The ARK Digest Issue #2

Hello there again ARKaholics, needless to say it’s been a very busy morning for us and the team over at ARK. We will be covering today’s ARK Digest issue #2, and it has some awesome material in it!

New Features:

Stomping Out The Competition

The team over at ARK had been mentioning that they wanted to give back to the community that backed The Stomping Lands, and they’ve finally revealed what they have in store for us. All owners of The Stomping Lands will receive an exclusive “Stomped Land Bling Shades” cosmetic accessory for their Tyrannosaurus Rex!

Releasing and Claiming Tamed Creatures

Recently added to the game is the ability to release and claim tamed species. You’ll be able to do this by selecting an option from your menu while next to the creature. This will be useful for transferring ownership of animals to other survivors.

They’ve also added in a feature that allows survivors to loan/give their dinosaurs to other survivors hoping that this will encourage trading. Though, you might want to be careful, as not everyone is as honest as they seem.

New Screenshots of the Phinomia, Carbonemys, Titanoboa, Onychonycteris & Megalodon

ARK Digest Questions Answered

Question: Can you use weapons when mounted?

Answer: Very good question Survivor! As of right now you can only make use of the following items whilst mounted; Torch, Map, GPS and or Compass. Keep in mind that this is likely to change as we proceed into EA! However an option you do have currently available to you on larger dinosaurs, such as the Brontosaurus or T-Rex, is the ability to stand on its saddle whilst it’s being driven by another survivor.Though you’ll need to physically find a way to get up there ;).

You can do this by the much loved Flintstone method of running up its tail, using your ingenuity to build a docking bay or simply mounting your beast, loosening up off the driver’s seat and mount onto the back of the Dino. From here on out, just take out your weapon and feel free to use it, even whilst it moves! Also another option of Dino-Mounted Combat would involve getting picked up off the ground by a suitably sized flyer and shooting your weapons whilst hanging. If you’ve got a fear of falling, it’s not something we recommend, but definitely a great way to provide some air-support in battle!

Question: How will electricity work in-game? Will we have various ways of creating power ie. solar power, generators, etc..

Answer: Electricity is produced with the use of generators. Generators consume gas, which is resource that is manufactured from constituent materials including Oil. It may seem like an expensive resource later on in the game however it’s definitely worth its investment. Gas lasts an incredibly long time and the amount of use you can get from using electrically powered items is amazing. As well as the need for Generators, Gas and technically Oil, survivors will need to craft and place both electrical cable and junction boxes to power electrical devices that they’re attached to. One of the uses for electricity would be to power a fridge. Great way to keep food from spoiling 🙂

Question: Will we be able to craft armor for our mounts to increase their survivability?

Answer: Armored Dinos, every survivor’s dream and possibly, worst nightmare. As we proceed beyond the launch of Early Access you can definitely expect to see some Dino Armor types introduced into the game. For now, your current option would be a Dinosaur Saddle. Each Dinosaur has a unique saddle that it can equip, and is necessary for survivors to be able to mount them. There are varying qualities of saddles available and each will have its own armor rating. You’ll need to go on the hunt for blueprints to craft the better ones though ;).

Question: Will it be at all possible to have a 3rd person camera mode as a toggle, given that it is already available for dinosaur mounting anyway? It would be very nice to be able to see our custom characters and the crafted gear on it for ourselves in single player or even multiplayer so not just others beside you can see your character.

Answer: Yes! There is an orbit “selfie” camera you can use even in First Person View provided that you are not attacking. Also another option is when looking at your inventory, Survivors are shown a 3D preview of their character with the ability to zoom in or out.

Question: How will music be handled in game? will there be riffs that play once in a while, when respawning, after gun shots…etc. (always been a fan of a game with music only once in a while i.e rust legacy style)

Answer: Fantastic question! We understand the importance of immersion in survival games and take it very seriously to ensure that the idea of survival is not broken apart. However, with that in mind, good music used effectively can add a lot to a game and definitely help in terms of the mood that is felt when playing. Whilst surviving the ARK, you’ll find that you will hear certain riffs being played every once in a while to signify when there’s a transition between day, afternoon as well as night and also some, area and time specific combat orientated music!

There’s more to come on this in the future and we may look into also adding some musical interludes when first reaching and discovering certain areas. All our music is composed by Gareth Coker, the award winning composer of Ori and the Blind Forest! He produces some really breath-taking music, check him out and send him some love on twitter! @GarethCoker

Question: I understand when you die you lose your gear, but retain any engrams you’ve learned and skills that the character has leveled. But what about your map? It seems like, as you explore, you map out the nooks and crannies of the island. If you die, do you keep the information you have mapped out? Or does that all reset every spawn?”

Answer: Ah yes, a very important question. In short, your map is something that is permanently kept on your local profile, and travels along with you on any server you play. This means that if you play on single player and have unlocked a fair bit of that map, you can then go onto multiplayer having the same access to that map. This includes any important marks you have pinpointed and saved on the map via the waypoint system.

Now you’re probably wondering, what do we mean by local profile? Essentially, there are two types of profiles. A local profile, and a server-specific profile. A server-specific profile consists of everything you do on that particular server. Things that you can expect to find on a server specific profile include your character, the Engram points you’ve spent and the technology you’ve acquired. Other things that are a part of the server-specific profile would include buildings, Dinosaurs and anything you’ve really found and built within the ark. However here comes a little important part. Anything you have unlocked in the game and or anything you have digitized from the ARK via the use of Obelisk points belong to your local profile! This means that your map, digitized dinosaurs and items, as well as any dossiers you unlock within the game will belong to your local profile.

Closed Alpha Access

Alpha emails have begun being sent out and you can expect to see some keys on Friday! Keep in mind that this is just the first wave and there will be more to come :).

We’re super excited to have some of you start playing!