Ark needs an Overhaul.

[EliteQuarmada]

Ark needs an Overhaul.

 

To preface; this will be long. Strap in and follow me. Hopefully this makes it to the right people. Even if those people are another game studio. Let's begin.

Ark is an amazing idea. An incredible time sink. An addictive ride. A hot mess. A potential masterpiece. What studio wildcard has failed to deliver, a fun and balanced experience, is the huge problem holding this game back. The melding pot of personal experience, taming, breeding, survival, A.I. enemies, and Player enemies is horrible. From potential resource blocking, griefing, offline raiding, the grind to payoff ratio, the setback of starting fresh on a advanced server, or waking up to having nothing and simply not being able to recoup from that (minus the bugs/code) is the most detrimental part of playing this game. They got it all wrong. The only reason most people still play this game is because there isn't a reasonable substitute or competition. If something else better comes along then I am not the only one jumping ship. Facebook did it to myspace. Someone is going to do it to wildcard. 

But there is hope. Here are a couple ideas that I have for the improvement and longevity of the game.

1. Official P.V.E must be the backbone of COMPETITIVE P.V.P.

This one is huge. I want you to fully understand what this means; so for an example, we look to Pokemon. Stay with me. Even if you never played pokemon before I will break this down. Competitive Pokemon starts with the story mode(PvE) and teaches you all about the game as you go. Eventually, you beat the gym leaders and elite 4(Bosses) and can take on the true challenge...other players(PvP). Along the way you learn of breeding and EV's and IV's.(Breeding) You build strategy through move selection.(Builiding & Engrams) Finally you can throw your hat in the ring with a fully trained team.(Tribemates/Dinos/Base). The difference being...if you lose(offline/online raided) you don't lose all your progress. At worst you lose half your pokedollars and faint. You were there for the fight and you can always retrain and try again. In ark....that is just not possible. Both ark and Pokemon at the highest level command time and grinding, but one rewards you the other punishes. If you lost a pokemon battle and had to start all the way over...i.can't even imagine.

The problem is the gap created by losing or the gap that exist prior to even competing. Not to mention the multitude of people who can't even build up to do a boss on official because of this gap. Constant wipes and trolls. The playing field is uneven and battles aren't genuine. A PvE core can fix this. If official PvE characters could transfer to official PvP and vice versa, then it would become possible to complete the game, build your character(s), then take them to PvP when you felt ready. Nobody wants to build in peace forever and fight A.I. forever. On that same note, nobody wants to never be able to do anything because they can't progress. This also would build a safe haven that all players would appreciate. Official PvP should be just that....PvP. No bossfights, no breeding, no taming. Just building, destroying, surviving.

Tames should be able to be brought over from PvE (One way ticket) to official PvP with the express purpose of helping with the fight. Knowing full well that they can die there. If your breeding pair exist on your PvE then having that as a fallback would be great. 

Being able to establish a true Homebase(PvE) and go out and compete(PvP) when you wanted is the core this game is missing. PvE to PvP symbiosis. 

2. Different PvP game modes must be introduced. The current PvP game mode needs structure and balance. 

Once the first point is handled, this point is easier to tackle. Building off of what wildcard has implemented with genesis, there needs to be structure to a wide range pvp map. Instead of, or in conjunction to, the mission areas, there should be designated base areas across each PvP map with the ability to be added onto and built up. Think of a fusion between elder scrolls online Cyrodill (I will explain if you are unfamiliar) and the current style.

The elder scrolls did this right. Wildcard needs to straight rip the idea and ark it out. In elder scrolls you can opt to compete in online pvp in a huge map called cyrodill. You take your character, and based on which faction you fight for, you wage war across the map by strategically attacking forts and resources occupied by the enemy factions and vying for land and power through teamwork, solo disrupt, raids, player killing, and base defending. You can fortify areas and really make a difference. There are npc's in elder scrolls but a.i. dinos/tames could make up the difference in ark.

The idea is to have several premade factions across each map. Let's go with 4. When you join a server you choose which faction you want to fight for. You and your tribe can join the same faction. Each faction fights for the grids (squares that are 10 lat by 10 long) on the map , lets call them areas. Each area is resource specific and tame specific and having control of them grants benefits. They can be won or lost King of the hill style after all enemy presence is cleared. In specific areas, there can be locations to build onto a pre-existing structure and set up a castle/fort. These can be faction accessible, but tribe owned. Ownership of an area means dominance in that area. For example, wild tames become pseudo domesticated. They will not attack the faction who owns the area but will attack the intruders. These become the NPCs. Players are not allowed to tame for this reason, so bringing in personal tames is allowed. 

Faction Warfare is a timed game mode that can last for as short as a week to as long as a month. Rewards of blueprints, kibble, items, tames...etc..is handed out at the end of each faction war. Participation is the only requirement. And for the sake of fairness 1 to 4 grids will permanently belong to each faction so that you don't join a map and have no breathing room. Raids will still be possible as arms and gear will still have to be crafted and stored. 

This is just one example.

3. Tames need a overhaul. Defined Roles and usability against other tames in their weight class so to speak. There shouldn't just be a pick this one and win tame. Weaknesses must be created to overcome great obstacles. I can't even begin to list some possible changes here. The list is too many and too variable. Just know that it's broken now and in serious need of fixing. Or at the very least, some tames need to be excluded from Competitive PvP.

4. More items, customisation, and player abilities. I won't dive too deep here. I and many others have posted several threads on this point. A simple search of the forums should yield inspiration.

Anybody agree/disagree/or have something to add?

[deedoubleu]

Sorry, mate, I'm not reading this novel.

Skimming through:

1 pve is almost fine as it is and most of all needs to be separated from pvp

2 can't comment on pvp, out of the loop for too long. Though whatever you do with its ruleset and balance, will get shred to pieces by next DLC

3 TLC was promised

4 would be nice I guess, but I won't get upset without those

Imho. What ark really needs is to move on latest version of UE4 and huge chunks of engine rewritten from scratch to get rid of years old hacks and crutches piled on top of each other. Would do more good than any little tweaks or new items.

[AllOfTheAllos]

 

4 hours ago, EliteQuarmada said:

Nobody wants to build in peace forever and fight A.I. forever.

Today I learned that I'm nobody.

[EliteQuarmada]

8 minutes ago, deedoubleu said:

Sorry, mate, I'm not reading this novel.

Skimming through:

1 pve is almost fine as it is and most of all needs to be separated from pvp

2 can't comment on pvp, out of the loop for too long. Though whatever you do with its ruleset and balance, will get shred to pieces by next DLC

3 TLC was promised

4 would be nice I guess, but I won't get upset without those

Imho. What ark really needs is to move on latest version of UE4 and huge chunks of engine rewritten from scratch to get rid of years old hacks and crutches piled on top of each other. Would do more good than any little tweaks or new items.

1. PvE would be separate from PvP. It would be the first step into PvP. You are going to have to read it to understand. Basically. To summarize as much as possible. You should be able to start a character in official pve and transfer that character to Official PvE. This would let you actually complete the game, get tekgrams...etc... You could then go to PvP at your own discretion without being perpetually "in the hole" so to speak.

[EliteQuarmada]

3 minutes ago, AllOfTheAllos said:

 

Today I learned that I'm nobody.

A little abit of an exaggeration for sure.  But do you mean you have never tried official pvp?

[AllOfTheAllos]

6 minutes ago, EliteQuarmada said:

But do you mean you have never tried official pvp?

I'm not a PVP person. Not official, not unofficial, not in this game, not in any other (as in, when I had to do it, I did not enjoy it. That's why I can tell for sure that I really am fine with fighting AI forever). Strictly PVE.

[deedoubleu]

12 minutes ago, EliteQuarmada said:

1. PvE would be separate from PvP. It would be the first step into PvP. You are going to have to read it to understand. Basically. To summarize as much as possible. You should be able to start a character in official pve and transfer that character to Official PvE. This would let you actually complete the game, get tekgrams...etc... You could then go to PvP at your own discretion without being perpetually "in the hole" so to speak.

Even more reasons not to, for me.

You see, for me it was the opposite - pvp was my gateway gamemode to pve and I don't feel like coming back.

Ark is not all about pvp, nor is it all about pve. Those are separate worlds and I see no reason to try and tie them together.

[Uccello]

Pve must be kept sperate from pvvp. First not everyone likes or even cares what happens on pvp. Second all your plan would do is load down the pve servers with pvp breed centers and right now we have more than enough of that with the box tribes.

You seem to be pvp and want to spread out, its not needed on the pve servers.

 

 

[whoareyou]

Nonono, I think the OP means you should be able to transfer from PVE to PVP servers, but not the other way around. So, you can get some dinos, prefab a base all on PVE and then transfer to PVP when you feel capable of holding your own. 

I actually think it's a great idea. 

[HiImZech]

4 hours ago, AllOfTheAllos said:

 

Today I learned that I'm nobody.

feels bad. because I'm also a nobody on a server with a lot of community based structure unlocked for all

[EliteQuarmada]

2 hours ago, whoareyou said:

Nonono, I think the OP means you should be able to transfer from PVE to PVP servers, but not the other way around. So, you can get some dinos, prefab a base all on PVE and then transfer to PVP when you feel capable of holding your own. 

I actually think it's a great idea. 

This guy gets it. 

[gojinki]

12 minutes ago, LEDminer said:

This.

Though I have read somewhere that a Wild Card dev said that updating the game to the latest version wouldn't be worth it, whatever that is supposed to mean.

Meaning that re-writing old code is more trouble than it is worth and making a whole new game is a better option.