ARK Digest Q&A!

[ScoutManG]

With the implementation of the chainsaw in scorched earth, will we be seeing more harvesting tools such as the Auger Drill (7 Days to Die)?

[IrishEvilMonkey]

I'd like to see longer decompose times, maybe even longer again if in your base.

At the moment it's barely worth online raiding, it's very rare you'll get any loot as usually the side getting raided recognizes the game is up long before you actually get to where the loot is and they decompose it. Online raiding should be encouraged, but unless you're just trying to wipe someone and care nothing for the loot you're better off waiting till they're offline.

 

On a similar topic, there should be a limit to what you can eat, you shouldn't be able to eat a whole fridge worth of eggs in a couple of minutes.

 

And by the way, I've done both of the above, not criticizing doing it, just don't think you should be able to.

[Shadowenigma250x]

In Digest 38 you mentioned a cloning chamber with DNA recombination. How exactly will that work? Does that mean we'll be able to create our own hybrids? Or at the very least create/clone dinos with certain abilities from other creatures?

Also will all dinos/creatures get armor/tek armor, or will it be only for certain creatures? Sorta like how only certain creatures will be able to be ridden while wielding weapons.

As for Jat's question regarding creature suggestions. Well most of my favorite prehistoric creatures are already in-game, but here's some of the suggestions I posted on the main creature suggestion thread:

- Rideable bats. Mostly for variety purposes as we already got reptilian flyers, avian flyers, and even arthropod flyers but have yet to get a mammalian flyer. I'd suggest making the Onyc rideable but last Digest it was mentioned that altering creature sizes would be tricky, or at least rideable ones due to having to the saddles not fitting the players properly. Fortunately there's several species of prehistoric bat out there, such as Desmodus Draculae (the giant vampire bat) and Necromantis (death-eater bat) granted they weren't giants but Ark isn't about accuracy now is it?

- More prehistoric amphibians such as Koolasuchus, Prionosuchus, or even an Aistopod/Aistopoda which where limbless amphibians that filled a niche similar to snakes from the Early Carboniferous to Early Permian.

- Brachiosaurus or Giraffatitan as smaller and permanent version of the Titan.

- Anomalocaris or Opabinia

- Andrewsarchus as an apex mammalian predator bigger than the Direbear. Or at least BBC-style Andrewsarchus as it's now know that the real thing was closely related to Entelodonts so it probably looked more like one than the wolf-like creature depicted on Walking with Beasts. 

[Colossal31]

What's up Wildcard Staff? Two questions:

1) Will XB1 be getting the Fear Evolved 2 Event?
2) Is there an update on the ability of Xbox players to rent servers to host rather than taxing the crap out of your own Xbox's system to run a Hosted Dedicated Server?


Answering your question Jat. I would like to see some more Small to Medium Carnivores.

 

[Frogspoison]

On 10/4/2016 at 0:10 AM, McNuggets said:

Hey guys, Have you ever considered adding showers/bathroom in ark? I think this would be a great addition in Scorched Earth. How about if it adds a temporary protection agaisnt hot weather, with like the same mechanic the bug repellant has.

 

Also, it'll be awesome to see the more giant birds or hybrids, preferably bigger than the Quetzalcoatl. I say, Griffin?

Griffin would be more along the lines of a boss. Any flying creature bigger then the Quetz would, of course, have to be mythical or mechanical in nature (Quetz is the biggest known flyer that there was).

 

So, questions..

1: The Titanboa and Megapirahna are hinted as being tamable in the dossier, and I've heard that both were going to be tamable at some point. As it stands, the Titanboa is currently only good for a cave-source of hide, and its eggs in the swamp, and the Pirahna's only purpose is to eat lower lvl players who are attempting to cross the water manually to reach a more resource-heavy area. Are there any plans to make these two tamable, or are they going to be a wild hazard for the future?

2: Many Ascendant BPs are still nigh-uncraftable to date unless you use the auto-harvest "exploit" on the Beaver/Thorny Dragon (Which will require many deaths on behalf of a player, and is untenable on Hardcore). Given the immense resource requirement almost all high-lvl crafting requires, stack sizes clearly need to be greatly increased. Storing low-wieght mats such as Fiber, Thatch, Hide, Fertilizer, ect on smaller dinos is ridiculous imo. One should not need hundreds of boxes to store materials, nor should one need to exploit the game mechanics to craft powerful items. When will stack sizes be greatly increased?

3: PvP is significantly skewed in favor of the player character rather then the dinosaur - With bad pathing, the vertical dimension, and the large arsenal of weaponry available, its a simple matter for a single player to wipe out an entire menagerie within a matter of minutes. While I do understand that the game is designed towards raiding, and that players who don't want their work destroyed should be on a PvE server instead, perhaps you should consider allowing for faster taming and raising speeds - Very few other games in the market currently require so much in terms of a time investment to gain, only to lose it all so quickly. Have you considered changing the food on kibble to 50, rather then 80? (Same effectiveness, but 30% faster tame times when using kibble)

 

As for creatures, I think the game could use dangerous flora beyond Species X/Y, that can both be found in the wild (Attacking the survivor, of course), and cultivated. Additonally, some creature that acts as a portable fire - Fire salamander being an obvious choice, seeing as you are moving a bit towards fantasy.

[Paul080576]

29 minutes ago, Colossal31 said:

What's up Wildcard Staff? Two questions:

1) Will XB1 be getting the Fear Evolved 2 Event?
2) Is there an update on the ability of Xbox players to rent servers to host rather than taxing the crap out of your own Xbox's system to run a Hosted Dedicated Server?


Answering your question Jat. I would like to see some more Small to Medium Carnivores.

 

I believe they have already addressed both questions.  Yes, XB1 will be getting the Halloween Event.  As for the other question, I believe once the game is officially released, it will be part of the "Play Anywhere" feature from Microsoft.  Meaning you'll be able to cross platform and play on both Xbox or PC.  Once this happens, I don't see why you can't host your own server and play it on XB1.

[GP]

On 10/4/2016 at 4:56 AM, Jat said:

Also guys, I've got a question for you. If you could add any creature to ARK: Survival Evolved, what would it be? 

This one: 

 

[SGArrinda]

On 10/4/2016 at 10:45 AM, SGArrinda said:

Are you thinking on adding some workout machines that would improve some of your stats depending on the type of machine? For example a treadmill to increase speed and or stamina, You could make so that the effects lasted 1 or 2 hours, or until you die but you will only be able to have one upgrade in stats at the same time. Also depending of how well you do on the mini game you get a better boost.

Also i would like Corythosaurus and Ceratosaurus 

[RaptorRob456]

I have a few questions as well as suggestions:

1. Are new creatures going to continue being added after full release?

2. Is "Scorched Earth" the only expansion pack you intend on releasing? (I would really love a frozen, snowy one as well as a rainforest based one.)

3. Can the procedurally generated maps contain features from both The Island and Scorched Earth? (I think it could produce some really cool world-generation)

4. I know it would be a mammoth task to animate but can we have a Hydra for Scorched Earth? It could be tame-able or just a cave enemy. If it were tame-able, It could have the cool gimmick of multiple riders being able to control the heads individually.

5. A Chupacabra would be cool.

6. Will we see some rarer beasts on the Ark? As it stands, you can pretty easily find any animal in the game if you actually try and I think it would be pretty cool to have some super rare spawns to go look for. Maybe even get achievements for getting their dossiers...

7. I think an active volcano could provide some interesting game mechanics. It could erupt causing ash to block out the sun and hurling fiery boulders down upon the landscape. 

[RaptorRob456]

1 hour ago, SGArrinda said:

Also i would like Corythosaurus and Ceratosaurus 

Ceratosaurus is love, Ceratosaurus is life!  I want this dinosaur so bad but I don't see what it could do to make it unique..... (other than look freaking awesome!)

[ArrowHedd]

There needs to be a new species of fish which lives in the cold ARKtic waters. Perhaps Knightia or something like that.

[ArrowHedd]

Will all wild creatures eventually get an actual eating mechanic?

[ArrowHedd]

24 minutes ago, RaptorRob456 said:

6. Will we see some rarer beasts on the Ark? As it stands, you can pretty easily find any animal in the game if you actually try and I think it would be pretty cool to have some super rare spawns to go look for. Maybe even get achievements for getting their dossiers...

Love this idea!

[CyanicEmber]

4 hours ago, Shadowenigma250x said:

- Rideable bats. Mostly for variety purposes as we already got reptilian flyers, avian flyers, and even arthropod flyers but have yet to get a mammalian flyer. I'd suggest making the Onyc rideable but last Digest it was mentioned that altering creature sizes would be tricky, or at least rideable ones due to having to the saddles not fitting the players properly. Fortunately there's several species of prehistoric bat out there, such as Desmodus Draculae (the giant vampire bat) and Necromantis (death-eater bat) granted they weren't giants but Ark isn't about accuracy now is it?

Giant Bat.

Yes plz.

[bowser20]

Do you a have a date when the primal survival evolved well release?Also well it cost money?

[BlueHood]

will we be getting any type of perch to set/store shoulder mounts on? also can we get an equipable shoulder harness for shoulder mounts that make them stay on your shoulder even if you twirl attack on ptera's, and also set them to return to your harness even if thrown off by accident?

[Szat74]

Just a quick question that I feel 90% of Xbox ark players will want to know an answer for...

do you have any timeframe for when ark will be compatable with Xbox play anywhere/windows 10 gaming? I know it's been planned since Xbox play anywhere was unveiled but I wanted to know if you had a basic time frame in mind... Thanks for all the hard work and outstanding updates! Keep it up

[Ike24]

Will you be adding flying vehicles like the alien ship mod to the game or is that purely going to come from modders?

[Godey2u]

So uh....last night after that update on my xbox, im having allos spawning in my house and in my base where nothing ever spawned before, what are you guys doing to make this happen, and how come i cant play scorched earth, since day 1 it takes forever to log me in and i have to try multiple times before im able to even get on and then when i do, it kicks me back out, ive uninstalled and reinstalled....nothing helps, i wish you guys can give me my money back for that p.o.s dlc

[Piglet]

Howdy, for Scorched Earth I was curious if you'd given any thought to letting dinos killed by flame-based weapons or abilities have cooked meat as a drop instead of raw.

For a new dino in Scorched Earth I think Mud-skippers might be cool to find near river beds and water veins (magical dune oasis teeming with mud-skippers!).  They could have the ability to generate clay over time balanced by having a water level linked to their health if it emptied.

 

Love the game!

[Lowly]

13 hours ago, GamerPerfection said:

This was already answered in the most recent Digest:

Survivor, TEM187 asks, “A while back you gave us the Dire wolf, and just recently you released Allosaurus. Since the Allo has the pack-boost, when could we plan on seeing the Dire wolf get this boost as well?”

Sorry,i didn't see any link to the last digest on the main page and i check daily for new posts 

[Zetrick]

When will we be able to host our own server on Xbox 1 without having to buy another xbox and the game again , possibly try to make us host it on pc and play on xb1 cheers

[SurvivalArtist]

Will you release different looks of the map along matching with the real time seasons (winter, spring, summer, autumn)? Like you did last winter but you changed it back to the old design quite quickly although it was still winter..it would just give a whole new experience  

[SurvivalArtist]

Do you consider implementing lamps that we can light up our houses with (you know putting them on the ceiling like in real life) and get a nice realistic effect for the whole room?

[SurvivalArtist]

Can you PLEASE put away that timer while you are writing smt on a note? I can never finish writing the things I want because it suddenly disappears and I am supposed to do it over and over again. THIS NEEDS TO STOP! And also: I dont want to craft a new note every time I would like to change smt on an already written one. Please also enable us to EDIT notes so that we actually have a logical use for them. Btw it would be awesome if we were able to place notes on a table or something to make it look realistic (deco!)