Possible idea for fixing Official PVE/PVP Pillering/build blocking issue

[TheTrueVocalHero]

Hi, everyone.

So after being excited to play after purchasing ASA, ready to get building and taming like many other players, I found myself, also like other players no doubt, completely disappointed and frustrated by the amount of unnecessary Pillaring and land grabbing on official PVE servers by these players who have some sort of entitlement issue to fulfil. I understand this is a problem on PVP too but of course more with PVE servers, this issue needs to be addressed and the fact this is still an ongoing issue is ridiculous to say the least, it’s completely game breaking for many players. Let’s just put it this way, the servers I logged onto were so clogged with pillars I couldn’t even build a 1x1 Dino trap in most places let alone a decent base. So, It got me thinking about how this could be dealt with so new PVE players can actually login and enjoy the game and those who want to exploit pillars can’t do that. This is of course just a suggestion in which I’m sure elements of this or maybe even a lot of it has already been suggested before but it needs to be raised again for sure because ASA has so much potential to be a great game but this just ruins it. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it and any other suggestions for this issue of course because for me I find the game unplayable like this and that’s without the Dino cap limit right now and optimisation issues. Please read through the whole suggestion before replying.

A single (free) dedicated plot area for each player ACCOUNT not character

Ok, so I know an area plot idea has been suggested before and others have said how it could be implemented but here’s how I think it could work. 
Once logging onto a server, you head to the location you’d like to build, if it’s clearly empty, you craft your first foundation to place, some have suggested a flag for this purpose, and as you press to place the first object, the map opens to show you the plot area which once item is placed, now belongs to you, that’s your land. If it overlaps with another player plot then it will not allow you to place the object/flag to claim that land so you’d have to move on or adjust placement. However, the area size is level based, just an example but Lvl 1-50 is small, lvl 51-85 is medium and Lvl 86+ is large this gives a more rewarding feeling if you know you can upgrade and build a larger base the more you level up. Of course before placing a plot flag or foundation the game would need to take into account the largest area size limit not to block an expansion as you level. You cannot build anything outside of that area, that is yours but bare with me as I have thought of some exceptions for this and how they would work which I will explain later in my post but first the issue with those who want additional plots.

Possible PAID additional player area plots 2-3, 1 free 2 paid(?) max per ACCOUNT not character

Of course there are players who only want one base which is why one free plot is available to all players but Again this next part is just a suggestion, don’t jump down my throat.
So, you may be thinking, “why are you suggesting paid content for something I already paid for?”. Well, like mods will be paid for in ASA now, I’m happy and maybe others would be too, to pay a bit extra for additional content/privilages which are beneficial to my enjoyment of the game, and just think, all of that additional revenue can go towards improving ASA for everyone, I think personally that if a player wants to build multiple building plots then you could unlock these by paying either a fair one off fee or a smaller monthly subscription fee in which these paid plots would have double the decay time but if the base does decay or you want to move you can pickup replace your second or third area plot flag somewhere else so there’s no paying over and over for these. So every player gets a free plot but players can then choose if they want additional plots. This of course would be locked to to steam/xbox/nintendo/ps account and not the character so players can spam creating multiple characters just for free plots. This I think would in turn reduce the amount of overall small huts, spawn blockers and pillars because you can only build in those plot areas you own (max 3) and unless you want to pay good money just to place pillars then it’s your wasted money not someone’s enjoyment of the game. This could also stop people pointlessly blocking large areas of land for no reason such as the volcano etc. the block would be coming out of your pocket so joke would be on you and you’d just be trolling yourself financially for no gain.

Building outside of your plot area: traps, rafts and platform saddles

Ok, so I know some of you are probably wondering how you are meant to build Dino traps or rafts if you can’t build outside of your plot area. Well, here’s what I think could work. I have two ideas.

ASA could implement, unlockable via levelling, prebuilt dino traps for small, medium and large Dinos. These can be placed outside of your build area for a maximum time of (insert Dino with highest tame time) which then auto decays after this or depending on which Dino you trap, auto decays when the Dino inside has been successfully tamed. These traps can only be placed one per however many meters and if not used will auto decay in an hour maybe even half that time if no Dino is inside being tamed. That’s my first idea, the second is ASA implementing a small, medium and large Dino trap custom blueprint unlocked via levelling. We all have our favourite ways to build traps so how this works is, you build your custom trap which has a build limit for a small, medium or large Dino and then it can be saved as a blueprint using the unlocked item maybe a scanner sort of device, it then works like the other trap idea where it can be placed but only for a certain amount of time and then decays, or when the Dino is tamed, maybe even allow other players to build traps next to each other because after a certain time they will decay anyway or maybe have traps not abide by plot areas within a certain distance and if a trap is placed near another base it’s timer is halved unless a Dino is being a rocky tamed. I thought maybe The small and medium traps from either the first or second idea can both snap to the raft for easy raft traps. As for those who want to build on rafts and platform saddles, have them work in a way that they have vastly reduced auto decay timers if outside your initial plot areas or if they aren’t being used. This helps stop players leaving raft bases everywhere and also gives them incentive to travel back to their main base with their raft or platform saddled Dino. Same could work for players leaving tamed Dinos everywhere give them vastly reduced decay timers if outside the main base plot area. Again, this is Incentive to not leave your tames lying around or they’ll be gone when you log back in after a set period of time.. but then with tames Dinos left in the wild I don’t think there’s an issue with letting us build near them to begin with.

Anyway..

So, those are my suggestions on the Pillering issue, I’m sure there will be players that say “play unofficial” which isn’t a fix and I’m sure there are pros and cons to the suggestions I made but I’d love to hear what you think, what could work what wouldn’t but please, if you think they could work upvote this post so we can get it to the devs, I just want to be able to join a server and play not be blocked at every turn by selfishness or people thinking they have the right to police official servers. 
ASA has such great potential and a long life ahead of it but this should be available for everyone that wants to play, PVP/PVE Official, or otherwise.

Thanks for reading… if you did! 😂

 

 

 

[TheTrueVocalHero]

On 12/9/2023 at 1:05 PM, UnicornBite said:

These are good ideas. Although I think an easy solution would to be to set someone who plays frequently on each server as an admin. Give them the ability to remove pillars. Heck, I'd do that for them for free 99. 

Also a very good idea and I’m sure there would be others willing to be server admin and take on that duty with limited console commands allowed of course. Whatever the case or solution is best, they have to do something. I just feel at this point it’s unacceptable that players are still able to get away with blatantly breaking the TOS, literally ruining the game for others out of their weird sense of entitlement.

[udo]

pillar spam i can live with 2 pillars and a lAdder as this doesnt block spawns , resources etc, its the idiots that spam foundations and a wall , this blocks resources, dino spawns , there are entire areas on the official server i play on that spawn nothing , even along rivers i have only seen one beaver dam since asa was released due to everyone buiding along river edges , and then spamming foundations with one wall attahced 

 

players need to realise if they want to protect areas USE PILLARS NOT FOUNDATIONS 

[UnicornBite]

These are good ideas. Although I think an easy solution would to be to set someone who plays frequently on each server as an admin. Give them the ability to remove pillars. Heck, I'd do that for them for free 99. 

[Creativesoul]

as a community we need to address the biggest issue in ark. the spam that blocks spawns and players building.....

I have a suggestion... an increased decay timer on structures under a certain limit of placed structure items, that create a whole structure that then has the full decay timer allowance per resource type ie thatch wood stone metal. for instance 1 structure would have 5 minutes to place another structure 2 = 10 mins ect until the full structure is complete, say like 20 structure items snapped together would count as a full structure. therefore slowing down the rate at how fast and how far a player can spam structures. with regards to pegging land  I think a string like mechanic needs implementing with a unique pillar system that allows a player to peg a piece of land to build their base. for example there should be a maximum allowance of these said unique pillars per tribe with a maximum range at how far these can be apart from each other allowing player to have an area to build in, for example I could place a certain amount of these unique pillars around an area to claim for building. having a limit would stop the amount of land I could take away from the community, therefore allowing others the opportunity to play rather than server surfing for a non pillared map. but with millions of players worldwide I think we all know another major issue. there is simply not enough servers. please give your feed back and pass this on to the devs if possible. Thank you ark survivors  

[Creativesoul]

the string like mechanic =  a pillar system that has a link string attached to each other that allows to create an area to build with a maximum distance apart and allowance of pillars that can be used. it would create an area that no other tribe or player can build in. #alotlessticketsbeingsent

[Kizmiaz]

1 hour ago, Creativesoul said:

as a community we need to address the biggest issue in ark. the spam that blocks spawns and players building.....

[...], say like 20 structure items snapped together would count as a full structure. [...]

do you any idea how many structures of that type you'll see in case this idea might be picked up ?
 

[Creativesoul]

1 hour ago, Kizmiaz said:

do you any idea how many structures of that type you'll see in case this idea might be picked up ?
 

limit the number of full structures a tribe can build

[Pipinghot]

On 12/12/2023 at 4:24 AM, Creativesoul said:

as a community we need to address the biggest issue in ark. the spam that blocks spawns and players building.....

WC has addressed the issue years ago. It's resolved, there is no open question that needs further resolution by players.

1) Pillars are allowed for land claiming. Pillaring is approved of by WC. It is allowed. It is legal.

2) The Code of Conduct describes what is and what is not allowed.

3) If you think someone is violating the CoC with excessive pillar spam, or using pillars to block critical resources, submit a ticket. If the GM's agree with you they'll deal with it, if they don't agree with you then you know the answer.

4) The vast majority of pillar issues can be worked out between players without ever getting a GM involved. Just because you want to build somewhere doesn't mean you automatically have the right to do so. Sometimes you get to build where you want, sometimes you have to keep looking, that's just the way it is.

p.s. There's no such thing as "the community", there are many communities and they don't all agree. There will never, ever, EVER be an agreement among all players for how pillaring should be done. It's a process of discussion and negotiation between players on a case-by-case basis.

On 12/12/2023 at 4:24 AM, Creativesoul said:

I have a suggestion... an increased decay timer on structures under a certain limit of placed structure items, that create a whole structure that then has the full decay timer allowance per resource type ie thatch wood stone metal. for instance 1 structure would have 5 minutes to place another structure 2 = 10 mins ect until the full structure is complete, say like 20 structure items snapped together would count as a full structure. therefore slowing down the rate at how fast and how far a player can spam structures

So instead of covering the map with pillars that are:

a) easy to maneuver around and move past

b) don't interfere with resource spawn.

...instead you want people to cover the map with buildings that:

a) would be a pain in the neck to maneuver around and

b) would interfere with resource spawns all over the map.

 

That's not a solution, you're just creating more problems.

On 12/12/2023 at 4:24 AM, Creativesoul said:

with regards to pegging land  I think a string like mechanic needs implementing with a unique pillar system that allows a player to peg a piece of land to build their base. for example there should be a maximum allowance of these said unique pillars per tribe with a maximum range at how far these can be apart from each other allowing player to have an area to build in, for example I could place a certain amount of these unique pillars around an area to claim for building. having a limit would stop the amount of land I could take away

So all tribes are created equal, all tribes have the same number of people, all tribes have the same amount of activity, all tribes have the same needs for their crafting area, cooking area, breeding area, animal pens, etc. Not sure what game that is but it doesn't sound like ARK.

On 12/12/2023 at 4:24 AM, Creativesoul said:

from the community, therefore allowing others the opportunity to play rather than server surfing for a non pillared map. but with millions of players worldwide I think we all know another major issue. there is simply not enough servers. please give your feed back and pass this on to the devs if possible.

It's true that ARK currently has a shortage of servers, but there has always been someone complaining about pillars because they don't understand how to, or more importantly don't want to, negotiate with other players. Can't speak for anyone else, but I've never had to surf servers for a non pillared map, every official server I ever played on it was possible to find areas to build. And not just any area, good areas. The places I ended up building were no my first choice, there were other spots I would have built on if I had been able to build anywhere I wanted to, but all that was required was to be willing to explore and use a bit of creativity and Bingo! good places to build can be found. it's just a matter of figuring out where there are locations to build that haven't already been claimed. People who claim there's no place to build are just showing a lack of initiative and creativity.

 

A final note regarding "pass this on to the devs". The forums are almost entirely for players to talk to other players, the devs don't read it, they never have. If you want the devs to see a suggestion then put it into the Suggestions forum, not here in General Discussion forum. If a post in the Suggestions forum gets enough support then the community coordinator(s) may pass it on to the devs. That's the only way your suggestion would ever be brought to their attention.

Edited December 13, 2023 by Pipinghot

[Xandarel]

there only need to set the min pices to 15 look at conan it work

[yarnevk]

All those proposing pillar solutions needs to look very very closely at the history of ATLAS (AKA as ARK pirate DLC).   Flagging has been done and because it was written by WC bugs was exploited to death, and even once the bugs was fixed the megatribes did whatever they needed to do with alted allies to get around the fairness rules.  Entire PVE servers owned by one tribe - not even needing to sail to other islands stopped them.     Even WC changing things up to be a seasonal model wiping frequently to stop the megas did not work because timezones always favored the megatribes with global 24/7 discord coordination - by the time you woke up to get your claim in the entire atlas had been claimed.

Escaping to private PVE servers did not solve the island grabbing.  Despite me participating in such a community by designing a new map even I got griefed using flag exploits and aggroing wild because "they never saw me and I was blocking their view" despite lived in vastly different timezones and I was the first settler on the map because I designed it and I only had a tiny hut and farm as rarely got even an hour a day to sustain the farm - and was usually busy working on the new map for the new server release.

The only way to avoid assholes in the game is to play singleplayer or with very trusted friends on non-dedicated server.  WC cannot program around human nature.   Even the real world suffers from neighbors suing over fence lines.

 

Edited December 12, 2023 by yarnevk

[Austria]

you can always look for a other place to buil your Base. Not everyone can build on the same shiny youtuber spot or on bobbeach 😉

Edited December 12, 2023 by Austria

[Pipinghot]

23 minutes ago, Creativesoul said:

limit the number of full structures a tribe can build

Again, not all tribes are the same, this is the opposite of a creative solution. Different numbers of people, different amounts of activity, different amounts of tames, different amounts of wanting to build and interesting base.

ARK is a sandbox game, the intent of the game has always been to allow players as much flexibility as possible with the GM's only getting involved if a tribe does excessive pillaring or if they block resources that WC considers critical.

 

If you think someone is violating the CoC then submit a ticket. For all other pillar issues reach out to the people and talk to them.