‘Insanely punishing’ survival sport Atlas is being distilled ‘right into a extra accessible kind’ for Ark: Survival Ascended’s new DLC

Final week I sat down with Studio Wildcard co-founders Jeremy Stieglitz and Jesse Rapczak, largely to grill them about Vin Diesel but in addition to speak about what’s taking place with Ark: Survival Ascended as of late. I used to be shocked when Stieglitz began speaking not about dinosaurs however pirates, citing one other sport Studio Wildcard had developed: Atlas.

Bear in mind Atlas? The open world pirate survival sport was put to sea in December 2018 however had a tough launch, together with efficiency and stability issues that led to heaps of adverse critiques. It is nonetheless on the market: you should purchase it and play it, however not like Ark: Survival Developed, Atlas by no means recovered from its shaky begin.

“It did not actually work out for us, as a result of it had some insane tech, some loopy cool concepts, however as a sport loop, it had plenty of issues,” Stieglitz mentioned. “Atlas is, like, loopy cool tech, however plenty of sport design classes about what to not do.”

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Atlas befell in an enormous, networked ocean world of stitched-together servers so gamers might sail from server to server as they battled one another and picked up assets. It was a labor intensive sport: logs from felled bushes might solely be carried separately, ships had been constructed plank by plank, and defeat meant you principally needed to begin another time.

“All this stuff sound very fascinating in concept, however you set all of them collectively, and what is the end result? A sport that is insanely punishing, and when you make one improper flip you’ve got simply misplaced 50 hours of progress,” Stieglitz mentioned. “However what I did like about it was, I appreciated the crusing. I appreciated the water. I appreciated the physicality of the ships. These issues had been satisfying.”

That is why some components of Atlas, a minimum of in spirit, are being salvaged for Ark: Survival Ascended’s upcoming Tides of Fortune DLC. This summer time, Ark gamers will be capable of construct large pirate ships and sail throughout simulated ocean physics in the hunt for journey.

“Ark’s water is famously flat and uninteresting, and having community simulated ocean physics is cool,” Jesse Rapczak mentioned. “Not only for this, but in addition for modders and the overall functionality of the engine.”

“We all know methods to work the water methods. We all know methods to work the physics methods, the networking methods to drag that off,” Stieglitz mentioned. “It builds on our experience with these mechanics from Atlas, and we hope to distill it right into a extra accessible kind than Atlas ever had.”

They confirmed me some video—which I sadly cannot present to you as a result of it is a work in progress. But it surely seemed fairly sensible: the ocean is not as wonderful to behold as in a sport like Sea of Thieves, however it’s a serious enchancment over Ark’s present water, sporting real looking trying waves, foamy wakes, and daylight scattering off the rippled floor.

The ship within the video, and within the photographs on this web page, is an asset from Atlas, so I have not seen what your actual ships will appear to be but, however getting and sustaining these ships in Tides of Fortune can be simpler than it was in Atlas, and crafting a alternative if it is sunk will not be a protracted, labor-intensive course of.

“There’ll nonetheless be plenty of customization. You can put attachments on, and cannons the place you need, and construct every kind of different common buildings on it.” Stieglitz mentioned. And, in fact, you’ll carry your dinosaurs in your ship. You might grow to be a pirate, however it’s nonetheless gonna be Ark.