The End of Ark SE

[Xtrodinaire]

What bs.  All our hard work gonna get deleted.  Pathetic

[Tolandia]

I  play on around 12 servers. Full bases on most. When they wipe them that will be when I and likely many others will move on from Ark. No way I am paying to end up losing all my hard work. Ark isn't just a game. It is a life of it's own. Delete my Ark life then you delete your customers.

 

[AllOfTheAllos]

If it's not a joke, then what's even the point of doing anything anymore? My "all-black fire wyvern" project? May as well scrap it, won't have long to enjoy the results.

My element vault? May as well refill generators just from it, never feeding gachas again. It'll last until the game's end.

Tek rexes? Won't ever get to the point of trying Alpha difficulty even if I dutifully breed them whenever possible and raise any good baby without ever podding it for later. Not enough time. Might as well not touch them at all.

Carchars? Hhha. Guess my 28 melee white-and-blue Avalanche is the true pinnacle of my carcha line, seeing as there's not enough time to get better.

So, what am I left with? What can I still do in ARK without all efforts having the bitter taste of pointlessness? Just go on murderwanders and feed dinos? Kill-feed, kill-feed. Keep 'em alive and that's just it. Exciting!

[SlipperySquid]

LETS GO!!!!!!!! This has to be one of the best decisions the company has made in the past 2 years. I for one am glad i get to support the further development of ARK 2.

[Thekuervito]

Me recupere de un accidente,habia perdido  la motivacion de jugar.Trato de organizar mis 7 bases,poco a poco volvia a tener esas ganas de jugar,que en el  poco tiempo libre que tengo por mi trabajo hacer los jefes,las misiones necesarias,criar,farmear.Intercambiar con amigos huevos de dinos para sacar mejores stats o agregar colores que no tengo a la coleccion.Hacer bocetos de estructuras como una plataforma de gachas o que base hacer en que mapa,que dinos faltan para mi ultimo logro de steam,casi es gracioso,hace unos dias hablar con nekatus sobre la primera vez que vimos el primer trailer de ark y que ahora te digan que tus  horas invertidas seran borradas en unos meses......

Supongo que este sera unos de mis ultimos carchas,76 puntos en melee

[Dannny0117]

Years of playing... all to be deleted...  Do we get to keep our character or everything is lost? like what if we have bases on different servers. what about our tribes... like... this sucks..

 

• Official Servers: With the launch of ASA at the end of August, we will be taking down all Official Servers on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC for ARK: Survival Evolved – at that time, the final save-datas from the ARK: Survival Evolved Official Servers will be uploaded for players to re-host on their own servers or play in singleplayer/non-dedi, as well as slightly earlier snapshots. You will still be able to play on single-player, non-dedicated, player-dedicated, and unofficial servers. ARK: Survival Ascended will have its own fully supported Official Network for all platforms.

[AnnoyingGamer]

Are they really going to wipe ARK official servers and expect us to play ark 1 all over again just for 1 year? Is this a sliiy april fools prank or are they really going to take away years of work from players? It took me 2-3 years to collect all these dinos and become tek rich in ARK PVE. if they wipe official servers, I will lose them all. ARK 1 is going to die anyways once they launch ark 2 so I don't think any sane person would do it all over again just to let go AGAIN within an year.

[darkradeon]

To close, not to wipe.

[Teribug101]

Can't we get the upload option before August so that we can save our bases on host servers without having to spawn as much or better chances of less glitches 

[Teribug101]

Well it does sucks but everyone knows the devs will never hear the people who buy their game maybe it's time to go ahead and gather for when it's all on host servers. I was so proud of how far I got so at least it can gather dust in my system save when the upload option comes up 

[CervantesMor]

On 3/8/2022 at 10:20 AM, MMaas said:

. My issue is that there is no possibility to let friends join your play session.

As far as I know there is only the splitscreen on a console. Even with 2 consoles at home we cannot join each other on sepperate screens. All we found sofar was that you could host a game on a console but not while playing it yourself. In other words: You need to "sacrifice" one piece of hardware as server instead of having friends joining your session.
 

...idem for me....

[Morikar]

I have no idea where to put this topic so hopefully here its fine: A surprising amount of people are quite upset in the direction ark is going. I think re-building ark from the ground up in a seperate client is amazing, We'll get all those crash and bug fixes that were physically impossible to fix. and I couldn't be happier that the servers are going to die off. Ark 1 is so incredibly poorly coded optimized unstable and couldn't be any more volatile. The game has been practically screaming "Kill me" because they didn't care to build it for the sake of a passion project.

Now I understand that a number of mod authors are upset because all of their work is about get either watered down due to complications with file transfering, learning how to use UE5 and is going to stunt if not halt a large amount of mods, a lot of mods which people dont work on anymore (such as Kavans Mission and Shops. and Conquer The Seas) May or may not be seen again. But this is how I see it. For the first time in Wildcards development lifespan. They came up with an idea, and considered ALL of the potential outcomes that the idea could lead to. Upgrading the base game wouldn't solve any core problems the game has, it would make it so much worse. I think taking this route is a sacrifice that is absolutely for the greater good. I could care less about the visual improvements, but I hope to god that the remake functions. I'm especially hoping for private hosting to be on par with games like Valheim and 7 days to die where you can just join, not get kicked 3 times in the process, no tethering, and once your in you dont get kicked 15 mins later.

Another thing I want to talk about is the delay for Ark 2: It seems many people aren't happy about the delay, and while yes its unfortunate that whoever is in charge of predicting the dates isn't the best at it. The delay is a great thing. I made a post before where I said I wouldn't care if it doesn't release until 2025 so long as they got it right. So i encourage the idea of it getting delayed. Ark 2 is such a massive project bigger than it seems. Do you know how long it takes for monster hunter to release a game? So it makes sense that Ark 2 isn't ready, Its a grand project. 

Overall: I think all good things are coming out of ark even though a large amount of people are upset. Not to mention how INCREDIBLY generous the price is for the re-master. 50$ for both the re-master and essentially pre-ordering ark 2!? What a steal! Its like Pre-ordering Ark 2 and your getting Ark Re-mastered as a pre-order bonus. Depends on how you look at it. Ark 1 needs to be put down, its suffered enough. While many classic mods are going to die and many current project mods are gonna come to a halt and may not make their way to the re-master. In the long run, were all starting from the ground up as fresh as fresh can get, and thats the most fun that one can have in ark, is starting from scratch. At least I do.

And listen, its okay to be upset about these things because we weren't expecting the delays or the pricing of the re-master and it being its own client. But as wildcard essentially said: This was the only way. To me it shows that their going to do the right thing. Hopefully people understand about whats going on a little better.

P.S. Return crystal isles to its former glory, and any future custom ark maps you decide to take in, You shouldn't be allowed to alter the physical map, change the spawns, or remove anything that the map has from its original mod creator.

[Pipinghot]

45 minutes ago, Morikar said:

We'll get all those crash and bug fixes that were physically impossible to fix.

No, we won't. There will be new ones and WildCard will still be WildCard.

Some companies are better at fixing bugs than others, and WildCard management has a long history of prioritizing shiny new stuff over fixing bugs. That corporate culture is not going to magically change just because they're converting to Unreal5. Other games have plenty of bugs with Unreal5, but some companies are better at fixing bugs than WC is, they're not going to become a different company just because they're using a different engine.

45 minutes ago, Morikar said:

and I couldn't be happier that the servers are going to die off. Ark 1 is so incredibly poorly coded optimized unstable and couldn't be any more volatile. The game has been practically screaming "Kill me" because they didn't care to build it for the sake of a passion project.

Official servers will be just as bad as they are now, because the problems in official servers are not caused by it being "incredibly poorly coded".

The real problem with official servers is that they are run on the absolute bare minimum of hardware that can run the game because official servers do not generate revenue, and that will not change. There are no subscription fees, no microtransaction, no revenue generation from official servers, they are essentially an advertising expense so WildCard can show off the game for players. The large majority of players play on unofficial, non-dedicated, private dedicated and single-player, that won't change.

45 minutes ago, Morikar said:

The game has been practically screaming "Kill me" because they didn't care to build it for the sake of a passion project.

And they still won't.

Again, the corporate culture of WildCard is not going to magically change because they're changing to Unreal5. If anything they're getting more focused on money and less focused on passion.

45 minutes ago, Morikar said:

Now I understand that a number of mod authors are upset

Any discussion of mods is pretty much a distraction from the real conversation, which is WildCard's bait-and-switch lies about the upgrade to Unreal5 being free, and then suddenly costing $50+$20+$20, that's the real discussion.

45 minutes ago, Morikar said:

But this is how I see it. For the first time in Wildcards development lifespan. They came up with an idea, and considered ALL of the potential outcomes that the idea could lead to.

No, absolutely not. And for a change that's not even a criticism of WildCard. No one, no company can consider "ALL of the potential outcomes...". Honestly that's kind of a silly sentence that doesn't recognize how the real world works.

45 minutes ago, Morikar said:

Upgrading the base game wouldn't solve any core problems the game has, it would make it so much worse.

Umm... what? That's exactly what they're doing "Upgrading the base game" from Unreal4 to Unreal5. Did you mean to say something else, like "trying to fix all the bugs wouldn't solve any core problems"... maybe? Because upgrading is exactly what they're doing.

45 minutes ago, Morikar said:

I think taking this route is a sacrifice that is absolutely for the greater good.

No, it's for WildCard's good, they are a for-profit company, not a charity. If they were doing things "for the greater good" they would have maintained the commitment (they pretended to have) to upgrading from Unreal4 to Unreal5 for free. They're doing this for their good, for their profits, and they're expecting players to spend $90 instead of $0, that's not for "the greater good". WildCard isn't making any sacrifices, they're making money from business as usual.

45 minutes ago, Morikar said:

I could care less about the visual improvements, but I hope to god that the remake functions. I'm especially hoping for private hosting to be on par with games like Valheim and 7 days to die where you can just join, not get kicked 3 times in the process, no tethering, and once your in you dont get kicked 15 mins later.

Again, they're not changing their corporate culture. The money they spend to support the server infrastructure isn't going to change, their system for recognizing servers, making them visible to players, authentication and authorization... none of that has anything to to with converting the game client from Unreal4 to Unreal5. None of those things you're talking about are based on the Unreal engine, they're back-end infrastructure.

And on a side note: tethering might get a little bit better with Unreal5, but fundamentally it depends on the power of your computer. The technical reasons behind tethering distance are not caused by the Unreal engine.

45 minutes ago, Morikar said:

Another thing I want to talk about is the delay for Ark 2: It seems many people aren't happy about the delay

Let's be honest, practically no one cares about the delay, that's a red herring.

What people really care about are WildCard lying about the cost and about the other functionality they're going to lose (like split-screen play).

45 minutes ago, Morikar said:

Overall: I think all good things are coming out of ark even though a large amount of people are upset. Not to mention how INCREDIBLY generous the price is for the re-master. 50$ for both the re-master and essentially pre-ordering ark 2!?

No, that's not generous, that's a rip-off. Generous would have been $20 to $30 for the re-master with all maps, not $90 to pay for the exact same content a second time.

And, if you believe that this is the only price they're going to charge for ARK2 then you're naive. Mark my words, by the time ARK2 gets released there's going to be an additional charge. WildCard will find a way to spin things so that they can pretend they're not lying while still charging more money. Just like they lied about the conversion to Unreal5 being free.

45 minutes ago, Morikar said:

And listen, its okay to be upset about these things because we weren't expecting the delays or the pricing of the re-master and it being its own client. But as wildcard essentially said: This was the only way. To me it shows that their going to do the right thing. Hopefully people understand about whats going on a little better.

How many times do they have to lie to you before you stop believing them?

[Khelborn]

1 hour ago, Pipinghot said:

No, we won't. There will be new ones and WildCard will still be WildCard.

Some companies are better at fixing bugs than others, and WildCard management has a long history of prioritizing shiny new stuff over fixing bugs. That corporate culture is not going to magically change just because they're converting to Unreal5. Other games have plenty of bugs with Unreal5, but some companies are better at fixing bugs than WC is, they're not going to become a different company just because they're using a different engine.

Official servers will be just as bad as they are now, because the problems in official servers are not caused by it being "incredibly poorly coded".

The real problem with official servers is that they are run on the absolute bare minimum of hardware that can run the game because official servers do not generate revenue, and that will not change. There are no subscription fees, no microtransaction, no revenue generation from official servers, they are essentially an advertising expense so WildCard can show off the game for players. The large majority of players play on unofficial, non-dedicated, private dedicated and single-player, that won't change.

And they still won't.

Again, the corporate culture of WildCard is not going to magically change because they're changing to Unreal5. If anything they're getting more focused on money and less focused on passion.

Any discussion of mods is pretty much a distraction from the real conversation, which is WildCard's bait-and-switch lies about the upgrade to Unreal5 being free, and then suddenly costing $50+$20+$20, that's the real discussion.

No, absolutely not. And for a change that's not even a criticism of WildCard. No one, no company can consider "ALL of the potential outcomes...". Honestly that's kind of a silly sentence that doesn't recognize how the real world works.

Umm... what? That's exactly what they're doing "Upgrading the base game" from Unreal4 to Unreal5. Did you mean to say something else, like "trying to fix all the bugs wouldn't solve any core problems"... maybe? Because upgrading is exactly what they're doing.

No, it's for WildCard's good, they are a for-profit company, not a charity. If they were doing things "for the greater good" they would have maintained the commitment (they pretended to have) to upgrading from Unreal4 to Unreal5 for free. They're doing this for their good, for their profits, and they're expecting players to spend $90 instead of $0, that's not for "the greater good". WildCard isn't making any sacrifices, they're making money from business as usual.

Again, they're not changing their corporate culture. The money they spend to support the server infrastructure isn't going to change, their system for recognizing servers, making them visible to players, authentication and authorization... none of that has anything to to with converting the game client from Unreal4 to Unreal5. None of those things you're talking about are based on the Unreal engine, they're back-end infrastructure.

And on a side note: tethering might get a little bit better with Unreal5, but fundamentally it depends on the power of your computer. The technical reasons behind tethering distance are not caused by the Unreal engine.

Let's be honest, practically no one cares about the delay, that's a red herring.

What people really care about are WildCard lying about the cost and about the other functionality they're going to lose (like split-screen play).

No, that's not generous, that's a rip-off. Generous would have been $20 to $30 for the re-master with all maps, not $90 to pay for the exact same content a second time.

And, if you believe that this is the only price they're going to charge for ARK2 then you're naive. Mark my words, by the time ARK2 gets released there's going to be an additional charge. WildCard will find a way to spin things so that they can pretend they're not lying while still charging more money. Just like they lied about the conversion to Unreal5 being free.

How many times do they have to lie to you before you stop believing them?

Absolutely spot on. Some people never learn. They live in an alternate reality, some dystopian world that doesn't exist. The mental gymnastics some people will do to make themselves feel better about getting ripped off.

[Joebl0w13]

3 hours ago, Pipinghot said:

How many times do they have to lie to you before you stop believing them?

Gamers don't care:

[Zerina]

I don't care about how the company is managed, I don't care about promises they don't keep because lets face it, every gaming company makes promises they can't keep. What I care about is wither the game is worth the money I've spent on it. So far I have 8 years and 7500 hours  in  ark. I have definity gotten my money's worth. 

As for the official wipe, it needs to be done to deal with all the cheating, duped items and dinos. The release of Ascended is as good as any to do the wipe. This isn't arks first official wipe, the last one was just as painful but everyone came back to the game. We cried ALOT but we were all right there on the day the servers reopened. Happily cooing over our new base spots that were better than our last spots.

Most unofficial servers wipe monthly to every 6 months so for the most part people are used to wipes. Official has gone at least 6 years without a wipe, its overdue. However, i do feel bad for the newer people losing their stuff but think of it as a new beginning, a chance to make new friends, find a new spot or try a new map. For the old timers, its a reason to log in to do something besides feed your dinos and refresh timers. We keep coming back because there really isn't another game like Ark. 

[SarahMonette]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/346110/ARK_Survival_Evolved/

Why is it still expensive when it's beging destroyed?  I get that remastered Ark Survival Ascended new is costing money and agree with that.  But why charge money for the sinking ship?

[nameless]

1 hour ago, SarahMonette said:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/346110/ARK_Survival_Evolved/

Why is it still expensive when it's beging destroyed?  I get that remastered Ark Survival Ascended new is costing money and agree with that.  But why charge money for the sinking ship?

I think it is like how it is the film industry.

When you get a good series, but then it goes kind of bad..... due to one reason or another, it is a fairly common next step to reduce the cost on future development and try to extract however much money you can from this series before you bail without considering any consequence on the reputation or future prospect of the series. I think it is termed "recycling" or something in the industry, may have remember the term incorrectly.

I think this is what is happening now. ARK has quite the large player base, and it has became unprofitable to keep managing the game properly. As such, a better way to profit would be using that player base to extract however much you can by spending however less you can before abandoning the game as a whole.

[martingoye]

On 4/1/2023 at 5:21 PM, darkradeon said:

To close, not to wipe.

close = wipe . close = delete all your work

[martingoye]

8 hours ago, Zerina said:

I don't care about how the company is managed, I don't care about promises they don't keep because lets face it, every gaming company makes promises they can't keep. What I care about is wither the game is worth the money I've spent on it. So far I have 8 years and 7500 hours  in  ark. I have definity gotten my money's worth. 

As for the official wipe, it needs to be done to deal with all the cheating, duped items and dinos. The release of Ascended is as good as any to do the wipe. This isn't arks first official wipe, the last one was just as painful but everyone came back to the game. We cried ALOT but we were all right there on the day the servers reopened. Happily cooing over our new base spots that were better than our last spots.

Most unofficial servers wipe monthly to every 6 months so for the most part people are used to wipes. Official has gone at least 6 years without a wipe, its overdue. However, i do feel bad for the newer people losing their stuff but think of it as a new beginning, a chance to make new friends, find a new spot or try a new map. For the old timers, its a reason to log in to do something besides feed your dinos and refresh timers. We keep coming back because there really isn't another game like Ark. 

and how much time do you think dupe items and cheats will be back again? come on...