ARK Survival Evolved News: Fresh update and dino details, dominant tribe, cheaters exposed
EXPRESS Gaming brings you all the latest news from the world of ARK Survival Evolved.
Things have been getting intense in ARK Survival Evolved this week
Studio Wildcard have confirmed that the next update for ARK will be released on February 17.
It will introduce the Giant Beaver to the island as well as new equipment and three bosses complete with arenas.
V236 also includes the following:
- Snow and Swamp caves
- ~15% rendering performance improvements! Also improved 'Ground Clutter' performance and draw distance
- Server Performance Phase 2
- Breeding Mechanics Phase 2
A separate update to launch later this month includes:
- ARK: Survival of the Fittest Relaunch – Huge improvements (matchmaking, ELO rating, item rewards, mega pert gain, etc etc)
- Tribe Member Rankings with Customisable Per-Rank Privileges
- More Creatures, Gear, Armours, Weapons and Structures
- Tek Caves, 'Acscension' Game Progression, 'Boss Wars'
- Aquatic and Amphibious Mating/Lifecycles
- DirectX 12 Mode for Windows 10! Approximate +20% pert
- Specific Representative 'on-ground' meshes for all dropped items
- Random GPU Driver crash fix: TrueSky
ARK Survival Evolved- Dimetrodon & Dung Beetle
Some new creatures have made their way to the island
Meanwhile, a group of Alpha tribes are governing their own island over on Xbox One's server 383.
A Reddit user explained: "They made a town hall where they give judgement on tribes that commit crimes and get caught.
"They tax all tribes (Different taxes depending on size of the tribe) in the server once a week.
"If you pay taxes: 1. Guaranteed that the Alphas won't wipe you out. 2. If you're getting raided they will come help you regardless of who it is as long as you know who's raiding you. 3. You can build w/e you want, tame w/e you want and do w/e you want. If you raid don't get caught.
"Server Rules: No building on mountains. No blocking caves. Do you guys think it's fair what they are doing?"
One person who appears to think it's ok is Studio Wildcard Co-Founder Jesse Rapczak, who tweeted the Reddit post with the caption 'Awesome'.
The start of the week saw the arrival of The Terror Bird in ARK.
Studio Wildcard explained: "The Terror Bird is a ferocious but tameable avian capable of high-speed sprints and brief hover-like leaps. It is not a flying bird per se, as its flight is comprised of short, sustained 'joust'-like glides or leaps.
"At eight to 12 feet tall, The Terror Bird is aggressive but still tameable and ridable, making it an excellent combat mount, particularly for harassing and scouting.
"Riders of The Terror Bird gain most of the benefits of a fast, mobile ground-based theropod, while also gaining some of the freedom of movement from a flyer. It is know to show traits related to theropods such as the Utahraptor, Carnotaurus and the ever-formidable Tyrannosaurus Rex."
The update also saw the Grappling Hook make its way to the island, giving Survivors 'the ability to scale cliffs, hitch a ride by attaching to a flying creature, wrangle other players/prisoners or even small creatures to drag along'.
There is also a new anti-cheating system in place
Another update has seen ARK invaded by a giant Leech, formally known as the Haementaeria Laetus.
A description reads: "It is difficult to be angry with Haementeria Laetus, despite its rather terrible nature. The creature has practically no intelligence, and just attaches to any nearby living flesh in an attempt to drain that creature's blood.
"Removing Haementeria requires precision bladework, or access to an open flame. Both of these can be nearly as dangerous to the host as to the Leech itself.
"Once Haementeria attaches to a host, it drains blood at a rapid pace, and the host experiences hunger, losses of health and lowered stamina.
"Some Haementeria are also carriers for a dangerous disease dubbed 'Swamp Fever', which persists permanently beyond the Leech's own lifespan. Few creatures on the Island are transmitters for this disease, and it can ultimately be cured with a rare medicine.
"While Haementeria is not intelligent enough to be tamed, and does not provide a resource any tribe would need in large quantities, it is always useful to keep a few around for antidotes. When processed properly, Haementeria venom can be made into powerful antivenin!"
Studio Wildcard have also taken the opportunity to unveil their new anti-cheating system dubbed 'BattlEye'.
The executable is 'ShooterGame/Binaries/ShooterGame_Be.exe', with a statement adding: "For the time being this will only function with Windows Servers. Something to note is that BattlEye is currently not ready for Mac or Linux, so we have temporarily disabled the capability of Mac/Linux clients to connect to the BattlEye Servers.
"We hope to have this resolved within the coming few days! Thank you for your patience Survivors.
"We have a zero-tolerance policy for the use of 3rd party programs in ARK: Survival Evolved and will continue to work on Anti-Cheat measures to put a stop to cheating and catch those attempting to gain an unfair advantage over other survivors."