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Community Crunch 432: Fear Ascended, Extra Life, UE 5.4 News, and More!


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We’re diving into the spooky details of Fear Ascended, providing a live operations update on Aberration transfers, and sharing an update on Unreal Engine 5.4. Plus, we have an exciting announcement about a special guest host joining this year’s Extra Life event!

 

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The shadows draw closer... Fear Ascended is creeping into ClubARK, and all the eerie goodies—skins, emotes, chibis, and tameable creatures—will haunt ClubARK as rewards! If you’re brave enough to earn a tameable creature through ClubARK events, it will come sealed in a cryopod, ready to be unleashed on your server. Wild event dino colors will bleed through to official servers, adding a ghostly touch to the wilderness.

And for our Unofficial server friends, you can summon Fear Ascended creatures through commands or spawners—if you dare!

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  • 10/30/2024 to 11/13/2024

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  • PVP/PVE: 2x Harvesting, Taming, and Experience, and Breeding
  • Small Tribes: 4.5x Harvesting, Taming, and Experience + 4x Breeding
  • ARKpocalypse: 5x Harvesting, Taming and Experience, and Breeding

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  • Zombie Fire Wyvern
  • Zombie Lightning Wyvern
  • Zombie Poison Wyvern
  • Zomdodo

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  • Skeletal Giga Costume
  • Skeletal Raptor Costume
  • Skeletal Rex Costume
  • Skeletal Stego Costume
  • Skeletal Trike Costume
  • Skeletal Wyvern Costume
  • Ghost Basilisk Costume
  • Ghost Bulbdog Costume
  • Ghost Direwolf Costume
  • Ghost Mantis Costume
  • Ghost Reaper Costume
  • Ghost Rex Costume
  • Dino Witch Hat
  • Scary Dino Pumpkin Helmet Skin

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  • Weapon
    • Cleaver (Sword) *new*
    • Crowbar (Pick) *new*
  • Armor
    • Werewolf Costume *new*
    • Arrow-Head Hat *new*
    • Axe-Head Hat *new*
    • Sword-Head Hat *new*
    • Araneo Swim Bottom Skin
    • Araneo Swim Top Skin
    • Basilisk Ghost Costume
    • Bulbdog Ghost Costume
    • Clown Mask Skin
    • Dino Witch Hat Skin
    • Direwolf Ghost Costume
    • DodoRex Mask Skin
    • DodoWyvern Mask Skin
    • Headless Costume Skin
    • Hockey Mask Skin
    • Jack-O-Lantern Swim Bottom Skin
    • Jack-O-Lantern Swim Top Skin
    • Jack-O-Lantern-Print Shirt Skin
    • Mantis Ghost Costume
    • Onyc Swim Bottom Skin
    • Onyc Swim Top Skin
    • Reaper Ghost Costume
    • Reaper Swim Bottom Skin
    • Reaper Swim Top Skin
    • Reaper-Print Shirt Skin
    • Rex Ghost Costume
    • Rex Bone Helmet Skin
    • Scary Pumpkin Helmet Skin
    • Skeleton Costume
    • Skele-Print Shirt Skin
    • Strawman Costume
    • Snow Owl Ghost Costume
    • Tentacle-Print Shirt Skin
    • Trike Bone Helmet Skin
    • Vampire Dodo Swim Bottom Skin
    • Vampire Dodo Swim Top Skin
    • Vampire Eyes Skin
    • Werewolf Mask Skin
    • Witch Hat Skin
    • ZombDodo-Print Shirt Skin
    • Zombie Wyvern-Print Shirt Skin

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  • Horror Species X *new*
  • Festive Dino Candy (Dino Candy Corn)
  • Pumpkin
  • Scarecrow
  • Stolen Headstone

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  • Chibi-Skeletal Brontosaurus
  • Chibi-Skeletal Carno
  • Chibi-Skeletal Giganotosaurus
  • Chibi-Skeletal Jerboa
  • Chibi-Skeletal Quetzal
  • Chibi-Skeletal Raptor
  • Chibi-Skeletal Rex
  • Chibi-Skeletal Stego
  • Chibi-Skeletal Trike
  • Chibi-Skeletal Wyvern
  • Chibi-Ghost Basilisk
  • Chibi-Ghost Direwolf
  • Chibi-Ghost Mantis
  • Chibi-Ghost Rex
  • Chibi-Spooky Bulbdog

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  • Howl *new*
  • Sniff *new*
  • Evil
  • Panic
  • Scare

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  • DarkLavender
  • MediumLavender
  • WyvernPurple0
  • DragonFire
  • Orange
  • Peach
  • Green
  • MediumTurquoise
  • DarkTeal
  • DarkBlue
  • Dino Dark Blue
  • Blue
  • ActualBlack
  • BlackSands
  • Dark Grey
  • MediumAutumn
  • Yellow
  • DeepPink

 


 

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A very special guest has joined our lineup—content creator Raasclark will be going live with us from our Seattle office Saturday November 2nd at 10AM Pacific for this year’s 24-hour Extra Life event! Join us for an unforgettable stream as Raasclark helps us make a difference for a great cause!

If you are interested in donating, click on the button below! All donations go to the Extra Life organization and contribute to raising the Official Network rates for 24 hours!

DONATE

We will announce all the final details in a future Crunch, but here's a sneak peak of what you can expect:

  • Reveals of upcoming game content, such as ARK Extinction and Bob's Tall Tales Part 3
  • Preview of 'ARK Ultimate Mobile Edition' from Grove Street Games
  • First Looks at ARK The Animated Series Part 2

Stop by on November 2nd and hang out out in our Twitch stream or Discord for an opportunity to win a cool giveaway!

Alternatively, you can join the Studio Wildcard Extra Life Team and help raise money for children in need! By teaming up with us on Extra Life Gameday, not only will you be part of 24 hours of epic reveals, giveaways, and entertainment, but you'll also be giving back to those who need it most!

 


 

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Transfers on Aberration Official servers will open at 10am PST/1pm EST November 8th allowing players to move items, creatures, and characters onto the map without restriction! Pack your cogs and get your Cosmos ready to explore!

 

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Unreal Engine 5.4 is being pushed back a little bit, but is still well underway. Before we determine a new launch timeframe, let’s give you a little background on this process in the form of an analogy.

Let’s say you have a factory that bakes cakes with many specialized techniques that you designed. Now, this cake factory is a little dated. Fortunately for you, cake making techniques continue to improve, and new methodologies are available to enhance your cake. Seems pretty straightforward, right? But not exactly. 

You’re working with a live cake factory; you need to continue making cakes to feed your customers, so you cannot disrupt that process to integrate these improvements. However, you can dedicate a small team to make a new cake factory, based on the original, and incorporate the upgrades.

After some time, the new cake factory has finished with the upgrades. Still, you notice that your specialized techniques that made your cake taste a certain way no longer work, so now you’ve got to spend time fixing all of that while still operating your old cake factory.. 

This is the stage we’re at. We’ve branched the codebase, completed the upgrade, and are now going through the time-consuming process of ensuring that everything works as expected; this doesn’t just include the old things that are essential to developing ARK and were custom-built but also making sure that the new improvements are functioning as expected within our custom codebase. This impacts how you experience the game (i.e., when we cook out the files, is the gameplay as we expect, are we noticing the performance improvements, has anything new broken?) and also how we experience the editor (are our tools functioning the way we expect them too, can level designers still create volumes, are blueprints cooking, etc.).

So yeah, while we do want to move into the new cake factory, we’re still testing that all components of our cake can be made with the new factory tools and that the cake is still a cake, but better.

It’s pretty lengthy and carries some risk. We could get through it quicker if we put more people onto it, but that adds more risk to the cake we’re giving people now (ASA) and we’ve got a lot of orders lined up for the rest of the year. 

So, what’s our new timeline? We believe the safest approach would be to release the engine upgrade to 5.4 (or maybe higher at that point) in Q1 next year. This allows our team to focus on the significant content milestones this year (Extinction, Events, and Wasteland War) and then gently move on to wrapping up the upgrade after the break.

We’re really excited about the upgrade, not only because of the performance improvements but also because it gives us access to better and sharper tools to continue improving the quality of the game. It’s still coming, so hang in there!

TLDR: Cake is on the way, coming to a bakery near you in Q1 2025.
 

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We're working closely with our partners at Nitrado to make the official server saves from our sunsetted servers available soon. We know how much these worlds mean to you, and we're committed to helping preserve your hard-earned progress. Stay tuned for more updates!

 

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On April 8th, we deployed a new type of server across the network (for the various game types) that we refer to as "Expire" (which is what you can search for in the session filter). 

These servers will be online until 10 am PST / 1 pm EST on November 15th. We're preemptively using our allocation for Extinction to host some additional sessions that players can travel onto to farm, tame, and experience Aberration Gameplay. The same transfer restrictions apply in that you are only able to download your character, but you can freely take anything off. This is to help reduce load off some of the other servers, or provide players an option for those who just want to jump onto Aberration temporarily.

Please note that these servers will no longer exist after 10 am PST / 1 pm EST on November 15th, so if you intend to use them, remember to transfer your items/creatures/characters off before that date, as nothing will be saved beyond that time period.

 


 

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Happy 1-year Anniversary to ARK: Survival Ascended!

From dino-mite adventures to reaching new heights as ascended Survivors, it’s been an epic journey, and we’re grateful to have you all along for the ride. As we celebrate this milestone, we’re excited to look toward an even bigger year ahead—one filled with surprises and new discoveries. Here’s to another year of adventure together!

From all of us at Studio Wildcard—thank you, Survivors! 

 


 

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Download & play new custom content created by players, including new maps, creatures, items, and game modes, through a dedicated new Mod-browser directly within the game. Enjoy an endless stream of new ARK content as the creativity and talent of the community is fully unleashed for the first time across gaming platforms and stay tuned as we spotlight more Cross-Platform Mods each week!

This video features:

 


 

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This weekend, the Official Network will be receiving bonus rates! It will be active until Monday, October 28.

  • PVP/PVE: 2x Harvesting, Taming, and Experience, and Breeding
  • Small Tribes: 4.5x Harvesting, Taming, and Experience + 4x Breeding
  • ARKpocalypse: 5x Harvesting, Taming and Experience, and Breeding

 


 

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Fan Art Gallery | Screenshot Gallery | Artist Feedback Form

 

Player's creativity, passion, and, love for this lil' dinosaur game inspire us daily. It’s awesome to see what ARK sparks in you—be it art, mods, or stories that capture the spirit of our shared world. The talent of this community is next level, and witnessing your creations and passion reminds us why we push the boundaries of ARK’s universe.

 

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Creator: Raasclark feat. Haitch

Raasclark and Haitch attempt to tame their very first dragon on ARKpocalypse without a HUD!

 

Creator: Kittykatlapurr

Kittykatlapurr is taking us on an adventure to find Basilisks on Aberration in Ark Survival Ascended. They are a rare sight to see but can be found in all zones.

 

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ARK goodies by gman2006

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Tried drawing a Megalo from memory by ikrannn

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Been playing ARK lately; I like the critters. by ackusia

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Aberration Ascended by @MystikQuill

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Poglin by sirdrip

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Gems by @falco_luna

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Go go go!! by @alkonavi

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Photo Mode by grungke2

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Cowboy Cosmo by nesvog

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Me and my Ceratosaur getting nice and cozy. by flamekeeper2224

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Memorial built in honour of our dear friend and moderator, Lego by @vadams10

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New build on Aberration by haroww

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Enjoy your weekend!
Studio Wildcard

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Discord: discord.com/invite/playark
Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark
Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark
Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark
Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark
Threads: threads.net/@survivetheark
Official Wiki: ark.wiki.gg


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We could get through it quicker if we put more people onto it, but that adds more risk to the cake we’re giving people now (ASA) and we’ve got a lot of orders lined up for the rest of the year. 

I have a feeling this was very hard for you to publish, given that WildCard has avoided talking about how the sausage (or rather, the cake) is made for years, but I appreciate that you discuss the complicated choices that come with game development. More players (not all, of course, but more) would be willing to cut you some slack if you did this more often.

Also, taking time before announcing a firm release date instead of pushing it back at the last minute is a good habit, and as we all know, it's never too late to change your habits.

Quote

A very special guest has joined our lineup—content creator Raasclark

No offense to Raas (I've been watching him for years, there's no animosity in what I'm about to say), but I was hoping for someone bigger. Diesel-sized, precisely. But I guess that's not happening (the guest or... the bigger thing, it's hard to tell at this point).

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Wait, I think I'm misunderstanding something. Is Fear Ascended only going to be for Club Ark? If that's the case, I'm disappointed. What about those of us that don't use Club Ark? Are we SOL for this event? I see we're getting dino colors but is that it? The other features are for Club Ark? If that is the case, I'm severely let down.

I really hope this is just a misunderstanding on my part.

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Just now, Crysis3108 said:

Only 2x for the event? What happened to 3x events? Few months ago we had 3x almost every weekend, now we don't even get 3x on events... We haven't had 3x since July 5, come on guys, you don't want us playing or what?

P.S.: Also on ACE we had over 10x on Extra Life, now we only get 6x after a ton of money...

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Don't get me wrong, I LOVE this game, but sadly you're messing the game up far too often, in too many ways.

In no particular order:

Rendering issues (both distance a d flickering)

Disconnect issues (river on ab is atrocious)

Lag spikes are insane

Dinos falling through floor still

Boss under map able to hit my base (still, been like a year now)

Under sea drops are pointless

The whole cryo debacle

The edges of surface entrance caves counting as the surface for purposes of a nasty case of sunburn

Chat bug is infuriating

Mushrooms affecting you even when far above them

Not being able to build on platforms (too many structures on server)

Still clip into mesh if flying close to drake scar or using drakes on surface 

Why is it that some of these still exist after such a long time? Is it an inability to fix or just unwillingness? Thus game would be WAY more popular if youd just fix it, get rid of the cryo spam and stick to a timeframe.

Edited by Eskwyre
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While I was hoping for more positive news on the 5.4 update, I really just want this game to run the best, so take your time, despite the negative opinions.  Yall are still doing great work! 

 

Also, first off I cannot express how much I absolutely NEED the werewolf skin. 

 

And umm, wasteland war, what the hell is that?? 

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(excuse my wall of text, lol)

Ok, so it was 12x, then it was 8x, now it's 6x with drastically moved goalposts between each tier, leaving us with expectations of what will basically be a slightly better evo event rate, if we look at donation trends over the last couple of events.

Not sure who's idea this was, but it will have a dramatic negative effect on donations,
We already saw evidence of this between 2021 and 2023 while I understand that donations are meant to be from the heart, anyone with any business and/or marketing experience would know that removing the incremental achievable incentives for people to purchase (read: donate) just to see how high they can get it will have an impact,

It's no secret to anyone that giving people smaller achievable goals will always yield better results in comparison to large ones that feel "too far away to bother trying" 

Worse still for the player base, the 2022 rates on ASE where naturally 2x more than 2024's rates, so the 6x this time around is really the equivalent of a run of the mill typical event weekend on ASE...

Where is the incentive for people to even bother logging in?!

Additional rates come at no additional cost, so I just don't see the reasoning behind this decision, maybe it's just me, but it feels like a punishment not an incentive.

Being required to give more to get less is not a good marketing tactic, especially when the whole world is already tightening their purse strings. 



And I'm not sure if I read this wrong, (correct me if I am) but it sounds to me like Fear Evolved will be kneecapped without the most popular features, the dodo-wyvern and dodo-rex (It's not what they said, but what they didn't say (or show))

And again I could be wrong but this post reads like it will be for the most part restricted to Club Ark, and as much as I liked the initial concept of club ark, it's pretty much useless, and I (and I'm sure many others) simply don't use it because it punishes solo players who don't have a team for some of the games, and anyone with less than perfect internet can just forget about being able to play most of the games due to elevated ping issues (And this kind of crap feels like it's being forced upon us.. using a COMPLY OR ELSE methodology, with no alternative offered)

(and quite frankly minigames are just mindless unimaginative filler, many of us just dislike the minigames, much like the ones added to the genesis DLCs which felt like boring chores than actual content)

I'm sorry, but this is yet another (2 infact) swing and a miss..

Edited by Sausagedog85
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Gotta know is this creature that can be spawned through commands or spawners a dodorex? if so will it spawn in like before when it randomly spawned somewhere on the map, and/or can be tamed via the old way using the cooking pot (atleast an option for single player/unoffical/non-dedicated)

Edited by Jbb22207
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2 hours ago, Gamerman88 said:

5.4 delay lol, but 5.5 is coming out and well im ok with waiting at this rate, i rather get more content even if we have to deal with bad performance

more content over performance?.... Great. fantastic lets add more content in a game that is barely playable what a fantastic choice at this rate ark survival ascended is gonna die, Singleplayer and host-nonededicated is not even functional and its rlly sad and yes i've done my bug reporting and this has been going on for months and needs to seriously be addressed whats the point of adding more content if we can't even enjoy the base game i mean yes if we have to wait we have to but rlly in all seriousness Performance and crashing and such bugs that are game breaking should be the 1st things that get worked on not new content im done paying for things for this game intill the game gets actualy fixed i've had enough.

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