Hey Survivors,

Anbei findet ihr Infos zum Skill tree und weitere Infos zur Early Access und Alpha. Viel Spass!

Hello survivors!

Welcome to the third issue of the ARK Digest! For those who missed the previous issues, check out the Announcement section on the Community Hub and be sure to catch up with what you’ve missed! This weekly feature entails information regarding some of the development of ARK, your questions as well as any extra bits of information we want to share!

New Features

A lot of the past week has been in preparation for the Alpha and Early Access. We’ve spent a lot of time on making sure the game is as bug free as possible, getting our dinosaurs in with their AI worked on, stress-testing servers, running through the caves to ensure that they are ready for players, and flinging poop. Loads! It’s been super busy and all hands are on deck!

Q&A

Survivor, scrappybristol asks, “Could you give a run down of what is the normal thing to do for the first few hours of the game?”

Answer:

This is a great question! And to be honest… there’s a lot of potential to what you can do when you first pop in.

First things first, you get in and here’s where you have to make a decision – do you want to stay in this area, potentially inhabited by other survivors or do you want to make for the hills and begin your life on the ARK elsewhere?

If you’ve chosen option one – we advise you take a few moments and look at your surroundings, what is nearby? Who is nearby? Do you see the opportunity to attack anyone? You are equipped only with your hands. These are great tools, not only can you use them to knock out players and potentially steal their gear, but you can also use them as a way of gathering resources. Walking up to trees and punching them will allow you to collect the thatch and wood which is necessary for the first tool you plan to make. If instead you see a person, well you might just be in luck! Consider using the prone or crouch to sneak up on them making minimal noise and SMACK EM, if you have successfully managed to take them out by being sneaky, hopefully you’ll be rewarded with plenty of gear. If you die, well… I mean being sneaky isn’t for everyone and there are other options available to you!

Now back to gathering, after you’ve collect the necessary resources for making a tool. You’ll quickly progress through the early game, you’ll start to gain resources more efficiently and in larger numbers, decide on how you want to stat-up your character and where you want to spend your first engram points. Picking up the first set of engrams is very recommended as you’ll want to at least have the bare necessities before you begin specializing.

Soon you’ll find that you are able to successfully craft better tools, weapons, campfires, and clothing. This begins your journey on the ARK and is the first step of survival. Remember whilst all this is going on you need to ensure that your character is well hydrated and fed. You can do this by picking berries off of bushes, submerging into deep water and or killing Dinosaurs for their meat, as well as collecting their hide to make a waterskin.

Now you’ve done the basics, and you’ll manage this fairly quickly – it’s time to move on and look for a place where you’d like to build. You would want to get a house set up as soon as possible for protection from other survivors, the dinosaurs, and the ARK, which can be very unforgiving for those unprepared.

After you’ve setup your first base, with some storage options and a place to sleep you may want to consider how you plan to specialize. Do you want to be a survivor who wants to hunt and tame beasts, are you someone who prefers building grand villages, do you want to explore and just travel across the ARK? There are plenty of paths you can take on your life and the way you specialize will determine how effective you are in those roles.

Survivor, CommanderPanda5 asks, “Because Dinosaurs fight with each other, if two fight and one loses will we find it death on the ground to harvest things from? Is it possible that the dinosaur can get knocked-out by another dinosaur to make it easily tamable?”

Answer:

This is something we have focused on very early on. We want our ecosystem to interact with one another. They’ll fight each other, they’ll get involved in battles occurring between different dinosaurs if aggravated and you can surely expect to find some carcasses across the ARK. As for taming an already knocked out dinosaur, if it wasn’t knocked out by a person you can be sure to have the ability to tame it for yourself! Some dinosaurs will apply torpidity with their attacks, such as the Pulmonoscorpius, and there may be occasions when they’ve left an unconscious body untouched due to chasing something else or being killed themselves!

Survivor, DragonREaper1111 asks, “Will ARK support mod makers for the PC?”

Answer:

Yes! Without a doubt! We’re all gamers at Studio Wildcard, we love making games, and we love playing games. We will be providing complete support to mod-makers when Early Access launches. We will release our source code, our editor which uses Unreal Engine 4, as well as all the assets necessary. We’re looking forward to what you guys make!

Survivor, .#Skyline | #CHARLIE asks, “Will it be possible to ride a Brontosaurus in water? Will Brontosaurus steps break barricades, walls, doors?”

Answer:

All the land creatures of the ARK are able to swim, however they’re not very effective. They swim slower than they travel on land and you have to keep in mind that there’s a stamina and oxygen stat. If your dinosaur runs out of stamina or oxygen whilst you’re swimming, you risk it travelling incredibly slowly and drowning or suffocating to death. Keep in mind that some land creatures are better than others at swimming, such as the Carbnonemys, and others are amphibious and do not require as much oxygen, such as the Sarcosuchus.

As for whether Brontosaurus will break structures, you can definitely see that happening. They’re a passive creature, but if your house is in the way… well they don’t care, they’ll be sure to step over it. Be careful as if you have any Dinosaurs nearby who have been set to Neutral, or may even be inside the structure, you’ll risk them fighting… and most often a Brontosaurus will probably crush anything that picks a fight with it.