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Hostile World v1.12

2-9-2016 I've decided that I can't keep putting time into this mod.

ARK's dev kit is glitchy to the point of being unusable and its capabilities are nowhere near extensive enough to do the job on this RIGHT.

So to all of you who have used the mod, I appreciate your time. If somebody wanted to take over the project they'd be welcome to, though at this point you might as well just start over. The recent rebalancing has turned this into something very close to a do-over anyway.

(To be clear the game still NEEDS the mod, I've just had to choose between this and other projects.)

Thanks everyone.

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Think of Hosile World as your first few exciting hours of ARK extended all the way into the endgame.

The intent behind the mod is to rebalance The Island to turn a 300-hour completion into an ongoing, dynamic play experience. Early game vanilla ARK is difficult and challenging, but as soon as players get their first cat or carno leveled up, the game rolls over and plays dead. Hostile world repairs that imbalance.

This is a Total Conversion and it is NOT clean or stackable (though clean and stackable mods will function with it most likely). It may function with maps other than The Island, but it uses custom spawn mapping and replaces all the original spawn lists, so results will vary wildly.

The Island itself has been modified to create a progressive play experience, in which players move out from their spawn zones in search of resources as their technology advances.


-----Specific Changes Include-----

All vanilla alphas have been rebalanced and several new ones have been added:
Sarco
Sabertooth
Argentavis
Megalodon
Plesiosaur

In addition, many other animals have been buffed or modified. (Be on the lookout for hostile variants.)

Some resource spawns have been removed or reduced to re-balance gameplay.

New dino spawn zones have been added.

Alpha damage to metal and stone has been tweaked (and spike walls can now return damage to alphas).

Vanilla ARK has no *challenging* boss content. Hostile world's Broodmother has been modified and rebalanced and loot tables added to provide players with crafting patterns for new armor. (Bring a couple of friends and your best dinos!)

A new boss has been added with further drops and bonuses. Can you kill it?

Originator gear! In a full set of Originator armor, players should have a reasonable chance of killing alphas on foot--if they're lucky.


-----Possible Future Developments-----

I'd love to build a system that actually detects players' level of advancement and creates appropriate challenges for them. (A goal beyond what the dev kit is currently capable of.)
Failing that, there is still a great deal that can be done with dino AI (and possibly spawn mechanics, though this is more difficult) to spice up players' survival experience.

I'd also like to make bosses involve a skill check, rather than just being about health and melee damage. (The capability for this is already built into the game. As lag is reduced, this becomes more and more realistic.) Really, the sky is the limit here. Apes and Gigants and... Bugs? Oh my!

Other possible developments:
More Bosses! (World bosses anyone? Alpha Gigantosaur, Mosasaur or Quetzal maybe?)
More Weapons/Armor!
Make carnivores go out of their way to 'investigate' structures.
Taming high level dinos involve fighting off waves of hungry carnivores.
The jungle slowly closes back in on dwellings.

I'd love to hear from you! Let me know what you'd like to see in Hostile World, or what you like/don't like about the mod.

Finally, if you have an eye for modeling and you'd like to get involved (or an interest in being a part of the project in some other way), let me know.

We have a live private server, feel free to join us.
Name: ARK Rebalanced: Hostile World & Endgame (IP 173.199.99.164:21000)

Hope you enjoy ARK: Hostile World & Endgame!