Cancelled Desert Themed Map for Ark: Survival of the Fittest

This was a level I made for Ark Survival of the Fittest. It was to be an official map in the game but ended up getting cancelled as the game was put on a hiatus! The map in its current state in the video is between 70-80% finished. This map took roughly a month to make.
This map may at some point be released to the community to allow mod developers to finish it up and release it still!

[@goodgirl99us]

No more Ark maps? I loved the Center.

[@Seyroth]

What a damn shame it's been cancelled. I hope your next project actually releases!

[@FamaSicura]

Beautiful. I've watched probably 200 map making and completed map videos and I like this one the best. The verticallity and the size of the objects placed is just unreal.

[@MrAlucardDante]

So sad for you Ben. I really hope that it will be added to the dev kit so somebody can bring it to the workshop. Ben's work should never go to waste

[@NodRodge]

Surprised this video didn't get more views

[@kinzcraft3179]

WOW, I understand this was intended for SOTF but if it was edited to be a regular map for Ark survival SE it looks like it could be an awesome experience. With artifact caves added in and wyvern nests. It could also be finished for it's original SOTF use. I understand that Wild Card is focused on finishing the base game and I don't blame them. Who knows, maybe once Ark is fully released and they return to development of SOTF hopefully this map will get the greenlight for development again. If not maybe it could be offered to the community via the Dev kit. It's just so beautiful it would be a shame if it is never allowed to be worked on again.

[@evilmrfrank]

Hopefully at the very least we can get this out to the community at some point, would love it if players could get a hold of it, a lot of hard work went into it :)

[@night.watcher]

It look really good :)

[@Djhero998]

Looks really amazing

[@t0ninus]

I would love to see a fast FPS, Tribes style, in that kind of environment :)

[@Latvian3Dman]

Absolutely awesome levels you have created and displayed here. I sure wish I could use some of them in my UE4 sci-fi flying games experiments... (one can dream ;) ). Anyway, I salute your creativity.

[@WenomAim]

The god is back!

[@TheSpace928]

This looks sooo good! Great job.

[@jmr2008jan]

Well I'm sure they put you to good use after. Still, a little sad to know SotF isn't getting the map, even if I didn't play it. Are they just thinking your time would be better spent on new ark maps that can then be used/modified for SotF? Or is the player count for SotF right now just not high enough to justify the time? How big is the gameplay area? I'm curious what you felt was ideal for SotF. Also if I could get your opinion on something, for my next map I'm thinking about doing a alien planet (with a lot of alien plants etc.) I know that's a rather broad idea but if you have any suggestions I would appreciate it, thanks.

[@Protonwar]

Id buy that in a heartbeat if it was on the marketplace. even unfinished! lol..

[@zippedfreak1]

So speaking of the center, will we then see it having the tek tier progression caves? Also what i was hoping for from the start when you started working on it with the vast sea is the have underwater nodes/caves to make a underwater bases in the domes relevant and competitive compared to above sea level bases. Perhaps this is not something you can put time into right now, but would certainly fit very well with underwater bases coming to ark in the near future.

[@zippedfreak1]

Also on the chairy stream the level designer (forgot his name) talked about underwater biomes like kelp forests and coral reefs. Would be amazing to see as the center really has the space and design to fit in different kinds of biomes. Maybe this is more of a question now as to what the ark devteam assigns you to rather than what you can choose for yourself in any case i'm looking forward to what the center can bring in the future :)

[@SpicyYamz]

This is so beautiful, I truly admire it!

[@joshuaphilip7253]

maybe because there is too much water it got cancelled i don't know im only taking a guess here

[@martinthoresen3536]

have you released the map for modders to finish it? i talked with a small modder in the sotf community, and he said he might mention it for the other modders, but that it isn't released. and he is scared of the creator to claim it as their even after giving it away. happend before. i liked the map so much that i had to ask one of the modders about it now. well done

[@rnbbexyjlobt]

the riverbeds look awesome

[@Koshak2007]

Looks amazing, how are you supposed to survive megaheat though

[@feraafiir5443]

I would buy this dlc rather than scorched earth :/

[@Jakepf]

This looks better designed than scorched tbh haha

[@joshuaalexander4853]

would be awesome if you could create a battlefield from starwars..... just a suggestion 😉

[@olafmuller4506]

map looks really cool! trees on the bridges are a bit odd though. do they have a purpose based on the gameplay?

[@evilmrfrank]

They were mostly there to provide cover for players

[@olafmuller4506]

Makes sense, thanks for the explanation

[@BoydDoghouse]

oh man that sucks

[@Ron2Reed]

i love unreal engine 4

[@Nilssons]

Does this mean that the center will get some love? Fixing dinos falling through the ground and megalosaurus to spawn etc

[@evilmrfrank]

I'm trying to get some time scheduled to allow me to spend 1-2 weeks going over issues on the map sometime directly after Christmas. Megalosaurus and alpha mosa were both added to the spawners and should be in in the next update to the map :)

[@shaqy8041]

Hi have you plans on finishing it for the new sotf coming in December?

[@RaiohRai]

refreshed my shit just in time for this ayy. How did you feel after it got cancelled?

[@evilmrfrank]

To be honest I am disappointed but it happens :) If somebody in the community could finish off the last 20-30% and release it to the public it would all be worth it in the end :D

[@mhnoni]

All the assets belongs the game right ? i mean you can share it for Ark community but not for UE4 community ? btw it looks very nice and such work will never get wasted .

[@evilmrfrank]

Yes all assets belong to Ark, they can be accessed by modders to Ark but not Unreal 4 users in general.

[@Ron2Reed]

your my new best friend, Hi

[@PashaDefragzor]

End it and put it as mod, if they didn't paid to you. Ark is a huge ass game, everything is very heavy, maybe because of a client size they can't allow any gigabytes over the gigabytes. One of the reasons I bought Ark was - bow blueprint and interface research, but as beautiful game which I want to play all the days long its doesn't fit at all, its 1-2 days of testing

[@MichaelKadilnikovArt]

That's a great map, but is it possible to make the transition between LODs smoother?

[@evilmrfrank]

The transitions are a lot smoother in game, the camera is moving 5-10X faster than the player so it appears a lot more harsh :P

[@TerrySterling-Thatguy]

Need this

[@Hawkena]

What is the song you have used in this video?

[@sergeyandreychenko8574]

Did you use the world machine for this work?

[@evilmrfrank]

No, this was all done by hand in editor.

[@zerkulexgaming6695]

as a Indie Dev who works on his game in his free time and sucks at graphics this just make me feel bad ^^

[@Ron2Reed]

does unreal engine 4 have a library of items, weapons landscapes and more

[@miatribe]

Such a waste... Both for you and the people who loved sotf. any updates if it will be added to the devkit or something?

[@NightroPulse]

What's with the odd tree placements on those natural rocky bridges? I would imagine them collapsing due to the extra unnecessary weight. Or at least roots sticking out from under them. It just wouldn't make sense unless proper support was some how added. And maybe less trees in areas with too much shade. Shade is good sometimes, but not in an area where it is unlikely to get sun. And maybe most only near water areas. I found some dead ones near water at 1:43 with no live ones which also bothers me. A majority of those can be on the cliffs or farther from the water. It just seems like too dry an environment to have a bunch of trees, especially away from a water source and on thin rocky bridges where all the nutrients would be depleted fast or have been long ago. Maybe only put small dead trees there. I don't play Ark Survival though and think it's a well overall map layout. However, if it has pvp and long ranged weapons, I would imagine high ground always being the victor. Nobody would feel safe on the low ground. Maybe some reasons to think why it was cancelled. Not trying to be a douch, but think some criticism and tips are always good.

[@kiramoth2766]

how is the work with them? are you a freelance working at home or working with them at the studio?

[@evilmrfrank]

It's great! I work full time in the studio.

[@kiramoth2766]

that's awesome! good luck with the game

[@matjazbajt8386]

I have a question you probably don't have an answer to. I'd love to play ark but the game just doesn't feel optimized properly yet so that is holding me off. Anyway I assume all this fps hit is coming from the big map itself. Do you think its possible to optimize it without 2 much hit on the beauty of the maps?

[@vighricsi3468]

like aki Stark Panzertöl jött !!

[@erikmolnar5406]

rendben testvér :D

[@laszlokaldy2549]

Vigh Ricsi de hogy miért vonták vissza?

[@vighricsi3468]

Nemtom de ez a pálya nagyon jo

[@stanley9597]

So did they cancel it because 1 man makes better maps then their normal map team? Hell I came back to Ark due to the center. And quit again because of scored earth.

[@Silentstorm_AU]

so much like everything else SOTF related its cancelled :\ i wonder if theres gonna be another DLC map your working on then

[@Ron2Reed]

do you offer training classess

[@freier4845]

thats too damn many natural bridges

[@free4fire]

If this was supposed to be realistic than yes, but in terms of level design it's not. If the players always had to make massive detours to get from on place to the other the level would be incredibly annoying to play on and nobody would go there because half your time is wasted by unnecessarily having to run around the place.

[@freier4845]

Thats what water is for, just swim over and having less bridges would make a player to be more cautious and brave if he wants to get over to the other side as there are dangerous creatures in the water. Having more bridges takes one part that is crucial in this game, SURVIVAL of the fittest and all the danger by eliminating one dangerous choice player would have to make.

[@free4fire]

Well that only works for areas that have flat lands or games in which you have a high amount of vertical movement but due to the steep cliffs in the area, it would mean that every time you wanted to get from one highground to the other you'd have to walk around it to find a new low stop to climb back up again.

[@evilmrfrank]

pretty much exactly what free4fire said. If you look closely all landbridges also point straight towards the center of the map. The game mode has a giant forcefield that slowly moves towards the center so players need lots of pathways from every point in the map to get back to The Center of the map as quickly and easily as possible so they don't get stuck/trapped when the forcefield closes in on them. Not super realistic looking but great for gameplay which is the most important part :) Also this map is made to handle anywhere from 20-200 players at any time so there needs to be a ton of options for that many players.

[@AGCipher]

My personal input to those landbridges is that they have an unnatural row of trees which just looks off to me, if the bridge itself was wider and you were able to put more of them on there, then it could work, but from the video it looked just like a very straight, evenly spaced out narrow line of trees, i don't mind the landbridges themselves though, they form visually interesting elements, breaking the depth. Just my 2 cents ;)

[@basterbaster5645]

does the cnidaria spawn on the center ?

[@Mattscreative]

why must they always ruin the good stuff

[@ДимаНаф]

nice =Ъ

[@Tomble]

Have you ever thought about live streaming some of your work? And if you do so would you mind sharing a link? Would love to watch that :)

[@Ron2Reed]

how can I call the creaters of Unreal Engine 4. Do you have the phone number to the unreal engine 4 people

[@Ron2Reed]

are you in New York

[@Ron2Reed]

can you train me please

[@adamkerek8331]

valaki most jött? (stark panzer-től)

[@Xspade12]

Why was the level cancelled? And are you going to ever finish it?

[@evilmrfrank]

The game was put on a hiatus. Studio Wildcard may finish it at some point but I think its doubtful at this point. There has been talks about possibly releasing it to the public through the mod kit and letting people in the community finish it up and release it :)

[@Superhornet331]

+evilmrfrank what is hiatus?

[@Xspade12]

SH33 - Studio Wildcard is taking a break on the project...

[@MortisSwe]

any chance you wanna release this map for free?

[@dovahkiin009087]

So is the game okay now? Or whats up with it?

[@whyismynametaken123]

Ark: Survival Evolved is fine. Survival of the Fittest is not fine however as almost no one plays it anymore, hence part of the reason it got put on hiatus.

[@Ron2Reed]

do you offer training classess