Scorched Earth servers that should be avoided

[GanktheGoat]

So just had the server I was on for the past week finally become Chinese only.  Every thing is being blocked off, from resources to obelisks. Anyone caught taming gets killed on sight, and building anything stone or above gets you and your base wiped.  Worse still they have already started producing wyverns.  

We did our best to fight them but sadly they had well fortified position and the dinos to hold off our last ditch attack.  So now what?  Well we take a break, learn from our mistakes, and start anew on another SE server.  But still, since I have yet to see a topic on which servers to avoid I figured starting one would not hurt so if you want to help people avoid nasty SE servers feel free to post which one it is and why.

 

Server 751 scorched earth

Reason: Taken over by large oppressive Chinese tribe 

[Darkholis]

I will add to this starting list the hardcore server me and my tribemates were playing on.

We started at the SE launch and like 99% of the players there, were at level 1 ad thus worked hard to level up, seize a good building spot and repel attacks against us. Over a week of leveling, crafting and taming, we spotted a newer tribe and among their ranks was a level 70 player (which obviously transfered).

I personally have no respect in any way for anyone transfering a high level character to a SE server. If you don't have the actual skills and willpower to attempt such adventure don't bother playing it as transfering is a plain slap in the face for to the rest of us. For that very reason, we started attacking them online and managed to wipe most of their tribe before going back to our business.

We were ready to attempt a rock elemental tame and two days ago, the very same tribe we wiped transfered multiple level 65+ characters and wiped us over a single night, killed our tames and players. We were motivated to build back and get revenge on such gutless cowards but yesterday, they came offline again with even more high levels and destroyed us again.

Unless you are planning to bring a serious tribe, don't bother playing on that server as they raid lowbies for sport and because, well, they can since nobody can really stop them now.

 

Server : Hardcore-NA-ScorchedEarth774.

Reason : Taken by an oppressive tribe of roughly 10 members at level 70+ offline-raiding anyone.

 

Off-topic rant...

To Wildcard

I have been a devoted player since the Early Access launch with well over 2000 hours but I'm slowly getting frustrated and exhausted of how poorly things within the game has been handled.

Character transfer is just unappropriate and I'm being polite with my words here. It has been blocked for numerous and very good reasons prior to SE's launch. Does anyone remember the waves of foreign tribes porting from servers to servers with high amount of explosives, tames and much more?

Enabling a feature that has been disabled before raise multiple questions. The way I see this, it tells to all the big bullying tribes out there to come and take whatever they want in SE, nobody can really stop them. It also means it is perfectly fine for a player at level 90+ to come over and trample down lowbies for the fun of it. That's not PvP, that's trolling.

Do I really need to mention the flawed harasement/anti-hack policy that actually does nothing to prevent bad behaviors?

Being raided 35 times over 2 months (on OfficialServer 436) by the same tribe is not a real case of harasement, according to the customer service. That bully tribe also used an exploit to build massive floating metal bases far in the sky. Has the tribe been banned? Negative. Wildcard simply removed the floating building... If such tribe is willing to go to these extremes of exploiting to stay on top, they are most likely doing even more shady moves we don't know.... (Below is a picture of one of these bases during construction.)

The infamous tribe log also constitute a problem. The actual length of it is very limited, making hard to track events over several weeks, maybe days in case of a bigger active tribe. In that regard, I seriously think it should be considered to implement it into the form of a .txt file that could hold months worth of tribe logs and other precious data.

As much as I love the game, there are many elements such as experiences from above that are turning newcomers and veterans away from the game.

Best regards.

[Legalot]

Just to piggyback off what you said.  I agree.  I love ark and love PVP, but this character transfer is complete Mickey Mouse.  I love the challenge of building up and "surviving"...not transferring my level 73 just to keep up with the level 70+ griefers and trolls.  It's absolutely absurd and has broke the game imo.  Again, I absolutely loved this game before.  I hate to say it, but I think I'm done.

[rpicardi1]

A fix would be to not allow character transfer to public servers. That would keep the Chinese hackers from invading with high level players they created on 20X type private servers to take over the public ones.

[ClamsJager]

make server region specific, don't allow US to EU and don't allow China to EU or US servers. they we would only have to fight off our own people....and we would be able to understand what they are saying.

[Foxfire]

My list of servers to avoid, also overrun by "Chinese" apparently, somehow, transferring in with wyverns and wiping the map clean, then setting up camp and wiping out anyone they come into contact with.  Incredibly toxic in both attitude and behavior and has made the game virtually unplayable on the PvP side.   PvE is almost as bad with the rock golems...

Every one of these has the same story... they just showed up in bulk and somehow had wyverns either with them, or incredibly (impossibly) quickly and very shortly wiped everyone out.

Every low pop server I looked at was this way.  It seems, to avoid the "Chinese Problem"...  only the high pop servers are worth investigating.  Scorched Earth, indeed.

779, 747, 793, 789, 732

All controlled by the "Chinese".  I finally quit looking.  I'm seriously thinking about going back to WoW and demanding a refund for ARK - the X-Pack and the 3 copies of the game I have (to play multiple toons on the same server).  Re-enabling of server transfers has brought this down.  Wildcard, you screwed up.  Big time.  Again.

There is no easy way to fix this problem, but the game is virtually unplayable.  I have my own private server and I have firewall rules in place to reject any connection attempt made by anyone using an APAC region IP address.  I've yet to have a "chinese problem" as a result.  This doesn't excuse the unplayable official servers, however.

[mndfreeze]

On 9/11/2016 at 8:08 PM, rpicardi1 said:

 

A fix would be to not allow character transfer to public servers. That would keep the Chinese hackers from invading with high level players they created on 20X type private servers to take over the public ones.

 

You can't transfer from private unofficial servers to official ones...

[Becc]

On 13 September 2016 at 1:34 AM, ClamsJager said:

make server region specific, don't allow US to EU and don't allow China to EU or US servers. they we would only have to fight off our own people....and we would be able to understand what they are saying.

This is a terrible idea considering there are no SE oceanic servers. 

Us Australians and New Zealanders have to play on the NA servers. 

[CheeseHelmet]

On 9/11/2016 at 11:08 PM, rpicardi1 said:

A fix would be to not allow character transfer to public servers. That would keep the Chinese hackers from invading with high level players they created on 20X type private servers to take over the public ones.

You can't transfer from non official to official.

[madfretter]

Chinese ips are transferring in animals? Wyverns??Am I reading this correctly?  I haven't seen this, thankfully.

[Ithharr]

Hey hey. I'm one of the folks who lives on 732. Original character was from Ark Prime 97 before the 70/70 character flood for two weeks straight happened, nothing was left and most nodes were impossible to get to afterwards, that was a while ago. The problem we've been having on 732 isn't with the Chinese, 732 gets to deal with a group that's prone to forcing the server offline for days on end if they don't get their way. Think that's a fair bit worse.

Region locking would be a pretty darn fantastic thing, though I'd miss playing with our Aussie folks, even with their horrendous pings.

[Smash]

On 12/09/2016 at 0:55 AM, Darkholis said:

I personally have no respect in any way for anyone transfering a high level character to a SE server. If you don't have the actual skills and willpower to attempt such adventure don't bother playing it as transfering is a plain slap in the face for to the rest of us. For that very reason, we started attacking them online and managed to wipe most of their tribe before going back to our business.

Isn't this the entire point of SE?  You transfer there to get stuff to take back to the island?

[DeweyDecimal]

3 minutes ago, Smash said:

Isn't this the entire point of SE?  You transfer there to get stuff to take back to the island?

That's basically why my tribe is there. 

I mean, it's fun to play and hunt and build and explore in this new world, and we're doing that, but all the while planning tames to export to our old 'home' server. It's a new world of cross server commerce.

[Ithharr]

Several large tribes that were on 732 for exactly that reason. Get resources, new useful dinosaurs, transfer back to home server. Some were there in hopes of taking home back, others were just there for the new toys SE brings.

Like the last time the character transfers were opened, it is going to be openly abused. This is doubly true for groups that exist solely to grief. There's no drawback for them.

[Foxfire]

Every other game I've played that has PvP has a mechanism of some sort for dealing with griefers and bad actors.  Wildcard desperately needs to implement something to curb these morons.  The game is being ruined by them to the point where many servers sit empty except for the griefers themselves.  Allowing the game to be broken by these jerks isn't the way to increase the game's popularity.

It's a surefire way to drive away your core customers to another game entirely.  Why try to play a game that's unplayable, after all?

[Darkholis]

11 hours ago, Smash said:

Isn't this the entire point of SE?  You transfer there to get stuff to take back to the island?

Yes and no.

Yes the main feature behind Scorched Earth is to provide players with the capability to transfers dinosaurs from SE to the original map. As it currently stands, any player with a character on a regular Island server can simply transfer his/her character and thus, just bypass most of the challenge offered by the new map. (Water management, predators, weather, etc.)

I fully understand that players/tribes are seeking to tame rock elementals and wyverns, but not forcing everyone to start on an even ground (thus at level 1) is just making this DLC even more into a pay-to-win feature aimed at bolstering bully tribes even more than they actually are.

Who is foolish enough to really believe he/she with their small pathetic tribe will be allowed to tame rock elementals and wyverns? Do you really think bully tribes of 10+ players at level 80+ will even let you attempt to tame one and thus threathen their hold on the server?

As I mentionned in previous posts, transfering a high level character remove any sense of accomplishement for taming previously mentionned animals, and alredy plagued most official SE servers with bullies, griefers, etc.

Yes it's one of the main feature behind Scorched Earth to allow transfers new dinosaurs (for bragging rights) and No because it's pretty obvious that this DLC is looking more like a pay-to-win feature for bully tribes.

Regards.

[DeweyDecimal]

1 hour ago, Darkholis said:

Yes and no.

Yes the main feature behind Scorched Earth is to provide players with the capability to transfers dinosaurs from SE to the original map. As it currently stands, any player with a character on a regular Island server can simply transfer his/her character and thus, just bypass most of the challenge offered by the new map. (Water management, predators, weather, etc.)

I fully understand that players/tribes are seeking to tame rock elementals and wyverns, but not forcing everyone to start on an even ground (thus at level 1) is just making this DLC even more into a pay-to-win feature aimed at bolstering bully tribes even more than they actually are.

Who is foolish enough to really believe he/she with their small pathetic tribe will be allowed to tame rock elementals and wyverns? Do you really think bully tribes of 10+ players at level 80+ will even let you attempt to tame one and thus threathen their hold on the server?

As I mentionned in previous posts, transfering a high level character remove any sense of accomplishement for taming previously mentionned animals, and alredy plagued most official SE servers with bullies, griefers, etc.

Yes it's one of the main feature behind Scorched Earth to allow transfers new dinosaurs (for bragging rights) and No because it's pretty obvious that this DLC is looking more like a pay-to-win feature for bully tribes.

Regards.

How is it pay to win though? 

Those players porting existing characters over don't have any advantage that you don't. 

You CHOSE to start a new character.

That's YOUR issue.

[Vaskur]

So i often see treads about the "chinese Invasion" ... started one by myself.. and all you her is "the servers are free to anyone who owns the game".

that´s in fact nothing wrong... but those large Chinese Groups, joining on servers, not willing to communicate, being toxic in every single way and even being racist really start to piss me off...  they are (like any troll but this time in a large group) ruining the game experience. Why don´t they get their own servers? I read so many posts complaining about this issue... and nothing happens. Thats the one thing, that really grinds my gears.

[Darkholis]

8 hours ago, DeweyDecimal said:

How is it pay to win though? 

Those players porting existing characters over don't have any advantage that you don't. 

You CHOSE to start a new character.

That's YOUR issue.

These kinds of replies are just getting old.

As mentionned before and since it's constantly being ignored, bully tribes are a cancer slowly killing the game. You will hardly ever reach level 85+ and thus end-game content without being part of the tribe dominating on any official server and that is a fact, period. The only real option (besides trying to do David vs Goliath) is moving accross servers, and thus restarting each time at level 1.

We all know that after level 70, the experience requirement for leveling up is just getting exponentially bigger. Keeping that in mind (and from past experiences), it is legetimate to assume the average 3-4 men tribe on a regular server will be lucky to reach level 60-65 before being wiped into oblivion. The bigger your tribe, the more likely to be wipped early.

As mentionned in other posts by others and myself, there are few issues that makes the Scorched Earth very challenging for anyone below level 60. One of those main concerns is base defense options, which are un-existent until reaching level 60 and installing wind-turbines, generators and auto-turrets (assuming you built your base in a proper area with decent wind coverage).

Let's make a quick list of advantages high level characters have over the average player, shall we?

- Immediate access to all critical saddles. Ankylosaur (40), Doedicurus (30), Argentavis (55), Lymantria (45), Rex (60), Rock Golem (65).

- From a tactical point of view, controlling the air is key to controlling ground (Scouting the map, attacking others, ressources, etc.) which is why I included the lymantria, despite its limited uses. Furthermore, having such an easy access to a flyer grants in return an easy access to sulfur (salt + broken OP flame arrows), obsidian, crystal and metal nodes in quantities.

- Immediate access to critical structures such as generators, fridges, wind-turbines, oil pumps, auto-turrets, vaults, metal structures, flak/riot armor, etc.

- Characters points do make a major difference in SE. Fortitude, Hitpoints, Weight to name a few can vastly improve a player's capacity to do stuff safely and efficiently.

How is that pay-to-win?

Here is a link towards a good defnition of pay-to-win.

http://fr.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pay-to-win

Games that let you buy better gear or allow you to make better items then everyone else at a faster rate and then makes the game largely unbalanced even for people who have skill in the game without paying.

While you can't outright buy better gear for money, bully tribes have such a tight grip on official servers that it makes it near impossible for the rest of us to compete and even try all the new features included in the DLC.

So basicly, we all paid for a nice DLC, but the average tribe most likely won't ever get their hands on elementals and wyverns.

- Players that have very high level characters (85+ is very common among them) are capable of acquiring everything more quickly than others (ressources + tames).

- Big bullying tribes from Island/Center official servers WILL make sure to destroy anyone attempting to get the best goodies from Scroched Earth, because said goodies are a threat to their domination over their home server.

Matter of choice really?!!?!

At the end of the day, I choosed to start at level 1 only on hardcore for the sake of the challenge, and that was before being offline raided by gutless cowards. Even if I could transfer one of my level 75ish characters rotting on some officials, do you really expect me to stand a remote chance against a bigger tribe? Waste of time and useless frustrations....

As far as I'm concerned, it's not an issue that only affect me. The fate of the entire game hang in the balance with character transfers. They were removed for obvious reasons such as foreign tribes invasions, dinos transfers, explosives and raiding from accross servers to name a few.

Last time I checked on steam, the game is just getting a daily truck-load of negative review regarding the DLC and the number of players on the official network is just decreasing on a daily basis. Ark went from 1.5 million active player to a mere 25k-30k a day now. Programming bugs and optimization issues might have killed it for many players (it's an early access after all) but it is the lack of actions to address bully/alpha tribes that killed the official network for the majority of us.

For the record, I was there and played this game since its very first day as Early Access on steam and spent my fair share of time into it (2000+) to have a legitimate experience to back my claims.

Regards.

[FinXbox]

It sounds like your problem is with alpha tribes rather than the DLC to be honest.  
It ISN'T pay to win, but you can take your existing character on an expedition to SE and bring back what you've found.  

Find a better server to go to to build up, SE is content for high level characters (it's a more difficult map) so find a friendly Island or centre server as a base and then go on expeditions to SE.  

Few alpha tribes will wipe you for no reason (at least on xbox in my experience) so it should not be too difficult to get to high level.

[Vaskur]

724 Primitive got overrun by Chinese.

[Rancor]

On 9/11/2016 at 7:55 PM, Legalot said:

Just to piggyback off what you said.  I agree.  I love ark and love PVP, but this character transfer is complete Mickey Mouse.  I love the challenge of building up and "surviving"...not transferring my level 73 just to keep up with the level 70+ griefers and trolls.  It's absolutely absurd and has broke the game imo.  Again, I absolutely loved this game before.  I hate to say it, but I think I'm done.

There is no way I would go through leveling up to 83 again (for the second time, on official) on a S.E. map. The time it would take here is worse than the island. The point of S.E./Character transfer seems to be to help those take back Island maps that are ruled by alpha tribes. But at a cost. The time it takes to get settled in with less resources is pretty high if you dont come with a large tribe. 

 

Sucks about Alpha tribes being oppressive but if you want to beat them you either have to put in a lot of time or get a bigger tribe together. It is do able but takes effort. These alpha tribes put in their time to take over and you have to do the same to take it back. 

 

OR... PvE. 

[Ronin0ne]

On 9/9/2016 at 10:32 PM, GanktheGoat said:

So just had the server I was on for the past week finally become Chinese only.  Every thing is being blocked off, from resources to obelisks. Anyone caught taming gets killed on sight, and building anything stone or above gets you and your base wiped.  Worse still they have already started producing wyverns.  

We did our best to fight them but sadly they had well fortified position and the dinos to hold off our last ditch attack.  So now what?  Well we take a break, learn from our mistakes, and start anew on another SE server.  But still, since I have yet to see a topic on which servers to avoid I figured starting one would not hurt so if you want to help people avoid nasty SE servers feel free to post which one it is and why.

 

Server 751 scorched earth

Reason: Taken over by large oppressive Chinese tribe 

Is PvP go to PvE then, if you play in pvp deal with this.

[Darkholis]

Just now, Ronin0ne said:

Is PvP go to PvE then, if you play in pvp deal with this.

 

Following your logic, being wiped into oblivion by oppressive tribes of hackers, exploiters and cheaters is part of PvP? Nice joke...

The only serious way to deal with this, is to write it down here and talk about it. Hopefully, the developpers will wake up, and take the required actions to change things. Sitting back and throwing those kinds of childish anwsers is surely not helping anyone.

[FinXbox]

15 hours ago, Darkholis said:

 

Following your logic, being wiped into oblivion by oppressive tribes of hackers, exploiters and cheaters is part of PvP? Nice joke...

The only serious way to deal with this, is to write it down here and talk about it. Hopefully, the developpers will wake up, and take the required actions to change things. Sitting back and throwing those kinds of childish anwsers is surely not helping anyone.

Hackers and cheaters will eventually be banned.  I'm glad I play on console for this reason actually as it is very very difficult to cheat in this manner on the xbone.

As to 'required changes' with reference to your issues with Scorched Earth....  You realise you are essentially trying to get the devs to punish other players for YOUR poor choices right?

You didn't bring a high level character to SE, ok, that's your choice.  But you could have brought a character you leveled up on a more forgiving map quite easily, like I did.  
You chose to make that choice so don't grumble about it's entirely predictable consequences.