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Community Crunch 134: Small Tribes Servers, Upcoming Structure Changes, & More!


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Hey Survivors! Welcome to the latest edition of the Community Crunch! :Jerbhi:

Upcoming Structure Changes!

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Later this week we plan to roll out an update that will make some changes to our current structure decay rules. In essence, we are redefining what we consider a viable minimum base or set of structures. Structures which do not meet this definition will rapidly decay resulting in the ability to either destroy them by hand or have the server automatically destroy the structures when they are loaded/leave stasis.  Our intent behind this change is to address structure spamming issues (pillar/foundation spam) which often takes place when players attempt to claim or grief different areas of the map in both PVE and PVP. We anticipate that this particular update will be iterative and there most likely will be additional adjustments in the coming weeks as we work to resolve this issue.

Code of Conduct Changes!

Following our previous Crunch, the Enforcement Team are back again with another important notice regarding the Code of Conduct. We'd like to make Official Players aware of the following revision:

Hacking and Exploiting

Revision

Exploiting - examples are not limited to but can include:

  • Attacking from, travelling through, or building in unintended game-zones (under the mesh or above the map)
  • Duplication of tames, items, or characters
  • Unintended building mechanics (such as floating structures, using the world barrier as a snap point)
  • Building a box on a platform saddled dino to completely prevent it from taking damage
  • Modifying your game files to remove key graphical components (water, fog, etc)
  • Attacking or blocking players through the terrain with dinosaurs
  • Intentionally crashing users or servers (through DDoS or otherwise)
  • Placing excessive quantities of C4 to prevent hostile C4 from being placed
  • Stacking multiple creatures inside each other's models via raising babies close together, teleporting them near each other, downloading them, etc (ex: multiple brontos in a 1x1 foundation area)

Please remember that these rules are constantly undergoing change, and they are never exhaustive. In addition to the above change, it's recommended you check out the entire code here.

Small Tribe Servers Tomorrow!

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Tomorrow we will be releasing our first set of speciality servers on all platforms. These servers will be Small Tribes servers which limit the tribe size to 6 players maximum and alliances are not allowed. Server rates will be 3x (harvest, taming, experience) and will not be affected by Evolution Events. They will also have 2x maturation, 2x egg hatching, 2x gestation and 50% reduced mating interval. These servers will undergo a trial period of 60 days. If after the 60 days they remain active, we will continue to keep the servers active. If after the 60 days the player population is very low, we will try a new game mode type and online new servers for another 60 days.

If you have other game mode ideas for Speciality servers that you think would be fun to play be sure to leave a comment in our suggestion collection thread:

Community Livestream #3 This Thursday!

A reminder for our stream this Thursday, we are accepting bases for our Base Tour! If you want to show off your base send some screenshots to the email below and include your server name/number. Unofficial server bases are also accepted as long as your server admin will allow us to come tour on your server. All platforms are welcome to participate. We look forward to seeing all of your base designs!

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We are still accepting any type of ARK related fanart to be featured in the Showcase section of the stream and entries are always open. This can be drawings, videos, builds, ANSEL screenshots, handmade crafts, anything ARK related!

You can submit your ARKwork to our streaming email address: arkfans@studiowildcard.com

Be sure to follow us on our Twitch page so you don't miss a stream! twitch.tv/survivetheark

We'll be hosting our next Community Live Stream on Thursday, June the 7th! We hope to see you there :)

Countdown!

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The countdown to our special event begins! You can watch the counter tick down at the top of the forums page. Survivors can look forward to some epic discoveries with new content and challenges, and we'll have even more exciting news coming in the middle of the month, so stay tuned! ;)

Mod Community News!

Zen here, with your dose of mod news!

Word is that Eco is working on a new decor mod! She's shown us a preview of her Primordial Structures decor which you can see below. The mod is still a work in progress, so I can't say when it will be available, but we'll be including this in her already impressive lineup of sponsored decor mods.

Last week we concluded the submission period for the fifth mod tutorial contest. I will be announcing the winner for that next week. In the meantime, we got some pretty exciting submissions. The quality of these tutorials have increased considerably due to the increased time to work on them, and for that, I want to thank everyone who participates in the tutorial contest.

I received tutorials for ballistic missiles that have an impact on the environment, remote-controlled spy drones, a dynamic creature skin, and a mapping tutorial on cave creation (Something that a lot of people have struggled with).

Tutorial_005_Missile.pngTutorial_005_Drone.JPGTutorial_005_Skin.JPGTutorial_005_Cave.JPG

Links to all of these tutorials are available in the contest thread.

This month the theme for the mod tutorial contest is "Beach and Ocean Fun" and the submission period is currently open until June 30th. Tutorials for this contest could easily range from map level content to maybe some fun mini-games for the summer. We'll have to see what the mod community thinks up! ?

The Great Migration #3: ETA June 12th!

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Just a reminder that there are just under 2 weeks left for the next stage of our Legacy migration. 

Here is a quick breakdown on how this process works:

Taking Down Low Pop Servers
With calculations based on sustained player-count as well as the popularity of game mode, we will be removing lower population legacy servers, most of which retain a 0-1 player concurrent population. These servers will be taken offline on June 12th. Any existing server that is not considered a low pop server and is not taken down at this time will still exist on the Legacy network.

Legacy servers will continue to remain on a separate cluster from the new cluster, which means you will not be able to transfer anything between Legacy servers and the new servers.

Servers Up for Deprecation
Below is a complete list of the LEGACY servers that will be deprecated come June 12th. You have from now until then to move your belongings onto a server not present on this list. Please click one of the links below. They are separated by platform (PC, Xbox, and PS4).

Most Popular Servers
To avoid players having to move again in future, we're publishing the most popular servers across all platforms. These servers are the top 30 most active Legacy servers on each platform and are ones most likely to be safe from any future server removals.

PC:

Quote

napveragnarok14
thesapveofficialserver505
napveragnarok13
theeupveragnarok35
napveragnarok50
thesaofficialserver502
theeupveragnarok33
theeuragnarok24
theeupveragnarok59
ocpveragnarok39
theasiapveofficialserver526
pveeuaberration905
primitivepvpofficialserver455
naragnarok45
naragnarok2
pveeuaberration904
theeuragnarok26
ocragnarok38
naragnarok47
naragnarok1
theeupveragnarok34
ocpveaberration909
theasiapveragnarok41
theasiapveofficialserver523
theeupveisolatedragnarok60
theasiapveofficialserver511
officialserver5
officialserver37
thesaofficialserver501
theeuragnarok21

Xbox:

Quote

pvenaxboxofficialragnarok8
pveeuxboxofficialragnarok5
euxboxofficialragnarok7
pvenaxboxofficialragnarok2
naxboxofficialragnarok10
pveeuxboxofficialragnarok4
euaberration1100
pvenaxboxofficialserver302
euxboxofficialragnarok3
naxboxofficialragnarok1
pveeuxboxprimitiveplus4
euxboxcrossarkcluster2ragnarok
naxboxofficialragnarok9
naaberration1109
euxboxofficialragnarok6
pvenaxboxofficialserver76
naaberration1113
pveeuxboxofficialserver168
pvenaxboxofficialserver400
officialserver3
pveeuxboxofficialserver27
pvenaxboxofficialserver70
naxboxthehundredcrossark7ragnarok
naxboxofficialserver415
pvenaxboxofficialserver91
naxboxofficialserver101
naxboxthehundredcrossark4ragnarok
naaberration1115
naxboxofficialserver63
pveeuxboxthecenter729

PS4:

Quote

pveeups4officialragnarok5
pvenaps4officialragnarok4
pvenaps4officialragnarok8
eups4officialragnarok7
pveeups4officialragnarok2
naps4officialragnarok9
eups4officialragnarok6
naps4crossarkcluster7ragnarok
pvenaps4officialserver644
naps4officialragnarok3
pveeups4thecenter192
eups4thecenter581
naps4officialragnarok10
eups4officialserver16
eups4thecenter582
pveeups4aberration900
pvenaps4thecenter325
pvenaps4officialserver627
pveeups4officialserver676
naps4primitiveplus6
eups4officialserver780
pvenaps4officialserver632
eups4primitiveplus11
pveeups4officialserver182
pvenaps4officialserver630
pvenaps4aberration912
eups4officialserver20
pvenaps4scorchedearth329
eups4crossarkcluster2ragnarok
pveeups4thecenter188

How To Move Servers
If you are unfamiliar with the process, you are able to upload your items, creatures, and player through the Obelisk terminal, supply drops, as well as the Tek Transmitter. Survivors are advised to use Cross-ARK immediately to relocate their belongings onto a server that is not included in our take-down list above.

Allocation of New Servers
Our new method of onlining new servers has been through what we call "FRESH" servers. These servers are added to the main network but have downloads disabled for a period of 60 days. After 60 days that restraint is removed and they are officially joined to the main network. We plan to online set of Fresh servers on a monthly basis for all platforms so stay tuned for more information on when new ones will be added if you're looking for a fresh start.

Server Saves of Deleted Servers
We will make the save files available as soon as we can. We will host the PC files which anyone can download and then you are welcome to re-host the save file for your own use. We'll include a link to where you can download server saves in this post when they are available. Nitrado will also be able to provide the saves for use on Nitrado servers for console, as they have done in the past.

ARK: Super Fan Edition!

Collectors_edition_no_game_bg2_1024x1024

The Collector's Edition of ARK: Survival Evolved is available for purchase without the game or seasons pass included, for those who already own the game. This special edition includes:

- HANDCRAFTED, LEATHER-BOUND EXPLORER'S NOTEBOOK: featuring the Dossiers of every creature you'll encounter in "ARK: Survival Evolved", with tips on capturing, taming and training them. With 100+ creatures in the game currently, there's plenty to read up on in this fantastic tome.
- THE OFFICIAL ARK LOGO NECKLACE: to show your dedication to being a Survivor.
- A CLOTH MAP OF THE ARK ISLAND: so you'll always know where you are!
- COLLECTOR'S EDITION CHEST: All of this Ark-themed booty comes packed in a faux-wooden chest that will impress your friends and fellow players!
- A POSTER FEATURING THE DEVELOPMENT TEAM BEHIND ARK
- ARK OFFICIAL SOUNDTRACK CD

You can purchase it world-wide today on our website: playark.com

ARK: Evolution Event!

large.large.EvoEvent.png.eeb58694dd9d4cb

Survivors across ALL Platforms will be receiving a special Evolution Event perk this weekend! It will be active from the Friday the 8th of June at 1 PM EST until Monday the 11th of June at 3 PM EST. All Official Servers across each platform will be undergoing this evolutionary change which includes:

2x Harvesting Rates
2x Taming Rates
2x EXP Rates

That's it for this post guys! As always if you’ve got anything to share you can find us at:

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark
Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark
Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark
Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark
Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark

All the best,
Studio Wildcard


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Just now, Eanaya said:

Great so instead of making pillars with ladders that do not affect (and often protect) resource spawns, people will now (have to) build small houses that will block them...

Sounds like it. Or some ridiculous pillar mess that causes more lag and unintended consequences. But I’m hopeful the master race PC crew will not suffer too much from this so the console players can see this change quickly. Our SE server literally has over 10000 pillars covering the blue ob and desert towards green. 

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I swear you devs are the biggest morons ever. You are just going to make things much worse because everyone will find out what the minimum is and just spam that instead. Also tribes wouldnt find a need to spam so much if you guys actually gave defenders more tools to use.  Spamming is one of the few things that can slow down a raid or give some warning at the very least.

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Yeah pretty much every server will be void of territory for meat runs or resources. And good luck trying to get around on any big land dinos because your gonna get stuck on the huts spammed everywhere, if you can even get it out your base with all the newb thatch huts that will be outside our gates. Not that you'd ever want to leave your base for fear of being killed by the Godzilla sized Laggosaur from the trillions of new structures built to replace the pillars.

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  • Wildcard Community
1 hour ago, Andy95 said:

For the Small Tribe Servers for the Ps4 or all platforms do you have to start from scratch or can you transfer your character and  equipment over. ? 

Small tribes servers will be completely fresh and only have transfers between the other small tribe servers. This goes for PC and consoles. Transfers will however be both ways between the ones in the cluster (allowing transfer in and out).

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1 hour ago, chrissytheblesser said:

Devs, you seem to be ignoring one very valuable use of pillering:  to protect valuable spawn areas that everyone uses.  When a player builds on a high resource area then everyone loses out.  We are not claiming land, we are trying to protect it.

im agree with this... some people dont know(cant use english/never chat) and will build close to Valuable thing... 

we protect resource

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I can only see this being a bad thing, people need to be able to protect their land and important resources, if you take this away from us you are just asking for every server to get ruined by trolls and people who do not care that they are stopping everyone else from playing, ie: killing resource spawns, dino spawns, and building so close to each other that the lag constantly crashes your game

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In the worst case, it also means that those pillars which protect areas which should be (arguably) unbuildable in the first place are now unmaintainable.  Case and point, I've had to pillar off a great deal of charge nodes on our aberration server to prevent unresponsive tribes from completely enclosing all the easily available charge nodes.  It would be nice if you could at least fix problematic situations like that prior to wiping out those protective structures!

 

(PS @lilpanda on an unrelated note, ping's been great on PVE NA Ab 380 since you took a look at it.  Thanks for all the help!)

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My server is at constant tame cap almost every single day, one of the only things keeping the flood of constant new people from keeping us at game cap ALL THE TIME! Is the pillars stopping them from building in the first place. So basicly WC just wants the money for people buying the game without anyone being able to actually play the game. If y'all want noobs to have more places to go maybe you should open new servers or increase the quality of the ones you have so they can actually handle having more people on them instead of crashing all the time

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1 minute ago, TyphoidBeaver said:

My server is at constant tame cap almost every single day, one of the only things keeping the flood of constant new people from keeping us at game cap ALL THE TIME! Is the pillars stopping them from building in the first place. So basicly WC just wants the money for people buying the game without anyone being able to actually play the game. If y'all want noobs to have more places to go maybe you should open new servers or increase the quality of the ones you have so they can actually handle having more people on them instead of crashing all the time

I think the point is that WC has determined that the excessive structures via pillaring are causing server lag issues, which none of us are in a great position to confirm/deny.  However, the sentiment's all the same, in that pillaring is a natural response to several other issues which need to be addressed at the same time (building on strategic resources, griefing via structure proximity, overpopulation of sections of map due to spawn zones, etc)

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I also have to agree that this will only worsen the problem.  I have Swamp pillared off on my server simply because all the other nearby meat spawn areas are ruined due to bases.  I have at least 4 tribes and myself come and leave gigas in swamp just so that we can get meat.

If you increase the structure requirements, we wind up having to build more to save what we own, therefor ruining the spawns and creating more lag.  If we don't build more, they decay and make it available for someone new or a troll to build on precious resource spawns.  For certain maps such as Ragnarok, we have to do this because we hit server cap constantly and we simply cannot afford to have more people on it.

There are also portions of the map that need that land claimed just so that tribes won't get blocked in or have a neighbor only feet from their door.  I have a huge base, I try to isolate it so that one, people with their own bases don't add on to my own lag, two, so that if needed I can expand a little, and three, so that people don't fly overhead and get hammered with so much stuff loading in from multiple bases that they crash.  Also what does this mean for those with a yard that needs to be spawn blocked so we don't have stuff spawning and eating our dinos?

It's a struggle, I know.  But right where it is, is a delicate balance of being able to claim land while not ruining the spawns and also being able to block the spawns for inside bases.  A balance that shouldn't be disturbed.

Edited by Psychowing
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Pillars are used to protect resource spawns. As many have mentioned. Some of those spawn points include: beaver dams spawn points. Spinosaur spawn points. Metal/obsidian spawns. Giga spawns. Oil nodes. Penguin spawns. (339 has a whole penguin island completely destroyed by a player building). Hidden lake. Smugglers pass. As suggested earlier in a post by another player. I will agree. Expand the no build zones around other players. Create no build zone for these resource spawns. Expand the no build zone around the obliesks. 339 has an issue with a massive build that has green obliesk nearly impassable on foot. And red obliesk and surrounding land is completely pillared and preventing new players from building anywhere near it. Plan to change build zones. Give us that 2 week warning like when you added the new snow zone to island. 

On a side note. Rag maps stay capped with dinos. Its such a large map. Maybe consider something to fix it.

Regards

Aphy

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