Map Reset When New Biomes aka changes to ark map.

Maybe start a poll and ask people to vote?

i.e. under thread tools --> add poll

 

I'd second, but with rates as obnoxiously high as they are it'd be practically pointless. Within an hour or two people are already at a high level, within a day of playtime likely maxed out. All depends on how people play. There is nothing for people to "fear."

Abandoned, small buildings likely show up because of people building up a small place to spend a night - they likely won't go away unless night time is ended/the pitch black crappyness is fixed (ie - gamma command being re-enabled...)/some kind of option to clean up non-maintained buildings is enabled, though I don't think ARK has this feature.

 

Different strokes. The server was dead on prior settings, current have brought steady traffic. Not to say we aren't open to suggestion, but taking a piss all over the current successful config isn't very productive.

The wood and thatch stuff is self correcting - knocked down with minimal effort by other players whenever they're bored or the construction gets in the way.

The night.. It's seriously about 5 minutes long, if that. I really see it no different than Minecraft -- Craft at night, build at nice, etc. Caught out in the wild? Light a campfire and cook some dinner , it'll be day by the time you cook up a stack of steaks. Scared to sit around the campfire in the dark? Drop a box and sleeping bag. Stuff your gear in, FT back to your house to huddle in the light for the next 300 seconds before you turn around and FT back to your bag.

Seriously, if the night is such a big deal start a poll and see what feedback you get -- But it seems pretty unreasonable to pin a big chunk of the "I won't play this anymore" on mere minutes of dark every ~hour or so.

 

Voicing issues with high rates is taking a piss, eh? The issue is that it is, in fact, obnoxiously high - most other servers, particularly the really full, populated ones, don't have their rates nearly as high as ours.

A "successful config" should be able to bring in more than 10-15 active players, especially considering your morning players have dropped significantly. On a 70 slot server, considering the game this is, successful should be a consistent 30-40 - amazing would be 50+. If you're going to say you're "open to suggestions", and this goes for you and 8bit both, don't openly and blatantly blast down every single one you get especially with such a mocking tone that you both tend to have had.

I merely listed a few ideas that popped into my head as to what could potentially solve the abandoned base issues - wood and thatch isn't knocked down with minimal effort if you don't have a tamed dino with a saddle, is the thing. You'll be knocking away at it with a hatchet/pick for awhile and using up resources all the while just to take down a simple 1x1 building used for safety overnight. Considering how many get built up, or how many bases that are that are bigger than that but still thatch/wood, also issues.

Difference between Minecraft/Ark - Minecraft has a bearable night system. I can see at night in MC, so can anybody else. MC also has brightness settings, as far as I recall. Difference between DayZ/ARK, DayZ has terrible night like ARK unless full moon is put on then semi-bearable - but it has brightness/gamma settings. ARK doesn't have these things, and the gamma command - widely known among players - was disabled, and when I inquired about it, I was shut down on it, much like anything mentioned here is being shut down. I'm actually not opposed to night, I like the idea of being able to ambush people in the night or night action in general (even with the shortish time it has), issue being is that it is PITCH BLACK. And best part? You go to an underwater cave and it's so damn bright you need like gamma 0 to see. IIRC gamma 2 is default.

Like I said - night, to me, isn't a big deal. It's a symptom to why abandoned bases appear, yes, but it's bueno. What IS a big deal is not having access to the simple gamma command - whether you see that as a "realism" issue or not, hey, we're on an island with dinosaurs, dropped off by aliens. Super realistic. FYI - if it isn't clear, I haven't stopped playing due to the night issue, it's actually because within 12 hours of playing a brand new player can have everything they need including 5 level 100+ tamed rexes. That is completely absurd and unneeded - the current rates are broken beyond belief.


TL;DR: Since you're in support of suggestions so much, here they are.
- Turn down rates to a more understandable, manageable, decent level.
- Re-enable "common sense" commands (gamma, for instance. any others I may not know of that got disabled and should be on? I only used gamma.)
Want others to make a poll? Here's my suggestion to that: It's part of the server specialist's job to understand how the community of the server feels, make polls as needed, and make sure the server is aware of the polls and vote in them. That is the path me, Abaddon, Gorian and other Specialists have done and every time a player is told "make a poll" - it rubs off as "I'm not taking your suggestion, just shut up and leave me alone."

 

Oh, so if you repeat the same statement a few times and I decline to change everything to adapt, I'm not actually open to suggestions, and am actually blasting down every single one we get? Interesting to know, especially from someone who isn't even playing the game. We've made numerous changes based on player requests, many times against our personal judgement -- but because they were popular and posed to us respectfully.

And sorry our version of success fails to meet your criteria. We're satisfied with the playerbase, though we'd like to shake up the tribe situation a bit - that's another topic though.

Yet with these settings that we've adapted, a saddled dino capable of destroying thatch is within anyone's reach within a few days (even hours in some cases) of playing. Given you choose not to play with the current config, I'm not sure how you expect to have a better grasp of the challenges than the people who are playing.

Valid points on MC vs DayZ, but I feel ARK makes night much more manageable. Torches are available in the first minutes of play, not after hours of searching around. Numerous higher tier lighting options are available for bases, including simple to deploy standing torches that you can toss out at a field base in seconds. "Endgame" stuff is readily available at our settings, and includes weapon lights, headlamps, high brightness stationary lighting.

In spite of all that -- Gamma has been re-enabled. Evidently has been for some time. Y'know how I found out? I asked King. Easy peasy.

Regarding admin style, polls.. Sorry, not biting. I won't campaign for your ideas. If I have an idea I want to implement and I'm not sure of the potential reception, I'll poll for second opinions.

If a player brings a suggestion to me, I'm going to like it or no.. And if not I'm left with "No" or "Start a poll, get second opinions." What's wrong with asking them to poll and campaign for their own pet ideas?


Final thoughts -- Sorry, King & I have no desire for a grindy full time MMO. We want a server to go and play with dinos, and the current settings give us our desired play style and enough extra traffic joining to make it more enjoyable than sticking to a LAN world. Dislike it... Well, tough. But if it bothers you that much and you come up with actionable suggestions, and get the support of members voting on the ideas.. Well, then maybe we'll have to reconsider and just give you guys the server you want rather than us having the one we want.