[09/07/15] Introducing the Therizinosaurus & ARK Digest 15!

[Jat]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=514651018

Dino Dossier

A new Dino Dossier has been revealed, this one is everyone’s favorite versatile harvester, the Therizinosaurus!

ARK Digest

Hey Survivors!

Welcome to the fifteenth 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!

We know it’s been a little while since you’ve read one of these and we’re terribly sorry about that, things have been very exciting at Studio Wildcard the past two weeks what with our latest additions, tournaments and events, however the team have taken their Rockwell concoctions and are feeling much better and ready to get back into full swing of things!

We’ve got a lot in store for you across the coming weeks so stay tuned for some big announcements and be sure to keep an eye out on the patch-notes so you can see what to expect!

Survival of the Fittest: Unnatural Selection

Last week we held the finale to our marathon-style tournament of a specialized Survival of the Fittest mode, which featured some gameplay modifications and introduced the Dragon! The entire tournament was a blast to watch and we saw a wide range of tactics and strategy being deployed by contestants throughout the preliminaries and in the finals itself.

As a studio we learn a lot from these events as it helps us to pinpoint areas of the game we can look into and also see what players are enjoying in the moment and we’re very grateful to all of you who entered the tournament from the preliminaries to the final contestants, as well as those of you who tuned in to watch and support your favourites go for gold!

The tournament definitely had an interesting ending, with a surprising winner! You can read more about the event and finale here and be sure to check out the VOD if you haven’t already!

As we head into September, we want to tell all of our Survival of the Fittest players that they should get ready for the ultimate challenge, “The Last Stand”! This Epic event will test the mettle of the most hardened competitive Tribes out there, and a certain megalithic gorilla will be making their grand appearance. Expect more details very soon ;)!

ARK Digest Q&A!

This will be an extended Q&A catching up on a lot of the questions you guys have asked over the past two-weeks! Hopefully you’ll find this very insightful and thank you for being so patient <3.

Make sure to read the first few replies to this thread to get the entire Q+A!

Survivor, Dies Fourth asks, “Any plans for the Primitive Official Servers to give us the tools to remove all the abandoned 1x1 stone foundations and reclaim/reuse/recycle those abandoned bases?”

Answer:

In the next deployment, we’ll actually go ahead and enable PvP demolishing with a half-timer on primitive servers. We’ve also got the upcoming Ballista turret that you guys can look forward to! It will be available in the primitive tier and it will be able to piece stone structures with it’s powerful arrows.

Survivor, Zero asks, “Just wondering if there is an ETA on the new Biomes?”

Answer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W6as8oVcuM

They’ll being prepared to deploy in September! Here’s some more concept-art for what you can expect to see ;)

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=514647256

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=514647259

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=514647257

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=514647136

Survivor, DanteYoda asks, “What’s the ETA on the buildable saddles?”

Answer:

They’re rolling out with patch v207!

Survivor, ben asks, “Could there be some kind of forcefield in the Tek tier?

Answer:

Wouldn’t be a Sci-Tek without a force-field now, would it? ;)

Survivor, ben also asks, “Do you plan on making more sounds for different footsteps for different creatures, different terrains, etc? I’d love to be able to hear my deer clik-clak on stone or ground :D”

Answer:

Yup! It’s really important to us that we get the ambiance of the game correct and you guys really feel immersed, including listening to all the sounds of the ARK. We’ll be doing a fully-detailed sound pass as we proceed through early access, including differing footsteps per material type!

Survivor, Colonel Siberia asks, “Will there perhaps be some sort of creature that would be very hard to tame, but could enhance the harvesting rate of allied creatures and players?”

Answer:

Definitely an interesting idea! At the very least, Therizonosaur is an excellent harvester itself, and it’ll have different attacks to specialize in harvest different kind of things.

Survivor, Derpy Hooves asks, “Will there be more clothing or themed outfits in the near future? Maybe clothing based off the Dinos/monsters we defeat?”

Answer:

Yes! We’ll definitely be including more themed armour in the game, with the Snow Biome we’ll be introducing fur outfit made from Mammoths!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=514647147

Survivor, jafitz13 asks, “Will you continue to improve the building aspect of the game, so that placing objects, walls, etc where you want them isn’t always tedious?”

Answer:

Yup, we’ll definitely be doing this. We’ll be taking baby-steps and improving as we go along. We’re going to be shortly adding the capability to “flip” structure pieces and we’ve got much more on the horizon.

Survivor, Snowy007 asks, “Do the elevator platforms need power? If yes, are more primitive versions planned?”

Answer:

Yep, in their current state the elevators will require power. As we proceed we’ll be considering introducing a primitive version to the game.

Survivor, DeadlyAccurate asks, “Can we get categories for the workshop? Maps, Total Conversions etc?”

Answer:

This is almost done! Having a bit of trouble getting it working at the moment but we’ve contacted Valve for the final step :)

Survivor, wwelver suggests, “Ballistics/Chemist station: A place to take base ammo/weapons and add effects to them in the same way you would use a cooking pot. No further engrams necessary. This is your handy station for adding narco, poison, stim, rage, pyro, and explosive effects to any of your ammo/weapons with the option of many more without adding 6-10 engrams per weapon ammo.”

Answer:

Now this is a neat idea! We’ll see ;) we can say that we’re considering flaming arrows now that we’ve got a proper fire debuff!

Survivor, wwelver asks, “Can we destroy folders that we make by mistake?”

Answer:

Yup. Just select that folder and hit the ‘Delete’ key on your keyboard - that should take care of it.

Survivor, Kamizard asks, “Are you going to be releasing more types of drops? Like for level 75 and onward?”

Answer:

Yes, once we have the next two bosses in we’ll be introducing more supply drops for the higher-levels.

[Jat]

Survivor, Kamizard also asks, “Are we getting any new recipes with fruit and stuff?”

Answer:

Yup, as the next biomes get implemented they’ll be coming with new seeds from these areas that will yield new recipes!

Survivor, Casimyr asks, “PvE option to disable Gamma change?”

Answer:

“DisablePvEGamma” in version 207! :)

Survivor, Casimyr also asks, “What happened to the ceiling gate for bird dinos and the like?”

Answer:

This is still happening! It’ll be here soon™……….

Survivor, marvalman99 asks, “When do you plan to add feed-taming to herbivores so we don’t have to knock them out?”

Answer:

We’ll be hoping to do this in October. Before then we’ve got some things to implement that take higher priority involving Creature Breeding, and we want to make sure we properly balance non-violent taming for both Herbivores and Carnivores.

Survivor, marvalman99 also asks, “Will dossiers expand pass just animals (because people research more than just fuana) such as dossiers for certain areas and even flora that we find?”

Answer:

Most likely :)

Survivor, deconglenrich asks, “Will we be able to have a “Wild Only” option for Auto Turret for PvE, and if so when do you think we’ll see it in game?”

Answer:

Turrets should attack wild creatures only using the default setting on PvE? Though we probably shouldn’t have any settings at all during PvE, we’ll think about removing it.

Survivor, Rochele asks, “Could you make the feeding trough into a rally point for dinos? So you can bring them to a trough and set them to it. Once their set they’ll return if you die when they are following you. And when they are set to wander they’ll wander within a distance of the trough. If they run out of food they could return automatically to their feeding trough. You could even give them a “go home” command to send them back to the feeding trough.”

Answer:

At the moment this would be very difficult to implement due to the complexity of pathfinding required for an AI to navigate from arbitrary location in the ARK all the way back home, or to its designated rally point. However, we’ll continue to brainstorm ways in order for us to create this effect.

Survivor, drakeamis asks, “Will there be a way to “auto-sort” items in an inventory by type, weight or alphabetical order? I’m tired of having all my items in random orders, and like things neat and organized.”

Answer:

This is something we’re currently working on! We’re hoping to have both the inventory sorting and filtering options available quite soon.

Survivor, Okim asks, “With all these new amazing specialized creatures that you are announcing will the original beasts be revised? Trike, Stego, Sarco, Phioma may benefit on having some extra juice added to them.

Answer:

Yup! The first wave of creatures that we implemented into the ARK will be getting a TLC pass.

Survivor, Okim also asks, “How will the war paint actually work? Is it the same per-pixel way of drawing over the body of the dino? Will there be symmetry toggles (to make asymmetrical painted dinos?)”

Answer:

The War Paint is indeed per-pixel painting of creatures using a paintbrush (with the option to save your painting templates!) and it already supports asymmetry! :D

Survivor, Moonlight101 asks, “When will we be able to land and walk our flying mounts?”

Answer:

Alrighty! It’ll be coming in next week as it requested so often :P

Survivor, Generaal asks, “There are quite a lot of hackers on Official Servers, what are the next steps to address this? I know you can report but that seems to be not enough”

Answer:

Currently they’re being manually banned and we’re going to be bringing on some more server-monitoring admins. We’re also working on some anti-hack options for the game as a server-side option and they’ll be available soon. This is something we’ll continue to look into and aim to prevent in the future as it’s not tolerated on the ARK.

Survivor, Slatinator asks, “There are three confirmed bosses for the game so far: The BroodMother, Albino King Kong, and the Dragon. Can you tell us a 4th? Pretty please?

Answer:

It’s very large.

Survivor, Old Donny asks, “When will we get our sweet curly mullets?”

Answer:

It’s looking like October so that you guys can be all scruffy for Halloween!

Survivor, Linuka asks, “Would it be possible to get a secondary hotbar (even if it is only for 1 or 2 slots) for the dinos we are riding when mounted? It would be nice to be able to feed berries or meat without having to open up the inventory window every time.”

Answer:

That’s a pretty cool idea, we’ll work on it :D.

Survivor, MeisterKleister asks, “What is the status on server logs? They are desperately needed.”

Answer:

Admin command logs were the first step to introducing logs to ARK. e’ll be doing general server logs over the month.

Survivor, Rinjii asks, “How in depth does WildCard intend to make Breeding? Features such as Genotype, Phenotype, stat heredity, gestational periods (both internally and externally via eggs), mating seasons, mating migrations, nests, parental investment, precocial/altricial offspring based on species and so on. This is my most anticipated mechanic in the game and I cant wait to see how it is implemented.”

Answer:

First pass on breeding is scheduled for September so you’ll have to wait a little to find out ;).

Survivor, zachattackboom asks, “Is there an ETA for the Dire Wolf?”

Answer:

September!

[Jat]

Survivor, Trappel22 asks, “Is there an ETA for the Mosasaurus, its Dossier was shown like 2 months ago, so it’s like the “oldest” dossier that isn’t in the game right now. Really looking forward to this beast!”

Answer:

October :D.

Survivor, ivantmyburd asks, “Sl1pg8r cosmetic hat? http://174.142.61.111/forum/files/arrow_hat_693.png”

Answer:

Yup! We’ll add such a cosmetic hat-skin and a Box-man hat skin soonish too ;)

Survivor, major lag asks, “When will we see player stats/engrams reset? Many of us would like to redo our stats and engrams. Especially with so much added.”

Answer:

Patch v207!
New Item: Craftable "Amnesiac Soup" that resets all of your Engrams and Skill Points!

Survivor, Durich asks, “Any plans on some non-animal threats to the world of ARK? Like carnivorous plants or some kind of living vine that would entangle players and unsuspecting small dinos that might get too close?”

Answer:

Yup! This is likely to happen as we get later into Early Access.

Survivor, Fish asks, “With the introduction of the Doedicurus; will you be adding the ‘withdrawing into the shell’ ability to the Carbonemys? As it does appear in the Carbonemys’ dossier.”

Answer:

Yup, we’ll be making adding it to that Dino when it gets it’s TLC pass!

Survivor, ukeurquhart99 asks, “Will you/ can you please add a command to kill all wild dinosaurs? (Not just all dinos including tamed)”

Answer:

Version 207! :) DestroyWildDinos cheat command, instantly destroys all Wild Dinos. Useful if you want to force repopulation of the ARK... sounds apocalyptic.

Survivor, FPimenta asks, “Any news on the South American Servers?”

Answer:

We should have some up in Brazil in the next day or so! Hang in there bud :).

Survivor, Tier asks, “Can we get some alpha predators out in the water soon? (Megalodon/Plesiosaur)?”

Answer:
Haha, that’s fantastic! It’s not very often that we get asked to make the game more difficult! Ask and ye shall receive ;).

Survivor, GeTLoW asks, “Will you ever be making Dino that collects just seeds? If so when do you plan on releasing it?”

Answer:

Heck yes we will! However let’s not commit to a date just yet! :P

Survivor, Major Premise asks, “Will we ever see temporary, transportable structures for those of us who might want to run Nomadic tribes at some point? Something like tents, tipis, yurts, etc that we can carry around as we move our dino herds to good pasturage and such? :)”

Answer:

Ther new building-on-raft and building-on-dinos should allow survivors to be very nomadic! (i.e have a bed with no fixed foundation), however we’ll see if we need to introduce more options to allow this playstyle.

Survivor, =AC3= Mastaccolli asks, “Could we pretty please get an icon over our dinos if they are in the feeding radius of a trough?”

Answer:

That’s a good idea! Done in version v207.

Survivor, Herr Pie asks, “Do the devs have any plans to add a "go to" command for tamable dinos? As we already have a command attached to the spyglass, "attack target," perhaps with another key stroke one could put in a "go to targeted ground point". Kinda like in the games Ground Control or Battlezone or others.”

Answer:

Yeah, that is certainly on our to-do list :).

Survivor, TickTurd asks, “Can we please please please have the ability to place crop plots on structures as promised?”

Answer:

As of version v207 you’ll be able to! :)

Survivor, DracoSerpentor77 asks, “Piranhas were stated to be a tameable creature in a future update thanks to the new taming system, but from what I've seem, some piranhas are in areas that are entirely secluded from the main ocean. So that makes me wonder, will we be able to make our own pool/tank filled with water (Above groud, of course)? and we could have a barrel tool that we use to scoop up our piranhas in said barrel?”

Answer:

We’re certainly thinking along those lines ;).

Survivor, Kage_Angel02 asks, “Absolutely love the sign painting. Will the painting be limited to just signs, players and dinos skins? War paint armor would be pretty awesome, or drawing your tribe logo on the gate doors.”

Answer:

For now it’ll just be available for signs, players and dinosaur skins. However if it works out well and players are both enjoying it and making use of it, it’ll be easy for us to adapt more structures or armour to the system!

Survivor, Kage_Angel02 also asks, “Any word on when the sign/flag copy/paste option will be added? Remaking tribe logos are a pain.”

Answer:

As of patch v207 you’ll be able to do this! Plus they’re separate files on disk, so you can share them by just sharing the file :D.

Survivor, tonster76 asks, “Will anything like draw bridges be added? ‘m thinking of draw bridges for castles in the middle ages.”

Answer:

That’s certainly an amusing idea and something we’ll consider ;).

[Jat]

Survivor, Darktrooper117 asks, “Will Plant Species X ever grow naturally in the wild?”

Answer:

Bahahah, of course! ;)

Survivor, Rekt asks, “When will we get an “Eat All” function or the previously mentioned eat 10x berries button?”

Answer:

Ah yeah, we’ll need to work on that. For now however you can hold the hotkey # on the inventory UI to rapidly consume items.

Survivor, AkiTsugi asks, “Have you considered letting us make folders in vaults? To stop the endless scrolling?

Answer:

You can count on it AkiTsugi! it’ll be happening soon :)

Survivor, Deathkap asks, “Will we eventually have a way of growing rare mushrooms and rare flowers?”

Answer:

Hm, probably! Definitely is a good idea.

Survivor, wwelver asks, “Could we please have a skittish command where, if attacked a dino will run? Or a “get rider” command so that if they’re attacked they get under the tamer and flip them into the saddle?”

Answer:

Not so sure about the get-rider command, might be a little confusing ;P however definitely like the idea of a Skittish stances! We’ll have that in sometime :).

Survivor, Barclim20 asks, “Are we going to have more surveillance type equipment?”

Answer:

At the modern and Tek levels, most certainly :)

Survivor, Atlantahammy asks, “Will we be getting a soundtrack to download? I want the Dragon’s music! It’s so epiiiic.

Answer:

Let’s ask ARK’s musician, Gareth Coker!

asks Gareth
Will let you know when he responds

Survivor, belhaal asks, “Are there any plans for wall mounted lighting? If not, can we please have them? =) Torches for primitive and electric for modern.”

Answer:

Yup! We’ll be adding those in a “Furnishings” pass that’ll be occurring shortly.

Survivor, belhaal also asks, “When can we expect to see the Cyan Dye as a craftable recipe, given that it already exists?”

Answer:

It’ll be craftable as of v207! :)

Survivor, Neizan asks, “Could you show us a screenshot of powered elevator structures?”

Answer:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=514647258

Survivor, Maltheus asks, “Can you let us name our refrigerators?”

Answer:

Sure! In as of version 207.

That’s it for this week’s ARK Digest! Thanks for tuning in and hopefully you’ve walked away learning something new ;). Thanks for all the support, engagement, and feedback so far!

All the best,

Jat & The ARK Survival Evolved Team!

[BART CHIMPSON]

I'm the first?

[WhiteSky_(steemdeck)]

[Virtex]

comment :P

EDIT: i was looking forward to this but after reading that felt that you just answered questions that are really answered with the patch notes :/ no hate but i and maybe others would of loved other questions answered about the future of the games, still seeing questions answered were just from the patch notes.

INB4 H8

[Ace Trainer Mitch]

Thats weinerific

[Zero]

Thank you so much for answering my question and revealing the concept muchly appreciated

[Luketh]

I do like that the writing style of this new dossier has tried to go back to the original style of the dossiers, but it still seems a little too matter of fact rather than an island survivor's personal diary.

Pretty exciting stuff though!

[Hella scrupMan]

on the subject of a primitive elevator, how about it requires a wheel that you can put a couple raptors or doedicuri in, who will power the elevator for you? i need something for my low level raptors to do, so i might as well have them power my luxuries, right?

[~Ormagodon~]

Looks good!

I'm very glad this got answered:
Survivor, Moonlight101 asks, “When will we be able to land and walk our flying mounts?”

Answer:

Alrighty! It’ll be coming in next week as it requested so often :P

[Pants]

Originally posted by Mr. Skeltal:

I'm the first?

I think so...?...

[BrizzTv]

**EXCITED**

[Deamonsatwar]

WHOOT hey can you release direwolf on sep 22? its my birthday and i LOVE wolves!!! XD

[I Want MY Burd]

I'm glad the older dinos are getting revamped!

And I'm glad we'll be getting arrow hats x)