Hey Survivors! Welcome to the latest edition of the Community Crunch!

The Community Crunch is where we share important things going on with ARK, as well as host contests and showcase creations made by the community! Let's get started with some news.

Mysterious Mysteries: Introducing ???????

What an intriguing discovery survivors, can you guess what creature it is?

Xbox Play Anywhere & Rentable Servers!

We have some information to share on the Xbox Play Anywhere and Rentable Servers front. Unfortunately, due to the weather and some other unavoidable circumstances, our plans for mid-month have been slightly pushed back. Our current timeline is looking like the end of the month, but when we get closer to that we'll be able to provide you with a more specific date. We're still hard at work on all of these aspects; allowing players to rent their own PC Servers, as well as all the fun with the Windows 10 Version of the game and Crossplay between Xbox and Windows 10 Players!

ARK Digest 48!

Here is our question and answer session with Lead Designer, Lead Programmer, Co-Creative Director of ARK: Survival Evolved, and Co-Founder of Studio Wildcard: Jeremy "Drake" Stieglitz!

Survivor JozaSeraf asks, “So now when titanboa's are tameable, is there possibilaty to add them some sort of turret mode? Like they only bite until target is unconscious? That way we can have pits full of snakes and drop dino's in.”

Quote Yeah, we’ll add a general AI option for dinos to only attack Conscious targets.

Survivor TranqRex asks, “You’re not able to Scorched Earth on a Player Dedicated Server unless you own the DLC. Will this be changed, as you can host on PC without.”

Quote Unfortunately not, because we can’t download the necessary content files onto the game client without the player having ownership of the DLC itself.

Survivor Hazelnut20 asks, “Could you create a 'flee' aggression status, so that if something hits your dinosaur, that it runs away, instead of standing in direct line of fire?”

Quote Sure, we’ll add that -- no guarantees as to how effective it’ll be against a determined attacker, however!

Survivor Hosscat asks, “Being an achievement hunter and enjoying some of the challenges ARK gives to obtain some of the achievements I was excited to see The Center map had its own specific achievement. Will more achievements for other maps be released, such as Scorched Earth or Ragnarok only achievements?”

Quote Yes, when Ragnarok is done, we’ll add Achivements for it. Scorched Earth and Aberration will also be getting achievements.

Survivor AbeHikura asks, “are the future expansions already decided by the team (hence the season pass) or are you guys carefully monitoring us for inspiration? Will these expansions be the same or larger than Scorched earth (content wise)?”

Quote We’ve got the third Expansion in early design phase -- though much of its content is yet to be determined and will also be in response to continued feedback. Beyond that, we’ll be in continuous brainstorming mode

Survivor Mendoza asks, “Have you considered any further the decision to make above ground beacon drops fully random?”

Quote We’ll be adding a configuration option for this in the very near future.

Survivor TheGamingGomer asks, “Will we get splitscreen on console player dedicated servers? My brother and our friend would like to be able to play together without having three consoles or all getting on at the same time.”

Quote We can’t do it because the tethering logic is necessary for splitscreen to function properly, and the tethering logic only runs in non-dedicated mode.

Survivor Ulkusus asks, “Command/execute on starting ark: scan your steam achievements and update your local profile accordingly so one can get skins back after a reinstall of the game?”

Quote Yes, we will do this. Probably doesn’t need to be a command-line either, can likely just run upon each startup. Will investigate ASAP.

Survivor EternalUniverse asks, “Can we please have a respawn protection (ya'know when you respawn and you are into that animation that takes a long time to finish and then you get spawn killed by a dino?)”

Quote We’ll make a respawning player not targetable by Wild Dino AI’s.

Survivor Nightmare2772 asks, “Will Aberration feature a new plant species? Plant Species Z maybe? I like the idea of a huge carnivorous plant.”

Quote It will, and it’s called Plant Species Z :-P

Survivor KraziestKraken asks, “This is kind of a random question, but is the woman riding the raptor on the box art Helena? I've always thought so, but i'd like confirmation. “

Quote As a matter of fact, she is.

Survivor NeckRipper asks, “Will the dlc content of Aberration carry over and be usable in the other Arks like the island, center and rag?”

Quote Yes, just like with Scorched Earth.

Survivor Nch1418 asks, “First, are there plans to expand the story into the newly announced Aberration expansion and the other expansion coming in 2018? Second, will we be getting Explorer Notes from any new characters besides the six already introduced? Third, any small hints on what the 2018 DLC is going to involve or what it will be centered around (e.g. further story content, etc.)?”

Quote The story continues in Aberration and reaches a climax in the third DLC, where All Is Revealed in an epic conclusion. Each Expansion introduces new characters and raises the stakes, while continuing the story of the characters who have survived previous ARKs (they might not make it out alive from subsequent ARKs though!). 1

Survivor Gibsy asks, “Are you guys still going ahead with the revamp of the older dinos? If so when are we likely to see it”

Quote We have our design plans worked-out here for the Dino TLC pass, and it will be implemented and released this year.

ARK: 2x Evolution Event Weekend!

Survivors across ALL Platforms will be receiving a special Evolution Event perk this weekend! It's already live now and will remain active until Monday the 7th at 12PM EST. All Official Servers will be undergoing this evolutionary change which includes:

2x Harvesting Rate

2x Taming Rate

2x EXP Rate

2x Maturing

2x Hatching

2x Gestation

2x Faster Mating Interval Rates

Community Contests!

Player Procedurally Generated Maps!

The Procedurally Generated Map system allows players to make their own ARK maps by determining a myriad of landscape options from the heights of mountains, depths of valleys, and the number of lakes, rivers or oceans, to the kinds of each biome they want, and more! Let's check out the entries for this weeks contest! This week's contest winner is... Wolf Angelus!

PGTerrainPropertiesString=MapSeed=916;LandscapeRadius=1.0;Water Frequency=4.3;Mountains Frequency=12;Mountains Slope=1.99;MountainsHeight=.9;Turbulence Power=0.0125;Shore Slope=1.5;WaterLevel=-0.72;GrassDensity=1.0;JungleGrassDensity=0.05;ErosionSteps=25;TreesGroundSlopeAccuracy=0.5;DepositionStrength=0.01;ErosionStrength=0.01;OceanFloorLevel=-1.0;SnowBiomeSize=0.10;RWBiomeSize=0.10;MountainBiomeStart=-0.48;MountainsTreeDensity=0.06;JungleBiomeStart=-0.535;IslandBorderCurveExp=4.0;MaxSawnPointHeight=0.2;SnowGrassDensity=0.25;MountainGrassDensity=0.007;SnowMountainGrassDensity=0.15;UnderwaterObjectsDensity=0.5;SnowMountainsTreeDensity=0.03;TreeDensity=0.004;JungleTreeDensity=0.35;RedWoodTreeDensity=0.0125;SnowTreeDensity=1.25;RedwoodGrassDensity=0.035;ShoreTreeDensity=0.31;SnowShoreTreeDensity=0.04;DeepWaterBiomesDepth=-0.24;InlandWaterObjectsDensity=0.5;ShorelineStartOffset=0.035;ShorelineThickness=0.0087;MountainGeneralTreesPercent=0.15;TerrainScaleMultiplier=(X=1.0f,Y=1.0f,Z=1.0f);SnowBiomeLocation=(X=0.35f,Y=0.35f);RWForestBiomeLocation=(X=0.55f,Y=0.55f);NorthRegion1Start=(X=0.25f,Y=0.0f);NorthRegion1End=(X=0.416f,Y=0.5f);NorthRegion2Start=(X=0.416f,Y=0.0f);NorthRegion2End=(X=0.582f,Y=0.5f);NorthRegion3Start=(X=0.582f,Y=0.0f);NorthRegion3End=(X=0.75f,Y=0.0f);SouthRegion1Start=(X=0.25f,Y=0.5f);SouthRegion1End=(X=0.416f,Y=1.0f);SouthRegion2Start=(X=0.416f,Y=0.5f);SouthRegion2End=(X=0.582f,Y=1.0f);SouthRegion3Start=(X=0.582f,Y=0.5f);SouthRegion3End=(X=0.75f,Y=1.0f);EastRegion1Start=(X=0.75f,Y=0.0f);EastRegion1End=(X=1.0f,Y=0.333f);EastRegion2Start=(X=0.75f,Y=0.333f);EastRegion2End=(X=1.0f,Y=0.666f);EastRegion3Start=(X=0.75f,Y=0.666f);EastRegion3End=(X=1.0f,Y=1.0f);WestRegion1Start=(X=0.0f,Y=0.0f);WestRegion1End=(X=0.25f,Y=0.333f);WestRegion2Start=(X=0.0f,Y=0.333f);WestRegion2End=(X=0.25f,Y=0.666f);WestRegion3Start=(X=0.0f,Y=0.666f);WestRegion3End=(X=0.25f,Y=1.0f)

If you'd like to learn more about PGMs, please check out our quick start guide:

NVidia Ansel Photography Contest

Super Resolution Version: http://images.nvidia.com/ansel/SuperResolution/ARK-SuperResolution1/ARK__Survival_Evolved_HighRes_2016_09_01_-_14_38_36_55.html

ARK: Survival Evolved and the Scorched Earth Expansion Pack now include support for NVIDIA Ansel -- a revolutionary new way to capture in-game shots. Compose shots from any position, adjust with post-process filters, capture HDR images in high-fidelity formats, and share the screenshots in 360 via a smartphone, PC or VR headset.

Learn more about these features from the NVIDIA blog.

Now let’s get to the contest!

There were 3 potential categories for survivors to enter their shots into and they were the following:

Three Categories

Super Resolution: These should be taken at 8x Super Resolution. Players can optionally use Depth of Field effects accessible in Spectator mode by pressing the [Delete] key.

Panoramic 360 Stereoscopic 3D: These should be taken at 4x Super Resolution, in 360 Stereoscopic 3D mode. We will crop them to 2D for web display, while also providing the 3D version for viewing within VR display.

Freeform: Any settings, whacky and creative use of Ansel filters are encouraged. Adding humorous titles/captions in Photoshop is also acceptable for this category!

And now without further ado, here are your entries!

You’ll want to click on the image title to be able to download the maximum size image, we’ve resized them for display purposes

Super Resolution!

Winner!

Blue Dragon - The ARK Network

Runners up!

F1r3fly - Ragnarok Ocean View

Wolf Angelus - Go For The Throat

Ego - The coming of Wali al Asvad

Honourable Mentions!

Blue Dragon - Blaze Burn

Blue Dragon - Crystal Flight

Blue Dragon - Homo deus

Blue Dragon - Phoenix Flight

Blue Dragon - Star map

Blue Dragon - Super heat

Ego - The Magic of Ascension

F1r3fly - Cross-over

Norlinri - Alliance

Norlinri - Dragon

Norlinri - Followed

Norlinri - Hurt

Norlinri - Purification

Norlinri - Ragnarok arena

Pollti – happy otter family

Pollti - the beast attacks

StateofMynd42 - Barbershop Quintet

StateofMynd42 - Pyrotechnics

StateofMynd42 - Totally Rad

StateofMynd42 - Rize Of Phoenix

TheSlayerNL - Wyvern Tower

Valoule - Alien Map

Valoule - Beautiful on the outside

Valoule - Gift from the skies

Valoule - Gifts

Valoule - Last challenge

Valoule - Last Wisp

Valoule - Second before to die

Wolf Angelus - Sneak Attack

Wolf Angelus - Wildfire Smoke

Panoramic 360 Stereoscopic 3D!

Winner!

Valoule - Stars

Honourable Mentions!

Blue Dragon - Victory

Valoule - Gift from the skies

Wolf Angelus - Before the Sun Rises

Wolf Angelus - No Way Out

Freeform!

Winner!

Wolf Angelus - IT

Runner Up!

F1r3fly - Raiders of the Lost Ark

Honourable Mentions!

Blue Dragon - Thug Life

Cheb - Ancient Pillars

Cheb - Desert Shootout

Cheb - Mind the gap

Starwolf23 - SharpDressedDudes

StateofMynd42 - You Otter Know

Teagana - Demon Tapejara

Valoule - The Tek cave club

ARKVideo!

This contest is open to all types of video be they funny, epic, scenic, stories, whatever inspires you. Just a general reminder that they should remain safe for work, think of the children!

And without further ado, the ARKVideo for Community Crunch 103 is...

ARK: EPIC RAP BATTLE!! Ep 1 by RockyXGaming

ARKitect!

This is an award given to Survivors to celebrate the amazing structures you build. These bases are judged based upon a number of different factors such as their creativity, uniqueness, how fun of a base it is, the difficulty of building it, the functionality it provides and much more!

The ARKitect for Community Crunch 103 is…

ARK:Survival Evolved :: Gamescom & Pax West PVP Base Build!!! by GG Fizz!

We'd also like to announce a runner up...

Future Tek Zoo & Aquarium (Movie) - Ft. All current Dinos (excluding boss/event, special creatures) by Wolf Angelus!

If you'd like to check out the submissions from the rest of the entrants, you can do so here:

Fan Feature!

Rusty the Jerboa - For everyone who's lost a tame in ARK! by F1r3fly

ARK: Avatark Vikings | [Prologue] Where did we go wrong? by GG Fizz

Inverted Outhouse?! : S4Ep6 : Gaming Evolved Server by Arahli

ARK OF DUTY & Call Of The Wild with YOUTUBERS! Jade Plays Game Patreon Server by Myndmelt

ARK WHERE TO FIND OTTER ON RAGNAROK - HOW TO TAME AND BREED - MELTED CHEESE RAGNAROK SERVER by Myndmelt

Scenic Wedding Bridal Dressing Room :: Exploring ARK Ragnarok Official Map :: Cool Base Locations by SWChris

Massive Castle/ Fortress Build on Scorched Earth Ark Survival Evolved by Travis138

ARK Survival Evolved by Dragonarcwar

Ark Survival Evolved - Welcoming (PART 65) by gOOglyOwl

My First Arkwork by Sp00ki



"Dinner time!" by MYARKFATE1991



Omega Rex by milokamilo



http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1131131927

JW ANKY lvl 40 by milokamilo



http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1134166567

How about the livyatan? by 睡鲨级核潜艇



http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1132546762

Here comes the Mam-moth! by ⚡Shockal⚡



http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1131469926

Dossier: Gorgonopsid by Scanova the Carnotaurus



http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1135552809

Dossier: Suchomimus by Scanova the Carnotaurus



http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1135257689

Dossier: Mosasaurus by Scanova the Carnotaurus



http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1131259972

Archelon Dossier by OOF!!!



http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1135178959

Map Ragnarok by Brayus Maulnus



http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1135879919

That's it for this post guys! As always if you’ve got anything to share please get in touch and be sure to follow us on:

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark

Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark

Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark

Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark

All the best,

Studio Wildcard