Scorched Earth Thread

[CyanicEmber]

1 minute ago, rawsh said:

well why do they even start developing such complex DLC when they obviously have problems finishing the main Game
 

I think at the time they conceived of this expansion and began working on it they weren't having the problems they are now. They were probably still on schedule.

[rawsh]

2 minutes ago, CyanicEmber said:

I think at the time they conceived of this expansion and began working on it they weren't having the problems they are now. They were probably still on schedule.

well lets hope those newly freed capacities can be put to work on finishing the Core Product, instead of the next DLC for a quick Payday.

[Thalantyr]

16 minutes ago, CyanicEmber said:

Also I really really think people need to take into account the fact that they've been planning this DLC alongside the main game for a long long time. It's not something they decided on half way, there is evidence to support what I'm saying. The fact that the main game isn't finished yet was a result of many factors including adding more content than originally planned and underestimating development time, but this DLC is right on schedule.

What you're saying is contradictory. If there is more content that they had planned for the main game then the DLC should be that content. If you plan for a DLC to be released after the main game then you build it in conjunction with the main game and then release the DLC a few months AFTER you release the main game. However, when the main game is FAR from finished, you don't release a DLC. It's working backwards. If they underestimated development time for the main game then those resources working on the DLC should have been moved over to the main game to speed things up and then moved back to the DLC once complete. All WC is showing us at the moment is that they couldn't give a poop about the main game status because they're releasing new DLC's.

[Malabolga]

I was super hyped for the announcement today and was eager to dig my teeth into what the content had to offer. But was very disappointed to find it was for a paid for DLC. The price of it is not an issue, it's the fact they are charging money for what I feel should have been an update to the core game. I shall explain.

I have been with Ark since the release and it has given me insane value for money. You can check out my steam profile to confirm this with over 1800 on Ark and 150+ on SOTF.
https://steamdb.info/calculator/76561197975525928/?cc=us

To make my point I need to address a few things. Firstly that the game is still in Early Access (EA). What does this mean. Well in the case of Ark I will quote from the Steam Store page http://store.steampowered.com/app/346110/ what they pitched us when we pledged our support and was granted EA.
They said' This Early Access game is not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. ' that's a fair and broad non disclosure. So we can expect the game to change allot before its release, and we get to experience all of that right?!

But they go on. ARK is a huge game, in terms of geographical space, scope of content, features, technology, and just about every other metric. We're a veteran team with some major hits behind our leads, and much of the core challenge is already met, but this is still an ambitious one for us. We want the player community's help to 'evolve' ARK into the dinosaur world game that we've been dreaming about since the days we played with plastic green T-Rex toys during elementary school recess, since we shed a tear to 'The Land Before Time', since we wistfully imagined the towering cities of 'Dinotopia', and since we nearly choked on our popcorn to the thrills of 'Jurassic Park Brilliant, they know what they are doing, they have a solid game to work on, it looks good, and they have passion! I hope this goes a long way. Right tell me more about the grit of the experience? What can I expect?! Wild Card then tells me ' We love games, and holy smokes do we ever love dinos (along with all sorts of other extinct creatures/natural sciences), and through interaction and iteration with the ARK's community, we think we have the best shot at creating the be-all, end-all long-term prehistoric universe that we want to live and thrive in. We have a great start, and with your valued input and contributions, we will take it all the way together!” '....Oh wow.. so not only can we expect Dino's as shown now but more exotic things later! Sign me up!! And a long-term universe you say? What what... you have my valued input and contributions... why are you now deciding leaving me behind?

People have told me things like 'Should they work for free?' Well no.. but they have taken peoples money and that's the point of releasing an EA title, and as it expands you get to test that out, be it terrible or fantastic.

Addressing the cost the EA Steam page states

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“Yes, the game will be lower priced through Early Access, relative to its final full-version retail price.”

Fantastic!! So can we have our paid for content now that actually is already downloaded to my system via an 9gb update. And then change the price to reflect the new value of the full game upon release or along the way as people may want to also support your great game and pledge into EA? Maybe offer a way for these people who feel offering extra donations is great a way to do so at this point in the games life also.

Also people have said, this is DLC and not an update because it feels like a whole new game... wait what.. that's what I pledged for, read the above statement, I want to experience this universe also. The EA Steam page goes on to tell me things like:

- Procedurally Generated ARK's
- 40+ more creatures to reach well over 100, with essentially every major category of extinct animal represented in some way
- More saddle types including saddle armor tiers and saddles with powerful weapons mounted on them
- Gas-powered Vehicles
- Human/Dino Body-Paints
- Enhanced building mechanics to evolve ARK into one of the best straight-up builder games out there
- More underwater biome/ecosystem complexity, including support for vacuum-sealed underwater bases
- Lots more items, weapons, armors and further advanced tech tiers
- More item skins, limited run event skins
- More bosses and the end-game cycle including the Ultimate Life Form & Ascension
- More biome types, including deserts, snow regions, swamps, and more.
- Steam Economy Support for Statistical Items (Need some Steam API functionality for this from Valve!)
- Way more plants and more detailed plant biology systems/farming systems
- More statistical modelling of status illnesses/diseases (both player and creature)
- Better SFX, more Music, Better UI's, Better Gamepad support (i.e. UI button shortcut callouts), Better VR support (i.e. HMD gun-aim option)

So will we have to pay for the Procedurally Generated ARK update when that comes? You told me 40+ more creatures with well over 100 to reach.. I can't experience these fully or the saddles they bring. Do we have to pay for the vehicles when they come? I ask this as you told me the biome types would include deserts.. well not unless I pledge you more money at this point. Do you see my point? If you are selling this content as paid for DLC now and not updating your game as you should, whats to stop you repeating this format going forward and just splitting your content?

The Steam page tells me:
 

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“While we have the foundation of our game at Early Access launch, there are many currently-planned features and content additions we will be adding over the year from EA to full release. Beyond such planned features, will be adding TONS of aspects suggested or iterated on by the community, hence the point of Early Access! 

If you want to do this you should really release the game. Price it accordingly and then start creating DLC and charging for it. Not hide behind Early Access!!.. This is not the point.

At the moment from the discussions I have had allot of people feel you are going to be 'pay to win', as you can transfer the new beasts back to the Island. You have made sure you can not breed them though I believe you have allowed tribe members to ride them who bring them back. In the case of our tribe one person wanted to buy the DLC but as the rest of us refused he didn't want to play alone so didn't do this.

You have created a divide in your game and probably should have left the DLC as separate content. People are arguing both sides of the fence that the new content will not give an advantage to players who have it over those who don't... If I have more tools to do a job then you, I have an advantage,

Another comment I heard was ' but the 40$million lawsuit that they settled probably had something to do with the $20 price tag'.. this is not justifiable, us the end user should not be paying for WC's mistakes by missing out on what was promised to us. That and they regularly give away $65,600 each month via Survival of the Fittest survivor league to keep the streams coming in... so moot point.
https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/survivor-league-old/

So I am saying I feel cheated out of this content by Wild Card and feel this behavior is very shady at this games point in it's life. If you support this method of content release now they will do it again.

Like they say most people only speak up when they have something negative to say. I love ARK and feel sad to miss out on this content as I refuse to pay for it. I address the Steam EA page once more as they sign off with the statement '

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“We will have a Trello roadmap at Early Access launch, as well as massive & intense Forum interaction by the development team to gather ideas, feedback, and issues, along with a bi-weekly Q&A / Reddit AMA to involve everyone under the sun who wants to give us their 2 cents on how to make this game everything it can be! Essentially we view ARK's Early Access player community as our primary benefactors -- we're making this game to serve you. Join us on the ARK :)” '

So I hope my Idea, feedback and issues are helpful to you. Right now I do not feel like a primary benefactor and feel cheated by you.

I hope I have explained myself clearly and some one from Wild Card reads and address this.

I also want to tell you the idea you told me that I pledged into and the comment you made to us ' we will take it all the way together!” ' is shattered.

[Ranger1]

21 minutes ago, Thalantyr said:

What you're saying is contradictory. If there is more content that they had planned for the main game then the DLC should be that content. If you plan for a DLC to be released after the main game then you build it in conjunction with the main game and then release the DLC a few months AFTER you release the main game. However, when the main game is FAR from finished, you don't release a DLC. It's working backwards. If they underestimated development time for the main game then those resources working on the DLC should have been moved over to the main game to speed things up and then moved back to the DLC once complete. All WC is showing us at the moment is that they couldn't give a poop about the main game status because they're releasing new DLC's.

Actually, there is this quote:

"While we've had Scorched Earth and future Arks in the planning stages since the project's inception, establishing its inter-ARK travel technology was the essential reason for making this content available to players right now."

In other words they needed to get the inter-ARK piece functioning in game at this point in their development schedule, and you can't really do that unless you have somewhere to inter-ARK transfer to.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-09-01-early-access-dino-hit-ark-gets-completely-finished-expansion#comments

[Malabolga]

Does not seem like the content is justified either.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/512540#app_reviews_hash

Comments like this are numerous on the DLC and you have turned away long term players like myself. Star Citizen looks much more appealing now in fact. "I have to admit that the DLC looks nice, and because i'm addicted to Ark I've bought the DLC but i don't like it. It's bad for the fanbase and if this DLC sucks i'm done with Ark because I don't feel like supporting this kind of behavior."

[CyanicEmber]

Great! Make a public announcement explaining that and giving an update on what's going on in the studio now that the release is made. I don't want to see half the player base drop the game cause of lack of communication...

[GiggleSnarf]

Lets only for a moment, talk about what the game does offer in terms of a finished product. You payed a lower price for a game that by all standards has more content than almost any full priced game on the market. When a company decides to release an expansion, which is what this is. They dont do it for free. Sure they arent done with the game. Who knows if they ever will be. The have been steadily trickling out content for you, and will continue to do so. I see your point but you come off as ungrateful. Under most circumstances you wouldnt mind shelling out a few extra bucks for a large piece of content. Stop complaining and go tame a wyvern. 

[Ranger1]

Just now, CyanicEmber said:

Great! Make a public announcement explaining that and giving an update on what's going on in the studio now that the release is made. I don't want to see half the player base drop the game cause of lack of communication...

That would probably be a good idea.  I realize they wanted to keep this big reveal under their hat, but not everyone could catch the stream so a detailed announcement answering a lot of the most obvious questions would be welcome.

[CyanicEmber]

Someone go bug Jeremy on Twitter to make this happen. x) 

 

[ciabattaroll]

3 minutes ago, ranger1presents said:

I realize they wanted to keep this big reveal under their hat

It's more like the egg of the reveal was already cracking because people were poking it. Remember this thread that was made a few weeks back. People like digging for dirt, and when they dig up something meant to be a surprise, then said surprise tends to get ruined.

[busterdude]

i know i am done i will not play a game that is going to keep asking

for money and does not like single player i hope they are happy 

they killed the game for me i did like the game to

[Purrmaster]

There's no reason anyone should give a rat's ass about my two cents but..

I didn't really buy into the idea some folks have put out that the devs have taken their focus off of the main game.  I kind of figured grabbing the Center and Primitive Plus were kind of impulsive decisions and they would soon turn their focus back to the core game.

Now I think those people may have a point.  We got the redwoods, which was cool.  That seemed like working on the core game.  But then primitive plus and now this.... I wonder if they have taken their eye off finishing the core game.  (I see the Center as part of the core game, personally)

Are they really going to complete the core game and put in all the planned dinos and Tek Tier and fix the bugs and polish the game?  Or is that on the back burner in favor of more DLC type content and officialising more mods?

I think it was wise to have Scorched Earth be a separate "world" instead of tacking it onto the exiting maps.  Scorched Earth isn't really a dino survival game.  It's a fantasy themed survival game.  

As for paid DLC... it does seem odd to release a paid expansion for a game which is still in an alpha state.  But we got The Center and Primitive Plus for free.  And I assume we'll be getting primal survival for free.  And, I hope, Tek Tier.  So wanting to grab some revenue is understandable.

That being said, the DLC should have cost $10, not $20 (even though I already bought it).

I guess the real question is.... can they finish this game?  Really finish it?  With all the added content is it even possible for them to finish up the game?  Can they really juggle that many things at once without sacrificing quality and stability?  What do you guys think?

[Thalantyr]

2 minutes ago, Purrmaster said:

I think it was wise to have Scorched Earth be a separate "world" instead of tacking it onto the exiting maps.  Scorched Earth isn't really a dino survival game.  It's a fantasy themed survival game.

I guess the real question is.... can they finish this game?  Really finish it?  With all the added content is it even possible for them to finish up the game?  Can they really juggle that many things at once without sacrificing quality and stability?  What do you guys think?

I agree on Scorched Earth. It's very fantasy compared to the core game. Its appeal comes from the dino aspect. SE seems very fantasy which doesn't float my boat. The problem is that from what I can see (please correct me if I'm wrong) is that everything can be brought BACK into the core game from SE? So essentially the core game now includes SE as you'll have dragons flying around, etc. Is that correct?

In regards to whether they can finish it, you'd bloody hope so. It needs a lot of work. There's so much balance that needs attention. PvP is a joke. The massive dinos are a joke. Some of the exploits or boxing of things are a joke. Start working on ironing out the issues with the main game. Listen to the community more. Add more of the great mods into the main game. I'm a huge fan of the game but today was a real let down for myself and those I play it with.

[Purrmaster]

4 minutes ago, Thalantyr said:

I agree on Scorched Earth. It's very fantasy compared to the core game. Its appeal comes from the dino aspect. SE seems very fantasy which doesn't float my boat. The problem is that from what I can see (please correct me if I'm wrong) is that everything can be brought BACK into the core game from SE? So essentially the core game now includes SE as you'll have dragons flying around, etc. Is that correct?

 

You put it better than I could have.  Thank you.  I play single player so the inter map critter transfer doesn't matter to me personally.  But for the (vast majority of) players that play on servers I would think bringing in dragons and other fantasy creatures into the Island or the Center would screw up their experiences in a big way.  I think that's potentially very unfair and would really hose the "dinosaur feel" of the core game.

What I would like to see is for the devs to write up a statement about what their plans are in the near future.  What's going to happen to the core game vs the expansion vs mods made official?  What are their goals for the next 6 months?  Do they really think they can (or even want to) finish the game in a year or so?

[fultron3030]

Wildcard I would have donated $20. I'm sure a lot of players would have if you had issues with finishing the game... I won't buy your money grab expansion. You should have finished the game first.

[SimpleSiren]

6 hours ago, ranger1presents said:

They have already release two other expansions... three if you count SotF.  I haven't heard a lot of people complain that the Center map or Primitive + became available to play before the game was finished.

You realize those were free already? They were mods that worked just fine. SOTF is a train wreck that has been scrapped for most part no one play.

[Junglist]

+1

[GravitronX]

If I'm right they'll keep this model to force people to buy the dlcs.

this means they'll have an aquatic dlc.

an Arctic dlc and probaly a dlc for the tek tier

[arathein]

+1

[OXStrident]

I seem to be in the minority of players who don't mind. I'm loving it so far.

[Thalantyr]

14 minutes ago, GravitronX said:

If I'm right they'll keep this model to force people to buy the dlcs.

this means they'll have an aquatic dlc.

an Arctic dlc and probaly a dlc for the tek tier

It's looking that way, which is fine, as long as the base game is getting better, which it's really not. More concentration on the base game please!

It's also the content. An Aquatic DLC can be very prehistoric. An Arctic DLC can be very prehistoric. I would have assumed that you'd find plenty of prehistoric animals to use for Scorched Earth, but we end up with magical Wyverns, Giant Worms, Rock Elementals and other strange creatures. Sigh. It's taken ARK wayyyy off course.

[Irk]

30 minutes ago, GravitronX said:

If I'm right they'll keep this model to force people to buy the dlcs.

this means they'll have an aquatic dlc.

an Arctic dlc and probaly a dlc for the tek tier

Honestly, I'd be okay with this. I think the idea of having multiple Arks with different environments/items/dinos in which I can pick and choose which I prefer would be awesome. Even if they used The Island as a central point to go from/to these Arks. That would be bad ass. Just finish the core game before releasing any more expansions, please. 

[Malabolga]

I made a post, it got merged into this topic. I reposted my topic new, since it is more well constructed then some of the posts complaining at moment, since as the EA page states they value our opinion and I wanted a response. I updated as I just noticed 30 of the new items/engrams are infact just ABODE construction materials from Primative plus, and they want money for that also?
Then my post was removed and I was given a warning for spam/off topic. Are WC silencing people who speak out now? I made an articulate post that I would like personal response to. Instead mine is hidden/removed while other posts still sit there.

[OXStrident]

9 hours ago, Eichkater said:

How would you know? Maybe they wanted to bring the DLC free but miscalculated or got just bigger costs in their way so they decided to make it pay 2 play.

I find it so funny that ppl complaining about 20dollars when a meal at McStupid is nearly the same price.

What meal is nearly $20 there?