Welcome to another edition of the Community Crunch!
We hope everyone is getting ready for another Eggcellent Adventure! Be on the lookout for the event details in the next Community Crunch. We've been overwhelmed with the amazing content that's been shared by ARK content creators. We're always on the lookout for community content, so in addition to sharing and tagging your content on Twitter (#ARKArt, #playARK), be sure to check out our Discord where we have dedicated channels for community content.
Last week in ARK, we take a look at the difference between kills made by tamed creatures vs. kills made by wild creatures. The Island and Genesis are where we see the biggest disparities. What's your best guess on the cause of the difference?
EVO Event
Survivors on all platforms will be receiving a special Evolution Event perk! It will be active from Friday the 12th of March to Monday the 15th of March. All Official Servers across each platform will be undergoing this evolutionary change which includes:
2x Breeding (mating interval, egg hatch speed, imprint, and maturation)
We have clocked a high incidence of enforcement tickets related to players breaking the CoC by kiting corrupted dinos into other player’s bases on our Extinction servers.
This is highly disruptive to player’s experience. We’ve implemented some targeted changes in the past to address the issue whilst retaining the overall game design for the Extinction gameplay loop but this compromise between technical fixes and design has allowed some ill-intentioned players to get more imaginative. We’ve come up with a technical solution to address this once and for all: we have disabled corrupted dino damage against all structures on PvE specifically.
We’re confident this will come as a relief to affected players (and our enforcement team hehe).
Small Tribes Teaming Rules
The spirit of Small Tribes has always been to give players the opportunity to experience a tight group dynamic that is void of the scale and diplomacy of Official. We recognize it’s time to implement change in order to preserve the original concept--one we were hyped about along with our community!
We’ve long been aware of ongoing issues with teaming along with gaps in our Small Tribes rules that have allowed some players to take advantage. To combat this, we’ve reviewed and begun updating and expanding those rules with a goal to improve the experience and, hopefully, crack down on teaming.
The unique environment of Small Tribes has proved taxing on our Enforcement Team so, along with adding a new stricter ruleset, we’ll be looking at ways to make the investigative process more efficient. This will include more comprehensive guidelines on the types of evidence players should include in their tickets in order to expedite investigations.
All of these changes may require further iteration after they go live. We consider a few potential risks worth it in order to provide a better experience for our players in the long term.
We welcome player feedback as we refine the rules and we’ll approach this as a work-in-progress that may require some tweaks as we gauge community sentiment.
New Sponsored Mods
It's that time where we introduce new projects in the sponsored mod program! Our first set of picks for the year is ready for you to enjoy.
Fjördur is a beautiful map inspired by Norse culture and myth. Featuring 3 primary landmasses, a solid but carefully chosen range of biomes, and unique map structures. The authors have more planned for this map, so give it a try!
If you have ever just wanted more hair options on your ARK, Marnii has you covered. Not only will you find a couple dozen new hairstyles in this mod as well as new facial hair options, but also tools that make it even easier to give yourself some style!
Glacius is a challenging map focused on surviving the harsh elements of a frigid landscape. On Glacius you'll facing challenging weather such as snowstorms and blizzards. It even comes with it's own set of snow structures for players to build with!
Mods that expand the array of wildlife are always a joy to see. Prehistoric beasts adds a pretty significant set of new creatures in their own unique visual styles for players to enjoy, if you have been wanting to see some new faces around the island, you should give this mod a look!
🎥 Creator: RoyaleWithCheese Looking for the ultimate mutation guide? Look no further! Cheese covers the basics in one of his latest videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egTxp45ZJmU
🎥 Creator: The Axeman In one of the latest episodes in the series of Taming Every Creature In Ark, The Axeman takes on the Diplodocus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRJ0BnweBDk
We know that what you want is news on Genesis II, so let's not mince words and get straight to it: We have decided to push our final DLC release date to May 26th, for PC, Xbox, PlayStation, and Stadia.
First and foremost, please accept our humble apologies. We're disappointed and have no doubt, everyone, eagerly awaiting Genesis II will feel that along with us.
As we have shared before, the Studio transitioned to working remotely near the beginning of last year, presenting some particular constraints. Being entirely virtual is quite challenging for various teams with a shift from an in-office workflow.
In addition to the complications of working remotely, one challenge has been figuring out how to close out the ARK saga faithfully. From a narrative, cinematic, and end-game-wise perspective, it's something close to our hearts that we want to honor as the grand finale.
This journey we've all taken through ARK: Survival Evolved over the past six years is important to our players and us, and the extra time will make a massive difference to the quality of the Gen II when it lands in your hands. We're passionate about delivering something truly special, and we're confident this extension will allow us to give you the epic finale you deserve.
And on that note, we'd like to introduce you to the formidable Voidwyrm, a powerful and challenging new tame that will soar above the ARK with the launch of Genesis II!
Internally, we think of Genesis Part II as having two significant philosophical changes in comparison to Genesis Part I. These changes are a direct result of player feedback:
The entire map is open and livable, with minimal no-build zones that avoid disrupting the over-world and an esthetically pleasing environment.
Structures, items, and creatures have been designed to assist and improve gameplay and QoL for all of our players and designed to expand the meta in meaningful ways.
On behalf of the Wildcard team, we want to thank you for your ongoing support and passion. We're looking forward to sharing ARK: Survival Evolved’s final climactic chapter with you!
Studio Wildcard
EVO Event
Survivors on all platforms will be receiving a special Evolution Event perk! It will be active until Friday the 26th of February to Monday the 1st of March. All Official Servers across each platform will be undergoing this evolutionary change which includes:
Creator: Sven P Check out an epic castle build deep in the Redwoods biome with Sven P. We've also included a screenshot of the completed build in the screenshots section. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Usamez8j-es
Hey Survivors, we thought it might be a good time for a little Live Operations Dev Blog of sorts. We’ve been very busy behind the scenes and sometimes during that hive of activity, we may forget that our players enjoy details outside of “We’re busy with X, more info soon” etc. So let’s give you more of a glimpse behind the LiveOps curtain.
LiveOps
LiveOps has been er...hectic of late. Let’s get straight to it.
Transfer Issues: We encountered some serious problems on our networking side that led to some players losing items and/or characters. We initially implemented a quick fix in order to address it as quickly as possible, then pivoted to working on a more long-term upgrade to make our system more robust.
We don’t find what occurred acceptable in the slightest and have some of our engineers focused on working alongside our host to upgrade the system and prevent these issues from occurring in the future. These specific problems were something we hadn’t encountered with the system in the past (even though the symptoms may appear similar to some of our players).
Anything resulting in data loss for our players is of critical importance to us and we apologise to those affected.
Meshing: Meshing is still a focus for the team - we’re constantly working on patching out methods and holes as we learn of them. We saw an uptick in meshing incidents on Playstation recently. In general, we’ve made significant strides in reducing meshing and, overall, incidents are way down in comparison to a year ago. That said, in a sandbox game, people always find new methods.
Some of our solutions to further counter meshing include:
Zipline patch. Players can no longer jump on a zipline to get through a small hole.
Implemented an automated system that will now try to detect projectiles, so when players are firing rockets, ziplines etc inside the mesh they will get destroyed before they’re able to make an impact. Unfortunately this system can’t hit every location but we’re happy to have made some impact in this regard.
World Borders: Soon, we will be updating world barriers on all maps so that anything outside of a world border will be destroyed. Boom. This is live on The Island on PC and there were some edge-case issues with it being oversensitive but that’s now been fixed and we’ll be rolling out to other platforms soon.
We consider our continued approach to meshing to be three pronged:
Better detection to prevent it in the first place
Destroying what has slipped through the cracks
Identifying specific areas that can be exploited and patching them.
We’ll share more on the world border changes when that goes live.
Enforcement
Some of you don’t feel your reports lead to action so we want to share more info about the action taken against players who cheat or otherwise break our Code Of Conduct. We are working on some solutions for better visibility for those affected by cheaters into punishments and actions taken against players that are consistently ruining the game via third party software etc. We hope to roll those out in the near future.
Performance and Stability
Client and server performance was a focus through 2020.
That said, over the years, we’ve learned to stop counting dodos before they hatch in regards to how noticeable performance improvements are. But now that we can see the combined impact of a year's changes, we can confirm some tangible improvements when comparing performance at the start of 2020 to performance today.
Servers
Transfer system:
We completely moved to an in-network solution
Now have more control over what can go in and out of the system on a network level
This system is faster, more reliable, and more cost effective
(though it still needs some work to get it where it needs to be! ;))
DDoS protection:
We added additional hardware and software solutions to our already existent DDoS solution through Nitrado
Incoming traffic can be more finely tuned on the packet level rather than at a higher more general level than prior
Performance in-game
Structure placing and demolition performance update.
The most significant boost to performance in-game that we implemented on our Official Network last November is the structure placing/demo update.
Eliminated server calculation in relation to placing structures: Previously the server had to do some massive calculations involving checking all snapped structures to the structure being replaced to verify structural integrity. That calculation has now been eliminated as it is a replacement rather than the placement of a new structure in a new area. This is most noticeable on busy servers with large save files.
Optimised server calculation for demolishing structures: The demolish change was a reduction on how much is actually being calculated. It’s less complex in the way in which the server checks these things now so demolishing things will be less intensive aka “cheaper”on the server’s performance thereby reducing lag, stalls and/or server frame drops when demolishing.
We're not taking these gains as cause to stop iterating, though. There's still room to improve, so we’ll keep pushing those out throughout 2021 too.
Community feedback/connection
In some ways, when we update the game, we’re really updating something that’s no longer ours. It’s yours; it’s a creature, mechanic or DLC that millions of players may have grown to love, and we want to make sure we do good by you all first and foremost.
This is a reason why we released an Official Discord, so we can get more feedback from players on the direction we’re headed. Thanks to a breadth of functionality, lots of our players have embraced the ARK Discord as a semi-public community platform. We find observing our player's thoughts and chatter, along with sometimes interacting with you in a “live” medium useful and enjoyable. This along with the more traditional forums and various feedback channels helps us to stay connected to the community.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for sticking your head behind the curtain with us. Do let us know if you find write ups like this interesting.
Studio Wildcard
EVO Event
Survivors on all platforms will be receiving a special Evolution Event perk! It will be active until Thursday the 25th of February. All Official Servers across each platform will be undergoing this evolutionary change which includes:
2X XP
Community Corner
Clips/Videos
🎥Creator: sotfleague This week was the first monthly tournament for the player-run SoTF league with a prize pool. Icebox came through with first place in the duos. This early game bow fight leads to a priceless reaction from the announcer.
🎥Creator: AaronLongstaff1 Take a look at Aaron's stream of a Japanese-styled temple. He's building on Crystal isles, a perfect backdrop for this awesome build!
Welcome to the latest edition of the Community Crunch!
Love Evolved is live from February 11th - February 18th, and packs new skins, chibis, 3x rates and more! Check out this post for more information.
Playstation Update: We have set the event rates live on our Official Playstation network, and, we're eager to get the Love Evolved Event content into our Playstation Community's hands. The build is good and currently going through the publishing process. We hope to be able to set that live for you today. Apologies for the delay in deploying the update. We'll keep you posted!
Last Week In ARK
This week we take a look at the average level of a player when a wild dino kills them. We've seen a lot of interest in these stats and we'll continue digging up interesting stats for you to see!
Video Evidence for Support Tickets
Solving some types of enforcement tickets comes down to having good evidence. For reports regarding certain cheats and exploits, a video goes a long way towards our enforcement team's investigative process. We've updated the Navigation Bar, under Support, in the website to include a helpful guide in recording videos depending on the platform you're playing on.
We hope you find this helpful when creating your support tickets!
Steam Lunar Sale
🏮 Happy Lunar New Year! We're kicking off the Lunar New year with an ARK sale. Get it now while it's up to 80% off! 🏮 ARK | Steam Lunar Sale
EVO Event
There is an ongoing EVO Event from February 11th - February 18th as part of the Love Evolved event
3X Breeding (mating interval, egg hatch speed, and maturation)
3X XP
3X Harvesting
3X Taming
Community Corner
Clips/Videos
🎥 Creator: Rubius Z #ARKADIA, an ARK event by a group of content creators, launched this week with much excitement. Join Rubius Z as he starts his ARK adventure! Check this out to find out more about the content creators that are involved and be sure to give the event Twitter account a follow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgaVvqcj-VY
🎥 Creator: UpFromTheDepths In this documentary-style video series, UpFromTheDepths explores ARK in an entirely new way. This episode, Snowbound, focuses on the harsh winter season. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8thB1EWkeO8
Love is in the air! From Thursday, February 11th through Thursday, February 18th ARK will be under Cupid's spell for Love Evolved 2. For the duration of the event, Valentines Coelacanth will be fishing for some love. Reel in these amorous fish and be showered in candies, chocolates and even chibi pets!
Event Details This event can be manually activated with the server arg parameter: -ActiveEvent=vday
Dates
2/11 - 2/18
Activities
Valentines Coelacanth can be caught for chibis, chocolates, candies
Mating can randomly drop chocolates and candies!
Rates
Increased breeding rates to 3x (mating interval, egg hatch speed, and maturation)
Increased taming rates to 3x
Increased player XP rates to 3x
Increased harvesting rates to 3x
Skins
Valentines inspired shield skin *NEW*
Valentines inspired sunglasses skin *NEW*
"Cupid Couture Bottom" (Pants Skin)
"Cupid Couture Top" (Shirt Skin)
"Halo Headband" (Hat Skin)
"Teddy Bear Grenades" (Grenade Skin)
"Bow & Eros" (Bow skin)
"Love Shackles" (Handcuffs Skin)
Items
Box o' Chocolates
Valentines Dino Candy
Emotes
Flirty Emote
Chibi's
Crystal Wyvern *NEW*
Mesopithecus *NEW*
Otter *NEW*
Enforcer *NEW*
Velonasaur *NEW*
Wild Event Creature Colors
Lavender *NEW*
Cream *NEW*
MediumLavender *NEW*
Peach *NEW*
DeepPink *NEW*
LightPink *NEW*
Dark Red *NEW*
Red
Magenta
Light Red
White
Last Week In ARK
In this week's update, we take a look at bans and average deaths per server (PvE and PvP) over the past seven days.
There were a total of 732 bans this week between the enforcement team and BattleEye. The Enforcement team bans are done manually after investigation for various infractions of our Code of Conduct and BattlEye's bans are implemented for detection of third party software/cheats.
We are curious as to why our Xbox players have so many PvE deaths. Haha!
EVO Event
There will be no EVO event this week. The next upcoming EVO event will be on February 11th.
Season 4 kicks off on Friday 2/5/21 at 10 AM PST / 1 PM EST.
Classic PvP is a competitive player experience for PC players that focuses on the PvP experience from the days of old. Season 3 saw the introduction of breedable Wyverns and Stegos which brought an impactful change to the meta, so this season. Each season will introduce new changes and will continue to evolve along with the base game.
This week we'll be kicking off Season 4 of Classic PvP (bringing an end to the current season). If you're unfamiliar with what Classic PvP is, there's a quick breakdown below.
Classic PvP Breakdown
Experience gain, taming, gathering, breeding, hatching, and raising rates have been doubled compared to our standard Official Servers (2x)
Tribes are set to 25 players max
Tribe alliances are disabled, though informal alliances are allowed
Servers have a maximum player count of 100
These maps will be available: The Island, Scorched Earth, Ragnarok, Valguero, and The Center
Tek dinos (Tek Parasaur, Tek Quetzal, Tek Rex, Tek Raptor, Tek Stego), Paracer, Tapejara, and the Titanosaur are not available for taming on Classic PvP
All Aberration and Extinction content is unavailable on Classic PvP
Scaling of weapon damage has been reduced
No TEK Engrams
No cave building
Cryopods enabled
Season 4 Changes
Tamed Stegosaurus Resistance reduced by 35%
Tamed Quetzal Resistance reduced by 20%
Tamed Wyvern Resistance reduced by 20%
Tamed Wyvern Damage reduced by 20%
Reaper Queen added to the Valguero Aberration Zone
Welcome to another edition of the Community Crunch!
In Last Week In Ark, we've seen some changes in the Players Killed By Weapon Type. While things remained the same on XBOX, we saw slight changes in both XBOX and PC in the weapons players chose to use compared to last week.
Kills By Wild Dino Type shows us same creatures but overall deaths by these four creatures have reduced by 14.9% when compared to last week. We'll keep looking for more interesting stats to share with you!
EVO Event
There will be no EVO event this week
Community Corner
In light of all the amazing content being shared by the ARK community, we'll be expanding the Fan Art section and renaming it 'Community Corner' to include more than fan art. You can expect to find a variety of community content that is being shared across social platforms (Twitch, Discord, Twitter, Youtube, Reddit, Facebook).
Clips/Videos
How to Build a Large House/New Roof Building Design - The Pilgrimz The Pilgrimz demonstrates how to build with a new roof design in his latest video.
How to Build a Modern House - Aaron Longstaff Aaron Longstaff designs a modern house and takes you along for the ride.
Star Wars Astromech Droid Speed Build - Sypher Sam Pulling off a Star Wars build is no easy feat, but Sypher Sam does it with ease in this video.
Welcome to another edition of the Community Crunch survivors. In the past, the community has expressed an interest in analytics so we'd like to pilot a new segment called "Last Week In ARK" that highlights general analytics and statistics we collect on the back-end.
Consider this a sample of things we might be able to provide if there is community interest. What types of things are you interested in seeing? Are there particular metrics that interest you more? Sound off and let us know!
EVO Event
There will be no EVO event this week
Community Fan Art
Cnidaria Ark Encounter by fernsylhouette
Would You Like To Cut It by sis_6193
Desert Base by nonoARK
House by the Dock by sam_stim
Gasbags (Discord) by NISIS#1565
Wishing you a stress-free weekend. Catch you next week! Studio Wildcard