It is finally here! This is the first time we've done a public beta branch for ARK, so here is a lengthy but necessary introduction.

As a quick starting note: Before accessing a beta branch you should create a backup of any single player games, characters, or server files that you may have for ARK to prevent any corruption or loss of player data from occurring. When you’re done playing with the beta you’ll need to navigate back to the branch selection dialogue and opt-out of the beta (choose NONE). You cannot access your official server while on the beta because they are not the same version. Depending on your internet connection this process could take some time so if you’re doing anything time sensitive on your official server, be cautious of swapping!



How to access the beta:
From your Steam games library, right-click on ARK: Survival Evolved and choose Properties. From this new window you’ll click on BETAS at the top. Here is where you’ll swap between the beta version and the live version of the game. 

Choose the beta called qolbeta_public from the drop down list and then close the Properties window once the window says it has successfully accessed the beta. Your Steam client will begin to download the beta (at the time of this post, v290.103). 

Depending on your internet connection this process could take some time. You can tell you are successfully on the beta when [qolbeta_public] appears next to ARK: Survival Evolved on your Steam games list. 

Providing feedback:
In order for us to effectively analyze feedback from beta users we have set up two separate threads, one for Structures Plus related feedback and one for the Kibble changes. Please use these threads linked below when reporting issues, bugs, and feedback to us.

Feedback about Structures Plus changes:
https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/forums/topic/399606-structure-plus-beta-feedback/

Feedback about Kibble changes:
https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/forums/topic/399609-kibble-rework-beta-feedback/

Please see the first comment under this post for currently known issues. We will be taking your feedback into serious consideration regarding both of these changes. Once we're happy with where these features are at, we will be bringing them over to the PC main game.

Changes on the beta include:

Structures:

- Structure quick pickup time is now configurable in ini file (ServerSettings -> StructurePickupTimeAfterPlacement, default = 30)
- Added new ini config option to ignore the duration and always allow quick pickup (ServerSettings -> AlwaysAllowStructurePickup, default = false)
- Improved quick pickup HUD text to avoid overlapping other text, and duration is now formatted as a timestamp if over 60 seconds to support very long timers.
- Enabled structure quick pickup for ALL structures. For structures that previously had pickup disabled, they now auto-disable quick pickup as soon as the player interacts with the structure in any way (unless AlwaysAllowStructurePickup is set to true)

New structures/variants:

- 'Smooth' sidewall textures variants (like the stone foundation) to the stock square foundations [Adobe, Metal, Stone, Tek, Thatch, Wood]
- Triangle foundations [Adobe, Metal, Stone, Tek, Wood]
- Triangle ceilings [Adobe, Metal, Stone, Tek, Wood, Greenhouse]
- Triangle roofs [Adobe, Metal, Stone, Tek, Wood, Greenhouse]
- Large (4x height) walls [Adobe, Metal, Stone, Tek, Wood]
- Flexible pipe [Stone, Metal]
- Flexible electrical cable
- Stairs (with freely swappable ramp variant) [Adobe, Metal, Stone, Tek, Wood]
- Double door frames [Adobe, Metal, Stone, Tek, Wood]
- Double doors [Adobe, Metal, Stone, Tek, Wood]
- Dedicated storage (Tek structure that allows storing a large amount of a single resource)
- Fence supports (allows you to build fences that are level along the top) [Adobe, Metal, Stone, Tek, Wood]

The blueprint paths for the new structures are listed below so you can spawn them in for testing. You can also use creative mode for easier and faster building. With admin enabled you can type cheat gcm into the console (press Tab) to enable creative mode.

Triangle Foundations
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Foundations/Triangle/Adobe/PrimalItemStructure_TriFoundation_Adobe.PrimalItemStructure_TriFoundation_Adobe'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Foundations/Triangle/Metal/PrimalItemStructure_TriFoundation_Metal.PrimalItemStructure_TriFoundation_Metal'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Foundations/Triangle/Stone/PrimalItemStructure_TriFoundation_Stone.PrimalItemStructure_TriFoundation_Stone'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Foundations/Triangle/Tek/PrimalItemStructure_TriFoundation_Tek.PrimalItemStructure_TriFoundation_Tek'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Foundations/Triangle/Wood/PrimalItemStructure_TriFoundation_Wood.PrimalItemStructure_TriFoundation_Wood'" 10 0 0

Triangle Ceilings
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Ceilings/Triangle/Adobe/PrimalItemStructure_TriCeiling_Adobe.PrimalItemStructure_TriCeiling_Adobe'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Ceilings/Triangle/Greenhouse/PrimalItemStructure_TriCeiling_Greenhouse.PrimalItemStructure_TriCeiling_Greenhouse'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Ceilings/Triangle/Metal/PrimalItemStructure_TriCeiling_Metal.PrimalItemStructure_TriCeiling_Meta'l" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Ceilings/Triangle/Stone/PrimalItemStructure_TriCeiling_Stone.PrimalItemStructure_TriCeiling_Stone'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Ceilings/Triangle/Tek/PrimalItemStructure_TriCeiling_Tek.PrimalItemStructure_TriCeiling_Tek'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Ceilings/Triangle/Wood/PrimalItemStructure_TriCeiling_Wood.PrimalItemStructure_TriCeiling_Wood'" 10 0 0

Triangle Roofs
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Roofs_Tri/Adobe/PrimalItemStructure_TriRoof_Adobe.PrimalItemStructure_TriRoof_Adobe'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Roofs_Tri/Greenhouse/PrimalItemStructure_TriRoof_Greenhouse.PrimalItemStructure_TriRoof_Greenhouse'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Roofs_Tri/Metal/PrimalItemStructure_TriRoof_Metal.PrimalItemStructure_TriRoof_Metal'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Roofs_Tri/Stone/PrimalItemStructure_TriRoof_Stone.PrimalItemStructure_TriRoof_Stone'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Roofs_Tri/Tek/PrimalItemStructure_TriRoof_Tek.PrimalItemStructure_TriRoof_Tek'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Roofs_Tri/Wood/PrimalItemStructure_TriRoof_Wood.PrimalItemStructure_TriRoof_Wood'" 10 0 0

Stairs
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Ramps/Adobe/PrimalItemStructure_Ramp_Adobe.PrimalItemStructure_Ramp_Adobe'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Ramps/Metal/PrimalItemStructure_Ramp_Metal.PrimalItemStructure_Ramp_Metal'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Ramps/Stone/PrimalItemStructure_Ramp_Stone.PrimalItemStructure_Ramp_Stone'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Ramps/Tek/PrimalItemStructure_Ramp_Tek.PrimalItemStructure_Ramp_Tek'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Ramps/Wood/PrimalItemStructure_Ramp_Wood.PrimalItemStructure_Ramp_Wood'" 10 0 0

4x Height Walls
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Walls_L/Adobe/PrimalItemStructure_LargeWall_Adobe.PrimalItemStructure_LargeWall_Adobe'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Walls_L/Metal/PrimalItemStructure_LargeWall_Metal.PrimalItemStructure_LargeWall_Metal'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Walls_L/Stone/PrimalItemStructure_LargeWall_Stone.PrimalItemStructure_LargeWall_Stone'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Walls_L/Tek/PrimalItemStructure_LargeWall_Tek.PrimalItemStructure_LargeWall_Tek'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Walls_L/Wood/PrimalItemStructure_LargeWall_Wood.PrimalItemStructure_LargeWall_Wood'" 10 0 0

Double Doorframes
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Doorframes_Double/Adobe/PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoorframe_Adobe.PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoorframe_Adobe'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Doorframes_Double/Greenhouse/PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoorframe_Greenhouse.PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoorframe_Greenhouse'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Doorframes_Double/Metal/PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoorframe_Metal.PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoorframe_Metal'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Doorframes_Double/Stone/PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoorframe_Stone.PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoorframe_Stone'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Doorframes_Double/Tek/PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoorframe_Tek.PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoorframe_Tek'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/Doorframes_Double/Wood/PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoorframe_Wood.PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoorframe_Wood'" 10 0 0

Double Doors
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Doors/Doors_Double/Adobe/PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoor_Adobe.PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoor_Adobe'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Doors/Doors_Double/Greenhouse/PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoor_Greenhouse.PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoor_Greenhouse'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Doors/Doors_Double/Metal/PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoor_Metal.PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoor_Metal'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Doors/Doors_Double/Stone/PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoor_Stone.PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoor_Stone'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Doors/Doors_Double/Tek/PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoor_Tek.PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoor_Tek'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Doors/Doors_Double/Wood/PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoor_Wood.PrimalItemStructure_DoubleDoor_Wood'" 10 0 0

Fence Supports
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/FenceSupports/Adobe/PrimalItemStructure_FenceSupport_Adobe.PrimalItemStructure_FenceSupport_Adobe'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/FenceSupports/Metal/PrimalItemStructure_FenceSupport_Metal.PrimalItemStructure_FenceSupport_Metal'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/FenceSupports/Stone/PrimalItemStructure_FenceSupport_Stone.PrimalItemStructure_FenceSupport_Stone'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/FenceSupports/Tek/PrimalItemStructure_FenceSupport_Tek.PrimalItemStructure_FenceSupport_Tek'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Structures/FenceSupports/Wood/PrimalItemStructure_FenceSupport_Wood.PrimalItemStructure_FenceSupport_Wood'" 10 0 0

Flex Pipes and Wires
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Pipes/Flex/Metal/PrimalItemStructure_PipeFlex_Metal.PrimalItemStructure_PipeFlex_Metal'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Pipes/Flex/Stone/PrimalItemStructure_PipeFlex_Stone.PrimalItemStructure_PipeFlex_Stone'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Wires/Flex/PrimalItemStructure_Wire_Flex.PrimalItemStructure_Wire_Flex'" 10 0 0

Tek Dedicated Storage
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/StructuresPlus/Misc/DedicatedStorage/PrimalItemStructure_DedicatedStorage.PrimalItemStructure_DedicatedStorage'" 10 0 0

Kibble:

All eggs have been assigned a value based on the size and rarity of the egg. These sizes include: Extra Small, Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large, and Special. The eggs are used in a recipe to create kibble of a coinciding value, which are: Basic, Simple, Regular, Superior, Exceptional, and Extraordinary. 

The blueprint paths for these new kibbles are listed below so you can spawn them in for testing:

cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Items/Consumables/PrimalItemConsumable_Kibble_Base_XSmall.PrimalItemConsumable_Kibble_Base_XSmall'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Items/Consumables/PrimalItemConsumable_Kibble_Base_Small.PrimalItemConsumable_Kibble_Base_Small'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Items/Consumables/PrimalItemConsumable_Kibble_Base_Medium.PrimalItemConsumable_Kibble_Base_Medium'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Items/Consumables/PrimalItemConsumable_Kibble_Base_Large.PrimalItemConsumable_Kibble_Base_Large'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Items/Consumables/PrimalItemConsumable_Kibble_Base_XLarge.PrimalItemConsumable_Kibble_Base_XLarge'" 10 0 0
cheat giveitem "Blueprint'/Game/PrimalEarth/CoreBlueprints/Items/Consumables/PrimalItemConsumable_Kibble_Base_Special.PrimalItemConsumable_Kibble_Base_Special'" 10 0 0

The recipes for these new kibbles are as follows:

Basic: 5 Fiber, 5 mejoberries, 10 tintoberries, 10 amarberries, 1 cooked meat, 1 extra small egg
Simple: 5 Fiber, 5 mejoberries, 2 rockarrot, 1 cooked fish, 1 small egg
Regular: 5 Fiber, 2 savoroot, 2 longrass, 1 cooked jerky, 1 medium egg
Superior: 5 Fiber, 2 citronal, 2 rare mushroom, 1 cooked prime, 1 sap, 1 large egg
Exceptional: 5 Fiber, 10 mejoberries, 1 rare flower, 1 focal chili, 1 extra large egg
Extraordinary: 5 Fiber, 10 mejoberries, 1 honey, 1 lazarus chowder, 1 special egg

Regarding previously crafted kibble:

- Old kibbles will not be wiped, and will inherit their new "value/color" appropriately.
- Old kibbles will still work to tame their appropriate creatures.
- Old kibble will no longer be craftable, only the new types will be craftable.

Further notes:
If you have a single player or unofficial save file it is worth loading it up on the beta and checking if there are any obvious bugs or compatibility issues. Your pre-existing structures should see no changes on the beta, and kibble that is already crafted should work as normal. If there are any inconsistencies you notice, please report them to us using the threads linked above so we can address them.

Attention builders!
Fancy yourself a top tier builder? We want to see what you can do with the new structure changes! 

Hop into the beta and build to your heart's content using any of our officially supported maps (The Island, The Center, Ragnarok, Scorched Earth, Aberration, Extinction). You can do this in your single player world or your unofficial server if you have access to one. We’ll be picking the best builds submitted to us for featuring in an upcoming video trailer showcasing the building changes to ARK similar to the announcement video we did for our latest mod contest. 

Submit pictures and/or a video of your build, your map save and coordinates to your build to arkfans@studiowildcard.com so we can take a look. You can get the direct coordinates to your build location by enabling setcheatplayer true and jotting down the coordinates presented on screen. You can upload your map save to a file sharing website such as Google Drive, Dropbox, etc, and include the link in the email. 

Entries are due by February 4th, 2018. We look forward to seeing your masterpieces!




Server transfers into our official Extinction servers are now open.

We're starting off 2019 strong! The promised public beta including S+ and Kibble changes will be available by the end of this week for survivors to play with. When we're ready to share the build we'll give you some more information on how to opt-in to this build through Steam.

S+ Features that will be in the beta branch:

- Made structure quick pickup time configurable in ini file (ServerSettings -> StructurePickupTimeAfterPlacement, default = 30)
- Added new ini config option to ignore the duration and always allow quick pickup (ServerSettings -> AlwaysAllowStructurePickup, default = false)
- Improved quick pickup HUD text to avoid overlapping other text, and to format durations as timestamps if over 60 seconds to support very long times if configured for that
- Enabled structure quick pickup for ALL structures. For structures that previously had pickup disabled, they now auto-disable quick pickup as soon as the player interacts with the structure in any way (unless AlwaysAllowStructurePickup is set to true)

New structures/variants:

- Added 'smooth' sidewall textures variants (like the stone foundation) to the stock square foundations [Adobe, Metal, Stone, Tek, Thatch, Wood]
- Triangle foundations [Adobe, Metal, Stone, Tek, Wood]
- Triangle ceilings [Adobe, Metal, Stone, Tek, Wood, Greenhouse]
- Triangle roofs [Adobe, Metal, Stone, Tek, Wood, Greenhouse]
- Large (4x height) walls [Adobe, Metal, Stone, Tek, Wood]
- Flexible pipe [Stone, Metal]
- Flexible electrical cable
- Stairs (with freely swappable ramp variant) [Adobe, Metal, Stone, Tek, Wood]
- Double door frames [Adobe, Metal, Stone, Tek, Wood]
- Double doors [Adobe, Metal, Stone, Tek, Wood]
- Dedicated storage (Tek structure that allows storing a large amount of a single resource)
- Fence supports (allows you to build fences that are level along the top) [Adobe, Metal, Stone, Tek, Wood]

Kibble changes that will be in the beta branch:

All eggs have been assigned a value based on the size and rarity of the egg. These sizes include: Extra Small, Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large, and Special. The eggs are used in a recipe to create kibble of a coinciding value: Basic, Simple, Regular, Superior, Exceptional, and Extraordinary. This new system will make it so that creature kibble desires are based on the quality levels instead of specific creatures, which should greatly decrease the number of tamed creatures needed for the purposes of taming.

Regarding previously crafted kibble:

- Old kibbles will not be wiped, and will inherit their new "value/color" appropriately.
- Old kibbles will still work to tame their appropriate creatures.
- Old kibble will no longer be craftable, only the new types will be craftable.

We will be taking your feedback into serious consideration regarding both of these changes so we invite you to communicate with us on our social media, the forums, reddit, etc with your opinions and critique. Once we're happy with where these features are at, we will be bringing them over to the PC main game.

Hello, Modders!

I just wanted to remind everyone that the application for the sponsored mod program is open again. There is still a month to prepare your projects and apply for the program. Remember that these sponsorships are longer-term support, so I want to see what everyone has planned for up to a year of sponsorship time.

Head over here to find the application:
https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/modding/apply-for-sponsorship/

For anyone that isn't familiar with the program, we have a rolling set of community projects for which we provide support to the mod authors. You can check out the current sponsored projects here:
https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/ark-sponsored-mods/

Be sure to read the weekly Community Crunch over on our website, survivetheark.com!

Happy New Year, Survivors! Thank you all for making us a part of your 2018. It has truly been an insane year for us. As always we are humbled by your support of all things ARK and we could not have achieved these milestones without you.

Let's bring in the new year with a roar, and keep on surviving in 2019!


We look forward to being back in the office this week and back to the grind so we can bring you more ARK this year. In case you missed our post about it, two of the main things we are currently working on in the month of January include Structures Plus and the Kibble rework, which you can read about here:

https://steamcommunity.com/gid/103582791438250696/announcements/detail/1698317167857800202

The extra exciting news is that we will be launching a public beta for the next round of S+ implementation and the kibble changes very soon. We will be relying on your feedback and making tweaks and changes during the beta process before these features make their way into the live game for everyone to enjoy. When the beta releases we invite you to break these new features as much as possible! ;)




We have been getting a lot of questions about this lately and rightfully so. We will be opening server transfers on our official servers into Extinction on January 15th! There will be no transfer restrictions on creatures (unlike Aberration).




Don't forget that Winter Wonderland is here but it won't be around forever! This winter-themed holiday event ends on January 7th so be sure to get your fill of this festive event before Raptor Claus and Gacha Claus make their way back to the North Pole.

Be sure to read the weekly Community Crunch over on our website, survivetheark.com!

Raptor Claus and Studio Wildcard would like to wish you a very Happy Holidays this season!

Thank you for making us a part of your festive time this year!

Winter Wonderland is almost here! This winter-themed holiday event begins tomorrow at 10am PST and will last through until January 7th. All of our maps are supported in both single player and multiplayer. The event will automatically activate on any map, even on your modded map servers.

Raptor Claus will be sailing across the night sky in his sleigh, air-dropping presents filled with high-end loot as well as Mistletoe, and Coal for those naughty Survivors. 



Raptor Claus won't be alone this year. He is joined by Gacha Claus who will be roaming all maps in a dashing Santa Hat and sporting holiday-themed colours to help out the very busy Raptor Claus. He will be accepting your coal and in exchange will gift you holiday themed items, or you can trade in your mistletoe for weapons and armor!

Gacha Claus will also have a random chance to gift you with a new special dino holiday candy when given mistletoe. This candy appears to have a strangely festive effect on any creature that eats it however. Better give it a try and see what happens. Bon appetit!

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1594036744
Survivors can stay warm this season in their festively decorated homes with the holiday lights, decorative Christmas tree, wreaths, stockings, snowmen, and wrapped presents they receive from trading with Gacha Claus. Be sure to spread the holiday cheer wherever you go while it lasts!



Be sure to send us all your holiday-themed pictures, videos, and artwork on survivetheark.com or on Twitter as we'd love to see them!

In addition to the holiday event, we've included a bevy of fixes that we're launching simultaneously across all three platforms. We're starting to reach into the backlog and fix issues that you've been asking for starting with improvements to commanding flyers and better AI for the Manticore.

Winter Wonderland!
- Raptor Claus
- Flies over any map between 0am and 2am in-game (with event enabled)
- Drops Holiday Gifts     
- Gacha Claus
- Spawns where you'd find Parasaurs on all maps
- Has holiday colors and wears a Santa Hat
- Cannot be tamed
- Doesn't like being near other wild dinos
- Accepts Coal
* Gives Holiday Items in return
* Drops Dino Candy
* Feed this to a tamed dino for a strange effect    
- Accepts Mistletoe
* Gives Items in return       
- Colorization
- 20% of wild dinos will spawn with Holiday colors
- Uses the ActiveEvent system
- ActiveEvent=WinterWonderland
- Cleans up after ActiveEvent is reset
- Auto applies to all non-TC sessions from 12/18-1/7 (UTC)
- Run with ActiveEvent=None to disable

Extinction
- Fix for King Titan environmental effects starting again after boss despawned
- Fix for other bosses interrupting King Titan environmental effects
- Cave entrance cooldown display bug fix 
- Increased radius of city meteor shield
- Improvements to dome shaders
- Reduced meteor impact damage to 750
- Improvements to height fog in desert biome

Titans  
- Increased Mek sword damage to tamed titans approximately 9x
- Increased Mek pistol damage to tamed titans approximately 3x
- Increased turret damage multipliers to tamed Titans
- Changes to Titan downloading
- Titan is disabled for 15m after download
- Titan takes increased damage during this time       
- Increased Titan download cooldown to 6+ hours
- Fix typo in vertical Can't Damage message

Orbital Supply Drop
- Buffed Legendary Drops in difficulty and quality of loot
- Can now be claimed by a tribe in PVE
- Only that tribe can disable shield, eject items, gather loot
- Fixed bug that eventually only allowed 1 event at a time in a session
- Improvements to shield behavior on low FPS servers 
- Improvements to attacker pathing and behavior

Element Vein
- Can now be claimed by a tribe in PvE
- Only that tribe can harvest element
- Fixed bug that eventually only allowed 1 event at a time in a session
- Improvements to attacker pathing and behavior

Desert Titan
- Increased damage when it strikes itself with lightning
- Improvements to Desert Titan follow to address flying away
- Fix for flocks not defending properly
- Improvements to tail attack accuracy
- Made tail attack damage consistent
- Disabled cryoing the flock
- Fixed encumbered movement when walking on a Desert Titan

Dropped Items   
- Improvements to dropped item interpolation on low fps servers (less poking -through ground)
- Prevented dropped items from falling through structures on load
- Prevented dropped items from ghosting through structures if thrown close to them

Eggs
- Improvements to egg interpolation on low fps servers (less poking through ground)
- Prevented eggs from falling through structures on load
- Prevented eggs from ghosting through structures if thrown close to them
- Fix for invisible Rock Drake and Wyvern eggs

Velonasaur  
- Increased accuracy of AOE attack
- Reduced AOE damage to compensate for increased accuracy
- Wild Velonasaurs will no longer shoot for too long
- Fix for Wild Velonasaurs not doing damage in PvE
- Improvements to desyncs between spines and damage
- Reduced hovering when walking
- AOE attack will no longer loot victims

Managarmr
- Fixed anim bug related to Ice Breath
- Fixes for several orientation desyncs
- Fixes for desyncs when moving on low fps server
- Minor buff to landing damage
- Improvements to ice breath targeting
- Added message when you are unable to dive
- Slowed down baby Managarmrs

Enforcer
- Fixed instances where Enforcer could teleport to a non-existant wall
- Fixed instances where it could jump back to its last jump position 

Scout
- Improved Scout tagging accuracy
- Improvements to player inspection mechanic
- Scout will now show floating damage text when damaged

Item Balloon    
- Fixed instances of it not going to the correct destination
- Fix for cases where balloons didn't explode after landing
- Improvements to weight calculation

Gacha
- Fix for unclamped loot quality 
- Fix for incorrect UI when taming is interrupted

Ice Titan
- Fix for broken dino animations related to Ice Breath
- Increased collision radius for shoulder Corruption

Flyers  
- Improved flyer following when in water
- Added Whistle Land Flyer command
- Commands a flyer to land nearby

Crash
Fix low frequency crash

Manticore
- Improvements to landing logic

Performance
- Improvements to server performance

Map Markers
- Add support for decimal values

Snow Owl
- Slowed down baby food consumption rate

Daedon
- Disable healing when frozen

A reminder for mod authors that the sponsored mod program will be opening up applications again on January 1st. If you would like to apply for sponsorship you will have five weeks after the application period starts, so make sure that your submissions are ready!

In the meantime, I have received a couple questions about the sponsorship applications that I would also like to address. While this is is not all encompassing of the process of selection, in regards to the application process itself I hope that this helps you ready your submissions with more confidence.

One thing that has been a common request is for feedback on why a given project isn't selected. While I would like to be able to give feedback on projects, it is extremely time consuming to prepare these, especially with the volume of applications I receive. I want everyone to understand though that not having your project selected does not necessarily mean that there is something wrong with it, there are simply limited slots available with each application period. So don't let it discourage you from applying in the future.

The other question I have received rather frequently is for what kind of information you should include in your applications and design documents. How you choose to organize your design documents is up to you, but here is a very general explanation of what I am looking for. First is that you have a plan for the duration of sponsorship; the more detailed this plan, the better. After looking at the design documents and learning about what you do with your project, I then look at the mods as they currently are available on the workshop and try to determine whether or not the content available shows a good probability of being able to deliver on that plan. I might also look at other projects in your workshop to help determine that information.

I look forward to seeing what everyone puts forward in January. Happy modding!

Be sure to read the weekly Community Crunch over on our website, survivetheark.com!

Happy Tuesday, Survivors!

It's patch day and we've got two exciting things to chat about that we are currently working on.


Now that Extinction has been officially released, the team will be dedicating some time to the integration of Structures Plus. Pulling S+ into ARK's already existing structure system without causing issues with current structures is very important to us. There are also many features that exist in S+ that we cannot integrate into official servers without taking into consideration the impact on game balance.

The plan is to integrate S+ on a feature by feature basis, prioritizing features that are compatible with the official game. We may integrate additional features gated by options for unofficials as time permits. 

https://gfycat.com/appropriatefearfulfiddlercrab

Our first bit of integration starts immediately in today’s PC patch where we introduce the ability to pick up undamaged structures for free if it was placed in the last 30 seconds. You can pick up a placed structure by looking directly at the structure and pressing the interact key (E). This change will be included in the next patch for console, due later this week.


Extinction's kibble setup (known as Augmented Kibble) was phase one of our kibble rework. We are currently in the process of assigning these new kibble types to all of the remaining ARK creatures across all maps. 

All eggs will be assigned a value based on the size and rarity of the egg. These sizes include: Extra Small, Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large, and Special. The eggs are then used in a recipe to create kibble of a coinciding value: Basic, Simple, Regular, Superior, Exceptional, and Extraordinary. This new system will make it so that creature kibble desires are based on the quality levels instead of specific creatures.

We plan to introduce these changes on an experimental beta branch before letting it loose into the wild population at a later date. We’re excited to tackle this much needed rework!

NOTE: These plans are subject to change.

Have you been Naughty or Nice this year? I've heard whispers from the elves and reindeer that a certain Mr. Claws may be dropping gifts for all of the good survivors this holiday season, and coal for the naughty ones too. ;)

We'll have more information on this in the coming weeks!




This weeks diary entry is brought to you by Lead Programmer, Chris Willoughby. This weeks dev diary is about Extinction-related game balance and also about the big fixing process of Extinction since it's initial release.

ARK, at its core, is successful because it offers the best and most diverse survival experience that it can to each player who plays it, and the many options that we provide allows that to happen. There are many, many players that play our game over multiple platforms and each of them has a different definition of what’s most important to them, what ARK does well, and what it should do better. Early on we made a decision to offer a vast array of options, modes, maps, servers, and mods to get as close as we could to being the best survival game for everyone. This creates a major challenge when it comes to development however, as each piece of content or change is used in a large number of different ways. The many play modes are likely to be at odds with each other and are competing for the same development resources, so we have to make a number of tough decisions and pick our priorities. This can result in mechanics that feel less than ideal for your setup or bugs that only appear in certain modes. I do believe it’s better than the primary alternative - not offering or supporting these options at all.

In this industry we need to develop and introduce new content and mechanics to keep our game interesting and relevant. When we set out to develop something with the size and scope of Extinction, we first sit down and figure out what new experiences we could bring to the table. We brainstorm far and wide, documenting and elaborating on ideas before scoring them. We try very hard to introduce features that either have broad reach and appeal across our play modes or add a high amount of depth to one. The things that resonate the most through this process are grouped together into creatures, items, or features that become the key features for the expansion. Generally when we do this we’re intentionally trying to shake up the meta to breathe new life into the game. Often times it’s hard to predict exactly how the new features will be used by players, and just how much they’ll shake things up.

On the other side of the coin, testing changes to a game like ARK is quite difficult. Stepping back, it’s really a numbers game. Let’s say, for example, that you have 10 QA testers, and they’re testing 50 hours a week, that’s 500 hours of testing per week. Next, let’s say that you have 3 months to fully test your changes. Multiply the 500 by 12, and you get 6,000 hours of serious, in-depth testing. That can seem like a lot, but it’s nothing compared to the amount of time that players put in. ARK averaged ~50k users for November on PC. If you multiply that by 30 days and 24 hours, you end up with a rough estimate of 36,000,000 hours of ARK played in November. That’s 6,000 times as many hours as in the example above. There were approximately 1,200,000 hours of ARK played in the first day of Extinction. There were 50,000 hours played in the first hour after release. 10 minutes after Extinction released, players had already played 10,000 hours of Extinction, eclipsing the amount of testing done by the 10 testers above. Suffice it to say that when you experience problems when playing a game just after release this is a big reason why.

Obviously we don’t like it when our game has problems, so we focus much of our testing on critical areas and we test them over and over again and prioritize the issues we find. As you can imagine, this is a lot easier in a single player game with a fixed path through a scripted storyline. Once you start multiplying out all of the options and variables, however, it quickly becomes a monumental challenge. As illustrated above, it’s impossible to test every experience that a player is going to have in a game like ARK within a reasonable timeframe. Our volume of players means that players will always have for more time playing ARK than us. When you combine this with the fact that most of those players are playing competitively you realize that many of them are looking for a way to get a leg up on their competition. Very quickly they’re using things in ways that you didn’t intend or even think about, and it’s up to strong systems and well placed testing to make sure that they stay in a healthy place. Sometimes you experience breakdowns in one or two of the above and you have to turn around a fix as fast as possible.

When we built the Titans, for example, we balanced them against dinos, items, each other, and bases. We wanted each of them to feel different and wanted them to have roles almost like classes in a class-based shooter. We wanted them to be somewhat slow and predictable, and ultimately squishy when faced with organized and concentrated fire. We felt very early on that they should be able to do a lot of damage to an endgame base, if left unchecked. Beyond countering this strength, we wanted to limit how fast people could tame and transfer in Titans, and make it a difficult decision to make - so we went for cooldowns on transfer and starvation. Of course, players discovered a way around starvation (kibble?!?!?!), so that broke a big piece of their cost completely. Last week we released a patch that brought this back closer to where we envisioned it, but it’s unlikely that it’s the end of balance changes to the Titans.

Meks were built to counter Titans. Generally, the math that we used when developing the Titans and Meks was that approximately three Meks should be able to make short work of a Titan, and we set out to arm the Meks with abilities (like the rocket pack) that would allow them to take the Titans on. In this regard, our primary focus was on the defensive capabilities of the Mek. Unfortunately, in our efforts to nail the defensive-side of things we overlooked a few issues that could occur on the offensive side; especially related to base raiding. The reality is that this was a mistake. Players discovered within the first few days that they could be used to dismantle bases by bypassing most of their automated defenses. Once something like this is discovered we need to act quickly - we ask ourselves if we feel like the mechanic is overpowered. Then we ask if it fits with the design of the creature. We ask what the counter is and talk through the best way to balance it. Ideally, we’d have all of these discussions and make all of these decisions early in development. When faced with the numbers game above, however, you realize how likely it is that a few of these slip through the cracks to the final game. We work diligently to to step up and resolve the issue the best way that we can, as fast as we can.

If I were to step back and put on an Idealistic hat, I’d want to reshape ARK such that none of these bugs ever made it through to our players. I’d want to test and retest every interaction, every spot in every map, every scenario that a player could find themselves in. The reality, however, is that it would take a very large team, a very large amount of time to develop something as broad as ARK and deliver it flawlessly. Large enough on both fronts, that the likelihood of success drops dramatically. And even then, that game would have bugs. Yes, ARK is not perfect. However, we enjoy working on a game that delivers a broad, good experience to many players over one that offers a narrow but perfect experience to only a few or takes ten years to make. We strive to minimize the number of problems. We pride ourselves on recognizing and resolving them as fast as possible. As we continue to work on Extinction issues, long standing issues, previous promises, and whatever is next for ARK (stay tuned!), we’ll continue to approach it from that perspective. Our job is to provide the best experience we can to the highest number of players we can reach, as fast as we can. Sometimes there will be bumps in the road, but they’re a necessary part of making the things we make at the scale that we make them. We think it’s worth it.

Tomorrow at 10am PST there will be a PC patch. There will also be another post tomorrow here on the community forums going over some of the changes coming up and things currently being worked on by our development team.


Hello, fellow modders. You'll be happy to know we have a manual devkit update ready that includes all of the extinction content!

https://forums.unrealengine.com/development-discussion/modding/ark-survival-evolved/62293-12-2-ark-dev-kit-v287-1-is-now-on-google-drive

We also have a new tutorial ready for you, this time we're finally going to get started on some graphs for this mod. Specifically how to convert our tamed creatures into the sentry crystals that will be used elsewhere by the mod.

https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/forums/topic/387144-wildcard-workshop-19-vss-virtualization-process/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z99VYpN59o
Be sure to check out todays Community Crunch post on our website for the full Crunch announcement post.