"A vocal minority doesnt like tames, so naturally we have to remove all tames right?"

What? Can't the guy express his opinion? I don't like tames either in this game so I would like to have them removed. I don't think they have a place. My heart sank when I realised that if I wanted to farm fibre quicker, I would have to go obtain myself a (wait for it) bear to do it. I did that in Ark, thx, and I'm done with Ark. Let's do something different. Having a simple function like attaching an NPC crewmember (vulnerable to the wildlife and other players/things) to a resource node to passively grind my crap for me in modest amounts is certainly an idea to explore.

But if you want to say "I disagree, I like tames" then go ahead. Don't whine like a bitch just because someone else isn't saying that. "Just because yooooo don't like it, doesn't meeeean weeee don't like it" is very tiresome and adds nothing to the debate.

Your later comments are useful, but I think server load is probably an issue with more complex NPCs. An NPC stood at a resource node hardly adds much server load, whereas I suspect NPCs that can do "ALOT more" ain't gonna fly so well. In Ark, folks say how dumb the AI is, but that generally refers to combat decisions they make and the like. But have you ever really looked at what Ark AIs really do overall, as an entity? They do fook all. They trot around in random directions and, if aggressive, home in on straight lines to things they don't like and bite them. That's it. They are extremely simplistic and don't represent much server load at all individually, which is why Ark maps teem with wildlife. I think (sadly) making things too complex won't work when you'll have many AIs in play per server. Guarding and shooting is all we're likely to get.