all about the balance and I say nothing about pillars or open gates to protect resources for everyone; older players often know what is worth to protect, like the only area around with beaver spawns. What I have an issue with is pillaring vast areas out, fully, with no intention to build and every other form of diminishing the gameplay of others without need.

As for other posts:

- I only speak of PVE, no clue why people play PVP on a game that is that time consuming; I play bubblegum PVP or shooters if there's nothing much to loose, wiping 100s hours of gameplay of others is just not my thing. I play the game to build, breed, socialize, and to enjoy my dinos  . But ty for sharing some experiences, I can imagine there's similar issues if dominating tribes are not letting anyone any chance; also I saw videos of "raids" where kids feel great wiping out passive tames of people not even round lol. Sad loosers imho, rather.

- I did not mention the other side, my post only continued the negative experiences. No, the game imo is not  bringing out the worst in people. What I also saw - not surprisingly, on the more lively servers! - been alot of public buildings, people building stuff for the sole use of others or new players. Advanced Tribes giving away stuff they don't need every now and then. A nice and friendly trading community. As very well said, help doesn't mean showering newbs with dinos, but giving the one or other tipp, resource or freeing space if needed. All this occurs as well, and I hope the wipes at least make some think about what community they want.

- I would like to stress the "partly". I do blame missing support on some things which can't be solved by players. It's not that there is none, but some measures were not effective (like despawn-timers on single pillars... well now it's 2 or 3 elements; and the need to visit the oil pumps every 3d is just annoying for those having them open), and in many cases there been no action, at all.
Why can players drown other players - and steal others item cache - in PVE, at all? Why can others pick up eggs of my tames, that could be restricted to allies at least? Why can stuff like generators, forges etc. be turned on and off by people not in the tribe? Why are there no easy methods to suicide if you are trapped in a cage, like a console command? Why can you build on spawn points? Why in caves with tons of resources? Would save alot of support if some things are just not possible.

[CyanicEmber]

6 hours ago, Jerryn said:

Only going to say this once, keep the racist/nationalist comments out of this thread and forum. 

When you make generalized negative comments about a race, country, religion, culture, etc., you say a lot more about yourself than you do the ones you are stereotyping.

Different cultures approach things differently. Even video games. To lock out all comments of that nature is not in any way noble. Nor is it racist or nationalist to make them; it is reality.

[powerstuck]

21 hours ago, Specter229 said:

Except it is reopening, for the new servers. 

If the support one could get on Legacy servers (before WC's decision) is any indication of how much support you could get...I feel sorry for all those running into issues on new servers.

[Specter229]

2 hours ago, powerstuck said:

If the support one could get on Legacy servers (before WC's decision) is any indication of how much support you could get...I feel sorry for all those running into issues on new servers.

Agreed