With Path of Exile: Harvest, we introduced a new character, Oshabi, the warden of the Sacred Grove. Today we're going to talk about her development and where she fits into the Path of Exile world and narrative as a whole.

Before we get too deep into the nitty gritty of how and why Oshabi came about, be sure you don't mind having some things spoiled, as we are going to touch on a few story elements!

When we're developing a league and need to introduce a character, it's often the case that the art comes first. This was the case with Oshabi. We often create concept art for characters that may or may not ever see the light of day. If a character concept sounds like it might fit a league's theme, we'll get a model made and start figuring out who that character is. In Oshabi's case, her art came from concept art that we had created for an apparition microtransaction.



While creating the backstory and character for Oshabi, we ran through a lot of scenarios about who she was, where she came from, and what her role would be both mechanically and within Harvest's story. In an early iteration, she was an 'ethical' cannibal who wanted to grow monsters as a viable guilt-free foodstuff. An offshoot of that idea also had the Harvest monsters as so addictively delicious that she could enjoy nothing else, and contained many warnings for the player to never try it. I still like the idea of an 'ethical' cannibal character and have already tried to get it into at least one more league! Maybe one day...

Those of you who have made it to the end of the Harvest narrative know what happens. Those that don't want to be spoiled, you've been warned!

Oshabi, as warden of the Sacred Grove, oversees the garden in which most of the Harvest gameplay happens. She says the garden speaks to her, returning a gift she lost long ago. She is using the garden to cultivate and harness an energy she calls the Lifeforce. The problem is, the Lifeforce may just be Corruption by another name.

With each new league, there's going to be added complexity, even with the story. We have a few mystical forces at play in Path of Exile -- Corruption, Divinity, the transformative and alluring powers within the Atlas etc... And it's important to keep them feeling distinct. We as players may be aware of all these elements, but the characters have a far more limited viewpoint. Aligning Lifeforce with Corruption solved the issue of creating yet another mystical energy, while also working with what we know Corruption to be capable of doing: creating and mutating monsters, changing items and people, and tempting people into ruin.

Nowadays, it's a fairly safe assumption that every league will need some sort of pinnacle encounter -- something to work towards across the league that will provide the most difficult league-related content and most valuable league-related rewards. I don't remember exactly when it was that we decided Oshabi would become the end boss, but I do remember we spent a good long while trying to figure out how to turn the NPC into the villain.

Now, we've done leagues in the past where we've done this (Synthesis!), and we handled that by moving the burden of being the central point of interaction from Cavas to Zana. We wouldn't have that luxury this time, and would have to ensure that anything Oshabi provided in terms of league mechanics would be required before she could become the endgame encounter. And we decided that once that point was reached, she'd be gone. Not just temporarily, but permanently.

With Synthesis, Cavas was intended to be a villain. We wanted you to feel betrayed, and wanted you to understand that, though Cavas had his reasons, his cause was unjust. For Oshabi, we wanted you to feel pity. She had done some morally questionable things in the past, but she was ultimately the victim of temptation and Corruption. She was duped, lured in by Corruption's siren song, and would suffer indefinitely as a result.

Her introduction mentions that when she dies, she hopes the land lets her stay dead. Unfortunately, nothing stays dead in Wraeclast for long.

: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page [url=https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/582010/announcements/detail/2496632202917553038]here[/url].

Update ver. 14.00.00 is officially set to release at 0:00 Thursday, July 9, 2020 (UTC)! (PDT: 5 p.m. Wednesday, July 8)

Get an early look at the contents of this patch by tuning into the Developer Diary 6 live stream at 12:00 Friday, July 3 (UTC)! (PDT: 5 a.m. Friday, July 3)

NOTE: Some specific features shown in the Developer Diary are only supported on console platforms.

: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page [url=https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/238960/announcements/detail/2540542299312739473]here[/url].

As we mentioned last week[www.pathofexile.com], we're currently working on the 3.11.1 update with improvements to Harvest. We're currently aiming to deploy this patch by the end of this working week. In the meantime, we've prepared a preview of its patch notes to give you an idea of what to expect.

Please note that the patch notes listed below are still subject to change prior to release of 3.11.1. This update will be deployed on consoles as soon as possible after its deployment on PC.

• Tier 2, Tier 3, Tier 4 and the Heart of the Grove monsters and bosses now have a chance based on their rarity, with higher-tier seeds having a higher chance, to drop a new plantable "seed". This can be placed in the Sacred Grove and will affect planted seeds around it, granting nearby seeds additional properties on being Harvested.
  
• The area around the entrance portal in the Sacred Grove now has stairs, creating 180 degrees of pathway.
  
• Storage Tanks are now unlocked when your Raw Lifeforce plus any additional Condensed Lifeforce exceeds 250.
  
• Added a confirmation warning when attempting to uproot fully-grown Tier 1 seeds as well as Tier 2 or higher seeds with any growth.
  
• Adjusted the colours of planted seeds and Harvest art assets to help better distinguish them from one another.
  
• Added text hovers over various Harvest Infrastructure to more clearly display what it is connected to.
  
• Your progress towards respawning the Heart of the Grove in the Sacred Grove is now displayed in the Sacred Grove.
  
• Namharim, Born of Night now becomes invisible during its Prowl skill.
  
• Added additional preloading for the Tier 4 Harvest bosses and Heart of the Grove.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Tier 4 Harvest Bosses could endlessly spawn monsters during their immobile phase.
  
• Fixed a bug where the displayed number of seeds in your Seed Stockpile didn't update correctly after auto-planting seeds.
  
• Fixed a bug where Oshabi could say multiple voice lines at once when auto-planting large amounts of seeds.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Horticrafting Station's minimap icon was visible from outside the Sacred Grove.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Sacred Grove had the wrong icon in the World Map information panel.

• The growth times of Tier 1 seeds is now uniformly 3 growth cycles, with the exception of the rarest seeds: Wild Hatchling Seed, Vivid Thornweaver Seed and Primal Cleaveling Seed.
  
• The "Exchange a Resonator for a Fossil or vice versa. Rare outcomes are more likely with rare inputs" Harvest craft is now much more likely to give rarer outcomes based on rarer inputs.
  
• Harvest Crafts can no longer be used on Itemised Beasts.
  
• The use of the "Reforge a Rare item with Lucky modifier values, keeping all Prefixes (or Suffixes)" Harvest Craft is now prevented if it will be unable to change any modifiers.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Scarab Harvest Crafts would consume a stack of Scarabs if that was the input, rather than just a single Scarab.
  
• Fixed a bug where the "Sacrifice a Weapon or Armour to create a Ring with similar modifiers" Harvest Craft instead created an Amulet.
  
• Fixed a bug where destroying a stored craft from the Horticrafting Station prevented further use of a connected Collector for Harvest Crafts.
  
• Fixed a bug where the 'Change a Divination Card into another random Divination Card' didn't work if a stack of Divination Cards was used. It will now just remove a single card from the stack and give you a random Divination Card.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Harvest Crafts which changed a modifier from one element to another didn't work on modifiers that were the first explicit modifier on an item.

• We're currently working on fixing various bugs in this fight. Full patch notes will be revealed later this week.

• Medium and Large Cluster Jewels will now drop with an additional enchantment effect that grants them 1 and 2 Jewel sockets respectively. These replace the modifiers that previously granted additional Jewel sockets, which can no longer appear on Cluster Jewels.
  
• Selling any existing Medium and Large Cluster Jewels without this new enchantment to a vendor will remove any existing Jewel socket modifiers and add the new socket enchantment. This does not include Unique Cluster Jewels.
  
• When creating multiple Brands at once, excess Brands beyond the limit are now all removed at once.
  
• Clarified that "You lose Rage 20% slower" only applies to natural Rage loss over time.
  
• Clarified the description of Enduring Cry to make it clear that the buff grants Elemental Resistances, rather than all Resistances. This is a solely a description update.
  
• Elemental Focus Support can now support skills which inflict elemental ailments.
  
• Added the Law of the Wilds unique Hellion's Paw to the Unique Collection Tab.
  
• Added art icons for many hideout decorations added in 3.11.0.
  
• Fixed a bug where new Cluster Jewel Notables were inheriting the bonuses that are only meant to apply to Small Passive Skills.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Witchfire Brew unique Stibnite Flask didn't grant the Despair Curse Aura if you were immune to Curses.
  
• Fixed a bug where the "1% increased Chaos Damage per Level" modifier was accidentally removed from the Edge of Madness unique Etched Greatsword in 3.11.0.
  
• Fixed a bug where the Skin of the Lords unique Simple Robe granted a Keystone named "Sacred Bastion". This keystone is meant to be named Imbalanced Guard (as seen on the passive skill tree).
  
• Fixed a bug where the "+25 to Maximum Rage while wielding a Sword" modifier from Rigwald's Savagery unique Royal Axe didn't work when using a One-hand Thrusting Sword.
  
• Fixed an unintended change introduced in 3.11.0 causing the Xoph's Nurture unique Citadel Bow to have its "x% increased Physical Damage" range lowered.
  
• Fixed a bug where the "Exerted Attacks deal 30% more Damage per previous Attack Exerted by this Warcry" stat from Seismic Cry didn't show up in the skill's tooltip.
  
• Fixed a bug where General's Cry removed all existing Mirage Warriors, even if they had not yet completed their attacks. This included persistent duration-based ground effects, such as Spikes from Earthshatter.
  
• Fixed a bug where Mirage Warriors (created by General's Cry) that used Dominating Blow could not summon Sentinels of Dominance.
  
• Fixed a bug where Mirage Warriors, Mirage Chieftains and Mirage Saviours were unable to deal damage when you had allocated the Ancestral Bond keystone passive.
  
• Fixed a bug where Warcries displayed a Cast Time in their tooltips, rather than Use Time.
  
• Fixed a bug where, when using the Eternal Youth keystone passive, Life Recharge wouldn't appear to begin when specific things that should cause it to begin occurred (although it actually did begin).
  
• Fixed a bug where Purifying Flame would attempt to hit a target a second time if it had missed the first time due to the target dodging the spell.
  
• Fixed a bug causing the Rank 4 and Rank 5 Life as well as the Rank 1 and Rank 2 Block Crafting Recipe unlock locations to be inversed.
  
• Fixed a rare bug where the minimap wouldn't be rendered.
  
• Fixed a bug where The Basilisk's Stone Gaze skill could be interrupted by using Seismic Cry.
  
• Fixed a rare bug where, when entering Dunes Map, you would spawn in the boss arena.
  
• Fixed a bug introduced in 3.11.0 where The Karui Fortress couldn't spawn Vaal Side Areas.
  
• Fixed a bug where hovering over the Dexterity or Intelligence hovers on the passive skill tree always displayed the benefits of Strength.

• Fixed a rare bug where trying to go to your Hideout or the Menagerie could fail to join but continue attempting to join indefinitely.
  
• Fixed a client crash that could occur when mousing over a gem that was socketed into an Abyssal socket. This state was only possible to get into due to a previously-fixed bug.

It's time for our next Update Show, Champions!

To get you prepared, we have a list of everything in store for you as we enter the month of July! You may have already seen a few teasers, and you can definitely expect more, let's just say we can bet a shooting star on it.

Here's some of the highlights for this coming week

More Teasers

• You love them and we have more! Check out our next one around 12 PM ET today and maybe tomorrow if you wish upon a star.

Update Show

• As you probably guessed, Wednesday is going to be the next Update Show where we'll coverall the new content coming to Paladins! Make sure you tune in and follow along with us using the update notes https://www.paladins.com/news

Esports

• With the Paladins Summer Finals concluded, Phase 1 relegations are just over the horizon - giving prospective players a chance to join the Paladins Pro Circuit. Stay tuned to https://esports.paladins.com/ later this week for instructions on how to participate, and who knows, your squad could even earn a spot for Phase 2!

***Rotates every Wednesday at 4AM ET***

• Torvald
  
• Tiberius
  
• Koga
  
• Pip

Since the announcement of the Harvest League, we've spotted several great pieces of fan art inspired by Harvest content! We've gathered them together in this news post to share with the wider community. Have a look!

Oshabi by Gunoo


Oshabi Fan Art and Harvest Wallpapers by QueenNie




Oshabi by bahuuba


Oshabi, Goddess of Harvest by kanterbow


May Your Harvest Be Plentiful by lawofdrawing


Chibi Oshabi by yunokiilie


Oshabi by Natilo


Harvest Theme Remix by eko1991


The Harvest Must Grow, Exile by maximaLz


We're always happy to see fan art submissions inspired by Path of Exile! If you'd like to share yours, just create a thread on our forum[www.pathofexile.com] or post on our subreddit. Thank you for your talents!

Updated: June 26th 2020

We will be updating the following list regularly to outline the status of certain issues that are currently pressing for our community. Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and should only be used as a reference to give a general idea of where our focus currently is.

Description: Our priority on that front is to first repackage the way sounds are stored and connected to the game.

We currently have a limited ability to fix specific issues and this improvement should make it easier for us to work on the audio aspect of the game.

For more information on this topic, please refer to the Status Report blog.

Status: Target: Y5S3

Description: We are working on mitigation plans with our partners and we are continuously monitoring the situation. We'll continue to share updates on the situation until the matter is solved.

Status: Ongoing

Description: [/b] We continue working in close collaboration with all our partners to flag, report & identify cheaters as effectively as possible.

Steel Wave contained dissuasive measures such as rank lock below level 50, as well as a limit of 100 games to reach the Champion's rank.

We are also working on other options to continue improving the situation on that front, we'll share a detailed overview on the topic very soon.

Status: Ongoing

Description: [/b] Additional context and explanations will be added to the in-game reporting panel. In an effort to effectively address the situation, having more accurate player reports will facilitate information gathering on our end.

Status: Target: Y5S2.2

Description: [/b] During the Steel Wave test server period we received a number of feedback requests for balancing tweaks to the new Operators. After evaluating feedback from players, and data from the TS, we plan to make a few balancing changes to the new operators with the 2.1 patch.

• Lowering the penalty zone by approximately 33%.
  
• Lowering the sound of Banshee effect in first person PoV.

• Remove the possibility of destroying Bandit's Batteries through reinforcements, by placing the charges on the floor

Status: Target: Y5S2.1

Description: [/b] There are inconsistencies in how gadgets interact/destroy props on maps.

Similar to how we implemented consistency on how props break on projectile trajectory in Y4S4, we are working on a system for deployable gadgets' interaction with these props.

Status: Target: Y5S3

Description: We are adding the possibility to set a specific sensitivity for each zoom levels / sights.

Status: Target: Y5S3

Description: The rework intends to make flash detection more reliable. Enemies are often not affected by flashes due to objects and obstacles. We want to simulate the light ricochet with the environment, to guarantee the effectiveness of flashbangs & other similar gadgets.

Status: Target: Y5S4

Description: We are currently looking at improving the vault detection code to make the action easier to perform and to be more reliable

Status: Target: Y5S3

Description: To address frustrations where players are placed into a game with incomplete teams on either side, we are working on a Match Cancellation feature, that you may have tried on the Test Server.

The goal will be to allow players to cancel matches in the early stages of a game under the condition that their team is incomplete.

Status: Target: Y5S2.1

Description: Improved in-game notifications and feedback for when an Operator has been deactivated.

There have been times when we have had to deactivate an Operator in-game to better the play experience when exploits arise. We are working on better feedback to our players when such an occasion arises.

Status: Target: Y5S3

Description: Interactions with the defuser could often lead to some issues, in Y5S4 we'll address the following ones:

Defuser plant prompt is sometimes missing when the player is on site
Defusers can be planted outside of the site when the players sits on the edge of the area.
Players could drop the defuser when attempting to plant.
Status: Target: Y5S4

Description: The in-game notification system often displayed outdated or already read alerts. It should guarantee that these notifications are relevant to the players.

Status: Target: Y5S3

Spinning on specific locations could lead to FPS drops for anyone in the same game.
The Banshee's hitbox is inaccurate and covers more than the model.
The defuser can be planted on the edge of the hatch in 2F Master Bedroom on House
Updated: May 27 2020

To follow up on our last Top Issues update below in April, we would like to give you all a status update on the hacking, cheating, and lobby-freezing issues. We'll go over some of the steps we have taken where we have found success, where we are still working to make improvements, as well as emphasize our continued focus on cheating and hacking as priority issues.

Lobby-Freezing: Lobby-freezing occurs while in menu or while loading into a round, and no connectivity icons will appear.

Update: After our April Top Issues blog, we made an update to the game that would allow us to gather more data to accurately track and identify lobby-freezers. We were able to successfully use that data to implement an auto-kick feature for individuals identified as holding up games through extreme loading times. Kicked players will receive an abandon sanction and be locked out of ranked/unranked until the match is over. We have been monitoring the automatic kicks for some time now on the live servers and have observed high success rates of detecting and only kicking players who are holding up lobbies to the detriment of the other players in the game. We are continuing to gather data on console lobby-freezing before we finalize plans to activate the lobby-freeze autokick detection on console as well.

DOS: DOS attacks can be distinguished from lobby-freezing as they typically occur during gameplay and the connectivity icons will appear.

Update: We have also observed some unusual network traffic and activity for Console players and suspect that some cases of lobby-freezing on Console may be tied to DOS attacks. We are currently pursuing this and investigating the issue and will update when we learn more.

Update: In our last update, we re-emphasized that we do not tolerate cheating in-game and were preparing a number of short and long term strategies to address the cheating frustrations. While we are aware this is still an ongoing issue, we believe these upcoming changes will help to mitigate some of the frustrations as we work internally on more robust long-term solutions.

Offline Bans (Target date: End of May): We will begin banning players offline. Previously sanctioned accounts were banned after logging back into Siege. Accounts will now be banned even if they remain offline. This will provide more clarity on the ban feedback loop and improve visibility on banned accounts.
Increased Clearance Level Requirements for Ranked (Target date: Y5S2): In Y5S2 we will be increasing the required clearance level for players to play Ranked. This is aimed at increasing the barrier to access for illegitimate accounts for Ranked to promote a better Ranked environment.
Increased Champion Rank Requirements (Target date: Y5S2): In Y5S2 we will be increasing the requirements for players to be eligible for Champion Rank. In addition to meeting the minimum 5000 MMR, eligible layers will be required to have played at least 100 ranked matches to qualify. This is also aimed at increasing the barrier to access for illegitimate accounts and maintaining a clean Champion leaderboard

XP level cap in PvE: (Status: Active) We have already put an XP cap in PvE in place in order to increase barriers to entry for Ranked for smurfs.

Updated: 23 April 2020

We will be updating the following list regularly to outline the status of certain issues that are currently pressing for our community. Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and should only be used as a reference to give a general idea of where our focus currently is.


We have recently observed an increase in cheating mentions and reports from players. We want to emphasize that we do not tolerate cheating in game and are working on multiple strategies to address the cheating frustrations and uphold the competitive integrity of Rainbow Six Siege. Below are some of the strategies that we can share that are being worked on for the short-term.

LOBBY FREEZING
Description: We've seen an increase in incidences of lobby freezers seeking to disrupt games to their advantage. We will be releasing update(s) that will allow us to better monitor and more accurately track lobby-freezers.

Objective: The updates will allow us to gather necessary data points that we will use to accurately track and identify lobby-freezing. In future updates we will use this data to automatically detect and kick lobby-freezers.

Status: This is currently an ongoing process.

AUTOMATED DATA UPDATES TO BATTLEYE
Description: Due to the increased mentions and player reports of cheating, we are reinforcing the bridge between R6 and BattlEye.

Objective: Strengthen our collaboration with BattlEye by implementing automated processes and reinforcing data sharing to shorten the feedback loop on banned players.

Status: Ongoing.

Description: Increase Ranked and Champion Rank requirements.

Objective: Increase the barrier to access for illegitimate accounts to both Ranked and Champion rank to promote a better Ranked environment and a clean Champion leaderboard.

Status: (Target: Y5S2) We will have more specifics on the new requirements closer to S2.

Description: Daily level grind cap from PvE as a prevention tactic to make Ranked requirements less accessible to illegitimate accounts.

Objective: Our goal is to make Ranked less easily accessible to bots and smurfs by limiting the daily XP that can be earned in PvE. This will make it easier for us to spot and catch bots and smurfs before they are able to make their way into Ranked.

Status: We are aiming to have this completed as soon as possible.

KNOWN BUGS/ISSUES
UNINTENDED ABANDON SANCTIONS BUG
Description: An error was found in the matchmaking flow that was causing players to receive abandon sanctions if they left the Ranked queue right as a match was found. Players were already processed as being in the match when they had already backed out.

Objective: The game flow will be modified so that the penalty warning message for abandon can be displayed earlier, and coincide with the time when the penalty system will effectively apply.

Status: (Target Y5S2) A fix is scheduled for Y5S2.

Description: An error was found in the matchmaking flow that was causing matches to start with incomplete teams if a player exited the Ranked queue right as a match was found. These players were already processed as being in the match when they had already backed out, resulting in games starting with incomplete teams.

Objective: Part of the solution is to correct when the abandon sanction warning message popup is displayed to alert players that they have already entered a match and deter them from leaving. We are also working on a Match Cancellation feature which will allow players to cancel matches in the early stages of a game under the condition that their team is incomplete (this will come later to the PC TS in Y5S2).

Status: (Target Y5S2) A fix is scheduled for Y5S2.

Description: Past completed Community Challenges show up as "Coming Soon" in the Battle Pass menu after the challenge is over. This is purely a visual bug.

Status: (Target Y5S2) A fix is scheduled for this bug with the Y5S2 BP update.

Description: The popups notifying players of an MMR rollback after a cheater has been banned is displaying the incorrect values. This is a purely a visual bug.

Status: (Target Y5S3)__ This is currently under investigation.


Description: This feature improves the current PC Hardware Benchmark tool in Siege, giving detailed information and performance reports about their hardware specifications and resource usages.

Objective: We are working toward a new benchmark test that better conveys how Siege performs on different setups.

Status: (Target Y5S2).

Description: There are inconsistencies in how gadgets interact/destroy props on maps.

Status: (Target: Y5S3) Similar to how we implemented consistency on how props break on projectile trajectory in Y4S4, we are working on a system for deployable gadgets' interaction with these props.

Description: Ranked games will sometimes begin with incomplete teams due to players leaving at the very start of the match.

Objective: To address frustrations where players are placed into a game with incomplete teams on either side, we are working on a Match Cancellation feature. The goal will be to allow players to cancel matches in the early stages of a game under the condition that their team is incomplete.

Status: (Target Y5S2 on the PC TS) Match Cancellation is scheduled to be released on the PC Test Server in Y5S2.

Description: Improved in-game notifications and feedback for when an Operator has been deactivated.

Status: (Target: Y5S3) There have been times when we have had to deactivate an Operator in-game to better the play experience when exploits arise. We are working on better feedback to our players when such an occasion arises.

Introducing NEXT Packs 🔥🔥🔥 For the first time ever, top NBA prospects are getting an early start in MyTEAM. Run with these future rookies:

GO or 💎 LaMelo Ball
GO or 💎 James Wiseman
GO or PD Cole Anthony
GO or PD Onyeka Okongwu
GO or 💎 Anthony Edwards
GO or PD R.J. Hampton

Collect the entire NEXT rookie class to earn Galaxy Opal Zion

Available until July 3rd

The first episode of Night City Wire is now available!

https://youtu.be/ToWfeUEAeeQ

Join Hollie Bennett on a 25-minute trip to Night City involving the reveal of a brand new trailer, a fresh look at gameplay, plenty of developer discussion about the game with Paweł Sasko (Lead Quest Designer) and Patrick Mills (Senior Quest Designer), and the first look at a never-before-seen feature: braindance!

Last but not least, direct from Tokyo, Saya Elder (Producer) together with the team from Studio Trigger unveil CYBERPUNK: EDGERUNNERS — an all new story set in the world of Cyberpunk 2077.

You don't want to miss it!

Break out your shades and catch some rays in the 2020 Summer Bash event. If you ever needed an excuse to celebrate summer and soak in some sun, we've got you covered. From June 25th to July 14th the second Summer Bash event will be underway. Spend your time relaxing by the beach in the new Hawaiian shirts or have a fight your tribe using the new water-gun skin. However you choose to spend your summer in ARK, Summer Bash is bound to cook up a lot of entertainment.



Server Settings
-activeevent=Summer

Event Start
PC: 10AM PDT
XBOX & PS4: 1PM PDT

Rate Boosts

• 3X Breeding (mating interval, egg hatch speed, and maturation)
  
• 4X Player XP
  
• 4X Harvesting
  
• 4X Taming

New Emotes

• Guitar Riff
  
• Drum Solo
  
• Head Banger

New Skins

• 4 new Hawaiian-style shirt Skins
  
• 3 new Swimsuit Skins
  
• BBQ-themed Grilling Spatula (Club Skin)
  
• Frisbee Skin (Boomerang)
  
• 1 Sunglasses Skin w/ customizable lenses
  
• Super Soaker style Squirt Gun Skin (Flamethrower)

New Chibi Pets

• Manta
  
• Ammonite
  
• Cnidaria
  
• Plesiosaur
  
• Astrocetus

Event-Colored Wild Creatures

• Dino Dark Blue
  
• Red
  
• White
  
• Dino Sky Blue
  
• Dark Red
  
• Blue
  
• Light Grey
  
• Cream
  
• Cammo
  
• Orange
  
• MediumTeal
  
• DarkBlue
  
• LemonLime
  
• Peach
  
• Coral

The event kicks off at 10AM PDT.




With the start of the 5th Anniversary event, we implemented some changes to the way our servers calculate growing baby dinos. By distributing these calculations we can recover some of the performance costs related to breeding calculations, which is quite cost-intensive.

In more technical terms, we have done this by measuring the stress on a server with each tick and batching the actors to process their breeding calculations over the course of several ticks rather than all of them on every tick. For a server that is already in a stable state not much might be noticed, but for a server under intense stress players may notice that breeding calculations, and the initial start of mating may be a little delayed.

The good news is that players should notice less performance issues during boosted breeding rates. Servers will always be put under extra strain during event rates, especially so in regards to breeding rates but we've sought to minimize that with these changes and we've noticed some positive improvements.

If you are on a busy server and experiencing some delays, this is why and we're currently iterating on this so these response delays don't feel like as much of a disruption.



We're moving the Community Crunch back to Friday's! In addition to moving the Crunch back to Friday's, we'll start to feature community content in the Community Crunch rather than its own separate day. If you are creating or sharing ARK content, be sure to tag it with #playARK for a chance to be featured!



Kick back enjoy a great start to your summer with the ARK Summer Sale. For a limited time, ARK will be up to 80% off!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/346110



While Summer Bash is active from June 25th to July 14th, there will be no special EVO event rates.

Summer Bash Rates

• 3X Breeding (mating interval, egg hatch speed, and maturation)
  
• 4X Player XP
  
• 4X Harvesting
  
• 4X Taming

Crystal Griffin by @bluedragonark


Fire Reef by @ProjectTiamat


ActualBlack Megatherium by @TiiaAurora


Argentavis on Genesis by @PicturesofArk


Epic Viking Longhouse by @ThePilgrimz


Wyvern Drawing by @RunsWithPencil



See you next week!

Studio Wildcard

Twitter: twitter.com/survivetheark
Facebook: facebook.com/survivetheark
Reddit: reddit.com/r/playark
Instagram: instagram.com/survivetheark
Twitch: twitch.tv/survivetheark
Steam: steamcommunity.com/app/346110
Youtube: youtube.com/survivetheark

The world of Reisum is deceptive in its nature. From the frost covered mountain peaks to the snowy tundra, it is a thing of beauty. The ice and snow sparkle as they reflect the rays of light from the world's distant sun. However, the bitterly cold temperatures and almost unrelenting winter makes life on the surface of Reisum nearly unbearable. Prolonged exposure to the surface temperatures has been known to take the life of even the most unwavering and resolute warriors.

The only thing deadlier than the temperatures of Reisum is its inhabitants. The most brutal are known as Urikki, giant warlike creatures baring a slight resemblance to the rodents of earth. The Urikki have become the dominant force on this world due to their strength and ferocity. The Urikki descended from the more numerous and smaller creatures known as the Emin. The Emin still exist, living much as they always have, below the surface in networks of tunnels known as Warrens. Many years ago, the first and greatest of the Urikki, Magir, swore a blood oath to his dying mother that the Emin would pay for their misdeeds. To this day, the Urikki's vengeance often takes the form of raids on Emin's Warrens in the middle of the harshest winter months.



"Remember the great deeds of those long-forgotten; for their lessons are hard won. The blood of the few are too often spilled for the many. Let not their bones turn to dust and presume ourselves courageous… yet live timid beneath their shadows." - Atul, Speaker for the Dead

Urikki tribes often employ ice skiffs to ply the vast distances of the open steppes. These long, slender vessels are adorned with runes and pictograms exalting the clan's greatest deeds and celebrate its bravest warriors. The tribes of the Black Tundra have even been known to live on larger versions of these graceful vessels. A caravan of these ships skating across the frigid ice floes is truly a sight to behold.



"We gather stones to commemorate our glorious dead. Each stone used in the afterlife to build the Great Hall of Varussk. Each stone to mark a single tear for their passage from this world to the next. Like stone, their deeds remain unbroken, like stone their memories everlasting. We, the Urikki, remember… and follow in glory!" - Osvek, Hakun of the Northern Steppes

Next week we plan to deploy Patch 3.11.1 and will preview its patch notes next week. In the meantime, we wanted to provide some general indication of what we're working on in the immediate future. While not all of these changes will be in next week's patch, we'll aim to get as many of them in as possible.

In case you missed them, we've already released several small updates with improvements to Harvest. You can find them here[www.pathofexile.com], here[www.pathofexile.com], here[www.pathofexile.com], here[www.pathofexile.com], here[www.pathofexile.com] and here[www.pathofexile.com].

• We're working on a new reward item that can drop from both Harvest monsters and the Final Boss. There are several variations of it that you can receive randomly. It has a limited number of uses and can be placed within your garden to produce more Lifeforce from nearby plants, create luckier crafting outcomes, or provide a chance to generate additional crafting options for each of the ones you planted. We're brainstorming other stuff it could do also.
  
• The colours of growth meters on plants have been improved so that it's easier for colourblind players to differentiate between Wild and Primal plants. We are also investigating changing the UI artwork of these so that you can tell the difference more easily without relying on colour.
  
• We've added stairs to the terrain around the Sacred Grove's portal to improve its accessibility.
  
• Increased the number of seeds that drop in maps, particularly mid-tier and rarer seeds. You now receive a lot more seeds from the highest-tier maps.
  
• Harvest Crafting options will be sorted by their tier rather than their Lifeforce cost and will also be grouped together by their crafting type.

• The final boss fight will guarantee that you receive a few of the new reward item mentioned above.
  
• Improved various mechanics to enhance the feeling of the fight.
  
• Adding debuff icons to signal when the boss' debuff has been applied to you.
  
• Adding a progress percentage value that indicates how close you are to the next boss respawn.
  
• Improving various visual components of the fight.
  
• Improving the boss' AI so that it's less likely to move onto ground effects and more likely to leave them.
  
• Fixed various bugs associated with this fight including the boss being able to get stuck within vine walls.

We're continuing to steadily improve the Vulkan Renderer and would ideally like to get it out of Beta prior to our September launch. Please continue to send reports to us on the bug report forum and we will continue to fix them as soon as possible.

Thank you for all of your feedback since Harvest's launch. We really appreciate it.

: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page [url=https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/1091500/announcements/detail/2532660999948124250]here[/url].

Watch the brand new trailer showcasing the world, characters, story, and action of Cyberpunk 2077!

https://youtu.be/ixl31324UxE

: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page [url=https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/238960/announcements/detail/2540542299294311934]here[/url].

Now that we've launched the Harvest expansion, we have completed two of our four expansions scheduled for this year. As many of you know, Harvest's expansion deployed a week later than our usual schedule and we want to outline what this delay means for the rest of the year.

Normally we operate on a 13-week development cycle, launching one expansion per season. These expansions always occur in March, June, September and December. Since Harvest required 14 weeks of development, this means that if we do not adjust our schedule, the September and December expansions would hit quite late in these months. For the September expansion, this would likely be fine but for the December expansion, it would be dangerously close to Christmas when many of our staff would be taking time off to spend with their families. Fewer developers would be on standby to help out if any issues arise.

Our plan to mitigate the potential impact of a late December launch is to launch our 3.12 September expansion just 12 weeks after the launch of Harvest. It's a much larger league than Harvest, so we had to begin work on this expansion about a month early. We believe we can successfully launch within this time frame. This would also mean that if everything goes well, our December expansion can also occur earlier and leave more room prior to the holiday period.

This is all still subject to change so don't book your time off until we can confirm the launch date more firmly, but we're hopefully looking at the middle of each launch month.

At some point this year, we're also hoping to make a Mac OS port available! The release of Vulkan on the PC version has been necessary for us to get the testing required, as Vulkan will be the renderer we use on Mac OS.

When we announced Path of Exile 2 last year, we mentioned that the earliest an early Beta could occur might be late 2020. This is definitely not happening this year, due to significant schedule delays due to the pandemic. We have been focusing on keeping our leagues coming out as close to on time as possible, and this does mean some delays for the sequel. We are looking forward to our next announcement about its upcoming content, and we'll keep piling on any technology improvements we can make into the existing Path of Exile client.

We are very excited about the year ahead. The difficulty of developing Harvest from home was immense but culminated in a league that we are very proud of. This makes us extremely optimistic for managing the year ahead and continuing to deliver on the high standard of Path of Exile expansions that you've come to expect.

Thank you so much for all of your support and patience while we've worked through the challenges of this year. We really appreciate it!