Getting tired of Ark: Survival Evolved? Maybe don’t quit just yet.
The mod scene around the dino survival mega-hit is just one step beyond primordial ooze, but it’s already bubbling promisingly. The most popular mod at the moment is Kimmykix‘s Apako Islands pack, which gives you an entire new world to explore. Oh, and there’s a twist: instead of a nice, megalodon-free landmass, it’s a series of islands that you have to swim between. Good luck.
“The Apako Islands is a 65 Square Kilometer map mod mainly focused around islands, as opposed to one big mainland. There are many different biomes around the map, but its generally a more temperate area then most islands. Beware the islands out at sea, for some may be harmless, but some are quite dangerous.”
The mod is still in alpha, but eventually it will have ruins, caves, and all sorts of other fun places for you to be ambushed by a vengeful army of dodo birds.
I also have to take a quick second to highlight Deadelven‘s Twin Peaks dino mod, which adds, um, three island peaks and also replaces raptors with Godzilla for some reason — not that I’m complaining.
There are a few others works-in-progress on Steam Workshop right now (including a dino arena), but they’re not quite as exciting or strange. Still, it’s pretty cool to see ambitious mods this early in the game’s life — or pre-life, really, given that it’s still got nearly a year of time in Early Access ahead of it. Assuming the developers stay true to their word, though, Ark is gonna be full-to-the-point-of-violently-vomiting with content by the time it officially “launches.” But will I be able to play as a dinosaur who tames humans? Ah, now we’ve found the real question.
Comments
13 responses to “Ark: Survival Evolved Mod Adds Entire New Island”
Man this is such an awesome game. Can’t wait to see what other mods are developed.
Didn’t think I’d like it that much as it ran SO slow…
Then there was a patch around 5 days ago and BAM it runs almost silky smooth. Brilliantly fun game. Loving it so much now I’ve been able to get into it.
Who needs mods? The devs put out a content patch like twice a week
This game is Early Access Done Right. Full marks to these developers. The patches keep coming and the game keeps getting better.
Been popping up on my radar a lot lately.
But i was burned once already with DayZ, so I’m now a little more careful with Early Access titles.
this game looks really cool. I know it’s not a complete game (and that’s fine) I just hope they’re cleaning up the bugs they have before adding new content (during my time with DayZ this was indeed not the case)
Is ARK worth it?
Bump.
Absolutely. Great Survival game. The game’s been in early access for 3 weeks now and has already seen 50+ updates in regards to Optimization (as @weresmurf can back me up here, upwards of 20+ fps on some cards) and bug fixes, general tweaks, new content (Stone Tier Structure’s being added this week) and amazing Quality of Life changes.
As @omigitzrick stated, this is Early Access done right. The Dev’s are consistently listening and interacting with the community and what we’d like to see, via Reddit and Steam Community.
Bare in mind that PvP can be quite hostile, with the whole offline-raiding that some people can get finicky over. If that is something you don’t enjoy, look for an Un-Official Server that has rules against offline-base raiding, a PvE Server, or try out a Local Server.
If anyone wants a hand when starting out, head over to Official Server 151 and ask for Rogue/Lathium. I’ll help ya out if you let me know that you’re from Kotaku.
Bear in mind many early access games recieve a lot of work on the front end. Its the long game that counts in terms of early access done right. Thats where Rust takes the prize at this point and DayZ is starting to gain momentum having finally fixed mostly its phasing zombies. Ark was rushed out immensely fast to capitalise on Jurassic World (a wise move) and thus was unfinished abd needed a lot of optimisiation. Its getting that right now. Itll settle down into a pattern of patch release that Rust and DayZ have (weekly and monthly respectively) eventually. Thats early access done right, being in there for the long haul and not pulling a Stomping Lands.
Just to add: I solidly believe in the long run ARK has the most potential of all 3.
Yeah I really can’t credit these developers enough. This is how Early Access should be. The developers read pretty much everything that is posted on their forums/reddit, and publish several updates a week. E.g. This morning a fairly large update was published that included a new stone tier. Some people commented on how there were some issues with it, and right now they are in the process of publishing a new update which includes a fix and several other additions.
http://steamcommunity.com/app/346110/discussions/0/594820656447032287/
Just check system specs first because the game still requires a few more performance passes but overall it runs well if you have a good pc.
As @roguexa mentioned, the PvP servers can get pretty brutal / annoying with regular raiding by other tribes. So you might want to start with a PvE server.
Make the purchase, you won’t regret it 🙂
Indeed, I was playing public a few days and really tired of waking up and finding everything smashed and trashed by some stomphappy asshole on a TRex or Spino. The PvPvE server I’m on now is private and doesn’t allow character transfer, so it’s pretty glorious, there’s 5 main tribes and everyone aligns quickly, we’ve worked out bartering systems between us and there’s still hostility but it gets settled quickly. I’m really liking it. It’s got a social atmosphere DayZ is missing (I still love the solo nihilistic faux military survivalist aspect of DayZ though), it’s got the caveman come tech expert feeling Rust has and has been excelling at moreso lately and I can see it really growing into this perfectly. Plus seeing someone with a machinegun zip by on a raptor looks so kickass!
I’ve sunk 60 hours into it so far and loving it. As others have said, the developers are fantastic – check out http://www.reddit.com/r/playark. They put out a “digest” each week with the major updates, plus answer questions and implement requested changes fast.
I gave up on PVP pretty quickly and went to a PVE server as it was just me and one mate, and being killed and having our whole base flattened each night while offline grew old.
A future update will have the ability for clans to declare war on each other in PVE servers so there’s still a PVP portion available without griefers ruining all your hard work.
sounds cool. I may have to check this one out
I love this game, the Devs are doing very well.
The problem i have, is that it seems the people on the official servers are SOOOO Toxic. Homosexual slurs and other derogatory comments fill the chat at an almost constant stream.