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QUESTION: Why do you choose Official?


LPTF

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I have been wondering this for a long time, and so I thought I'd get some feedback from the rest of you.

I seems like the majority of Ark users who play online multiplayer choose to use official servers, rather than unofficial.

I'm sure the reasons for this are many and varied, and I'd like to know what some of them are.

If a company came out with a professional, very high speed Ark server network with multiple maps, cross server transfers, proper customer service etc, would people actually use it? Or is this something that makes people always stay with Official?

All thoughts appreciated.

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 I personally play official because well, it's official and that means the game is at original mode or function and Everything that is implemented or changed in terms of gameplay is thoroughly analysed by the Devs to better our experience, that's what i used to think at least, Latest news are making me think otherwise.

Edit:  Truth is Unofficial is way better because if you know the admin and he can be trusted you're in for a blast without 255 ping and many other problems with official with few mods to better the experience, nothing too overpowered

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Advantages of Official PVP Servers:

  • No admins
    • I've played on 5 unofficial servers and each one of them my group has ended being banned or having our base admin deleted. You just can't trust admins, they will do whatever they want if they feel it benefits their server. If your doing 'too much' PVP on their "PVP" server and as a result players are crying and threatening to leave they will just ban you to fix the problem.
    • Admin cheating is also a huge issue. I've had all my base's door unlocked, pincodes removed from vaults, enemy tribe given "freebees". I've also had one case where the admin tribe was using aimbots. Their server mysteriously had BattleEye disabled and I soon discovered why that was...
  • No rules
    • There are a lot of Unofficial servers with really stupid poorly thought out rules such as:
      • No killing passive dinos when raiding (what happens if you choose to store your best loot on them)
      • Don't excessively damage a base when raiding (can't be properly defined)
      • Can't raid same tribe within 2 weeks
      • No KOS
      • You must take screenshots/record your raid or risk being banned
      • You must ask the tribe you want to raid if they agree to it
      • You can't build within 300m of another base (how do you measure that??)
  • Reliable
    • You know when you play on Official that the server is not going to be reset or shutdown on a whim by some admin
  • Player count
    • There are thousands of players to encounter and fight
  • Multiple Servers
    • You can transfer to hundreds of other servers and do battle
  • Higher Skill Level
    • If you want to be a good ARK player PVP Official is the best way to learn. Yes its tough, yes it hard and yes it can be painful but tough loves is what breeds good warriors. A lot of the players that play on Unofficial servers used to play on Official servers. Then they got wiped and couldn't handle it. So now they are on some unofficial with carebear rules. That is the reality.
  • Sensible Rates
    • There are a lot of Unofficial servers with ridiculous gathering rates: 5X up to 100X or even higher. These rates run contrary to good gameplay and do nothing but create hyper inflation. Everything becomes worthless. You raid a base and find 100 rockets in the vault? No big deal because you just made 500 rockets in the last 5minutes.
    • The increased rates also lead to much more lag on server. Everyone even the solo player ends up having a giant laggy bases crammed full of the largest dinos.
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The sense of scale and legitimacy. There are thousands of players on the same cluster across hundreds of servers at any given time. Trading, big wars, etc. Stuff that doesn't exist in the same size as on Unofficial. Secondly, the sense of legitimacy. Official PvP is the way the game was originally designed to be played (Not that PvE or Unofficial are bad ways to play, they are great for those interested!). If you exceed at Official PvP you can be reasonably certain you have the PvE skills, PvP skills, building knowledge, and most importantly political/social skills to hack it in such an extreme setting. PvE or Unofficials just don't check those boxes for me, but my boxes aren't other people's boxes. Some people don't want to worry about fighting, some people are more time constrained and need boosted rates, etc etc 

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3 hours ago, LPTF said:

I have been wondering this for a long time, and so I thought I'd get some feedback from the rest of you.

I seems like the majority of Ark users who play online multiplayer choose to use official servers, rather than unofficial.

Well, based on this poll   it's actually minority who play on official.

I can share why I am not playing on official:

  • I am playing just few hours every second day, have full job and relationship so I have problem with official taming and breading rates (my server has x10 rates of taming, and pernament x2 for exp and gathering)
  • Lack of admins on official cause abusing of glitches and cheating like undermashing, duplicating and pillaring
  • Dino cap
  • Huge lags and outages for days

What I am missing on my unofficial:

  • Bigger cluster of servers for trade with
  • More ppl to play with outside my server community
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I like official for the freedom to move server whenever I wish, multiple servers where I can search to see if my preferred spot is free and tbh lack of admins except in extreme cases is actually a bonus imo. We're all playing under the same circumstances and rules (or lack of). There's no overseer or admin breathing down ur neck or judging what ur doing. It's freedom.

I often think I might pop onto an official server to check out a mod but when I look at the server list they r all empty. There's also no easy way of seeing what mods or rules a server has. Too time consuming to research so back to official I go.

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4 hours ago, Sup3riorArs3nal said:

The sense of scale and legitimacy. There are thousands of players on the same cluster across hundreds of servers at any given time. Trading, big wars, etc. Stuff that doesn't exist in the same size as on Unofficial. Secondly, the sense of legitimacy. Official PvP is the way the game was originally designed to be played (Not that PvE or Unofficial are bad ways to play, they are great for those interested!). If you exceed at Official PvP you can be reasonably certain you have the PvE skills, PvP skills, building knowledge, and most importantly political/social skills to hack it in such an extreme setting. PvE or Unofficials just don't check those boxes for me, but my boxes aren't other people's boxes. Some people don't want to worry about fighting, some people are more time constrained and need boosted rates, etc etc 

It's a lot of this for me too, especially the sense of scale. The maps are big, but knowing I'm connected to so many other players is amazing.

One point where I'll disagree, I actually think some of the best unofficials are more the way the game "was meant to be played" than the offficial scene, or at the very least could be. Ark is still full of bugs and exploits, with a top-notch admin team a lot of that can be circumvented. Stuck dino, admin gets it back for your. Character lost on transfer, you get your full character restored same day (or quickly). Duping/cheating/undermapping, insta-ban with proof. S+ is an objectively better building system if you get rid of everything OP and punish people for exploiting parts of it. Yes, it's coming to official soon, but some of the best part of that mod are too exploitable to make to officially, unless WC is adding professional server moderators for each server.

My biggest reason for spending most of my time on official is the longevity. Unofficial PvP servers are frequently played in seasons, or wiped, when they get stale - even with boosted rates, I don't really want to be forced to start over every 3 months. Yes I'm frequently wiped (or sustain major losses) more often than that playing official, but it's other players doing it and a challenge to be overcome. To put a point on that problem with unofficials, I started playing a well populated, reasonable rate, low mod unofficial PvP cluster with a "no-wipe outside extreme circumstances" approach. Unfortunately, because of exploitable bugs in a couple of those mods (some of the most used/popular of all time), the cluster has already wiped twice since I've been paying attention. I'm not salty about that, it's run  by a very skilled admin, with a background in software engineering and IT, so if someone was going to fix these things without wiping it's probably him, but here he is wiping his "no-wipe" server twice in as many months.

To add insult to injury there, the guy works his tail off (can tell based purely on discord response times) and a large number of players spew venom constantly over every little thing that they don't agree with. It's been like that on pretty much every unofficial I've ever tried, TBH I have no idea why admins do what they do and put up with it.

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Longevity would be the best way to describe it.

I play Official because my unofficial experience included having the server wiped every few weeks, changing maps multiple times, mods having compatibility issues and stuff disappearing, and servers having long down times (which didn't seem to be an issue on Official until this summer.) I enjoyed the increased rates of unofficial but the other stuff overshadowed that and now I'm just used to Official rates and it's not a big deal.

I appreciate the fact that Official Legacy servers have players, buildings, and dinos that have been there for 2 years. 

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1 hour ago, Arkasaurio said:

It's a lot of this for me too, especially the sense of scale. The maps are big, but knowing I'm connected to so many other players is amazing.

One point where I'll disagree, I actually think some of the best unofficials are more the way the game "was meant to be played" than the offficial scene, or at the very least could be. Ark is still full of bugs and exploits, with a top-notch admin team a lot of that can be circumvented. Stuck dino, admin gets it back for your. Character lost on transfer, you get your full character restored same day (or quickly). Duping/cheating/undermapping, insta-ban with proof. S+ is an objectively better building system if you get rid of everything OP and punish people for exploiting parts of it. Yes, it's coming to official soon, but some of the best part of that mod are too exploitable to make to officially, unless WC is adding professional server moderators for each server.

My biggest reason for spending most of my time on official is the longevity. Unofficial PvP servers are frequently played in seasons, or wiped, when they get stale - even with boosted rates, I don't really want to be forced to start over every 3 months. Yes I'm frequently wiped (or sustain major losses) more often than that playing official, but it's other players doing it and a challenge to be overcome. To put a point on that problem with unofficials, I started playing a well populated, reasonable rate, low mod unofficial PvP cluster with a "no-wipe outside extreme circumstances" approach. Unfortunately, because of exploitable bugs in a couple of those mods (some of the most used/popular of all time), the cluster has already wiped twice since I've been paying attention. I'm not salty about that, it's run  by a very skilled admin, with a background in software engineering and IT, so if someone was going to fix these things without wiping it's probably him, but here he is wiping his "no-wipe" server twice in as many months.

To add insult to injury there, the guy works his tail off (can tell based purely on discord response times) and a large number of players spew venom constantly over every little thing that they don't agree with. It's been like that on pretty much every unofficial I've ever tried, TBH I have no idea why admins do what they do and put up with it.

What I meant by "way the game is meant to be played" is from a technical standpoint. The rates, the freedom of choice, the overall mechanics.

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1 minute ago, Sup3riorArs3nal said:

What I meant by "way the game is meant to be played" is from a technical standpoint. The rates, the freedom of choice, the overall mechanics.

Yep, I figured that much. I still mean that the right unofficials are still probably more "they way the game is meant to be played." Imho, a populated 5 server cluster, with slightly increased rates, and some QOL mods that may make it into the official game (e.g. S+), but that also has a moderator who will fix many/all of the technical problems that Ark still has, is probably closer to the intended vision than current officials.

It's borderline, at best, and very few unofficial clusters fit that description, but I think there's a good argument to be made that by overcoming some of the worst glaring issues with the game, it get's closer to how it was meant to be played, even if some of the specifics are skewed. Yes it might not be as grindy/challenging or as open, but character loss on transfer, duping, hacking, and other exploits certainly aren't the "way the game was meant to be played," either.

I used to be Official or nothing 100%, but since launch and WCs inability and apparent lack of focus (mere fact that they're working on an expansion shows that) on fixing certain issues I am starting to wonder if unofficial is the better game. With no planned recurring revenue stream, once they're done making expansions the official scene is going to be left to rot - companies don't spend money if it can't make them money. That's at least a year out, but part of me thinks that if you truly love Ark, to the point you want to be playing years from now, its better to get used to the unofficial scene now. This makes me a sad dino :(, so weird to be in place where I wish there was a monthly membership fee and I had to spend money it.

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I used to play Official because I* was under the delusion* that Official was the only way the developers intended to play the game*. Then one day I realized* that the devs wouldn't have included unofficial if they didn't intend for people to play it that way*. Since then I've weighed my experiences and determined* that there isn't one single perk* achieved by playing on official that even begins to make* playing in those vile* cesspools* of vitriol* and virginity** worthwhile*. I used to feel differently about official servers*, but after a while I realized* it wasn't enjoyment so much as an unhealthy emotional attachment to a handful of Tamagotchis*. That's why I used to play official, and that's why I don't now*. Feel free to now tear my post apart and tell me how wrong I am and suggest that I said things I didn't say**.
 

* = My opinion based on my experience
** = My assumption based on my experience
 

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To be honest there are mainly 2 reasons holding me back: 

1. Lack of people and objective. I play xbox and there are no reliable servers that I am interested in. Because of that only like 5 people play on each server unless it is x10000 boosted and super pvp because there is literally nothing to do but fight when everything is given to you. I like a challenge, negotiations for peace, working for what I get, and that feeling of accomplishment after a big project or war is completed. 

2. Being told what to do. Unless it is my tribe talking with me about what needs to be done around base, I don't want anyone telling me what to do, and banning me when I play the game the way I like. 

 

There are many other things, but those for the most part are quite situational with each server you go to. Main thing is just that I need people around to keep the game fun. Ark to me is just as much of a social game as it is a war/dino/minecraft/game of thrones styled game. If you remove the people then that is the core of the game gone in my perspective. At that point skyrim makes me happier to play, and doesn't make me lose sleep over it either. 

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5 minutes ago, Stephania said:

Reasons why i play official servers.
-No Admins.
-No Mods.
-No Rules.
-No Random Wipe.

Reasons why i not play unofficial servers.

-Admins.
-Mods.
-Rules.
-Constant Wipe.

exactly what i would say.

on official you play currently in Hardmode with 255 ping and disconnects.

oh lord, think about this. what would be when officials are running perfect.

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I play unofficial.  I have my own cluster (4 servers).

I've lessened up the grind a bit.  XP rates are 1.5 so that isn't much better than official but some.  I've logged into admin 1 time the entire time my cluster has been up and that was for a bug that a group didn't get the trophy for completing an instance.  We did have 1 wipe, on 1 server, due to a bug that also took out my backup and reported same to WC.  I've seen that wipe bug before but have always been able to restore other than that 1 time.  I now ck backups at least 3 times a week now to insure I have 1.  All servers are backed up at least weekly.  I do a manual backup if WC advertises a large patch after the wipe bug on every server.

Servers are PVE/PVP.  Consent to PVP but buildings/bases are very hard to destroy.  I've set the servers up more like a MMORPG not a survival game.  Ils is starter with difficulty/dino spawns low for starting/leveling characters, SC is next in difficulty, Center is 3rd, and Rag is next to official difficulty with very few changes.  Arb will be 1.0+ with buildings that can be destroyed both by wild and PVP.  DIno levels increase according to difficulty.  Lost a 42K health and 1900+ melee wyvern tonight, in fact, in the scar on rag.  Cloned there also with my toon,  (I don't run with max stats, ever, like I said I've logged into admin once.)

Taming doesn't take hours.  Most of us have jobs.  Raising doesn't take days either.  Again that job/real life factor.  30 mods on the servers so it does take a computer with decent memory capability.  Most are building item  mods but a few others like pet finder, gravestone (no corpse runs), etc.  No OP armor/guns/melee weapons/etc outside of what the SW mods include which are close to normal.

Most of us played SWG for too many years so we run the SW mods as well.  Most of us on this cluster like the systems in MMORPGs and are not too big on survival or "programmed to die" games.

Each to their own, but I doubt we'd be playing ARK if WC hadn't of gave all the choices.  With those choices, we'll probably be playing for years.  After all, most of us played SWG for the 9 years it was up and at least a couple of years on Bas and another couple after on my own SWGEMU server.

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22 hours ago, LPTF said:

I have been wondering this for a long time, and so I thought I'd get some feedback from the rest of you.

I seems like the majority of Ark users who play online multiplayer choose to use official servers, rather than unofficial.

I'm sure the reasons for this are many and varied, and I'd like to know what some of them are.

If a company came out with a professional, very high speed Ark server network with multiple maps, cross server transfers, proper customer service etc, would people actually use it? Or is this something that makes people always stay with Official?

All thoughts appreciated.

official servers have influx of new people non stop as being default option on list and lot of people doesnt even know there are unofficial servers.

on other hand there is no proper filter for unofficial servers, you cant filter them by speed, mods, or other changes they made to vanilla ark game play. unofficials are prone to admin/owner abuse and lot of them close without announcement because their owners got bored.

so giving all of that, there is 0 chance of finding populated with vanilla setting and no mods so i dont play on unofficials

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5 minutes ago, OttoGrunf said:

on other hand there is no proper filter for unofficial servers, you cant filter them by speed, mods, or other changes they made to vanilla ark game play. unofficials are prone to admin/owner abuse and lot of them close without announcement because their owners got bored.

so giving all of that, there is 0 chance of finding populated with vanilla setting and no mods so i dont play on unofficials

Like this? https://ark-servers.net/

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