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  • ARK Sponsored Mod Program!

    Today we are proud and excited to announce the launch of the ARK Sponsored Mod Program. ARK has always viewed modding and the ARK Dev Kit as a very important aspect of our game. We want to look into ways to help our modders take their projects to the next step, be it through more robust capabilities in the Dev Kit, hosting competitions with large prize-pools, incorporating them into the game, or just generally working and partnering up with modders and their projects.

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    Since partnering up with Epic and opening up our ARK Dev Kit in July 2015 and we have seen over 2,500 different mods enter our Steam Workshop. It is an understatement to say how much we truly appreciate and value our modding community and want to do more to help facilitate the progress of mods, as well as modders.

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    ARK Mods have contributed mightily to the game's longevity and variety, and we’re very grateful to the talented content creators who make them. With the new 'ARK Sponsored Mods' program, we aim to be able to support some of the most promising authors directly, and continue to attract the world's most talented Modders to build amazing new content for ARK. 

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    We believe our latest initiative will allow us to take the next step into assisting modders further. The Sponsored Mods project aims to provide financial, development, and marketing supporting over the course of sponsorship. We will be providing a $4,000 stipend towards player made mod projects each month to assist with ongoing development costs of their projects, with a possibility of completed mods being integrated into the Official Release of ARK: Survival Evolved on PC and Console.

    Our first batch of modders that have been selected for sponsorship can be viewed here:
    https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/ark-sponsored-mods/

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    Over the course of sponsorship, the modders will be working with us, and in particular, Cedric Burkes (Creator of Primitive+ and Studio Wildcard Mod Liason) to see how they progress over the month. They will go through reviews to make sure that bug reports players have made are being resolved, and that their projects are progressing and developing. Sponsorship can end for a mod if progress isn’t being made, and we are keeping our eyes open for other modders who we can potentially work with! 

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    For those of you who are itching to get Modding in ARK, you can get started right away! The ARK Dev Kit is a simplified version of the Unreal Engine 4 Editor, specifically compiled to streamline the process of creating Mods, Maps, and Total Conversions for ARK: Survival Evolved which can then be uploaded directly to Steam Workshop for other users to download and play. Follow the "How To Mod" tutorial to get started, then join the ARK community, participate in the Unreal Engine ARK Modding forum to get your modding underway!

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    User Feedback

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    Feed back from a modder.

     

    I find this kinda pointless.

     

    Oh wow... I got picked this month... they are going to give me $4k.

    What about next month?   They pick different mods.

     

    I'm sorry, I work full time and can't take that much time off.

    Nor would I be able to quit my job on the off chance that one of my mods would get selected or not.

     

    I work a full time job.   My time to work on mods is 1-2 hours on weeknights, and weekends.

     

     

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    17 hours ago, Kotawolf said:

    Feed back from a modder.

     

    I find this kinda pointless.

     

    Oh wow... I got picked this month... they are going to give me $4k.

    What about next month?   They pick different mods.

     

    I'm sorry, I work full time and can't take that much time off.

    Nor would I be able to quit my job on the off chance that one of my mods would get selected or not.

     

    I work a full time job.   My time to work on mods is 1-2 hours on weeknights, and weekends.

     

     

    Actually, if you read it, they will only be dropping mods off the list if not much work is done, or if a better mod presents itself, which is done on a month by month basis. They dont just scrap everything if you dont complete it in a month and pick new ones.

    "Over the course of sponsorship, the modders will be working with us, and in particular, Cedric Burkes (Creator of Primitive+ and Studio Wildcard Mod Liason) to see how they progress over the month. They will go through reviews to make sure that bug reports players have made are being resolved, and that their projects are progressing and developing. Sponsorship can end for a mod if progress isn’t being made, and we are keeping our eyes open for other modders who we can potentially work with! "

    Thats directly from the begining of this page, note the bolded statement.

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    WOOOO would love the castle one for consoles!

    And bush people just watched a view videos on youtube bush people mod looks so awesome i cannot wait, would glady pay a Small fee for it as a DLC to add to my ARK experience!

    Edited by MrSinzo

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    would love s+ on officials 

    Edited by g0ku

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    Ok I don't know if this is where I should post this, but I would like to suggest a mod for consideration into the program or should I say mod developer. I'm sure your aware of some of his work already but lately he/she has been on fire with some awesome mods. The developer named Impulse has made a currency mod that I'm sure your aware of. However, Impulse has been quite busy making some awesome mods. Like a Bounty mod. I suggested a idea for a way to get coins for implants a while back and apparently he came up with this whole bounty system and it is awesome. Now Impulse has a dino loot mod that looks great and a new bank mod too. You really need to check out what he is doing their. This person is on fire with some great mods and ideas. http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198018631975/myworkshopfiles/?appid=346110

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    Hi everyone just wanted to know if anyone has heard of a release date for console on any of this I know it's still early but TBH kinda lost interest

    an I fill like this will rejuvenate my interests 

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    On 3/19/2017 at 11:07 PM, Keogh said:

    Even doh there are some absolutely amazing mods for ark out there I think I can honestly say when it comes to console players the number one mod we all want is s+ ?

    Yes!!!!! Put s+ in game asap please!!!

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    All I really want is s+ and my be a new map but good job anyway 

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    On 23/05/2017 at 5:07 AM, Nate1220 said:

    Yes!!!!! Put s+ in game asap please!!!

    Well put !!

     

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    No clue where to post, but i really hope Grebog's Builder's Improvements and Wall Clock With Alarm Timer at least get looked at.. 

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    On 23/03/2017 at 1:13 AM, Kotawolf said:

    Feed back from a modder.

     

    I find this kinda pointless.

     

    Oh wow... I got picked this month... they are going to give me $4k.

    What about next month?   They pick different mods.

     

    I'm sorry, I work full time and can't take that much time off.

    Nor would I be able to quit my job on the off chance that one of my mods would get selected or not.

     

    I work a full time job.   My time to work on mods is 1-2 hours on weeknights, and weekends.

     

     

     

    Well iam really confused.

    Ar we talking about WC paying 4,000$ to EACH SPONSORED MOD, AND EACH MONTH, so 4000x15= 60.000$ for modders/month: ?!

    Or are we talking about a 4,000$ overall splitted between the 15 mods.

     

    This is confusing me because a 4000$ per month.. for a mod, i rarely seen that. I seen that many people asked same question as i do on reddit etc.. and i couldnt find the right answer.

     

    If someone can tell me y by advance

    Edited by Alex114

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    17 minutes ago, Alex114 said:

     

    Well iam really confused.

    Ar we talking about WC paying 4,000$ to EACH SPONSORED MOD, AND EACH MONTH, so 4000x15= 60.000$ for modders/month: ?!

    Or are we talking about a 4,000$ overall splitted between the 15 mods.

     

    This is confusing me because a 4000$ per month.. for a mod, i rarely seen that. I seen that many people asked same question as i do on reddit etc.. and i couldnt find the right answer.

     

    If someone can tell me y by advance

     

    Basically it is a contract.

     

    WC pays the modder $4000 a month to continue working on the mod.

    That is per modder, not to the group as a whole.

    My comments/points were that I have a full time job, that I'm not going to quit just to work on a mod for 2-3 or few more months.  Until they stop the program or that they pick other mods.

     

     

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    44 minutes ago, Kotawolf said:

     

    Basically it is a contract.

     

    WC pays the modder $4000 a month to continue working on the mod.

    That is per modder, not to the group as a whole.

    My comments/points were that I have a full time job, that I'm not going to quit just to work on a mod for 2-3 or few more months.  Until they stop the program or that they pick other mods.

     

     

    I clearly understand your point, and you are absolutly right.

    I think that the payment is overkill/impressive tho.

    As i see, i rarely seen contractors that much paid by a company, and, on another hand WC isnt earning much from those contracts, for now...?!

    adding free official DLCs community"s made and incitating modders to work (regarding the 4k$ and the objectives from WC its clearly a temp job for some monthes concerning those modders..), iam not sure i understand how WC will make money out of this.

    Did they become philanthropic?

    We are talking about 60k/month paid by WC and (ragnarok for now, probably more later) free dlcs (more servers rent, more servers to moderate on WC side: 3 new eu official..) increasing the overall number of official servers.. More renting costs, more moderation / support work.

    Clearly, for now, WC is spending money..

    I dont get it how they will get their investisment back. Iam missing something for sure. Whats your opinion on this matter?

     

    Also, back in the past, beeing a modder meant doing this for free as an hobby. We all know that this is still meaning something to players, because the attempt to make skyrim workshop items/mod sell-able by Valve has been a total fail.

    And gabbe newell is still wanting to add this payant system.

     

    So.. Iam a bit confused by all of this..

    Is it the start of a global monetisation of the modder work, or is it just an anecdotic way by WC to increase their official DLC, and it wont influence the modders community...

     

    Also starting to pay modders will be the start of the Ip's/DMCA fights, and, good luck with this, because this kind of war already started between some modders, and you wont stop this. iam afraid that it corrupts a bit the freedom of creation overall.

    Edited by Alex114

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    Not sure why some work so hard to make this into a negative, including making some connections that just logically don't work.

    1.  Steam's attempt to 'monetize' Mods is nothing like Wildcard 'supporting' Mods for the possibility of including them into the core game.  These concepts run askew of each other.  And, I am guessing, it is a voluntary program, on both sides of the equation.

    2.  Supporting popular and/or interesting Mods, with the possibility of them being included in the game, adds value to the game by trying to promote good mod development and for mods to not be abandoned, or actually completed.  In some cases, by having them included in the core game, changes and patches should also handle any of the intergrated mods; unlike today where sometimes a core game change in turn breaks a mod, and sometimes in a way that the mod developer cannot fix until the get a new dev kit.

    3.  Mods that are implemented into the core game could help decrease startup times and server join times(depending on how they are implemented), along with a better control of updates, which should mean less server restarts.

    4.  In the same way, new content that is included in the core game would be available to all maps, instead of just being isolated to a particular map or server(s) running that mod.

    By default, some of these also increase the over all value of the game, thus, making it a more appealing purchase(aka revenue).  For those of us that got in at the bargin prices and had a chance to play well in advance of others, this is a pure winfall (which, currenlty, we won't get taxed on).  I have begun to shy away from games where the developers deliberate make it hard for people to do mods; just not someone I want to support.

    Of course, some of this flies in the face of statements like "WC only cares about money" or "WC doesn't care about the game", both of which are, to put it bluntly, laughable strawmen.  As to the first, any company that does not care about money is, at best, a charity(though I think you would be hard press to find one that doesn't actually care about money), or, more likely, bankrupt.

    Lastly, if someone has already done a lot of work in something, why divert(or hire) resources to redo what someone else has already done.  

    To me, a lot of this sounds like a win/win.

    Edited by Jerryn

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    so i still don´t get it, wildcard pays for good screenshots in the contest, wildcard pays good modders, wildcard says thank you to the modders. but we translators not even get a thank you for our work, we made it possible that people around the world can play ark in there mother language, but hey thats nothing to write about.....

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    1 hour ago, Jerryn said:

     

    Not sure why some work so hard to make this into a negative, including making some connections that just logically don't work.

    1.  Steam's attempt to 'monetize' Mods is nothing like Wildcard 'supporting' Mods for the possibility of including them into the core game.  These concepts run askew of each other.  And, I am guessing, it is a voluntary program, on both sides of the equation.

    2.  Supporting popular and/or interesting Mods, with the possibility of them being included in the game, adds value to the game by trying to promote good mod development and for mods to not be abandoned, or actually completed.  In some cases, by having them included in the core game, changes and patches should also handle any of the intergrated mods; unlike today where sometimes a core game change in turn breaks a mod, and sometimes in a way that the mod developer cannot fix until the get a new dev kit.

    3.  Mods that are implemented into the core game could help decrease startup times and server join times(depending on how they are implemented), along with a better control of updates, which should mean less server restarts.

    4.  In the same way, new content that is included in the core game would be available to all maps, instead of just being isolated to a particular map or server(s) running that mod.

    By default, some of these also increase the over all value of the game, thus, making it a more appealing purchase(aka revenue).  For those of us that got in at the bargin prices and had a chance to play well in advance of others, this is a pure winfall (which, currenlty, we won't get taxed on).  I have begun to shy away from games where the developers deliberate make it hard for people to do mods; just not someone I want to support.

    Of course, some of this flies in the face of statements like "WC only cares about money" or "WC doesn't care about the game", both of which are, to put it bluntly, laughable strawmen.  As to the first, any company that does not care about money is, at best, a charity(though I think you would be hard press to find one that doesn't actually care about money), or, more likely, bankrupt.

    Lastly, if someone has already done a lot of work in something, why divert(or hire) resources to redo what someone else has already done.  

    To me, a lot of this sounds like a win/win.

    I guess this answer is directed towards my post even if iam not mentioned clearly.

    Everything you are talking about is like talking about a finished/launched game which is out of the early access. We are talking, about an early access game, that is turning "official DLC" mods, and paying their creators in gold ingots. Well, i like science fiction, but i couldnt even imagine that this would be even possible.

    As talking about DOTA2 paying modders or CSGO. Which are both valve games (both where even mods..) and we both know where their strategy  on mods leaded them: a clique of modders/employees is now established and specialized in modding the bloody skins . For exemple, in DOTA2, beeing an "outsider moder " (for skins making)  is almost impossible now, in 2017, and valve mostly feeding always same people and btw they earn only 25% of the earnings, but even 25% is overkill just for this kind of skill. But well i guess that the real problem was from players that are stupid to spend 2.5$ on a single skin/texture, but this will be another debate..

    If a company (well lets rather talk about a "studio", since wilcard is owned by Snail games) can afford 60k$ /month to pay modders/hobby people, what is the problem with hiring people that are skilled, get diplomas, and can fix the core bugs of ARK, that are ruining the gameplay for now 2 years.

    I would mention, as exemple, that it took 2 years to fix simple achievements that were broken and that we didnt get ANY communication about the fact that they were broken (exemple: artifact archeologist: since march 2016 (last official post about this achievement beeing on steam forums: march 2016: since then we didnt have any clue about the status of this achievement). It took also 2 years between the launching of the bosses and the "fix" of them (if they even are fully fixed one day). This as been a long wait for millions customers. ESPECIALLY WHEN THEIR ARE FORCED TO LOGIN WEEKLY to avoid wipe.

    Iam just lost about this kind of strategy, and for sure this will divide even more the modders community because there will be the "official" and the "non official", while back in the past in the video game industry we never had such discrimination on modders. for exemple good modders were often hired . To me we are either an employee or a modder, but not an employee-modder.

    As i said iam mostly lost and also impressed (impressed by the overkill amount of dollars the modders are paid, which, be sure of this, will lead to a lot of jealousy or fights between modders: just look this guy traductor complaining about not beeing paid in the last post: lol) by this decision, and for sure this is a kinda a test project cause i would be surprised that my ark gets 15*12=180 DLCs in one year?! LOL

     

    Well good luck with this and i just hope that it wont corrupt the modding spirit as DOTA, CSGO and everything coming from valve already did..

     

     

    Edited by Alex114

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    13 minutes ago, Alex114 said:

    I guess this answer is directed towards my post even if iam not mentioned clearly.

    Everything you are talking about is like talking about a finished/launched game which is out of the early access. We are talking, about an early access game, that is turning "official DLC" mods, and paying their creators in gold ingots. Well, i like science fiction, but i couldnt even imagine that this would be even possible.

    As talking about DOTA2 paying modders or CSGO. Which are both valve games (both where even mods..) and we both know where their strategy  on mods leaded them: a clique of modders/employees is now established and specialized in modding the bloody skins . For exemple, in DOTA2, beeing an "outsider moder " (for skins making)  is almost impossible now, in 2017, and valve mostly feeding always same people and btw they earn only 25% of the earnings, but even 25% is overkill just for this kind of skill. But well i guess that the real problem was from players that are stupid to spend 2.5$ on a single skin/texture, but this will be another debate..

    If a company (well lets rather talk about a "studio", since wilcard is owned by Snail games) can afford 60k$ /month to pay modders/hobby people, what is the problem with hiring people that are skilled, get diplomas, and can fix the core bugs of ARK, that are ruining the gameplay for now 2 years.

    I would mention, as exemple, that it took 2 years to fix simple achievements that were broken and that we didnt get ANY communication about the fact that they were broken (exemple: artifact archeologist: since march 2016 (last official post about this achievement beeing on steam forums: march 2016: since then we didnt have any clue about the status of this achievement). It took also 2 years between the launching of the bosses and the "fix" of them (if they even are fully fixed one day). This as been a long wait for millions customers. ESPECIALLY WHEN THEIR ARE FORCED TO LOGIN WEEKLY to avoid wipe.

    Iam just lost about this kind of strategy, and for sure this will divide even more the modders community because there will be the "official" and the "non official", while back in the past in the video game industry we never had such discrimination on modders. for exemple good modders were often hired . To me we are either an employee or a modder, but not an employee-modder.

    As i said iam mostly lost and also impressed (impressed by the overkill amount of dollars the modders are paid, which, be sure of this, will lead to a lot of jealousy or fights between modders: just look this guy traductor complaining about not beeing paid in the last post: lol) by this decision, and for sure this is a kinda a test project cause i would be surprised that my ark gets 15*12=180 DLCs in one year?! LOL

     

    Well good luck with this and i just hope that it wont corrupt the modding spirit as DOTA, CSGO and everything coming from valve already did..

     

     

    My response was in general, though, the part about Steam was linked to yours.

    As for the rest, I am not even sure where you are going.  I explained what I thought about it, and that I think it is a good thing.  Whether the game is alpha, beta, release candidate, or full release is irrelevant to me at this point, and it is a redding herring, as is the whole thing about 2 year old bugs.  WC worked from the methodology of content first, with some bug fixes and optimizations along the way, and then moving more into a bug fix and optimazation now that most the pieces and place holders are in place.  Since I did my due diligence before buying the game, I understood the concept and accepted the risk; and so far, I think my investment has paid off very well.

    As for official vs non-official, that is not really true(and is also true).  At best, it is sponsored vs non-sponsored, based on choices by both parties; not rocket surgery.  If the mod get absorded into the core game, or become official, it, from what I know, becomes the property of Wildcard; so just like any other mod/DLC that a company releases, it is then official.

    Also, you math makes no sense.  It is not 15 mods, and then next month 15 new mods.  They sponor approximatley 15 mods, and the list can change up as mods fall off the list(lack of development/commitment/whatever) and new mods get added.  A mod could stay on the list for month.  Again, I explained the difference between what Valve attempted and Wildcard is doing, and I think it is very clear the concepts are different, no matter if you keep repeating the opposite.

    Last, I am speaking as a player.  Even as a moderator, I am not a Wildcard employee.

     

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    Please add the annunaki genesis mod I'd love to see that one added to the mod list

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    The annuaki genesis mod is a mod that I think should be sponsored, because it adds so much to the game. It looks very fun I think that most people would agree with me.

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    Are we able to nominate mods for sponsorship? There is a map mod called Hope that should be on the sponsored list. I have played Crystal Isles as well as Shigo, and Hope is just as good if not better in some areas.

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