There has been a great deal of talk, no small measure of disagreement, and there will be rampant misconceptions regarding transfers, and life generally, following the restricted period. So, let’s address all of that and set clear expectations.
Extending the Restriction
To put it simply, extending the duration we restrict transfers isn’t going to happen. Too many people have invested too much time preparing for Genesis to continue the restrictions beyond 30 days. We’re not willing to risk a chunk of the community leaving over this particular issue. We announced there would be a restriction, we set the period, and that’s the way it is.
Flyers
Flyers will not be mountable on Genesis for the foreseeable future. The major concern is not forcing anyone to play a certain way, but stability. Dinos are resource hogs, so flying through small biomes is going to create huge stability issues. We are going to have enough of an uphill battle once transfers are open, and we aren’t going to compound that by overriding the natural state of the map you’re choosing to play on.
Non-Native Flyers
Any flyer that doesn’t naturally spawn on Genesis will have its Damage Output and Damage Resistance effectively set to zero. This means, and we all need to be clear on this, non-native flyer species will be killed by 1 damage if brought to Genesis. Why am I nerfing non-native flyers, you ask irritatedly? Simple, because even though you can’t use them, some of you are going to add to the instability by bringing non-native flyers over to sit idly at your base. The more dinos active on the map, the more unstable the server becomes. I get that wyverns are somewhat useful in turret mode, but so are turrets that don’t use anywhere near the same amount of server resources.
Any flyer that spawns naturally on Genesis will not be affected by this nerf, but still won’t be mountable.
Mission Zones
At some point, they are going to push an update that will allow you to build within the Mission Zones: don’t do this. As soon as I become aware that I have the option to restrict building in the Mission Zones again, I will be activating it. When I do so, everything you’ve built within a Mission Zone will be destroyed by the server. We aren’t going to replace anything that you lose as a consequence of building in Mission Zones, because you were warned. If you aren’t sure, use HLNA to display the Mission Zones. Moreover, you shouldn’t build in a manner that blocks access to the Mission Zones, as we will destroy those structures without warning; well, a second warning.
Server Stability
As I’ve mentioned numerous times, dinos are the primary driver of server instability (lag and crashing). Just as we saw with Extinction, the mass-import of dinos coupled with the spawning of dinos in Mission Zones are going to cause server instability. The more dinos we see imported, and the more missions that are being run, the more severe the instability will be. I anticipate that the server is going to crash frequently throughout the first few weeks following lifting the transfer restrictions. Within the first 24 hours, several of you are going to lose characters and entire inventories. Short of preventing you from bringing dinos to Genesis, there is nothing we can do to prevent this from happening. So, I would advise you to do the following:
- Use Ark Data, not your inventory
- Upload everything you are transferring into Ark Data
- Transfer
- Wait 25 minutes
- Download everything from Ark Data
- Take screenshots of your inventory and hotbar prior to each time you transfer
Ultimately, we will replace everything you have proof of having lost in the repeated rollbacks, but with 25 tickets ahead of yours, you’ll be waiting a long while. The best thing to do is to prevent the loss in the first place, but not everyone is going to read this, not everyone is going to take screenshots, and not everyone is going to use Ark Data instead of their inventories. So, anticipate extended resolution times for a short period following lifting the transfer restrictions.
That about covers it. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask and we will address them.
Happy Arking!