Only a few mods of the dino hit ARK: Survival Evolved are officially included by Wildcard. One of them is the popular map Valguero. We asked creator Nekatus what he is currently working on and how the collaboration with Wildcard went back then.
In a conversation with Nils M. – better known in the ARK mod community as Nekatus – we talked about his latest project Fjördur and how the collaboration with Wildcard regarding the popular Valguero map went.
The Lord of the Rings meets Vikings – New Map Fjördur Introduced
The Valguero map has been officially available for all ARK players on PC and consoles since June 18, 2019. Modder Nekatus (via Twitter) is therefore directly working on his latest project: the mod map Fjördur.
This is Fjördur: Together with modder Trappel, they have been working on the new map for about 8 months, inspired by Norse mythology. But also major well-known works have their influence. Especially the “The Lord of the Rings” movies and the Vikings series contribute significantly to the style. Here, Vikings meet fantasy.
The map will be huge and will have cool inhabitants
Fjördur is supposed to be larger than Valguero. How large exactly, Nekatus cannot say yet. However, the map offers several worlds like Yggdrasil and Helheim, which can only be reached through a teleport function. Just the surface, consisting of various islands and a lot of ocean, is supposed to be about the size of The Island.
So far, 8 biomes are planned:
- Coniferous Forest
- Highlands
- Rugged Biome
- Autumn Biome
- Snow Biome
- Ice Hell (Helheim)
- Jungle/Coniferous Forest (Yggdrasil)
- The 8th biome is currently a secret
The modders place a lot of importance on a good setting. For example, no exaggerated creatures are supposed to inhabit the land, as they would disturb PVP. You certainly won’t find a space whale in Fjördur. Instead, additional animals from Norse mythology will be implemented into the map.
The creatures are supposed to remain rather grounded, the map is more for roleplay and PVE.
Nekatus
Modder Garuga, who created the ARK Additions Mod (via Steam Workshop), will create 3 to 4 exclusive creatures for Fjördur. One of them is the Fenris Wolf, “he is in Norse mythology the first child of the god Loki and the giantess Angrboda before Hel and the Midgard Serpent.”
Quests, Bosses, and More Features in Fjördur
With the Genesis Release at the end of February, missions were also added to ARK. Nekatus wants to include these in Fjördur as well, but they can be disabled by server operators or single players if they are not fans of them.
Additionally, all known bosses except for the King Titan are planned to be added. They are supposed to have their normal arenas, but also completely unique areas where you can even build. The bosses won’t roam around wildly there, but they can be summoned in that area.
The other features are:
- The orbital drops known from Extinction
- A new teleport function at the obelisks
- Underwater shipwrecks as deep sea drops
- Planned underwater orbital drops
- Many caves
- Volcanic eruptions & avalanches
- New weather effects like snowstorms & Northern Lights
- New skins for armor and weapons
- The first map with ambient music that can be turned off via config
Fjördur will be released in summer 2020
The modders have entered into a partnership with the server provider GPortal, which financially sponsors the map. Fjördur is the first official GPortal map but can be used by any PC player.
This sponsorship mainly allows Nekatus to invest more time in Fjördur. He spends about 20 hours per week in the Unreal Editor and completes the map step by step.
The full release is planned for July 2020. A first version (Via Steam Workshop) is already playable now, and the next major content update is also not far away. On Twitch, the modder streams his progress daily and shows his viewers how the Unreal Editor works.
Is Fjördur officially entering the Wildcard program?
The first map Valguero was officially included in the game by ARK developer Wildcard, allowing console players to access the world. However, this will not happen with Fjördur.
Together with modders Buttman, Trappel, and Evolanca, Nekatus completed Valguero within 8 months full-time with the support of Wildcard. However, many plans had to be discarded as consoles do not support too large maps. Valguero was originally supposed to have double the area and include more cool biomes.
Nevertheless, the collaboration with Wildcard went very well:
The work went very well; it was a lot of fun working with the people from Wildcard. It was by no means the case that we were kept on a leash.
Nekatus
Here are the plans for Fjördur: Nekatus would likely want to work with Wildcard again, but only with a foreign map. Fjördur will not be officially included as the map is supposed to be made according to the modders’ ideas without having to pay attention to restrictions.
Fjördur is expected to be released in July 2020 for PC. Mods for PS4 and Xbox One are not available outside of the official Wildcard program. Console players will therefore have to forgo Fjördur.
Until the release in summer, you can also take a look at more great mods that make your life easier in ARK.
