ARK The Survival of the Fittest details and v463.1 patch notes: Introducing re-evolved prototype, gameplay changes, and more

After spending about six years in limbo, ARK The Survival of the Fittest has been revived and re-evolved from the ground up and is now available for gamers worldwide to jump into. A battle royale spin-off of ARK Survival Evolved, players will be able to lead their dinosaur hordes into battles until only one tribe is left standing. The game's latest official patch notes are now available.

As explained in the announcement, 60 players will be pitted against each other in "a fast-paced, action-packed struggle for survival." The developers at Studio Wildcard described ARK The Survival of the Fittest as the only battle royale that involves "large-scale creature-army confrontations," which also includes "a unique real-time strategy overlay."

Players should keep in mind that the current version of ARK The Survival of the Fittest is a test prototype, where players can check out the gameplay and different features and provide feedback. The developers have also clarified that while the current ARK The Survival of the Fittest shares the core goal of the previous title, it is significantly different due to various "technical/quality-of-life/balance changes."

The changes have been explained as follows:

"These changes aim to make the experience more streamlined and accessible, eliminating the complex aspects of crafting & the steep learning curve, and empowering players to quickly form their Dino Armies and get to the creature-action faster."

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ARK The Survival of the Fittest re-evolved details and patch v463.1

The official details for the re-evolved version of ARK The Survival of the Fittest are as follows:

• The developers have confirmed that they have re-evolved and re-designed the title from the ground up to involve "fast-paced gameplay and intense combat around large-scale creature battles."
• All in all, it's a more simplified version of ARK Survival Evolved, featuring 88 dinosaurs and creatures.
• Players will get to jump into solo and tribe-based game modes.
• The UI/UX experience has been overhauled to reflect things that are essential and gamepad-friendly.
• The developers have also removed Inventory Management to simplify the gaming experience. Harvesting has been removed and players will have tier-based supply crates instead.
• Weapons and armor have been redesigned and rebalanced to suit the more fast-paced gameplay.
• A new taming system has been inducted. Players will receive tokens from killing creatures, which they can then spend on taming new creatures or stealing downed tames from opponents.
• The Commander Mode is where players can enter into a bird's-eye view mode at any time to control their dinosaur army. Even after a player's death, they can continue playing the role of the commander in the match by controlling the team's dinosaurs.
• Dinosaurs can progress to new tiers by earning EXP through kills, which will give them further stat benefits.
• Players will be slowly corralled together in the overworld by a dynamic "ring of death."
• The game provides an intelligent Pinging System, custom-painted "War Banners," and a custom live-orchestrated soundtrack.

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The official v463.1 patch notes for ARK The Survival of the Fittest

Listed below are all of the important matters that the developers are looking to address:

• Incentivizing aggressive play through a reward system. Something the developers have noticed is that players who are playing aggressively and picking fights early on are more often than not finding themselves getting the short end of the stick by the end game. Winning fights sometimes feel like losing because an aggressive player already spent your tokens and lost your dinos annihilating other players, thereby making yourself more vulnerable to those who chose to avoid conflict and farm until the end game.
• The developers' initial thoughts on this prior to launch was they wanted to be careful about introducing heavy snowball mechanics, where strong tribes just become stronger and stronger to the point that they're unbeatable. They have gone too far in that direction, so they just wanted to even the playing field to some extent.
• Adding new weapons/items and adjusting existing item/armor balance. 1- Diversity in strategies. 2 - Better ground pvp. 3 - More counter play. 4 - Higher skill cap.
• Re-balancing bosses. Right now, bosses feel pretty mediocre to play against. Although Dragon is strong (Monkey, less so), there's no real excitement or strategy around how they're being used. The developers want to try and slot them into specific roles within the game, so they exist to compliment the player's army and not as the sole/primary acting force.

The patch notes are as follows:

General

• Increased the starting Quetzal's flying speed (we may want to adjust the spawn time, but for now, it'll travel across the map faster).
• Crosshair is now shown when riding or possessing creatures.

Creatures

• Thylacoleo - Reduced movement stamina recovery rate by 10%
• Thylacoleo - Reduced stamina recovery rate by 20%
• Kapro - Increased health by 20%
• Amargasaurus - Increased health by 10%
• Amargasaurus - Increased stamina by 10%
• Amargasaurus - Increased movement speed by 5%
• Carnotaurus - Increased movement speed by 20%
• Carnotaurus - Increased stamina recovery rate by 50%
• Carnotaurus - Increased attack radius by 10%
• Sabertooth - Increased attack radius by 20%
• Direwolf - Pack Leader Howl Changes: Cooldown reduced from 180 seconds to 90 seconds
• Direwolf - Pack Leader Howl Changes: Duration reduced from 90 seconds to 45 seconds
• Direwolf - Pack Leader: Damage reduction increased from 25% to 50%
• Direwolf - Pack Leader: Damage bonus increased from 50% to 100%
• Direwolf - Pack: Damage bonus increased from 50% to 75%
• Terrorbird - Increased attack radius by 20%
• Terrorbird - Increased health by 11%
• Sarco - Increased health by 10%
• Sarco - Increased damage by 15%
• Tripwire - Increased damage by 255%

Bug fixes

• Fixed a bug that prevented possessed creatures from being netted

Configuration changes

GameUserSettings.ini

• [TSOTF] - MaxPlayersPerTribe=4 // set this as a number between 1 and 4 to limit tribe members

Game.ini

• [/script/shootergame.shootergamemode]
• PreventDinoTameClassNames=Yutyrannus_Character_BP_TSOTF_C // PreventDinoTameClassNames is now supported in TSOTF.

Duo servers have been added

• Tribe Limit is set to 2.
• The following config changes will be made to Duos until more balance/redesign can take place next year.
• Game.ini
• [/script/shootergame.shootergamemode]
• TamedDinoClassDamageMultipliers=(ClassName="Dragon_Character_BP_TSOTF_C",Multiplier=0.75)
• TamedDinoClassDamageMultipliers=(ClassName="Gorilla_Character_BP_TSOTF_C",Multiplier=0.80)
• TamedDinoClassDamageMultipliers=(ClassName="Gigant_Character_BP_TSOTF_C",Multiplier=0.90)
• TamedDinoClassResistanceMultipliers=(ClassName="Dragon_Character_BP_TSOTF_C",Multiplier=0.75)
• TamedDinoClassResistanceMultipliers=(ClassName="Gorilla_Character_BP_TSOTF_C",Multiplier=0.80

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ARK The Survival of the Fittest is available on Steam for players to dive into. The game's official communication channel revealed that further news regarding cross-play console releases will be shared early next year.