How dead is ark now?

[smoke]

So, now that wildcard reset the scores with no notice again, they removed ark from stand alone and made it a mod again. SO lets recap. Wildcard took this mod out of the original ark( greedily), and tried to make it stand alone. it stood for about 3 months while losing players every month. After the game was released into a stand alone, it had WAY more bugs then Ark SE. did they fix it? NOPE, did they add a gigas to try and gain players? yep. Did they remove the gigas 2 days into its release, yes they did. did they bother to fix the constant bugs like getting stuck on trees? nope. Did they force a BETA game into the competitive scene? of course. Did they use all your hard earned crowdfunding for these unbalanced tourneys? Why funny you ask, yes they did. And most importantly, Wildcard, did you listen to your 1000 player base community? NO YOU DID NOT. So, not only did you do all of the above, you now made this game cost 30$, seems like a good strategy to gain more players, Oh wait, youve lost approx 200 players a month or more. Wait heres an idea, Lets give away thousands for 1 month tourneys that are actually 3 weeks, because by the time you decided wheter or not youre going to reset the scores, a week passes. Not only do you have no clue how to run a business, you cant even fix or develop the game yourself. The only good thing to come of this, is now that this is a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ mod you have to pay for, its dead. And with that being said, maybe someone else will develop a better mod then this. Im just praying its not wildcard whos involved. Thanks wildcard for killing your own game, im sure the 1000 players will soon be 500

[Blaze]

This is clearly a ragepost, but let's add some research to back it up because it's sort of right.

We'll use Steam charts[steamcharts.com].

• This game began in March with an average of 2.185 players per day.
  
• In may it lost the 33.51% of their total players. Losing a third of your player database in thirty days is not a good sign, you guys should've done something then.
  
• During June, which we can consider the begining of the summer, this game had only 949 players left.
  
• By the 1st of August, that number has decreased to 729. People are on their summer vacations playing other stuff rather than this.

In conclusion, the game is plummeting to the floor so fast that when the school year begins again, no one will be left playing it.

WildCard has two options: They can keep going like this, which I guess they think it's the best strategy, and being forced to close the game by September or they can listen to the community like every other game company in development does and do something about it.

I did a suggestion thread about a week ago and no dev bothered to give their opinion there. I'm not making another suggestion thread again, because I have the impression the devs don't read these forums, and it's the most discouraging feeling in the world seeing that you spend part of your time trying to make a game better only to be ignored. I already dropped a review in the game reviews in the store page. Don't waste your time in this game.

[Nico]

Sure there are less and less players but the elo system doesn't really encourage top player to keep playing in July since they are already on the top and a loose can mean loosing their seat on the finale. So they do not take that risk and there are barely no lobby with an average score over 1700 and it's really hard to climb the ladder when a win means earning 5 points. So the upper part of the ladder is pretty frozen and it's a vicious circle. That, the summer holidays and everything else you mentionned can explain the lack of players.

I honestly don't think WildCard doesn't care about SotF, it cost them a lot of money (developments, servers, tournaments, prizes...) and does not make that much directly (they can only hope to sell some SE). They surely know they have a great game (in alpha development), and I hope it's about time they will add the few things that are still missing and fix the most annoying bugs (the merge with SE is a great news for that).

Let's hope this game will rise again in September !

[Blaze]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Nico:

I honestly don't think WildCard doesn't care about SotF, it cost them a lot of money (developments, servers, tournaments, prizes...) and does not make that much directly (they can only hope to sell some SE).

Trust me, they're making profit off the tournaments. Thanks to that publicity, ARK:SE has been in the top selling games for a few weeks now.

Apart from that, playing now is very tedious. I was the other day in a match with 13 players with an average score of 1489. I couldn't believe that, since my score is 1794. In five minutes most of them died to dilos, trikes and piranhas, and when the time to go back to the center came, there was a guy with hide and bow and another guy in a parasaur. I had a rex.

Let me repeat: A guy in a parasaur. Honestly, that match felt like a waste of 35 minutes. The good players don't play because there aren't high score matches, and the bad players can't learn because there's no tutorial or anything.

Maybe WildCard do care about this game, but it honestly doesn't look like they do. The last mayor addition to the game was changing the menu music and as far as I've seen in the forums, few people like it. I can't tell myself, since I play with the music off.

[Nico]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Blaze:

Apart from that, playing now is very tedious. I was the other day in a match with 13 players with an average score of 1489. I couldn't believe that, since my score is 1794. In five minutes most of them died to dilos, trikes and piranhas, and when the time to go back to the center came, there was a guy with hide and bow and another guy in a parasaur. I had a rex.

Let me repeat: A guy in a parasaur. Honestly, that match felt like a waste of 35 minutes. The good players don't play because there aren't high score matches, and the bad players can't learn because there's no tutorial or anything.

And with your score you must have earn 1 point...
Yeah if good players don't play, Bobs survive long enough to bring their parausaur and phiomia to the center. Hopefully they will learn new things each game. But yes, lately you can win a game without doing anything, a carno drop will do the job for you...

[Blaze]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Nico:

Yeah if good players don't play, Bobs survive long enough to bring their parausaur and phiomia to the center. Hopefully they will learn new things each game. But yes, lately you can win a game without doing anything, a carno drop will do the job for you...

Indeed, I've won a few times because the last few players died to the wild.

The worst thing about this is that they are the only people playing. It's either you play against them or you don't play at all.

Lately I've been going alone to duo matches to spice it up, but still it's very unusual to find a full pair on the center by late game. Just by knowing how to tranq a Rex and level it up properly (Stamina to 900-1500 depending on the starting level and the rest in HP) you're far ahead of the 90% of the player database, and that tells a lot about how much this game needs a tutorial.

[Nico]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Blaze:

...this game needs a tutorial.

You are so right. The fact that you'll have to buy SE to get SotF may be a part of the solution. No excuse to not play it before now, and learn the rudiments. But a quick tutorial, you are alone on the map and be teached how to grab ressources, craft things, kill/tranq dinos & people, tech... would be so great. With the devkits maybe some modders will make it happen.

[Blaze]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Nico:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Blaze:

...this game needs a tutorial.

You are so right. The fact that you'll have to buy SE to get SotF may be a part of the solution.

Honestly, the first time I played SE I ate some narco berries because my character was hungry and I didn't bother to read the description of the item, and my character fell asleep for so long that I quit the game.

You can learn how to play in SotF without ever touching SE like I did, but the game isn't new-users-friendly at all. I had to do tons of google research about tames, watched a few videos in youtube about where metal ores are located and learned a ton of different strats, and I think I got my first victory after around 30 loses. But that was ALL thanks to the community, because the game did nothing but put obstacles in my way again and again.

In other words, the game is very difficult to learn, and I don't mean 'challenging-difficult' but 'annoying-difficult', and that's not good. It really needs someone from the dev team to listen to the community and upload their own maps. I don’t want a 600x400 map someone took with the spectator camera and added a few blurred circles with paint on it saying where the metal ores are. I appreciate the gesture that guy had, but I’m a hundred percent sure that for a developer who has access to the map editing tools it’s a matter of 2 minutes to take a high resolution picture of the map and highlight the metal nodes.

I also appreciate the gesture of everyone who makes guides to teach players how to play, but it’s not their work and most of the guides are a bunch of misinformation. I read one yesterday about a guy who literally said that with an army of 3 dilos and 10 arrows you were set to go fight in the center, and insisted that it was a good guide for beginner players. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=735068816

No, relaying on the community to do the heavy work of teaching the players is the worst thing a developing team can do with a relatively new game. They must make a tutorial ASAP and listen to the community. They’ve progressed so little since the start and they are doing so little every month, practically nothing actually, to improve the game that I’m certain I’ll die of age before it’s somewhat acceptable. And I’m 21.

[Nico]

I learned by playing SE with friends and the learning was indeed painful but at least when I started SotF I knew how to craft a bow and tranq dinos. But we are on the same page, a tutorial is mandatory, specially with a game as complex as this one (which is not a classic fps).

[Sol]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Nico:

I learned by playing SE with friends and the learning was indeed painful but at least when I started SotF I knew how to craft a bow and tranq dinos. But we are on the same page, a tutorial is mandatory, specially with a game as complex as this one (which is not a classic fps).

Problem is.. do WC know how to make a proper tutorial for SotF? They barely understand the mechanics of their own game, which the weird patches indicate. Nerf shields anyone? Haven't heard anyone ever having a problem with shields.

So yeah the game has needed a tutorial since launch, and people have been asking for it since launch. But i doubt they will get it up and running in the next 6 months, and when they do it will be massively flawed unless they actually start listening to their dwindling community. If anyone is still left playing the game after 6 months.

[Blaze]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Sol:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Nico:

I learned by playing SE with friends and the learning was indeed painful but at least when I started SotF I knew how to craft a bow and tranq dinos. But we are on the same page, a tutorial is mandatory, specially with a game as complex as this one (which is not a classic fps).

Problem is.. do WC know how to make a proper tutorial for SotF? They barely understand the mechanics of their own game, which the weird patches indicate. Nerf shields anyone? Haven't heard anyone ever having a problem with shields.

Pfft, yeah. And the "No one uses herbivores because they're too dumb and weak in comparison to carnivores. Everyone goes for a Rex and a Spino." Instead of fixing the herbivores, they nerf the Rex and the Spino. ggwp.

But hey! We have this new song in the main menu composed by someone who is supposedly famous yet no one knows who he is! That sounded like a good idea until no one liked the song.

[Sol]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Blaze:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Sol:

Problem is.. do WC know how to make a proper tutorial for SotF? They barely understand the mechanics of their own game, which the weird patches indicate. Nerf shields anyone? Haven't heard anyone ever having a problem with shields.

Pfft, yeah. And the "No one uses herbivores because they're too dumb and weak in comparison to carnivores. Everyone goes for a Rex and a Spino." Instead of fixing the herbivores, they nerf the Rex and the Spino. ggwp.

But hey! We have this new song in the main menu composed by someone who is supposedly famous yet no one knows who he is! That sounded like a good idea until no one liked the song.

It was apparantly liked in the stream by .. i assume ... people. Which just adds to the list of "Things implemented after a stream of a final".

[smoke]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Blaze:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Sol:

Problem is.. do WC know how to make a proper tutorial for SotF? They barely understand the mechanics of their own game, which the weird patches indicate. Nerf shields anyone? Haven't heard anyone ever having a problem with shields.

Pfft, yeah. And the "No one uses herbivores because they're too dumb and weak in comparison to carnivores. Everyone goes for a Rex and a Spino." Instead of fixing the herbivores, they nerf the Rex and the Spino. ggwp.

But hey! We have this new song in the main menu composed by someone who is supposedly famous yet no one knows who he is! That sounded like a good idea until no one liked the song.

And that Sums up WC. every single time, when faced with a problem they do nothing, or take the shortest, easiest path. They just add or remove things, things that people dont even ask for like shield nerfs or spino nerfs. They cannot/do not have a programmer i guess. thats why they want you to make new mods, because they clearly cant. Its a shame they wont listen to their 1000 player base. And anyone who thinks thye are going to buy ark SE, and end up playing this is sadly mistaken. If this were true, every ark SE player would be playing this. DO you see 40, 000 players? how about 10 000? nope 1000. This is proof that its not " summer vacation" holding the player base back, its the devs

[Rhomilo]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Nico:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Blaze:

...this game needs a tutorial.

You are so right. The fact that you'll have to buy SE to get SotF may be a part of the solution. No excuse to not play it before now, and learn the rudiments. But a quick tutorial, you are alone on the map and be teached how to grab ressources, craft things, kill/tranq dinos & people, tech... would be so great. With the devkits maybe some modders will make it happen.

Man that would be really cool feature, new ppl would love that one and be much more interested to get to the game.

[Iron Horse]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Blaze:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Nico:

I honestly don't think WildCard doesn't care about SotF, it cost them a lot of money (developments, servers, tournaments, prizes...) and does not make that much directly (they can only hope to sell some SE).

Maybe WildCard do care about this game, but it honestly doesn't look like they do.

I haven't played sotf, but coming from the original ARK, I can tell you: They do not care about proper balancing, tweaking, fixing, or anything that they should be concerned with. They just keep spamming new dinos and end up making the maps so cluttered that you can barely walk 10 feet down the beach without being eaten by a raptor, Sarco, or Spino. This is why the poor optimization and pop-in graphics haven't been changed or improved in the slightest since near release. They did the BARE MINIMUM amount of work to fix the graphics so the game would be stable, and then they told the rest of us to f*ck off.

But they don't care about fixing their game. They care about adding more dinos to fool the unwary into giving them their money, rushing out the console releases, and banning/censoring anyone on the forums who cry out about these idiotic practices.

But even now they don't have to do much censoring, because the toxic community takes it upon themselves to harrass anyone who has even a minor complaint about the game.

I won't be giving these idiots any more of my money after this absolutely horrid performance and obvious contempt they have for their player base.

[Iron Horse]

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Sir Smokington:

Αναρτήθηκε αρχικά από Blaze:

Pfft, yeah. And the "No one uses herbivores because they're too dumb and weak in comparison to carnivores. Everyone goes for a Rex and a Spino." Instead of fixing the herbivores, they nerf the Rex and the Spino. ggwp.

But hey! We have this new song in the main menu composed by someone who is supposedly famous yet no one knows who he is! That sounded like a good idea until no one liked the song.

And that Sums up WC. every single time, when faced with a problem they do nothing, or take the shortest, easiest path. They just add or remove things, things that people dont even ask for like shield nerfs or spino nerfs. They cannot/do not have a programmer i guess. thats why they want you to make new mods, because they clearly cant. Its a shame they wont listen to their 1000 player base. And anyone who thinks thye are going to buy ark SE, and end up playing this is sadly mistaken. If this were true, every ark SE player would be playing this. DO you see 40, 000 players? how about 10 000? nope 1000. This is proof that its not " summer vacation" holding the player base back, its the devs

But don't expect them to admit it or change their player-hating ways.