VillaNovan84

Seems to be getting worse not better with each map release. Have yet to play on a regular Official Server (could only access a temp server). Character transfers needs to be reworked - if you try and upload from Ob, get server error and then booted to select server screen. After logging back in have to run all the way back to Ob to try again (this is a rinse and repeat issue requiring player to have to redownload their toons every, single time that you try to transfer an existing toon to another map. The only time it worked was transferring to Expiration server). Unable to establish a "foot hold" on Official that will not expire in November. In Xbox and at the Ob, lower player count on a 70 seat server still errors out with "Server is Full, try back later" or words to that affect. Funny thing is, unlike previous maps, not upset with this ongoing issue, just not really interested in play ark anymore, especially with other DLCs and other Games release end of month, October, and December\January timeframe... Writing may be on the wall now, will have to wait and see... (would attach screen shot, took several, but XBOX browser doesn't appear to allow me to attach the screenshots I took that shows servers with low player counts erroring out as being full, example 30\70, 25\70, etc... which does look "full" to me, does it?

So with the problem with today’s patch where we (Xbox users) can’t access any pve servers, will WC be postponing Aug 3rd deletion of temp Center servers’ to allow players the opportunity to evacuate their toons, dinos, and gear?

Server still dropping connection and locking account from logging in again after disconnecting until lockout times out.

So it’s a weekend and can’t get on to play because server constantly reads 70/70 or a Nitrado just shuts down without any warning leave characters stranded where ever they were with what ever they had in them, and because we can’t get back in, we’ve lost our stuff if we died because who knows when we can get back in. Plus there’s the 3x which is useless if you can’t log in…

Poor planning on release update - servers were up and running before all players were able to complete download instead of having all players patched and ready to play which only added to the frustration and disappointment. Set character up to transfer to The Center. Given the experience with trying to travel to SE, character was stripped of everything and uploaded correctly. The Center released, selected server, and when to download character but was told of a character had four items on him so could not download (came up as an error). Created another character, and started the game with other tribe mates. Several other players said they had the same problem, but redownloaded their character and they had to upload at the ob and were able to bring in their main character. So logged out (because troubleshooting ARK issues is always best performed during a new DLC release, right?). Tried to upload from the ob, but within the 5 or less minutes it took to try and upload, all NA servers became 70/70 loaded and haven’t been able to get back 8n on either character, the my high level or newbie toon. For Wild Card to open new servers instead of properly identifying and deploying the appropriate number of servers is a moot point because tribes aren’t going to vacate the server so that a tribe member is going to be able to play, the expectation is to either wait and continue to join in or join the server when the load begins to drop (in other words do play the new DLC until later). Not really an option, though, because being part of the tribe and gaming community on an Ark server is building with other players 8n a tribe from day one, not day 5, 6, 15, or 20, so character transfers DID NOT work as stated. Given the low number of PVE servers being released, regional restrictions should be deployed restricting access of NA servers to NA players, EU servers to EU Players, Asia Server to Asia servers in and effort to avoid server overloads in one particular region over another, to prevent lag issue as a result of cross regional network traffic, and in avoiding player\customer satisfaction issues. Overloaded PVE NA servers and under played PVP and “other types” of server shows poor rollout planning (again), instead of rolling out new offerings after new map release (perception under played severs convey poor planning of roll out). Inability to plan for the appropriate number of PVE servers and demonstration of not willing to fix, change, or prepare properly for a release, does give a person reason to pause over whether or not to play this game or waste any further real life time, by admitting that Wild Card and Nitrado have finally defeated the purpose of “wanting to play” this game altogether.

Just wanted to acknowledge the efforts of Wild Card and its support teams for trying to “make it right” when it came to the overload on Scorched Earth during the release by opening up additional server. Hopefully, lessons learned will make the release of the Center smoother for regional players to enjoy with just a few hiccups that happen. Secondly, support -technical and customer - has been responsive, customer focused, and sincere it’s it’s efforts to address my concerns on the two occasions I’ve turned to support for assistance or in reporting an error, issue, or perceived bug. While it’s good to give negative feedback to allow for improvements to be made, it’s equally important to provide the positive feedback that results in job satisfaction in the way of support staff making a difference that enhances the customer experience positively, resolves negative customer satisfaction issues by “making it right”, and adds to the overall game play. As such the two support professions that have assisted me and my tribe in game have earned these kudos from me (because it’s their efforts that have gain my being a very satisfied customer of their efforts) and if either of you read this, again, thanks for the response and assistance in resolving my cases - very much appreciated by me -keep up the great job!

Another day of being unable to get back in after logging out for a few hours. High ping rates, claims of server being full even though when it shows 70/70 I’ve been able to log in. Now heard that in addition to free on game pass, after being charged to purchase (I could have saved money, because I subscribe to XBOX Ultimate , this is also a free play weekend (for Steam users ?) in addition to release week. Nitrado which hosts the official servers also sells hosting services - so what, offer bad connections and login issues onOfficial so Nitrado can in turn sell their hosting services? No thanks, was a Nitrado customer with bad experiences, not interested in going back. So here’s my “free recommends”. How about game pass and free play users be hosted on a separate server farm so as to NOT adversely affect paid players (paid WC customers), thereby preventing cluttered maps of non-arkers, limiting logging issues, lag, and customer dissatisfaction, etc…)? Connection issues are definitely a game breaker, as in dreading the release of other ASA dlcs, like “the Center”…

Ok. Beginning with yesterday afternoon’s patch, I began having log in issues. The server was showing 70/70 however other servers were not. At around 3am EST, was finally able to get in but this morning ping of this server is over 200 from the 80 or so for the most part of last week with 70/70 for players even though the “the Server is full” error pops up on multiple servers and servers with much less players. Basic troubleshooting 101… So what changed? Started with patch yesterday afternoon with multiple patching that followed (indicating a regression issue with dev team patch or if hosted official server, hosting company either doesn’t deploying patches correctly or doesn’t have the level of bandwidth to support this game on Unreal 5. Could this error be specific to bandwidth throttling by the hosting company? (though the issue now seems to affect both Xbox user and Steam user on my home network). On xbox console, I cleared the cache yesterday morning (this xbox only option) and cleared the alt Mac add in networking (which required a reboot). This seemed to work, me to login after restarts yesterday mid morning which invoked cloud new redownload of mods. However that no longer seems the case. Servers in NA shows spikes in ping of NA servers in NA (don’t know where these NA servers are located though…

So I saw the pop up that new PVE servers were being added but no time listed. When I went to join after reading that WC was only adding 12 NA server with each have a full capacity of 70 users allowing 840 additional NA players to play if they can log in NA, WC isn’t doing itself, it’s game, or it’s customer base any favors, all the servers, even the ones showing less than 70 out of 70 players were filled up (being notified of that only after the joining server has initiate (and the filters don’t work, PVP and Island is included in search results even when filter specifically set to Scorthed Earth Map), on several. No official notice of what time additional servers were going live, they were just added (quietly?) and filled up to 70 max. But again, in NA alone, those additional servers only added 840 additional player seats on the 12 new servers when the player base is in the thousands or it’s it?- if it is, well then wow, should we be appreciative of those 840 additional player slots or what? Additionally, rumor is that there are people pillaring Scorched Earth servers then selling the claimed land in game for real money. Has Wild Card investigated that? Another rumor is that bots are being used to take up Player slots as well. Has Wild Card looked into whether someone is deploying bots that are taking up player spots vs real players logging in to play?

Hey folks at Wild Card. Terrible job, once again, when it comes to rolling out your product. Not sure whose in charge of planning and deployment involving releases or in ordering the correct number of official servers, but they apparently need to be reassigned or let going because given my customer experience with Ark Ascended and the lack of official servers to play on as a paid customer and a game pass subscriber, not ensuring that those of us who purchased your game and play it by investing real life hours definitely shows what Wild Card thinks of its loyal based vs. people who will try the game out for free, then ditch it because it’s “flavor of the week” on game pass is over. I can not begin to express to you the disappointment and frustration of myself and other players who voiced their frustrations and disappointment in Discord over not being able to get on to an official server on launch day after buying ASA months ago and then paying the $30 for Bob Tall Tale content only to be delayed by the last minute client roll out that definitely impacted the ability to get on a server before they filled up. Given the expectations set by Wild Card during ASA’s initial launch of not wanting console players to be “left in the dust” by other players who had release day access in getting started, when console players didn’t, I was very disappointed, but not surprised that Wild Card learner nothing from its mistake of not ensure that this type of player experience was not repeated during other releases like this one (actions and words not the same), and yet it was but even worse then before because after playing nearly the same for ASA additional content for Aaron game and DLC that was released as free yesterday on Game Pass and collecting another $30, people couldn’t get in, either via the Ob on an Official Server they were a member of or through a new character because Wild Card did not “plan accordingly” to the fact that on launch day, in addition to ASA’s existing customer base, ASA was free to play on Game Pass on console, with someone posting WC’s gratitude over the last several hours about the overwhelming interest or success in the game, or words to that effect, when in fact limiting the number of Official Servers to a level well below your company paid customer base was and is going to create a false or misleading image of “overwhelming interest” (and a lack of sincerity on what WC really thinks of its loyal supporters) when it was in fact a problem on WC’s end because it’s really because the folks in charge of resource planning and deployment “short changed” Wild Card and its consumer base to the point of creating “Very Dissatisfied” customers like me. Wild Card has a great product in Ark as a survival game, but continues to score “F”s and “D”s with it’s lack of Customer Focus Culture” (Microsoft had a whole “CFC” initiative once upon a time) and inability to set the proper customer expectations, especially with it comes to game releases, release days, announcements, resulting in a “Very Dissatisfied” customer experience overall… VN84

So thought I’d try official pve server. First one got to high level, patch notification that servers were going offline for 15 minutes. Came back, all favorites were removed every time patching by wild card occurred so had to start all over again on another server. This time I took a screen shot for “next time”, which is the workout around instead of trusting the patch won’t adversely affect game play. Now, go to log in, character has died at some point over night but no entry in tribe log. Adolescent Dino full of food disappeared, no death entry in log, no starvation notification. Try to get to where my “last death” is showing after making new gear, jump in water between floating ice islands and am instantly teleported to the bottom of the ocean, unable to get back to the surface, and eaten by three megs, losing all the new gear I just created, but have we have Disney and we have “Love Ascended”, but we have no fixes - go figure…

Hey folks. If your going to encourage mods for ASA, how about setting the exam and include your own Mod Ids in your own descriptions?

Haven't been able to play the game locally and won't be forced to play on Nitrado after d-sat experience with Nitrado hosting Ark survival. Since before Christmas. Play for several hours, log out log in everything resets to when I started to play hours before wiping all progress. I made building, crafting, taming, leveling. Then there's the 1960's Batman show screen tilt that doesn't go away until you log out and back in and WHAM, WOW, POW... back to square one again.... Does Wildcard care or both to fix??? No, Dev team chooses to push political Disney theme and a mod that got nothing to do with ark and belongs on in a videogame arcade that costs a quarter and that's if you can install, find, or activate or choose the mods you choose to try and play... Wildcard has at least a playable game with Survival but ASA, save your money, time, and blood pressure by playing anything but...