[09/30/15] Introducing the Cnidaria! and ARK Digest 17!

[Jat]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=527653530

Dino Dossier

A new Dino Dossier has been revealed, this one is everyone’s favorite dangerous deep-ocean jellyfish, the Cnidaria!

ARK Digest

Welcome to the seventeenth issue of the ARK Digest! For those who missed the previous issues, check out the Announcement forum section on the Steam Community Hub and be sure to catch up with what you’ve missed as there is tons for you to catch up on!

Valve Anti Cheat (VAC) Enabled!

Great news Survivors! Steam have got back to us and worked their magic on their back-end to allow us to now enable VAC for ARK: Survival Evolved! As you can see on our storefront page, it’s turned on which means in due time all cheats, including ESP, will result in automatic VAC bans!

Starting from tomorrow, VAC on clients will be required to play on our Official Servers. What this means is that if you prevent VAC from functioning, you’ll not be able to connect any longer. We’ll also be enabling this setting by default for Unofficial Servers, however if they would like to run it without VAC, they will need to include the following commandline when they launch their servers:

-insecure

This is not recommended of course as we encourage all server hosts and admins to make use of the VAC system and enable it for their servers! Wildcard will continue its fight against cheaters with proactive GM administration, alongside the VAC system, so keep on making use of our reports system!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=519094121

Alienware Modding Contest

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=499732860

Hope you guys haven’t forgotten about the epic modding contest we’ve got going with Alienware! We encourage any and all survivors interested in modding and currently working on their own version of the ARK to submit their mods to the contest! We’ve got loads of prizes up for grabs and are super excited to see your envisions of ARK come to life!

We’ve also recently extended the original deadline, so check out this thread for all the extra details!

Community Crunch Contests

September has been a pretty insane month for content in the game! We’ve had the platform saddles, the biomes, the warpaint, and now we’re starting on the furniture and more in game cosmetic items so we’re super excited to see what you’re capable of creating in game!

Be sure to check out our two-weekly running contests! ARKitect and ARKArt where we check out the best bases and the best pieces of art in the game!

If you’d like to submit your base or something you’ve created in the game, you can check out the entries thread here which will fill you in on all the rules too!

Community Crunch Contest Submissions

Survival of the Fittest: The Last Stand

Just a reminder Survivors that we’re still running our Survival of the Fittest: The Last Stand open preliminary qualifications! We’ve got a mega-thread on the progression of the tournament, including updates, rules, server-status and patch notes that will be regularly updated when things happen that need to be brought to your attention. This weekend we’ll post the Official Results from the matches thus far, for all to see and gawk at! Don’t worry, if you’re following us on other forms of Social Media you’ll be made aware of the changes too - but this is the best place for it, so definitely keep your eye on it!

Survival of the Fittest: The Last Stand

Patch 217

So we’ve had some pretty massive patches lately, but it doesn’t stop there! We’ve still got loads more to do and much more to add into the game :)! Patch 217 will add quite a few things to the core-game, as well as include some qualify of life, security and optimisation changes!

Trophy System

We’re super stoked to announce that we’ve finally ready to push out our Trophy System which will include the new Survival of the Fittest trophies! So if you’ve won a Survival of the Fittest Championship, you’ll be able to show off your awesome new trophies engraved with your personal handles to the whole ARK universe. And of course, The Last Stand Tournament will have its own massive awesome Trophy set -- the victors’ rewards aren’t only cash prizes! :)

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=527654163

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=527654348

Antler-less female Megaloceros

We’ve heard your requests and we did have these planned! These should hopefully be ready to go out with the 217 patch. The Doe, unlike its male counterpart, will not be able to attack however it will run at a quicker pace! We want to introduce other alterations to the game when it comes to gender diversity with creatures of the ARK. We already have the frill and frill-less Boas and now we’ve got the Megaloceros.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=527654581

As we progress further into EA, we’ll be sure to have more cool alterations like this!

Primitive Club

The cries for melee weapons have not gone unnoticed! We’ve got the primitive club ready which is the first of a few melee weapons and defenses in the game! These are great for bopping people on the head and taking them out! Really brings that caveman feeling to the game haha.

Anddd there’s loads more too! You can check out the rest of the notes here

SurviveTheArk on Twitch

For those of you who don’t know, we’ve got a twitch channel! You can check it out here[www.twitch.tv] and we’d recommend that you hit that follow button :). Now that we’re more comfortably set up in our new Offices we’ll be able to do much more community-interaction with the stream!

Some of the things you can expect to watch are;

Community Hosted Survival of the Fittest Tournaments

Survival of the Fittest has proven to be pretty successful in the streaming community and there are a lot of great streamers who host their own tournaments, we’re happy to shoot them a re-host so if you want to watch the games you’re more than welcome to!

Developer Q+As

Now that things have calmed down with our move we’ll be able to host the occasional Q+A on the stream with different members of the team! We held an impromptu Q+A with Sl1pg8r and some members of our content-team today, primarily focused on the latest patch, level design and some upcoming content. You can check out the vod in our channel history!

Daily Mod Showcase!

This is something that we’d like to try out, there’s a lot of great mods out there and we want to show them off to you guys! At 4PM EST from Monday to Friday (with the exception of preliminary days of course!), we’ll be showcasing a different mod each day on the channel, playing it and letting you guys know what they’re all about so definitely be on the lookout for that!

Plus as we progress through the year we’ll have even more neat stuff to show off, perhaps maybe we’ll do an exclusive reveal? So be sure to check us out! :)

[Jat]

ARK Digest Q&A

Survivor, Findalfin asks, “Will we be able to Paint Patterns on our armor?”

Answer:

Yup! This is something we’ve wanted to do once we came up with the idea of pixel painting and then warpaint. The team is actually currently working on this and hopefully we’ll be able to have it out to you guys fairly soon!

Survivor, RinVindor asks, “When will you finally consider tribe alliances?”

Answer:

This has been in the works for a while and we’re still going to be doing it. Tribe Alliances will come to PvE servers and will be released some time this year. However for PvP we’re still not quite sure it’s necessary as we’d prefer not to have abstractions or get involved in natural PvP.

Survivor, luigi430 asks, “What have you planned for the skin suit on hot climates?”

Answer:

Yup! We’re working on something for this. It’ll be the Primitive Ghillie suit and will definitely provide some resistance in those scorching environments!

Survivor, Nui-Chan asks, “What do you guys ultimately plan to do about non-dedicated host tether distance?”

Answer:

Honestly this is a tricky one! We’re not quite super sure yet what we plan to do and have a few possible ideas we can work with however don’t sweat, we’ll figure it out! ;)

Survivor, Nui-chan also asks, “Can you guys make the Mammoth be able to knock down trees by walking through them?”

Answer:

Haha, we actually feel the Mammoth is not as large enough to pull that off due to the enormous size and strength of the trees on the ARK!

Survivor, Amega asks, “Will the idea of rafts be extended with higher tier boats, such as motor boats or something alike? I really like rafts, but now I want a faster boat :)

Answer:

Yup! We wanted to see how you guys would like rafts and so far the results have been very positive so the next form of aquatic-vehicular travel we’re working on would be a speedboat!

Survivor, Chgamer24 asks, “Will we see a possible upgrade to the torch? Perhaps a flashlight”

Answer:

This is on the way! We’ll be introducing a Flashlight to the core-game :)

Survivor, Chgamer24 also asks, “Is there a chance of seeing throwable flares that Dinos chase? TY Jurassic Park ;)!

Answer:

That’s actually a pretty exciting idea and we do love our flares! We’ll probably get to that fairly soon :)

Survivor, Chgamer24 also asks, “How about Stairs?”

Answer:

This is something we’re considering, perhaps in the secondary structure pass. However for now you can make use of this fantastic mod!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=520879363

It has some cool rounded-walls too! :)

Survivor, [EmP]Mr.Ping asks, “Could you please add that we can cook with the Water Canteen 3x and with the Water Jar 2x?”

Answer:

Ah yeah, we’ll get to fixing that bug fairly soon - don’t worry, it’s on our to-do list!

Survivor, Tyrannogon asks, “Could we please get crop growth speed and egg laying/defecate time interval server configuration”

Answer:

That’s not a bad idea! We’ll make sure that server-side setting is exposed in the next update.

Survivor, PERMANENTv2 asks, “Will we be able to use our spyglass to remove those hard to remove building components (e.g pipes?)”

Answer:

Hehe, that’s actually a very reasonable idea. We’ll think about it :)

Survivor, Arsenic_Touch asks, “Are there plans for more Survival Elements? Such as broken bones that slow you down, bleeding that requires suture kits or bandages to stem,
diseases that effect you in certain ways, or drugs that affect you certain ways (toxins, hallucinogens, et cetera), weather and environmental effects that affects you outside of the temperatures? IE wind storms that slow you down, snow drifts that slow you down,
heavy rains that slow you down, or lightning that can damage you, tornados that can demolish structures and kill players/dinos, clear trees, floods and mudslides that can do the same, hail that can damage you, acid rain, earthquakes, tsunami's, volcanic eruptions, et cetera?

Answer:

That’s a long one! And yup, the elementals and general survival features are core to ARK’s world. We will indeed be including and doing another “Survival Status” pass this year as we get further into the game's development and have more of our features and content implemented and functioning.

Survivor, igottapi4 recommends, “To answer your Q from the previous Digest, the way you can bring ramps and ladders to the stone tier is to make them reinforced like the doors and windows.”

Answer:

True, very true. We’ll get on it! :)

Survivor, Repzo asks, “Will you change behaviors that don’t match the dossier descriptions, when you overhaul the AI? Like ants being described as docile but territorial?”

Answer:

Yup, we’ve got our secondary Dino Pass planned and that will include many changes and some TLC given to a lot of the Dinosaurs already released!

Survivor, Tex asks, “Do you love Australia? Will you add extinct Australian creatures in the future? Obdurodon: Giant platypus, Procoptodon: Goliath kangaroo, Thylacoleo: Marsupial lion - show us some Aussie love, guys!

Answer:

You mean like this Thylacoleo Carnifex?

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=527654768

And yeah, the Procoptodon does sound pretty awesome too ;)

Survivor, BL00DHOUND187 asks, “Will more Biomes be added after the Snow and Swamp biomes are added?”

Answer:

We’ve got plans for one more sub-biome and after that we’ll be making a whole bunch of caves and focusing a lot on ARK’s progression related content! We still have our story to finish off, as well as getting to the end game and much more ;)

Survivor, Baron Davi asks, “There will be a Sit-on-the-ground animation or something similar to make amazing shots and machinimas?”

Answer:

Yup, we’ll be doing extra animations for our survivors, including sitting! You’ll be able to make use of the furniture items with animations too! :)

Survivor, alexw1223 asks, “Will you make Titanoboa tamable with the release of the Swamp Biome?”

Answer:

We plan to do so with the unveiling of the ARK: Fear Evolved!

Survivor, tomdvzero asks, “Will the spyglass be dyeable?”

Answer:

We’ll get around to that :)

Survivor, Major Premise asks, “Any chance of ever being able to mount the Mesopithecus on our throwable Dimorphodons?”

Probably a little overkill haha :p Fun idea though!

Survivor, Pebbles-Chan asks, “Will we be able to get Microraptors on our shoulders?”

Answer:

Yup! They’ll be able to ride on there too :)

Survivor, Dust asks, “The new inventory folders are awesome but it would be nice to have a Slot counter to know when the storage containers are full! (Vaults are the worst)

Answer:

That’s a good idea! We’ll add the slot counter in Version 217 :)

Survivor, Krypteis001 asks, “Any chance of seeing additional type of turret plants? Like maybe a species that does little to no damage but increases torpor or one that hits targets with a pheromone that attracts a swarm of ants?”

Answer:

Definitely a fun idea and something we could have a lot of fun and experimentation with. It is very likely we’ll have extra plant-turrets with unique features at some point :)

Survivor, [ITM]Apollo asks, “Can we get an ETA on when the supply drops will be updated and if so when? Plus will there be higher level drops?”

Answer:

We’ll be updating the Supply Drops to include the latest items within a couple of weeks and deal with the balance issues you guys have brought up! We’ll also be introducing ascendant drops to them! :)

Survivor, Neizan asks, “Can you say details of “Custom RP-Orientated Recipe/Cooking System (Including Skill-Based results”?”

Answer:

We’ll have a big post on this a little later on, most likely in another Digest when it’s more up and coming. However suffice to say, Brontaco was inspiring and we want survivors to make actual Brontacos in game and sell them!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=519256805

Survivor, A Big Hairy Monster asks, “Can we please get a proper chat channel system or a channel wheel? Nobody wants to use radios to coordinate alliance PvP when they have to remove the radio from their bar just to talk to their tribe”

Answer:

We’ll be doing work on the UI and Chat system as we progress however yes that’s a good point regarding the Radio. We’ll make the radio no longer override Tribe chat in the next update! Thanks for bringing it up :)

Survivor, Ash asks, “Do you guys plan on doing some kind of awesome events or speical in-game bosses, creatures or loot for the upcoming holidays? :D”

Answer:

ARK: Fear Evolved event will be the first of many! ;)

Survivor, Akaella suggests, “A new whistle command that you’d bind to a specific Dino, like a ‘favourite’. Then when you press that hotkey, only that Dinosaur would run/fly to you. Alternatively, assigning up to 3 or 5 Dinos different hotkey whistle,s so that your favourite mounts would know their own whistle and come when you called? Possible?!”

Answer:

Definitely possible and a fantastic idea! We’ll plop that on the pipeline and it’ll be done soonish :)

Survivor, Caveman asks, “Can I have tinsel and fairlights please?”

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=526896630

Answer:

Hahah! This is fantastic, we had a right laugh about it :). We’ll also need to make you a flying sled… ;) I hope you’re going to be giving out lots of presents to everyone you meet!

Survivor, DodoNation asks, “Is the Dossier guy dead? (No more new creatures)?”

Answer:

You don’t know the order in which the Dossiers were written! That may not be the order in which they have been found ;)

Survivor, Kage_Angel02 asks, “Carryable Dodo?”

Answer:

Not going to lie, it is very very tempting to do so.

Survivor, Kage_Angel02 also asks, “How about a sled for the megaloceros and the Dire Wolves to pull? Like Santa’s sleigh and a dog sled team.”

Answer:

It’s actually very complex physics to achieve that properly, which is why we haven’t quited yet achieved it. However we’re still definitely considering it and may still do it.

Survivor, Repzo asks, “I ask this every week and it never gets picked :( - Can we please have cloaks?”

Answer:

This is also another physics and animation challenge to make look good. As the content team gets freed up from more pressing matters, we’ll investigate how we may be able to pull this off effectively and nicely!

That’s it for this version of the ARK Digest! Thanks for tuning in and for your continued support everyone!

All the best,

Wildcard Jat & The ARK Survival Evolved Team!

[Raz]

So we have to wait a month or two, for the snow and swamp biome caves that were supposed to be in version 216 ? :(

[Jat]

Sorry about the shorter Q+A guys - we've got a lot to work on in terms of dev so didn't have as much time as we thought we would. Hope you still enjoy the Digest!

[Rodso]

sweet as always keep up the wonderful work

[Tyrannogon]

Thanks for answering my question! :D
Really enjoying and looking forward to upcoming and current content.

[Steve the hunter of tri.]

Well my question didn't get answered...Well next time i'll try again.

[NotDylan7055]

You didnt pick mine... :( JK, I know how many there are... I'll try next time!

[DeathDealer]

Tranq darts, hell yes

[Lv1 Magikarp]

Thanks for the latest news, exciting times ahead!

[Jayce]

Keep up the good work! I love all the updates so far! :D

[Hollow]

MORE character options please!! Hair, beards? would be awsome to finally have some more personal features for ourselves

[Kromster]

alot of soon TM's haha looking foward to it

[~Ormagodon~]

Thanks Jat and team, keep it up.

[Spiderraptor95]

I question wasnt answered but i was wondering if Allosaurus would be added anytime soon? If you cant answer though thats fine. =)

[Baker]

I have been asking this for a while now will you be redoing the character customization before release hopefully? Like more complex character customization to where everyone doesn't look the same :D?