ARK Digest #12 Highlights

Hi guys! ARK Digest #12 is a bit different from normal. Due to the upcoming Survival of the Fittest event, time is tight for the developers and thus the signature Q&A session will be instead pushed back to Sunday/Monday! We will be looking out for that!

Nonetheless, more information was released about the SotF game mode! Basically, contestants will be placed into teams, and each team will compete against the rest to be the last team standing!

The arena is bounded by a large force field which gets smaller as the game goes by. Survivors who leave the force field will simply be killed.

The start of the game is especially "Hunger Games"-ish! Players will start in a lobby where they can talk, then they will be brought to the spawn area which has a loot cache! Players can either make a dash for the loot, or escape into the forest before others can catch up!

My previous question of whether it would be a separate game mode has been answered! It does indeed seem to be a totally separate game mode, unrelated to your survivors on the ARK, where you start as a naked human, and have to gather resources and craft items, as well as tame creatures! All these have been accelerated as compared to the main game mode to fit into the timeframe of about 4.5 hours per match!

And more information has been revealed about the before-mentioned Evolution Events! They will, indeed, take place every 30 minutes, and range from freak weather occurrences and dinosaur stampedes to supply drops and player location reveals!

Do look out for the Q&A post, as I will! This Friday, an egg-related creature will be revealed in the new dossier drop! How eggciting! HAHAHA

Thanks guys!

-Skyhawk :D

Dino Dossier - Megatherium

Hi guys! Revealed in ARK Digest #12 was this cool beast! Megatherium is a giant sloth, but it looks more like a humongous bear!

This is actually one of the more interesting Dino Dossiers that have been revealed, so I decided to feature it in this Dino Dossier post!

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Basic Information

Common Name: Megatherium

Species: Megatherium formipavor

Time: Late Pliocene-Early Holocene

Diet: Omnivore (primarily herbivore)

Temperament: Passive, but aggressive to insects

Game Update v190

Hey guys! v190 was recently deployed!

The max player level has been increased to 74, while the max dino level has been increased to 50!

New music has been added which plays during character creation! Be sure to check that out! I just did... I'm addicted already :P We need an ARK soundtrack ASAP!!!

Now, creatures' health will be represented by an appropriate blood overlay, which means they will get bloodier as their health gets lower...

Some new stuff related to Tribes were added, like a new governance option which determines whether only Admins can unclaim the tribe's pets.

There is now an astonishing 75% increase in stone yield from rocks and other stone sources!

The new Compound Bow has been added! With it comes hide-and-armour piercing Metal Arrows! While these can be used with Compound Bows, they cannot be used with normal Bows and Crossbows.

The Mate-Boosted text was replaced by a cute little heart!

Also, stackable mod support is finally here!

These were the features that arrived with v190, apart from the usual bug fixes!

As I'm writing this, ARK Digest #12 has been released! However, due to the upcoming new game mode Survival of the Fittest, the development team is short on time at the moment, and will be posting the usual Q&A portion of the Digest on Sunday/Monday instead!

Nonetheless, a new Dino Dossier was revealed! Megatherium, the giant sloth, is a really interesting creature, so our next Dino Dossier will be on it!

See you guys then!

-Skyhawk :D

Dino Dossier - Phiomia

Hey! In today's Dino Dossier post, we present Phiomia! This bizarre-looking creature resembles a modern day elephant and one of the more common creatures beginners will encounter!

Fortunately, these are peaceful creatures, and pose no threat to survivors! They are extremely good sources of meat, especially since they are an easy kill, if you can catch them! They run extremely fast, despite their bulk, when attacked.

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Basic Information

Common Name: Phiomia

Species: Phiomia ignavus

Time: Late Eocene-Early Oligocene

Diet: Herbivore

Temperament: Skittish

Survival of the Fittest!

Hi guys! Just can't get enough of that picture above! It's so cool!!! The amount of detail in the photos ARK posts is just stunning! Still looking at it after five minutes...

Anyway, this awesome photo is the "poster" for the new and upcoming battle mode, Survival of the Fittest! This new mode is very similar to a free-for-all mode, with many cool additional features!

It is in fact meant to be very similar to how the Hunger Games are, with players being brought into an arena and the aim is to be the last man standing!

I wonder how players will get to ride dinosaurs, and whether it will be an arena within the ARK itself, and I still have many questions, but all will be revealed as we get closer to the debut date of 1st August 2015!

On 1st August, 12pm PST, there will be a debut tournament hosted on Twitch, so be sure to check that out! Audience members will even be able to vote on Evolution Events every thirty minutes! These Evolution Events are events like a supply drop, dinosaur attack, or even weather changes, which will spice up the game!

I have read that the arena will slowly get smaller, pushing players together into the middle, forcing them to fight to the death! Also, if the dash for the supply cache at the start of the Hunger Games exhilarates you, you'll be utterly delighted because this is exactly how it will be done in Survival of the Fittest as well!

Can't wait for this!!!

-Skyhawk :D

Dino Dossier - Spinosaurus

Hey guys! This Dino Dossier post features Spinosaurus, the versatile apex predator! Spinosaurus is one of the largest predators on the island. In fact, it is similar in size to Tyrannosaurus!

The traits that Spinosaurus has, coupled with the fact that it is one of the top hunters on the island, make it more favourable over other creatures for certain purposes. For example, it is a mount which can easily traverse all terrains while being able to hold its own!

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Basic Information

Common Name: Spinosaur

Species: Spinosaurus aquareliga

Time: Early-Late Cretaceous

Diet: Carnivore

Temperament: Territorial

Game Update v189

Hey guys! A bunch of cool stuff were revealed over the past couple of days, including a new battle mode, Survival of the Fittest, as well as a new boss! But before we talk about that, v189 was also recently released!

There were two main highlights of this update.

First and foremost, Meganeura, the giant dragonfly, zoomed into the game in this update! These docile carnivores are untameable but they still bring more fun into the game, of course!

A new structure, the Dino Feeding Trough, was also added! I believe the idea came from a survivor in one of the previous ARK Digests! Cool to see it being implemented so soon!

This trough will allow you to place food in it, and pets in its range will be able to feed on the food inside it. All kinds of food that are eaten can be placed inside, and animals feeding from it will consume the specific food that they eat.

This new structure is really great for people who have large groups of pets! No more need to check every single dino's inventory just to feed them every day!

Of course, there were also many bug fixes and performance boosts in this patch!

Coming up immediately after this would be the highly-anticipated Platform Saddles!!! Can't wait for it!

-Skyhawk :D

Dino Dossier - Dunkleosteus

Hi guys! I thought it'd be great for today's Dino Dossier post to be on the ultra-cool monstrosity, Dunkleosteus!

This huge fish just looks so awesome, and in fact, it doesn't disappoint!

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Basic Information

Common Name: Dunkleosteus

Species: Dunkleosteus loricaruptor

Time: Late Devonian

Diet: Carnivore

Temperament: Aggressive

ARK Digest #11 Highlights

Hey guys! Had a short break the past two days as I was preoccupied with some stuff at school :P

ARK Digest #11 was just published, so here are the Highlights!

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DX12 is in the works and the aim is to release it by mid-August!

Per-pixel painting is going to get the new additions of being able to flood-fill a canvas with paint, as well as saving logos and decals for easy replication on multiple surfaces, as well as improvements for the UI!

We will get to see one or more of the smaller cousins of Spinosaurus :D

Mate-Boosting tamed animals now makes the females twice as likely to lay eggs!

When the Snow Biome is introduced, Mammoths will be shifted there, while Paraceratherium will generally replace Mammoths in the warmer areas!

Dino Dossier - Quetzalcoatlus

Hi! Today we have the third and final entry in our Mobile Bases mini-series! Quetzalcoatlus is a flying reptile, one of the largest flyers on the island. These enormous beasts soar in the skies, casting huge shadows down on the land below.

In ARK Digest #8, a survivor asked if there were any plans for a base-sized air dino, and the devs replied that there was Quetzalcoatlus, among others... :)

And in ARK Digest #16, my question asking if Quetzalcoatlus would be getting Platform Saddles was chosen, and the answer is: IT WILL! :D

Quetzalcoatlus, with its large size and wingspan, is the ideal creature to carry heavy loads, which also makes it one of the few animals that can act as a mobile air base!

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Basic Information

Common Name: Quetzal

Species: Quetzalcoatlus conchapicem

Time: Late Cretaceous

Diet: Carnivore

Temperament: Skittish

Game Update v188

Hi guys! The v188 patch has been deployed! With it comes a bunch of new stuff, of course!

The new Single Panel Flag is a simple flag with a single solid panel canvas for painting onto, which works great with the new per-pixel painting feature, also introduced in this update! Players can now paint on flags and signs specific pixel-by-pixel. This can even be done simultaneously by multiple players in real-time!

Massive performance improvements!

Brontosaurus now likes a certain Kibble, and eggs are now 50% more common and last for 30 minutes on the ground!

Land insects like Titanomyrma do not like water and will not follow players into the water anymore!

Various tamed creatures should now try to stay at the surface of the water when not being ridden.

One of the bigger features as well, Electronic Animal Trackers are now available in-game! These trackers allow you to track your pets, wild creatures, enemy animals and players, and even your own body! Basically, these trackers will open many opportunities now, for example, being able to tag a specific high-level animal and coming back later when you're prepared to tame it!

Lastly, torches are now throwable! Fire away! (Pun not intended HAHAHA)

Coming very soon will be the Platform Saddles, as well as Meganeura (dragonfly)! Enjoy the new update guys!

-Skyhawk :D

Dino Dossier - Elasmosaurus

Hey there! Today's Dino Dossier post features the second creature in our Mobile Bases mini-series, Elasmosaurus! This imposing marine reptile is one of the larger animals that dwell in the deep, and is more commonly known as the Plesiosaur.

As fearsome as it looks, Elasmosaurus is actually not built for combat. Its large and powerful bodies make it more effective as a water transport, and with the Platform Saddle, it can even be used as a mobile water base!

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Basic Information

Common Name: Plesiosaur

Species: Elasmosaurus remuspissa

Time: Late Cretaceous

Diet: Carnivore

Temperament: Docile

Mobile Bases - Dino Dossiers Mini-Series!

Hey guys! So we just had the first entry in our Mobile Bases mini-series, which was Brontosaurus!

Coming up next, of course, would be Elasmosaurus, also known as the Plesiosaur, a sea creature of immense proportions, and following that, we will have Quetzalcoatlus, one of the largest flyers.

Hope you guys enjoy it! :)

-Skyhawk :D

Dino Dossier - Brontosaurus

Hi guys! As you all should know, the Platform Saddles are arriving soon, and I wanted to do something related to them, because I'm extremely excited for mobile dino bases!

So today, we will be kicking off a mini-series of Dino Dossier posts, called "Mobile Bases", consisting of the mighty, humongous creatures there will be Platform Saddles for! At the moment, we know of three, Brontosaurus, Elasmosaurus (Plesiosaur), and Quetzalcoatlus.

First off, we have Brontosaurus, which will be the go-to dino for mobile land bases! Brontosaurus is really huge, and with that kind of size, it is no surprise that it is formidable and intimidating, even if it may be slow and lumbering!

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Basic Information

Common Name: Brontosaurus
Species: Brontosaurus lazarus
Time: Late Cretaceous
Diet: Herbivore
Temperament: Docile

Game Update v187

Hi guys! v187 was recently released, so here's the review for it!

Titanomyrma and Dimorphodon arrived in v187! Briefly, Titanomyrma are giant ants, and work in colonies, coming in two common variants, drones and soldiers. Dimorphodon are flying reptiles which are swift and agile, and they like to harass humans!

The Dino Dossier posts for these two cool creatures were just released (Titanomyrma and Dimorphodon), so give those posts a read to find out more about them!

The Crossbow is one of the two weapons in v187. Its most significant feature is that it can be fired underwater, making it the first proper ranged weapon that can do this.

The Machined Shotgun was also released, and though it is less powerful than the original Shotgun, it sports more rounds per reload, as well as a tighter spread of pellets.

Dino Dossier - Dimorphodon

Hi guys! v187 has been released, and with it comes Titanomyrma, as well as Dimorphodon! Dimorphodon is a flying reptile, and while it is too small to be ridden, it attacks enemies en masse, even being able to harass players directly, regardless of what mounts they are riding!

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Basic Information
Common Name: Dimorphodon
Species: Dimorphodon equesica
Time: Early Jurassic
Diet: Carnivore
Temperament: Reactive

Ants are Awesome!

Hey guys, just watched Marvel's Ant-Man! It was nothing short of amazing, and extremely hilarious!

Ants are just so cool... This is great timing, right before Titanomyrma arrives! Again, can't wait to see them in-game!!!

When patch v187 arrives, we will be having our next Game Update post, so check that out!

Till tomorrow!

-Skyhawk :D

Dino Dossier - Titanomyrma

Hey guys! Titanomyrma will be released soon in v187, and I thought it would be nice to do a post on it right before they crawl into the game!

The name Titanomyrma more or less means 'giant ant', and as you can see, they ARE giant ants! These creatures are cool and different from the other animals on the island for a number of reasons. They live in colonies, and are hive-minded creatures, as well as having at least two different variants, drones and soldiers.

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Basic Information

Common Name: Titanomyrma

Species: Titanomyrma parvagigan

Time: Paleogene

Diet: Herbivore

Temperament: Territorial

ARK Digest #10 Highlights

Hi there! This is our first ARK Digest Highlights post! We are kicking this series off with ARK Digest #10. A tremendous amount of questions are answered in each issue of ARK Digest, so posts in this series will be significantly longer!

To start off, Damien Bull, Lead Level Designer for ARK, was interviewed in the Developer Spotlight section of this issue of Digest, talking about the work he does with level designing in ARK. The map you see above is a Biome Concept Map, which includes the Snow Biome, shown in blue, and the Swamp Biome, shown in green. These new areas are going to have special flora and fauna, as well as a unique look and feel.

Dino Dossier - Achatina

Hey! Today's Dino Dossier post will be the newly revealed creature, Achatina! As you can see, Achatina is a giant snail, and it has some cool abilities!

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Basic Information
Common Name: Achatina
Species: Achatina limusegnis
Time: Holocene
Diet: Herbivore
Temperament: Passive

Introducing ARK Digest Highlights Posts

Hey guys! Very soon, a new edition of ARK Digest, as well as another dossier, will be released!

Tomorrow, I will be doing two posts, one would be a Dino Dossier post, while the other would be the first post in our ARK Digest Highlights series!

I just wanted to talk a bit about what ARK Digest Highlights posts would look like. In the earlier Game Update v186 post, I talked about features that were introduced in the patch. In Highlights posts, I will talk about the questions that were answered by the developers, and discuss what new cool features could be coming to the game! :D

We will see how that pans out soon. Till then, continue conquering the ARK!

-Skyhawk :D

Dino Dossier - Tyrannosaurus

Hi there! In our second Dino Dossier post, we will be talking about Tyrannosaurus, my second favourite dinosaur! This fearsome dinosaur is the undisputed ruler of the island!

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Basic Information

Common Name: Rex

Species: Tyrannosaurus dominum

Time: Late Cretaceous

Diet: Carnivore

Temperament: Aggressive

Game Update v186

Hey guys! The latest patch, v186, was just deployed, and it marks our first Game Update post! v186 brings about many bug fixes, some ARK Dev Kit changes, as well as some new features, which are what I will be mainly focusing on in Game Updates posts!

With that, I now present to you the new features of v186!

Players can now use the Spyglass while riding on a dino! This makes scouting a lot easier now as reconnaissance can be done on the dinos themselves without needing to dismount! Do take note that it will always be zoomed-in if you are using it on a dino, so to go back to normal view, just unequip it!

The level caps for both players and dinos have been raised by 4! For those who were already at Max Level, continue the progress!

The next feature is one that is related to pets! Players will now be able to choose between low, medium and far ranges within which pets can target enemies, as well as wander! This hopefully, as much as possible, solves the problem of pets wandering too far off. With Electronic Animal Trackers coming soon, all our pets can soon be tracked! Hooray for no more lost pets! :D

Dino Dossier - Triceratops

Hey guys! This is our first Dino Dossier post, featuring my favourite dinosaur, Triceratops! Triceratops is a mighty beast, and though it might be a herbivore, it is not to be messed with!

Just to give an overview of how Dino Dossier posts will generally look like, there will be a Basic Information section containing the common name, species, time, diet and temperament of the creature. Following that are the chunks of information found around the dossier, listed under the Wild, Domesticated and Others sections.

Lastly, I will be writing about things related to the creature, such as what resources you can get from harvesting bodies of the creatures and what they could be used for when tamed. Once the taming system has been ironed out, I will be adding more information like taming methods for the creature, and what kind of food they eat, including what they prefer to eat.

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Basic Information

Common Name: Triceratops

Species: Triceratops styrax

Time: Late Cretaceous

Diet: Herbivore

Temperament: Short-Tempered

Welcome to the ARKives!

Hey there, it's nice to meet you, I'm Skyhawk! :D

I've actually been following the progress of ARK: Survival Evolved since May 2015, before it went into Early Alpha, and it has sure been an awesome month playing the game since June.

ARK is really an amazing game, the developers are so dedicated, the graphics are so good, and there are dinosaurs!

I'm really hyped, so I decided that I'd start this blog to express my thoughts and excitement for it!

The idea to start a blog specifically came from me wanting to write a fanfiction series for ARK. I had done one previously for another game, and it was really fun, so I wanted to do it again!

I am currently conceptualising the series, but I am waiting till the official lore is released before I start putting them together, as I want to base my series on ARK's storyline.

In the meantime, I am a bit short of ideas, but at the moment, I'm thinking of having three kinds of articles.

1) Dino Dossiers, perhaps with a section for my thoughts.

2) ARK Digest Highlights.

3) Game Updates, perhaps when there are larger patches for the game, adding many cool features.

The ARK Digest Highlights will be done weekly, while the Game Updates will be posted as and when the patches happen. The Dino Dossiers will then fill the gaps, every other day.

With that, I would like to welcome you to The ARKives: Chronicles, and I hope you enjoy what you see! :)

-Skyhawk :D