Hello fellow ARKaholics! Tonight we are bringing you some popular questions asked by the ARK community and have been answered by the developers. We will also be adding these to our websites ARK FAQ page so everything will be in one place. More popular questions will be in our next issue tomorrow so get ready for that!

Will We See Streams/Videos of the Closed Alpha?

The closed alpha of ARK: Survival Evolved will be under a NDA (non-disclosure agreement) meaning you will not be able to share ANY information at all about the game.

How Long Until Official Release?

It’ll be about a year until it’s officially released, but it will hit Early Access on June 2.

Will There be Communication Systems like Radios?

Yes. You can currently craft radios and share a frequency to communicate across the ARK (when a server is set to use proximity voice or text chat). They went on to mention that a tower would be an interesting idea because you could ”flood all frequencies over an area (or jammer).”

Will There be Eggs to Raise?

Yes, eggs do appear in the game as a rare and difficult to collect item. They will be more common in breeding grounds, of course, but be careful: the dinos of that species will not let you take the eggs without a fight. Unfortunately, their uses right now are limited; they can just be used for advanced recipes. However, the devs said they eventually they do plan to implement other ways to use them.

Damage Values: Game vs Realism

When designing the game, they wanted something that felt real, so the health system is pretty hardcore. Pretty much any headshot will kill you, unless you’ve got a helmet, and the structures all take realistic amounts of damage based on their type and the type of weapons used. So, you won’t be able to break through a metal wall with a stone tool, but a metal tool on thatch will be like a hot knife through butter. And, though there are stats that can be improved through gameplay, it isn’t RPG-ish in that all the values for strength and health stay within a reasonable, realistic range.

What’s Base Building Like?

It’s basically how you’d expect it to be. You place a floor, then snap walls, doorframes, doors, ceilings, other floors, etc. At the moment, things are a bit grid-like, but they’ll be updating that as they continue development of the game. Additionally, there will be the ability to update things that are already placed with new, better materials. For example, you can start with thatch just to get a basic base built, then reinforce it with wood so it’s harder to break into. And, to add to the realism, there is structural integrity. No minecraft-esque floating castles.

As for where you can build (and, more importantly, where other survivors can’t), there’s a foundation system that determines who owns land. By building the foundation to your base, you control not only everything on that foundation, but a “generous” area around it. This is to prevent anyone from building directly next to you. However, people, and dinos, can still enter your area, so remember to secure it.

Though, they emphasize that it is an early access game, so not everything is fixed. With building specifically, they’re eager to get feedback from the alpha/beta testers to see where weaknesses in their system lie and what parts need to be improved. Keep an eye out for future updates regarding this topic, for it’s likely going to be one of the more important ones.