‘Insanely punishing’ survival recreation Atlas is being distilled ‘right into a extra accessible type’ 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 lately. I used to be stunned when Stieglitz began speaking not about dinosaurs however pirates, mentioning one other recreation Studio Wildcard had developed: Atlas.

Keep in mind Atlas? The open world pirate survival recreation was put to sea in December 2018 however had a tough launch, together with efficiency and stability issues that led to heaps of unfavorable opinions. It is nonetheless on the market: you should purchase it and play it, however in contrast to Ark: Survival Advanced, 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 recreation loop, it had lots of issues,” Stieglitz stated. “Atlas is, like, loopy cool tech, however lots of recreation design classes about what to not do.”

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

“All these items sound very attention-grabbing in principle, however you place all of them collectively, and what is the outcome? A recreation that is insanely punishing, and should you make one improper flip you have simply misplaced 50 hours of progress,” Stieglitz stated. “However what I did like about it was, I favored the crusing. I favored the water. I favored the physicality of the ships. These issues had been satisfying.”

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

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

“We all know find out how to work the water programs. We all know find out how to work the physics programs, the networking programs to tug that off,” Stieglitz stated. “It builds on our experience with these mechanics from Atlas, and we hope to distill it right into a extra accessible type 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 appeared fairly sensible: the ocean is not as superb to behold as in a recreation like Sea of Thieves, but it surely’s a serious enchancment over Ark’s present water, sporting reasonable 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 never seen what your actual ships will seem like but, however getting and sustaining these ships in Tides of Fortune might be simpler than it was in Atlas, and crafting a substitute if it is sunk will not be a protracted, labor-intensive course of.

“There’ll nonetheless be lots of customization. You can put attachments on, and cannons the place you need, and construct every kind of different common buildings on it.” Stieglitz stated. And, in fact, you’ll deliver your dinosaurs in your ship. It’s possible you’ll change into a pirate, but it surely’s nonetheless gonna be Ark.