Pillar Spam

[sokiexio]

WildCard please do something about the issue of using pillars and foundations to reclaim land. It is not normal that in less than a week the new ASA PVE servers can no longer be built by tribes of 2 people that fill the entire map with foundations and break 70% of the dino spawn, I had hoped that in this "new" ark, you would have solved this, but I see that not.

Edited December 3, 2023 by sokiexio

[UnicornBite]

I know this has been an issue since ASE, but can we please finally do something about pillar spam in PVE servers? Even if it means having a handful of mods in each server that take down pillars as they pop up. It's just ridiculous its been allowed to go on for actual years. 

[Kylir10]

Have real issues on my server with players just spaming pillers and foundations everywhere. I cant build traps or even put a sleeping bag down to tame anything no. It has also messed up beaver spawns and other tames and its just a few days in on the server. Will wildcard ever do anything about it. ALL PvE servers i have been to have been like this it is making the game none enjoyable.

[Sheppard]

There needs to be some sort of building restrictions on pve servers. 

1. You plant a base flag. 

2. bases are limited to 10x10 behegate area from floor to to skybox

3. anything built outside that 10x10 area after 3 hours is considered a destroyable item. yes this means traps / pillars / 

 

this will A. clean up all broken traps left behind. pillar grief will no longer be a thing. peoples bases will still be left intact. an a reduction of base size will be better general health for dino spawns. it will also allow people to make there small cryo area where they can deploy there dinos. this solves lots of issue with out creating any new ones. it should be something people that are smart should be advocating for.

[Blackmage2015]

Been several years with this issue only good fix is a land claim plotting system. Something that doesn’t reduce creativity but limits to a degree the amount of land you can claim. It’s not conducive to a good playing environment for one tribe to claim the whole map and then sell land for real cash. It needs to be addressed before scorched earth comes out or that remake of a map with paid expansions is going to be pointless if we too can’t build or play how the game was intended. I came up with a suggestion for this maybe vote for mine or come up with one you think is better to try and get votes for we need to bring this issue to a close. It’s been to long 

Edited December 6, 2023 by Blackmage2015

[XURG]

Should not be able to be scattered around the map. Its stupid and make it to where no one can build anywhere and kills the server population.

[DisableCaveBuilding]

Not only PvE. PvP is also a mess and they claim all the artifacts aswell so you can never do bossfights and never get tek.

[MissAscended]

They need to introduce a landclaim block. One per tribe with a generous amount of space to build a reasonable sized base and no building outside the area. It would stop the unnecessary mega bases that are lagging up servers, and all the random foundations and pillars, spawn blocking etc.. people can use quetz as portable taming cages for dinos if need be and admins can build public cages for people to use 🤷🏻‍♀️

I honestly don't see a solution other than landclaim block and only being able to build inside the area. 

 

 

[Brandi5668]

On 1/2/2024 at 3:52 PM, Sheppard said:

There needs to be some sort of building restrictions on pve servers. 

1. You plant a base flag. 

2. bases are limited to 10x10 behegate area from floor to to skybox

3. anything built outside that 10x10 area after 3 hours is considered a destroyable item. yes this means traps / pillars / 

 

this will A. clean up all broken traps left behind. pillar grief will no longer be a thing. peoples bases will still be left intact. an a reduction of base size will be better general health for dino spawns. it will also allow people to make there small cryo area where they can deploy there dinos. this solves lots of issue with out creating any new ones. it should be something people that are smart should be advocating for.

This is an excellent idea!!! 

[BigChungus1]

They need to fix pillars. This is ascended now, no need for archaic systems which enable abuse!

[BigChungus1]

I agree so much. Not only does pillar spam ruin the game on a mechanical level, but it makes the entire map look revolting. 

 

If I was going to remake ark, this is one of the first thing I'd address..

[Wsantos55]

It is common practice to distribute pillars or columns on a large scale to guarantee area, harming other survivors from occupying it.  Maybe in PVP, it's valid.  But PVE makes the map unviable with large idle areas.  So how about widcard establishing a maximum distance from the base building, in which from there the decay would be counted in double or triple.

[Cailean556]

As many have suggested, when it comes to (especially) official PvE servers, there needs to be certain measures in place to prohibit tribes from building far beyond what could be considered reasonable (though what 'reasonable' is, is subjective) - whether that be a 'land claim' structure or some system that limits how far away from an owned foundation separate structures can be placed - it could even be linked to an ORP-type structure that protects/shields a base in PvE and/or PvP - but only within a limited AoE around the structure - and only one ORP structure able to be placed within a specified (but quite large) area per tribe (so this does not stop second or third bases from being built - but does space them out).

That way, while it isn't a "land claim" system per se, it does limit a tribe to building within those limits - the trade off is their structures within that AoE are protected when offline. Those outside of it are, even in PvE, not protected and thus can be removed/destroyed - deterring the worst of the pillar spam.

[gundown777]

I spent money on a game where all these players put ridiculous amount of time trolling these islands. I cant even build a damn fire because of these stupid players that troll the whole freaking island on every server and place pillars so no-one can build poop. How about adding a function so I can build a fire that atleast dissipates over time so I can cook my damn food and service. Or better yet Crack down on these bastards and make it so the can't build 2000 freaking pillars. Its absolute bullpoop. I paid for a game I can't even play. Going to contact Sony tomorrow for a refund. Won't be buying your next expansion ether knowing I'll be seeing the same poop!

[gundown777]

This is ridiculous that there is so many posts about this from the past and they haven't done anything about it. Since game release people have complained! I spent money on a broken game and it's highly disappointing. I won't be buying future games or expansion. These companies throw games together without any thought or consideration of a new individual purchasing the game. This is insane that they haven't listened to the customers. 

[gundown777]

Do we ever see reponses from anyone about issues or is this just a waste of time to even put suggestions up on here.

Also, my suggestion was added to this thread so it seems like someone is looking at them but they don't give a crap about the opinions of the customers????

Edited February 26 by gundown777

[MorgensterTM]

Pillar spam is against TOS on pve, you need to make like 10 or 20 tickets to get it solved.

Its pretty much only the spino spawns, wildcard does not talk to people or listen to advice.

Honestly spinos is just clicking a checkbox in the engine ( spawns in water) and there you go problem solved.

Wildcard only wastes time on a flipping tic tac toe table, or steamboat Mickey, or ark Mario 2d runner. 

If i wanna make games i download unreal and do it in unreal , i dont need arks version of unreal , it weird man. 

Whats wrong with you wildcard? @wildcard

 

[Brandi5668]

Are there any ASA servers out there for PS5 that haven’t been pillared to death?

[BigChungus1]

On 2/25/2024 at 3:10 PM, aikkam said:

a limit on the foundations and pillars would really be necessary for this game disaster  

One solution is to start off with a base starter structure, and you can only build within a certain distance of this base structure.

 

There could be ways to get a few more bases such as playtime, time on the server or amount of tribe members. But there should be a reasonable hard cap. 

Perhaps there could be mini base structures as well, which only let you build small buildings such as traps or shacks. These would also have a hard cap to avoid spamming. : )

Edited March 9 by BigChungus1

[LastSplatter]

Will Wildcard be doing anything about every map being pillared off or are they just happy for official to die?

[neocirus]

Pillar/foundation spam is one of the top 3 Ark gripes from every player.   My suggestion is to Give every player claim flags.  Tribe leaders get a "Large" flag for main base and each tribe member get two small flags for things like minibase, traps etc.  You will not be able to place these flags if you already have them down.  Picking up the flag add a 12 hour timer to any stuctures that where built in it's zone.   Large claim flags are 30-50 foundations wide/long buildable area, small are 15-20 foundations.  Devs have unlimited small claim flags they can place on major resource nodes or no build areas like caves.  Only the player who placed the flag and tribe leader can removed the flags.

For launch day servers being full my suggestion is to set a 4 hour limit with 10min. warnings the last 30 min.  After the servers hit 55 or less average players the limit is lifted.  If the servers hit 60/70 average for 3 days in a row the limit is placed again.   Also adding an afk warning for players who havent moved for more than 15min.  After 5 more min. they are logged out.

[Hellx87]

 

1 hour ago, neocirus said:

Pillar/foundation spam is one of the top 3 Ark gripes from every player.   My suggestion is to Give every player claim flags.  Tribe leaders get a "Large" flag for main base and each tribe member get two small flags for things like minibase, traps etc.  You will not be able to place these flags if you already have them down.  Picking up the flag add a 12 hour timer to any stuctures that where built in it's zone.   Large claim flags are 30-50 foundations wide/long buildable area, small are 15-20 foundations.  Devs have unlimited small claim flags they can place on major resource nodes or no build areas like caves.  Only the player who placed the flag and tribe leader can removed the flags.

For launch day servers being full my suggestion is to set a 4 hour limit with 10min. warnings the last 30 min.  After the servers hit 55 or less average players the limit is lifted.  If the servers hit 60/70 average for 3 days in a row the limit is placed again.   Also adding an afk warning for players who havent moved for more than 15min.  After 5 more min. they are logged out.

Not a bad idea regarding the pillar spam, I was also thinking about something similar, but it probably wouldn't be enough still.. spammers would just recruit people to get more flags and dominate places to their likings as before. 

I would introduce time and/or "trigger" gates for structure limits, what I mean is, something like: one could not place more that X foundations/pillars on day 1, but as time goes by more and more could be placed (this can be in-game day or real time), this limitation could be reduced by Y if/when a tribe kills an Alpha creature or boss.

This would make bases expand vertically (since there would be no limit on walls and ceilings) instead of horizontally.

An other solution could be to make structures that are not connected to a bigger, multi-structure building decay on a much-much more rapid rate, like pillars with a ladder or a foundation only last like a few hours, but foundations with walls+ceilings/roofs+ramps/stairs etc. would last more (IF they are all connected) the more structures connected the longer they would last (up to a limit).
OR structure decay could depend on what crafting and storage structures are in/on them, the more advanced structures are placed in a building the longer the building lasts.

Dunno, but something must be done with the pillar/foundation spamming situation..

(Agreed on the AFK thing, on launch day there should be a strict limit on how long one can be AFK.)

Edited April 4 by Hellx87
double quotation

[KBLucifer]

At this time, even on small tribes this is still an issue. on top of this the map is now litted with cryo fridges, how can you hope that new players will come and stay playing with this happening, or even buying DLCs and the long awaited Ark 2.

 

This would be so easy to fix, unless you have 4 walls, a roof and say a camp fire or gen running it gets demolished in a set location distance, or something similar.

 

That image was on a small tribe server, the amount of resources and time. This was spanning the entire central section of the map.

 

With steam offering a refund if customers who are not happy within the first 24hours of playing the game it will be refunding a lot.

[SCrews]

Remove "To close to enemy foundations and or gates" on PVE. It doesn't make sense. We can't declare war, we can't harm each other's bases without using a wild dino (which is not allowed and can get us in trouble if we do it), and with all the pillars around it makes it hard to build. Just change it to where we're allies without needing to ally, keeping the option to ally incase we don't want to speak in global chat.

I understand why it is in place for PVP, it makes sense as they do declare war and can cause harm to structures that aren't their own. In PVE we don't have that option, so not being able to build next to someone's pillars when they have placed them over an entire square of map doesn't make sense.  I understand it means changing some foundational coding in the game to implement a suggestion like this but please consider it moving forward. A lot of new players get screwed over because some people feel the need to place pillars up to a thousand meters away from their bases so new players can't build or are limited in their builds.

Pillaring over large areas was a big problem in Evolved and it continues to be a problem in Ascended.

[bolosnif]

I have recently returned to Ark after a short break, and boy was I in for a shock.

My first impression of the Island was GREAT! There it is, in all it's glory. Until it came time to place my first foundation: the defining moment where one stakes his claim to his own piece of Ark real-estate - [ ! Can't place wood foundation: Too close to enemy foundation or gate. ]

It soon dawned on me that there were pillar cities stretched far and wide with very little room for anyone new to join in. A stark reminder of what was, and still is. Excruciating, dread and sometimes, with a bit of luck, Fun!

These little setbacks are anything but new,

However, should it continue to be a thing that goes unpunished? Perhaps not.

 

Anyway, the point to make is that there are still those who think it funny to troll by way of tactic on PVE servers. 

[Tylanater]

Specifically in PvP, but also applies in PvE. ASA servers are fully spammed already with like 600+ ping. It's so awful that spam is used as a balancing tool for pvp/raiding. They really need to change something. I feel like it's not that hard to address, would shake up the meta a bit, save them huge headaches I'm sure with massive server issues and costs, etc.

Example that comes to mind would be to just make a certain radius around the base where you can spam all you want but anything outside the radius only last for 12-24 hours (that doesn't get refreshed on rendering). That allows for building traps and getting into fights where you can spam an area quickly to defend but it would be impossible to keep a map fully spammed at all times. Plenty of other options could be explored.

Spam is like the first deterrent to people playing this game. "hey friend come play this cool game". They buy it, log on, and see foundations and pillars as far as the eye can see lmao. It's so bad.