Unbalanced PVP: The main reason popular servers die off!

[bruh]

Unbalanced PVP: The main reason popular servers die off and ultimately the reason why ARK's experience is not as enjoyable as it possibly CAN be!

After spending over 2k hours in ARK I realise that I don't enjoy the game as much as I used to anymore. The reason for this is because on every single server I've played on, the population declines over time and sooner or later the server dies off and gets shut down, including my own server(s).

In my opinion, there are way too many servers out there in comparison to the amount of people playing this game. I believe this is because on the majority of servers out there, people have bad experiences and therefore get their own server in attempt to do a better job. Unfortunately, most people do a terrible job at it, mainly because they have no clue how to do it properly.

Personally, I like playing high populated servers because of the player interaction and higher chances of PVP! There are alot of factors that can make or break a server. Most of these factors you (as an owner / admin) can personally have influence on and thus change for the better. Below I will list a few examples:

- Server lag (ping): You can simply get a better (most likely more expensive) server provider which offers better hardware that gives everyone a relatively low ping and thus a better experience, even when there are alot of people online!
- Server uptime: Simply making sure your server is online 24/7 and gets updated asap whenever a new patch or updates comes out is of course greatly appreciated!
- Server rates / levels (gathering, exp, taming): This of course comes down to personal preferance, however, servers with out of control and unbalanced server rates and levels tend to be less popular than servers with rates between 1-10 and having the max lvl 100 player/ lvl 150 dino levels.
- Active / good admins: Having active, friendly, mature and non abusive admins for obvious reasons is good! Make sure to turn on the option "Admin Logging" so people can see you are not abusing your admin powers!
- MODS: Once again, this comes down to personal preference, however, some mods are quite useful and greatly appreciated by the majority of people. Obviously, keep it limited, don't run like 20 crazy OP and out of control mods that completely disturb the game's balance as this will only have a negative effect on your server!
- Server events: Hosting events such as PVP arena's etc. will keep people interested and helps attracting people to your server!

These were some simply and for most people, obvious factors that you can simply change to personal preference that will make or break your server for the most part. However, there are some factors you can simply not control and only have limited influence on as an owner / admin that will make or break your server aswell! They are mostly PVP related factors that are, in my opinion, fundamental and game-breaking problems in ARK that cause an unbalanced and unpleasant experience for alot of people!

Yes, this is an open world SURVIVAL game which in some cases should be a harsh experience and a living hell for the players! However, when it comes to PVP in this game, it does not feel balanced at all! There is hardly ever a case in which both the attackers and the attacked party / tribe had fun and in the end said: "Well that was fun, let's do that again sometime!" In fact, the majority of the times it's a complete run-over where one side gets wiped, passive dino's get killed and the victims most likely quit because they lost their progress (sometimes hundreds hours of work) in a matter of 30 mins?

Once again, yes this is a survival game, but really? Where is the fun in being able completly wipe some tribe that can barely defend themselfs? I guess it is just human nature for some people to be ♥♥♥♥♥♥ to everyone in online games. Unfortunately, it is not just "some" people, basically every server has a few of these "alpha tribes" running about, griefing every single soul they can find just because they can. Sooner or later, people like this will show up and it WILL ruin the server you're playing on (especially the high populated servers) whenever you like it or not.

As admin, you're probably thinking: Well, let's just ban these griefers, have a couple "fair" server rules against it and be done with it! If only it were that easy, there would be alot more high populated and more enjoyable servers out there! Unfortunately, this is not the case! Why? Because everyone has a different opinion on what's balanced and what's fair when it comes to PVP in ARK.

Personally, I don't think a far more advanced tribe should be picking on some "noob" tribes for no apparent reason. I dont think they should have the ability to completely wipe whoever they want in a matter of 30 mins or so with their giga's, dragons and endless supplies of explosives! I think that Studio Wildcard should find a way to limit the griefing and limit the ability of these "alpha tribes" in a way that it's more fair for everyone, including "noobs" and brand new tribes. I genuinely believe ARK's PVP system requires some fundemental changes to fix this problem!

Anyway, that's just my opinion! If you agree, what do you think might be a good solution to this problem? Even if you disagree, share your opinion!

[No2wookie]

A system where an unwatched prisoner can escape and screw up the base by turning off power, poisoning dinosaur food and opening doors would be a step in the right direction.

[prome]

PvP in ARK will always be declining(except for a boost with major events(for example when SOTF launched)) because ARK is not made for PvP. Its a PvE building game where you can tame creatures.

[tmora2]

Originally posted by Chris:

Unbalanced PVP: The main reason popular servers die off and ultimately the reason why ARK's experience is not as enjoyable as it possibly CAN be!

After spending over 2k hours in ARK I realise that I don't enjoy the game as much as I used to anymore. The reason for this is because on every single server I've played on, the population declines over time and sooner or later the server dies off and gets shut down, including my own server(s).

In my opinion, there are way too many servers out there in comparison to the amount of people playing this game. I believe this is because on the majority of servers out there, people have bad experiences and therefore get their own server in attempt to do a better job. Unfortunately, most people do a terrible job at it, mainly because they have no clue how to do it properly.

Personally, I like playing high populated servers because of the player interaction and higher chances of PVP! There are alot of factors that can make or break a server. Most of these factors you (as an owner / admin) can personally have influence on and thus change for the better. Below I will list a few examples:

- Server lag (ping): You can simply get a better (most likely more expensive) server provider which offers better hardware that gives everyone a relatively low ping and thus a better experience, even when there are alot of people online!
- Server uptime: Simply making sure your server is online 24/7 and gets updated asap whenever a new patch or updates comes out is of course greatly appreciated!
- Server rates / levels (gathering, exp, taming): This of course comes down to personal preferance, however, servers with out of control and unbalanced server rates and levels tend to be less popular than servers with rates between 1-10 and having the max lvl 100 player/ lvl 150 dino levels.
- Active / good admins: Having active, friendly, mature and non abusive admins for obvious reasons is good! Make sure to turn on the option "Admin Logging" so people can see you are not abusing your admin powers!
- MODS: Once again, this comes down to personal preference, however, some mods are quite useful and greatly appreciated by the majority of people. Obviously, keep it limited, don't run like 20 crazy OP and out of control mods that completely disturb the game's balance as this will only have a negative effect on your server!
- Server events: Hosting events such as PVP arena's etc. will keep people interested and helps attracting people to your server!

These were some simply and for most people, obvious factors that you can simply change to personal preference that will make or break your server for the most part. However, there are some factors you can simply not control and only have limited influence on as an owner / admin that will make or break your server aswell! They are mostly PVP related factors that are, in my opinion, fundamental and game-breaking problems in ARK that cause an unbalanced and unpleasant experience for alot of people!

Yes, this is an open world SURVIVAL game which in some cases should be a harsh experience and a living hell for the players! However, when it comes to PVP in this game, it does not feel balanced at all! There is hardly ever a case in which both the attackers and the attacked party / tribe had fun and in the end said: "Well that was fun, let's do that again sometime!" In fact, the majority of the times it's a complete run-over where one side gets wiped, passive dino's get killed and the victims most likely quit because they lost their progress (sometimes hundreds hours of work) in a matter of 30 mins?

Once again, yes this is a survival game, but really? Where is the fun in being able completly wipe some tribe that can barely defend themselfs? I guess it is just human nature for some people to be ♥♥♥♥♥♥ to everyone in online games. Unfortunately, it is not just "some" people, basically every server has a few of these "alpha tribes" running about, griefing every single soul they can find just because they can. Sooner or later, people like this will show up and it WILL ruin the server you're playing on (especially the high populated servers) whenever you like it or not.

As admin, you're probably thinking: Well, let's just ban these griefers, have a couple "fair" server rules against it and be done with it! If only it were that easy, there would be alot more high populated and more enjoyable servers out there! Unfortunately, this is not the case! Why? Because everyone has a different opinion on what's balanced and what's fair when it comes to PVP in ARK.

Personally, I don't think a far more advanced tribe should be picking on some "noob" tribes for no apparent reason. I dont think they should have the ability to completely wipe whoever they want in a matter of 30 mins or so with their giga's, dragons and endless supplies of explosives! I think that Studio Wildcard should find a way to limit the griefing and limit the ability of these "alpha tribes" in a way that it's more fair for everyone, including "noobs" and brand new tribes. I genuinely believe ARK's PVP system requires some fundemental changes to fix this problem!

Anyway, that's just my opinion! If you agree, what do you think might be a good solution to this problem? Even if you disagree, share your opinion!

In my opinion, there is no problem. The PVP on the servers I play on is epic. Everyone I play with loves this game for the PVP aspect of it. Plus when the person posing the question admits they have played over 2000 hours on a game that hasn't even been completed or released yet....ARK is doing just fine as it is.

[Bain]

Just needs to be harder the raid. I currently play on an unofficial server with 70x structure resistance. We have reasonably high gather rates but it's damn hard to raid and requires actual planning not fly in and boom I'm in, boom there goes 300 hours of building in 10 mins -_-

[bruh]

Originally posted by |SE|prome:

PvP in ARK will always be declining(except for a boost with major events(for example when SOTF launched)) because ARK is not made for PvP. Its a PvE building game where you can tame creatures.

Sometimes I tend to agree with your way of thinking! The thing is, without PVP this game gets boring really fast, not having to worry about building any defences or watching your back when taming / harvesting.. not sure I'd be able to play like that for long!

[bruh]

Originally posted by Bain:

Just needs to be harder the raid. I currently play on an unofficial server with 70x structure resistance. We have reasonably high gather rates but it's damn hard to raid and requires actual planning not fly in and boom I'm in, boom there goes 300 hours of building in 10 mins -_-

I suppose increasing structure resistance is indeed a half decent temporary fix but it doesn't really fix the actual problem! Might give a server like that a try at some point to see what it's like!

[bruh]

Originally posted by tmora2:

In my opinion, there is no problem. The PVP on the servers I play on is epic. Everyone I play with loves this game for the PVP aspect of it. Plus when the person posing the question admits they have played over 2000 hours on a game that hasn't even been completed or released yet....ARK is doing just fine as it is.

Not sure what kind of server(s) you play on but the one's I've tried with anything below 10x rates always died off sooner or later! (talking about servers with 50-100 people on at peak hours) Anyway, not saying it's a bad game and I'm aware it's not finished yet - just saying that the PVP aspects of this game do need balancing at some point and I'm not sure devs are entirely aware of the problem!

[123]

Originally posted by tmora2:

In my opinion, there is no problem. The PVP on the servers I play on is epic. Everyone I play with loves this game for the PVP aspect of it. Plus when the person posing the question admits they have played over 2000 hours on a game that hasn't even been completed or released yet....ARK is doing just fine as it is.

Please, tell me which server you're on then? I've played on numerous servers, and they've ALL devolved into 1 massive tribe that either doesn't let anyone build/tame at all, or they don't allow any PvP on the server at all.

It's exceedingly difficult to build up enough to damage one of the mega-bases that alpha tribe build when you're not "allowed" to build at all. Gathering the mats to make enough to blow through even one metal wall can take the better part of an hour with several people gathering if you're all on foot/rafts.

A base assault against one of those mega-bases requires MASSIVE amounts of explosives to level, and just breaking in does pretty much nothing. Vaults are unbelievably difficult to break, even if you're lucky enough to have an upgraded launcher. And if they've taken the time to build the massive towers of plant X/auto turrets, well then you need some serious tanking dinos. Even low level turtles with basic saddles work VERY well at redirecting the damage. However, trying to tame out some 10 turtles, gather the mats for the explosives AND requiring everyone from said alpha tribe to be offline lest they come over with 1 war quetz with the ridiculous gun deck(this was sort of fixed, thankfully), or a giga and end your whole plan that took days of gathering in a couple seconds.

We had a war with the alpha tribe that lasted months. Used some super creative ways to get around their oppressive ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. We had nearly 20 people at one point, and it didn't matter. They pulled some people in from another server and matched our numbers. We lost more than half our people because of that. We proved time and time again that we weren't just better than them, we were MUCH better than them. Often besting them when the odds were HIGHLY against us. But the mechanical advantage of them being able to gather 10,000's of any resource they wanted in minutes meant it didn't matter. We could beat the ♥♥♥♥ out of them, but we couldn't touch their bases. And thinking back on it, even if we'd managed to wipe one of their mega-bases, and they had 8 or so each with multiple gigas and quetzs, they would have been able to rebuild it 3x over before we could gather the explosives for the next base.

No, just because we've played a ton of hours doesn't mean the game doesn't have some massive fundamental flaws. The game is great, I love the PVP. The "peaceful or else" servers are just forced PVE with less chance for some of the griefing that happens on PVE servers, and that's fine for people that don't want to PVP. But the reality is, if an alpha tribe is even partially active, and not literally brain dead, it's nearly impossible to even make a dent, let alone take them out.

[tmora2]

Originally posted by Chris:

Originally posted by |SE|prome:

PvP in ARK will always be declining(except for a boost with major events(for example when SOTF launched)) because ARK is not made for PvP. Its a PvE building game where you can tame creatures.

Sometimes I tend to agree with your way of thinking! The thing is, without PVP this game gets boring really fast, not having to worry about building any defences or watching your back when taming / harvesting.. not sure I'd be able to play like that for long!

Then you're not doing it right.

[Dream]

I think the biggest fear is offline raiding for most, at least in terms of officials. I feel like turrets need to have a higher health and require 3-4 shots to take out and infinite ammo or something. I know it sounds a bit much but just think of really how easy it is to wipe hundreds of hours of work when people are offline. Either that they need to apply offline raid protection to all servers. Very few decide to stay on officials after being wiped because of the rates but if something were done to prevent losing everything most of the time people would stick around. I've been alpha on a lot of officials just my two cents.

I think most I unofficial servers have it right it terms of rates, I just would like to see them adjusted on officials a bit, if you get wiped you shouldn't have to leave a server you should be able to get stuff back quickly and get some revenge. I feel the game in its current state is just way too much of a grind for people to want to stick around after they've lost everything. The risk of losing it all in a matter of a couple of hours vs the cost of what it takes to rebuild and get it all back just doesn't seem balanced.

[123]

Originally posted by Dream:

I think the biggest fear is offline raiding for most, at least in terms of officials. I feel like turrets need to have a higher health and require 3-4 shots to take out and infinite ammo or something. I know it sounds a bit much but just think of really how easy it is to wipe hundreds of hours of work when people are offline. Either that they need to apply offline raid protection to all servers. Very few decide to stay on officials after being wiped because of the rates but if something were done to prevent losing everything most of the time people would stick around. I've been alpha on a lot of officials just my two cents.

I think most I unofficial servers have it right it terms of rates, I just would like to see them adjusted on officials a bit, if you get wiped you shouldn't have to leave a server you should be able to get stuff back quickly and get some revenge. I feel the game in its current state is just way too much of a grind for people to want to stick around after they've lost everything. The risk of losing it all in a matter of a couple of hours vs the cost of what it takes to rebuild and get it all back just doesn't seem balanced.

Go play on a server in which you're not "allowed" to have a base. I understand the limitations of the turrets, and I agree to an extent that they need buffed, but at the same time I would suggest that they need nerfed.

Go look at Official Server 40. The ONLY possible way to hit the alpha there would be to get lucky as hell for a few days and pull together a very large amount of rockets/C4 and tame a bunch of turtles and hit them while they're offline. If you tried to hit them while they were online they'd grab a giga and come wreck everyone. We would expect that a drop a large bear trap and end up killing another of their gigas, and then they'd come with a war quetz with a minigun turret and wipe us out. One person online in a really setup alpha tribe can do SO much damage. And they're not even really that setup compared to some of the other alphas I've seen, and yet I'm fairly certain that you couldn't do much to them if you managed to tame a few Titans. Although Titans are a new thing since we were at war with them, so I'm not sure. I'll have to play around with them on SP to test them out before definitively making that statement.

[Myst?c]

unless you play games like dota where the only difference you are really gonna get is skill, then you will never find balanced pvp

[Kresslack]

What if auto turrets had unlimited ammo when their owner is offline?

Means bases could still be raided, it's just more difficult.

[TZ]

Originally posted by Harrekin:

What if auto turrets had unlimited ammo when their owner is offline?

Means bases could still be raided, it's just more difficult.

Hey, this could actually work since it's a huge burden off the defenders backs

[prome]

Originally posted by TZG:

Hey, this could actually work since it's a huge burden off the defenders backs

Wow, really? Almost 5 year old necro