Officials- Do they want us to quit?

[Azmeaiel]

Given recent developments to me at least it seems fairly clear players are being pushed out of officials in favour of unnofficial servers. 

Some of these, fairly long standing and often exasserbated rather than fixed problems to playerbase, and also a lot that seem to be fairly deliberatly added.

removal of legacy servers and replacing with a great many less servers mainly a problem in pve, leaving new players who want to try game unable due to tame caps, and players who want to move from legacy (that most consider a write-off due to eventual deletion) on 1-2 servers that are virtually unplayable. This even though a year ago it was said on forums by their own representatives they had plenty of funding to open new servers on release. 

Massive un-balance in pvp , either with dinos, weapons, exploits or the simple mechanic of fairly over-powered 'Free' transfers server to server.  Basicly if your not in a mega tribe, your wasting time. Or more likley 'only play for a short time'.

My problem is not that this is happening if it is their intention to have a fast turnover on a few servers, but that we have been told on forums constantly, by representatives, that the opposite is happening eg- the response to massive backlash that stated officials would not be wiped and that new servers would open, then complete opposite happened a year later. 

If this is happening, come clean with your fans. At this stage it is fairly clear it is either deliberate , incompetant or unable to be fixed. CAn you actually come clean with fans and customers instead of giving us some nice words from the PR department that will be taken back or changed within a few months as we have been seeing constantly.

What do other people think? this is an inflammitory subject but not designed to be an inflammitory thread so please be respectful or you will probably not get the message across here.

[Famine]

The simple answer is usually the right one.

They are trying to improve performance, and this probably gives them a significant boost for PvP servers. 

Im sure that the PvE servers will be getting something soon that will make them salty.

 

[Azmeaiel]

9 minutes ago, Famine said:

The simple answer is usually the right one.

They are trying to improve performance, and this probably gives them a significant boost for PvP servers. 

Im sure that the PvE servers will be getting something soon that will make them salty.

 

Unfortunatly they are ignoring basic server problems that have been causing issues for almost 2 years over incredibly inflammitiry ones eg water outlets, junction boxes and dino nameplates causing huge problems. Most new PVE are dino capped so pretty sure most new customers going to them are not exactly happy, usually due to the 'p-off were capped' response from residents constantly.

[Demerus]

2 hours ago, Azmeaiel said:

from the PR department

They have one of those?

[ForzaProiettile]

The devs want players to engage in more frequent PVP as opposed to play Farmville on PVP server.

I agree that mega tribes are bad for the game but until the devs put in place a much lower tribe player cap they will remain a thing. They also need to remove alliances from official servers or severely limit the numbers that can be allied. That and mega tribes are the two remaining things that currently limit competitive PVP.

[anubis3691]

The simple answer is usually the right one.
They are trying to improve performance, and this probably gives them a significant boost for PvP servers. 
Im sure that the PvE servers will be getting something soon that will make them salty.
 

"dontchu put that evil on me Ricky Bobby!!"

We have enough salt ty. That and the not being able to use the grab attacks on Dino's.. grumble grumble grumble..

Tbh I'm waiting for behemoth gates, or pillar nerf within a certain area.. like the turret nerf.

But if it happens, whatever happens, my tribe and I will do like we always do. Deal with the new way of things, and continue to have fun! I'll tame a few brontos build bases on them and park them in the volcano and live up there, you can fit 20 Rex's on a bronto base right?

[SmokeyB]

7 hours ago, anubis3691 said:

Tbh I'm waiting for behemoth gates, or pillar nerf within a certain area.. like the turret nerf.
 

Yeah I can see this coming also 

[Vaskur]

hmm.. with no official servers, people would still buy the game... and you don´t have any costs in server hosting and support... just saying...

[jaypak]

Who knows but at one point the servers will go offline just like other games as wildcard make a new game... can't see that being before 2 years tho

[Vaskur]

26 minutes ago, jaypak said:

Who knows but at one point the servers will go offline just like other games as wildcard make a new game... can't see that being before 2 years tho

And that´s the point, where people should be alarmed and don´t do the same mistakes again and stay the fukk away from the next game...

 

[Bobo1234]

13 hours ago, ForzaProiettile said:

The devs want players to engage in more frequent PVP as opposed to play Farmville on PVP server.

I agree that mega tribes are bad for the game but until the devs put in place a much lower tribe player cap they will remain a thing. They also need to remove alliances from official servers or severely limit the numbers that can be allied. That and mega tribes are the two remaining things that currently limit competitive PVP.

How are they bad? How is having a high level of teamwork and friendship in a game or putting thousands of hours of combined effort into a game bad? 

Mega tribes fight all the time. Wars go on everyday. PvP happens everyday. You can befriend most of these people and build as you want. All of these people started from nothing and fought to get where they are. They farm because it takes a lot of effort to maintain a tribe (try it :D). What makes Ark great is freedom. I can have as many turrets as I want, as many allies as I want and as many friends as I want. Only people who have never gotten far in the game don't understand the purpose of large tribes. You can't reach late game in Official PvP as a small tribe or solo. There is too much maintenance for 5-10 people to do.

 

How will PvP be different without mega tribes exactly? Do mega tribes make it so you can't raid other small tribes, or make it so you can't hide a base and play stealthy? How will the removal of them make you able to PvP? 

[Novarae]

15 hours ago, Azmeaiel said:

Given recent developments to me at least it seems fairly clear players are being pushed out of officials in favour of unnofficial servers. 

Some of these, fairly long standing and often exasserbated rather than fixed problems to playerbase, and also a lot that seem to be fairly deliberatly added.

removal of legacy servers and replacing with a great many less servers mainly a problem in pve, leaving new players who want to try game unable due to tame caps, and players who want to move from legacy (that most consider a write-off due to eventual deletion) on 1-2 servers that are virtually unplayable. This even though a year ago it was said on forums by their own representatives they had plenty of funding to open new servers on release. 

Massive un-balance in pvp , either with dinos, weapons, exploits or the simple mechanic of fairly over-powered 'Free' transfers server to server.  Basicly if your not in a mega tribe, your wasting time. Or more likley 'only play for a short time'.

My problem is not that this is happening if it is their intention to have a fast turnover on a few servers, but that we have been told on forums constantly, by representatives, that the opposite is happening eg- the response to massive backlash that stated officials would not be wiped and that new servers would open, then complete opposite happened a year later. 

If this is happening, come clean with your fans. At this stage it is fairly clear it is either deliberate , incompetant or unable to be fixed. CAn you actually come clean with fans and customers instead of giving us some nice words from the PR department that will be taken back or changed within a few months as we have been seeing constantly.

What do other people think? this is an inflammitory subject but not designed to be an inflammitory thread so please be respectful or you will probably not get the message across here.

 

I've addressed this -many- times both on here and on the steam forums.  Short answer is yes, the do but not framed in the way or thinking that you present.

They have stated multiple times(you can see Kayd even say so in the Extra Life Charity event stream on twitch: They encourage players to play on unofficials with mods and customized game play to match their interests or needs.

Notice they're not saying "we don't want people to play official servers". At first this may look like the same thing but it isn't.

They're saying here is our official basic features showcasing servers.  They're intentionally intended so and with out goals and wants in mind. 

Then enter players who complain about the conditions of those servers for what ever reason. 

Dev's then post encouragement to seek what they want via unofficial servers.

 

Ark is a game designed with the intent of modded content and customized game play so of course that's what devs are obviously going to say.  The pedestalling or veneration of official servers to be something beyond what they were intended to be is not the fault of devs but the fault of players, groomed by expectations and experiences from other games, to impose and project the same thinking upon official servers for ark.

They're not intentionally pushing people off. It only feels so because the situations don't match those with cognitive dissonance being unable to reconcile their wants being different from the dev's servers intentions.  The majority of players of ark have fundamentally understood this or kept up with being informed of this being the case and for them many of these issues others lament about because they have yet to accept that have not.

There is of course another issue at play that feeds gas to your frustrations or thinking but it is something that everyone who plays ark, regardless of official, unofficial, or even single player(though much less so for them) is affected by and that is the core flaw of the design of the game being unable to be sustainable with its current engine/game design in context to server/rig limitations and worse grooming exponentially those issues by the design philosophy encouraging sandbox, free choice, wildwest-style play, and unsustainable player numbers per sever.  So, not ironically, both player and dev wants are the same on one hand but also neither can reconcile their wants with the reality of the situation.

And worse, there is no meaningful long term solution with the current game that can sustainably change that.  The more that sober to that realization, at least then on one level the more it can help to a certain degree the issues.