Introducing the Otter!
A new Dino Dossier has been revealed, this one is everyone’s favourite furry friend, the Otter!
Common name: Otter
Species: Lutra Peloso
Time: Early Miocene
Diet: Omnivore
Temperament: Friendly
Wild
Found along the Island’s many inland waterways, Lutra Peloso have become exceptionally adept at hunting and foraging. This species of Otter has to be particularly cunning because of its diminutive size, and fierce competition for its preferred food source: fish. It is not a creature that excels at combat, and would not naturally pose an intimidating threat to any predators.
Finding packs of river Otters is simple enough: They are distinguished by their elongated bodies, bushy tails, and webbed feet. Their trusting and inquisitive nature ensures they are often hunted for their lustrous fur, but many prefer to tame them to become trusted companions.
Domesticated
There are few creatures which provide the companionship that Lutra Peloso does. Rather than traveling beside you, it would prefer to comfortably rest on your back, providing insulation. Once domesticated, it can be told to harvest fish on demand, with a specific goal in mind from the fish that it consumes, the otter has a knack for foraging silica pearls, and can even yield a slight chance at finding black pearls within!
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For those of you living under the mesh and haven't been able to keep up with the news, ARK has entered its final stage of development towards Version 1.0 and will be Officially Launching on August the 29th 2017.
There has been a lot of questions regarding what will happen to the development of ARK. Whether there will be additional content added to the base game, in the vein of; new friends to tame, new engrams to learn, items to craft, QOL, gameplay, and optimisation improvements... the answer to all that is yes!
We will be continuing to work on the base game, as well as plans for future content in the form of free updates, and DLC (paid and free). Today we'd like to give you a bit of an early preview/tease of what you can expect for later this month on release (in addition to the mystery beyond the TEK cave).
As well as our otterly cute friend, we'll also be introducing some new TEK items:
- The TEK Sword, with a dash-charge attack as well as armor piercing capability!
- The TEK Shield, which can reflect incoming projectiles and bullets, and can completely stop splash damage!
- The TEK Light, that can be attached or picked up to and from any surface, and is self--powered by elemental shards or can be linked to generators!
Our latest Official Mod, Ragnarok, will be receiving a large update which is approximately the size of The Island. Players can expect to encounter new biomes such as a Coastal Wyvern Canyon, a Tropical Desert, Lowlands, Tasmania, several iconic beaches, a hidden temple, a new cave, an epic boss encounter and more! Here are a few screenshots of the upcoming areas:
Players will also be able to tame Titanoboas! We know you've been waiting a while for them and we feel confident with our latest optimisation work in adding them to the ARK. Their taming method will involve alluring these terrifying snakes with the fertilized eggs to feed on.
We are still planning on our mid-month update which will introduce our DDoS Mitigation for all Official Servers and address the duping exploit.
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ARK Digest 47!
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, Blackwolfe asks, “In my opinion, building is one of the important pillars of Ark and the building system is long overdue for some love. Do you have any plans to improve the building system in the near future? (like with improved snapping, triangle pieces like in s+, decorations etc).”
We’re investing the possibility of including Structures+ as an officially integrated feature -- beyond an Officially Supported Mod, directly into the core game itself. No promises yet though, it depends on how much of a clean implementation it proves to be.
Survivor Cynanic Ember asks:
Will the two upcoming Expansion Packs included in the Season Pass round out and complete Ark's story entirely, or is there a possibility for additional Expansions beyond those?
We’ll see how the next two Expansions go, and if there’s more interesting story to tell and survival mechanics to explore beyond that. I’m hopeful!
Has the TLC pass for Legacy dinos been scrapped or pushed back to post launch updates?
Post-Launch update. I will not be able to rest until those initial launch dinos get their due.
On that subject, will post-launch updates be in much the same format as pre-launch? Or will we have larger themed updates like "Farming and Flora Update"?
Same format as pre-launch, at least for the rest of this year. Namely, firefighting and individual feature updating. Next year, will probably settle into a groove of less frequent, bigger themes.
Will the Ice Wyvern ever get a distinct model, texture, and breath weapon instead of a re-skin?
Yes, at the end of August! And it will be transferable.
Will we be getting a more robust TEK Arsenal? The current TEK Rifle is the successor to the Assault Rifle, but what about a TEK Heavy Weapon like the rocket launcher (plasma cannon or railgun maybe?), or a sidearm, sniper rifle, or close-quarters weapon? (i.e Shotgun, not Tek Sword)
Yep, you will, stay tuned. I’m a big fan of ‘Eraser’!
Now that the game's full launch is approaching, will you be taking a look at any of the content that you originally wanted to implement, but was cut for various reasons? (Such as oil lanterns, primitive saddle mounted cannons, bean-bag ammo for shotguns, grapeshot for primitive cannon, etc...)
We plan to continue to add content post-launch, so I’m optimistic most if not all of these ideas will be realized in the months ahead.
Survivor Waterkeeper asks, “How's the kibble tree rework coming along?”
It’s nearly ready for public feedback, just trying to decide whether I want to put it out now or wait until the Experimental branch is live post-launch. Leaning towards Experimental branch to enable us to have more time to collect live feedback before it affects Officials, in case we don’t get some of the values right.
IGNWhyt asks, “Are there any plans to make a colorblind-friendly mode? It's 2017, as such its not a new concept game wise. Or at the very least make supply drops different colors (red/green and blue/purple) if you can?”
Yes, we will deal with this in the coming months, before the end of October. It’s important!
Scrysis asks, “Is Primal Ark still being developed? You know, the total conversion that allows players to play as the dinos?”
The team working on it had to put it on the backburner to help with completing our UWP and multiplatform launch goals (along with infrastructure improvements). We hope to return to it post-launch.
xKingPheonix asks, “Is the phoenix permanently scrapped or will you guys add it to another dlc?”
It’ll be added into Scorched Earth on August 29, as a thank-you for everyone making that Expansion such a success. We really do appreciate it!
Steyoung89 asks, “Where do you stand with the Windows 10 version of the game?”
It’s nearly ready -- with Crossplay and Windows-hosted Dedicated Server and cross-buy and cross-platform transfer of data etc -- and it should release on August 29 or near that (depending on whether Microsoft can certify it for launch quickly enough!).
ColossuS asks, “Extinction Servers have been dead for a very long time now and I have seen countless posts and tweets asking for the map to be reverted back to The Island; will this ever happen?“
Yep, we’ll likely make that change on the August 29 new-launch.
Stonefather asks “Will insects ever become breedable? I feel like they are outclassed by other creatures and being able to raise your own would help bring them closer in line with other creatures.”
Not by us, their lifecycles are too different from animals so it’d be difficult to represent without a major amount of effort for each individual insect.
Oakwind asks “When are we getting the Phiomia bacon we were promised?!?!”
Dino TLC pass, this year.
Lewiatan asks “Do you plan to make AI overhaul before or after premiere? What will AI overhaul contain?
Among other things, during the Dino TLC pass, for example, we plan to make various creatures biased towards being nocturnal or diurnal. So that, unless they are perturbed, you’d actually see them sleeping and recovering their vital stats during that time. This will provide more incentive for travel at a specific time of day or night, depending on where you’re going.
Survivor, SirMatthew asks “We will ever get banner/flag fixed in saddles, similar to the Tribe Flag from Survival of the Fittest?”
Very possible, just haven’t got around to it yet.
Sponsored Mod Program Update!
Here's what Cedric had to say:
We are excited to announce some new changes to the Sponsored Mod Program for the month of August. It’s mind blowing seeing what our sponsored modders have accomplished in such a short time. As the program develops and the mods mature, we’ll be looking to see if any more mods have potential for a console release. We are adding two new mods to the program this month. Keep in mind that originality and creativity is the way to get a mod sponsored. The two mods we are adding this month are two mods that are still early in development stages, but show lots of potential. Without further ado!
Dragonpunk: Tribe of Gods
Everyone here is really excited for what this Total Conversion will bring to gameplay. At the moment, this Total Conversion is split into several different mods, but there are plans to make it a one-stop shop. They are aiming to redefine the way ARK. Be sure to check out their website for more information!
In the meantime, you can check out the Mythical Creatures for a little preview of what’s to come, plus they’ll be dropping a new magic mod later this month!
Call of the Wild
I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to see new game modes being developed. Survival of the Fittest was originally a mod that was created in the dev kit. Call of the Wild summons a wave of creatures at a location you choose that are there for your blood. It reminds me of some of the popular wave-based game modes that are still popular in games today. Right now, the sole focus is getting the mod stable, but I know there are some grand plans for this mod in the future. That’s it for this month! Be sure to check out the mods steam workshop pages for information on social media. Most of the modders in the program are active on social media and will post a sneak peek of what’s to come.
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To read the rest of the Community Crunch this week, check out our announcement post on our official forums.
Keep on surviving!