Hello Survivors!

It’s been quite a few months since we first announced the Alienware Modding Contest! The submission period has now ended and there have been a number of fantastic submissions for the contest, we’ve been thoroughly impressed with what we’ve seen for such a short period of time, especially considering how relatively new the game and the ADK is itself! So congratulation to all those who’ve entered.

Alienware Modding Contest

The Voting period is now open! Public Voting will take place from November the 4th 12:00 PDT through November 17 11:59PM PDT. Scroll over the Mod screenshot images and select “like” to cast your vote for the entries that best meet the contest objective!

Judging

The contest objective was to make use of our Dev Tools to create a mod that best meets the following criteria:

Originality / creativity
Does the Entry look and sound engaging
Does it look like it would be fun to play?

We would also like to extend our apology to a lot of you workshoppers who were unable to enter the contest due to region restrictions. We appreciate all the work you guys put into developing your mods and there’s a lot of fantastic ones out there that weren’t able to be show-cased. For future competitions and events, we’ll ensure that everyone around the world will be able to participate!

You can check out the mega-thread to see all the submissions.




This week we’ve combined the Community Crunch and ARK Digest into a mega-thread again, you can check it out here!

Hello Survivors!

It’s been quite a few months since we first announced the Alienware Modding Contest! The submission period has now ended and there have been a number of fantastic submissions for the contest, we’ve been thoroughly impressed with what we’ve seen for such a short period of time, especially considering how relatively new the game and the ADK is itself! So congratulation to all those who’ve entered.

Alienware Modding Contest

The Voting period is now open! Public Voting will take place from November the 4th 12:00 PDT through November 17 11:59PM PDT. Scroll over the Mod screenshot images and select “like” to cast your vote for the entries that best meet the contest objective!

Judging

The contest objective was to make use of our Dev Tools to create a mod that best meets the following criteria:

Originality / creativity
Does the Entry look and sound engaging
Does it look like it would be fun to play?

We would also like to extend our apology to a lot of you workshoppers who were unable to enter the contest due to region restrictions. We appreciate all the work you guys put into developing your mods and there’s a lot of fantastic ones out there that weren’t able to be show-cased. For future competitions and events, we’ll ensure that everyone around the world will be able to participate!

You can check out the mega-thread to see all the submissions.




This week we’ve combined the Community Crunch and ARK Digest into a mega-thread again, you can check it out here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wrt21WitQBc

While greater in size than most large predators, the Giganotosaurus is sometimes less dangerous when encountered in the wild, due to its sluggish speed. Even still, getting trapped or chased down by a Giganotosaurus often means certain death for nearly any creature.

Taming a Giganotosaurus is a dangerous prospect. Its rage reaction, even when tamed, can sometimes cause it to briefly turn on members of its own tribe. Indeed it may even throw off its rider if it has been sufficiently angered! And yet, the sheer size and immense power that the Giganotosaurus possesses means that some factions endeavor to tame it as a fear-inducing "capital" beast of war -- even at great risk!

Fighting a Giganotosaurus directly is always a bad idea, as its rage rapidly grows with every hit it takes. With this rage, it builds increasing reserves of energy to use, making its iron-jawed bites progressively more deadly and enhancing its stamina.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wrt21WitQBc

While greater in size than most large predators, the Giganotosaurus is sometimes less dangerous when encountered in the wild, due to its sluggish speed. Even still, getting trapped or chased down by a Giganotosaurus often means certain death for nearly any creature.

Taming a Giganotosaurus is a dangerous prospect. Its rage reaction, even when tamed, can sometimes cause it to briefly turn on members of its own tribe. Indeed it may even throw off its rider if it has been sufficiently angered! And yet, the sheer size and immense power that the Giganotosaurus possesses means that some factions endeavor to tame it as a fear-inducing "capital" beast of war -- even at great risk!

Fighting a Giganotosaurus directly is always a bad idea, as its rage rapidly grows with every hit it takes. With this rage, it builds increasing reserves of energy to use, making its iron-jawed bites progressively more deadly and enhancing its stamina.

A new Dino Dossier has been revealed, this one is everyone’s favorite ferocious territorial grizzly beast, the Direbear!

A new Dino Dossier has been revealed, this one is everyone’s favorite ferocious territorial grizzly beast, the Direbear!

During the Bonus Round today, there was some speculation about the tribe "Outlaws", specifically the member "Kamikaze Sensei.", and potential 3rd party program use.

Over the course of the tournament, we had several members of staff observing this player and their tribe, recording video footage from several angles, and overall observing gameplay and team movements.

We have composed a video of the most convincing elements of our evidence, which are available for review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eopMquWRTCM

The player has advertised his services as a competitive multiplayer hacker on similar products: http://imgur.com/a/oSKmO

After thoroughly reviewing the footage as well as the gameplay logs and information provided by other players in the game, it is the determination of our GMs and Administrative staff that this evidence of “ESP” usage by ‘Team Outlaws’ Tribe member justifies eliminating Team Outlaws from their 3rd place winners positions in both this tournament match, and in previous The Last Stand Finale Match, where they had come in 2nd place.

As we have said many times, use of third party programs or in-game exploits that leverage an advantage over other teams are grounds for disqualification from these competitive Tournaments and banning from our Official Server Network. As such, Team Outlaws will no longer be allowed to attend further tournaments, and have forfeited their prizes in both games. The teams beneath them in standing will be awarded their prizes and so forth (the team in fourth place in The Last Stand tournament will be awarded third place, etc).

The rankings now sit at:







While it is always going to be a tense subject, we invite people to review the footage so that there isn't a black-box of accusations in this regard. We always make these calls with much care and deliberation -- we also have made sure that multiple people have seen the footage and given us their feedback before coming to any final decision ourselves, so know that this isn’t just one judge having the final say. We contacted the offending player, and to date have received no video or viable explanations that would make these gameplay actions possible without use of cheat programs.

In the future, not only will we have improved client and server-side anti-cheat measures in place (we've got VAC active with banhammers incoming, and are looking to partner up on server and client-side anti-cheat.), but that players who participate will understand that we are watching carefully, recording footage, and keeping a close eye on what goes on. Furthermore in subsequent Tournaments, indications of cheat usage will involve an immediate summary ban from the session, not an after-the-fact review.

Thank you all for your continued support, and we again extend our congratulations to the winning teams, who played excellently and ferociously!




Due to the events of this round, we are again going to be hosting one more final round for, yes, an ADDITIONAL prize pool! This will take place on Saturday the 7th of November from 1PM EST to 4:30PM EST. This will be a BikeMan-shoutcasted 3.5 Hour SotF Match and all ~240 survivors who took part in the Last Stand Finale or Bonus Round are invited to play again! This special round will feature the following prizes for the top tribes;


$12,000 cash
In-Game Golden Custom Trophy with your names


$6,000 cash
In-Game Silver Custom Trophy with your names


$2,400 cash
In-Game Bronze Custom Trophy with your names

Finally, we want to say thank you for everyone’s participation in Survival of the Fittest -- both the players themselves, and also the viewers of these dynamic competitive matches. It’s not always a straight line to keep these high-stakes games free of controversy -- but we give it our best shot, continually improve, and have fun playing the ultimate competitive survival simulator along everyone! We hope to see all the badass contestants back-in-action next Saturday for another high-pressure bout of bloody dino carnage, and until then, Keep on Surviving!

Wildcard Jat and the ARK Survival Evolved Team

P.S. Molnman of Tribe BUMBI sent us this video of a super cool 1v5 kill spree he got in recent SotF game, which we had to share because it’s so impressive -- nice gaming Molnman! :)
http://www.twitch.tv/molnman/v/23245230

During the Bonus Round today, there was some speculation about the tribe "Outlaws", specifically the member "Kamikaze Sensei.", and potential 3rd party program use.

Over the course of the tournament, we had several members of staff observing this player and their tribe, recording video footage from several angles, and overall observing gameplay and team movements.

We have composed a video of the most convincing elements of our evidence, which are available for review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eopMquWRTCM

The player has advertised his services as a competitive multiplayer hacker on similar products: http://imgur.com/a/oSKmO

After thoroughly reviewing the footage as well as the gameplay logs and information provided by other players in the game, it is the determination of our GMs and Administrative staff that this evidence of “ESP” usage by ‘Team Outlaws’ Tribe member justifies eliminating Team Outlaws from their 3rd place winners positions in both this tournament match, and in previous The Last Stand Finale Match, where they had come in 2nd place.

As we have said many times, use of third party programs or in-game exploits that leverage an advantage over other teams are grounds for disqualification from these competitive Tournaments and banning from our Official Server Network. As such, Team Outlaws will no longer be allowed to attend further tournaments, and have forfeited their prizes in both games. The teams beneath them in standing will be awarded their prizes and so forth (the team in fourth place in The Last Stand tournament will be awarded third place, etc).

The rankings now sit at:







While it is always going to be a tense subject, we invite people to review the footage so that there isn't a black-box of accusations in this regard. We always make these calls with much care and deliberation -- we also have made sure that multiple people have seen the footage and given us their feedback before coming to any final decision ourselves, so know that this isn’t just one judge having the final say. We contacted the offending player, and to date have received no video or viable explanations that would make these gameplay actions possible without use of cheat programs.

In the future, not only will we have improved client and server-side anti-cheat measures in place (we've got VAC active with banhammers incoming, and are looking to partner up on server and client-side anti-cheat.), but that players who participate will understand that we are watching carefully, recording footage, and keeping a close eye on what goes on. Furthermore in subsequent Tournaments, indications of cheat usage will involve an immediate summary ban from the session, not an after-the-fact review.

Thank you all for your continued support, and we again extend our congratulations to the winning teams, who played excellently and ferociously!




Due to the events of this round, we are again going to be hosting one more final round for, yes, an ADDITIONAL prize pool! This will take place on Saturday the 7th of November from 1PM EST to 4:30PM EST. This will be a BikeMan-shoutcasted 3.5 Hour SotF Match and all ~240 survivors who took part in the Last Stand Finale or Bonus Round are invited to play again! This special round will feature the following prizes for the top tribes;


$12,000 cash
In-Game Golden Custom Trophy with your names


$6,000 cash
In-Game Silver Custom Trophy with your names


$2,400 cash
In-Game Bronze Custom Trophy with your names

Finally, we want to say thank you for everyone’s participation in Survival of the Fittest -- both the players themselves, and also the viewers of these dynamic competitive matches. It’s not always a straight line to keep these high-stakes games free of controversy -- but we give it our best shot, continually improve, and have fun playing the ultimate competitive survival simulator along everyone! We hope to see all the badass contestants back-in-action next Saturday for another high-pressure bout of bloody dino carnage, and until then, Keep on Surviving!

Wildcard Jat and the ARK Survival Evolved Team

P.S. Molnman of Tribe BUMBI sent us this video of a super cool 1v5 kill spree he got in recent SotF game, which we had to share because it’s so impressive -- nice gaming Molnman! :)
http://www.twitch.tv/molnman/v/23245230

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7b1fbryWOY

For the next week the ARK is undergoing a spooky seasonal change where the air is cooler, the days shorter and the nights longer, and a Blood-Moon shines brightly as bats and creepy-crawly creatures of the night appear above ground.



Survivors should take care when exploring the island as the mythical DodoRex stomps across the land with an army of blood-thirsty zombie dodos in tow, and a variety of re-animated Skelesaurs walk the lands.



For those brave enough to face their fears, there will be a number of new items to craft and collection including thatch-rich scarecrows, custom Jack-o-Lantern carvings, Skelesaur Costumes, Candy-Corn loot drops, Witch Hats, Masks and a Saddle for your spider! You’ll also be granted the opportunity to tame endlessly-rejuvenating Zomdodos, Bats, show off artifacts collected from your adventures in the dangerous caves and of course earn a brand new Steam Achievement!



Looking to cram your friends full of sugary multicoloured, recycled wax-candies shaped like triangles? Keep an eye out for our Candy-Corn supply crates, which we've stuffed full of ARK free-game codes. Once you get one, you can gift it to apologize to your friend for force-feeding them terrible candies that nobody wants.

We’re also running a little Fear: Evolved contest! The first survivor to post a video of them killing the DodoRex on an Official PvP Server will win a 100$ Steam Wallet Giftcode! (they can be working with other Players/Tribe of course, but we'll only have one code to send to the player who actually posts the video). Here is where you’ll want to submit.

Wishing all you Survivors a Happy Halloween!

Wildcard Jat & The ARK Survival Evolved Team

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7b1fbryWOY

For the next week the ARK is undergoing a spooky seasonal change where the air is cooler, the days shorter and the nights longer, and a Blood-Moon shines brightly as bats and creepy-crawly creatures of the night appear above ground.



Survivors should take care when exploring the island as the mythical DodoRex stomps across the land with an army of blood-thirsty zombie dodos in tow, and a variety of re-animated Skelesaurs walk the lands.



For those brave enough to face their fears, there will be a number of new items to craft and collection including thatch-rich scarecrows, custom Jack-o-Lantern carvings, Skelesaur Costumes, Candy-Corn loot drops, Witch Hats, Masks and a Saddle for your spider! You’ll also be granted the opportunity to tame endlessly-rejuvenating Zomdodos, Bats, show off artifacts collected from your adventures in the dangerous caves and of course earn a brand new Steam Achievement!



Looking to cram your friends full of sugary multicoloured, recycled wax-candies shaped like triangles? Keep an eye out for our Candy-Corn supply crates, which we've stuffed full of ARK free-game codes. Once you get one, you can gift it to apologize to your friend for force-feeding them terrible candies that nobody wants.

We’re also running a little Fear: Evolved contest! The first survivor to post a video of them killing the DodoRex on an Official PvP Server will win a 100$ Steam Wallet Giftcode! (they can be working with other Players/Tribe of course, but we'll only have one code to send to the player who actually posts the video). Here is where you’ll want to submit.

Wishing all you Survivors a Happy Halloween!

Wildcard Jat & The ARK Survival Evolved Team