Private plugins ? Can`t do them because under contract? LoL

[Revoolt]

Cmmon guys, we have only a few plugins and only a few plugins developers here! Its a SHAME that your all "under contract with another server" and cant develop some plugins!
You guys should give everething to everyone (even if you upload it as a paid plugin).
This community will never grow up if you keep all plugins private and only for 1 or a few servers!
Check rust/minecraft , paid plugins everywhere ,of all types !
Here we are just stuck in advancing cause lack of plugins and developers !

 

[Haragon]

I think you underestimate the amount of money spent on private plugins... Much more than could be earned by selling it for $20 per seat. I would love to have some of the stuff that is locked off for my servers (not exclusively, don't really care about that), but you can't blame the devs for wanting to make money for their time, and the server owners contract them on their own terms.

 

[Revoolt]

Well i don`t have 500 Euros or more to spend on a private plugin, but i can pay around 50 euros for a paid plugin, without any problems ! Devs can make money and help ark comunity to grow!

 

[Ronniek09]

Let me ask you a question, out of the dozens of free plugins here, how much does the 1000s of registered users here donate to the devs? I'm talking 5 bucks? If just 1000 people donated 5 bucks, I would venture to say they would be more motivated to produce free content. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Revoolt]

For me ark servers are a hobby! I make no money from it and will never do ! Donating ? Yes can be, but instead of waiting donations add prices to plugins !! Much easy, for me at least !! Im sure ppls will buy the plugins they want and devs can have a look on sugestions and make whats asked for ...! Isnt much easy? For example i have bought all rust plugins i saw(not even playing rust anymore) same with minecraft(spent more than 1k euros on plugins), all this step by step , not all at once ! And there are lot of ppls like me ! All i ask is new plugins! But the few devs around here are "under contract" ... and dont wanna do plugins for everyone ! All i see its lot of demand and no offers !

 

[Ronniek09]

I think you're wrong sir. They have produced dozens of plugins for free. The other plugins are simply ideas in the making and every plugin takes time, not instant. Yes, there are private plugins, there always will be. However theres 99x more free plugins and future ideas.

 

[Revoolt]

No , im not wrong at all. And no they will not be private plugins for long! Soon someone will come and make similar copies of all those private plugins and post em here ! Im sure about that ! Just waiting for the right guy to do it XD Same happened with other games !

 

[Ronniek09]

Of course, this will eventually happen. Such is life. But when you say "you keep all plugins private" this is false. 99% are public. That's a fact.
Im sure you downloaded all the dozens of free ones and using most of them. Above all else, the API which makes all this happen and could have been sold privately and we wouldn't be even talking here right now. So be thankful.

 

[Revoolt]

I am thankful, and i demand more variety of plugins ! Thats all i want ! Paid, free, dont really care, can use them all !

 

[Ronniek09]

Well, that's where you are 100% wrong. You don't demand anything man. That's just wrong.

 

[Revoolt]

We can demand whatever we want ! The problems is , is there any offer to our demand ?

 

[Revoolt]

I know you dont want lot of public plugins, and i understand you, you have to take care of your bussiness, but im right !

 

[Haragon]

99% are public. That's a fact.

While I agree with the point you are trying to make... That isn't how facts work. There are a good amount of private plugins, not as many as there are public, but you cant tell me there is only 1 private plugin per 100 plugins (there aren't even that many released at this point).

My only real issue with private plugins is that as of late it seems that some developers have let their free plugins fall by the wayside in lieu of more lucrative opportunities. So, why not start charging for them?? Create a premium version? I'd buy it... Just goes to show exactly how much money is flowing around these plugins. Again, it is justified and it is what it is, but as someone who consumes free plugins (and would pay for public, paid plugins) I'm inclined to agree with Reevolt with regard to the API feeling kind of stalled and not living up to its full potential (for "99%" of server owners, anyways...)

Not to mention the lack of documentation. Makes it hard to find devs who will pick it up (C++ devs are hard to find as it is!) I'd contribute to a donation drive whose goal were to create solid documentation and tutorial content in order to bring new devs (read, "competition") in to the community.

 

[GamingOGs]

So, Little run down, Respect to all sides in this. We personally have spent thousands of dollars investing into private plugins for our servers and have no problem investing thousands of more dollars into private paid plugins. Problem is, There is no public guide on this forum on how to create ark api server plugins. The forum/tutorial that has been posted has been removed from the web and archived via google.

We first hand as server owners would have zero problem investing money into paid plugins. We believe anyone who spends time creating something should be paid and compensated for their time and effort. Now, Here is the problem, The devs here are contracted under a certain server owner.

What does that mean?:
That simply means we're not allowed to hire these devs to create private plugins since they by law are abide to their contracts and any breech in the contract can result in a fine/lawsuit. This in results prevents other server owners outside of the ones contracted to hire any sort of paid plugin from the devs.

We can tell you first hand if money is the issue then, They need to stay away from NDA contracts. Because once you get legally involved with a NDA you can't help competitor server owners. If these devs weren't contracted by law with their NDA then they would make thousands and thousands of dollars from different server owners. We would be one of the biggest investors if that was the case.

Outside of the NDA:
Outside of the NDA, If the devs have signed a NDA, Outside of the NDA they can create public plugins and charge a flat rate for them. Plugins that would increase donations and profits from server owners are the plugins that would make the most money. The devs on here would make hundreds of dollars if they created paid plugins that can benefit server owners because as a result of that server owners will invest money into that. The issue is no server owner wants to invest and make a commit when they don't get anything in return.

If the devs would be willing to create paid/private plugins outside of the server owner they currently work for we would without a doubt easily invest money into them and work alongside with them. The free public plugins are amazing and I fully support them and use them on all our servers. But if they'd be willing to do private paid plugins outside of their current server owner they could easily make triple the amount of money.

Simple Solution:
- Create a detailed guide on how to create plugins using the ark server api. Might take time but the effort will pay off because you will bring in more site traffic and new devs that could easily work alongside the current devs and make tons of money. Everyone wins in that situation and it benefits the global good.

Note:
- Anyone who is able to create custom private paid plugins, Get in contact with me. We have investors and we will personally invest hard earn money into you.

 

[Michidu]

Problem is, There is no public guide on this forum on how to create ark api server plugins. The forum/tutorial that has been posted has been removed from the web and archived via google....

I have already answered why it was removed in the other topic. It, obviously, wasn't done to make plugins creation harder. While a good tutorial/documentation (which is pretty hard to create) would help, it's not the main problem. Yes, there are not many people in the ARK community who know C++. But from what i see, everyone who wanted to start creating plugins and had at least required minimum of knowledges, managed to do it. Most of the devs are creating plugins for their own servers and are not willing even to sell them.

And as far as i know, private plugins haven't gone that far. That means, none of the devs are really signed an NDA and it's all on the words.

 

[Maticha]

There is only 3 or 4 private plugins that everyone want so badly and they are : Autoprot, Lootboxes, Quest so i have them lets say i will make them public so everyone can use them, after 2 weeks all ark server will have them and all ark server will be using them of curse i dont mind with it.

But hell ya some owners work more than other on making their servers uniques and spend money for that to happen, i succed to get a dev for my plugin after 6 month and now that i have it im just not abale to share does plugins, cause i worked hard to get them and i deserve to keep them for me, any one can do the same, anyone can find a C++ dev and make plugins but the problem is that you people want everything to come to you, you dont want to search or try hard to get something you just want to click on a bouton and take the plugins, and the worste part is that like Ronnie said no one is donating.

80% of ark server are using Arkshop plugin to make money or just to make their players happy and only 5% or 10% or does admins are donating to Michidu for he's work.

And making paid plugins is not that easy since if a dev make a paid plugins and you dont succed to make it work on your server or you dont know how or if there is a problems, that dev will have 500 people crying to him so he will need time to answer to all bugs and questions, and if he loose time talking he will not work on new things and 90% of ark Admins are bobs who dont even know how to make good server settings.
You can see Ownproxy made paid plugins Advance chat bro he always getting drama on the plugins discord from people who are not smart enough to make he's plugin working, config are too easy and 50% of people dont managed to change or make them.


Michidu and the other devs are doing a fucking good job on plugins.

 

[Haragon]

Michidu and the other devs are doing a fucking good job on plugins.

No one is contesting any of the points you made... The API is awesome, and people just want to see it grow. It's super powerful and has a ton of potential.

Anyways, yeah, I guess if that's the only way to differentiate your server, by all means do it.

 

[Maticha]

No one is contesting any of the points you made... The API is awesome, and people just want to see it grow. It's super powerful and has a ton of potential.

Anyways, yeah, I guess if that's the only way to differentiate your server, by all means do it.

Yeah its the only way since mods are all public and everyone is using almost the same mod the same settings, the x5 are almost all the same the x10 are too the x50 and x100 are almost all with the same mods same settings, so private plugins allowed some server to be unique and allowed them to have something that others dont have, i dont mind sharing some of my private plugins or even sponsor some plugins and share them with people but people, but we will just all have the sames serves without any difference

 

[GamingOGs]

I have already answered why it was removed in the other topic. It, obviously, wasn't done to make plugins creation harder. While a good tutorial/documentation (which is pretty hard to create) would help, it's not the main problem. Yes, there are not many people in the ARK community who know C++. But from what i see, everyone who wanted to start creating plugins and had at least required minimum of knowledges, managed to do it. Most of the devs are creating plugins for their own servers and are not willing even to sell them.

And as far as i know, private plugins haven't gone that far. That means, none of the devs are really signed an NDA and it's all on the words.

All good, Yeah I didn't get a chance to see the other topic and read up on the removal of the guides. That's also great to know about the NDA. Yeah you guys are doing amazing work and are awesome devs.