Community Crunch 241: Fear Evolved 4, Live Tuning System, Network Improvements, and More!
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- By StudioWildcard
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Fear Evolved 4
It's time to Trick or Treat whilst howling under the blood moon! The Dodorex and Dodowyvern will be striking fear into the hearts of Survivors with their fearsome return to the ARK! Hunt for new diabolical chibis, spectral creature skins, event themed threads, and new holiday emotes. Fear Evolved is one of our favorite events and we can't wait for you to experience what we've conjured up this year!
Event Details
This event can be manually activated with the server arg parameter: -ActiveEvent=FearEvolved
Dates October 22nd to November 6th
Rates
- 2X Breeding (mating interval, egg hatch speed, and maturation)
- 2X XP
- 2X Harvesting
- 2X Taming
Creatures
In addition to some of the past favorites from Fear Evolved, survivors will find themselves on the hunt for 11 new spooky themed chibi's to add to their growing collection and 7 new ghostly dinosaur skins.
Spooky Encounters
- DodoRex (Untamable Boss)
- DodoWyvern (Untamable Boss)
- Zomdodo
- Zombie Fire Wyvern (claimable & persist after Fear Evolved)
- Zombie Lightning Wyvern (claimable & persist after Fear Evolved)
- Zombie Poison Wyvern (claimable & persist after Fear Evolved)
- Skeletal Giganotosaurus
- Skeletal Quetzal
- Skeletal Jerboa
- Bone Fire Wyvern
- Skeletal Bronto
- Skeletal Stego
- Skeletal Trike
- Skeletal Raptor
- Skeletal Rex
- Skeletal Carnotaurus
- Ghost Reaper (Surface reapers) *new*
- Ghost Bulbdog *new*
- Ghost Rex *new*
- Ghost Basilisk *new*
- Ghost Snow Owl *new*
- Ghost Mantis *new*
- Ghost Direwolf *new*
Event Chibis (acquired via killing Dodowyvern/Dodorex or Cooking Pot recipe)
- Skeletal Giganotosaurus *new*
- Skeletal Quetzal *new*
- Skeletal Jerboa *new*
- Skeletal Bronto *new*
- Skeletal Stego *new*
- Skeletal Trike *new*
- Skeletal Raptor *new*
- Skeletal Rex *new*
- Skeletal Carnotaurus *new*
- Bone Wyvern *new*
- Zombie Wyvern *new*
Ghost Creature Skins (acquired via killing Ghost creatures)
- Reaper *new*
- Bulbdog *new*
- Rex *new*
- Basilisk *new*
- Snow Owl *new*
- Mantis *new*
- Direwolf *new*
Items
- Pumpkin
- Stolen Headstone
- Scarecrow
- Dinosaur Bone
- Dino Candy Corn
Emotes (acquired via Cooking Pot recipe)
- Scare Emote *new*
- Knock Emote *new*
- Zombie Emote
- Dance Emote
- Panic Emote
Skins (acquired via Cooking Pot recipe)
- Reaper Swimsuit Skin *new*
- Jack-O-Lantern Swimsuit Skin *new*
- Pumpkin Helmet Skin
- Headless Costume Skin
- Hockey Mask Skin
- Araneo Swimsuit Skins
- Onyc Swimsuit Skins
- Vampire Dodo Swimsuit Skins
Creature Event Colors
- Dino Darker Grey
- Dino Light Blue
- Dino Dark Yellow
- DragonBase1
- Light Brown
- Light Grey
- Dino Light Brown
- Dino Dark Brown
- DragonFire
- Vermillion *new*
- ActualBlack *new*
- MidnightBlue *new*
- MediumAutumn *new*
- DarkWarmGray *new*
- Orange *new*
- DarkLavender *new*
- Jade *new*
Live Tuning System
The latest major PC version supports our Initial Implementation of the 'Live Tuning' system. The 'Live Tuning' system is a dynamic configuration system which will allow server hosts to easily modify supported game properties without the need for mods. All that is required is a simple edit of a json file, and you're good to go! As you can imagine, this new dynamic configuration system will provide useful options for server administrators, especially as we grow it out to support more properties.
For the modding community, this system is also very powerful. Modders may have actually seen it before in the property details panel. When you add variables there is a checkbox for "Live-Tunable". Checking that box on properties will opt them into the system. By doing so, this will allow server owners to tweak mod settings on the fly without the need for mod updates.
As the system evolves, we hope to add more options and expose more values to tweak. The 'Live Tuning' system provides ways for server administrators to offer dynamic events in a quick, simple, and straightforward way. For more information on the 'Live Tuning' system and how to set it up, check out the following thread. We'll be adding more details as the system continues to expand:
Networking & Live Game Improvements
One of our constant priorities is monitoring the live-game and server reliability. Over the past few weeks, we've noticed an increase in reports about server instability. The causes of server instability may range but our engineering team has been hard at work diagnosing the root causes.
In a past Community Crunch we noted that we've been working on technical changes behind the scenes to increase server performance and mitigate some of the attacks we're seeing against the servers. We've made improvements to mesh detection, added more protection against DDOS, and fixed various exploits/cheats that could be used to intentionally crash servers. Since deploying those changes we have seen a noticeable decrease in some of the server instability reports and attacks we were seeing. Although things have improved, we will continue to work against malicious players who intend to ruin the experience for others.
Structure Stasis Changes
We've made some changes with a focus on improving performance. This reworks how structures are loaded/unloaded on the server. The simple idea is that fewer calculations take place at a given time with the new system so the server doesn't have to do as much. Something to note is that the performance gains are more noticeable when more active structures are present (so think really busy, large bases) and an increased number of players on a server.
The structures are now broken up into a grid, when a player logs in they are assigned grid cells appropriate to their location, and the structures in those cells are loaded. That way not all are loaded.
This setting is enabled by default on Official Servers, and Unofficials can now opt-into using the new system too by setting the following server parameter in their commandline:
-UseStructureStasisGrid
This will work on both PC and Console, but we highly recommend that it is not used on servers with mods, as there are some assumptions made about structures in stasis and this could cause issues with modded content, however in a future devkit update, you'll be able to opt said structures out of the system to avoid the issues.
TLDR: Predominantly busy servers with a lot of players and big bases will be seeing the most significant performance gains.
Official Discord
Our Official ARK Discord launched a few weeks ago and it's thriving with 35k users already! If you'd like to get in on the action for updates, patch notes, a community hub, bulletin board, and sometimes chatting with us, you can join via this invite!
EVO Event
Survivors on all platforms will be receiving a special Evolution Event perk this weekend! It will be active from Friday the 9th of Oct at 3 PM EST until Monday the 12th of Oct at 3 PM EST. All Official Servers across each platform will be undergoing this evolutionary change which includes:
- 2x Breeding/Maturing
- 2x XP
Fan Art
Winston
Sith
Kawaranaye
FireRayDragon
Saurvax
moon0w0
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Bandi
We're always thrilled to see what our talented Community create and love sharing your fanart. Keep it coming!
Until next time!
Studio Wildcard
Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark
Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark
Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark
Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark
Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark
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