Welcome to another edition of the Community Crunch! This week we take a look at the new sponsored mods and some awesome community fan art and community content.


The Hunted


The Hunted is a mod that aims to emulate the difficulty of ARK to be more like it's early development days. The Hunted has plans and development for features like territorial behavior, nesting and new taming methods. If you don't think you should feel safe in a survival game, this might be a mod you want to check out!

Check out The Hunted

Dino Hoarders' TLC


While not an official TLC for the game, it is always fascinating to see new artistic approaches and styles from our modding community. Dino Hoarders' TLC has plans to do community TLCs on a lot of the games creatures with a unique art style! We look forward to seeing what is to come with this mod.

Check out Dino Hoarders' TLC

Tiamat


We're a little late with the official announcement but this project was a late addition that started sponsorship in June! Tiamat is a beautiful map with a focus on the ocean, an often underutilized part of the world. The visual style of this map is fantastic and deserves a look, especially if you are interested in vibrant ocean areas.

Check out Tiamat



While Summer Bash is active from June 25th to July 21st, there will be no special EVO event rates.

Summer Bash Rates

• 3X Breeding (mating interval, egg hatch speed, and maturation)
  
• 4X Player XP
  
• 4X Harvesting
  
• 4X Taming

@NAMCOOo
Link To Images Artist Profile











@ThePilgrimz
Desert Fortress



@harry12983476
127 8K Photos of Aberration





That's it for this week!

Studio Wildcard

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark
Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark
Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark
Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark
Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark

We realize some players were unable to take part in the beginning of Summer Bash and have extended our Summer Bash event an extra week. You have until July 21st to kick back and relax in the summer sun



It's been a few months since we've done the last patch notes round-up and much has been added. From the launch of Crystal Isles on PC to the introduction of ARK to the Epic Games Store, there's been much going on. With hundreds of additions, changes, or fixes, we figured it'd be good to kick off an ARK summer with a recap of the past few months.

Significant Milestones
Crystal Wyverns
Bees
MEK's
TEK
Creatures (General)
Cryopod's
Genesis
General
Bugs
Exploits



Kick back enjoy a great start to your summer with the ARK Summer Sale. For a limited time, ARK will be up to 80% off!

ARK on Steam



While Summer Bash is active from June 25th to July 21st, there will be no special EVO event rates.

Summer Bash Rates

• 3X Breeding (mating interval, egg hatch speed, and maturation)
  
• 4X Player XP
  
• 4X Harvesting
  
• 4X Taming

Event Gachas by @nova_fox13


Valguero Rainbow by @welshwilco


Building With TEK by @sugarmodark


Exogenesis by @jeffrichey


Family by @Schillaa2


Shadow of Death by @grammar_gamer


Addicts Drawing by @wyvernadas


See you next week!

Studio Wildcard


Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark
Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark
Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark
Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark
Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark

Break out your shades and catch some rays in the 2020 Summer Bash event. If you ever needed an excuse to celebrate summer and soak in some sun, we've got you covered. From June 25th to July 14th the second Summer Bash event will be underway. Spend your time relaxing by the beach in the new Hawaiian shirts or have a fight your tribe using the new water-gun skin. However you choose to spend your summer in ARK, Summer Bash is bound to cook up a lot of entertainment.



Server Settings
-activeevent=Summer

Event Start
PC: 10AM PDT
XBOX & PS4: 1PM PDT

Rate Boosts

• 3X Breeding (mating interval, egg hatch speed, and maturation)
  
• 4X Player XP
  
• 4X Harvesting
  
• 4X Taming

New Emotes

• Guitar Riff
  
• Drum Solo
  
• Head Banger

New Skins

• 4 new Hawaiian-style shirt Skins
  
• 3 new Swimsuit Skins
  
• BBQ-themed Grilling Spatula (Club Skin)
  
• Frisbee Skin (Boomerang)
  
• 1 Sunglasses Skin w/ customizable lenses
  
• Super Soaker style Squirt Gun Skin (Flamethrower)

New Chibi Pets

• Manta
  
• Ammonite
  
• Cnidaria
  
• Plesiosaur
  
• Astrocetus

Event-Colored Wild Creatures

• Dino Dark Blue
  
• Red
  
• White
  
• Dino Sky Blue
  
• Dark Red
  
• Blue
  
• Light Grey
  
• Cream
  
• Cammo
  
• Orange
  
• MediumTeal
  
• DarkBlue
  
• LemonLime
  
• Peach
  
• Coral

The event kicks off at 10AM PDT.




With the start of the 5th Anniversary event, we implemented some changes to the way our servers calculate growing baby dinos. By distributing these calculations we can recover some of the performance costs related to breeding calculations, which is quite cost-intensive.

In more technical terms, we have done this by measuring the stress on a server with each tick and batching the actors to process their breeding calculations over the course of several ticks rather than all of them on every tick. For a server that is already in a stable state not much might be noticed, but for a server under intense stress players may notice that breeding calculations, and the initial start of mating may be a little delayed.

The good news is that players should notice less performance issues during boosted breeding rates. Servers will always be put under extra strain during event rates, especially so in regards to breeding rates but we've sought to minimize that with these changes and we've noticed some positive improvements.

If you are on a busy server and experiencing some delays, this is why and we're currently iterating on this so these response delays don't feel like as much of a disruption.



We're moving the Community Crunch back to Friday's! In addition to moving the Crunch back to Friday's, we'll start to feature community content in the Community Crunch rather than its own separate day. If you are creating or sharing ARK content, be sure to tag it with #playARK for a chance to be featured!



Kick back enjoy a great start to your summer with the ARK Summer Sale. For a limited time, ARK will be up to 80% off!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/346110



While Summer Bash is active from June 25th to July 14th, there will be no special EVO event rates.

Summer Bash Rates

• 3X Breeding (mating interval, egg hatch speed, and maturation)
  
• 4X Player XP
  
• 4X Harvesting
  
• 4X Taming

Crystal Griffin by @bluedragonark


Fire Reef by @ProjectTiamat


ActualBlack Megatherium by @TiiaAurora


Argentavis on Genesis by @PicturesofArk


Epic Viking Longhouse by @ThePilgrimz


Wyvern Drawing by @RunsWithPencil



See you next week!

Studio Wildcard

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark
Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark
Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark
Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark
Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark

Break out your shades and catch some rays in the 2020 Summer Bash event. If you ever needed an excuse to celebrate summer and soak in some sun, we've got you covered.  From June 25th to July 14th the second Summer Bash event will be underway.  Spend your time relaxing by the beach in the new Hawaiian shirts or have a fight your tribe using the new water-gun skin. However you choose to spend your summer in ARK, Summer Bash is bound to cook up a lot of entertainment. 

3X Breeding (mating interval, egg hatch speed, and maturation)
4X Player XP
4X Harvesting
4X Taming

Guitar Riff
Drum Solo
Head Banger

4 new Hawaiian-style shirt Skins
3 new Swimsuit Skins
BBQ-themed Grilling Spatula (Club Skin)
Frisbee Skin (Boomerang)
1 Sunglasses Skin w/ customizable lenses
Super Soaker style Squirt Gun Skin (Flamethrower)

Manta
Ammonite
Cnidaria
Plesiosaur
Astrocetus

Dino Dark Blue
Red
White
Dino Sky Blue
Dark Red
Blue
Light Grey
Cream
Camo
Orange
MediumTeal
DarkBlue
LemonLime
Peach
Coral

We at Studio Wildcard wish everyone a sun-filled summer with tons of fun.  Until next time!

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark
Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark
Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark
Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark
Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark

Celebrate the return of an ARK community classic, updated with a new real-world dinosaur for you to tame, and now added to ARK’s Official Server networks! Crystal Isles is 150 square kilometers of colorful scenery and awe-inspiring biomes teeming with life. This map's supernatural beauty has won the hearts of the ARK community since its debut as a mod in 2016, and we've polished it to bring out its shine.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1270830/Crystal_Isles__ARK_Expansion_Map/



Whether you think you know Crystal Isles or plan to explore this map for the first time, you should be prepared for new discoveries. Build your bases high in rainforest canopy and mysterious floating islands, then dive deep into undersea caverns in search of resources. Tame and saddle up your own Tropeognathus—ARK’s newest pterosaur—for a dizzying jet-fuel-powered ride into aerial combat, complete with powerful mounted flak cannon!





Crystal Isles includes:

• A 150 sq km map with a wide variety of unique biomes to explore
  
• The Great Valley, a rainforest with bogs and towering tree limbs that lend new options for base-building
  
• Emberfall, a fantastic region of vibrant foliage and volcanic danger that also rewards exploration
  
• Eldritch Isle, an eerie and challenging realm worth braving for its valuable resources, like Element and oil
  
• Apotheosis, a cluster of floating islands tangled with vines and roots, shot through with cavernous pockets, and spilling over with waterfalls
  
• Three types of crystal wyvern types for you to tame and breed
  
• A new custom boss arena
  
• New Dinosaur Tame: Tropeognathus! This large pterosaur from the Cretaceous period can now be found making its home on Crystal Isles. Tropeognathus’ keel-tipped snout can quickly gnash victims’ armor into bits, and when outfitted with a saddle containing a jetpack, its speed and maneuverability are second-to-none. Also providing a built-in flak cannon available to the pilot, this terror of the skies can engage in aerial combat with extreme deadliness

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark

Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark

Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark

Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark

Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark

Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110

Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark

It’s been five exciting years since ARK: Survival Evolved opened the way to the ARK and survivors around the world set out on half a decade’s worth of adventure.

In this Crunch, we’ll be covering the unique, real-world dino, the Tropeognathus, the much anticipated Crystal Isles launch, our fun Anniversary Event, and a blast from the past by way of Timecapsule Servers.




If you’ve been following the mod community, you’re probably familiar with Crystal Isles. Its supernatural beauty won the hearts of the ARK community since its debut as a mod in 2016. For four years it has grown to over 240K subscriptions and has called for many requests for the community to make it an official map.

We’ve decided to give it a new coat of polish to bring out its true shine. The newly updated Crystal Isles launches with a 150 sq km map with a wide variety of awe-inspiring biomes teeming with life. Whether you think you know Crystal Isles or plan to explore this map for the first time, be prepared for new breathtaking discoveries.




Build your bases high in rainforest canopies or mysterious floating islands, then dive deep into undersea caverns in search of resources. The Great Valley, a rainforest with bogs and towering tree limbs, lends new options for base-building and traversal. Eldritch Isle, an eerie and challenging realm, will be worth braving for its valuable resources like element and oil. Emberfall, a fantastic region of vibrant foliage and volcanic danger, will reward those who chose to explore in the region. Perhaps most awe-inspiring, Apotheosis, a cluster of floating islands tangled with vines and roots, shot through with cavernous pockets and spilling over with waterfalls. With three types of crystal wyvern for you to tame and breed and a new custom boss arena, Crystal Isles is sure to keep you busy.



Celebrate ARK’s anniversary with an updated Crystal Isles map and a new real-world dinosaur for you to tame on ARK’s PC Official Server networks!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1270830/Crystal_Isles__ARK_Expansion_Map/

And of course, with a new map, comes new servers! Please remember that transfers into these servers will only be enabled for characters and not creatures or items. We'll be opening those up at a later date, however, transfers out are enabled for characters, items, and creatures.

Unofficials can host the map themselves using the following map name: CrystalIsles

Protip: Adjust your map filter to CrystalIsles to find them quicker!





We couldn’t let our fifth anniversary pass without an in-game event to accompany it! Bring out your party hats, because from June 11th to June 24th, ARK will be celebrating the memories we’ve made along the way. In addition to Tropeognathus making its grand debut, we’ll be introducing 5 new chibi’s to collect. Looking to complete your chibi collection? A brand new feature for this event allows you to trade 4 for a new one in the forge.

Throw a surprise party for your tribe-mates with the new pop-out birthday cake structure and have a get-together with your tribe wearing party hat skins from prior events!

This event can be manually activated with the server arg parameter: -activeevent=birthday​​​​​​​
Event Dates: June 11th to June 24th
Event Rates:

• 3X Breeding (mating interval, egg hatch speed, and maturation)
  
• 4X Player XP
  
• 4X Harvesting
  
• 4X Taming

Event Creatures:

• 5 New Chibi pets
  
• Party Dodo (Harvested to get cake slices for event content)

Event Content:

• Pop Out Birthday Cake Structure

Tame and saddle up your own Tropeognathus—ARK’s newest pterosaur—for a dizzying jet-fuel-powered ride into aerial combat, complete with powerful mounted flak cannon!
This large pterosaur from the Cretaceous period can quickly gnash victims’ armor into bits, and when outfitted with a saddle containing a jetpack, its speed and maneuverability are second-to-none. Also providing a built-in flak cannon available to the pilot, this terror of the skies can engage in aerial combat with extreme deadliness.

Tropeognathus makes its debut on the ARK with the introduction of our anniversary event! The creature can be found exclusively on Crystal Isles when playing on PC, and on console the flying terror can be encountered as a rare spawn on the following maps: The Island, The Center, Scorched Earth, Ragnarok, and Valguero.




Before TEK suits and replicators, survivors experienced the Island in a much different way. Traversing the landscape provided unique challenges without many of the creatures we know and love. It might be hard to imagine The Island without the Redwoods biome or the numerous caves that have been added but earlier survivors will have distinct memories of this era in ARK’s history.

Many of the latest creatures that serve as companions, utility, and defense in ARK’s modern era weren’t a concept yet. Time capsule servers will offer a unique perspective and highlight the progression of ARK’s content, lore, and community when compared to the current day.



While we’re happy to take this trip down memory lane it’s important to remember that Timecapsule servers are a snapshot of a moment in time. They won’t receive any customer service support or future updates.

Here are a few notable features of the 2015 Timecapsule build:

• No TEK Engrams
  
• No fabricated snipers, compound bows, pump action shotguns or longneck rifles
  
• Flyer speed can be increased

If you'd like to take a look at ARK in its most primitive days, you'll need to opt into our special branch in your steam ARK configuration. You can do so by following the steps below:

1) Right-click on the ARK game in your Steam library and select "properties"
2) Select the "Beta" tab
3) Locate "timecapsule" in the drop-down menu and select that.
4) Select close, patch ARK, and remember to launch the game without BattlEye then go forth and punch trees!




While the Anniversary event is active, there will be no special EVO rates. The event rates for Official servers:

• 3X Breeding (mating interval, egg hatch speed, and maturation)
  
• 4X Player XP
  
• 4X Harvesting
  
• 4X Taming

We’d like to thank the community once more, as we truly appreciate all the passion and support you’ve shown the game. While we couldn’t have foreseen quite how the last 5 years would play out, from primitive dwellings to hyperspace whales, our vision for the ARK franchise is as strong as ever. So stick with us on this rollercoaster ride into the future, as we look forward with you to tremendously exciting years ahead for ARK, where the very definition of survival continues to evolve.
With gratitude,



The Studio Wildcard team!

Common Name: Tropeo
Species: Tropeognathus mesembrinus
Time: Cretaceous
Diet: Piscivore
Temperament: Neutral

Up close, Tropeognathus mesembrinus is easily recognized by the keeled crests on its snout, but with wingspans of up to twenty-seven feet, you’re sure to spot it before then. 

These large wings are not only ideal for catching air currents over its ocean hunting grounds, but they also let Tropeognathus draft off of other flying creatures by flying behind them. While not the fastest flyer on the Isles, when combined with its remarkable stamina, this makes Tropeognathus well suited for long distance flight.

Because it’s on the wing so much, Tropeognathus is best snared by those riding another flier. I've noticed the more clever tribespeople using chain bolas to capture them while airborne.

Domesticated
Once tamed, Tropeognathus has proven quite useful to the people of the Isles beyond mere transportation. For example, its toothed beak can grind down many common goods to their base components, which is a great way to recycle items and gear! Well, so long as you have a rag handy to wipe off the spit...

That bite is punishing enough to crack armor and grind through it over time, and Tropeognathus can blow away flora and fauna alike with a gust from its wings. Air-to-air combat is where this creature really shines, though. And with the right tools, some survivors have managed to fit them with a saddle-mounted flak cannon and jet engine for maximum lethality. 

Trust me, you haven't lived until you've ridden a jet-powered pterosaur into a dogfight. Saddle one up and see for yourself - you can be my wingman anytime!





Prepare your tribe and get ready for another epic adventure! Crystal Isles will be coming to PC on June 4th!



Want to introduce your friends to the world of ARK?  Right now, the ARK: Survival Evolved Explorer's Edition Bundle is available for 75% off on Steam! The Explorer's Edition gives you access to the base game as well as the Scorched Earth, Aberration, and Extinction Expansion Packs.

Go grab your copy now!



As mentioned previously, we'll be keeping 2X rates on until further notice.

Studio Wildcard 

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark
Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark
Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark
Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark
Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark