As you all know, Revenant Gaming is not run for profit, and continues to exist only on donations and volunteers. Our Ark community and platform have grown quite a lot over the past several years. Up until this point we have been adding new content as it comes without issue. However, we've now reached a point where the resources we have are not sufficient to grow further. We have a few options for moving forward with the new Ark map and even our current load. After some investigation, we suspect that low memory during peak usage time may be the cause of some recent crashes.
Our options:
1. We rent another server that will hold our low-population Ark maps. This will take some work to build up but the understanding is that, once completed, the maps will be functional and transferrable between each other just as they are now. This will free up our high-population map memory capacity and give us room to add in Crystal Isles as well as future content like Genesis Part 2. This will solve both the crashing and the lack of resources for the new map. This option would require the community to commit to increasing donations on a regular basis, as Revenant's monthly costs would go up significantly.
2. We remove a minimum of 2 low-population maps and add in the new map. No resource changes will be made - donation, server, or otherwise.
3. We remove a minimum of 1 low-population map and do not add in any more maps until further notice. No resource changes will be made - donation, server or otherwise.
We would love to see option #1 green lighted. All of us Admins (especially Phil) and Sip have been working to create some new things to help bring in revenue. We currently have Silent_Steel volunteering to take the first neccessary steps towards opening a Revenant Merch store online where you'll be able to purchase Revenant branded swag. Potentially things like shirts to wear proudly at gaming conventions or around the house, branded cups for your morning coffee or redbull... or coke, and the like. In addition, Sip is working on integrating donations with Discord roles so that our donors will be recognized with a pretty colored userhandle on here in the near future.
Ultimately, this is up to the community. We'll need your input on how you would like to see Ark move forward from here. This is our game, collectively, players. Keep in mind that we can always select one option now and revisit these choices at a later date. We're by no means locked into a decision we make here. Regardless of the community's decision, any of these options will take time to implement. If we are taking down any maps we will need to provide ample notice. We are not likely to have Crystal Isles available on the day that it is set to launch.
Our options:
1. We rent another server that will hold our low-population Ark maps. This will take some work to build up but the understanding is that, once completed, the maps will be functional and transferrable between each other just as they are now. This will free up our high-population map memory capacity and give us room to add in Crystal Isles as well as future content like Genesis Part 2. This will solve both the crashing and the lack of resources for the new map. This option would require the community to commit to increasing donations on a regular basis, as Revenant's monthly costs would go up significantly.
2. We remove a minimum of 2 low-population maps and add in the new map. No resource changes will be made - donation, server, or otherwise.
3. We remove a minimum of 1 low-population map and do not add in any more maps until further notice. No resource changes will be made - donation, server or otherwise.
We would love to see option #1 green lighted. All of us Admins (especially Phil) and Sip have been working to create some new things to help bring in revenue. We currently have Silent_Steel volunteering to take the first neccessary steps towards opening a Revenant Merch store online where you'll be able to purchase Revenant branded swag. Potentially things like shirts to wear proudly at gaming conventions or around the house, branded cups for your morning coffee or redbull... or coke, and the like. In addition, Sip is working on integrating donations with Discord roles so that our donors will be recognized with a pretty colored userhandle on here in the near future.
Ultimately, this is up to the community. We'll need your input on how you would like to see Ark move forward from here. This is our game, collectively, players. Keep in mind that we can always select one option now and revisit these choices at a later date. We're by no means locked into a decision we make here. Regardless of the community's decision, any of these options will take time to implement. If we are taking down any maps we will need to provide ample notice. We are not likely to have Crystal Isles available on the day that it is set to launch.
It could definitely draw attend passively and who knows, more players to this great server 