[10/08/15] Community Crunch 22!

[Jat]

Community Crunch 22!

Greeting Survivors!

Welcome to the 22nd issue of the Community Crunch! To those unaware this is a topic which primarily consist of content to share, made by the community, for the community! As well as any little changes I want to make survivors aware about, which happen within our community ;).

Fur Creature Pass

With the introduction of the Direwolf and Megapithecus, we were able to show off our new fur generation technique! Since these creatures have been in the game, we received a lot of positive feedback about their appearance and a lot of encouragement from you guys regarding the look of our older fur creatures.

So we’re currently in the progress of during a “fur” pass on all appropriate creatures based on this technique and here are some early looks of what's to come!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=532012196

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=532012209

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=532012210

Fanart, Screenshots and more!

Jurassic ARK by Boulinosaure

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=531603687

Noah vs Pete! by Grande

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=530276966

Spinosaurus chasing a Dimorphodon by Numen

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=528224230

Pepezilla’s WIP Godzillark

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=531354807

Cold Night by I Zombie

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=531524782

Shrek by Brotaoski

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=530927558

superGiganto! by quisargreyland

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=529036218

[Jat]

Fanmade Dossier: Honeypot Ant by bugsmanjl

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=529957945

Fanmade Dossier: Kentrosaurus Clavum by Mac_intosh1172

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=529152991

Fanmade Dossier: Cryolophosaurus nix by Mac_intosh1172

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=528693931

Fanmade Dossier: Sea Krait Dossier by RAPTORrexKILLER

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=528635651

Fanmade Dossier: Godzillark by pepezilla

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=531925541

Fanmade Dossier: Cynognathus Dossier by Montrisz

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=531836752

[Jat]

Community Contests!

Every week for the foreseeable future we’ll be hosting two contests for our Community Crunch. Remember for this week (and the foreseeable future!) we'll also be accepting entries for the newly introduced: Warpaint images, human and dino tattoos/bodyart for the #ARKArt award as well as bases both on your Brontos and Rafts for #ARKitect! Can’t wait to see the platform bases, the ships and tattoos/bodyart! Also can’t wait to see your new bases in the new biomes!

ARKitect

This is a title given to the Survivor who has created, in our eyes, the best base for the week. Survivors will need to upload their screenshots to the Community Hub, both the Artwork or Screenshot section will suffice and then post them in the designated thread, it’s also possible that we’ll see the screenshots in the hub but posting them in the thread will ensure that they’ll be spotted!

We’ll be judging the bases not on the quality of the screenshot, but on the unique designs, functionality, and the use of in-game tools available to you! At the end of each week, the screenshot for the best base will be featured in our #ARKitect section of the Community Crunch!

The #ARKitect award for Community Crunch 22 goes to…

First place: Blade@xl

Blackgate Castle

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=529817965

And you can check out the rest of the screenshots here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/346110/discussions/0/483366528924674134/#c483366528925017691

Great work! Very impressive build and a huge congratulations as you are this week's ARKitect! We’ll be in touch to get the prizes handled!

Honourable Mentions / Runner ups

We’ve got a few runners up for ARKitect this week too! So big shout-out to them and we’ll be in touch too ;)!

Godan’s Castle!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=530988145

And you can check out the rest of the impressive screenshots here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/346110/discussions/0/483366528924674134/#c481115363854124398

TheRipperRyder’s Castle!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=529866264

And you can check out the rest of TheRipperRyder’s shots here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/346110/discussions/0/483366528924674134/#c483366528925051416

|*iFataL1ty*|’s Obelisk Fortress!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=531661451

We don’t get Obelisk bases very often, this is a great way to maintain control! Awesome base iFataL1ty!

And you can check out the rest of the screenshots here: http://steamcommunity.com/app/346110/discussions/0/483366528924674134/#c481115363858058692

#ARKArt

The second contest which will take place is for the #ARKArt award! This is a title given to the Survivor who has created, in our eyes, the best piece of art for that week using our new Per-Pixel painting system! Similarly to #ARKitect, Survivors will need to upload their masterpiece to the Community Hub, both the Artwork or Screenshot section will suffice and then also post them in the designated thread, it’s also possible that we’ll see the screenshots in the hub but posting them in the thread will ensure that they’ll be spotted!

The #ARKArt award for Community Crunch 22 goes to…

WoodPunk

Enter the Direwolf

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=530289959

Absolutely fantastic! Keep up the great work WoodPunk :D

[Jat]

Workshopper Spotlight!

Workshopper: Storm

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=532012212

Mod: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=505962979

Survivors, this week we're joined by Storm and they're here to answer some questions and talk about their mods with us. Thanks for joining us! Do you think you could introduce yourself to the community, and let us know about what you're currently working on?

Storm:

Hi everyone. Well, first and foremost I'm a gamer just like everyone else. I just like to mod to make games more fun for myself and my friends... and if the community also enjoys it all the better! Ultra-Realism:Total Conversion is the only Ark mod I'm working on right now.

What made you want to create Ultra-Realism and can you give us some more details about it in particular?

Storm:

ARK Survival Evolved had all the ingredients that I really wanted in a game: co-operative, survival, fun, challenging and.... dinosaurs! After playing the vanilla game to max level, and seeing that there was a DeKkit available, I realized there was all these ideas I had for the game that I could implement and make it not only fun in the endgame, but also greatly increase the replay potential in the way my friends and I liked.

So I really wanted a cooperative survival experience with my friends... not killing other players, but working with them to explore, build better bases, and take on more dangerous predators and location challenges as a team. The mod pretty much began as a way to do that, beginning with balancing aspects of the game to make it a compelling PvE experience with as much realism as possible.

What are the main features of Ultra-Realism that you think make it stand apart?

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=532012219

Storm:

I'd say most of the features described in the mod description itself are pretty compelling... but probably the main one is the re-balancing aspects. There are literally 8 Google sheet spreadsheets behind the mod that calculate damage vs health vs torpor of players, dinosaurs and weapons... plus a constant amount of tweaking and adjustment based on player feedback and developer changes to the game. For example, dinosaur knockback and impulse you wouldn't think would be a huge game-changer... but the act of knocking back dinosaurs has a big impact on fight outcomes. A stegosaurus can literally swipe a swarm of raptors away when timed right. Even dilos and their knockback can change the outcome of fights that slower hitting dinosaurs are disadvantaged in.

The focus is on challenge and fun through re-balancing and realism for both new players and veteran players tackling the end-game content. The other features tend to be around quality of life and realism.

In the long run, I'm looking to build a mod that allows a community to play on the same server for a year or more... and a reason to log in every day... whether something exciting/fun to do, or too improve/maintain their structures and dinosaurs. Long-term playability... and re-playability... is something I'm hoping the devs allow me to do with DevKit code and feature exposure.

Now I notice you've got plans to have infant dinosaurs and adult dinosaurs, will they look visually different to regular ones? What made you want to create that and are there any other customized features your subscribers can look forward to?

Storm:

The infant dinosaur idea came about as a way to access the dangerous wild carnivores: carnotaurus, tyrannosaurs and spinosaurus, without making the game too easy. For me and a lot of players, tranq'ing it and taming it with food was not realistic, and wild carnivores really needed to be raised from an egg over a longer period of time, looked after, its raw impulses trained over time. Even then, I'm hoping with code exposure I can make some unpredictable events occur with these truly dangerous dinosaurs.

Now that the devs have announced baby dinosaurs as part of the core game, my task will be to make this lifecycle as realistic as possible... encourage players to look after the babies.. juveniles... sub-adults... and hopefully get them strong enough experience to stand toe-to-toe with wild adults.

There is also something about baby dinosaurs that really appeal to girls... they are pretty cute (the baby dinosaurs I mean!)... and it was a way to encourage our girlfriends to also play the game with us. Rewarding their efforts to hatch them from eggs, feed and train them to adulthood is something that a lot of people have asked for, and will really add to the magic of Ark Survival Evolved.

As you're going for the ultra-realism theme, is balance something you consider when making changes? How has the community responded so far to the mod, do you get a lot of feedback so you know how to progress?

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=532012223

Storm:

Ultra-realism and balance go hand-in-hand, so for everything I do, balance is the first thing I think about.. and usually what motivates me to change something. I try not to change the vanilla game too much (more things to do), so only when the devs really go off in a direction that imbalances realism or PvE will I make changes.

The community has been great... I encourage and have received a lot of regular feedback, and lot of it directly influences how I evolve the mod. Also, a lot of the bug fixes are the result of some really helpful, constructive feedback from active users of the mod: special call-outs (in no particular order) to Belthize, Bull, FailFailWin, sCorporation, Turbatus, MacFearless, Scarlock, Messer Joke, and Tunnas!

When you’re working with Total Conversions, they tend to be quite ambitious for mods as the idea is you’re changing the entirety of the game. So how is your experience within modding? Is the ARK Dev Kit your first go at creating a mod or do you have some relevant experience?

Storm:

This is my first experience with the Unreal Engine Devkit, but I've done mods for Sins of a Solar Empire (Star Wars Requiem), Rome 2 Total War (Spartan and Athens Campaign Armies), Space Engineers (various Hostile Universe re-balancing and block mods) plus a bunch of lesser known titles. You can pretty much learn to mod anything if the capability exists... but having a developer supplied tool is so much easier than hacking text and binary files.

I mod for fun and no other reason by the way.

Awesome! Quite a bit of experience then! Do you have any tips or tricks for upcoming modders?

Storm:

I'll mention the 3 things that I've picked up for Ark specifically:

1) start with a basic mod that works, and gradually add more things. Test each change/feature before moving on to the next. Don't try to do 10 things at once.
2) Always test a new change and be able to roll it back if it doesn't work. There is nothing worse than doing a bunch of changes, having the mod crash and then spending a long time trying to figure out what you or the game did wrong, all the while rolling back a lot of good stuff just to bug hunt.
3) Make notes on when and where you change things... so that in case you have to build your mod from scratch, you can do it pretty quickly rather than try to remember all the locations and settings you made your change.

Thanks for the tips Storm! Very grateful and I’m sure people will take that advice and use it! And finally is there anything you'd like to end with before wrapping this up?

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=532012230

Storm:

I'd just want to commend the devs on creating a great game that really fills a niche of gaming that was not well serviced. But beyond that, for providing and maintaining the DevKit. I'd really encourage them to continue exposing as much as possible (including code!) so that the modding community can keep taking Ark Survival Evolved to new heights. I also like how the devs have taken some mod contributions and put them into the game... what a great way to use the a large community to make the game better.

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!

That’s it for this week’s Community Crunch guys! As always if you’ve got anything to share please get in touch and be sure to follow us on Twitter at @survivetheark, Facebook at www.facebook.com/survivetheark and Reddit at www.reddit.com/r/playark!

Thanks everyone!

All the best,

Wildcard Jat and the ARK Survival Evolved Team

[Zergling963]

First and nice arkitect entries! Grats to those who won!

[Raz]

ALSO check out

Co-Founder and Co-Creative Director at Studio Wildcard, Jesse Rapczak's Reddit AMA "Ask Me Anything"

https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/3o0ecn/iama_cofounder_for_recently_launched_early_access/

[fredmra]

snow lodge on northern cliffs
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=532027617
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=532027607
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=532027585
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=532027570

[jetbrain]

not interested...

[Hades]

The Fur look so good !

[Index]

Nice crunch as allways.

[Buck Fell]

Congrats on the Workshop Spotlight Storm. For those interested in a more survival oriented game play I'd definitely encourage you to look into his mod. Realism is a subjective term and Storm's doing a good job of folding in realism while keeping gameplay balanced, interesting and harder where harder doesn't necessarily mean grind.

[☦]

Saber still needs more work in the facial region especially, gigantopithecus looks pretty bad everywhere... Mammoth is good, though.

[Lightning mcKeane]

Originally posted by TAS Cheshire:

Saber still needs more work in the facial region especially, gigantopithecus looks pretty bad everywhere... Mammoth is good, though.

Wow, you're quite the pessimist, aren't you? I think it looks better that way. It doesn't look like a well groomed pet, as it currently does. Gigantopithecus doesn't have a comb to do it's hair every morning. People complain about how unrealistic the creatures are, but when they're made realistic, they complain. There's just no pleasing you, is there?

[Jynn]

Forest lodge! Majority of rooms are in the bottom most layer, to avoid spoiling the view =3

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=533203042

[☦]

Originally posted by Cenozoic Eagle:

Originally posted by TAS Cheshire:

Saber still needs more work in the facial region especially, gigantopithecus looks pretty bad everywhere... Mammoth is good, though.

Wow, you're quite the pessimist, aren't you? I think it looks better that way. It doesn't look like a well groomed pet, as it currently does. Gigantopithecus doesn't have a comb to do it's hair every morning. People complain about how unrealistic the creatures are, but when they're made realistic, they complain. There's just no pleasing you, is there?

When's the last time you saw a gorilla that looked like it took hair advice from Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump? ♥♥♥♥ outta' here.

[oXYnary]

I know this will be lost here, but maybe someone will see it\\

None of us do 9-5. I would say the typical employee works at least 50 hours (pretty standard for the industry) but a lot of us work much more than that. We are very passionate about the game. My wife jokes I quit Microsoft HoloLens to work more - and I work a LOT. Most of us do. It’s the only way to make a game like this in such a short amount of time.

No, BAD MANAGEMENT requires that. I expect this from someone like EA, Gameloft, or Rockstar, but from an "Indie"?? Look, I know indie is wearing multiple hats and does require lost of time. That said its ludicrous trying to pull out a game so quickly when you should have at least given it two years (another Industry standard I might add). You have enough funds to at least give it another 6 months beyond the June? 2016 Release date. You'll have a better project and you wont add to the burnt out people who leave this industry. Whether you admit or not, sleep deprivation takes a toll on the body and mind; you will pay for it eventually.