Evolution Event: Cross ARK Transfers & More!

Saddle up Survivors, as we’ve got a couple of important updates we’d like to inform you all of.

First of all, before we get into the nitty gritty of all the details of the upcoming changes, allow us to say this. Over the past few days, there have been a lot of hot-topics of discussion around the community. Some of these topics have not had an immediate response from the development team, this is not because we are choosing to ignore, but because we want to have time to deliberate and consider our options before responding, or taking action. We try to read all the feedback you provide, whether it’s positive, negative, or indifferent and take action where we deem it viable. ARK was launched into Early Access with the idea of creating a game together, and we are still sticking to that plan, every single day. Sometimes decisions are needed to be made that require a bit of thinking time, but we’ll make those choices. Other times, we’re going to do things you don’t quite agree with, or you’re going to suggest things that we don’t quite see as a viable option for the game - but we will take into consideration what you’re saying, and make compromises or reevaluate our plans where necessary. Today’s announcement will help shed some light on our thoughts, as well as the route we plan to take going forward.

Evolution Event: Cross ARK Transfers!

As of Friday the 18th of November at 12PM ET we are going to be activating the following evolution event:

2x Harvesting Rates
2x Taming Rates
2x EXP Rates

This will run until Monday the 21st of November 12PM ET.

We’ll also be introducing a new permanent change will be coming to your CrossARK Clusters: 

Complete transfer of Items, Tames and Survivors through all MAPS on the Official ARK Network (separated by game mode).

Please note that this will not affect Player Dedicated Servers. This is just an Official Server change

Previously, you were only able to transfer Survivors TO Scorched Earth servers, and everything FROM a Scorched Earth server. Now, you’ll be able to have absolute rights when transferring and can go from Island to Island, Center to Center, Scorched Earth to Scorched Earth, Island to Scorched Earth, Center to Scorched Earth, and Island to Center without any limitations, and the reverse of course. Please remember that these transfers are still based on the cluster (mode) you play on; PvE can only go to PvE, Hardcore can only go to Hardcore, Primitive can only go to Primitive etc.

When we first announced the ARK Transfer system with the Launch of Scorched Earth, we stated that it was something critical we wanted to experiment with in Early Access and to see how the game would progress once we introduced that new gameplay mechanic. Following what we’ve seen, and based on the feedback we have received, we would rather allow more freedom, where acceptable of course, than impose further limits.

Alongside this change, we are now going to introduce a new mechanic:

Once a Tame has been uploaded and downloaded onto an ARK, it will suffer a 12-hour cooldown until it can be transferred again. Transferred tames will also display on the HUD from which server they were last uploaded from (if you’re on a different Tribe, you will only see this indicator when the Tame is dead).

We want to provide the opportunity for tribes to scout each other across the ARK, as well as limit, -- to an extent -- tribes from storming in and then storming out immediately with their tames. By enabling the complete CrossARK transfers, it should also provide the chance for existing players to scope out new servers of the same type, meet up with friends, and find new opportunities or adventure, with no PvP server being unassailable or off-limits.

With all big changes, we understand that this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. I’m sure I’ve said that before, though keep in mind these changes may not be final. We want to see how things play out, whether this was the right move, how we can further improve the system. Something we’re considering down the line is introducing more limitations on what can be transferred, such as only Baby Tames or Eggs can be transferred, perhaps we limit Scorched Earth transfers to Scorched Earth base/raw materials only. Your feedback following today’s change will be critical as it enables us to continually develop and expand the game, as well as provide the opportunity to explore further options. 

Update number two..

Stance on Exploiting

Let’s be clear about this, no one likes cheaters. We don’t like cheaters, you don’t like cheaters, your friends don’t like cheaters, cheaters don’t even like each other. We want to do everything we can to ensure that the ARK is a fair place for everyone to play with one another. It is why we worked to get a strong BattlEye system for ARK which is constantly receiving updates and will continue to do so because we want to stomp out cheats.

However, I don’t think it would be unreasonable to say that we have been lenient when taking action against people who are exploiting game bugs. Previously, we have felt that the bugs are on us and we have to do our best to resolve them and fix them, so we try not to punish survivors in this instance and make changes that will benefit the community as a whole, in the long-term, even if in the moment it seems a bit unfair. We’re going to change that up a little bit. Going forward, we will be taking a stricter approach when it comes to exploiting game bugs. If there is malicious intent, we will take action, be it destroying your tribe, structures, tames, and where necessary straight up removing you from the ARK and adding you to the global ban list and requesting a VAC ban. Consider this your warning to those of who you would rather exploit than report. Cases such as duping, or building under the map for instance, will result in such actions. Of course, it’ll be case by case, accidents happen, sometimes you’re curious - but it is pretty clear when there is indeed malicious intent and that’s where we’ll be taking action.

..but wait, there’s more!

Primitive Servers

Primitive Servers were something we introduced fairly on to the game at the request of the community, they hadn’t really been part of our game plan but it was clear that a lot of you wanted to experience this. Every now and then we introduce updates to the game which impact Primitive in a not so great way, primarily because that particular game mode isn’t quite set up to deal with the vast changes of the ARK. We’re going to make some adjustments to alleviate some of the current problems that exist and we’ll try and pay better attention going forward. Similarly to all changes, nothing is ever final and a lot of it is experimenting. A big concern that has been brought up is the power of some particular Scorched Earth dinos. Going way back when we introduced the Giga to the game, we made some changes to weaken it’s damage specifically on Primitive servers. We found that worked pretty well, so we’ll be taking a similar approach now.

Tamed Wyverns will deal 70% less damage and take 70% more damage.
Tamed Rock Golems will deal 70% less damage and take 20x more damage.
Alpha Wyverns will deal 67% less damage and take 67% more damage.

These changes are only going to be made effective on Primitive servers, and again we’ll be seeing how things go. For now, the other dinos (other than the Giga, Ptero and Argent) remain unaffected. For a complete and more filling Primitive experience, we really recommend you guys try out Primitive+ - which has some pretty cool updates on the way, stay tuned for tomorrow’s Crunch.

So there’s quite a lot to take in, and you may not completely agree with all our changes, be it Primitive, Cross ARK transfers, or even a heavy-handed approach to exploiters, but we’ll see how things go and will make more adjustments if necessary!

Now for some great news. Very excited to share this! Lately, the team has been working pretty hard on tracking down this darn Dino Spawning in Bases issue that has been plaguing us for such a long time. and we think we’ve cracked it! Here’s a heat map of Dino Spawns that have taken place on an Official Server, indicating new wild spawn distance from bases & tames:

Blue = Dino Spawns
Red = Buildings
Green = Tames

Pretty nice eh?

(The Areas where it still appears to overlap are underground Cave spawns!)

So as always folks, thank you again for your commitment and passion that you show towards the ARK. We really value each of you and are grateful to have such an active community. Your feedback has proven to be an absolute game changer, ARK itself has evolved so much from where it originally was, a lot of plans have changed and the scope of the game has gotten a lot bigger than what we first intended it would be thanks to being able to work with you. Hopefully, this is another step forward towards making the ARK as great as we know it can be!

All the best,

Wildcard Jat and the ARK: Survival Evolved Team