PvP Server, Yes... Again!!

[TomUnderWater]

Add a higher rate pvp server, like 5-10x or something. Nothing crazy, just a little more plug n play than what we currently have.

Have 2 way transfers for characters but only 1 way (in) for items/dinos. This will prevent anyone new and old from just transferring in to exploit the higher rates to get ahead on the PvE servers. The people who choose to play here will enjoy the luxury of being able to build, tame and breed much faster but will never escape the possiblity of being attacked.

Allowing players to transfer dinos/items into the PvP zone means that our established players can use what they already have. They can take any unwanted dinos or items into battle or they can even build up and prepare for wars in the safety of PvE but at the cost of slower rates. This would even allow players that are new to the server, or to Ark entirely, to get a safe start on PvE and eventually transition into PvP should they choose to do so.

 

[Sipowicz]

Add a higher rate pvp server, like 5-10x or something. Nothing crazy, just a little more plug n play than what we currently have.

Have 2 way transfers for characters but only 1 way (in) for items/dinos. This will prevent anyone new and old from just transferring in to exploit the higher rates to get ahead on the PvE servers. The people who choose to play here will enjoy the luxury of being able to build, tame and breed much faster but will never escape the possiblity of being attacked.

Allowing players to transfer dinos/items into the PvP zone means that our established players can use what they already have. They can take any unwanted dinos or items into battle or they can even build up and prepare for wars in the safety of PvE but at the cost of slower rates. This would even allow players that are new to the server, or to Ark entirely, to get a safe start on PvE and eventually transition into PvP should they choose to do so.

I really like this idea for many reasons. Here are my questions.....

• Would you make any changes to our current cluster config? I still get players looking for a server who ask "If no one PvP's, whats the point of PvPvE? Setting the PvPvE servers to "PvE Only" could solve a few problems, and we could even enable Friendly fire so Tribemates can still whomp on each other. Real PvP would be Available on a separate map.
• Should we put this map on a wipe schedule? Or make it vote to wipe? I think some sorta wipe schedule would make sense.
• What map? I would be MOST interested in hosting a different map (other than one we currently host), But id be willing to start up what ever map the players vote on. Bear in mind if we vote to wipe, we can also vote on a new maps.
• How PvP? Part of me thinks we should shoot for a more hostile PvP environment on this server

Otherwise I like all of your post. Particularly the transfer configuration. Allowing People to move up into PvP with higher rates. It has a higher risk to reward ratio. We just need to figure out what to tell new players who think its unfair that existing players have access to their arsenal (Everyone has the option to build that arsenal on PvE)(Real PvP players would enjoy the challenge ). I love the idea of being able to get a "foot hold" on a PvE server, and then take my game to PvP when im ready, or if i get bored.

Lets get some other ideas flowing and nail down plan. Im ready to launch the server soon as we know what we want.

 

[TomUnderWater]

Personally, I think it would make sense to switch the PvPvE servers to PvE. From my point of view they seem to operate just the same though i think it would be better left up to those that spend more of their time there.

I agree that it would be more interesting to have a new map. I thought about mentioning a PG map even, every wipe would be totally new but that leaves you with the all the fun of actually putting it together. My first choice would be The Island, simply because all the tek engrams can be unlocked here(excluding the sword, shield and lamp. But cmon..) and those who wish to play exclusively on PvP wouldnt be forced to set up on another server seeing as there wont be any transfers out. I would assume a PG map would have the same bosses as island but I dont know.

I like the idea of having scheduled wipes. But I think it could be hard to find a good time frame especially early on. What if we started with voting to wipe? When the majority feels as if they are no longer having fun, hit that reset button. Encourage people to voice their opinion on the topic. As the population grows or perhaps if a pattern is noticed, we can gravitate toward scheduled wipes.

Hostility is exactly what I had in mind but I think theres a couple things that should definitely be discouraged/not allowed. For example, camping someones base. If youre going to raid someone, do it, but dont sit outside their base with a sniper and shoot everytime a door opens. The same mentality should go for open world pvp. If youre going to kill someone and take their gear, do it, but dont kill someone just to camp the bag waiting for them to come back. Take care of business and move on. One thing Ive noticed on a few servers is that just after a wipe, they dont allow actual raiding for a certain period of time so that players can actually focus on building up. I think this should also be a thing.

Maybe we can close dino/item transfer, for the sake of this arguement, for the first week after the server resets. I believe this would balance things out for the players who are exclusively on PvP since a PvE based player/tribe cant just drop a base, 1000 dinos and full on asc gear on day one. I see the ups and downs with this and am open to discussion on how this could be tweaked. My focus here was getting our current crowd to try something new.

Another thing I want to bring up that I failed to mention was mods. I like our current style with minimal mods but theres 2 that I would like to see added for this particular server. I believe these will help to cut out alot of the 'grunt work.' My goal is to cut down a lot of the grinding and chore work that comes with building up in Ark. I want our focus to be on fun not chores.

Automated Ark - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=812655342
HG Stacking Mod - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=849985437

 

[TomUnderWater]

**Edit since for whatever reason I cant edit original**

''Maybe we can close dino/item transfer, for the sake of this arguement, for the first week after the server resets.''
Rather than this, if we were to implement a 'no raid period' maybe less people will have an issue seeing as the PvE based player could just drop in and wreck house on day 1.

I guess you could add this to the mod bit, but I think we should consider raising the loot quality of drops. I believe you can do this without having to actually download anything. This would add into keeping the focus on PvP and not grinding anything out as well as even the playing field when it comes to our already established players that might be transferring in high quality items

As I said, I can see the both sides when it comes to the transfers from PvE. Im hoping that with increased rates and loot quality this wont become an issue as the PvP based player can quickly catch up.

 

[TomUnderWater]

if we were to implement a 'no raid period' maybe less people will have an issue seeing as the PvE based player **COULD NOT** just drop in and wreck house on day 1.

 

[DudeAwesome]

I'm really liking this idea a lot, especially since the Revenant Servers have been a bit of an odd breed being PvPvE. I think the whole idea of "transfer all your battle ready stuff over, OR just build on the PvP server, which ever you may choose" is promising, ESPECIALLY since once you transfer, those dinos aren't coming back.

Concerning maps, if we are going for something different, the Procedural Generated Arks could be super fun since you have no idea what you're going to get. Maybe we could consider The Center or SE again? just to offer something new from what Revenant is used to.

And while we're talking about mods if we're getting AA and Hg stacking (which do make the game looooooooaaaaaads faster) perhaps we could consider fully enabling S+. I'm not sure if it would collide with AA, but might be worth looking into. And, if the future is optimistic, I'd like for Reusable Plus to have a comeback.

 

[Sipowicz]

My concern with some of those mods fully enabled is the impact they could have on healthy PvP. Especially the S+ mod. I would need some help determining if that going to be an issue or not.

We will need to hold a discussion on the PvE vs PvPvE deal. Personally I think it would simplify things to go to PvE, and have a server that is meant for PvP. Biggest reason that didn't work for us before was cost of hosting. So to be able to have both players without having a ton of servers we needed PvPvE (this is no longer an issue). Ultimately however, I want what the players want.

There are quite a few unofficial maps out there I would be willing to launch considering this map will likely be wiped/changed at some point. During each wipe, we can always vote on a new map. If were talking Official DLC's my first choice would be Center. Although I agree, boss content only on the Island is an issue. We'll leave that up to a vote.
I will do some more research but last few things a read on PG maps for ARK were Bad news.

I say we open the map with Character transfers In and Out. And nothing else. After 1-2 weeks we open Item and Dino transfers going in. And that's it. No Items or Dinos can ever come off that map.

No raiding thatchy's? That basically puts a 4-7 day timer on average player starting fresh.

This is the rule set from the last PvP server we tried:

• Basic stuff... No harassment, Cheating, Greifing.

• Greifing: Repeat killing new bro's (lvl 30 and down), capturing players for an excessive/unnecessary amount of time, Killing in progress tames

• Please raid with purpose, no "Wiping" Bases

• We ask that players do not build in areas that block valuable resources such as metal nodes, beaver dams, underwater caves, etc. Building in surface caves is permitted only for ease of access structures, i.e. Walkways, ramps, ladders, and beds. Please no bases inside caves.

• We do not tolerate harassment of other players, griefing, or cheating. This Includes Hate speech or racial slurs.

Using that as a starting point what can we change/add to keep PvP Hard/Harsh but NOT down right mean or pointless.

 

[Maka]

All in for it with the high rates n stuff. AA n Stacking mod.

 

[TomUnderWater]

Ive seen servers run with both AA and S+ and they didnt seem to cause trouble for each other. With rates being higher I wouldnt mind playing without S+ here and I believe AA comes with all the pulling features found in S+ if thats what people are looking for. Ive heard of ways that building with S+ can be exploited such as placing turrets inside of structures/mesh so that they dont take damage from explosions. I can look into this and get back to you.

After reading a bit into AA theres a couple features Id propose we remove if possible, the AA Generator and AA Troughs. Reason being these both act like their tek equivalents. If this cant be done Id rather deal with it than without it.

Onto rules, I think the list from our previous PvP servers is perfect. I would hope that with accelerated rates we dont have 'thatchys' period but I still dont expect everyone to instantly build up in metal. This is where a 'no raid period' could come into play, in addition to that we could discourage raiding below your weight class. Obviously someone in full tek has nothing to gain from someone in a stone 3x3. Maybe not have a hard rule against, but should definitely be frowned upon.

I noticed on one server they would have tribes add the date they joined/were last raided to their tribename and give them, in this case, 48 hr protection to focus on building/rebuilding and anyone that were to attack them face the wrath of an admin. Though I can see this being abused, whats to stop someone from just changing the date on their tag? If we could find a solid way of enforcing I think this would be great for those who join later in a wipe cycle and cant take advantage of the no raid period in the beginning as well as those who were just raided and need to rebuild.

RATES
10x across the board​

In comparison to how we currently operate this is a big step in a different direction, but for this server I think the right direction. I would be open to tweaking this as things progress but I would like if this could be our target for the beginning. As Ive said before my goal is to focus much more on PvP vs chores.

 

[TomUnderWater]

When it comes to a map, just like I said before, Island is always my choice since all Tek is obtainable. Theres mods that allow you to unlock the tek engrams right off the bat but that means adding another mod. We could possibly try dropping tek altogether for some wipe cycles. But I dont know if that should be the option we start off with. Maybe we can leave this part of the convo open and revisit as we progress.

 

[TomUnderWater]

Also, AA has a building helper that will pick up any structures

 

[Maka]

There is a command to unlock of tek so no mod should be needed for that
.

 

[Sipowicz]

Ok so far the plan is to launch a PvP server with the rule set above, 10x all rates. I agree we should only allow raiding with-in your tier (stone/metal/tek if there is tek). Maybe we enable Native ORP for the first week (this also disables alliances). We run AA, and S+, with only the REAL game breaking items disabled. Structure no clip NOT enabled (structures cannot clip into each other and landscapes). We also need to figure out what map to run. Looks like there maybe a few other player made maps that have TEK caves. Lets see if we can get some suggestions.

 

[Night]

A simple rule would be easier for people to follow, that being, if they have metal with turrets, they can be raided. It's also easier to distinguish for player and admin.

ORP is good for PvP servers, but not the +DinoDMG or +DinoHP. There is a commonly used bug to exploit dinos with this. Just +Structure HP to increase ordnance cost. I would also limit ORP to 1 per tribe.

I personally would like to see Aberration used, but if another map is used, no Classic Flyers. Reason being, the game is constantly being balanced and this mod single-highhandedly undermines that and the hard work of Wild Card while prevents players from getting a real feel for the game.

Gather rates are a tricky situation, go too high and there is no point to raiding, go too low and people won't raid because of the cost. I have personally found +4-5 as a good balance.

With tames/breeding, save as above, +6 seems to strike a good balance

Addons
S+ with the same rules you have for Aberration with one exception, I would allow the pull for craft. Not Pull Resource, put the ability to pull the resources for x amount for an item.
I would suggest hiding S+ Indust Forge Engram and adding Mini Industrial Forge.

Ammo Pool is bad as it just encourages Turret bases with no need to resupply turrets.
Reusable Plus is also bad.

 

[Maka]

Night 10X overall is good cause then you raid for bps n mats n all that where low rates raid its kinda just raid cause why not. But i think that is a personal opinion

 

[Maka]

A simple rule would be easier for people to follow, that being, if they have metal with turrets, they can be raided. It's also easier to distinguish for player and admin.

ORP is good for PvP servers, but not the +DinoDMG or +DinoHP. There is a commonly used bug to exploit dinos with this. Just +Structure HP to increase ordnance cost. I would also limit ORP to 1 per tribe.

I personally would like to see Aberration used, but if another map is used, no Classic Flyers. Reason being, the game is constantly being balanced and this mod single-highhandedly undermines that and the hard work of Wild Card while prevents players from getting a real feel for the game.

Gather rates are a tricky situation, go too high and there is no point to raiding, go too low and people won't raid because of the cost. I have personally found +4-5 as a good balance.

With tames/breeding, save as above, +6 seems to strike a good balance

Addons
S+ with the same rules you have for Aberration with one exception, I would allow the pull for craft. Not Pull Resource, put the ability to pull the resources for x amount for an item.
I would suggest hiding S+ Indust Forge Engram and adding Mini Industrial Forge.

Ammo Pool is bad as it just encourages Turret bases with no need to resupply turrets.
Reusable Plus is also bad.

Andso Ammopool you gotta be online to use if from AA

 

[DudeAwesome]

What do you guys think of about 5-6x gathering and EXP, 10x breeding and taming, seems like a good balance since everyone hates super long tames and breeds.

 

[Kabooze]

I stand with Rodeo and agree almost 100% with everything he has suggested. Revenant has always held a special spot for me in my ark heart, as I played here for almost a year before going back to official PvP. There is one suggestion I would like to make, however, and that is to not allow dino and item transfers in, but allow them out. Hear me out here, it would be kind of like aberration. You put the map on a 3 month or so wipe schedule, with 10x rates and 20x breeding or so, and let tribes battle it out. With increased loot drops that rodeo mentioned, players from pve will be greatly tempted to come over and fight for good gear and bp's. I believe allowing pve players to bring over dinos is just an unfair advantage to players who aren't on the pve servers, as many of their lines have been heavily bred. I strongly believe that if you are to create a flat out pvp server with increased rates, EVERYONE should be on a level playing field, and all dinos would have to be obtained and bred within the wipe cycle period. Here's the draw for pve players, I would say at the end of the wipe cycle you open up transfers out to the pve servers, and players get to take home any dinos, items, or what have you to their pve servers. The downside is, good luck not getting wiped and losing it all before you get to transfer it out

 

[Maka]

I stand with Rodeo and agree almost 100% with everything he has suggested. Revenant has always held a special spot for me in my ark heart, as I played here for almost a year before going back to official PvP. There is one suggestion I would like to make, however, and that is to not allow dino and item transfers in, but allow them out. Hear me out here, it would be kind of like aberration. You put the map on a 3 month or so wipe schedule, with 10x rates and 20x breeding or so, and let tribes battle it out. With increased loot drops that rodeo mentioned, players from pve will be greatly tempted to come over and fight for good gear and bp's. I believe allowing pve players to bring over dinos is just an unfair advantage to players who aren't on the pve servers, as many of their lines have been heavily bred. I strongly believe that if you are to create a flat out pvp server with increased rates, EVERYONE should be on a level playing field, and all dinos would have to be obtained and bred within the wipe cycle period. Here's the draw for pve players, I would say at the end of the wipe cycle you open up transfers out to the pve servers, and players get to take home any dinos, items, or what have you to their pve servers. The downside is, good luck not getting wiped and losing it all before you get to transfer it out

Sick idea ^ All in for it. Andso what do you guys think of the map Vulcano ? https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=715028562

 

[TomUnderWater]

Volcano would be sick. Infinite mind wipes should be a thing too!