What an interesting discovery, can anyone guess what this creature might be?
On The Horizon
Hacks/Exploits
Abuse of game mechanics, such as meshing and duping, are being reported at a higher frequency. As always, we will continue to implement changes to address any methods we have been able to reproduce. Please continue to report any known methods via the ticket system.
Enforcement
With the increase of reports, the enforcement team has been tasked with a larger number of tickets. This backlog of requests prevented our enforcement team from acting quickly to incidents that were being reported. We've made a considerable dent in the backlog and hope to improve our response time to incidents that are reported.
Events
If there's something you'd really like to see in events (regular and holiday), check out the thread and weigh in!
Changes to the Code Of Conduct
The Enforcement Team are back again with another important notice regarding the Code of Conduct:
New Addition:
If you have been hardware ID (HWID) banned, any attempt to access the Official Network with an alternate account is subject to another hardware ID ban
You can read the Code of Conduct in its entirety by clicking here.
EVO Event
Survivors on all platforms will be receiving a special Evolution Event perk this weekend! It will be active from Friday the 11th of Oct at 1 PM EST until Monday the 14th of Oct at 3 PM EST. All Official Servers across each platform will be undergoing this evolutionary change which includes:
We're making the final preparations for a client and server-side update that will bring Genesis Chronicles to survivors on PC, Xbox, and PS4! Leading up to the release of Genesis we will begin to include Genesis-related Explorer Notes on The Island, Scorched Earth, and Aberration.
Survivors with the cosmetic HLN-A will find some explorer notes provide a glimpse of what to expect in the forthcoming Genesis expansion -- and how it all fits into the larger ARK story.
If you want to unlock a new set of skins for your armor, be sure to collect them all!
Sponsored Mod Program applications are once again OPEN! If you are interested in sponsorship for your projects, please fill out the application here: Apply For Sponsorship
This will be the last application period until January so make sure to get those projects in!
New Sponsored Mods
Finally, We have three new projects joining the Sponsored Mod Program today! We have a pretty interesting range of mod types this time for creatures and a utility mod for builders!
Mechanical steampunk beasts are on the loose! If you are a fan of the steampunk aesthetic, check out this mod which adds a range of new creatures to the game, with more brass than you can shake a stick at.
Do you wish that ARKs creatures had a bit more personality to them? This mod introduces new behaviors to the natural residents of the ARK. The number of creatures it modifies right now is relatively small, but the author is working to expand that.
Just got done building the perfect house and then found a better place to build? Maybe you just want ten more of that house? This mod will let you do that, allowing players to save constructions and place them elsewhere.
Quake II - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (Katharine Castle)
It’s Gamescom this week, which can only mean one thing – more confirmed ray tracing games for Nvidia’s RTX and selected GTX 16-series graphics cards. Indeed, the big one that’s just been announced is Minecraft, which (like Quake II RTX) is getting full, real-time ray tracing support for everything from water reflections to its entire lighting system. That’s not all, though. Dying Light 2 will also be getting real-time ray tracing, while Tencent’s freshly-announced action survival game Synced: Off-Planet will be getting ray-traced reflections and shadow support.
In truth, the number of games on this list that you can actually play with ray tracing enabled right this second is still pretty small. A lot of the confirmed RTX games you’ll see below still haven’t received their promised ray tracing and performance-boosting DLSS support, so this is more of a complete ‘this is how many games will have it eventually’ kind of thing than ‘these are all the games you can play with ray tracing right now’. Still, if you’re currently on the fence about buying one of Nvidia’s RTX or RTX Super graphics cards as opposed to the new AMD Navi GPUs, this guide should hopefully help you decide whether ray tracing is something worth investing in. Here’s every confirmed ray tracing and DLSS game we know about so far.
Grand Theft Auto V Legacy - contact@rockpapershotgun.com (John Walker)
Hi, it’s me! Yeah! No, nothing’s wrong, all’s good. I was just calling to see if you wanted some Steam Charts? … STEAM CHARTS … Yeah, that’s right. No, no it’s not. You don’t? Oh, um, I already sent them over.
Developer Wildcard has unveiled Genesis, a new two-part expansion for Ark: Survival Evolved, and it's coming to PC, Xbox One, and PS4, starting in December.
Genesis will ultimately deliver Ark's fourth and fifth paid expansions - following on from Scorched Earth, Aberration, and Extinction - and will form the game's second season pass. Those with good memories may recall the controversy surrounding Ark's first season pass, which arose when Studio Wildcard opted to introduce paid DLC into the game well before it had left early access. It remains to be see if the community will be more accepting of a new season pass with Ark: Survival Evolved now approaching its second year as a full release.
As to what Genesis will bring in terms of specifics, that's a little harder to gauge right now. Despite being unveiled in a 50-minute livestream, the bulk of the expansions still remain firmly under wraps. What we do know, however, is that both parts will include a "really cool map", with the first map set within a simulation, enabling Wildcard to do things that were "even too crazy" for previous expansions.
Ark: Genesis was announced by Studio Wildcard—a two-part expansion pack for the multiplayer dino-survival game Ark: Survival Evolved. We've seen the announcement trailer and some screenshots, and we talked to Studio Wildcard to learn a few interesting details about the upcoming expansion.
Here's everything we know about Ark: Genesis.
Ark: Genesis release date
There are two parts to the Ark: Genesis expansion.
We don't have solid dates for either part yet, but as the announcement trailer above shows, we know Part One is coming in December of 2019. Part Two will follow in Winter of 2020.
Where and when does Ark: Genesis take place?
The name Genesis would seem to indicate that this expansion could be a prequel of sorts. An interesting detail from the teaser could hint at that: The wrist of the player isn't embedded with the specimen implant we've always seen in Ark. However, the presence of Helena and the fact that this appears to link up with the ending of Ark: Extinction, the previous expansion, contradicts the idea of Genesis as a prequel.
In other words, we don't really know where this fits into the Ark timeline. Feel free to speculate!
As for the map that will arrive with Ark: Genesis, we can see it has some volatile volcanic regions, some snowy mountainous areas, and some more temperate biomes. There will also be an expansive water biome.
You'll have an AI companion, HLN-A
You won't be alone in Ark: Genesis. Helena, the biologist who authored the lore-filled explorer notes, has created a hovering AI companion designated HLN-A. Fully voiced, she'll act as a guide, providing you with missions, tasks, and story, and she'll also have practical uses as she follows you around, like illuminating dark areas.
HLN-A can also perform her own version of emotes—as you can see in the image above, she can display a danger warning by projecting a skull and crossbones (though you probably already grasped the peril from the looks of the extremely angry creature.) She can also signal warnings for extreme heat, dangerously low temperatures, or even just give you a thumbs-up.
You don't have to wait for December to meet HLN-A. Players who pre-purchase the season pass can have her join them in Ark immediately, on any map in the game. She's not fully feature-complete yet but she can talk a bit and Studio Wildcard says she may give players bits of lore relating to Genesis as we get closer to its release date. You can also customize her looks with various dyes.
You can build a base on a giant turtle's back
No need to settle on one spot to build your base in Ark: Genesis. If you tame a giant sea turtle, you can build your home right on its shell. The turtle can swim around in the water biome, and even dive underwater with your base, which will be protected and oxygenated by the turtle with no need for scuba gear.
Resources will grows on the turtle's shell, so you can even do a bit of farming on your new aquatic mobile home.
What new dinosaurs will be added?
We don't have names for all the new dinos yet, but we know a bit about them already. There's the sea turtle, obviously. There's also the giant volcanic lizard, who has a powerful AOE attack and can also spit huge lava projectiles. It will be tamable, which is great because I'd much rather be friends with it than fight it.
There's also a small shoulder pet nicknamed Tiny. It's adorable until it gets its hands on some Element, one of Ark's resources, which makes it completely hulk out and turn into a vicious, rampaging multi-limbed fangbeast. Seems like just the kind of pet you'd like in your arsenal.
I'm sure there will be more creatures to fight and tame in Ark: Genesis, and we'll update this article as we discover them.
Multiplayer dinosaur-riding island-surviv-a-thon series Ark: Survival Evolved has taken inspiration from my fever dreams and will be introducing giant sea turtles who double as islands which then double as an open construction site for your future home.
The next chapter in the ongoing Ark saga, known as Ark: Genesis, will be made up of two hefty expansion packs. These will introduce tameable albeit shapeshifting animals – new biomes, and something that’s being referred to as “mission-based game mechanics” which I can only assume is a genetically mutated version of story-based missions. But frankly, it’s all about my future tortoise island paradise.
