future gameplay and grieving concerns

[Darion Blackwater 2]

I wonder… I am just playing with my buddy as we are not interested in joining up larger orgs. Had my share of that and more (the drama) in several other games like eve-online. I don't want it.

Q: Is there any point in having a character in the nearby future when the game continues if you do not want to join up? I don't think that the "pirate" ones in bigger organisations feel any remorse when they take/demolish anything we (2 players) could create. It feels so far that we will never be able to play it our way (unless we become members of a large(r) company 'to defend us' or to 'help'. In the last 20 years I have never had a good experience with larger organisations -don't bother to tell me that your org would be different- )  

So the answer could be it's ark... 'eaaaarrr'  I ment pirate-ark, its the way it is and well … live with that. which is fine, like Its just not fun for small coop play or teams less then x people. I hope there are some other thoughts on making stuff playable in later gameplay. (I fear its not there, making investments in time just fun for a short term period)

Q: I have seen twitch players desperately trying to find spots to settle... and we experience the same. The map is big. we have done over 17 hours travelling around and found only islands that are crowded, overly full or blocked by red dots. Not to talk of some very aggressive people. (very rude in voice, not just in game doing pirate stuff -  not that I care … its just a remark)
Despite my first question, is there any point in getting around to find a place we can build into something nice and make a ship a little bigger then a raft or is that also pointless?

 I fear/suspect that the answer will be "team up or go" or that this will be forced by game mechanics and/or the pirate theme. (and that grievers have nothing to hold them back, calling the pirate theme every time they do their grieving" 

…. and why are there sooo many ghost ships?  lately I notice that I cant travel without the presence of 2-3 ghost ships around in visual range. (including floating debris.) 

I have more concerns and I dislike mini-games.... but ok. can learn to live with that. for now its travel-die-travel-die... as soon as they implement xp drain on dying that will be a point to reconsider the game in total.... not happening yet. but who knows. 

I really do like the water and details in the game. I wish more games would have that and one hour travel between islands is also no problem. I love that. i am not in a hurry and like to explore. (while it is possible) who knows... I might find a monkey churning an organ. …. or a big bottle of (Fallout Nukka) Bethesda rum. 

cya! or not 
Darion  Blackwater. 

[wildbill 142]

For all of the reasons above, I think all the players will migrate to unofficial (private) servers as soon as they are available. The admins on these are good at removing toxic players as quickly as possible. Also they can limit the number of people playing to a reasonable amount for the server (they simply set the player slots low enough or restrict access).

I really wish that this dev team could make a game that can be played with the open community of gamers out there, with game mechanics and rewards and punishment that would discourage or remove the toxic players, but that might be too difficult a task. So far, it takes a super computer to win against a human opponent, and these toxic gamers are very good at what they do and will not be easily defeated.

Edited December 28, 2018 by wildbill

[Ankhwearer 19]

I agree with some of your objections. 

But you are posting on the PVE forum though, so your concern about someone taking your stuff seems misplaced. Sure, demolishing. But that takes days of decay, four on a Lawless server, more for claimed territory.

Yes, it is possible to currently contest a claim, far before that decay happens. And then to get ownership of all of the construction and stockpile in that claim. Most view that as a bug, because that sure doesn't seem like PVE to us. Is that what you are concerned about?

-----------

As for the land claim problem, the initial land rush was badly managed and should be a lesson for future wipes, which are inevitably coming someday. But I worry that we are complaining too soon, since the decay of those is intended to take days. The game is less than a week old right now. That decay hasn't had time to do it's job erasing the land rush.

But yes, better to not let this occur in the future. Multiple ways the devs could do this at server wipe, I'm happy to see them attempt any of them during the next land rush.

[Stabby 96]

They could make the following changes for the better..

1. Two claims maximum, per player. This will encourage guild recruitment. 
2. Flag the claim, and all contents within it, the players. Have it decay over 30 days (repairable). This will encourage logging in.
3. Boats should be forever. This is a water based game. Whoever starts it, keeps it. Have it decay over 60 days (repairable).

Reward versus effort. If we are constantly losing the effort, we no longer have player retention.

[SpeedInc 18]

15 minutes ago, Stabby said:

Reward versus effort. If we are constantly losing the effort, we no longer have player retention.

Well said

[MaxDredd 8]

1 hour ago, Ankhwearer said:

I agree with some of your objections. 

But you are posting on the PVE forum though, so your concern about someone taking your stuff seems misplaced. Sure, demolishing. But that takes days of decay, four on a Lawless server, more for claimed territory.

Yes, it is possible to currently contest a claim, far before that decay happens. And then to get ownership of all of the construction and stockpile in that claim. Most view that as a bug, because that sure doesn't seem like PVE to us. Is that what you are concerned about?

-----------

As for the land claim problem, the initial land rush was badly managed and should be a lesson for future wipes, which are inevitably coming someday. But I worry that we are complaining too soon, since the decay of those is intended to take days. The game is less than a week old right now. That decay hasn't had time to do it's job erasing the land rush.

But yes, better to not let this occur in the future. Multiple ways the devs could do this at server wipe, I'm happy to see them attempt any of them during the next land rush.

Not as long as we have trash like this dude running behind you into your shack and grabbing the crafting station's contents, this was done on a PVE server and there was no recourse, we lost a lot of mats and crafted gear. 

[Ankhwearer 19]

Yeah, that sucks. Who wants to spend all day following the griefer to return the grief? Not me.

[MaxDredd 8]

5 minutes ago, MaxDredd said:

Not as long as we have trash like this dude running behind you into your shack and grabbing the crafting station's contents, this was done on a PVE server and there was no recourse, we lost a lot of mats and crafted gear. 

 

2 minutes ago, Ankhwearer said:

Yeah, that sucks. Who wants to spend all day following the griefer to return the grief? Not me.

That's the thing Ark already locks the PVE crafting stations because of this kind of thing.

[Darion Blackwater 2]

First: thanks for the responses. 

21 hours ago, Ankhwearer said:

I agree with some of your objections. 

But you are posting on the PVE forum though, so your concern about someone taking your stuff seems misplaced. Sure, demolishing. But that takes days of decay, four on a Lawless server, more for claimed territory.

Yes, it is possible to currently contest a claim, far before that decay happens. And then to get ownership of all of the construction and stockpile in that claim. Most view that as a bug, because that sure doesn't seem like PVE to us. Is that what you are concerned about?

-----------

As for the land claim problem, the initial land rush was badly managed and should be a lesson for future wipes, which are inevitably coming someday. But I worry that we are complaining too soon, since the decay of those is intended to take days. The game is less than a week old right now. That decay hasn't had time to do it's job erasing the land rush.

But yes, better to not let this occur in the future. Multiple ways the devs could do this at server wipe, I'm happy to see them attempt any of them during the next l

I don't see any difference between a (human or otherwise) person or a game mechanic. Its not the concern that someone takes my stuff. Its time versus reward.

What I see so far is islands that have lots of resources and no area to build. (I could demolish someone's stuff to get that area, but I am not that kind of person and other people will do that to me. (and as stated I am not willing to become a member of a larger org. I want to build, with my one or two buddys)  

the land claims I have seen so far:  
1) islands with the resources are non-claimable. placing a defendable structure  with a (respawn) bed is not possible. 
2) claimable islands so far have no available resources (I understand that the landclaim might be bugged and prevents stuff from growing - it should only restrict to structures that prevent this. Probably will be fixed ) and the claimable islands are mostly claimed. (except some small parts here and there in centers of landmasses. The claims are just a flagpole and nothing else. Sometimes an individual has made a small structure.  silly to see a whole island empty except for 20 flagpoles. and no resources, just aggressive animals that attack you constantly. 

I just want to get a feel where the game is going, what they think I would want to do in this game and what actually can/will be done. 

[Scrad 14]

The serious lack f resources is a big big problem in the game right now.

Anywhere there has been claims and buildings placed there is a chance that your local resource spawns got messed up.
Some of this has been caused by certain buildings by the looks of it but the Dev's don't seem to want us to know which buildings we need to remove and rebuild as all they say is "fixed resource spawns" even though it is blatantly not fixed if you wonder around the servers.

From Jat's Twitter

Very likely, we adjusted quite a few large structures so that they weren't blocking when we were investigating the resources not spawning
 

We don't know which buildings were affected so we can't even begin to tell if their changes have actually worked.

I mean come on let us have all the information about these patches and changes you are making, They have a monstrous pool of people that will by dint of the fact they are playing the game will naturally test and say if something is not working or feels wrong (look at the skill point change) so they should use the  community like a great big pool of testers whena change is made this early into the game as hey people are going to try and break shizz and crash servers by overloading them etc.

 

[Ankhwearer 19]

My base area, former an open air catfish pond, became lightly wooded amidst heavy forest. That happen right after the server upgrade to 7.3. A massive change.

Resources still a problem for you today? My house is practically overgrown!

Edited December 29, 2018 by Ankhwearer

[Darion Blackwater 2]

I've dropped out. maybe i'll try when its no longer in early access and still playable in small 2 man teams. which I doubt. 

[MindOfMadness 98]

Pretty sure the devs just want the PvE community to die off so they don't have to ever fix the problems.

Really though, they already have our money what can we do to change it?

 

 

 

Edited January 8, 2019 by MindOfMadness