https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1T-fyt8Hvg
Patch v278 finds its way hopping onto the ARK with many new features, fixes, and a bunch of tender loving care for some old friends! The Rex, Procoptodon, Gigantopithecus, Direwolf, and Direbear all find themselves receiving both gameplay and visual upgrades!




- Receives a model update, animation update, sound pass, and some new abilities:
- Will take reduced fall damage
- Carry weight will be noticeably increased
- Can carry small creatures and baby dinos in its pouch
- A knockback kick which can affect significantly larger dinos
- Added an aimed jump which can be used by holding down the Jump key
- Carried characters in a pouch have reduced food consumption rate when carried by Mate-Boosted Female Procoptodons.
- Babies imprinted while in a carried Procoptodon pouch receive more affinity






- Receives a model update, animation update, new fur, sound pass and some new abilities:
- The Bigfoot will receive an armour-degrading attack; this means when it fights, it'll do more damage to your armour's durability. It is important to note that the armour-degrading attack will not affect the Yeti creatures found in the game.
- Added the capability to climb ziplines (but not jump between them)
- Added a jump
- It can now carry and throw small creatures
- Throwing has been made more accurate, similarly to crabs with targetting cursor






- Receives a model update, animation update, new fur and some new abilities:
- When riding a Direbear, players will be immune to bees. They won't be able to knock you off your bear, and they will target focus the bear instead of the player.
- The Direbear will also be able to harvest honey from wild beehives without attracting bees or hurting the hive using its alternative attack. Plus the amount of honey it receives will be 3x the standard amount.
- Increased swim speed




- Receives a model update, animation update, new fur and some new abilities:
- Howl now activates a pack buff for 90 seconds (with a 1.5 minute cooldown). When the Alpha howls, the pack also howls. The pack buff strengthens the Alpha, as well as its pack (reduced amount vs Alpha)
- Hunter's Instinct passive buff which will allow it to sniff out people/creatures with less than 50% health
- Sniff tertiary ability to indicate nearby explorer notes, or to detect buried/stealth creatures






- Receives a model update, animation update, and some new abilities:
- Its roar should receive a CD and make non-allies (under a certain dragweight) poop to act as a small stun/interrupt. There will be a cooldown on victims so that they cannot be pooplocked continuously.
- The roar will not be able to scare anything above its level
- Roar will cause players to poop but not stun them
- Rex's ability to climb over small rocks and steeper slopes have been improved.



To find out all the information on what this patch brings to ARK, check out our announcement on the Community Hub!




Introducing -- The Sarcosuchus! The Sarco has been an often requested creature to receive a TLC pass. One of the earlier creatures added to the game, over time it has become overshadowed by other predators. On top of its visual update, the Sarco will also be receiving new abilities to better keep it in line with the other carnivorous creatures of the ARK.

The Sarco will be given three new attacks:

- A grab and roll attack, also known as a Death Roll. With smaller creatures the Sarco will be able to grab and roll with them in its mouth while with larger creature it will grab on and spin aggressively.
- A 180 degree attack wherein it can attack something directly behind itself by swinging its body around and biting behind itself.
- A short lunge attack where it'll be able to lunge forward to take its prey by surprise.

Sarcos are natural deterrents for Piranha's making them valuable partners when travelling through waterways and swamps. The Sarco will also prefer fish meats over regular meat for taming, and when idle will rest with its mouth open in a permanent toothy-grin.

Please remember that creatures showcased for upcoming TLC are still works-in-progress and are therefore subject to change before final release, which includes both visual redesigns, as well as gameplay changes.


Today marks the beginning of the process of removing our lower population ARK servers on PC from our Official Legacy network once again. Over time the ARK population has migrated from legacy to non-legacy and in its wake left hundreds of servers with sustained populations of 0-1 players in a significant amount of cases. In addition to taking down these servers, we will also be putting up new servers onto the network across all platforms for players to enjoy a fresh start.

Here is a quick breakdown on how this process will work.

Taking Down Low Pop Servers

With calculations based on sustained player-count as well as the popularity of game mode, we will be removing the lower 40% of legacy servers, most of which retained 0-1 concurrent population.These servers will be taken offline and some will be re-purposed for new, fresh servers that will be put up on March 9th. Any existing server that is not considered a low pop server and is not taken down 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 Deletion

You can find the list of legacy servers that we will be deprecated here.

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

We know you are all very curious about this, but we don’t have this information ready to share quite yet. What I can tell you is that we plan to continue to support all current existing game modes in some capacity, so you won’t lose access to your favourite way to play the game. This means that lower population token servers won't be deleted if they are the only server of that gamemode. We will be mainly focusing our efforts on strictly PVP and PVE servers on all maps, but will allocate servers to the other game modes based on their popularity.

Server Saves of Deleted Servers

We will make the save files available as soon as we can, which will likely be sometime before March 9th. 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.


Starting on February 13th for 48-hours, love will fill the air as we celebrate Valentines Day with our #MateBoosted Event!

The ARK will be placed under Cupid's loving spell. With this event, creatures have also been affected by Cupid's spell in the following way:

- Tames have a 5% chance to drop a Chocolate Cake when they mate. A Chocolate Cake can be used for a Full Heal or to advance 50% of a creature's taming affinity bar.
- Red, Pink, and White colored wild creatures can be found wandering the ARKs searching for true loves kiss.

All servers (including Officials) using the following commandline parameter: -vday can get some extra mate-boosted bonuses:

- Mate Boosted range increased by 2x
- Mating Speed and Mating Recovery increased by 3x
- Creature Maturing and Egg Incubation speed has been increased by 3x
- Baby Food Consumption has been decreased by 1/3

Survivors also have the opportunity to send out their own customs Valentines Day card to their loved ones. Head over to http://playark.com/valentines/ and create your custom card! We will be adding new cards for this year closer to Valentine's Day. Be sure to send us a tweet with your image attached and the #MateBoosted, so that over the course of the week we can retweet your loving messages!

To find out all the latest information, as well the full patch notes please read our entire announcement on the Community Hub!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1T-fyt8Hvg
Patch v278 finds its way hopping onto the ARK with many new features, fixes, and a bunch of tender loving care for some old friends! The Rex, Procoptodon, Gigantopithecus, Direwolf, and Direbear all find themselves receiving both gameplay and visual upgrades!




- Receives a model update, animation update, sound pass, and some new abilities:
- Will take reduced fall damage
- Carry weight will be noticeably increased
- Can carry small creatures and baby dinos in its pouch
- A knockback kick which can affect significantly larger dinos
- Added an aimed jump which can be used by holding down the Jump key
- Carried characters in a pouch have reduced food consumption rate when carried by Mate-Boosted Female Procoptodons.
- Babies imprinted while in a carried Procoptodon pouch receive more affinity






- Receives a model update, animation update, new fur, sound pass and some new abilities:
- The Bigfoot will receive an armour-degrading attack; this means when it fights, it'll do more damage to your armour's durability. It is important to note that the armour-degrading attack will not affect the Yeti creatures found in the game.
- Added the capability to climb ziplines (but not jump between them)
- Added a jump
- It can now carry and throw small creatures
- Throwing has been made more accurate, similarly to crabs with targetting cursor






- Receives a model update, animation update, new fur and some new abilities:
- When riding a Direbear, players will be immune to bees. They won't be able to knock you off your bear, and they will target focus the bear instead of the player.
- The Direbear will also be able to harvest honey from wild beehives without attracting bees or hurting the hive using its alternative attack. Plus the amount of honey it receives will be 3x the standard amount.
- Increased swim speed




- Receives a model update, animation update, new fur and some new abilities:
- Howl now activates a pack buff for 90 seconds (with a 1.5 minute cooldown). When the Alpha howls, the pack also howls. The pack buff strengthens the Alpha, as well as its pack (reduced amount vs Alpha)
- Hunter's Instinct passive buff which will allow it to sniff out people/creatures with less than 50% health
- Sniff tertiary ability to indicate nearby explorer notes, or to detect buried/stealth creatures






- Receives a model update, animation update, and some new abilities:
- Its roar should receive a CD and make non-allies (under a certain dragweight) poop to act as a small stun/interrupt. There will be a cooldown on victims so that they cannot be pooplocked continuously.
- The roar will not be able to scare anything above its level
- Roar will cause players to poop but not stun them
- Rex's ability to climb over small rocks and steeper slopes have been improved.



To find out all the information on what this patch brings to ARK, check out our announcement on the Community Hub!




Introducing -- The Sarcosuchus! The Sarco has been an often requested creature to receive a TLC pass. One of the earlier creatures added to the game, over time it has become overshadowed by other predators. On top of its visual update, the Sarco will also be receiving new abilities to better keep it in line with the other carnivorous creatures of the ARK.

The Sarco will be given three new attacks:

- A grab and roll attack, also known as a Death Roll. With smaller creatures the Sarco will be able to grab and roll with them in its mouth while with larger creature it will grab on and spin aggressively.
- A 180 degree attack wherein it can attack something directly behind itself by swinging its body around and biting behind itself.
- A short lunge attack where it'll be able to lunge forward to take its prey by surprise.

Sarcos are natural deterrents for Piranha's making them valuable partners when travelling through waterways and swamps. The Sarco will also prefer fish meats over regular meat for taming, and when idle will rest with its mouth open in a permanent toothy-grin.

Please remember that creatures showcased for upcoming TLC are still works-in-progress and are therefore subject to change before final release, which includes both visual redesigns, as well as gameplay changes.


Today marks the beginning of the process of removing our lower population ARK servers on PC from our Official Legacy network once again. Over time the ARK population has migrated from legacy to non-legacy and in its wake left hundreds of servers with sustained populations of 0-1 players in a significant amount of cases. In addition to taking down these servers, we will also be putting up new servers onto the network across all platforms for players to enjoy a fresh start.

Here is a quick breakdown on how this process will work.

Taking Down Low Pop Servers

With calculations based on sustained player-count as well as the popularity of game mode, we will be removing the lower 40% of legacy servers, most of which retained 0-1 concurrent population.These servers will be taken offline and some will be re-purposed for new, fresh servers that will be put up on March 9th. Any existing server that is not considered a low pop server and is not taken down 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 Deletion

You can find the list of legacy servers that we will be deprecated here.

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

We know you are all very curious about this, but we don’t have this information ready to share quite yet. What I can tell you is that we plan to continue to support all current existing game modes in some capacity, so you won’t lose access to your favourite way to play the game. This means that lower population token servers won't be deleted if they are the only server of that gamemode. We will be mainly focusing our efforts on strictly PVP and PVE servers on all maps, but will allocate servers to the other game modes based on their popularity.

Server Saves of Deleted Servers

We will make the save files available as soon as we can, which will likely be sometime before March 9th. 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.


Starting on February 13th for 48-hours, love will fill the air as we celebrate Valentines Day with our #MateBoosted Event!

The ARK will be placed under Cupid's loving spell. With this event, creatures have also been affected by Cupid's spell in the following way:

- Tames have a 5% chance to drop a Chocolate Cake when they mate. A Chocolate Cake can be used for a Full Heal or to advance 50% of a creature's taming affinity bar.
- Red, Pink, and White colored wild creatures can be found wandering the ARKs searching for true loves kiss.

All servers (including Officials) using the following commandline parameter: -vday can get some extra mate-boosted bonuses:

- Mate Boosted range increased by 2x
- Mating Speed and Mating Recovery increased by 3x
- Creature Maturing and Egg Incubation speed has been increased by 3x
- Baby Food Consumption has been decreased by 1/3

Survivors also have the opportunity to send out their own customs Valentines Day card to their loved ones. Head over to http://playark.com/valentines/ and create your custom card! We will be adding new cards for this year closer to Valentine's Day. Be sure to send us a tweet with your image attached and the #MateBoosted, so that over the course of the week we can retweet your loving messages!

To find out all the latest information, as well the full patch notes please read our entire announcement on the Community Hub!

It’s another exciting month in the mod program as we look to introduce you to two new and exciting mods we are sure you will like! Over the past few months we’ve introduced new mods that revamp gameplay but this month we’ll be adding a content mod and a new map.

Maps have a way of rejuvenating your passion for a game and everyone loves additional content. Especially content that adds new functions to existing mechanics you’ve used since you first started surviving. Without further ado, here are the new mods entering the program!



http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1167012339




This map is filled with vast open plains, open for you to build to your heart's desire. The map has a slight fantasy feel but relies heavily on natural landscapes, dense forests, and amazing mountains. This will be one to keep an eye on for sure!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1208371689


Saddles are, arguably, one of the most used and needed items in ARK. Something that you will see thousands of times in your gameplay. Not only do these saddles give your creatures a visible flair, some of them offer benefits such as weight reduction. Drop by the workshop page to see what dinos are coming next!





As you may know by now we are hard at work with patch v277, TLC Phase 1. If you want to keep up-to-date on everything that will be in the patch please check out the link below which is a list of patch notes so far.

https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/forums/topic/302049-tlc-phase-1v277-tentative-patch-notes-pc-eta-week-of-february-18th/

-------------

To read the rest of the Community Crunch this week, check out our announcement post on survivetheark!

Keep on surviving!

It’s another exciting month in the mod program as we look to introduce you to two new and exciting mods we are sure you will like! Over the past few months we’ve introduced new mods that revamp gameplay but this month we’ll be adding a content mod and a new map.

Maps have a way of rejuvenating your passion for a game and everyone loves additional content. Especially content that adds new functions to existing mechanics you’ve used since you first started surviving. Without further ado, here are the new mods entering the program!



http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1167012339




This map is filled with vast open plains, open for you to build to your heart's desire. The map has a slight fantasy feel but relies heavily on natural landscapes, dense forests, and amazing mountains. This will be one to keep an eye on for sure!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1208371689


Saddles are, arguably, one of the most used and needed items in ARK. Something that you will see thousands of times in your gameplay. Not only do these saddles give your creatures a visible flair, some of them offer benefits such as weight reduction. Drop by the workshop page to see what dinos are coming next!





As you may know by now we are hard at work with patch v277, TLC Phase 1. If you want to keep up-to-date on everything that will be in the patch please check out the link below which is a list of patch notes so far.

https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/forums/topic/302049-tlc-phase-1v277-tentative-patch-notes-pc-eta-week-of-february-18th/

-------------

To read the rest of the Community Crunch this week, check out our announcement post on survivetheark!

Keep on surviving!

In our previous Dino TLC updates we showed you our progress on Phase 1 of the Dino DLC pass, which includes the: Direbear, Procoptodon, Gigantopithecus, Direwolf, and Tyrannosaurus Rex. We are targeting the release of Phase 1 to take place during the week of February the 18th on PC. The plan is for the Dino TLC pass is to role out these changes in multiple phases. Throughout the next few months, some creatures will receive visual changes, as well as functional/gameplay changes.
http://steamcommunity.com/games/346110/announcements/detail/2730738399330442820
Today, we'd like to share some screenshots and provide some insight into what we're planning for Phase 2 of the TLC pass. We've been reading all your feedback and suggestions regarding the creatures; our artists and gameplay team have found it to be beneficial in the decision-making process. Something to keep in mind is that not all creatures will receive a visual update, but we will cover ones we feel (with your feedback) need it. Sometimes there may be function gameplay changes which weaken certain aspects of creatures; however, if we take anything away, we always plan to add to it through another dimension.

Please remember that these are still works-in-progress and are therefore subject to change before final release, which includes both visual redesigns, as well as gameplay changes. 




The Argentavis has long since been a favourite flyer to many. With its high health, weight, and stamina it's an essential air mount that now will be getting a bit more love. The Dino TLC will grant the Argent a new saddle that will receive reduced weight capabilities on obsidian and various other materials, and the ability to craft smithy items within the saddle.

The Argent will now be able to carry two additional passengers, one with its claws and one in its beak. The Argent will be carrying heavier than current creatures in its talons, while its beak will be able to support the weight of smaller creatures.

Lastly, upon consuming a corpse the Argent will receive rapid health regeneration, making this vulture a formidable aerial tank!




The quadruped stance of the Spinosaur has been a hotly debated since it first joined and ever since. Those for the stance enjoyed its dog-like run while those against felt like it was not true to the real-world version of the dino. With the TLC pass, the Spinosaur will now be able to operate in both a bipedal and a quadruped stance. When on two legs the Spino will move slower but be able to bite and use its claws to do increased damage, while on four legs it will be able to move faster.

Due to its affinity to water, the Spino will receive a buff which applies a bonus to movement speed, turning radius, attack damage, and health regen when fighting in water, and will last for some time after exiting the water. It will also prefer prime fish for taming (over prime meat) and have an increased chance at gathering prime fish meat.


But before we can do all of that in Phase 2, we have to get through this upcoming patch first! 

TLC Phase 1/v277 Tentative Patch Notes: ETA Week of February 18th

Please keep in mind that these notes are tentative, some parts of it may change before release (such as the values for creature-balance), as well as more general fixes included for Patch Day.

Dino TLC - The Procoptodon!
- Receives a model update, animation update, sound pass, and some new abilities:
- Will take reduced fall damage
- Carry weight will be noticeably increased
- Can carry small creatures and baby dinos in its pouch
- A knockback kick which can affect significantly larger dinos
- Added an aimed jump which can be used by holding down the Jump key
- Carried characters in a pouch have reduced food consumption rate when carried by Mate-Boosted Female Procoptodons.
- Babies imprinted while in a carried Procoptodon pouch receive more affinity

Dino TLC - The Gigantopithecus A.K.A Bigfoot!
- Receives a model update, animation update, new fur, sound pass and some new abilities:
- The Bigfoot will receive an armour-degrading attack; this means when it fights, it'll do more damage to your armour's durability. It is important to note that the armour-degrading attack will not affect the Yeti creatures found in the game.
- Added the capability to climb ziplines (but not jump between them)
- Added a jump
- It can now carry and throw small creatures
- Throwing has been made more accurate, similarly to crabs with targetting cursor

Dino TLC - Direbear!
- Receives a model update, animation update, new fur and some new abilities:
- When riding a Direbear, players will be immune to bees. They won't be able to knock you off your bear, and they will target focus the bear instead of the player.
- The Direbear will also be able to harvest honey from wild beehives without attracting bees or hurting the hive. Plus the amount of honey it receives will be 2x the standard amount.

Dino TLC - The Direwolf!
- Receives a model update, animation update, new fur and some new abilities:
- Howl now activates a pack buff for 5 minutes (with a minute cooldown). When the Alpha howls, the pack also howls. The pack buff strengthens the Alpha, as well as its pack (reduced amount vs Alpha)
- Hunter's Instinct passive buff which will allow it to sniff out people/creatures with less than 50% health
- Sniff tertiary ability to indicate nearby explorer notes, or to detect buried/stealth creatures

Dino TLC - The Rex!
- Receives a model update, animation update,  and some new abilities:
- Its roar should receive a CD and make non-allies (under a certain dragweight) poop to act as a small stun/interrupt. There will be a cooldown on victims so that they cannot be pooplocked continuously.
- The roar will not be able to scare anything above its level
- Roar will cause players to poop but not stun them
- Rex's ability to climb over small rocks and steeper slopes have been improved.

Creature Specific Bug Fixes & Balance Balance
- Dragon's Fire Breath direct impact damage reduced by 50%
- Fixed a bug which caused Rock Drake and Wyvern eggs to sink below their nests over time.
- Added Rock Golem Saddles to Scorched Earth Loot Table
- Added Basilisk and Rock Drake Saddles to Aberration Loot Table
- Uploaded Creature stats now display Movement Speed and Melee Damage
- Fixed a case where certain creatures would get stuck under the map/inside the map when colliding with larger creatures (most noticeably seen the Rock Drake and Basilisk)
- Fixed a case where certain creatures would get stuck under the map/inside the map when colliding with larger creatures (most noticeably seen the Rock Drake and Basilisk)
- Fixed an issue which was causing a desync with the Reaper's collision
- No longer need pheromone to claim Reaper Kings
- Moschops will no longer flee when told to harvest dino corpses
- Fixed a bug where some creatures would not be able to attack at low server FPS
- Bronto's and Paracer's breeding time have increased by 50% (equivalent to Quetz)
- Reduced Bronto HP gain per level by 33%
- Reduced Bronto base HP by 10%
- Reduced Paracaratherium base HP by 10%
- Reduced Paracer HP gain per level by 25%
- Reduced Tuso Base HP by 20%
- Reduced Tuso HP gain per level by 25%
- Reduced Dunky resistance to bullets to 40%
- Reduced Dunky other resistances to 60%
- Stego Plate Resistant reduced to 30%
- TEK Tapejara no longer inflicts raid damage (how you inflict torpor on titan, krab, and golem)
- AI Option for Dinos to only attack conscious targets added to Titanboa
- Skittish Stance added to tamed dinos

General
- Creative Mode building
- Server option to disable fog
- ARK will now scan your steam achievements and update your local profile accordingly to restore any lost skins/hairstyles.
- Add messages to tribe logs with information about uploading and downloading creatures
- Made a respawning player not targettable by Wild AI
- Option to hide learned engrams
- Players can now directly go from Proning to Crouching position
- Ambient Sounds have their own volume slider
- Right Click Context option added to folders to equip everything insider, allowing for rapid gear switching
- Created a "Use Last PIN Code" so players can quickly access secured structures
- Silencer now hides the name of the player who has killed you from the kill message and tribe log
- Server Option to make Supply Crates random (?RandomSupplyCratePoints=true)
- Option to enable NVIDIA Ansel on Servers (-ServerAllowAnsel)
- Prevented specific graphical flags from being invited via .ini files
- AxisMapping is now taken into account when underwater
- Cooldown added to tribe's changing their name
- 5 Second character and base immunity added to ORP servers when first logging in
- Fixed a collision issue affecting some dino gates that allowed unintended entry
- Fixed multiple unintended mechanics (will explain in a bit more detail after the update drops ;))
- Fixed an issue where the Tek Teleporter built on pillars/ceilings would push players and creatures beneath it.
- Fixed a crash caused by using ForceTame when riding a Dino
- Improved Red Crystal collision so they can be harvested more efficiently by Anky
- Corrected the Aquatic Mushroom description
- Removed collision from glowsticks which would cause movement problems with certain creatures
- Fixed multiple client/server crashes
- Fixed an issue where some zip line anchors were outside of replication range, preventing them from being used.
- Fixed a case which would allow players mounted on certain creatures to throw/place C4 a lot further (e.g. Stego)
- Corrected an incorrect icon with the Seeker Dossier
- Fixed a case where teleporting outside of a large base with the TEK Teleporter would show foliage that was harvested
- Fixed multiple map issues (holes and collision)
- Fixed a case where some foliage would not replicate appropriately on Aberration




Survivors across ALL Platforms will be receiving a special Evolution Event perk this weekend! It's already live now and will remain active until Tuesday the 29th of January at 3 PM EST. All Official Servers will be undergoing this evolutionary change which includes:

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

-------------

To read the rest of the Community Crunch this week, check out our announcement post on survivetheark!

Keep on surviving!

In our previous Dino TLC updates we showed you our progress on Phase 1 of the Dino DLC pass, which includes the: Direbear, Procoptodon, Gigantopithecus, Direwolf, and Tyrannosaurus Rex. We are targeting the release of Phase 1 to take place during the week of February the 18th on PC. The plan is for the Dino TLC pass is to role out these changes in multiple phases. Throughout the next few months, some creatures will receive visual changes, as well as functional/gameplay changes.
http://steamcommunity.com/games/346110/announcements/detail/2730738399330442820
Today, we'd like to share some screenshots and provide some insight into what we're planning for Phase 2 of the TLC pass. We've been reading all your feedback and suggestions regarding the creatures; our artists and gameplay team have found it to be beneficial in the decision-making process. Something to keep in mind is that not all creatures will receive a visual update, but we will cover ones we feel (with your feedback) need it. Sometimes there may be function gameplay changes which weaken certain aspects of creatures; however, if we take anything away, we always plan to add to it through another dimension.

Please remember that these are still works-in-progress and are therefore subject to change before final release, which includes both visual redesigns, as well as gameplay changes. 




The Argentavis has long since been a favourite flyer to many. With its high health, weight, and stamina it's an essential air mount that now will be getting a bit more love. The Dino TLC will grant the Argent a new saddle that will receive reduced weight capabilities on obsidian and various other materials, and the ability to craft smithy items within the saddle.

The Argent will now be able to carry two additional passengers, one with its claws and one in its beak. The Argent will be carrying heavier than current creatures in its talons, while its beak will be able to support the weight of smaller creatures.

Lastly, upon consuming a corpse the Argent will receive rapid health regeneration, making this vulture a formidable aerial tank!




The quadruped stance of the Spinosaur has been a hotly debated since it first joined and ever since. Those for the stance enjoyed its dog-like run while those against felt like it was not true to the real-world version of the dino. With the TLC pass, the Spinosaur will now be able to operate in both a bipedal and a quadruped stance. When on two legs the Spino will move slower but be able to bite and use its claws to do increased damage, while on four legs it will be able to move faster.

Due to its affinity to water, the Spino will receive a buff which applies a bonus to movement speed, turning radius, attack damage, and health regen when fighting in water, and will last for some time after exiting the water. It will also prefer prime fish for taming (over prime meat) and have an increased chance at gathering prime fish meat.


But before we can do all of that in Phase 2, we have to get through this upcoming patch first! 

TLC Phase 1/v277 Tentative Patch Notes: ETA Week of February 18th

Please keep in mind that these notes are tentative, some parts of it may change before release (such as the values for creature-balance), as well as more general fixes included for Patch Day.

Dino TLC - The Procoptodon!
- Receives a model update, animation update, sound pass, and some new abilities:
- Will take reduced fall damage
- Carry weight will be noticeably increased
- Can carry small creatures and baby dinos in its pouch
- A knockback kick which can affect significantly larger dinos
- Added an aimed jump which can be used by holding down the Jump key
- Carried characters in a pouch have reduced food consumption rate when carried by Mate-Boosted Female Procoptodons.
- Babies imprinted while in a carried Procoptodon pouch receive more affinity

Dino TLC - The Gigantopithecus A.K.A Bigfoot!
- Receives a model update, animation update, new fur, sound pass and some new abilities:
- The Bigfoot will receive an armour-degrading attack; this means when it fights, it'll do more damage to your armour's durability. It is important to note that the armour-degrading attack will not affect the Yeti creatures found in the game.
- Added the capability to climb ziplines (but not jump between them)
- Added a jump
- It can now carry and throw small creatures
- Throwing has been made more accurate, similarly to crabs with targetting cursor

Dino TLC - Direbear!
- Receives a model update, animation update, new fur and some new abilities:
- When riding a Direbear, players will be immune to bees. They won't be able to knock you off your bear, and they will target focus the bear instead of the player.
- The Direbear will also be able to harvest honey from wild beehives without attracting bees or hurting the hive. Plus the amount of honey it receives will be 2x the standard amount.

Dino TLC - The Direwolf!
- Receives a model update, animation update, new fur and some new abilities:
- Howl now activates a pack buff for 5 minutes (with a minute cooldown). When the Alpha howls, the pack also howls. The pack buff strengthens the Alpha, as well as its pack (reduced amount vs Alpha)
- Hunter's Instinct passive buff which will allow it to sniff out people/creatures with less than 50% health
- Sniff tertiary ability to indicate nearby explorer notes, or to detect buried/stealth creatures

Dino TLC - The Rex!
- Receives a model update, animation update,  and some new abilities:
- Its roar should receive a CD and make non-allies (under a certain dragweight) poop to act as a small stun/interrupt. There will be a cooldown on victims so that they cannot be pooplocked continuously.
- The roar will not be able to scare anything above its level
- Roar will cause players to poop but not stun them
- Rex's ability to climb over small rocks and steeper slopes have been improved.

Creature Specific Bug Fixes & Balance Balance
- Dragon's Fire Breath direct impact damage reduced by 50%
- Fixed a bug which caused Rock Drake and Wyvern eggs to sink below their nests over time.
- Added Rock Golem Saddles to Scorched Earth Loot Table
- Added Basilisk and Rock Drake Saddles to Aberration Loot Table
- Uploaded Creature stats now display Movement Speed and Melee Damage
- Fixed a case where certain creatures would get stuck under the map/inside the map when colliding with larger creatures (most noticeably seen the Rock Drake and Basilisk)
- Fixed a case where certain creatures would get stuck under the map/inside the map when colliding with larger creatures (most noticeably seen the Rock Drake and Basilisk)
- Fixed an issue which was causing a desync with the Reaper's collision
- No longer need pheromone to claim Reaper Kings
- Moschops will no longer flee when told to harvest dino corpses
- Fixed a bug where some creatures would not be able to attack at low server FPS
- Bronto's and Paracer's breeding time have increased by 50% (equivalent to Quetz)
- Reduced Bronto HP gain per level by 33%
- Reduced Bronto base HP by 10%
- Reduced Paracaratherium base HP by 10%
- Reduced Paracer HP gain per level by 25%
- Reduced Tuso Base HP by 20%
- Reduced Tuso HP gain per level by 25%
- Reduced Dunky resistance to bullets to 40%
- Reduced Dunky other resistances to 60%
- Stego Plate Resistant reduced to 30%
- TEK Tapejara no longer inflicts raid damage (how you inflict torpor on titan, krab, and golem)
- AI Option for Dinos to only attack conscious targets added to Titanboa
- Skittish Stance added to tamed dinos

General
- Creative Mode building
- Server option to disable fog
- ARK will now scan your steam achievements and update your local profile accordingly to restore any lost skins/hairstyles.
- Add messages to tribe logs with information about uploading and downloading creatures
- Made a respawning player not targettable by Wild AI
- Option to hide learned engrams
- Players can now directly go from Proning to Crouching position
- Ambient Sounds have their own volume slider
- Right Click Context option added to folders to equip everything insider, allowing for rapid gear switching
- Created a "Use Last PIN Code" so players can quickly access secured structures
- Silencer now hides the name of the player who has killed you from the kill message and tribe log
- Server Option to make Supply Crates random (?RandomSupplyCratePoints=true)
- Option to enable NVIDIA Ansel on Servers (-ServerAllowAnsel)
- Prevented specific graphical flags from being invited via .ini files
- AxisMapping is now taken into account when underwater
- Cooldown added to tribe's changing their name
- 5 Second character and base immunity added to ORP servers when first logging in
- Fixed a collision issue affecting some dino gates that allowed unintended entry
- Fixed multiple unintended mechanics (will explain in a bit more detail after the update drops ;))
- Fixed an issue where the Tek Teleporter built on pillars/ceilings would push players and creatures beneath it.
- Fixed a crash caused by using ForceTame when riding a Dino
- Improved Red Crystal collision so they can be harvested more efficiently by Anky
- Corrected the Aquatic Mushroom description
- Removed collision from glowsticks which would cause movement problems with certain creatures
- Fixed multiple client/server crashes
- Fixed an issue where some zip line anchors were outside of replication range, preventing them from being used.
- Fixed a case which would allow players mounted on certain creatures to throw/place C4 a lot further (e.g. Stego)
- Corrected an incorrect icon with the Seeker Dossier
- Fixed a case where teleporting outside of a large base with the TEK Teleporter would show foliage that was harvested
- Fixed multiple map issues (holes and collision)
- Fixed a case where some foliage would not replicate appropriately on Aberration




Survivors across ALL Platforms will be receiving a special Evolution Event perk this weekend! It's already live now and will remain active until Tuesday the 29th of January at 3 PM EST. All Official Servers will be undergoing this evolutionary change which includes:

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

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To read the rest of the Community Crunch this week, check out our announcement post on survivetheark!

Keep on surviving!

At the end of last year, we were very excited to share with you the early progress of our Dino TLC update! We know it's something you guys have been looking forward to for a long time, so here we are with another update!

The plan is for the Dino TLC pass to role out in multiple phases. Throughout the next few months, some creatures will receive visual changes, as well as functional/gameplay changes. We are targetting the release of Phase 1 to take place during the week of February the 18th. In addition to Dino TLC Phase 1, we will also be rolling out our turret limit to all Official Servers.

Today, we'd like to share some more screenshots and provide some insight into what we're planning for Phase 1 of the TLC pass! We've been reading all your feedback and suggestions regarding the creatures; our artists and gameplay team have found it to be beneficial in the decision-making process. Something to keep in mind is that not all creatures will receive a visual update, but we will cover ones we feel (with your feedback) need it. Sometimes there may be function gameplay changes which weaken certain aspects of creatures; however, if we take anything away, we always plan to add to it through another dimension.

Please remember that this is still work-in-progress (especially the fur!) and therefore will be subject to change before final release, which includes both visual redesigns, as well as gameplay changes. Anywho, without further ado!

The Direbear



We believe the Direbear is in relatively secure place at the moment. Though, we're still planning on making a few changes to it!

When riding a Direbear, players will be immune to bees. They won't be able to knock you off your bear, and they will target focus the bear instead of the player.

In addition to this change, the bear will also be able to harvest honey from wild beehives without attracting bees or hurting the hive. Plus the amount of honey it receives will be 2x the standard amount.

The Procoptodon



Right now, if you're using The Procoptopdon, it's primarily for transportation. We don't see it as a highly combative mount, more so a utility creature with its fantastic jump, and ability to carry a second person.

Here's what we're planning:

The Procotopdon will take reduced fall damage; its carry weight will be noticeably increased, and it will gain the new ability to carry baby dinos and small creatures in its pouch.

We figure that puts the creature in a decent spot, and the suggestion of using the pouch to carry babies was excellent, thanks /r/playARK!

Ah, we've forgotten something...

Oh yeah! We're going to give it a kick! It'll be a pretty tough, and even be able to knock back some significantly large creatures!

The Gigantopithecus A.K.A Bigfoot!



We had quite a few ideas pop into our heads when coming up with some additional abilities for the Bigfoot. Did it need more strength and fighting abilities? What about how well it moves? Could we provide it with some new features? Ultimately, here's what we've settled on:

The Bigfoot will receive an armour-degrading attack; this means when it fights, it'll do more damage to your armour's durability. It is important to note that the armour-degrading attack will not affect the Yeti creatures found in the game.

Its movement needed some work! So we'll be giving it the ability to jump, which is kinda critical, considering it will need to know how to hop on and off all the zip-lines it's going to climb! Yup, that's right. It'll be able to use zip-lines!

In addition to those changes, we'll also be improving it's throwing ability, so it's more accurate (similarly to the Crab) and providing it with the ability to carry (on its shoulder) small creatures and throw them!

The Direwolf!



It's a wolf.. and what are wolves good for? Hunting. Now if you're a wolf, and you're hunting, what exactly are you going to rely on the most? Your nose!

In Phase 1 of the update, we'll be introducing a new ability, a passive buff, as well as changing how it's howl and pack buff currently work.

First of all, the howl will activate the pack buff for a duration of time (we're thinking 5 minutes right now). This means it won't be active all the time, but to compensate, we'll be strengthing the buff to make the wolves stronger. As a little bonus is that when the Alpha Wolf howls, so will all the others! We're also planning for this mechanic play out with wild wolves too.

As for its nose, we're doing two things. We're providing it with a passive buff which allows it to sniff out people or creatures with less than 50% health, and this will be indicated via an icon. Think of it like the hunter's instinct.

Secondly, we'll be giving it a 'Sniff' tertiary ability to indicate nearby explorer notes, as well as detect stealth or buried creatures.

and finally...

The Tyrannosaurus Rex



It's in a pretty strong place at the moment; it's considered one of the top-tier creatures. It is used continuously to fight bosses, as well as often seen in PVP. So we didn't want to give it too many changes to avoid making it overpowered, here's what our plan is:

We're going to improve it's movement/climbing ability so that it doesn't get stuck behind small rocks and can climb up steeper slopes.

We're also planning to change the Roar. When targetting an enemy and using the roar, the enemy will be forced to poop. There will be a cooldown on both the Rex and people who have recently pooped, so you can't pooplock them with 10 Rexes.

That pretty much covers it for Phase 1 of the TLC-pass, let us know what you think, whether we're missing anything glaringly obvious! We're also planning (not definite!) on carrying out more visual changes to the following creatures: Spino, Sarco, Carno, Raptor, Female Deer, Plesio, and Argie. Let us know what you'd like to see improved with those, as well as any other creatures you think may need some love that we're overlooking.


http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1263948262

Check out the latest NVIDIA GeForce® Experience™ and #GameReady driver for exciting new ways to customize the look of your ARK with NVIDIA Freestyle! There are 15 available filters, 38 different settings, and many possible combinations, enabling you to create a truly unique look for your gameplay with just a few clicks!

Freestyle game filter and Ansel photo mode features will be available in beta. Just download the latest GeForce Experience app (release 3.12) and Game Ready Driver (release 390) and enable Experimental Features in GeForce Experience settings. Join the beta and be the first to try these new features in GeForce Experience today

Check out this articles for all the latest details and how to use the Freestyle filters on your ARK!


We'll also be introducing a new category to our Nvidia Ansel contests for all Freestyle entries! You can submit images or a video (up to 1 minute long) using the new awesome filters for a chance to win 200$ (double our normal Ansel reward). Check out our contest submission thread for all the details!




Survivors across ALL Platforms will be receiving a special Evolution Event perk this weekend! It's already live now and will remain active until Monday the 15th of January at 12 PM EST. All Official Servers will be undergoing this evolutionary change which includes:

2x Harvesting Rate
2x Taming Rate
2x EXP Rate
2x Maturing
2x Less Breeding Interval
2x Mating

You can check out our full crunch for all the latest news here!

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:

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All the best,
Studio Wildcard