Unbelievably frustrated with Ark and Wildcard

[kknew]

Unbelievably frustrated with Ark and Wildcard

Last night the vaults I've been using as my safety storage were deleted by the patch, along with ALL my tames and gear on this server. I only recently came back to Rag after playing Genesis and didn't have a base on the server I'd previously called home for quite a long time. But I did still have vaults hidden away that have been in place and safe for over a year. I was on the server and in the vaults literally minutes before the servers went down for the patch. I had laid blood stalker eggs before the notice that the servers were going down and had been watching their temp and incubation. Then, when the servers went offline for as long as they did, when I finally got logged back in the eggs had already died because I couldn't be there to tend to their temperature. At the time I thought THAT was my biggest frustration. But no, then I realized that it wasn't just a couple eggs gone, it was EVERYTHING I had that the patch had killed.

I've been playing Ark for years and love the concept of the game. What I don't love is Wildcard's seemingly complete disregard for most of us players. Sure, we pre-ordered the season pass and then had to wait, and wait, and wait again for Genesis. Those sort of things I can deal with. They happen. What sucks are the constant and seemingly intentional choices to screw over small tribes, solo players, and new players. All they seem to care about are forcing people into mega tribes. Every patch, every new dino and feature, seems to exclusively benefit the mega tribes and add to the toxicity of the game.

When Wildcard started getting the tiniest bit involved in fixing meshing, the first thing they did was to create a "daylight" rule, meaning that if there isn't daylight directly above a spot you can't build there unless the spot is a designated cave. So all of the sudden 50% of the features on some maps are no longer usable. There are hundreds of caves, alcoves, nooks and crannies where a solo player or small tribe were able to build and protect themselves and their hard-earned gear, but then after that change everyone was forced out into the open. Literally the best places to build on most maps were gone. So solo and small tribes had it that much tougher.

Still, I have scoured every map I've played on looking for safe places and secret hideouts to build, because as an almost exclusively solo player I need those hideouts. But no matter what, I've had to accept that any base I build is toast whenever it gets found. The largest base I ever built had all 100 allowable turrets, each of which was full. The base was also invisible (hidden behind a waterfall) until you were almost touching it, so attacking the base defenses had to be done completely blind. There were also limited directions of approach, so all the turrets could be concentrated on the attackers at once. But when a mega tribe found me they went through me like butter. Because Wildcard has skewed the odds in the favor of attackers with every single new dino, patch, and update. Did we REALLY need another airborne soaker with Extinction to make it that much easier to offline raid solo and small tribe players like me? The gasbag as a soaker just seems like the most blatant "screw you" to players who would like to protect their own stuff rather than live by stealing from others that Wildcard could have come up with. How does a hot air balloon make sense as a great soaker of bullets? Who came up with that genius slap in the face to more defensive players? I'm guessing no one who has ever heard of the Hindenburg. 

Even the very few changes that on the surface seem like maybe they'd benefit smaller players really just benefit the mega tribes, like eliminating C4 dodo drops. Larger tribes don't need C4 suicide dinos to wipe smaller tribe bases, so getting rid of large scale C4 dino drops didn't make small tribes or solo players any safer, it only benefited the large tribes because it took away one of the only ways smaller players could get retribution against larger attackers. 

It is literally impossible to protect yourself on official servers unless you want to join a mega tribe and live online 24 x 7. 

Taking a cue from the real world, bases should require sacrifice to raid. Remember those concrete pillboxes from WW2, the ones that could be manned by 3 or 4 person teams that could hold off hundreds of enemy soldiers? I may not have watched every WW2 documentary, but I've watched enough to know that none of those pillboxes were ever overrun after some soldier confidently exclaimed "stay behind me boys, I've got a helium balloon, those guns can't touch us now!"

On top of the overt design choices made in favor of the mega tribes, it has also ALWAYS been those same mega tribes who are the cheaters. The DDoSers, the meshers, the dupers; they all seem to stem from the mega tribes, not solo and small tribe players. And they seem to be the ones least likely to face consequences. Case in point, I was DDoSed about a week ago by a member of a mega tribe. I could provide player names, screen shots of the chat party members, audio of him confirming he was polling my IP, and timestamped router log files of the actual attack. I submitted a ticket to Wildcard, and they referred me to the server team and closed the ticket. I don't think they even read the ticket, just saw the word DDoS and sent booted it down the road. I submitted a comment that it wasn't a server issue and asked them to please READ the ticket, and they responded by deleting the comment and leaving the ticket closed.

I've submitted a trouble ticket about the disappearing vault issue from last night, but I have no doubt I'll receive the same STELLAR support I've gotten every other time I've had an issue. None. They seem to have no problem whatsoever with screwing players over, but no willingness to make things right for players. At this point, I think I'm pretty well done with the game. I have no interest in investing the time to start from scratch yet again, and personally I'm pretty well over dumping more of my money into a company that seemingly couldn't care less about its customers. My guess is the only response I'll end up getting from Wildcard will be a forum admin deleting this post as is their pattern whenever people express their frustrations on the forums. Maybe if we had a better channel for expressing those frustrations, or heaven forbid ever saw those frustrations addressed then the forum moderators wouldn't be reduced to the role of PR police. But it is what it is. Wildcard, you had a brilliant concept. Here's to hoping people collectively get fed up enough to let it die. Maybe then you'll pay at least some small attention to your customers.

 

[TraXz]

I will be honest, I didn't bother to read the entire text. 
But all I can say is: 

Don't play PVP, it sucks in ARK.
PVP should never have been in ARK, it's unbalanced, broken, full of cheaters and bug abusers. etc. And the servers are way too bad for any PVP to feel good.  On top of that, it's too time consuming, you need to be online 24/7 to have a chance against mega tribes. 

It's a cocky answer, i'm sorry for that. But it's the truth. 

[kknew]

Not a cocky answer, it's a valid answer. It's unfortunate since even as a non-PvP player I think PvP servers are the most fun. But yes, they are INCREDIBLY unbalanced. I definitely know of no other game where months or years worth of work can be gone literally in seconds.

[Masurao]

On 4/30/2020 at 6:41 PM, kknew said:

My guess is the only response I'll end up getting from Wildcard will be a forum admin deleting this post as is their pattern whenever people express their frustrations on the forums. Maybe if we had a better channel for expressing those frustrations, or heaven forbid ever saw those frustrations addressed then the forum moderators wouldn't be reduced to the role of PR police.

 

Recent data dictates that you are indeed correct. Don't forget the resident trolls that just unconstructively laugh and/or pitch a snide remark then leave.

 

Regrettable, but you also will not be compensated more than likely, but a way to vent is always important.

 

I've known since Scortched Earth that everything from that point on was catered toward the Alpha collective. Its sad but true, as is the nature of the beast. PvP nowadays is designed for a very...very special type of individual. Unless its x10, then I feel that the amount of time invested and competitive nature of the current established populace does not measure up to any positive benefits gained as a result. 

 

Bootlick or die. I'll pass on the bootlicking and only join if I'm just itching for a fight and the thrill of the hunt. There's also that. PvE can get a bit too...passive...at times. Good ole unofficials are key for those moments.

[KRONOSDOUBLE]

I completely understand your situation. I have had vaults hidden since January that have a lot of good loot. 1-2 weeks ago I logged on to refresh the timers and and everything I had was still there. Fast forward to a few days ago when I logged on and a vault that had over 100 journey compound bows that were all 296% DMG had up and disappeard. Have to go back and do another inventory check, but that was what was noticeable that was missing. Have to take inventory and put in a support ticket as well once Ive done inventory, but that likely wont be for another week or so before I get to it due to real life. At least I know that my issue is somewhat similar to yours, although hopefully not as bad. 

[KRONOSDOUBLE]

@FreelancerKnuxwhat's so funny about people getting screwed? Genuinely curious

[FreelancerKnux]

2 minutes ago, KRONOSDOUBLE said:

@FreelancerKnuxwhat's so funny about people getting screwed? Genuinely curious

I enjoy people losing their stuff/time and effort, it is the driving force for me playing PvP. Tbh its not as funny when its to bugs and the like but still makes me laugh.

[Fukushu]

Ah ARK, a place were even sadist such as @FreelancerKnuxhave a place were they can enjoy themselves without actually hurting people IRL.

And people say games make killers! A perfect example of a game preventing a degenerate hurting people IRL. 

[FreelancerKnux]

14 minutes ago, Fukushu said:

Ah ARK, a place were even sadist such as @FreelancerKnuxhave a place were they can enjoy themselves without actually hurting people IRL.

And people say games make killers! A perfect example of a game preventing a degenerate hurting people IRL. 

Hahaha well you're mostly not wrong haha.

[LE4SoDeadly]

10 hours ago, FreelancerKnux said:

Hahaha well you're mostly not wrong haha.

Ain’t you a special cookie