Jatheish

Congratulations Survivors! You (and us too) survived a full day and night on the ARK! And what an eventful day it has been. 

A lot’s been going on, and we thought it would be good to wrap up the day with a quick update regarding the state of the game and our plans over the days and weeks ahead.

Let’s discuss a few key topics: the first is no stranger to ARK games on Day One, and that’s client-side performance. Working from anecdotal feedback and hard data provided by players, we deployed a new client-side update released tonight that will improve your game's framerate. The update adds a number of optimizations and better settings assignments for each Graphics Quality mode, and you'll get an immediate gain upon trying out the new build. 

Once you've got the update, please change your "Graphics Quality" setting to your preferred setting (Low/Medium/High/Epic) to take full advantage of the new under-the-hood settings. Tomorrow and into the weekend, we'll release further improvements to client performance, including generating a Pipeline State Object Cache to reduce/eliminate graphics stuttering & hitching and further optimizing the sky/cloud/atmosphere shaders. Thank you for bearing with us as the team works to ensure the game runs better for various configurations, including this first set of optimizations and the many still to come. 

The second is a one-two combo: server-side stability and optimization. The team has been battling a number of never-before-seen crashes since the game went live (such is life — 1 hour of live play is equivalent to a month of internal QA). Honestly, the floodgates had opened, and at one point, servers were coming down faster than we could put them online! Thankfully, as of our latest server-side build, we’ve managed to get the servers in a much more stable state, eliminating over 95% of server crashes. There’s still more we plan to address, and you can expect more deployments to happen over the next few days to ensure as much uptime as possible and launch additional servers based on capacity needs!

As for how well the servers run, we’ve been collecting data over the last 24 hours to identify major server performance pain points. This will be a major focus for the engineering team, and we’ll be looking to introduce as many optimizations as possible. After a week or so, we plan to have a PTR branch of the game available to test out some of our riskier optimizations before we set them live to the public. But for now, we’ll continue operating from the main branch of the game as we’ve just launched and are in rapid patch mode! 

And lastly, the ARK Devkit (for ASA) is now available! For those unfamiliar, the ARK DevKit is a custom version of the Unreal Engine 5 Editor that provides dedicated infrastructure to help you take your imagination into the game of ARK: Survival Ascended. The kit is available to download HERE, and we’ve got a quick FAQ you can check out HERE.

We’re really excited to get this out to you and cannot wait to see you build beyond boundaries in ARK: Survival Ascended!

This is only the beginning of ASA’s Early Access journey; there’s still much more we plan to do to the game as we develop it. This means working through the rough patches and introducing new features, content, and gameplay. We cannot wait to get all that and more in your hands. But for now, we’ll say thank you for all your feedback, support, and excitement. It’s been wonderful watching so many of you begin the first steps of your ASA adventures, and we can’t wait to see where it takes us!

Good night! ❤️
 

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35 minutes ago, Cellus49 said:

Wait so remove world buff from gen1 and gen2 because its unfair to those who don't have the map... but then the only way to get skins and emotes is from gen1 and gen2...? What sort of backwards logic is that

 

Unfavourable in the sense that due to how dynamic rates work, those events combined with boosted rates put us in a pretty bad situation on GEN2 with never ending/infinite breeding, which is not something our servers can handle. The way to counteract that, is to either (1) reduce the bonus rates across the board (all maps - due how to we do dynamic rates) or (2) adjust how the mission bonuses are awarded, which has an impact on every other mission on GEN2 or (3) disable those two mission effects. We believe that the former options are worse for the official server playing experience and opt into #3 which is disabling those particular buffs for the duration of the event.

Additionally, we added some clarification in the crunch, but the previous summer cosmetics will also be available to craft in the cooking pot, including chibis, however there won't be any new cosmetics this year.

 

40 minutes ago, BrandaciousKing said:

Is the desmodeus rideable?

Yes, it'll be rideable (ridable? -- it can be ridden).

On 11/29/2020 at 9:40 AM, Inannamute said:

Kinda bummed that I 'won' a prize on the stream for donating but have heard and received nothing from WC almost a month later. Altogether I donated over $700, which of course is for a great cause but it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Sorry about the delay Inannamute! Our team was handling the prizes in batch this time and they only just happened to get to the set you're in. You should have an email from some members of our studio, the email that's used is the one you donated with/the same as your survivetheark account's. You can probably search for "Extra Life 2020" to find it. Let me know if you don't see it and I'll follow up with them.

Dear Survivors,

We at Studio Wildcard would like to give our heartfelt thanks to our wonderful ARK community for participating in our latest 24 hour ExtraLife charity event! 

With the help of our community and ExtraLife team, we placed Top 3 globally and raised over $180,000 for sick children and beat all of our past records by a significant amount, including last year's jaw dropping $112,206.35! We couldn't have done this without the help of our generous community, our amazing sponsors, and our dedicated community who signed up to join our team. 

As with prior ExtraLife events, we take this as an opportunity to share sneak peeks at upcoming content. In true tradition, we shared visuals from the upcoming Genesis Part 2 DLC including the big reveal of the teaser trailer featuring the talented David Tennant and Madeleine Madden voicing Rockwell and HLNA respectively! We also revealed a bunch of what we have in store for our players in genesis Part 2 including: Creatures, Items, Structures, and the Environment/Biome which we'll go through in this post!

We're excited to take you on a journey into the dark mind of the villainous Rockwell as he strives towards godhood and we very much look forward to sharing more unseen Genesis Part 2 content!  

Special Thanks:
Syntac (Raised over $22,800), RoyaleWithCheese (Raised over $7,300), MTSArk (Raised over $6000), RoycePlayers (Raised Over $5000), EliteARK (Raised over $2500), Lilmonsterr (Raised over $2,300), Telmo Sampaio (Raised over $2200), PaceyAU (Raised over $1500), Belle (Raised over $1200), Shockist (Raised over $1100), Project Tiamat (Raised over $1000), KoolKyleLive (Raised over $1000) and so many more (cant name em all!)

Thanks to our sponsors: Blue Microphones, Nvidia, Nitrado, Grove Street Games, Apex Gaming PCs

 

Special rates

As a further thank you to our community, we will be implementing 2x rates right through to Tuesday 12 PM Pacific/3 PM Eastern. 

 

New Creatures

Noglin

The Noglin may look cute but don't be fooled! There's a mind-bending surprise in store when it wraps around the noggin of a target -- it enables you to temporarily take control of enemy creatures, tames, or even other humans!

Shadowmane

This chimerical prowler has powerful group-cloaking abilities for all your sneaking-needs, while also making use of a lightning fast chain-teleport-strike that can decimate groups of targets. By the time its victims are aware of its presence, it's often already too late!

Stryder

Better brush up on your hacking skills to claim one of these giant mechanical Stryders! Patrolling the colony ship, they are outfitted with a variety of randomized individual components across their body, which gives each Stryder a different potential set of unique skills whether in defense, offense, or utility!

Astrodelphis

This curious extraterrestrial creature may look like the cetaceans that once swam in Earth's oceans, but they seem to be at home in the interstellar medium, far from any planet's surface. Place the versatile Tekwing saddle on them, and they're a veritable fighter spacecraft capable of blasting targets out of the sky with lasers or homing charges or bombing them into oblivion. And yes, they can do a shot-repelling barrel roll!

GEN-X Variants

Some old friends will be making a reappearance in Genesis Part 2 -- here's an early look at our GEN-X variants, which include new versions of many previous expansions' creatures!

New Items

Hoversail

You've never really traveled until you've tried hoversailing! There's no better way to get yourself across the ring than jumping on one of these hi-tek boards and surfing the air currents, and no better feeling than skimming the skies to find the perfect tailwind while nailing flashy tricks to boost your speed!

TEK Bow

Run into trouble aboard the ship? The Federation issue TEK bow materializes arrows of any type on the fly and uses electromagnetism to shoot them at blinding velocities.

TEK Federation Suit

Suit up, survivor! You'll find this to be an upgrade from what you experienced wearing inside the Genesis simulation. This sleek, hi-tek exo-armor should protect you in a variety of otherwise lethal situations -- and best of all, on Genesis Part 2, this suit has unlimited jetpack power without the need for Element -- and Flyers are also fully supported this time around!

Canoe

Not simply just for recreation, you can pick your canoe up and place it down again in any body of water. With multiple rowers working in tandem, the canoe can travel exceptionally fast. Fishing from a canoe is especially convenient, as is the built-in cooking pot!

Minigun

Need a massive barrage of bullets to keep your enemies under pressure? What this Minigun lacks in accuracy and tendency to overheat, it makes up for in sheer firepower. Place it in stationary mode to improve its accuracy and clear targets around corners!

TEK Pistol

Each crew member will be issued a Federation phase pistol, equipped with multiple lethality settings. Take care not to aim one of these in the vicinity of any crewmate or shipboard fauna, unless it is set to healing or stun mode

New Structures

 

Egg Incubator

Who needs to fuss with eggs when you can use the fantastical mechanical egg incubation device to cook them to perfection? This device lets you view all the statistics and mutations of eggs and incubate them at an optimal temperature while hatching them at your convenience!

Ammobox

This handy new structure will automatically fill all nearby turrets with all the varieties of ammunition, while its floating HUD shows you its total ammo stats without the need to open the inventory (and also reflected visually with the ammunition models displayed on it).

Remote Camera Security System

Secure your base in Genesis Part 2 with the Remote Camera Security System. Issue commands, view, and communicate all from a remote location. You can even use them to spy-on and communicate with your enemies!

Loadout Mannequin

No need to scream "who moved my kit from my vault?" at your tribe mates again while your turrets are soaked and you run in circles. Kit up quick and get to those griefers by storing your loadouts on trusty Loadout Mannequins, which also visualize your gear and hotbar items, for a single-press full equipment swap!

TEK Crop Plot

Want to take up gardening aboard ship? Crew members can make use of this hi-tek crop plot to efficiently raise harvestable plants just about anywhere!

New Environment

Genesis Ship

Welcome to your new home, survivor! You've been returned to life aboard this immense vessel representing the pinnacle of mankind's ingenuity... What could have motivated so desperate a measure, to cast all of nature itself adrift in this interstellar lifeboat?

Biome 01

The idyllic sunlit meadows and rolling hills of this tranquil biome show little to indicate what's in store under the influence of Rockwell's insanity.

Biome 02

Enjoying this view, survivor? Perhaps you'd fancy a stroll along this promenade? Don't be shy -- those bridges are spacious enough for any beast you've tamed, and its observation towers offer the best vantage of the sprawling artificial gardens you see before you.

Biome 03

Creation is an exhilarating undertaking, one of the incomparable perquisites of godhood. I'm afraid you won't find much in the way of creature comforts here. This garden isn't meant for you, after all...

Biome 04

"How foolish you are, to have scurried into my inner sanctum. Did you truly expect to evade my notice here? I am this place now. And you're merely a parasite."

---

 

And of course, this isn't everything there is to see about Genesis Part 2! We have so much more in store and can't for you to check it out in March 2021! Thank you once again for tuning in this weekend and for all your fundraising efforts to help sick kids! We couldn't be more proud of our community.

 

 

All the best!
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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ARK: Genesis Part 2 introduces a vast contiguous world filled with strange new biomes, story missions, and exotic creatures! The final confrontation between the spritely HLN-A and the villainous Sir Edmund Rockwell occurs on a gigantic colony ship traveling through deep space. Players will need to draw on all their ARK experience to succeed. 

ARK's largest Expansion Pack yet has game-changing additions for every kind of Survivor: whether it's taking possession of enemies via brain-controlling "Noglin" creatures, zooming around doing radical tricks on the skateboard-like Hoversail, or managing and viewing your base remotely with security cameras, among tons of other new items and creatures!   

This expansion pack also introduces new voiceover talent to the ARK universe with David Tennant (Doctor Who, Good Omens) playing the villainous Sir Edmund Rockwell, and Madeleine Madden (The Wheel of Time, Picnic at Hanging Rock, Dora and the Lost City of Gold) taking on the in-game robotic AI companion HLN-A/Helena Walker.

But even with HLN-A's help, will your powerful skills, gear, and tames be sufficient to put a stop to Rockwell's demented plans once and for all? We're about to find out because The End is Near!

TLC Pass #3

TLC Pass 3 finds its way marching through the ARK with some tender loving care for some old friends; the Mammoth and Stegosaurus have received varied gameplay and visual upgrades! This update also includes a bunch of Quality of Life changes to make your time on the ARK more enjoyable!

Patch Notes

TLC: Woolly Mammoth

New Abilities
War Drum Saddle and Buff

• 1 additional passenger seat on a saddle that comes equipped with a war drum that must be played to maintain an AoE buff that improves stamina regen and makes them immune to fear.

New Attacks
Tusk Sweep

• Sweeps tusks left or right to gather and harvest thatch

Trunk Trumpet

• Emits a trunk roar that does an AOE debuff to all enemies within range
• After stepping in water, the next Trunk Trumpet used by the Mammoth will spray the rider with water, hydrating them, removing fire debuffs, and reducing their temperature. 

Foot Stomp

• Mammoth rears up and then puts all of its weight into a forward “slam” with its front legs to directionally knock back enemies and gather wood

Trunk Grab

• Similar to the Karkinos’s grab, it is able to grab, hold, aim and release smaller targets

 

---

Stegosaurus

New Abilities

Backplate Modes

• Backplate passive buff and can switch between three modes. Different modes will be indicated visually
  • Hardened Plated: Applies a damage reduction buff; Wood harvesting benefit
  • Heavy Plate Mode: Applies a slow when attacking with the basic tail whip; Thatch harvesting benefit
  • Sharpened Plate Mode: Applies an armor penetration effect when attacking with the tail whip. Also useful for harvesting berries

New Attacks

• Impaling Tail Whip
  • Able to impale and immobilize players and creatures below a certain health threshold.

Additional notes

• The rider is prevented from dismounting effects and attacks
• Has a berry weight reduction buff

New Breedable Creatures

The insects and creatures that can now be bred are: Spider, Onyc, Moth, Scorpion, Arthropluera, Mantis and the mighty Wyverns!

The new (Wyvern are unchanged) hatching/gestation and maturation times are as follows:

Spider

• Egg Hatch Time: 1 hour and  25 minutes (Matches Pachy)
• Total Maturation Time: 1 day, 1 hour, and 1 minute (Matches Dimorph)

Bat 

• Total Gestation Time: 3 hours and 58 minutes (Matches Procoptodon)
• Total Maturation Time: 1day, 4 hours, and 3 minutes (Matches Kairuku)

Moth

• Egg Hatch Time: 1 hour and 30 minutes (Matches Kairuku)
• Total Maturation Time: 1 day, 6 hours, and 51 minutes (Matches Pegomastax)

Scorpion

• Egg Hatch Time: 1 hour and 59 minutes (Matches Raptor)
• Total Maturation Time: 1 day, 13 hours, and 12 minutes (Matches Raptor)

Arthropluera

• Egg Hatch Time: 2 hours and 29 minutes (Matches Sarco)
• Total Maturation Time: 2 days, 3 hours, and 26 minutes (Matches Stego)

Mantis

• Egg Hatch Time: 2 hours and 46 minutes (Matches Stego)
• Total Maturation Time: 2 days, 6 hours, and 27 minutes (Matches Tapejara)

Creature Quality of Life Changes

In addition to insect breeding, we went back and showed some love to a few of ARK's well-known inhabitants.
Giganotosaurus 

• Reduced maturation time by approximately 15% (Total growth is around 10~ days)

Diplocaulus

• Increased base health by 33% (from 190 to 250.3)
• Increased movement speed when ridden by 25%

Thylacoleo

• Added a (slow draining) bleed to its basic attack

Megachelon

• Reduced depth requirement for breeding so that it can be bred on other maps

Wyvern

• Wyverns are now breedable (Zombie Wyverns cannot be bred)
• Slight stat rebalance now that they’re breedable and to bring them in line with Crystal Wyverns

Megalodon

• Reduced gestation/aging times to match Megaloceros
• Pack Bonus: Damage Reduction and Damage Increase per pack member within range
• Added a bleed to its basic attack

Jerboa

• Increase base weight capacity from 55 to 120 (Matches Bulbdog)

Ankylosaurus

• Increase metal weight reduction by 10% (from total reduction of 75% to 85%)

Doedicurus

• You can now turn when rolling with a Doed (similarly to the Genesis Race Mission)

Basilisk

• Now has eyes

New Feature: Taming HUD

Use the interactive taming HUD to monitor your unconscious wild tamable creatures. Keep track of the following:

• Creature's Gender and Level
• Taming and Unconscious Progress
• Taming Effectiveness
• Current Health and Food status.
• Distance from your location
• An option to track specific creatures via in-world waypoints (which can be hovered for an over-screen overlay displaying additional information).

Boss Element Reward Increase
We’ve decided to increase the Boss Element reward on some maps to bring the Ele more into line with where we’re at with new expansions.

• Element reward from The Island bosses has been increased by 100%
• Element reward from The Center bosses has been increased by 100%
• Element reward from Scorched Earth has been increased by 50%

New Feature: Turret Radius Settings

A quick and easy way to update the settings of your nearby turrets within a radius. It’s set to currently match the Official Server Turret Limit radius, but players can also toggle viewing the radius on/off. The current functionality it supports is as follows:

• The ability to set a pin code to all turrets in range
• The ability to copy settings to all turrets in range
• The ability to copy settings to pin code-selected turrets in range

The settings which can be copied are: power state, range, targeting, warning

Miscellaneous Fixes & Changes

• Fixed a bug where HLN-A would jitter a lot at low client fps *
• Fixed a bug which allowed you to blow up 2 pieces of C4 without consuming them *
• Fixed the Onyx having the wrong icon *
• Fixed a lot of typos *
• Fixed a shoulder pet offset issue with the Ferox on the Gigantopithecus *
• Fixed a bug on localized/translated Cryopods which prevented it from displaying the correct information *
• Fixed multiple level-design related bugs such as holes, floating foliage, incorrect volumes, etc. *
• Fixed a bug which prevented you from placing Cliff Platform structures in the Genesis Part 1 Ocean Biome *
• Fixed a bug which broke biome specific overrides
• Fixed a bug which allowed players to fly across the map with certain creatures and grappling hooks *
• Completely disabled the option to set teleporters as Public on Official PvP (including using them). *
• New Dynamic Ini options: HexagonRewardMultiplier (multiplies hex rewards for missions), BabyImprintAmountMultiplier, and BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier
• Hotkey for GCM demolished has changed to "G" when using keyboard and mouse *

Please note any notes marked with a *  mean that these changes are not in the latest console TLC update, but will make it there when we next update the clients.

---

EVO Event: Extra Life!

As we reach various donation goals, we will increase the Official Server Network rates this weekend. If you're an ARK: Survival Evolved Mobile survivor, you're in luck! Our friends over at Grove Street Games will be matching our final rates for at least 24 hours at the close of our stream at 10 am PST on Sunday, November 8th. We'll also be extending the event past the regular 24 hours as a gesture towards those with slower connections who may be downloading for a portion of the livestream.

If you are interested in joining our team to help raise money, we'd love to have you! Check out this link for more information on how to get started.  All donations go to the Extra Life organization and contribute to raising the Official Network rates!

For specialized game modes, we'll be using the rates below:

Tune in to our crazy Extra Life event at www.twitch.tv/survivetheark until 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET Sunday, November 8 for additional content reveals for ARK: Genesis II and boosted rates as the community meets fundraising goals, while the game also continues its Free Weekend on the Steam Store where anyone can hop in and play!

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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1 minute ago, MagicStatic said:

Didn't the basilisk always have eyes? Other than that, great crunch!

Apparently not really, I guess they were just missing pupils.. or something but I'm not an optometrist.

3 minutes ago, Patch747 said:

Did you fix the tek trikes btw ❤️

That is fixed in the Fear Evolved patch live on PC and PS4 right now, and on Xbox this Monday.

Just wanted to clarify that the downtime next week is referring to TRANSFERS themselves, and not the servers. You'll still be able to play when that maintenance is happening, you just cannot transfer.

30 minutes ago, Eikel said:

On Ark Genesis Single Player, there is a bug which causes certain types of dinos not to spawn. These creatures do not spawn in:

Bog Biome: kaprosuchus, sarcosuchus, baryonyx, piranha, coelacanth

Snow Biome: castoroides, otter

This bug is occurring on PS4, XBOX and PC

This should be resolved on the latest version of PC (but we'll double check now too ), and we'll be getting the fix on console in an upcoming client patch

 

2 minutes ago, StaceyMalibu said:

Hello!
Thank you so much for taking the time to answer!

Will it help the performance if every tribe was limited 250 dinos instead of the original 500? (And maybe decrease mating times 50%). Considering the large size of the map, as you said, it's a paradise for breeders throwing 500 / 1000 / 1500 / 2000 dinosaurs out to mate them non stop. (An alliance focused on breeding only).

Decreasing the numbers of dinosaurs out should help improve that, right?

Edit: Typo.

Sure, that would help but of the two options we prefer that players are able to have more tames and keep the wild creature count at a consistent level to other maps, but these are definitely settings you could tweak on your own server! As for decreasing in mating time, it might just result in more people mating  

11 minutes ago, mEgstad69420 said:

When will the bug that Crystal Isles is devoid of life be fixed?

We have taken a look at the Crystal Isle spawners and everything appears to be in order. The map is quite large compared to the others, so it might be that you just haven't encountered as many creatures when actively playing due to its sheer size.

Which platform and game mode do you play on? We'll take a deeper dive.

There's an argument that we could perhaps increase the spawn count so that more creatures are available, but it's a lever we have to be careful with as the map already carries a large performance requirement to its size, having more spawns would take this up another notch. If you're on an Unofficial Server or Single Player, you do have the option to increase the spawns yourself by adjusting the Dino Count config/slider which defaults to 1.0. 

10 minutes ago, ScuzzyUUK said:

Okay so when will there be an Evo event, you guys said you'd speak more about evos once the new rates came and so far we've only had "no Evo this week, try again next week"

The bonus rates that would have come from 'Evo Events' have been baked into the game now with the default being bumped up to 2x in the most recent major version. We will be hosting events again in the future of course, in particular around holidays & special occasions.

 

These current sales are on Steam + EGS, however we frequently run ones on other platforms too. Just make sure you're following our social media/community hub as we often announce when they're active. They usually run when platforms are hosting their own specific events (for example, the Steam summer sale).

48 minutes ago, butwhytho said:

Hi just wondering how the Winners for the egg contest Are going to receive their prize. Thanks!

We'll be in touch via the email you used to register the account with.

Just to provide some clarity surrounding the new creature. It'll be found on Crystal Isles on PC, and on Console it will be available on the other maps (list TBD). Once we've released Crystal Isles on Consoles, we'll be adjusting its spawn so it's found there instead. Whilst the map needs some additional time to get it ready on console, the creature will be ready and we didn't want to hold it back. Plus with the launch of CI, we'll still get some new Wyvern variants which'll be fresh at the time.

49 minutes ago, Usuallyafk said:

Lol not one small tribe server mentioned in upcoming server "hardware" changes. 99% of small tribes servers are 150+ ping for a month now, even with really good internet. Good game.

A lot of the servers were already upgraded, we're just in the process of hitting ones that haven't been so far. As for recent server performance/stalls/crashing, we've been doing some monitoring over the past week and have made some improvements, and today's patch that's going out right now (310.5) has some additional data-gathering tools enabled for us to identify more of stalls & crashes, so hopefully we'll be able to get some good data and get some more fixes in.

10 minutes ago, Eli said:

You can enable it on private servers using the command line -ActiveEvent=Arkaeology

It will run automatically throughout 6/15 to 7/15. If you have a mod map however, you should run the aforementioned commandline. You can also run the event after the desginated date with the commandline, and if you want to opt-out you can run this:

-ActiveEvent=None

Thanks for the feedback regarding our structure announcement folks, we appreciate it. Keep it coming. 

Hey Survivors! Welcome to the latest edition of the Community Crunch! 

Code of Conduct Updates!

Earlier in April, our Enforcement Team announced some changes made to the Official ARK Code of Conduct, as well as how players can make reports on PC. Thanks to your reports, we have been able to take action consistently against rule breakers and cheaters on our Official Servers. Today we would like to announce some changes to the ruleset, we'll be listing the specific changes beneath but it's recommended you check out the entire code here.

Hacking and Exploiting

Revision

Exploiting - examples are not limited to but can include attacking and living in unintended game-zones (under the mesh or above the map), duplication of tames, items and characters, unintended building mechanics (such as floating structures, using the world barrier as a snap point), building a box around your quetzal (or other platform creatures) to completely prevent it from taking damage, modifying your game files to remove key graphical components (water, fog, etc), attacking or blocking players through the terrain with dinosaurs, and intentionally crashing users or servers (through DDoS or otherwise).

PvE Specific Griefing

Additional rule

Intentionally using wild creatures to destroy a player's assets when not in a tribe war.

Player, Steam, and Tribe Names

Revision

Impersonate - pretending to be someone else with intent to impersonate Game Masters ("GM") or Studio Wildcard employees.

Mod Community Updates!

We have another Wildcard Workshop tutorial for you today. We're going to cover cooking and uploading your mods as well as managing and protecting your workshop linkages in the ARK Dev Kit. 

Don't forget that the submission period for the current Mod Tutorial Contest closes on Thursday (31st)! The award increase went into effect for the current contest and beyond, so make sure to get your submissions to me before then. 

 

ARK: Evolution Event!

Survivors across ALL Platforms will be receiving a special Evolution Event perk this weekend! It will be active from the Friday the 1st of June at 3 PM EST until Monday the 4th of June at 3 PM EST. All Official Servers across each platform will be undergoing this evolutionary change which includes:

2x Harvesting Rates
2x Taming Rates
2x Maturation Rates
2x  Mating and Egg Hatching Rates
2x EXP Rates

The Great Migration #3: ETA June 12th!

Just a reminder that there are just under 2 weeks left for the next stage of our Legacy migration. 

Here is a quick breakdown on how this process works:

Taking Down Low Pop Servers
With calculations based on sustained player-count as well as the popularity of game mode, we will be removing lower population legacy servers, most of which retain a 0-1 player concurrent population. These servers will be taken offline on June 12th. Any existing server that is not considered a low pop server and is not taken down at this time will still exist on the Legacy network.

Legacy servers will continue to remain on a separate cluster from the new cluster, which means you will not be able to transfer anything between Legacy servers and the new servers.

Servers Up for Deprecation
Below is a complete list of the LEGACY servers that will be deprecated come June 12th. You have from now until then to move your belongings onto a server not present on this list. Please click one of the links below. They are separated by platform (PC, Xbox, and PS4).

Most Popular Servers
To avoid players having to move again in future, we're publishing the most popular servers across all platforms. These servers are the top 30 most active Legacy servers on each platform and are ones most likely to be safe from any future server removals.

PC:

Quote

napveragnarok14
thesapveofficialserver505
napveragnarok13
theeupveragnarok35
napveragnarok50
thesaofficialserver502
theeupveragnarok33
theeuragnarok24
theeupveragnarok59
ocpveragnarok39
theasiapveofficialserver526
pveeuaberration905
primitivepvpofficialserver455
naragnarok45
naragnarok2
pveeuaberration904
theeuragnarok26
ocragnarok38
naragnarok47
naragnarok1
theeupveragnarok34
ocpveaberration909
theasiapveragnarok41
theasiapveofficialserver523
theeupveisolatedragnarok60
theasiapveofficialserver511
officialserver5
officialserver37
thesaofficialserver501
theeuragnarok21

Xbox:

Quote

pvenaxboxofficialragnarok8
pveeuxboxofficialragnarok5
euxboxofficialragnarok7
pvenaxboxofficialragnarok2
naxboxofficialragnarok10
pveeuxboxofficialragnarok4
euaberration1100
pvenaxboxofficialserver302
euxboxofficialragnarok3
naxboxofficialragnarok1
pveeuxboxprimitiveplus4
euxboxcrossarkcluster2ragnarok
naxboxofficialragnarok9
naaberration1109
euxboxofficialragnarok6
pvenaxboxofficialserver76
naaberration1113
pveeuxboxofficialserver168
pvenaxboxofficialserver400
officialserver3
pveeuxboxofficialserver27
pvenaxboxofficialserver70
naxboxthehundredcrossark7ragnarok
naxboxofficialserver415
pvenaxboxofficialserver91
naxboxofficialserver101
naxboxthehundredcrossark4ragnarok
naaberration1115
naxboxofficialserver63
pveeuxboxthecenter729

PS4:

Quote

pveeups4officialragnarok5
pvenaps4officialragnarok4
pvenaps4officialragnarok8
eups4officialragnarok7
pveeups4officialragnarok2
naps4officialragnarok9
eups4officialragnarok6
naps4crossarkcluster7ragnarok
pvenaps4officialserver644
naps4officialragnarok3
pveeups4thecenter192
eups4thecenter581
naps4officialragnarok10
eups4officialserver16
eups4thecenter582
pveeups4aberration900
pvenaps4thecenter325
pvenaps4officialserver627
pveeups4officialserver676
naps4primitiveplus6
eups4officialserver780
pvenaps4officialserver632
eups4primitiveplus11
pveeups4officialserver182
pvenaps4officialserver630
pvenaps4aberration912
eups4officialserver20
pvenaps4scorchedearth329
eups4crossarkcluster2ragnarok
pveeups4thecenter188

How To Move Servers
If you are unfamiliar with the process, you are able to upload your items, creatures, and player through the Obelisk terminal, supply drops, as well as the Tek Transmitter. Survivors are advised to use Cross-ARK immediately to relocate their belongings onto a server that is not included in our take-down list above.

Allocation of New Servers
Our new method of onlining new servers has been through what we call "FRESH" servers. These servers are added to the main network but have downloads disabled for a period of 60 days. After 60 days that restraint is removed and they are officially joined to the main network. We plan to online set of Fresh servers on a monthly basis for all platforms so stay tuned for more information on when new ones will be added if you're looking for a fresh start.

Server Saves of Deleted Servers
We will make the save files available as soon as we can. We will host the PC files which anyone can download and then you are welcome to re-host the save file for your own use. We'll include a link to where you can download server saves in this post when they are available. Nitrado will also be able to provide the saves for use on Nitrado servers for console, as they have done in the past.

Community Livestream #2 Round up!

On May 24th we had our second Community Livestream. Thank you to all of those who attended and participated! The community team had a lot of fun and we hope you did as well. If you weren't able to catch the stream you can watch the video-on-demand on our Twitch page or by clicking on the video below.

This week Mod Community Manager ZenRowe showcased Saddle Emporium and Crystal Isles. These mods are part of the Sponsored Mod Program and are definitely worth checking out! Saddle Emporium redesigns the ARK saddles and adds multiple variants to them. Crystal Isles is a massive original map by ISO that features crystals and floating islands unlike anything seen before.

Our special guest this week was JayEx23 who gave us some PVP tips on the PS4 Pro. From base design to dino choices, we talked about how you can make it as a new PVP player or a player in a smaller tribe in the great big PVP universe. 

A reminder for next stream, we are accepting bases for a Base Tour section! If you want to show off your base please send some screenshots to the email below and include your server name/number. Unofficial server bases are also accepted as long as your server admin will allow us to come tour on your server. All platforms are welcome to participate. We look forward to seeing all of your base designs!

We are still accepting any type of ARK related fanart to be featured in the Showcase section of the stream and entries are always open. This can be drawings, videos, builds, ANSEL screenshots, handmade crafts, anything ARK related!

You can submit your ARKwork to our streaming email address: arkfans@studiowildcard.com

Be sure to follow us on our Twitch page so you don't miss a stream! twitch.tv/survivetheark

We'll be hosting our next Community Live Stream on Thursday, June the 7th! We hope to see you there

Upcoming New Speciality Servers!

Speciality servers are alternate game modes for ARK that last for a short period of time. Each new theme will bring on a new set of challenges different from that of servers currently available. However, these seasonal servers will wipe and change theme after a determined period of time.

We're looking for input from you today. We've set up a thread and we'd appreciate if you could drop your suggestions into the separate thread below. Changes will revolve around edits that can be made to the existing config. These types of changes can include many things such as: tribe/alliance size, anything related to dino stats and taming, server rates, etc.

If you have a game mode that you think would be fun to play be sure to leave your comment in the thread:

We're hoping to launch our first set of Speciality Servers in June! So definitely chime in and let us know what you're thinking before we finalise our first batch.

That's it for this post guys! As always if you’ve got anything to share you can find us at:

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

All the best,
Studio Wildcard

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The lists should be viewable now, sorry about that folks.

12 hours ago, cwstargirl said:

Thats cool, Pc gets new server what about xbox ps4 the ones who really need new servers what a joke

We plan to get some additional servers on other platforms in the future

10 hours ago, Starlorde said:

I’m gonna hop on those new servers as soon as they’re up, u guys should make new server or “recycle” servers about every 2 or 3 months gives new players a chance. As alwaysssss can’t wait for EXTINCTION!! it better be great don’t disappoint, ik u can make it great 

We do have extinction which recycle monthly, and we're currently discussing some potential newbie/beginner friendly servers for those who just join the ARK. 

11 hours ago, WildWyvern said:

Any word on Extinction? Or a TLC 3? A few more dinos really need a TLC pass.. hope you don't just leave it as it was. Great work, though, guys!! Keep it up.

TLC3 was placed on hold so we could focus on weekly bug fixing patches instead, and for now, the plan is to continue doing that. As for Extinction, when we've got something to share, you'll see it mentioned in one of these announcement posts. That pretty much goes for all the other questions regarding ETAs/Updates, we know you guys want them but when/if we have something to share, you'll see it. For now, you'll have to hang tight!

8 hours ago, Lostmymarbles said:

with the new servers why only 1 scorched earth why not some more  instead of over saturation of rag island centre and aberration ... show some love to the scorched earth players as well WildCard

We select the different server-types by seeing what's needed/player activity across our entire network, historically Scorched Earth hasn't been as commonly played as the others and there are quite a few options remaining for that particular map. 

5 hours ago, ZeroSeconds said:

So if I understand it correct no items can be downloaded into the servers but you upload from it for the first 60 days. 

But does this only account for items or can people pull shady things and download lvl 130 characters on new servers again? 

Also what is the long term plan for the PvE servers to clean up all the pillars that are not even near a base (grief pillars), because we both know there will be a poopstorm after the 60 days and probably even faster

Or are these extra servers for PvP only and just a few extra PvE because you have to? As only Alpha tribes are mentioned as always and nothing from PvE. 

It's all downloads; so characters, items, and dinos won't be able to be downloaded onto the server for the first 60 days. You can report any griefers on PvE here: https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/incident-reports/ and our Enforcement team will check it out. I know that doesn't deal with the problem of people spamming pillars, but it exists as an option. With our focus on the weekly patches, it may be something we can address in the future though we'll need to be careful with a potential change.

18 hours ago, Ultriomangyga said:

Honestly with hiding under meshes and exploiting glitches, don't just ban people who embrace the glitchiness of your game, just fix the damn glitches.

We agree! We're working on fixes daily, especially for under the meshing. Unfortunately it's a game of cat and mouse, as we resolve methods, more are discovered but we've certainly cracked down on a lot so far and will continue to do so.

12 hours ago, Novarae said:

My only criticism of the code of conduct update is that more proactive (and reactive) applicability to that on the steam forums would be very welcome.  Having people go pages and pages in threads(even being reported for it) calling devs and others pretty vulgar names and insults, spreading intention disinformation, and much worse on a -daily- basis seems to contradict the effort stated above.  I just wish more consistency was put in place in that regard.

We don't have a lot of presence on Steam, we primarily use it for announcements and making sure that some important information is available (patch notes, events, resources etc). We're a small team, so it would be preferred if players were using these boards/Reddit to engage with us directly. Steam is just covering one part of our player base, whereas our hub is platform agnostic and more people have the option of voicing their opinion and sharing their feedback.

12 hours ago, eESTlane said:

this is utter bs.

you are forcing people to join large tribes on pvp as otherwise they'd be annihilated. your fault for not limiting tribe size or cutting down the alliance numbers. how the heck are we supposed to know if our "teammates" hack when there are so many. without spectator mode, i'd already have reported shroud...still would looking at his pov. and mesh bases...i've personally fought several hackers/meshers and reported them swiftly but the sluggish few weeks/months of detective work on WC side wont get you your gear back. unless you're a big streamer and have your own pocket dev as a fanboy, which most of us dont. besides, it's somewhat impossible to track box-box and 123 players. again, your fault WC.

ffs, there are infinite number of ways to exploit the system. what is sever enough to be reported is beyond me. like, i'd consider bodybags being a serious issue, allowing for no-weight transportation...and everyone does that. i've seen several funny but broken quetzal builds for taming and transporting that can be borderline broken, or not as it was intended for. 

inevitably this game will make people quit. still so broken and you wont be compensated when things  do go south, even with video evidence. i so do hate WC for ruining a game that had so much potential. 

That rule is more so targetting tribes who are frequently having members being punished/removed from the game for cheating. If you're unsure whether something is against the rules, just send us a message about it (as mentioned in the CoC). We're not looking to 'pick' on people, or target them for small/minor issues. Part of the reason for switching to this system is so that we're not as sluggish as we used to be and we're able to deal with reports as they're incoming, much quicker. 

13 hours ago, Zone42 said:

As this is a code of conduct will it apply to Legacy servers? As the trolling problem is making the game unplayable. 

We no longer support our Legacy servers since retail launch. We'll only update them and make sure that they're still playable if they're online and still accessible. In some extreme cases, we may respond to reports but it's not likely.

17 minutes ago, BlueFox91 said:

About the turrets, is that PvP only because of shooting down players as they spawn? or is that also reportable in PvE, even though those can't hurt players?

Right, for now, this is a PvP specific rule as it's meant to prevent players from spawn killing others with turrets immediately. In future, you can contact that email in the post for clarification regarding any rules. 

1 hour ago, AdligerAdler said:

Great. Not just 2x breeding, now they reduce even the normal evo events.

We've not always run them each weekend, this was just the first time we've given the heads up about it, though you'll see an event the following weekend.

20 minutes ago, Valoule said:

Hello, first congrats to the winners ! And thanks you for the freeform win !  

I dont want to complain, but common... sometime its just seems unfair.

And dont get me wrong, i love the others build too, specially the race tracks  (Cool and simple) . I think some more rules about how much one person can win by month would be cool and more interesting. Like 1Win/Categories/person/month. (thats will be for me more fair and will encourage more people to participate ) And I dont says either that i deserve some rewards for this builds. But sometimes because you  are a repetitive participant you seems like you are put aside from the contest.  

Or my build are just poop and im dissapointed, who knows ...

This was mentioned in the post and may have been missed, but we're taking a break from these contests, we're looking into other ways to actively engage the community. Feedback is appreciated though

Hey Survivors! Welcome to the latest edition of the Community Crunch! 

The Community Crunch is where we share important things going on with ARK, as well as host contests and showcase creations made by the community!

Console Transfers and TLC2!

We're targetting a console release for this update in mid-April (week of 16th April) and will keep you posted about more accurate release dates once we get closer to the date! With this update, we'll also be:

- Enabling item transfers and the vanilla-version of aberrant creatures to be moved to Aberration servers. This means that you'll be able to take over your regular Spino to an Aberration server.

- Preventing people from building within the Ragnarok Puzzle cave, so if you store any structures or creatures down there, make use of this time to relocate them ASAP as once this update goes live on console, that will no longer be possible. 

It is important to note that the Turret Update will not go live on console with this update, but instead a future one. 

Upcoming Maintenance for some NA PC Servers!

The maintenance will take place on Wednesday, April 11th at 2 pm Eastern. The maintenance will take approximately 2 hours to complete. During this time the servers will be shut down and the save data transferred. Once the transfer is complete, the servers will be brought back online. These servers will no longer appear in your Favorites due to an IP address change, therefore, you will need to search for the server again and re-favourite your server.

You can find the list of servers in this thread:

ARK: Evolution Events!

We will not be running an Evolution Event this weekend. Our next Evolution Event will take place from the 20th of April at 1 PM EST until Monday the 23rd at 3 PM EST. All Official Servers will be undergoing this evolutionary change which includes:

2x Harvesting Rate
2x Taming Rate
2x EXP Rate

Easter Egg Contest!

During the Eggcellent Adventure Easter Event, we ran a little egg painting contest! Survivors were tasked to collect their Easter Eggs and decorate them! We had two categories, one for in-game submissions, and the other was for real life egg painting. With the conclusion of the event, we're excited to announce our winners! Let's give it up for the following survivors and their eggcellent painting abilities!

Rex Hatching Egg by Mitharen!

Bunny Dodo Egg by Hosscat!

and...

Bunny Plesiosaurs Swimming Egg by wenkula!

We'll be in touch via email for your prizes! 

We hope you guys enjoyed the Eggcellent Adventure event! We've loved all the screenshots you've sent us of the festively coloured tames you've discovered. Here are some pretty awesome ones:

This year, unofficials servers can also continue to enjoy the event to their heart's content by keeping the event running

Mod Tutorial Contest Update!

Mod tutorial contest #3 is currently underway and still accepting entries until Friday. Remember that for this contest I am looking for tutorials for ridiculous and wacky buffs.

I would also like to announce that the winner of the mod tutorial contest #2 is Xanjis! 
He has made an excellent tutorial for making a material/blueprint combo react to the time of day in ARK. Using a system like this, you could have a material do any number of things. It could shift textures, change values for stuff like roughness or specular or any dynamic parameters that you have set for your materials. You could have the entire world look light and fluffy during the day and nightmarish at night!

Have fun with this kind of system in your mods!

Next week I will have a new Wildcard Workshop tutorial ready for you. We'll be diving into and breaking down replication for you all. You get a detailed look at how to build your mods with multiplayer in mind while keeping them performant.

Official PC Legacy PVE Savefiles!

Download 'em here!

Attention PC PvE Legacy Survivors! We've made the current Legacy PC PVE Savefiles available to download. This has been a community request for some time from our player base as some of you have expressed interest in moving on to your own dedicated servers. The snapshot was taken on the 3rd of April 2018 and we're going to see if we can also make console PVE legacy saves available. Please keep in mind that we won't be offering this on our regular Official Network or PvP Legacy servers.

Notification Settings on SurvivetheARK!

There have been some changes made to the email notification settings on our community hub. You can read more about the changes in Chris' latest announcement:

ARK is on Sale for PS4 & Xbox!

ARK is available on sale in the PS4 Europe region with discounts across all titles!

ARK: Survival Evolved

ARK: Scorched Earth

ARK: Aberration

ARK: Explorer’s Edition

ARK: Season pass

ARK is currently on sale in the Xbox Digital Store until 9th of April 2018!

ARK: Survival Evolved - 40% off

Explorer's Edition - 40% off

and later on in Spring, there will be some more awesome Xbox sales available!

Community Contests!

Future Contests

Going forward, we're going to be pausing our weekly community contests (ARKitect & Nvidia Ansel). We'll be looking at new ways which we can directly engage the community, as well as share the best content that you guys produce through different initiatives. We enjoy hosting these contests and love seeing what you've come up with, so hang tight to see what we have in store! Now without further ado, let's check out this week's submissions! 

NVidia Ansel Photography Contest

ARK: Survival Evolved now includes support for NVIDIA Ansel -- a revolutionary new way to capture in-game shots. Learn more about these features from the NVIDIA blog. Now let’s get to the contest!

There were 3 potential categories for survivors to enter their shots into and they were the following:

Three Categories

Super Resolution & Freestyle: These can entries using both Super Resolution (8x resolution) or Freestyle filters. Players can optionally use Depth of Field effects accessible in Spectator mode by pressing the [Delete] key.

Panoramic 360 Stereoscopic 3D: These should be taken at 4x Super Resolution, in 360 Stereoscopic 3D mode. We will crop them to 2D for web display, while also providing the 3D version for viewing within VR display.

Freeform: Any settings, whacky and creative use of Ansel filters are encouraged. Adding humorous titles/captions in Photoshop is also acceptable for this category!

Super Resolution & Freestyle!

Winner!

pitsmat - Spotlight

Honourable Mentions!

BlueDragon - Bulbdogs Playground

BlueDragon - Caged

BlueDragon - Drop of Light

BlueDragon - Ringworld

pitsmat - Killer Slap

pitsmat - Melting Walls

pitsmat - Scorch

pitsmat - Teeth and Scales

pitsmat - Watching

roguewolf91 - Ambush

roguewolf91 - Bird Watching

Valoule - First encounter

Wolf Amaterasu - Angelic Wings

Wolf Amaterasu - Charge!

Wolf Amaterasu - Dodo Crossing

Wolf Amaterasu - Ghost Island

Wolf Amaterasu - Raptor Isle

Wolf Amaterasu - Sunrise  Watcher

Panoramic 360 Stereoscopic 3D!

Winner!

Wolf Amaterasu - Crystal Isles Sunset

Honourable Mentions!

BlueDragon - Welcome to Ringworld

roguewolf91 - The Duel

Valoule - Burning tree

Wolf Amaterasu - Evening at the Beach

Wolf Amaterasu - Stream Junction

Wolf Amaterasu - Tropical Sunset

Wolf Amaterasu - Where the Rivers Meet

Freeform!

Winner!

Valoule - 3D Spear

Honourable Mentions!

Valoule - Scratching the surface

Wolf Amaterasu - Survivor ARK Evolved

ARKitect!

This is an award given to Survivors to celebrate the amazing structures you build. These bases are judged 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 126 is…

ThePilgrim for their Jumping Spider Tek base

We'd also like to wish a huge congratulations to our runner-up!

captainfatdog and their Figure of 8 Race Track!

If you'd like to check out the submissions from the rest of the entrants, you can do so here:

Fan Feature!

Bronto Mansion by Valoule

You can check out the full album here: https://imgur.com/a/igFuU

How Nameless become Alpha by Shockal

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1355244772

A raptor couple by Phenix220 (Fr)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1353813466

Hulk and Superman! by CyanPug

Dodo Wyvern by 드찌/어찌

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1352125879

Thylacosmilus WIP 2 by Laelamcpitty

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1354582952

Introducing the Archelon! by Nokryn

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1353983928

Introducing the Sea Cow! by Nokryn

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1352375132

That's it for this post guys! As always if you’ve got anything to share please get in touch and be sure to follow us on:

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark
Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark
Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark

All the best,
Studio Wildcard

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