April Fools? Cash grab? Or a welcomed change?

[Yggdrassil]

I'm sure everyone has the complete poo storm by now but you may not have seen this

So I don't know if this is an elaborate April fools, though seems like typical wildcard.

You have until somewhere between Aug-Dec to play your official pve/pvp base then you need to shell out another 100+ to play the remaster for another year or two and lose everything you have ever done on this game.

And I already know some will support this (likely people without large official bases) and also that you can run the map unofficial and single player but that isn't the point as most people I know play official because it like a feeling of accomplishment and success which unofficial takes away due to modding and admin commands. 

Either way it's a huge kick in the gut and although I'm hoping for a "Haha we fooled you", I'm not so sure.

What about you guys? 

[SunsetErosion]

3 hours ago, Yggdrassil said:

I'm sure everyone has the complete poo storm by now but you may not have seen this

So I don't know if this is an elaborate April fools, though seems like typical wildcard.

You have until somewhere between Aug-Dec to play your official pve/pvp base then you need to shell out another 100+ to play the remaster for another year or two and lose everything you have ever done on this game.

And I already know some will support this (likely people without large official bases) and also that you can run the map unofficial and single player but that isn't the point as most people I know play official because it like a feeling of accomplishment and success which unofficial takes away due to modding and admin commands. 

Either way it's a huge kick in the gut and although I'm hoping for a "Haha we fooled you", I'm not so sure.

What about you guys? 

True not, probably. A way into either the future, or the past...  Be wary, you must be sure!

[SarahMonette]

The problem I have with unofficial servers is the insecurity that a human who cares nothing about you can cut you out of their server if you do not "donate."  I have had this happen to me personally more than five times.  Whine their servers cost them to much money they cannot afford it.  Ummm, if you cannot afford it, don't run it. 

And many of them don't keep running their unoff.  Their entire server shuts off in a year or so.  Or alternatively, the  people who were funding through donations get bored of Ark move on to another game and again the unofficial server gets shut down a year or so. 

So yeah I am primarily an official server player.

However, I AGREE WITH WILDCARD.  I would have liked to been able to download all my dinos into single player mode but whatever.  Life is about loss.  It's just a bunch of pixels in the end I've lost far more from real life than anything in a game.  Kinda why I play games take my mind off it.

Wildcard has the best payment option for a game of this caliber.  WC employees work on the game they deserve a paycheck.  And servers do cost money and if WC is going to move forward they need an income.  

I just want to point out that not everyone's computer can run lumen so please consider it being off as the default and we have to press an option to turn it on.  Also, communicate with Nvidia so they know to include Ark Ascend (w/e it's called) in Nvidia Geforce Experience's optimizer.

With the way UE5 works I think this is the best option WC has to upgrading Ark.  The old game is just not going to directly transfer over guys.  

[Cowgirl]

They could also be dipping their toe in to see if this is met with minnows or piranhas. Their timing allows for them to pull back and say it was an April fools day joke if its met terribly and seems like a bad idea but not appear to be giving in, where as if people are complacent they can just let it happen. 

[Charlie420]

so ark is charging for the old ark maps along with ark 2 ,i dont mind paying for ark 2 but to charge for ark 1 on maps i already paid for is wrong ,complete b.s. , i am not going to pay a second charge for maps I already paid for ,thats a rip off ,good bye ark ,your a bunch of thieves 

[Vaskur]

the annoying thing is not the wpies or that you have to buy the game again... it´s that the devs don´t stay true to their words

 

[CosmicSkeleton]

Even if they tried to walk it back as a prank the fact is this is one of those pranks that takes it too far and burns a relationship. It's tantamount to telling a buddy to text you flirty messages after they say they have new phone number so your partner can catch the messages and freak out. Even if you manage to walk it back that's something that sticks.

[Darkmage0519]

The fact that they stated that at the end of august they will completely shutting down all official servers tells me that they do not want to continue with Ark Survival Evolved they want to completely get rid of it and put all their eggs into their ark 2 basket. Ultimately the gane will fail and the company will have a major crash due sales loss and how crappy the game play will be in all honesty if anyone has seen the movie "Free Guy" this is exactly how wild card is going. Doesnt really help when their moderators are told not to ban cheaters that way it causes people to leave the game entirely or that their are moderators or people within wildcard that are the biggest cheaters and are completely ignored when reports are posted. Just my thoughts but its come to fruition 

[Joebl0w13]

5 minutes ago, Darkmage0519 said:

Doesnt really help when their moderators are told not to ban cheaters that way it causes people to leave the game entirely or that their are moderators

Moderators neither work for WildCard nor have admin rights in the game. 

You are talking about GMs (Game Masters).

[Joebl0w13]

I would be willing to bet ASA is released right along with the animated series. 

The only way a company would do something this stupid (looking at you SWG) is if they know or are betting they bring in 2 new people for each they are going to lose. 
 

[Ihavebadluck]

This better be a april fools joke because tbh this is BS im a smalls main bro please tell me this is a joke april fools prank haha but this better not be happening i love smalls and so does everyone else like im done playing ark fi u rewipe smalls bro 

[OzDragon]

Hope this a Joke but ya think something would be said by now right?

Here is part of the Announcement that people haven't really talked about.

How will this work??


I do agree in  giving Mod authors that do  keep their mods up to date fair compensation. but i have played on server from Official to server with over 60 Mods on them can you imagine what will happen to unofficial if people are now force to pay for  even half of those mods and at what price? For those that Host a server  how will that work if we are forced to pay to use the latest and greatest?

Just food for thought.

[DomiDarko]

2 hours ago, OzDragon said:

Hope this a Joke but ya think something would be said by now right?

Here is part of the Announcement that people haven't really talked about.

How will this work??


I do agree in  giving Mod authors that do  keep their mods up to date fair compensation. but i have played on server from Official to server with over 60 Mods on them can you imagine what will happen to unofficial if people are now force to pay for  even half of those mods and at what price? For those that Host a server  how will that work if we are forced to pay to use the latest and greatest?

Just food for thought.

Oh! That's a super important point! Never thought about it but I totally agree that a lot of people won't play on unofficial because of the money. I had the luck that the people who played on my servers for about 3 years donated me some money but it was 100% their choice and I used it to extend the rental. With the new mod system I doubt this would happen again.

[wizard03]

I think they are takeing cue's from fallout 4. In fallout 4, you can download mods for free, but the super popular one's are paid for. Many of them are only like $4-10 but some of the bigger ones can be $20-30

[thelegendarydodo]

Right now the base game costs on Steam 16,79 euro and genesis pass 24,99 so unless it's a joke this is fraud! Essentially everyone who bought lately/will the game which has multiplayer on its specs  HAS BEEN SCAMMED! Has ever been a case someone paid 17euro for a multiplayer game that will stay multiplayer for 4-5 months?

So this is why I think this can only be a joke.

[Gelantious]

14 hours ago, OzDragon said:

Hope this a Joke but ya think something would be said by now right?

Here is part of the Announcement that people haven't really talked about.

How will this work??


I do agree in  giving Mod authors that do  keep their mods up to date fair compensation. but i have played on server from Official to server with over 60 Mods on them can you imagine what will happen to unofficial if people are now force to pay for  even half of those mods and at what price? For those that Host a server  how will that work if we are forced to pay to use the latest and greatest?

Just food for thought.

Still holding out that this is all a joke gone wrong.

But if it's not the yeah, curious how the mods will work since everyone needs the same mods.
Does just the server owner have to pay or do all the players joining have to pay? That will pretty much make payable mods unusable outside of singleplayer.
Paying for a nice mod skin, then logon and nope. No one can see it and you can't use it, because the server isn't running that mod. Waste of money.

And crossplay will be turned off for any unofficial PC server running mods if the mods have to be checked before being released on consoles since that would make it a huge delay when pushing updates.

Can you imagine an update to a popular mod like S+, then taking 1-2 weeks to get verified to work on consoles before being released. And wops, there was a bug, instead of just pushing an update right away, that now needs another 1-2 weeks before it's out. No, that just won't do. And yeah the 1-2 weeks is just my guess, but knowing MS/Sony then I can see that as being true, if not longer even... Just 1 day would be enough to make this a hard pass.

 

[HenryManson]

2 hours ago, thelegendarydodo said:

Right now the base game costs on Steam 16,79 euro and genesis pass 24,99 so unless it's a joke this is fraud! Essentially everyone who bought lately/will the game which has multiplayer on its specs  HAS BEEN SCAMMED! Has ever been a case someone paid 17euro for a multiplayer game that will stay multiplayer for 4-5 months?

So this is why I think this can only be a joke.

sadly its not fraud!
best example is Battleflield2142 ... EA sold that in stores for around 10 years after ALL servers shut down (including the login ones) but the game was playable with bots in "multiplayer" and local networks, so technically legal! 🥺 and ark is/will be still multiplayer, even is there are no offical servers. its a ripoff, but what can we do?!

[Goku2912]

so assuming its NOT April1st joke, does anyone have a link on where to find server game saves so we can download them?

 

[Joebl0w13]

2 hours ago, Goku2912 said:

so assuming its NOT April1st joke, does anyone have a link on where to find server game saves so we can download them?

 

You don't get those until August when they take them all down.

[SunsetErosion]

4 hours ago, Joebl0w13 said:

You don't get those until August when they take them all down.

I used this link in the past to download my official server into my SP:

https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/server-backups/

Very possible they will use the same page...

[Joebl0w13]

9 hours ago, SunsetErosion said:

I used this link in the past to download my official server into my SP:

https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/server-backups/

Very possible they will use the same page...

More than likely. 

[thelegendarydodo]

23 hours ago, HenryManson said:

sadly its not fraud!
best example is Battleflield2142 ... EA sold that in stores for around 10 years after ALL servers shut down (including the login ones) but the game was playable with bots in "multiplayer" and local networks, so technically legal! 🥺 and ark is/will be still multiplayer, even is there are no offical servers. its a ripoff, but what can we do?!

well in that case I hope players will show their disapproval and not buy that bundle or Ark 2. But I'm afraid youtubers on their nice private servers will make it seem super stable and smooth and people will fall for it

[St1ckyBandit]

24 minutes ago, thelegendarydodo said:

well in that case I hope players will show their disapproval and not buy that bundle or Ark 2. But I'm afraid youtubers on their nice private servers will make it seem super stable and smooth and people will fall for it

My feelings about the moves snail games have made aside, maybe it will be actually smooth and stable.

Afterall ps5 is a powerhouse and UE5 has some revolutionary tech under its umbrella, so I dont think its far fetched to expect a transformative experience once the game moves onto a cutting edge engine.

Of course WC will still be at the helm, which warrants misgivings rather than optimism, but hopefully even they can work out the kinks with such a technological advantage over the last game. I've always thought WC was brilliant in their concepts, so maybe now the tech can help them actually execute a stable polished product for once.

Maybe I'm in the minority, but my excitement for the dino game I've put over 4k hours into getting a breathtaking upgrade outweighs my disgust for how badly the transfer has been handled.

[darkradeon]

so many pranks from night between 31 and 1, now even back at 1x

[zero064]

I can't wait for the release. The group I play with hasn't done much since Gen2 and Lost Island. My server sits mostly idle, other than a bit of Minecraft. Assuming the game runs well (please WC), this'll give us a reason to play again.