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ARK: Survival of the Fittest - Summer Cup, Development Kit & Going Forward


Jatheish
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40 minutes ago, usrevenge said:

just worry about getting the full game on ps4.  worry about the other stuff afterward.

To worry about list for console ark players: 

  1. Full game for Xbox (I'm an xbox player so xbox is default first)
  2. Full game for PS4 
  3. Fix the small pesky bugs that annoy us every now and again for core game
  4. Sotf for Xbox
  5. Sotf for PS4         (Hopefully it releaes for both at the same time)
  6. Fix the small pesky bugs that annoy us every now and again for Sotf
  7. Now worry about the other stuff.

(I'm no trying to correct or offend you in any way just epanding upon your order in which worry)

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6 hours ago, Jat said:

Hopefully I can address this in a way you'll find satisfactory, or at least so you understand where we're coming from with our decision to port Survival of the Fittest back into Survival Evolved.

The players who have already qualified for the event will likely already have SotF in their steam libraries, if for some reason that is not the case - they can get in touch with me and I will sort it out for them, as the invites have already been sent out for the next event.

That's a reasonable opinion to have, though would disagree on this particular choice being a rushed or drastic move to 'fix' the game. Clearly what we've been doing hasn't been working so well and there seems to be a lot of players in the SotF community who have their own ideas about how they think it should be run, that have been vocalised too - and we want to give them the opportunity to set forth and turn SotF into what it should be, without restriction. It's not a 'mod' - it's still a standalone game, just a part of the core-version so that it's still able to be funded. 

The link with our twitch is a fair point, and I'll get that sorted right now but also that's just something that's slipped under the radar, those links likely haven't been checked in a while since they were setup, mostly because the URLs tend not to change - however I'll link it directly to the standalone app in the Steam Store.

The game hasn't changed much since the standalone was first release, there have just been some gameplay and balance changes, the most notorious ones would be the changes to the ring - value changes itself are small and if players disagree with them, they have the ability to adjust it to what they think it should be. The balance was decided through watching games, speaking to members of the SotF community, the top players, as well as our own ideas on what we think would work. Again, if this isn't something you agree with - you're welcome to change it. A lot of the feedback does come from top players too, but again there are always going to be people who prefer something one way, and others another way. 

We want to provide you guys with the opportunity to take SotF in another direction. The direction we were taking it in, whilst we enjoyed it clearly wasn't working - and we still want to ensure that the game remains taken care of and funded, so we'll look after it in that sense, as well as make any critical changes that are necessary to the game design itself. If the game still has a lot of potential in your eyes, which we believe it does too - we just aren't quite sure where we want to take it, so we're stepping back - then grab the Development Kit and take a stab at it. If things kick off and a mod creator is looking for more support from us to taking it to the next level, we're definitely open to that and are willing to work with them to achieve it.

The licencing issue stems from SotF development vs SE development, with the initial plan - it would have just been a SotF kit, what would have been available, would have been limited, until SotF received it - by doing this we're able to remove all limitations and players are able to mod without restriction, do what they want, use all the content that we have available in the main game.

Interesting and thanks for taking time to respond.

Interesting to see that it might be an issue for those that have downloaded SOTF standalone before, when has the "move back under SE" taken place ? is it already ? so for instance if someone watching me asks now do they need to buy SE to play sotf ? Just so I can be clear with them.

We all get wildcard has no background in esports and you could quite frankly tell that but there were and maybe still are a lot of people who believe in this as a game the frustration/rants/etc come from what is a total lack of communication and engagement, I have over my time playing this game badly and streaming it got to know quite a large potion of the "pro" or at least the top 40/60/80 scene and honestly its always the same story no one knows whats going on, who is doing what and what will happen, we are as a group of people quite frankly mushroomed. your posts here are the closest thing to concrete information any of us have had in months.

There are some quite simple things that are always avoided and never directly answered that could help a lot, for instance

Is Macro feeding allowed ? in May we were told NO, an "eminent" streamer tells people all the time its allowed, this causes confusion with a huge portion of the community now using a macro and those of us who don't because of the advice given in May feeling a little aggrieved.

How long will "money" tournaments go on for ? there is a constant rumour mill that ever season is the "last" season that its all on the verge of being over, some sort of defined limit/reasoning/length would help us immensely

Again though this feeds into a lack of dedicated "SOTF" person on wildcards end, who sets up an "esport" without putting a dedicated person in charge of it ? its madness and that over bloated prize pool would have  been far better for the game being pushed into a SOTF CM who had a bit of "marketing" budget to be spent, yes I'm aware I'm telling you guys again what to do which is a source of frustration but its clear to say (as you do yourself) the way you have been running it hasn't been working, if you compare it to the numbers h1z1 br has or hell even the culling its not a pretty picture, I think and I don't want to speak for wildcard you guys just assumed the follow through from SE players would carry it to success but SOTF and SE PVP Are very very different animals and appeal to different players.

I get the link thing was an "oversight" but when you have 3-4-5k people watching a tournament and they want to get into the game only to be linked to a year old post talking about a mod then its really hard to get ANY follow through isn't it ?

Interesting your opinion is that the game "hasn't changed much" but conversely we need another elo rest because of how much it has changed ? these two ideas don't seem terribly in line here.

Then we get onto to the confusing wooley language bits that I obviously don't quite get whats being intimated, are you (wildcard) suggesting with this change that there are going to be no more survivor leagues ? are they no longer going to be the official tournaments because a lot of the rest of your post honestly reads like you guys are sort of done with it now and its up to us going forward now we have the dev kit ? I might be reading too much into it there, but this is how its coming across ? I'm not sure how much further wildcard can step back on a sotf front outside of the monthly tournaments we already see nearly nothing from you guys, apart from random patches that drop with random changes and no actual in depth explanation of "why" how much further can you step back ? There is no way a game like this can succeed without actual dev support or a community manger so I read that section as you guys "giving up" on sotf, now maybe I'm right maybe I'm wrong but more interaction, communication and greater feedback is whats needed here not less if you have to do something then empower people like the YGD guys and XPulZ guys but please don't go "welp its your problem not community" because that's entirely whats NOT needed right now.

Unless of course wildcard is done with sotf, because you honestly don't "owe" any of us anything (monetary support or tournaments etc) but it would just be nice to know if this is the case or not in black and white and not spend the next month + wondering whats going on with zero communication.

 

 

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6 hours ago, thestiffler said:

Interesting and thanks for taking time to respond.

Interesting to see that it might be an issue for those that have downloaded SOTF standalone before, when has the "move back under SE" taken place ? is it already ? so for instance if someone watching me asks now do they need to buy SE to play sotf ? Just so I can be clear with them.

We all get wildcard has no background in esports and you could quite frankly tell that but there were and maybe still are a lot of people who believe in this as a game the frustration/rants/etc come from what is a total lack of communication and engagement, I have over my time playing this game badly and streaming it got to know quite a large potion of the "pro" or at least the top 40/60/80 scene and honestly its always the same story no one knows whats going on, who is doing what and what will happen, we are as a group of people quite frankly mushroomed. your posts here are the closest thing to concrete information any of us have had in months.

There are some quite simple things that are always avoided and never directly answered that could help a lot, for instance

Is Macro feeding allowed ? in May we were told NO, an "eminent" streamer tells people all the time its allowed, this causes confusion with a huge portion of the community now using a macro and those of us who don't because of the advice given in May feeling a little aggrieved.

How long will "money" tournaments go on for ? there is a constant rumour mill that ever season is the "last" season that its all on the verge of being over, some sort of defined limit/reasoning/length would help us immensely

Again though this feeds into a lack of dedicated "SOTF" person on wildcards end, who sets up an "esport" without putting a dedicated person in charge of it ? its madness and that over bloated prize pool would have  been far better for the game being pushed into a SOTF CM who had a bit of "marketing" budget to be spent, yes I'm aware I'm telling you guys again what to do which is a source of frustration but its clear to say (as you do yourself) the way you have been running it hasn't been working, if you compare it to the numbers h1z1 br has or hell even the culling its not a pretty picture, I think and I don't want to speak for wildcard you guys just assumed the follow through from SE players would carry it to success but SOTF and SE PVP Are very very different animals and appeal to different players.

I get the link thing was an "oversight" but when you have 3-4-5k people watching a tournament and they want to get into the game only to be linked to a year old post talking about a mod then its really hard to get ANY follow through isn't it ?

Interesting your opinion is that the game "hasn't changed much" but conversely we need another elo rest because of how much it has changed ? these two ideas don't seem terribly in line here.

Then we get onto to the confusing wooley language bits that I obviously don't quite get whats being intimated, are you (wildcard) suggesting with this change that there are going to be no more survivor leagues ? are they no longer going to be the official tournaments because a lot of the rest of your post honestly reads like you guys are sort of done with it now and its up to us going forward now we have the dev kit ? I might be reading too much into it there, but this is how its coming across ? I'm not sure how much further wildcard can step back on a sotf front outside of the monthly tournaments we already see nearly nothing from you guys, apart from random patches that drop with random changes and no actual in depth explanation of "why" how much further can you step back ? There is no way a game like this can succeed without actual dev support or a community manger so I read that section as you guys "giving up" on sotf, now maybe I'm right maybe I'm wrong but more interaction, communication and greater feedback is whats needed here not less if you have to do something then empower people like the YGD guys and XPulZ guys but please don't go "welp its your problem not community" because that's entirely whats NOT needed right now.

Unless of course wildcard is done with sotf, because you honestly don't "owe" any of us anything (monetary support or tournaments etc) but it would just be nice to know if this is the case or not in black and white and not spend the next month + wondering whats going on with zero communication.

Yeah - going forward people will need to own Survival Evolved to have access to the Survival of the Fittest mode, however previously if you had it - you will still own it. Macro feeding has always been frowned upon, we've put in some measures in place where it had a serious impact on the game, we cannot straight out block it because it's not in any realistic sense police-able, where we believe it has an impact - we'll patch it, to make it less effective. During the LAN events, they were prohibited - as we were able to police them. People are always going to start rumours about this or that, til you hear something from us about it - which you would in this case, because it's a big deal, then it'll just be carrying on. We did attempt to recruit people for the position, but quite franky not many were interested, as those who were, weren't suitable candidates for the position. 

Whilst it was an oversight and something that should have been taken care of, I do not believe it has the impact you're saying it has - during the stream SotF has been spoken about in terms of what it is, where and how it is available, there are bot commands which show people where to get it, the trailer gets played frequently, more commands talking about the tournament - the information was there on that twitch channel, but aye that button should have been fixed.

The game hasn't changed much in terms what was done between now and then, however the impact of those changes can be significant - I was referring to your concerns about the 'ruined potential' -> if you dislike our ring changes, or the balance changes, which clearly do have an impact on game balance - then feel free to go back on those in the Devkit, or don't run servers with those settings - and then you can get it to how you'd like it.

What we're doing is taking a step back, we want to see how things pan out without making an hasty decisions - I don't necessarily think that's bad choice right? We want to evaluate what's going on and where the next step is. This does not mean we're done with it, this just means we're re-thinking on where to take the game, perhaps our decisions haven't been the greatest and we want to pause and take a moment for now - however by releasing the Dev Kit, we are welcome to the idea of others having a shot at it, and if they're able to create something that really works, with their own game balance, something the community can get behind - we're happy to work with them to support it, possibly even rolling out changes made on Official Servers due to how well they're received. Our stepping back allows us to release an 'unrestricted' dev kit, it stops us from having to learn F2P monetisation (which we didn't want to do) and grants players the ability to take the game to where they'd like.

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On 2 August 2016 at 1:25 PM, bo0MXxXsplatter said:

I'm just curious, but SotF is faster than the base game right? What speed are the modifiers set at?

Yes its got higher rates. if it were normal rates, one wouldn't be able to get to metal tools, mulitple rexs and other assorted tames within the usual 2 hrs (i think it 2, still you get what i mean).

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On ‎02‎/‎08‎/‎2016 at 4:27 PM, Jat said:

What we're doing is taking a step back, we want to see how things pan out without making an hasty decisions - I don't necessarily think that's bad choice right? We want to evaluate what's going on and where the next step is. This does not mean we're done with it, this just means we're re-thinking on where to take the game, perhaps our decisions haven't been the greatest and we want to pause and take a moment for now - however by releasing the Dev Kit, we are welcome to the idea of others having a shot at it, and if they're able to create something that really works, with their own game balance, something the community can get behind - we're happy to work with them to support it, possibly even rolling out changes made on Official Servers due to how well they're received. Our stepping back allows us to release an 'unrestricted' dev kit, it stops us from having to learn F2P monetisation (which we didn't want to do) and grants players the ability to take the game to where they'd like.

I'm just going to quote this bit and respond, you guys are "stepping back" but THIS week between the end of the season and the playoffs you have made massive and in some cases quite ill thought out sweeping changes to the balance of the game. This is not "stepping back" its prodding things a bit and running away.

Currently you have spinos worse in every single way and the "rex nerfs" amount to nothing in real terms but you also married this with crapping on tech and removing an item that no one ever saw as even a slight issue in FFA (metal shield).

You cant have it all ways as an organisation you cant say "were stepping back" then make huge dramatic changes to balance between the end of the season and the playoffs its just madness, who does that ??

Also I like the idea that "we" can balance the game and if its good you guys will incorporate it, there I hate to tell you isn't a big enough "unofficial" scene nor can it entice the ranked play players to it actually test anything properly in this environment it just wont work, but yeah you cant "step back" and make massive changes at the same time its not how it works its really not.

 

 

 

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