The rules for the Ark servers are being updated to reflect recent player activity. Really, just tightening up against some anti-social gameplay and reclarifying some of the more important points.

General Rules

Dont be a gaping dick hole is being dropped because it’s not really a good rule.

Building Spots

Rules relating to building over resource areas and meshes were remnant of our PvE days. They’re being rejigged to be more reflective of PvP gameplay.

Putting this simply: Building in artefact caves is now permitted. Building in mesh spots is now not permitted. Building to cover artefacts in Crystal Isles is not permitted.

Managing mesh spot bases was a PITA because I had to do a bunch of research to find out if they were raidable. I’ve mentioned this in the Discord that I was going to crack down on them and it’s well beyond the time limit for those bases. If I find a meshed base, then I’ll just delete it without warning. I’m not bothered to figure out if they’re raidable or not.

The only real exception to this is if the mesh spot is just an accidental cave. If there’s a clear, enterable opening then it’s fine. If it requires additional mechanisms to access, then it’s not permitted. For example, there’s a rat hole in Valguero near blue ob that everyone knows; this spots fine because it’s trivial to soak and raid. An example of what’s not okay is building in the G2 mesh spot near west-side waterfalls which requires campfires/foundations/stairs/other forms of elevation to access.

When I say “mesh” spots, I mean anything that’s clearly not intentional to the map design, be it clipping through the mesh or just an accidental cave area. If you’re thinking that it’s probably not allowed then you won’t believe it; it’s probably not. You can always ping kprotato on the Discord to check if you want.

With artefact caves; I would prefer that these be kept clear but I understand that this isn’t really feasible on a map like Fjordor so I’m lifting the ban on building in artefact caves. The trade off is that you can’t build on or near artefacts on Crystal Isles, that way players have a place to get artefacts if they need them.

If you need an artefact, just head to crystal.

Punishments for building spots is being standardized too. Building in mesh spots will be an instant wipe of your structures on the server. Building to cover artefacts on crystal will result in the same.

Individually wiping structures is time consuming, so yes I will just mass wipe.

Turrets

Turrets in anti-social places are still banned. Placing them around mission locations in g1/g2 is still not allowed (with exception). Placing them with the clear intent of just messing with people is not allowed either.

You’re allowed to put turrets near obelisks but warnings need to be enabled. You’re also allowed to turret spam out front of your base if that’s your thing. You’re also allowed to put a turret near a mission location on g1/g2 if and only if you pick it up once you’re done with the mission. Again, turrets protecting you while you’re in the simulation or doing a boss battle must have warnings enabled.

You’re not allowed to put turrets near deap sea crates, artefacts or just randomly scattered around the map with no clear reason for them being there.

Because I don’t want to bother policing this, I’m making the punishment severe. First time I’ll just destroy the turret. Second time I will wipe every structure your tribe owns. Hopefully this incentivizes you not to force me to deal with trivial stuff.

Cheating

Again, macros like auto clickers are whatever. I dont care about auto clickers. Actual hacks will get you cluster banned.

Answering admin hails

I’m kind of sick of people ignoring me when I try to contact them about a rule breakage so I’m making it a rule that you have to respond to admins. This includes on Discord.

J4Y/Kprotato is my name in Discord and you can confirm that you’re chatting with me by pinging me in #general. If I’m contact you about something, then it’s normally pretty important. I’ll often reach out to memebers who are known to me prior to raining down the wrath of admin powers against their rule breakages. If you respond and work with me a little bit, you’ll get spared from said admin powers. It’s as simple as that.

Classic example; some dude built in an artefact cave when it wasn’t allowed. I messaged him telling him that he’s not allowed to build there. I could clearly see them stop when they saw my message, consider it for a moment, and then continue building. I had a gold star against my name and was in spectator watchign them blatantly ignore me. They were wiped from the map.

Another classic example; alpha tribe built defences around an artefact. I had a complaint about it so I investigated and instead of structure wiping, I pinged them on Discord asking if they could please move their base. They complied, moved the base, kept all of their structures. Everyone was happy and we played some Valorant together.

You can see how much better the later example was for all involved. I didn’t have to do admin things, and the alpha didn’t lose everything they own.

So if I’m messaging you about something, just reply please.