Is Ark: Survival Evolved a good survival game? Is it a good enough survival game to get by without its key feature: the ability to tame, breed, and ride dinosaurs? Studio Wildcard is curious to see if players will still enjoy Ark without being able to saddle up the scaly terrors of the island, so they've launched some new experimental servers to find out.

To be clear, this isn't some new game-wide policy. It's a limited test to see how people like playing Ark without their pets. Dinos will still be lumbering, flying, and swimming around, but you won't be able to make nice with them—by which I mean drug them into unconsciousness and cram food into them until they submit to your will—on these new experimental servers, which will have the capacity for 120 players, with tribes limited to only 10 people.

On the Ark community forums, Admin Jat (Jatheish Karunakaran) posted the following:

"These are a bit different to our standard servers as they do not allow players to tame, ride, or breed creatures. ARK has a lot of core survival elements to it, and we wanted to see how players would find playing the game without the help of their trusty tames. Of course, this doesn't mean we're moving to a non-dino focused environment, it's just another customisation we've introduced for everyone"

This statement was followed by a winky-face emoji that I have not reproduced here.

Personally, the experiment doesn't sound so appealing to me: I really like riding dinos and I especially like using them to gather resources. Now that I've tamed a giant beaver, going back to chopping down trees with an axe sounds like a waking nightmare. As compensation for playing with no pets, the servers will feature a 2x multiplier for harvesting and XP.

What do you think? Would you enjoy playing Ark if you couldn't put saddles on dinosaurs? You can find out for yourself: put  '[120 Players] NoTamingExperiment' into Ark's server browser filter and see how you like it. 

Sure, the Tek Tier update for Ark: Survival Evolved contains goodies like jetpacks, sci-fi weapons and structures, new dinosaurs, and laser cannons you can strap to your T-Rex's head. That all sounds great—provided you like excitement, adventure, and insane laser-dino battles. Personally, I'm more interested in how the patch will change players' faces, since the update is also adding beards that grow in real time and can be cut with craftable scissors.

As a real-life beard-haver, I realized I had a number of questions (eight) about Ark's beards, and so I went to the source for answers. Jesse Rapczak is Co-founder and Co-Creative Director of Studio Wildcard, the developer of Ark. More importantly, Jesse has a beard, and most importantly, he was willing to answer my beard-related queries.

PC Gamer: You say beards will grow in real time, but my real beard grows extremely quickly. Meanwhile, I have a friend only has to shave once a month. What type of person are you basing the beard-growth rate on: someone like me who grows hair like a werewolf or someone who barely grows hair on his face at all?

Jesse Rapczak: Hah! Good point. We mean it grows dynamically and smoothly in game, so if you really want to you can sit there and watch your character’s beard go from stubble to something Tom Hanks’ character in Cast Away would be proud of. The men AND women of ARK are both veritable beard-growing machines. Yep, you read that right.

Will server mods be able to adjust beard-growth rates on their servers?

Sure, why not.

If I transfer my bearded character to another server, will his beard remain intact?

Yes, when you transfer your character to another server your hair and beard along with any customizations (like hair dye) will transfer over.

What if I never cut my beard in-game? How long will it grow? By ‘long’ I mean, like, how long time-wise, and how long lengthwise.

In real life you’ll be waiting about 5 hours for your hair to fully grow out and 8 hours for the beard. We want there to be a constant sense of progression without making it too tedious to maintain.

When I do cut my beard, will the hair be usable as a crafting resource? If so, what could be crafted from beard hair? The only thing I can think to craft from beard hair would be a fake beard. Will I be able to cut off my real beard and craft a fake beard to wear until my real beard grows back?

Human hair is a great resource in ARK, and can be used as a substitute for Pelt. We love this because it means growing out your hair and beard can provide real benefits when you are in a pinch. In fact, cutting your hair could save your life!  

If my character dies and respawns, is beard growth reset?

Yes, hair and beards reset when you die and respawn. New characters always start naked and hairless in ARK!

Will my character’s beard continue to grow while I’m offline? In multiplayer and singleplayer?

No.

Is body hair included?

That sounds like a great idea for a mod! Maybe. 

Want to make a perfect copy of your favorite pet dinosaur? You can now, thanks to Ark: Survival Evolved's patch 257, which adds a Tek Tier cloning chamber. Have your dino step inside, and what was one is now two. That's not the only Tek goodie the patch brings: there are also new sticky grenades, cybernetic armor for Megalodons, and auto-firing turrets. And don't forget, the volcano has been transformed into the "ultra-dangerous new cave" that leads to the Ascenion end-game system. Check out the trailer above.

New dinosaurs? Yep, four of them, including giant bees that produce (presumably giant) honey. There's also a stegosaurus-like creature, though it can't be ridden because it's covered in spikes, and something known as a "Hell Pig" that has a quick-healing attribute, making it difficult to tame. There's also a new sea creature called Liopleurodon Magicus that sounds a bit mysterious:

"...this mythical creature has been said to have the ability to reward the adventurous survivors who tame it, the special attribute of luck. Treasure hunting tribes who have encountered the beast have used this magic to obtain loot beyond their wildest dreams. You're probably wondering why these claims are tales, well it's said that the Lucky Liopleurodon's magic is so powerful, it cannot be kept under control, and after some time, it harnesses this power to get away."

Okay.

Other offerings: new hairstyles and facial hair, 15 new music tracks, 20+ new explorer notes, and some more tweaks to Ark's improved UI. When the patch goes live, players will also receive a perk for the weekend granting 1.5x harvesting, taming, and EXP rates. Have a look-see at some screens below, and read the full patch notes here.

This week on the Mod Roundup, Pokémon and Monster Hunter's monsters aren't the only new creatures you can find in Ark—now there be dragons as well, five different kinds you can tame and breed.

Also, Fallout 4's cooking gets far more immersive with new sounds, effects, and animations. And finally, a mod for Skyrim makes learning spells a more complicated and rewarding process than it currently is.

Here are the most promising mods we've seen this week.

Dragontail, for Ark: Survival Evolved

Steam Workshop link

Modders sure like adding new creatures to Ark, and we're glad they do. How about some dragons, then? Here you go: five tamable, breedable, paintable dragons for you. Some are small enough to carry around, while others can be ridden, though none require saddles. These dragons don't replace existing creatures, and don't interfere with dino spawns.

Better Cooking Stations, for Fallout 4

Nexus Mods link

This mod makes a lot of really nice changes to Fallout 4's cooking stations. It adds new sounds (sizzling), new effects (embers, sparks, heat shimmer, plus an actual fire below the spit, which was missing), and new animations both for when you use them and when they're inactive (you can see the lovely swaying of the hanging meat and pot above). You can even tag them as private so your settlers can't use them—they're always helping themselves to your crafting benches, you know? Darn rude settlers.

Spell Research, for Skyrim

Nexus Mods link

It does seem a bit odd that becoming a powerful spellcaster in Skyrim mostly involves simply buying spells from other mages. Shouldn't there be a bit more involved in learning a spell? This mod turns the task into something more complex, requiring you to perform research in order to learn new spells. You can craft scrolls and tomes, break down alembic ingredients into their base components, and hunt for ancient texts and artifacts. The point is, becoming a master spellcaster requires hours and hours of work, which is as it should be.

Also this past week, I took a look at a mod that adds moving vehicles to Fallout: New Vegas! Plus, we reported on a mod that is adding Superhot's time-bending system to Portal as part of the Make It Superhot competition.

Back in November, we reported on Ark: Survival Evolved's Tek Tier update, which adds cybernetic power suits and laser cannon-equipped dinosaur helmets, among other things. Now, GameSpot reports that it arrives next week.

The update launches on January 30. It comes with a bunch of new Tek Tier power armor sets, which can grant players several different abilities. 

• Tek Vision: Identify AI enemies and creatures, in addition to players
• Tek Boots: No fall damage and the ability to climb up steep cliffs and slopes
• Tek Pants: Faster running speed
• Tek Gauntlet: Punching power increased
• Tek Rifle: Laser-shooting gun with long scope
• Jetpack
• Night Vision

The Tek abilities can be combined in various ways and are intended for Ark's end-game, and Studio Wildcard creative director Jesse Rapczak expects players to use them in boss encounters. Though you will need to defeat some bosses without the armor first, as they drop Element, a resource needed to construct the sets.

Boss battles have also been tweaked in the new update, with each now having three difficulties. Bosses you've already defeated will drop new items as well, so it might be worth it to pay them another visit.

One cool new weapon the patch delivers is the lance, which you can use to joust with another player, except there are dinosaurs instead of horses.

While the Tek Tier patch adds new weapons and dinosaurs, the thing that caught my eye the most is the sheep. GameSpot's video starts with a showstopper and demonstrates what it looks like when you cut a sheep's hair for wool. It looks good. Makes me want to play Ark myself.

Rapczak says this is "the patch to kick off the final stretch," which sounds like he's referring to the game's official launch. The game released in Steam's Early Access in June 2015, and the finished version is expected to launch sometime this year.

Ark: Survival Evolved's patch 254, originally scheduled to arrive today, has been delayed 10 days until January 30. The highly anticipated patch will include Tek Tier 1 content, which will add endgame technology like power armor, jetpacks, and dino-mounted laser cannons. The patch also promises to deliver a whole mess of new dinosaurs, craftable lances for dino-mouted jousting, and most importantly (to me, anyway), hairstyles and facial hair that grow in real time.

In a post on the Steam forums, Ark's 'Community Overlord' Jatheish Karunakaran posted the following:

"We're going to be delaying the release of Patch 254 until the 30th of January. I know a lot of you are excited and trust me, we are too. This patch is much larger than we first anticipated and we need more time to work on it in development, and through internal QA process prior public release. However soon you will get to enjoy a hell of lot of new content, and we're cooking up an extra-special surprise feature for the patch!" 

Meanwhile, Ark's free Primitive Plus DLC did receive an update today to v1.4, promising bug fixes, balancing, and new items such as a battering ram and recurve bow. It was, however, quickly rolled back fix the problems caused by the patch (there were bugs with the placement of brick walls, lumber glass walls had vanished, and birds were not dropping poultry and feathers when killed, only normal meat and hide). Hopefully that will be sorted out soon.

First Pokémon, now Monster Hunter. Modders continue their noble work to combine every game with every other game, as showcased by the efforts of garuga123, whose Monster Ark: Hunting Evolved allows you to play Ark alongside some of Monster Hunter's most iconic beasts including the Rathalos, Deviljho, Barioth, and more.

It's surprisingly fleshed out. Originally I figured garuga123 had simply reskinned some of Ark's dinos to look like dragons, but they've actually imported the animations as well. Any Monster Hunter fan will tell you that these creatures' personalities are defined more by how they move than how they look, so being able to run around with a Rathalos and have it act like it does in a proper Monster Hunter game is fantastic. An interesting twist is that you can't actually ride any of these creatures but control them directly. The original intent of the mod was to roleplay as them—which I never realized was a thing that people wanted to do.

Along with the animations, each monster also has access to a few of their signature abilities. As a Rathalos, you can shoot fireballs from the sky. Uragaans can form up into a ball and roll around the island, and the Lagiacrus can charge up a blast of lightning and devastate anything nearby. If you bump into a wild Qurupeco, it'll even mimic the call of other animals so that they come to its aid—just like the bastard does in Monster Hunter. 

Aside from some problems with clipping into the environment the only drawback is that the mod will take some effort to get working fully. Right now the only way to encounter these beasts is to spawn them in using the console commands listed in the Steam Workshop description. That's a bit disappointing if your goal is to, well, hunt for one in the wild. Fortunately, players have conjured up some code you can easily paste into a game file which should cause the creatures to begin spawning naturally in any of Ark's maps. Instructions on how to do that can be found here.

If you want to play multiplayer but don't have the patience to set up a server, this one uses it. There's even more listed in the discussion forums if that one doesn't work. Consider joining the Discord chat server so that you can give any feedback or find others to roleplay that love story between a lonely Rathalos and Rathian you've had in your head for so long.