It’s been a little while since our last Digest, we’ve had a lot going on! Getting lost at tradeshows, attempting to find snap-points when putting together furniture in our new offices, not being prepared for the seasonal elements of Spring, as well as the launch of our free game, Survival of the Fittest and our tremendously hazardous caves! We’ve got a bit to catch up on so let’s get this started!

We are excited to announce that the first Survivor League is officially LIVE, now! You can keep track of when this round ends by heading over to our Survivor League page and checking out the countdown to see when the top-ranked players will be archived into the league. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Survivor League, here’s a run down!

What is Survivor League?

The Survivor League is a hall of fame that intends to honor and preserve the top 40 Survival of the Fittest players of said period. At the end of every league, we will be celebrating the highest-scoring players, which will be visible in real time, by both archiving them and announcing them as the Survivor League for that month.

How long does each Survivor League last?

Each Survivor League will last approximately 30 days. Players will be able to see when the next winners are announced by visiting:

https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/survivor-league/

At the top of this page, there will be a visible clock which will highlight how long is left until the winners are archived and the next session begins. This page will also contain a current leaderboard which will display, in real time, the survivors who are currently top of the rankings. Keep in mind, those survivors may not be the ones who make it into the Survivor League at the end of the session, as they will need to keep their place for when the timer hits zero.

When does the first Survivor League start?

The first Survivor League will be announced on April the 15th at 12PM Eastern. This means that all active games now will count towards the first league and players are able to keep track of when the winners will be archived by checking the clock at the top of Survivor League page.

How will the ranking system work?

Ranks are determined by the amount of score you have in each specific game-mode. When the clock hits zero, the Top 10 Ranking players in each of the 4 game modes, a total of 40 players, will be declared and entered into the Survivor League. Following this, the new clock will begin ticking for the next Survivor League.

Ranks will not be reset after each month has been awarded so it is entirely possible for players to stay on the league for multiple months, however a player’s score may start to decay if a player has not played for over 1 week.

What are the benefits to becoming a part of the Survivor League?

There are many benefits to becoming a member of the Survivor League. First of all, the top 10 players in each mode will receive a cash-prize dependant on their placement on the rank tables. The prizes will be distributed as following:

Place Prize Pool

1 $3500

2 $2500

3 $1800

4 $1650

5 $1500

6 $1350

7 $1200

8 $1050

9 $900

10 $750

These prizes will be allocated accordingly to all 40 members of the Survivor League for that month. Survivor League members will also be archived and celebrated throughout the game in the Survivor League Archives and members of this exclusive and honorary league will be invited to upcoming broadcasted Tournaments, so getting into the league is not just a way to win a large amount of money and glory, but also a way to earn even more prizes and glory in the future. We are serious about the Survival of the Fittest becoming a serious competitive e-sports game and with that, want to celebrate players who are dedicated and perform to the highest standard!

Disqualification from Survivor League

Any player found to be exploiting the game by gaining an unfair advantage through the use of unintended mechanics or third party programmes will risk being disqualified from the league. Studio Wildcard holds the authority and discretion to determine what gaining an unfair advantage would be and will step in if necessary. Disqualification from Survivor League may result in, but is not limited to: being permanently banned from ARK Survival of the Fittest, stripped of all Survivor League titles, forfeiture of any unpaid monetary prizes and prohibited from entering or participating any tournament.

Changes made to Survivor League

Studio Wildcard holds the right to make any changes to the terms of participation, the methods of qualification, and the prizes for for Survivor League as they deem necessary. However any such changes will be notified to players in advance and will not have an effect for 30 days.

This does not impact balance or other such changes to the game mode, Survival of The Fittest, only to the terms of the Survivor League and its associated prizes/titles/rewards, etc.

Good luck to all those competing and may the best survivors win!

Mod Contest

Survivors!

Earlier this year we were thrilled to announce the first challenge for modders with our very first ARK International Mod Contest! Putting content creators, new and old, to the test through making their own ARK Mod.

We just wanted to remind you guys that you are approaching the deadline for the entries very shortly and that on Friday, April the 1st at 12PM EASTERN, entries will be officially closed!

All entries must be submitted here by the final submission date and the winners will be announced on May the 15th 2016, after finalist voting, spotlight and judging rounds.

Caves Update!

So you guys have now had a few days to check out our new caves and we really hope you’ve enjoyed running through them! We’re going to start looking at the older caves now and give them a bit of a makeover, here’s a little sneak-peek. Let us know what you think!



ARK Digest Q+A

Survivor, GamerPerfection asks, “Are you looking at adding the ability to pick up our Dodos so that I can take selfies with my Dodos?”

Quote Yes actually, we intend to add support to “carry” smaller dinos! This will be similar to having them mounted on your shoulder, except you will be unable to use a weapon while doing so as you must hold them with your hands.

Survivor, Barkuhn asks, “Can we expect some sort of mechanised transportation system in the higher tiers?”

Quote Yup, that is definitely something you can expect to see.

Survivor, Kimsie asks “Is the final plan to have multiple taming methods for each animal or just for some and could multiple be more than two?”

Quote We’re still undecided about whether we’re going to have multiple taming methods or not, though feel free to input some suggestions.

Survivor, Kimsie also asks, “You have also mentioned a second ARK in the works. How many ARKs are planned for release (and after)?”

Quote Our focus right now is on ARK Prime.

Survivor, LookingForGroup asks, “When we'll reach beta and you will start optimizing the game, will you add multi-threading support?”

Quote The game does currently use more than one thread, however there are more aspects of the gameplay which could be threaded, especially in later Unreal Engine 4 versions. As we head forward we’ll be continuing to pull in optimization related changes from later UE4, including more parallel threading systems.

Survivor, D34DGR1NG0 asks, “With the popularity of ARK on the rise and the devotion of players split between Primitive and Full Content servers, are there any plans to expand on the two distinct "eras" in playstyle?”

Quote The Primitive+ Total Conversion will focus more on primitive era gameplay specifically, as we’ve set up Official Servers for this! Whereas ARK: Survival Evolved the main game will always be a mix.

Survivor, tomb asks, “Will it ever be possible to get a .ini server setting for allowing or not allowing offline raiding? Something like "if player / tribe is online their buildings can be destroyed"

Quote Yes, that seems reasonable and is simple to do. We’ll add that in the next patch!

Survivor, MLaidler asks, “It was mentioned several digests ago that (post-release) there would be an oceanic isles map. Is this still planned post-release? I'd love the emphasis on sea and air dinos, boats, and making outposts on smaller islands”

Quote We’re very interested in expanding the sea-based gameplay, and that necessarily includes more space to do that!

Survivor, Shadowenigma250x asks, “Will we ever see full creature based armor sets? Kinda of an upgrade to the creature masks/helmets already in the game (Dodorex mask, Rex skull helmet, etc)”

Quote There are a few too many creatures in the game for us to devote resources to this at the moment, but it’s a good thing for Mods to be able to pick up on. Later on, we’ll see.

Survivor, Seggzy asks, “Would it be possible to add a place-able, high powered, telescope to the game? You know to spy on people around the island (or the aliens in the sky)”

Quote Alas there are spatial networking limitations that come into play with super long distance scopes, but we’ll be considering it and see if there’s a way to get past those limitations.

Survivor, GrandTheftAuto asks, “Any plans to revisit the Kibble Tree? (most kibbles fall under a linear chain that makes doesn't make sense, why tame carno before trike?)”

Quote Yes, this will get a rebalance/restructuring before shipping.

Survivor, RadioActiveMan asks, “Any feedback/eta for ‘floating’ structures collapsing as they should? Pipes/Wires/Pillars – If you remove their roots, they do not fall.”

Quote It’s actually very annoying when pipes fall due to lack of support (you could destroy someone’s pipe network too easily otherwise), though maybe we’ll enable a timer on them before support needs to be re-added. But as for pillars, those should require support (old legacy pillars may linger though), so we’ll be looking into it.

Survivor, RadioActiveMan asks, “Will be be able to paint other appliance type items in the future? Its nice we can paint the industrial forge but I wanna paint my fabricator too!”

Quote We plan to do a painting/colorization pass on all structures before shipping so you’ll be able to paint them all!

Survivor, Erractic asks, “Would you ever consider adding a hot air balloon? I'd love to build airships, even if they were slower than a quetz and needed fuel. Could be really fun with the new grappling hooks too”

Quote It would indeed enable more “persistently floating” air bases which could be really fun. Will be exploring this idea further in the near future.

Survivor, Bogdanov89 asks, “Any critical improvements coming to the in-game Server Browser?”

Quote Indeed, we plan to do exactly that in April -- you’ll be able to access an “Extended Server Details” page for any server that you’re viewing which will list effectively all of the configurable options. Also more values will be exposed for global filtering -- however not all of them as we have too many configurable values for Steam to use as filters.

Survivor, ryanmc15 asks, “How will alpha dire wolves work? Will you have to tame an alpha or once you have tamed a pack of wolves an alpha will be elected?”

Quote You’ll have to tame an alpha wolf.

Survivor, vis02001 asks, “Is there anyway that we might be able to get a shark cage? So we can put on the side of our rafts and descend into the depths to harvest resources.”

Quote Ahh that’s a little beyond the scope of our current intent for the rafts, but maybe a mod can run with that idea as it does sound pretty fun!

Survivor, Frostyeagle asks, “Does the titanosaur get a special ultra big poop?”

Quote It does!

Survivor, Woden asks, “what about adding bean bag ammo for the shotgun (seeds + fiber). This could be a neat stun/ torpor attack against human players and small Dino's, (compy, dimorphodon!, dodo)”

Quote Haha, we like it!

Survivor, xopha asks, “Will we ever be able to pick up the cages with a flyer? Another form of prisoner transport that could then be intercepted. Maybe the cages break if dropped?”

Quote That’s certainly an interesting idea, would enable transportation of prisoners without freeing them. We’ll explore how technically viable it is.

That’s it for this week’s ARK Digest! Thanks for tuning in and hopefully you’ve walked away learning something new! Thanks for all the support, engagement, and feedback so far!

Much love,

Wildcard Jen & The ARK Survival Evolved Team!