Oct 1, 2021

Community Crunch 286: EVO Event, Community Corner, and More!

ARK: Survival Evolved - complexminded

Welcome to another edition of the Community Crunch!

We're getting the weekend started with an EVO event and taking a look at some amazing community art!

An ARK Evolution Event is active until Monday the 4th with the following EVO perks on all Official Servers!

2X Taming
2X Harvesting
2X XP

Creator: The Johtunn Bandit
What is an super-omni-trap? Check out this video which boasts to hold over 65 creatures!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bReFrh_WEnY

Creator: Cantex
Do all ARK creatures stand a chance against the Ice Titan and Forest Titan? Let's find out!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsvfUue7Lr0

ARK Survival Evolved Hollow Knight by Chervendiga

TEK Therizinosaurus Fan Concept by EmilyStepp

Acro Head Final by GarboAnimations

Three Gun Mussel by @J0vando

Ark fan art by LionsAngel22

Aberration by archipelagornis

Avie

@XxStevieLad87xX

@Petergames_666

Have a great weekend!
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Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Discord: discord.com/invite/playark
Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark
Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark
Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark
Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark

Sep 24, 2021

Community Crunch 285: EVO Event, Community Corner, and More!

ARK: Survival Evolved - complexminded

Welcome to another edition of the Community Crunch!

This week we rolled out the optimized Dedicated Storage change to PlayStation. We're working on rolling those changes out to XBOX next week.

Take a look at some community content from this week as we prep for an action-packed end of the year!

An ARK Evolution Event is active until Monday the 27th with the following EVO perks on all Official Servers!

3X Taming
3X Harvesting
3X XP

Creator: UpFromTheDepths
Check out a teaser for the upcoming episode to the Paleo ARK series!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5JyvyJO8Po

Creator: Syntac
Would you try and fight The Overseer with a Deinonychus? Well, Syntac did! Find out if he succeeds!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO7XMyBAHGI

Primal Fear by GustavoGarcez

"Kiara" The Shadowmane by Irinaal9

Giganotosaurus by @N_Life93

Battle For The Highlands by Kitty#7656

Jerboa by LunarSiren#8178

@sis_6193

Rasvim1313#2269

tilou

Who the hell#1082

@sam_stimo

Sep 17, 2021

Community Crunch 284: Dedicated Storage Change, Evo Event, and more!

ARK: Survival Evolved - complexminded

Welcome to another edition of the Community Crunch!

This week, initially on PC, we rolled out a refactored version of the dedicated storage structure. Our impetus for doing so was optimization and performance improvements for dedicated servers.

Previously, Dedicated Storages used to hold up to 1800 stacks of a single item. On a typical popular server, there are usually thousands of dedicated storage boxes across an entire save, many of which are filled with stacks. On some of our most populated Official Servers, we see save files with over 65,000 dedicated storages -- many of them full (these were PVE servers). As you can imagine, this is a lot of items, like... a lot, a lot. How does this impact our servers? In our worst-case scenario, taking a server with 65,000 dedicated storages, let’s assume 70% of these are full; that means we’re talking 81,900,000 stacks, just from dedicated storage boxes alone. These all contribute to how well the server runs in terms of framerate, as well as the memory cost. Each ‘stack’ costs a little bit of both.

So a rework was necessary, and the results have proven to be great! This isn't a magic bullet and you won't suddenly see servers drop half their memory cost or double in performance, but we are seeing significant gains across our network on all maps. Some savings are as high as 10GB on memory usage, which is pretty phenomenal! Additionally, this change slows down the growth of memory usage on servers, as previously it would exponentially increase with additional dedicated storage boxes.

So here's how the rework 'works' under the hood:

The idea of having 'multiple' stacks is no longer the case when using Dedicated Storages. When viewing your UI, you won't see the items on the right-hand side anymore, and it won't display the item slot count when looking at the structure.
Instead, the dedicated storage box now contains a single item, and when you deposit items into it, we adjust the quantity of the said item. So instead of having 1800 stacks, you have one giant stack, if you will. Don't panic if you don't see items on the right-hand side, it is intentional! The items are still inside of the dedicated storage, it just works differently
The good news is that you'll still be able to withdraw one regular-sized stack at a time, should you need to as the game can calculate what that number would be.
As we've removed the 'items' from the storage, you can no longer interface with the remote inventory on the right-hand side. This means you can't split stacks inside of it, you can't drop items from it, etc.
The team is working to mitigate some of the changes, and one thing we've done and implemented is changed the 'Transfer All' function on Dedicated Storages to ignore your weight. Previously players could 'popcorn' items from Dedicated Storages (which is spamming the 'O' key, to drop them quickly) and then pick them up with a whip, but unfortunately that no longer works - which is why we've made this QOL change.
We are currently working on some additional QOL changes, which will enable players to pull out 1,5, or 10 items at a time if an entire stack isn't needed (You can press/click these buttons multiple times to get your desired quantity).
We're still monitoring community feedback with the change as we knew it would be an impactful and necessary change to increase performance for dedicated servers. We also want to make sure that the structure still feels pretty good to use as we know how important it is to base/item management. We'll do our best to take in the community feedback and see whether we can act upon it!

We’re also working on getting all of these changes moved over to console as soon as possible. This includes the quantity-display in different locations and fixing/improving the PlayStation version of the Dedicated Storage box so that you’ll be able to see the quantity of the items on the box itself similarly to the other platforms.

An ARK Evolution Event is active until Monday, the 20th with the following EVO perks on all Official Servers!

3X Taming
3X Harvesting
3X XP

Creator: Shockist
Follow along with Shockist as he takes you on a tour of the largest official genesis 2 base!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbG1pCyLUHU

Creator: SINZAHH
Ever wonder what you can accomplish as a solo player in ARK? SINZAHH takes us along for an epic solo raid!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4lfEaYL3I0

The Grave of the Lost by Kitty

Untitled by @kawarayane

Reaper by @KarkinosGaming

Rockwell (Pyschonauts Mashup) by @edmundium

Crystal Wyvern by Dronade#0814

MR RED#4506

Jøŋ Sŋøẃ

@EgoSilentium

Sep 10, 2021

Community Crunch 283: Evo Event, Community Corner, and more!

ARK: Survival Evolved - complexminded

Welcome to another edition of the Community Crunch!

This week we're taking a look at what's happening in the community in the Community Corner. Things may seem quiet on the homefront, but we're gearing up for a great close-out to the year! Lost Islands, three new creatures, another community creature vote, Extra Life, holiday events, and more will give everyone something to enjoy this holiday season!

An ARK Evolution Event is active until Monday, the 13th with the following EVO perks on all Official Servers!

2X Taming
2X Breeding (mating interval, egg hatch speed, imprint, and maturation)
2X Harvesting
2X XP
2X Hexagon Bonus

Creator: Leo
The various '100 days' series have become popular in the community, so here's a different take: 100 days as a master tamer!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUTVpHndbfw

Creator: Cjthecheesedj
Are these the top 10 traveling creatures to tame? Chime in and let us know!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC4askVKDbc

ARK Raptor evolution to TEK by @Ica7

Ferox for Jinx by alphaeuscreatives

ARKrptr by salamantha

Mei Yin by 龍&玥

Prissiie#6186

CryptidCorvids#0449

Good luck Shinehorn by Kitty#7656

@LolosArtCorner

@PurdyTrevor

@sarrisrainbows

Sep 3, 2021

Community Crunch 282: Evo Event, Community Corner, and more!

ARK: Survival Evolved - complexminded

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Welcome to another edition of the Community Crunch!

In the lead-up to the release of the Lost Island, a free DLC map coming later this year, we've been engaging the community and seeing what creatures you'd like to see on the upcoming release. During the first-ever official community vote, we saw a heated race as we narrowed down which creature would be one of the 3 new creatures that release with Lost Island.

Although Dinopithecus emerged as the clear winner, today we may have an addition that's fairly familiar to the community and the final creature being added to Lost Island!

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Sinomacrops bondei is a friendly and curious little pterosaur. It may approach and investigate unfamiliar creatures, but Sinomacrops does spook easily. When threatened, it will unfurl its wings to reveal deimatic eyespots in an attempt to confuse or scare predators away. Still, Sinomacrops seems to be a highly intelligent creature that craves social interaction.

While it's normally curious and friendly, Sinomacrops' adorably oversized mouth turns into a deadly weapon at the slightest sight and smell of insects. Even alone, this cute little critter can take down insects far larger than itself. Unfortunately, this means that armor made from chitinous plates is going to trigger an attack response from the otherwise sweet-hearted pterosaur.

Taming a Sinomacrops is fairly straightforward (in theory) -- just feed them without scaring them. Once tamed, they absolutely love travelling with their humans, and prefer to cling to them whenever possible.

Not only are they sociable, but they're fiercely protective once bonded. Any small creature approaching someone with a tame Sinomacrops will be met with its flashing eyespots and piercing shriek. That’s usually enough to stun an undersized interloper.

For such a small flier, Sinomacrops can carry surprisingly heavy loads. It can even support the weight of a fully-grown human adult, though it will struggle to gain altitude. Still, any creature companion that can double as a glider and parachute is invaluable for anyone traversing an ARK... as long as they bring plenty of snacks for their new friend.

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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. The ARK Sponsored Mod Program is also now accepting applications for the next selection, you will be able to apply until October 5th. Don't forget to submit your projects at https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/modding/apply-for-sponsorship/.

Alemia

Alemia is a map project that reworks many aspects of the game to take the player on a challenging survival adventure without any trace of technology. You'll find new structures and mechanics for crafting, exploration, taming and harvesting. And if that's not enough for you, there are many dungeons hiding underground... Alemia awaits.
https://steamcommunity.com/workshop/filedetails/?id=2353826185

ARK Genomes - Extinction Evolved

ARK Genomes brings forth a significant overhaul. Complete with challenges, a new tiered improvement system for creatures, and it's own story flow. Take on difficult challenges to fight off the corruption of element, gain new rewards and raise your tames through multiple stages of genetic evolution!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1902213098

An ARK Evolution Event is active until Tuesday, the 7th with the following EVO perks on all Official Servers!

2X Taming
2X Breeding (mating interval, egg hatch speed, imprint, and maturation)
2X Harvesting
2X XP
2X Hexagon Bonus

Creator: Finn Reinhardt
Want to see what happens when some well-known creators and players from the PvP and ARK community hide valuable items on an Official Server? Check out this amazing cinematic story from Finn Reinhardt!

Creator: Sefiro Ultima
Learn one of the more complex builds to pull off in ARK, the spiral staircase!

Genesis 2 by @co3na3

[VN] Pet me mommy ! by Ampraeh

I can haz element? by nezuyu

Genesis 2 Vibes by Firefly

VELUKO#6347

Ares#2032

The Amazing "Gacha" by Oriah

@slime_of_toilet

Matte iru Lietz | Comms Open#2149

@ARKLove9

Sayvaris

Aug 20, 2021

Community Crunch 281: Evo Event, Community Corner, and more!

ARK: Survival Evolved - complexminded

Greetings Survivors!

This week we'll be taking a look at some great community art in the community corner and kicking the weekend off with an EVO event! Internally, we're keeping an eye on the live-game and addressing issues with patches as they arise. Thank you for submitting your bugs to the bug tracker and reporting any server issues you are having.

We're all gearing up for an exciting end of the year for ARK!

An ARK Evolution Event is active until Monday, the 23rd with the following EVO perks on all Official Servers!

2X Taming
2X Harvesting
2X XP

Creator: Schwalbe
Check out a brand new "Lets Play" series on Extinction with Schwalbe!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRuw3iLFGkg

Creator: Hearts
Looking to take on the Crystal Islands map? You might want to see how Hearts fared in his new YouTube series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xc4a7m-UF2I

Kiryu Coco | ARK: Survival Evolved by Cubicorn

The roaring giganotosaurus by locelotkal

Spinosaurus by Archipelagornis

Managarmr by Diaboli666

Shinehorn by MiniVulpix

Crystal Wyvern by Oriah

Untitled (Discord Submission) by HallOfFlameSs#3779

ZuzKrr

Chogono

Aug 13, 2021

Community Crunch 280: Genesis Part II Server Transfers, Evo Event, and more!

ARK: Survival Evolved - complexminded

Greetings Survivors!

In this Crunch, we will be covering the opening of Genesis II transfers on our Official servers and a special little Evo Event including breeding and hexagon rewards!

Genesis Part II Official Server Transfers

On Friday, September 3rd, we will be enabling full server transfers into Genesis Part II on our Official Servers across all platforms. Once enabled, players will be able to download items and creatures onto the map without restriction!

An ARK Evolution Event is active until Monday, the 16th with the following EVO perks on all Official Servers!

2X Breeding (mating interval, egg hatch speed, imprint, and maturation)
2X Taming
2X Harvesting
2X XP
2x Hexagons

Creator: Aaron Longstaff
Aaron Longstaff is back with some helpful tips on building an ankylo pen with an industrial forge!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yP7h4G2vfc

Untitled (Discord Submission) by VELUKO#6347

Brownie the sabertooth by NocturnalShallows

TGD- Dreaded Beast I - Andrewsarchus by DjayMasi

Dimetrodon's Final Moments by @NeoVanilluxe

My Raptur Art (Discord Submission) by UR MOBILE GOD#7804

Reaper King Fan Art (Discord Submission) by AM#7193

123

VII2U5#5030 (Render)

See you next week!
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Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Discord: discord.com/invite/playark
Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark
Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark
Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark
Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark

Aug 6, 2021

Community Crunch 279: New Creature Submission, Community Corner, and More!

ARK: Survival Evolved - complexminded

Behind the scenes, we've been busy with the upcoming Lost Island map, new creatures, stability patches, and much more. With the live-game, we've identified an issue that results in a crash when releasing tames from cryopods on Player Dedicated and clients on Win10. We are working on a resolution and hope to have more news early next week!

The recent voting process for the Lost Island creature submission was not only fun and engaging for the community, we engaged and had fun with it internally as well. With that said, we'd love to do it again!

If you missed your chance to participate in the creature submission process you haven't lost your opportunity! We'll be opening up the entire process (submission of ideas, upvoting of ideas, narrowing to a top 10, and commencing a final vote) later this year for a creature that will be added to the game!

We're excited to see the art and ideas from another creature submission process! 🎨📝

There will be no EVO event this weekend.

Creator: Syntac
Tag along with Syntac on a brand new adventure. He's kicking tings off with a community made map by Nekatus named Fjordur (or is it Fjördur?)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7_k8zYASiU

Creator: Raasclark
Raasclark brings you another Top 10 list to debate about! What are the top 10 creatures worth breeding mutations for?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4TimHTbv3I

[Commission gift] Nemi and Voidwyrm by MayaPatch

Therizinosaurus Time by Epossum

Tyrannosaurus is Bathing by suzuki.ulya

The Red Obelisk (Discord Submission) by JaxoJ#8855

甘えん坊 by @sis_6193

Allosaurus by DynamiteSkye

@sarrisrainbows

@Shockal1

@sam_stimo

Jul 30, 2021

Community Crunch 278: Introducing Dinopithecus, Beginner Server Wipe, and More!

ARK: Survival Evolved - complexminded

Final voting for the second creature to be added to Lost Island has concluded. A few weeks ago, we created a forum where you could submit your ideas for creatures that will be added to Lost Island. From there, we narrowed it down to the top 10 up-voted submissions. Over 15,000 votes were submitted for the next Lost Island creature and only 1% difference separating the Dinopithecus and the Carcharodontosaurus! Talk about a close finish 😅

With one unannounced creature coming to Lost Island, what do you think it could be?

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I believe Dinopithecus has been changed by ARK life. This species is definitely larger than any I remember from the fossil record. And these oversized baboons show a more pack-oriented behavior than I would've expected in their kind. Whole troops will organize around an alpha, and fall apart if that alpha is slain.

Though they seem to prefer a diet of fruit supplemented with the occasional bit of meat, Dinopitheci are opportunistic and will eat just about anything. They’re also excellent climbers -- I’ve seen them scramble up sheer cliff faces and leap between trees to scavenge food for their troop.

Dinopitheci will bare sharp teeth and toss well-aimed handfuls of their own excrement when provoked. Their feces is what really sets this species apart -- they’ve managed to weaponize a parasite in it that disables TEK! I feel like that parasite deserves its own dossier.

If you can manage to tame enough Dinopitheci , you’ll soon find yourself with a small troop at your disposal. Your mini-troop will organize around the strongest of your tames, their new alpha that can then direct them at a target with a shrieked battle-cry.

No need to saddle your tamed Dinopithecus to ride it -- it will make one for you using its own tail. Just hold on tight, and it will take you straight up walls and across ziplines.

In battle, your Dinopithecus will fling fecal projectiles, grenades, or a combination that I like to call EBM, for Explosive Bowel Movement.

Amargasaurus is also making its grand appearance on Lost Island!

For more information on Amargasaurus, be sure to check out the dossier in an earlier Community Crunch!

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Beginner servers will be wiped clean on all platforms on Aug 6th 1PM Pacific.

Beginner servers are wiped periodically to help provide a fresh beginner experience for new players. Join by searching "Beginner" in the server browser!

ARK is on sale up to 75% off on Steam! A perfect time to start your quest for ultimate survival!
ARK on Steam

An ARK: EVOLUTION EVENT is active on all platforms from now through August 2nd, with the following EVO perks on all Official Servers:

2X Breeding (mating interval, egg hatch speed, imprint, and maturation)
2X Taming
2X Harvesting
2X XP

Creator: Captain Fatdog
You can make your life a lot easier with this simple fish basket build by Captain Fatdog.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvlC8XaOOww

Creator: Zany Zebra
Here is another take on '100 days in ARK' but this time in Abberration. Does Zany Zebra have what it takes?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqF34RpLg0A

BioKiller72 - Scanner 20200916

Frost-Strike - ARK Raptor

Sterva-666 - Otter

@Emily_Art- Fan skeletal anatomy concept of Ferox

@TekARK3 - The Last Frontier

@ChimeraGirl_ - Kevin, our beloved

@ThePilgrimz

@OnFire944

@XxStevieLad87xX

bear hunter

Jul 23, 2021

Community Crunch 277: Top 10 Lost Island Creatures, Giveaways, and More!

ARK: Survival Evolved - complexminded

We've rounded up the top 10 upvoted creatures from the community for the upcoming free DLC map, Lost Island. You'll have until July 30th, 00:00 UTC to cast your vote for the creature you want to see in Lost Island. Follow the link below to participate:

Top 10: Lost Island Creature Voting

A huge thanks to the ARK community for all the Summer Bash content that was shared over social media. We had a blast sharing all your images and videos around internally. Below are the winners from the Summer Bash Twitter giveaway.

@RikerPlays
@wilderbeast74
@Lalicore
@N_Life93
@NaturalCauzes
@LocalSquirrel28
@rencontabero
@poison666666
@Ryan69586742
@YoutubeGingie
@WilliamColvin2
@XxStevieLad87xX
@EgoSilentium

Congratulations to all the winners! We will reach out via Twitter with information on redemption.

In an effort to consolidate all the useful information from the community, we've made some changes to our bug reports section. Console and PC players will now use the same bug reporting process. Instead of relying on multiple sources to identify bugs, the QA team can focus their efforts on one consolidated, well-maintained source.

When reporting a bug it's very helpful to our QA team to include a repro (the steps required to reproduce the bug). With a detailed step-by-step instruction the person investigating will understand how to reproduce the issue. Listed steps should be as detailed as needed but also as simple as possible. Ideally, your bug should be reproducible. It's great if your steps are robust enough to reproduce the bug without any ambiguity. If it's not reproducible every time you can still file a bug mentioning the periodic nature of the bug.

Additionally supporting information like video evidence, is often needed to take action on your request. Take a look at our guide on submitting video evidence when creating a support ticket.

Bug Reports: https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/bugs/

There will be no EVO event this weekend.

Creator: everynightxRIOT
Take a look at an unreleased Godzilla mod with everynightxRIOT. Does it stand a chance against ARK kaiju's?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFBm8KO-ZsM

Creator: NeddyTheNoodle
Check out an excellent visual of John Dahkeya's story, based on explorer notes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47zRGaF-veQ

brzozan - [ARK] Reaper