Official servers dying?

[Mykell]

Well right now seems to be the peak of ARK players playing with around 65,000 people listed in Steams stats.

Yet when i look at the server list only 48 out of 518 servers has 60 or more people playing (around 9%) and 58 of 518 servers has 10 or less people playing (around 11%).

Glancing over the servers i'd say the majority of servers have between 30 and 40 people playing on them. So 518 servers with say an average of 40 people is 20720 people playing on offical servers.

So is everyone playing SP or on unoffical servers?

Maybe the devs could inroduce some new server types like increased xp/taming speeds, harder dino's (wild not tamed), servers that wipe every month or 2 with sped up progression. See if any prove more popular than regular servers.

[Arsenic_Touch]

If the developers actually started policing their official servers and providing support for players, you'd see more interest in them.

[raymazoida]

I had a lot of fun on Offical 80. I've also had fun on private servers.

I've seen just as many stories about bad admins/toxic players on private servers as on offical ones.

But what a lot of people are forgettting is that anecdotes are not evidence! Even if it happened to you!

Evidence is "there used to be x offical server players, now it's only y" or "there are x offical server players, but y on private showing the devs that private/offical {delete as appropriate} is 'better'"

[Xuhybrid]

Messaggio originale di fiercefairie:

It is probably combination of hackers and larger tribes that are bullying tribes/players on some servers. I have been on two servers now where larger tribes are too insecure to allow anyone to grow and constantly raid smaller tribes and make access to metal/caves/mountains almost impossible. Yes it is PVP but there are some serious player balance issues with the game once a tribe gets a foothold.

Our tribe was the largest on our server, but 5 of us broke away, stole all the dinos, the power, and sided with an ESP and aim hacker who used to be our ally. They systematically destroyed the server population by taxing people or destroying them. Population went from full to 30 average after a week.

We had no problem allowing people to grow. More people = more challenge = more fun.

[FattyMooMooMan]

I keep hearing how bad the official servers can be for griefing so have mostly played with non-dedicated host on my PC, this dragged it down performance-wise with other players on and the short tether distance meant we had to stick together, increaseing tether well past the max slider value of 3 was a huge hit in PC performance.

Tried then to use a spare PC I had as a server and found it to be much better, decided in the end though that relying on my PCs to be on would not allow someone else to play if I was not at home with my PC running and did not simulate the whole surviving constantly even when I was not playing vibe of the game. Took the plunge in the end and now have a 10-slot server I am renting online.

With how cheap it is to setup a small tribe of friends on this compared to a bunch of MMO subscriptions (server costs less than a tenner a month and can be re-purposed for other games we own) the rent-a-server model seems to work quite well and I guess many are jumping on that wagon. Biggest advantage of the private server model is you and your friends determine what rules you play by, then again if you don't know the admins you can still have a bad time on a private server.

I don't see this game in decline anytime soon/

[Dex]

Me and my buddies only play on private servers. It's so silly logging on to an official server and seeing ruins everywhere. It's supposed to be a deserted island kind of vibe but instead it looks like star wars galaxies after everyone left. houses everywhere, high level dinos everywhere. Just not fun.

[raymazoida]

Messaggio originale di DexterousGecko:

Me and my buddies only play on private servers. It's so silly logging on to an official server and seeing ruins everywhere. It's supposed to be a deserted island kind of vibe but instead it looks like star wars galaxies after everyone left. houses everywhere, high level dinos everywhere. Just not fun.

hmmm... i think the ruined bases add to the "deserted island kind of vibe" myself... makes me think of all the people who may have come before and "failed" to survive, somthing you don't get solo/private, impling survival is piece of cake - atmosphere wise, not "in reality"

[wynillo]

Playing on official servers is like having cancer.
First you aint notice anything, but after a while, you get the horror.
Let it be some supertribes, hackers, glitchers, or whatever.

They will most likely shut down every official server in 1 year I guess, because only 1 tribe is playin on them anyway.

[Sir Ploppy]

I had an official server. I built up about 20 players. After 2 months I stopped paying for it. They all lost what they'd done. Still feel safe joining a private server?

[anids]

im on offical and early morning (EU) ill only see 8-15 people but by mid-day/afternoon not uncommen to see 48-60 people online!! might just be your timezone....also i think alot of people are playing on X2 or X4 taming speed severs as the dino tame times are abit outragous for a casaul player

[GeekyGek]

I think the problem isn't that they are seeing less players, they just aren't seeing 'new' players.

Hopped on serveral Offical Servers the other day, ran across the island looking for somwhere to build a house, on both servers, the land was stripped in most places of trees and had random foundation blocks everywhere, not to mention all the decaying structures from people who had bailed out and moved on to someplace else.

Honestly the offical servers are so cluttered there isn't any room for new people to join in and try to build up, or even start a new tribe, they seem they are just PvP PvO now, nothing else. Even the players I saw at different bases, had been drug out and stripped of all their gear, left out in the open just outside of their base, probably in hopes a random dino would come along and chomp them so they wouldn't know who did it.

The new 40 servers might help get more new people playing, but I see the same thing happening to them in a short amount of time as the people crowded on the current ones will just jump onto them and do the same thing.

But ... this sort of thing seems to go on on any offical server put out by developers that are 'offical servers' that allow you to build.

[Mykell]

Messaggio originale di Dragon Order:

#2 most sold game on Steam.. he he @ OP

and your point is?

Lots of people bought it and still play it but less are playing on official servers than at release.

I know of around 20 people and none of us want to go back to play on official servers with how grindy they are.

[raymazoida]

Messaggio originale di Mykell:

Messaggio originale di Dragon Order:

#2 most sold game on Steam.. he he @ OP

and your point is?

Lots of people bought it and still play it but less are playing on official servers than at release.

I know of around 20 people and none of us want to go back to play on official servers with how grindy they are.

anecdotes <> evidence.

Unless you have the figures for number of people playing offical servers per week and num hours for these people since launch then you have no actuall evidence to base assestions like they are dying and too grindy.

You and your 20 friends, are, in the grand scheme of things, and politely, insignificant out of 1million + players!

[Mykell]

If you read my OP you would have seen i counted up how many people were playing on official servers compared to how many were playing on Steams stats.

When the game released official servers were packed and a lot had queues. Now not so much.

Grindy is a personal preference. Everyone i know plus quite a few in this thread agree the game is way too grindy.

[Anim]

I think a lot of players have hit the level cap and then wonder what to do.

Feeding Dinos and checking you havent been raided each day and getting oil is not great entertainment. So they go SP and mess around with Mods and such.

Thats what I did after many max level tribes on the server I was on came on less and less. Kinda leaves you twiddling your fingers wondering if you should start over again.