Studio Wildcard co-founders Jeremy Stieglitz and Jesse Rapczak have confirmed that their studio's troubled pirate survival game Atlas is directly shaping Ark: Survival Ascended's upcoming Tides of Fortune DLC. The expansion brings customizable ship building and simulated ocean physics to the dinosaur survival game this summer.
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Lessons Learned from a Troubled Launch
Atlas launched in December 2018 as an ambitious open-world pirate survival game, but immediately ran into serious problems. Performance issues, stability crashes, and punishing design decisions buried it under negative reviews. Unlike Ark: Survival Evolved, it never recovered.
Stieglitz spoke openly about what went wrong with the project, calling it a lesson in what not to do.
"It didn't really work out for us, because it had some insane tech, some crazy cool ideas, but as a game loop, it had a lot of problems," Stieglitz explained. "Atlas is, like, crazy cool tech, but a lot of game design lessons about what not to do."
The fundamental issue was layered friction. In Atlas, logs from chopped trees could only be carried one at a time, ships were built plank by plank, and a single catastrophic loss could wipe out 50 hours of work. Ideas that sounded compelling on paper became exhausting in execution.
"All these things sound very interesting in theory, but you put them all together, and what's the result? A game that's insanely punishing, and if you make one wrong turn you've just lost 50 hours of progress," Stieglitz said.
What Tides of Fortune Brings to Ark
Despite the game's failure to connect with players, Stieglitz maintains the underlying technology was legitimately impressive, especially the sailing mechanics, water simulation, and ship physics. Those systems are being adapted for Tides of Fortune.
Here's what the new DLC includes:
- Customizable ship building with attachments, cannons, and player-constructed deck structures
- Simulated ocean physics with realistic waves, foamy wakes, and dynamic water lighting
- Reduced grind compared to Atlas, with ship construction and replacement designed to be significantly less time-intensive
- Dinosaur compatibility, so you can still bring your tamed creatures aboard
Rapczak noted that the ocean upgrade extends beyond the DLC itself. "Ark's water is famously flat and uninteresting, and having network simulated ocean physics is cool," he said. "Not just for this, but also for modders and the general capability of the engine."
Ship deck customization options
Stieglitz emphasized that the studio's existing work with Atlas makes this technically achievable. "We know how to work the water systems. We know how to work the physics systems, the networking systems to pull that off," he said. "It builds on our expertise with those mechanics from Atlas, and we hope to distill it into a more accessible form than Atlas ever had."
The critical difference is accessibility. The Tides of Fortune version removes the brutal progression loop that defined Atlas while preserving the parts that actually worked. Losing your ship won't mean starting from zero.
The Atlas Legacy
Atlas took place across a massive networked ocean world stitched together from multiple servers, allowing players to sail between them while gathering resources and battling rivals. The ambition was genuine, but the execution created a game that actively punished experimentation and mistakes.
Think of Tides of Fortune less as an Atlas sequel and more as a targeted extraction of its strongest ideas, refined through everything Studio Wildcard has learned about what Ark players actually want.
Pro tip: If Atlas turned you off in 2018, this DLC deserves attention. The studio is explicitly designing it to avoid the traps that killed the original.
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the Tides of Fortune DLC for Ark: Survival Ascended?
Tides of Fortune is an upcoming DLC for Ark: Survival Ascended that introduces pirate ship building and simulated ocean physics. Players will be able to craft customizable ships, mount cannons, build structures on deck, and sail across a physics-driven ocean, with their tamed dinosaurs in tow.
Why is Atlas being referenced for the new Ark DLC?
Studio Wildcard, the developer behind both games, built Atlas in 2018 and developed deep expertise in ocean physics, water simulation, and ship networking systems. Rather than let that technical work go to waste, the team is applying those same systems to Ark: Survival Ascended in a more player-friendly form.
Will Tides of Fortune be as punishing as Atlas?
No. Studio Wildcard has specifically stated that crafting and replacing ships in Tides of Fortune will be far less labor-intensive than it was in Atlas. The goal is to keep the satisfying sailing and ship customization while removing the brutal progression loss that defined the original game.
