1 more veteran quiting ARK

[Nekromantiker]

45 minutes ago, DoughBoy93 said:

And how does one go about finding a perfect server to play on unofficial I've never looked past official servers. 

Always been told there is admin abuse and crazy stats that make dodo 1shot everything lol

I would play a server that has a tribe limit size and close to official rates I don't mind a little boosted but not crazy boosted.

xp 2 tame 4 harvest 3 ?

[Ranger1]

2 hours ago, DoughBoy93 said:

And how does one go about finding a perfect server to play on unofficial I've never looked past official servers. 

Always been told there is admin abuse and crazy stats that make dodo 1shot everything lol

I would play a server that has a tribe limit size and close to official rates I don't mind a little boosted but not crazy boosted.

I would suggest looking through the Dedicated Server Discussion section on this forum for whatever platform you play on.  Needless to say even with that you will likely want to test the waters on a few before you settle on your favorite.  It depends on what you are looking for.

One suggestion that works well and doesn't get mentioned often is to check on YouTube and/or Twitch.  Many ARK content creators have dedicated servers set up for their Patreons (folks that donate a buck or 5 a month to support the channel).  Not only can you see exactly what the server is like in detail (from their videos), but many of them run clusters with most of the different maps linked together.  Of course if you don't care to watch ARK content on YouTube or Twitch that may not be your cup of tea, but many have found happy homes in this fashion.

If you wish to do any large scale breeding, or if you are struggling on a server filled with large scale breeders that refuse to be cooperative and keep the server at it's limit, unofficial servers are far superior for this sort of PVE game play.

[Lancelot]

11 hours ago, epicfailure said:

does this happen 100% when transferring?? Sounds like we are on the same boat, official and pve.  I've looked everywhere but this is the only thread that mentions it. Anyone?

No far from it. I ran 3 alpha bosses a couple of weeks ago with my Aberration character. 

Tekgrams where still there when I logged on aberration. I'd advise not to transfer to much though. Character loss between transfer can still happen.

[Arkasaurio]

3 hours ago, DoughBoy93 said:

And how does one go about finding a perfect server to play on unofficial I've never looked past official servers. 

Always been told there is admin abuse and crazy stats that make dodo 1shot everything lol

I would play a server that has a tribe limit size and close to official rates I don't mind a little boosted but not crazy boosted.

Some one should really write a guide, because it is sort of hard to get started on. At work so I can't put that together now however here are my basics.

1. Take a look at the server recruitment forum here - save posts for servers who's rates, mods, described community, etc. are what I'm looking for.

2. Locate servers on Battlemetrics, Arkservers, etc. to get an idea of the actual player base. I'm personally looking for clusters that have dozens to 100+ consistent players.

3. Jump on the servers that look the best, and hope there is a link to a Discord channel or website on login. If not and the server seems otherwise great, but there's no posted links, I'll ask in general chat. If website and discord exist I go to both of these before I do anything in game.

4. If a website exists this is a really good sign for server longevity and stability, but there are plenty of great servers without websites. If it is there though, make sure to check it out for rules, all servers on the cluster, event info, etc.

5. MOST IMPORTANT: Get into the Discord channel and ask any questions that are not answered either in pinned discord messages, a website if it exists, etc. Most unofficial servers, even well populated, are welcoming to new players so ask anything you need to know to make your determination.

And a few things to keep in mind:

*There will probably be rules about what's okay that are a little more involved than what you find on official. You'll have a much better time if you try to follow the spirit of the rules instead of trying to loop hole and lawyer you're way through things.

*If you play PvP, understand that the whole spectrum of what that means is embraced. There are definitely servers that embrace fully open PvP pretty much the way it is on Official, but a lot have rules against various griefy things, or to allow recently raided players a chance to get back on their feet. Love that or hate it, just understand that is difficult for admins to keep populated servers while allowing folks to get foundation wiped over and over again, especially if they aren't doing a seasonal server wipe schedule.

*Joining someone's unofficial server is like going to a poker game, game night, etc. at a new friends house. Even if you're better (especially at PvP) it's not exactly to polite to smash the competition day 1 or week 1. Make friends and participate in the community a little before you start beating people up too hard. Remember, admins and stake holders on the server (big tribes) usually care most about server population so if your behavior is actively driving players off the server in large numbers expect consequences even if technically within the rules.

Edit: I forgot about the plight of the console folks, this was written pretty much with just PC in mind. With what I understand about how this works on xbox at least I think most of this still applies in general, but I don't think you guys have a Battlemetrics like site for server analytics.

[Esquire1980]

4 hours ago, Olivar said:

There's sites promoting unofficials, there's a server advertisement forum, there's reddit and who knows how many other sites out there.
But yes, if you keep listening to every bob's input on unofficial servers and don't seek them out yourself, you're going to remain stuck where you are.

Biggest factor finding a good community is actively contributing to it.

You bet, and there's a boat-load of them too.

1 of our servers that get more of the gameplay is;

 

 

Rank:

#7416

 

One of our least played servers ranks at;

  

Rank:

#39526

 

This is according to BATTLEMETRICS.

 

If some1 can't find a home in 39,526 servers they probably should think about leaving.  The Center, on our cluster does get some gameplay so I would imagine there's servers below that rank as well.

 

 

Personally, I tend not to worry all that much about server ranking as we have every map which tends to split our small playerbase anyway but this does show a bit of just how many servers there are out there.

 

 

 

 

[LouSpowells]

 

On 2/4/2018 at 12:09 PM, ItWasntMe said:

Don't like abusive administration that's why I play official

Wow...that's still an excuse people use? lol

[Ranger1]

4 hours ago, Esquire1980 said:

but this does show a bit of just how many servers there are out there.

Indeed.  I think most people don't realize what a small fraction of ARKs rather large player base actually play on official servers.

[1david25]

9 hours ago, DoughBoy93 said:

And how does one go about finding a perfect server to play on unofficial I've never looked past official servers. 

Always been told there is admin abuse and crazy stats that make dodo 1shot everything lol

I would play a server that has a tribe limit size and close to official rates I don't mind a little boosted but not crazy boosted.

There are thousands of unofficials. Not all of them are controlled by power hungry people. It's like going shopping. Look around until you find the ones you like. If you want advice though, look for communities that have been around for a long time and that care about their players.

[OttoGrunf]

On 2/4/2018 at 7:56 PM, Esquire1980 said:

You all might try "unofficial".  We've got plenty of room, plenty of player slots open, plenty of tames  left, plenty of building to do.  And, we've got every "official" map on our cluster.

becouse there is no people so nothing is ocupied

[Esquire1980]

13 minutes ago, OttoGrunf said:

becouse there is no people so nothing is ocupied

We have "some" people of we wouldn't have servers at 7K rank.

Now, if your playstyle is to do nothing except go around and kill other players, raid bases, etc etc etc I wouldn't suggest you even think about our servers.  And I further made a "niche" by setting up our servers as more of a MMORPG instead of a survival game.  (a leveling/solo server, Increasing difficulty with other maps, food and drink are buff situations, taming takes minutes, imprints take minutes, maturation takes a little over an hour with 100% imprints more than possible, etc that are outside of vanilla survival  and large guild design).  I further limited our playerbase by setting up 60 person servers and will not add more due to available space on maps.  I further ask people to limit their building to 1 mansion per map as I played SWG for about 9 years and I well know how dead houses/cities can mess up a sandbox game.  I would believe that 5 mansions are just about enough for anybody.

But, if a player is looking for more of a MMORPG experience, a friendly community that helps, a mature playerbase that doesn't believe in getting their fun out of keeping some1 else from playing the game, then you might consider our servers of any 1 of the 40,000 + that are out there.

[Balska]

On 04/02/2018 at 7:56 PM, Esquire1980 said:

You all might try "unofficial".  We've got plenty of room, plenty of player slots open, plenty of tames  left, plenty of building to do.  And, we've got every "official" map on our cluster.

i already tried, but admins are not serious. I don't want to waste my time. With officials, you can trade with a big community of traders.

[ac273]

Why are you all playing PvE!??!?  No wonder you are all bored out of your minds.  You are choosing to no play over half the game.  jez!

[oLaminate]

Its all good for me cause im on pvp server. The tlc update gonna be lit!!!!

[Guest DJRone89]

3 hours ago, ac273 said:

Why are you all playing PvE!??!?  No wonder you are all bored out of your minds.  You are choosing to no play over half the game.  jez!

And the award for most ridiculous comment goes to this guy. It was a tough decision but yours takes the biscuit.

[ac273]

1 hour ago, DJRone89 said:

And the award for most ridiculous comment goes to this guy. It was a tough decision but yours takes the biscuit.

Go play mindcraft then.  

[Guest DJRone89]

1 hour ago, ac273 said:

Go play mindcraft then.  

Yawn and it’s *Minecraft. Did it ever occur to you that people have different preferences?

I own a petrol guzzling sports cars that leaves a blackhole in my wallet. I could sell it and buy a high end gaming rig, but I’d rather keep it so I enjoy this game on an affordable console.

Does me playing on console, let alone PvE (well RP PvP) offend you?

[KingGalahad]

I can understand the op quitting Ark. unlike him though, I play unofficial. The biggest problem for me is the fact I play on Xbox. Ever since release it has appeared that Xbox players get no love from wild card. Although they released ragnarok with the game, they never released any fixes for the map for the many issues that were reported (and fixed by the ragnarok devs, just not released) until this latest update where we finally got the desert expansion to the map. I can't count how many dinos got stuck in the hidden metal cave during that time. 

It seemed like wild card was just too pre occupied with making aberration to do anything else. Even that map is a major fail imho. Sure, the challenge of the new map and ways to get around was fun at first, but once you have gotten a rock drake, and became boring fast. All style but no real substance. 

So while I enjoyed Ark, pubg has taken over my latest gaming addiction. Getting those chicken dinners is mostly what I am up to nowadays. Wild card just delayed things too much and I lost interest. 

[AngryGamer666]

Im playing on an Official PVE server Aberration, i play solo and we have an OK community who help each other. That said come August i am going on holiday with my family for 10 days and that is when i am quitting unless Wildcard review their decay timers to allow us to still have real lives. Once you pass the thatch stage the timers should then allow you at least 14 days before your dinos starve or everything deletes.

[Anarki]

ARK offers many options; Official, Unofficial, PvP, PvE and DLC and due to this WC has created their own problems as they cannot support all of it for their player size.

Saying that though, these options allow us all to play nearly any style, type and with different settings we like. Its up to us to go out and find the correct server for us, its not down to WC to choose for us.

I play on Official and yes, we get capped fairly regularly but it is my choice to stay there. Plenty of my friends on that server also play Unofficial and its my choice that I dont go over and play Unofficial with them just as it is your own right to choose which server you play on.

Yes WC could make more servers but by the sounds of it, many people just want a small populated server so that they can build large bases and have everything to themselves... if that is the case - play Singleplayer or find a low populated Unofficial. 

I would like more Official servers but I wont keep complaining about it as this is a stance that they have taken and are unlikely to change.

[Sid69]

Why do I quit Ark.

 

I want to share with you some thoughts I have about the game today. With 1300+ hours played on Official PVP 
servers I know some will agree and some will not, but that’s ok, because I want this to be a fair debate. 
For people that played the game for long time, it will be easier to get my point,
however, for people that didn’t, they still will get the idea. 
And I begin this argument with a quick summary about the topics I will elaborate.

1. An excellent game that has become just for alpha tribes.

 

2. New and mid game players not getting how to play on a pvp server.

3. CrossArk

4. Blackmarket

5. New meta

1. I know that anyone that has more than 1000+ hours played on pvp servers will guess 
what I mean by “An excellent game that has become for alpha tribes”.
The ways Ark gives you to play and develop in this game are amazing, 
and that’s why I consider it the best survival/open world. But, there is a problem

2. There is a lot of people that don’t get how a pvp server works, or how its intended to work. 
And there’s no warning, neither tutorial about it. I see a lot of people play PvE in PvP servers because they 
don’t know how it works until they are wiped and loose all. Even then, they keep on playing 
to farm and tame, farm and tame, until they are wiped again. I think there should be a tutorial, that 
makes them realize what a PvP server is and how to play in it.

 

3.  CrossArk its like a double-edged knife, it has some really cool features, and at the same time negative ones. The cool stuff
is that Ark is no longer one map, it merges every map and servers. You don’t need to “stay” in a map to enjoy the dinos and weapons.
But on the other way, as I said before, a mega tribe comes to your server with
raper queens, wyverns, rock elementals, gigantos, quetzals, brontos, paracers, rex, stegos, etc. and wipes it in 30 minutes.
On previous releases you had a chance because the only way was through the pillars,
so you could stop the attack on time. But with bacons now you have no chance. I think pillars were ok, but bacons are too much.

 

4. CrossArk opened a blackmarcket of breeded dinos and structures. 
I know some found a way to get money while they play, but anyone likes 
the pay-to-win games.

 

5. Ark became a game where the most important thing are numbers…tribes with 15+ 
active players will last, the others not. The more players your tribe has, the better it is. 
And now it became a fight against alpha and mega tribes through CrossArk.

 

Thanks for reading and tell me what do you think. Do you agree?, do you like the way ark is nowadays?, what would you change?.

[Gogohorse]

I agree with this and I love the bacon lol

[Jrminot]

I host a 3 ark cluster (Island,Rag,Aberration) PVE, x2 all, x4 breeding, no mods. Been up for about 2 years now. Low population (so lots of space).

There are tons of unofficial servers out there. Worst case, stand up your own and get people to play with you.

[daniel646]

15 hours ago, ac273 said:

Why are you all playing PvE!??!?  No wonder you are all bored out of your minds.  You are choosing to no play over half the game.  jez!

some people like me would rather play on pve simple because its more relaxed and i personly dont want to play for days gettiing a good base and dinos for me to get raided when im offline and come back to nothing. what the point 

[RxBilly]

On 2/5/2018 at 8:36 AM, DoughBoy93 said:

And how does one go about finding a perfect server to play on unofficial I've never looked past official servers. 

Always been told there is admin abuse and crazy stats that make dodo 1shot everything lol

I would play a server that has a tribe limit size and close to official rates I don't mind a little boosted but not crazy boosted.

Well there is over 30k unofficial servers to pick and choose from  https://toparkservers.com/  ( to the moderators of this site .. im not advertising my  2 clustered servers so no need to delete this post.. just trying to help out )

I gave  up on Official servers long time ago..

 

Cheers

[DeningWei]

Here I was thinking that this was another one of those posts where people say they are going to quit but just keep on playing.  But reading what you have said, I can see that even if you didn't want to quit, the game is forcing you to quit the way you want to play anyway as you can't do anything.