Community Crunch 31!

Welcome to the 30th issue of the Community Crunch! To those unaware this is a topic which primarily consist of content to share, made by the community, for the community! As well as any little changes I want to make survivors aware about, which happen within our community ;).

Fan Feature!

This is the section of the Crunch dedicated to sharing some of your guys' artwork, screenshots, and other content you've cooked up!

Plesiosaur and Quetzi by Leono

Source: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=574390416

MrRadioactiv's upcoming Lounger! 

Source: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=570910840

The collection adventures of Robert! by gepardenforelle

You'll want to check out the full thread! 

Y.M.C.Ape by Nerevar

ARK - Dodo Evolved by GamerPerfection

Kaine's 3D Dino Creations!

GinX's Rainbow Giga!

The Birdcage by Ebyssal

Fanmade Dossier: Ammonite by crumblewood ʂɧ™ QS>UNUS

Fanmade Dossier: Deinotherium by Mac_intosh1172

Fanmade Dossier: Moa by the_british_kiwi

Fanmade Dossier: Bison Latifrons by Günther

Source: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=573538934

Community Crunch Contests!

ARKitect

This is an award given to Survivors to celebrate the amazing structures you build. These bases are judge based upon a number of different factors such as their creativity, uniqueness, how fun of a base it is, the difficulty of building it, the functionality it provides and much more!

The ARKitect for Community Crunch 31 is..

DN Rednex!

and we've also like to give a special shout-out to the following Survivors as they are the runners up for this week!

Monkeyfarm's Giant Skull Base!

Valoule's Winter Lodge!

FataL1ty's Enterprise!

Thank you to all the survivors who entered this week's ARKitect contest! We'll be in touch with the winners above to get your prizes out to you and congratulations once again!

ARKArt

This is an award given to survivors who have created beautiful work of art for that week! As always, the artwork is not being judged on the quality of the screenshot or the graphical settings used, but instead what you have managed to draw and produce in game.

The ARKArtist for Community Crunch 31 is...

±'s Robo Rex!

and we'd also like to give a special shout-out to the following Survivors as they are the runners up for this week ARKArt contest!

FataL1ty's Heath Ledger Portrait!

Thank you for all the entries this week guys! If you want to check out all the cool screenshots just head to the previous submission thread here:

Workshop Spotlight!

Workshoppers: Psycho, Alice, and Mick

Workshop Item: Annunaki Genesis

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=538986229

Survivors, this week we're joined by Psycho, Alice, and Mick and they're here to answer some questions and talk about their mod with us. Thanks for joining us! Do you think you could introduce yourself to the community, and let us know more about what you're currently working on?

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Hi there survivors, I’m Psycho, the server owner of Annunaki, and lead developer of the modification Annunaki Genesis. I’ve created this mod together with Alice and Mick. We’re working almost day/night on our modification, to keep improving, fixing and adding new content in order to create an experience for everyone to enjoy to the fullest. We know we can’t cook for all mouths, however, that doesn’t mean we can’t try!

We got a major passion for modding, so when we heard about the ARK Dev Kit, we just couldn’t resist to try it out! This in combination with ARK itself, is how Annunaki Genesis came to be. Little by little we gained a supportive community which up till today still provides us with a lot of feedback and suggestions. This is a personal thanks to you all, for making it possible to let Annunaki Genesis become this great!

 

Tell us more about Annunaki Genesis, how would you describe the mod to those who haven't played it yet?

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Annunaki Genesis is an idea that came to mind when we started to brainstorm about what we personally wanted to see added to the game. The result, to create a more diverse gameplay to the existing features of Ark. We’ve tried to realize this by adding a RNG-based loot system, more herbivore creatures that can be gentle-tamed, higher base stats for the survivor to start-off with, for example more carry weight and a diversity of new and unique creatures, each with their own abilities. 

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Some of these new creatures consist out of ridable Dilo’s, Dodo’s, Dimorph’s, Ants, etc.

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You can also find elemental badass creatures with their own unique abilties, roaming the Ark, but if you’re looking for an even greater challenge, we’ve added uber creatures, the awesome DodoRex, Megapithecus, Broodmother and the Dragon, which can all be tamed. If you thought you’ve seen it all, you can test your skills by challenging the Wardens, the ultimate challenge of our modification.

We’ve added wild baby dino’s to the Ark. For those of you bold enough to seek more power, you’re able to tame a baby Alpha, which you can raise and eventually ride into battle!

We’ve also added some new items, one of them is the Baby Food, craft-able from the start, which has zero carry weight to support the baby Dinosaurs and gives them a small buff for a few seconds. Another major thing are Elemental Compound Arrows, which include Fire Arrows, Tranq Arrows and Frost Arrows. We’ve also added an Alpha Domination potion which you can craft and gives you the ability for a fifteen minutes not to be detected by Alpha’s, unless you provoke them. Last but certainly not least, we’ve added two types of food which give you the possibility to instantly tame either creatures that can be gentle-tamed or creatures that are knocked out.

That all being said, Annunaki Genesis won’t stack with all mods out there. It’s basically an overhaul that overwrites spawn tables, creatures and core settings, which means that the mods are stack-able with it are limited. If you’re one of those survivors that looks for a bit more in the game, both on a single player experience and a multiplayer experience, this is probably what you’re looking for! Give it a chance and you won’t regret it.

 

Very exciting! I'm sure there are a lot of Survivors that would love the opportunity to ride a Dodo. How about the long-term goals for the mod? Are you planning to continuously update it and do you have any cool features planned?

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We’re very passionate about the mod, Studio Wildcard keeps amazing us with releasing more and more new content, which gives us the inspiration to improve our mod and to add more content as Ark grows! At the moment, we’ve planned a few more major updates, some of which are elemental dungeon caves, new Wardens, Champion Creatures and more. We don’t want to spill all the beans! In time, even more ideas will come to mind and depending on how the community will react on it, we’ll see what direction it goes.

Fair enough! I won't make you spill all the beans ;). Now you've mentioned that it's a complete overhaul to the spawn tables, creatures and the core-settings of the game. I imagine this requires a lot of balance, can you share that process with us?

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For everything we create, we use a thought out planning to make sure we can always review things for when something went wrong. We start by putting the idea on paper, and making the theoretical calculations in a spreadsheet, usually via Excel. This is to give us a more clear view of how they are compared towards other assets.

Afterwards we implement them into the ADK and see if they work out as intended, if not, we tweak them accordingly. When all things are as desired, we upload them and based on the feedback we get from the community, our server and our own experience in-game, we adjust the values to create a balance that’s appropriate for everyone.

For the Loot System we use a RNG based system, whereby the variation lies in higher difficulty scaling and certain categories. To be more specific, aqua creatures have a chance to drop scuba gear, while creatures containing fur have a chance to drop fur gear. By doing this we enable all kinds of players to go towards area’s otherwise not possible earlier in the game, e.g. the Snow area.

An exception to this are the Loot Monkeys. They drop specific loot based on their color. They are not easy to hunt down, as they will run away as soon as you target them or get too close near them. Next to that, they scream for help so they won't make it easy for you.

We've also made it so that we reward higher level players by giving them a higher quality loot chance to drop. This way we encourage survivors to progress towards better and better.

Of course it ain't perfect, but therefore we keep patching the mod and balancing towards better as we progress with the community to achieve an amazing amount of fun!

 

You guys have clearly put a lot of thought and work into this, and constantly patching, I like the sound of that :P. Now tell us more about your experience with modding, is this your first venture? How are you finding the process so far?

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We’ve got a lot of experience with previous modding tools and development kits, mostly in the CryEngine, but also in G.U.T.S from Torchlight, G.E.C.K. from the Fallout series, Skyrim Creation Kit, Oblivion’s Construction Set, etc. This however, was our first experience with UE4. It’s a very user friendly application, for people that are experienced with modding and/or developing. In the beginning with the ADK, we’ve had a lot of problems creating custom rideable creatures, like the Ant, Dodo, etc. We would probably still be trying to get it fully working, if it wasn’t for the Ark Modding Community to back us up and help us out. Thanks to all people who’ve helped us! We learned a lot from the modding community and from trying and trying until it worked. We gotta admit, for certain parts, you really need devotion and patience to make things really shine! But in the end, it’s well worth it!

Awesome! You guys have been around for a while then. Also great to hear that the Community is working together through this :). Do you have any advice you'd like share with those who are just getting started with modding and using the ADK?

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Yes, our tips would be:

-          Don’t start to big, especially when you’re new in the area. Try modding something small and work your way up. It’s easier to maintain and to see what could have gone wrong.
-          Keep trying, and don’t be shy to ask for help. There is a great modding community out there willing to help you!
-          A lot of great and handy guides are out there! Take your time reading them and making notes along the way. It may help you with creating a foundation to start from.
-          Do your homework, meaning put everything in documentation so you can review it later or for when your mod gets bigger and bigger.
-          If it really doesn’t want to work, leave it be and try something else, eventually you’ll figure it out!
-          When your project becomes too much to handle, consider getting a partner to work with so you can distribute the work.
-          Put your heart into it, it’s what makes your mod shine in the end!

 

Fantastic! Thanks for the advice, and is there anything you'd like to say before wrapping this up?

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We would like to thank the Devs of Ark, for being who they are, supportive and willing to go all the way for their community. You really inspire us!

Cheers!

That’s it for this week’s Crunch guys! As always if you’ve got anything to share please get in touch and be sure to follow us on Twitter at @survivetheark - Facebook at www.facebook.com/survivetheark and Reddit at www.reddit.com/r/playark

Thanks everyone!

All the best,

Wildcard Jat and the ARK Survival Evolved Team