BIG problems, that I don't see the devs addressing

[ShadowAngel]

Just now, Eli said:

That's your perogative to think so, just know that what you think so would be wrong. 

Hmm then im wrong. Good to know.

[DREYD3N]

I'm sorry but this Halloween event is trash. Bats are the main issue honestly and I've lost tames do to random Bat attacks. These bats must have attended Hogwarts because they are apparating out of nowhere. I just lost a Quetz to a random bat attack in the yard. One minute they aren't there then poof, random bats and something is dead. TURN THIS EVENT OFF!!! 

[Michi76]

Hi,

is there any way, to see how close are servers to dino cap? I am nearly ready with my argie projekt, and i have a few rexes, i meant to breed. Not all the stats i have till now, but want to begin with it in the future. Center200PVE.

[LouSpowells]

1 hour ago, ShadowAngel said:

Thats forum moderators and community managers. They don't have any actual say in decisions about the game. They are here to keep an eye on us and answer questions to best of their knowledge. So no point explaining to them what is wrong with game. If you want resault go and make support ticket.

I think you may have misspelled, "Whoops! I didn't see that, my bad."

[ElDestructo]

On 11/1/2017 at 6:35 AM, GP said:

Oh well I don't know about Xbox then, but for PC as we have INI access I have StructurePreventResourceRadiusMultiplier=1.0 and when I reduced that to 0.7 there was a clear difference ingame. This is a server i'm talking about though, not SP. So not sure if the issue is with it being SP instead of a Server, or if it is an Xbox issue that does not affect PC.

It is primarily an issue affecting single players or people playing on non-dedicated games. There is a resurrected bug from years ago where any resource node not respawned when the session is closed will disappear forever. You can't even recover them with re-fertilizer, they simply cease to exist. Naturally, the game becomes unplayable after a while. A good part of my island save is devoid of resources now. The caves near my base will not spawn crystal even with the timer set to 0.

More anecdotally, it also feels like the spawning of dinos is quirky in single player. I haven't seen a single beaver spawn in many hours of roaming the hidden lake killing dinos, whereas they used to be fairly common sights when I had last played, before 1.0.

There are many posts about the resource issue in the bug reports forums here and on steam, but no patch ever seems to address it. I've looked at the support ticket page, but it seems entirely geared toward people playing on the official servers, judging by the information the page requires. I'm completely oblivious as to how to bring some attention to these issues. I'd love for the resource issue to be patched, as I haven't been able to properly play for months now.

[HalfSlabBacon]

On 10/31/2017 at 5:19 AM, Sphere said:

There is a good reason to patch bugs, but only if people can see improvements to their game quality. It means better reviews on the game, which encourages more sales of new potential customers. This works well when your PR is doing their best to talk about the issues and present solutions. However the solutions need to be better than making it so that it takes 15 minutes to transfer stuff on the Obelisk on PvE, to deal with duping, only to have duping still an issue.

There is only ever 2 reasons not to fix bugs:

1) Legacy product no longer being developed.

2) A proper fix hasn't yet been determined.

PR and sales are a totally different end of the business. Bug tracking and fixing is about integrity; standing behind your product; and putting effort into evolving both your code, and your skill as a programmer.

On 10/31/2017 at 9:41 AM, Vrallox said:

It would be nice if they started hiring people to help fix all these problems they have with the game and the relationship with their players. Feels like everything is decaying.

Two steps forward and five steps back.

Agree... The number one problem WC has is lack of a proper Marketing/PR person to handle what to say, when and how.

Sorry @Jen @Jatheish  @Jeremy Stieglitz, I support you and the game is great. Thing is, a lot of stuff you announce is announced poorly and way too early; this creates problems. 

Proper Marketing and PR is all about under promising and over delivering; this is the exact opposite of your track record.

On 11/1/2017 at 9:07 PM, Lucifina said:

I'm unsure WC will ever be able to fix all the problems contained inside the game but given the complexity of the game I kinda saw this as part of the deal going in. Also their communication is horrible which only adds to some players frustrations... better communication could seriously reduce the unhappiness players spew.

There is no such thing as software with zero bugs. You are correct, fixing everything in the game is not possible. Funny thing though, is that over time, good devs keep trying to achieve the impossible. I have faith WC are one of these teams; history does indicate so, even if most don't see that.

[Scrysis]

48 minutes ago, ElDestructo said:

It is primarily an issue affecting single players or people playing on non-dedicated games. There is a resurrected bug from years ago where any resource node not respawned when the session is closed will disappear forever. You can't even recover them with re-fertilizer, they simply cease to exist. Naturally, the game becomes unplayable after a while. A good part of my island save is devoid of resources now. The caves near my base will not spawn crystal even with the timer set to 0.

More anecdotally, it also feels like the spawning of dinos is quirky in single player. I haven't seen a single beaver spawn in many hours of roaming the hidden lake killing dinos, whereas they used to be fairly common sights when I had last played, before 1.0.

There are many posts about the resource issue in the bug reports forums here and on steam, but no patch ever seems to address it. I've looked at the support ticket page, but it seems entirely geared toward people playing on the official servers, judging by the information the page requires. I'm completely oblivious as to how to bring some attention to these issues. I'd love for the resource issue to be patched, as I haven't been able to properly play for months now.

 

You may want to check out my post from earlier where I describe copying affected player/world files to a google drive/drop box, and then including links to those files in a bug report, as well as much information you can post that is even slightly related to the problem.  A LOT of players just cannot give proper bug reports.  Just having you talk about your issue for a few lines tells me more information than WolfeUK presented in the multiple posts he gave about the problem (I'm serious.  It was quite literally a rehash of "my resources aren't spawning back" each time with no real information.)

I play both single player and I've run a server for a long while that gets saved and shutdown at the end of every game session (which should mimic the same conditions), and I've not seen the resource respawn bug myself, so it's not a universal bug.  Which means that it will be harder to track down, so every detail you can remember about your game world is important.  (go back and look at my other post for sample questions).

 

As for the beaver spawns, how long ago were you last in that area?  Dino spawns are kind of percentage-based as a whole.  So if you were looking for beaver back when there weren't as many dinos or when the percentages were different, then you might very well see less of them now.

Personally, I like to have more dinos on my maps, so I usually bump up my spawn rate to a range of 1.4 to 1.8.  And then I take out leeches, because f*ck leeches.  And mantas.  F*ck those guys too.  That bumps up more of everything else on the map.  If you want to control beaver spawns more directly, you can go to your game.ini file.  The location of this file is, if you're on PC,  Steam -> steamapps -> common -> ARK -> ShooterGame -> Saved -> Config ->  WindowsNoEditor -> Game.ini  (I have this location memorized by heart now. . . ).  Open up your Game.ini file up in notepad (don't worry -- the developers were smart; this is just an override config file.  Just remember to go to WindowsNoEditor folder and NOT the CleanSource one for this), and add something like:

DinoSpawnWeightMultipliers=(DinoNameTag=Beaver,
SpawnWeightMultiplier=10.0,
OverrideSpawnLimitPercentage=true,
SpawnLimitPercentage=1.5)

 

SpawnLimitPercentage is what max percentage of the ALL the dinos on the island are beavers.  You don't want this too high.  SpawnWeightMultiplier is generally how fast the dinos respawn (in a really generic fashion for all practicality).  If I understand it correctly, SpawnWeightMultiplier is actually what weight the game gives that species for the next dino spawn (so spawn rate in practicality).  Say for example, you massacre everything in an area.  If you have a higher-than-average SpawnWeightMultiplier for turtles and that area spawns turtles, the game will give a higher priority for each spawn to be a turtle up to the cap.

 

Once you've adjusted your ini while NOT in game, go ahead, load up the game, and then do a dino wipe.  Give it about 30 - 60 min.  Then go beaver hunting.  You may have to tweak the numbers more until you're happy.  Some dinos take a LOT longer to spawn, such as gigas.  Gigas take forever to spawn.  This should help with your beavers at least.  Also, one last note, the type of dino and the other dinos in the area DO make a difference.  Beavers get into fights with a number of predatory dinos such as sarcos, titanoboa, baryonyx, probably Kaprosuchus, raptors, carnos, spinos, and rexes.  They're tough, but they can be taken out.  Hidden Lake does have carnos in the area, and possibly other predators (haven't been there in a while), so keep that in mind.  There are a number of areas with good beaver spawns on the island, but you may not be finding them because predators keep eating them.

[edskelly]

On 11/2/2017 at 11:46 AM, Jostabeere said:

Sure, those are things we know of. And they are rather problems with the games engine. He wrote about major gamebreaking problems. Engine bugs that can be prevented easily and if doing so, have no real impact on your experience are nowhere near gamebreaking.

>You fall through ceilings?

Don't log off on ceilings

>You get stuck in foundations?

Don't log off on foundations.

is this a serious post?

If so,where are we meant to log off?

[HalfSlabBacon]

1 hour ago, Scrysis said:

 

You may want to check out my post from earlier where I describe copying affected player/world files to a google drive/drop box, and then including links to those files in a bug report, as well as much information you can post that is even slightly related to the problem.  A LOT of players just cannot give proper bug reports.  Just having you talk about your issue for a few lines tells me more information than WolfeUK presented in the multiple posts he gave about the problem (I'm serious.  It was quite literally a rehash of "my resources aren't spawning back" each time with no real information.)

I play both single player and I've run a server for a long while that gets saved and shutdown at the end of every game session (which should mimic the same conditions), and I've not seen the resource respawn bug myself, so it's not a universal bug.  Which means that it will be harder to track down, so every detail you can remember about your game world is important.  (go back and look at my other post for sample questions).

 

As for the beaver spawns, how long ago were you last in that area?  Dino spawns are kind of percentage-based as a whole.  So if you were looking for beaver back when there weren't as many dinos or when the percentages were different, then you might very well see less of them now.

Personally, I like to have more dinos on my maps, so I usually bump up my spawn rate to a range of 1.4 to 1.8.  And then I take out leeches, because f*ck leeches.  And mantas.  F*ck those guys too.  That bumps up more of everything else on the map.  If you want to control beaver spawns more directly, you can go to your game.ini file.  The location of this file is, if you're on PC,  Steam -> steamapps -> common -> ARK -> ShooterGame -> Saved -> Config ->  WindowsNoEditor -> Game.ini  (I have this location memorized by heart now. . . ).  Open up your Game.ini file up in notepad (don't worry -- the developers were smart; this is just an override config file.  Just remember to go to WindowsNoEditor folder and NOT the CleanSource one for this), and add something like:

DinoSpawnWeightMultipliers=(DinoNameTag=Beaver,
SpawnWeightMultiplier=10.0,
OverrideSpawnLimitPercentage=true,
SpawnLimitPercentage=1.5)

 

SpawnLimitPercentage is what max percentage of the ALL the dinos on the island are beavers.  You don't want this too high.  SpawnWeightMultiplier is generally how fast the dinos respawn (in a really generic fashion for all practicality).  If I understand it correctly, SpawnWeightMultiplier is actually what weight the game gives that species for the next dino spawn (so spawn rate in practicality).  Say for example, you massacre everything in an area.  If you have a higher-than-average SpawnWeightMultiplier for turtles and that area spawns turtles, the game will give a higher priority for each spawn to be a turtle up to the cap.

 

Once you've adjusted your ini while NOT in game, go ahead, load up the game, and then do a dino wipe.  Give it about 30 - 60 min.  Then go beaver hunting.  You may have to tweak the numbers more until you're happy.  Some dinos take a LOT longer to spawn, such as gigas.  Gigas take forever to spawn.  This should help with your beavers at least.  Also, one last note, the type of dino and the other dinos in the area DO make a difference.  Beavers get into fights with a number of predatory dinos such as sarcos, titanoboa, baryonyx, probably Kaprosuchus, raptors, carnos, spinos, and rexes.  They're tough, but they can be taken out.  Hidden Lake does have carnos in the area, and possibly other predators (haven't been there in a while), so keep that in mind.  There are a number of areas with good beaver spawns on the island, but you may not be finding them because predators keep eating them.

Really good post! Great details to help others out!

1.4-1.8 Dude really! That's insanely high, but I like it.

I set my servers at 1.25 and every spawnable area is absolutely flooded with Dino's. Do keep in mind I also change the weight and limit for every species as well. You just can't travel alone on the ground, or even in the air for the Redwoods. 

Let's just say my servers aren't for newbs or those who suffer from rage quits. ?

[Scrysis]

29 minutes ago, edskelly said:

is this a serious post?

If so,where are we meant to log off?

 

So falling through ceilings and foundations has to do with load times.  You're loading solid terrain -- which doesn't change -- much faster than you're loading structures and dinos, which DO change.  What happens is that your client loads the terrain first, your computer "thinks" that there isn't anything under your character, so now you start falling, and communicates this movement to the server.  Then your client loads in the structures, but because it already sent the info that you're falling to the server, you just keep going, thus falling through ceilings and floors.  It's a rather tricky problem to solve, but you should see it more often in areas with very elaborate or high numbers of structures, or in areas with a lot of dinos.  Basically anything that will eat up a lot of extra memory will probably make the problem worse, since it's related to load times.

Possible solutions are to get more memory to decrease load times, or, alternatively, try to log off in areas that either have fewer dinos or fewer structures.  You can also try logging off on bare terrain since you'll load that first.

To be 100% honest, I don't know how wildcard will fix this issue, since it's a client-server loading issue.  There could be important things currently in place that, such as cell-loading, that interfere with any potential fixes at this time.

 

8 minutes ago, HalfSlabBacon said:

Really good post! Great details to help others out!

1.4-1.8 Dude really! That's insanely high, but I like it.

I set my servers at 1.25 and every spawnable area is absolutely flooded with Dino's. Do keep in mind I also change the weight and limit for every species as well. You just can't travel alone on the ground, or even in the air for the Redwoods. 

Let's just say my servers aren't for newbs or those who suffer from rage quits. ?

 

Awww, thanks!  My current single player on the Island is at 1.3, but I'm thinking of bumping it up just a little.  The 1.8 is for when I'm hosting a bigger map like the Center, because when you don't have the extra dinos, big maps feel really empty.  Your weight/limit changes are probably what is really amplifying the changes.  For the most part, I like to remove a couple of species and then tweak a couple of the others so that you can find them more easily.  If I were hosting the Island on my server, I'd probably lower the number of carno spawns by about half, increase allosaur, beaver (They keep getting mauled by spinos and crocs now.), quetz (just a little), and maybe rex spawns.  

 

What I really wish I could do is set an average level for some dinos.  I should never, EVER see a spino getting its ass kicked by a baryonyx  .    I'd make higher average levels for quetzals, rexes, spinos, allos, and therizinos (aka fluffy murder monsters).

[HalfSlabBacon]

6 minutes ago, Scrysis said:

To be 100% honest, I don't know how wildcard will fix this issue, since it's a client-server loading issue.  There could be important things currently in place that, such as cell-loading, that interfere with any potential fixes at this time.

Awww, thanks!  My current single player on the Island is at 1.3, but I'm thinking of bumping it up just a little.  The 1.8 is for when I'm hosting a bigger map like the Center, because when you don't have the extra dinos, big maps feel really empty.  Your weight/limit changes are probably what is really amplifying the changes.  For the most part, I like to remove a couple of species and then tweak a couple of the others so that you can find them more easily.  If I were hosting the Island on my server, I'd probably lower the number of carno spawns by about half, increase allosaur, beaver (They keep getting mauled by spinos and crocs now.), quetz (just a little), and maybe rex spawns.  

What I really wish I could do is set an average level for some dinos.  I should never, EVER see a spino getting its ass kicked by a baryonyx  .    I'd make higher average levels for quetzals, rexes, spinos, allos, and therizinos (aka fluffy murder monsters).

They absolutely can fix the loading, by switching the order. Map>structures>Dino's,>players. Problem is this should have been at the beginning. To do so now would be a monumental rewrite of code and a crap ton of bug fixing as a result.

It is totally my weight and limit tweaks. I've spent over 2 years on them now. Lol.  They actually scale really well with various maps so I can copy & paste for each server. Certain things like Thyla, Theri, Mosas & all Alphas are 2.0&2.0 (W&L). ? With stuff like Carno & Raptor i go 0.5&1.0 so they still spawn as many but less frequently. Then they aren't always killing off every weaker Dino in the wide areas they spawn in. 

Also F Pegos & Ichthy... They're just the devs digital trolls & griefers. They get replaced with Dodos & Ovis. ?

I also go Difficulty 16.67 & 2x Health & Melee wilds. You know, cause if people aren't dying almost every time they leave their base, it's just not challenging.

I believe you actually can define levels per species. The amount of code to do every one gives me a headache thinking about though. I know some mod devs have done so for certain species. The Mod Dev discord would be the place to get help with that.

[Scrysis]

2 hours ago, HalfSlabBacon said:

They absolutely can fix the loading, by switching the order. Map>structures>Dino's,>players. Problem is this should have been at the beginning. To do so now would be a monumental rewrite of code and a crap ton of bug fixing as a result.

It is totally my weight and limit tweaks. I've spent over 2 years on them now. Lol.  They actually scale really well with various maps so I can copy & paste for each server. Certain things like Thyla, Theri, Mosas & all Alphas are 2.0&2.0 (W&L). ? With stuff like Carno & Raptor i go 0.5&1.0 so they still spawn as many but less frequently. Then they aren't always killing off every weaker Dino in the wide areas they spawn in. 

Also F Pegos & Ichthy... They're just the devs digital trolls & griefers. They get replaced with Dodos & Ovis. ?

I also go Difficulty 16.67 & 2x Health & Melee wilds. You know, cause if people aren't dying almost every time they leave their base, it's just not challenging.

I believe you actually can define levels per species. The amount of code to do every one gives me a headache thinking about though. I know some mod devs have done so for certain species. The Mod Dev discord would be the place to get help with that.

 

I agree, it would be a HUGE re-write at this point, and that might just break . . . well. . . everything (figuratively speaking).  In terms of time, it probably isn't feasible to rewrite from scratch, so they'd have to come up with some sort of work around for it.  If the user loads in the area faster, the issue doesn't pop up anywhere near as often.  

 

I might relent and tone down the carnos at this point.  There are so many of them!  (I hope there aren't any carnos in Aberration. . . ).  With your weights and limits, starting as a new character has to be terrifying.  You're practically tripping on Therizinos no matter where you walk with those settings.  So fluffy, and yet so deadly. . . 

I agree with the peggos.  I agree to disagree on the Ichthys.  They're an annoying pain (the bastards keep stealing my water jars!), but they're super useful early game for prime fish/meat, or for getting fish for the hesperonis.

 

 

And I wish I had the time to write up a mod.   

[thedogowl]

Lol @ white knights refusing to believe there are 2 year old problems that haven't been fixed, demanding proof like they don't already subconciously know it. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

[bigfishrob]

one ongoing problem still not fixed and CLAIMED  in patch notes to be fixed is character loss on rollbacks. i have an ally that lost his only days ago to rollbacks. he was max level and im sure they will give him a stupid lil lvl 50 amount of xp which is outright bull smack. Lose hundreds of thousands of xp and then give you 12k. RIP

[LouSpowells]

5 hours ago, thedogowl said:

Lol @ white knights refusing to believe there are 2 year old problems that haven't been fixed, demanding proof like they don't already subconciously know it. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

Pump the brakes, Anakin. No one is disagreeing with the fact that we've all been waiting for problems to be fixed and certain promised enhancements to be made for a long time. The people you are labeling as white knights are as critical of Wildcard's bad or misguided decisions as they are of forum posters who act like a collection WoW-Freakout-Kids concocting insane, meandering, dystopian fairy tales to justify their cynicism and anger. The cynicism and anger people have for Wildcard devs is already justified without having to weave conspiracy theories that rival doomsday prophecies in their vitriol.
 

[Scrysis]

12 hours ago, thedogowl said:

Lol @ white knights refusing to believe there are 2 year old problems that haven't been fixed, demanding proof like they don't already subconciously know it. Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

 

Lol @ kiddies who don't read text.

 

tl;dr:  We know there are problems.  Sometimes problems get fixed, then get broken again.  Whining about a problem without providing sufficient evidence/clear steps to reproduce a problem will not fix anything.  Wildcard is a small game studio, not a group of omniscient computer gods.  The long ass list of patch notes is proof enough that they try  to fix what bugs they can.

[HalfSlabBacon]

18 hours ago, Scrysis said:

 

I agree, it would be a HUGE re-write at this point, and that might just break . . . well. . . everything (figuratively speaking).  In terms of time, it probably isn't feasible to rewrite from scratch, so they'd have to come up with some sort of work around for it.  If the user loads in the area faster, the issue doesn't pop up anywhere near as often.  

 

With your weights and limits, starting as a new character has to be terrifying.  You're practically tripping on Therizinos no matter where you walk with those settings.  So fluffy, and yet so deadly. . . 

I agree to disagree on the Ichthys.  They're an annoying pain (the bastards keep stealing my water jars!), but they're super useful early game for prime fish/meat, or for getting fish for the hesperonis.

And I wish I had the time to write up a mod.   

As a new character? LMAO! I frequently have days I die 10-15 times wearing acendant Tek and I configured the dang servers! ? BTW, I may have left out mentioning the modded Dino's.

I might have a couple community Ichthy's held in admin jail cells I allow people to borrow. Early game, you're on your own though.

You don't need to be writing a mod to learn from the modders... I have several I pm with constantly.

[thedogowl]

18 hours ago, LouSpowells said:

 

 

11 hours ago, Scrysis said:

 

Was referring to someone earlier in the thread that was being obstinate; should have quoted them! Both of your posts are actually really interesting and informative, but I see how it would look like I was referring to your posts given that mine was right after it! No conspiracy theories here

[HalfSlabBacon]

On 11/3/2017 at 9:22 AM, bigfishrob said:

one ongoing problem still not fixed and CLAIMED  in patch notes to be fixed is character loss on rollbacks. i have an ally that lost his only days ago to rollbacks. he was max level and im sure they will give him a stupid lil lvl 50 amount of xp which is outright bull smack. Lose hundreds of thousands of xp and then give you 12k. RIP

technically this is fixed. The way the file structure works your character is backed up every log in/log out & when a stat or level change occurs.

I can always restore a character on my servers to a very recent backup in any situation. Not sure why rollbacks are being done so poorly on officials... Honestly, I'm not sure why they're with Nitrado either. It's pretty well known that they are a crap host.

[Midnight_]

On 11/1/2017 at 9:58 PM, Eli said:

2) As much as I'd like to think that the kibble rework system would help alleviate some of these dino cap issues, it's ultimately up to players to whittle down their menageries.

7) While lacking in comparison to previous Fear Evolved events, this years event does follow the spirit of previous ones. Every Fear Evolved has creatures of the underworld rising up to the surface to haunt survivors, and this one is no different. However, rather than a select few underworld creatures plus the dodorex, we opted to unleash all the bottom dwellers to make up for the lack of the dodorex for this year.

2) the rag servers were maxed out 70/70 almost 24/7 for the first 2 months. There were not enough servers. The number of people attempting to play on them was potentially in the hundreds-like 200+ active players trying to join a server that only allows 70. People stated they would spend up to 3 hours constantly clicking join in hopes of getting in to feed dinos and maintain bases. Then the rag servers dino capped one or two months in. No way this is due to players with too many kibble dinos. I started on an SE server cause it was obvious there were not enough rag servers and wanted to actually play the game instead of spending 3 hours in desperation trying to join full servers to feed maintain dinos/bases. After the rag servers capped there was nothing left to fight for and so players moved to other servers so they could actually play. My SE server went from an avg of 10 online at a time to 40-60 directly AFTER rag serves capped.  The problem was/still is the lack of servers not players taming/breeding too many dinos. 

7) Why the lack of decorations. That is (for me) the biggest part of the event (personally do not like and did not miss the dodrex or dodowyvern). The grave yards and pumpkin patches.  No one new to the game would have had any idea that anything was done to celebrate Halloween. However last year it was screaming obvious with all the graveyards and pumpkin patches out in the "wild" as well as those collected to be brought back to decorate bases with. Why were the decorations missing?!?!? Is Christmas going to be like that too?