Final week I sat down with Studio Wildcard co-founders Jeremy Stieglitz and Jesse Rapczak, principally to grill them about Vin Diesel but in addition to speak about what’s taking place with Ark: Survival Ascended nowadays. I used to be stunned when Stieglitz began speaking not about dinosaurs however pirates, mentioning 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 unfavorable evaluations. It is nonetheless on the market: you should purchase it and play it, however not like Ark: Survival Advanced, Atlas by no means recovered from its shaky begin.
Article continues beneath
That is why some elements of Atlas, a minimum of in spirit, are being salvaged for Ark: Survival Ascended’s upcoming Tides of Fortune DLC. This summer season, Ark gamers will have the ability to 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 final functionality of the engine.”
“We all know easy methods to work the water programs. We all know easy methods to work the physics programs, the networking programs to tug 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. Nevertheless it seemed fairly good: the ocean is not as wonderful to behold as in a sport like Sea of Thieves, nevertheless it’s a significant enchancment over Ark’s present water, sporting sensible 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 like but, however getting and sustaining these ships in Tides of Fortune can be simpler than it was in Atlas, and crafting a substitute if it is sunk will not be an extended, labor-intensive course of.
“There’ll nonetheless be lots of customization. You’ll put attachments on, and cannons the place you need, and construct every kind of different common constructions on it.” Stieglitz mentioned. And, after all, you’ll deliver your dinosaurs in your ship. You might grow to be a pirate, nevertheless it’s nonetheless gonna be Ark.
