Welcome to Chapter 2
Today marks a memorable day in MTS history as we step into a new Chapter and close the door on the previous 6 incredible seasons in which we have seen exponential growth from a single 30 slot Island server to one of the most popular PvP clusters in existence. Many of you may have questions as to why we have chosen to rebrand MTS into a new Chapter and not continue onto our seventh consecutive season and through this post, we will go into detail behind this decision.
Since the launch of MTS back in 2018, we have held our own identity within the unofficial community, over the course of time we have made certain changes to our cluster settings and rules based on key features of Ark at the time some in which we have not reviewed since the changes were first made. During the 2 years, many new maps, metas, and balance changes have been made. With this in mind, we believed the time was right to wipe the slate clean and redesign a brand new, fresh take on ARK PvP and MTS.
We are happy to announce MTS Chapter 2 will be launching on Friday 11th September @ 8pm BST
At a typical new Season launch, we would make a post highlighting a number of changes from previous seasons in a Season announcement post. As we are wiping the slate clean and redesigning our Server settings and rules, we will be presenting you with our entire new Server Settings and Rates alongside some highlighted key details and changes from previous seasons and iterations of MTS that are changing.
MTS CHAPTER 2 SERVER SETTINGS
MAPS
RATES
SETTINGS
WEEKEND RATES
CUSTOM BOSS REWARDS
MODS
PLUGINS & MODIFIERS
TAMING RESTRICTIONS
OFFLINE RAID PROTECTION
DISABLED ENGRAMS
STRUCTURES PLUS+
BANNED BASE LOCATIONS
IN-DEPTH
Tribe Limit
Chapter 2 sees the introduction of 8 man tribes. A decision we feel is timed right, you may be thinking that's quite a jump from 4 man, but we reiterate the server has been designed specifically for this new chapter of MTS and it's one we're confident people will enjoy. A lot of people consider the early game to be the "most" fun time in ARK, but with the current meta and the way Ark is, early game is over very quickly. We feel making late game equally as enjoyable to be a clear goal for us this time around. With the recent resurgence in Small Tribes and due to the similar rates, we felt 8 man would be a great new territory to explore and beneficiary to those who wish to return to at least 6 man tribes but now have the option of 2 extra members to cover region, school and work times. More friends, more raids & defenses, more sustainable late game, more competition, more MTS!
If you are starting a new tribe, please remember to set up Tribe Governance!
MyMTS Tribe Logs & New Enforcement System
Membership Offline Tribe Logs are gone, we heard you're feedback and can confirm this system has been removed from MyMTS for Chapter 2 and the indefinite future. But we didn't stop there.. We are also introducing a very special and unique Warning Points enforcement system integrated into MyMTS exclusively for our servers. Taking our server administration to the next level to ensure a fair competitive playground is maintained. Please watch the following video for the full breakdown of this new system.
No Playing Admins
For the first time in our history, despite recent polls showing significant numbers stating players were happy for admins to play. We have collectively made the executive decision to brand our server as no playing admins. From this day forward, no admin can perform admin duties while playing on our servers like everyone else. We would like to take this opportunity to reiterate the fact that this is not in relation is any recent or past events, we are very proud and humbled to have the Admins we have and value them all very highly. They have agreed to this sacrifice as we together as a team feel the community has grown to such a size that this should now become a requirement, and this will also squash any doubts and theories people may have in the back of their minds of potential foul play.
Donator Rework
In an attempt to restructure the way players support our servers. We have removed the Platinum and Gold tier packages to create a brand new single MTS Membership at a more affordable price. This will be the only membership available to our players and will feature the majority of perks players typically know to exist in the previous Platinum Tier. Further information regarding Memberships will be posted closer to launch on the 11th.
MTS Mod Changes
Please view our latest Mod update for Chapter 2 alongside the full mod description;
Latest Changes (Changes from previous version)
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Reduced Bola weight change from 5.0 to 1.0
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Increase Bola entangle time vs humans from 10s to 15s
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Reduced TEK Hover Skiff element crafting cost from 336 to 200
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TEK Hover Skiff engram now requires completion of Beta Master controller to unlock instead of Gamma
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Managarmr movement speed reduced by 30% and dash ability distance reduced by 75%
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After jumping, Managarmrs must land before being able to jump again
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Snow Owls have their Stun & Ice crash abilities both re-enabled. Both abilities once used on a target; target will have a 15s immunity to that ability before being able to be affected by it again. (can only stun/ice crash the same target every 15 seconds)
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Cryofridge now requires a placement on floors (foundations/ceilings etc) to prevent cave entrance spam
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Reaper added to the list of affected creatures to receive cryopod nerf when exiting a cryopod
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Increased flamethrower damage % of hp from 5% to 7% per tick (Vanilla is 9%)
Mod Description in Full (Changes from vanilla)
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Nerf flamethrower to 7% hp (min 10, max 100) per second for 6 seconds.
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Decreased Bola time on Humans from 25s to 15s.
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Increased Bola weight from 0.5 to 1.0.
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Snow Owl Stun and Ice Crash abilities once used on a target; target will have a 15s immunity to that ability before being able to be affected by it again. (can only stun/ice crash the same target every 15 seconds)
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First 10 seconds of a cryopoded dino being thrown out it has the mek shield debuff so it takes 50% more damage, deal 50% less damage and has a 50% movement speed penalty. (Dinos effected; Giga, Reaper, Aberrant Megalosaurus)
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Cryopods & Cryofridges are now craftable in player inventory.
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Cryofridges require floor placement.
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Kentros have had their recoil damage cap removed.
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Woolly Rhinos have increased maximum damage scale from 8x to 12.5x when charging.
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Hover Skiff engram now requires completion of Beta Master controller to unlock instead of Gamma
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Hover Skiff can no longer pick up Rock Golems, Reapers, or Wyverns.
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Hover Skiff element crafting cost increased from 168 to 200.
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Element Dust engram craftable in inventory (Crafting cost 1 Element = 500 Element Dust)
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Managarmr movement speed reduced by 30% and dash ability distance reduced by 75%
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After jumping, Managarmrs must land before being able to jump again
Managarmrs
Managarmr's are making an appearance for the first time ever in MTS. But rest assured, these are not the Manas everyone loves to hate from official. Our Manas have been modified so their movement speed is reduced by 30% and their dash ability distance has been heavily nerfed by 75%, MTS Manas can also only jump once while airborne and must land before being able to jump again. If any of you have tried the Manas on MTS Arena Capture the Artifact game mode, these are pretty much the same.
Snow Owls
Snow Owls are also getting their utility back. Stun & Ice crash make a return. However; both of these abilities once used versus a target, the target will have a 15 second immunity to being affected by that ability again. So in short, you can only stun or ice crash the same target every 15 seconds.
Gachas
Gachas will be available to tame once again in Chapter 2. The way they will work this time is each tribe can only have a maximum of 8 out in the world at one time, per tribe, per map. Any attempts to claim, download or un cryopod Gachas while 8 are already present wil not work. This will limit the amount of passive element, resources and items being created.
Custom Boss Rewards
In relation to the Gacha change above, the double boss element rewards have been reset to their vanilla values. The Center is an exception to this, however; as we have increased the element yield for this boss arena only by 50% as we feel the element reward compared to the farming for boss materials didn't feel right.
S+ Nanny & S+ Item Collector
Both of these popular quality of life additions are back. S+ Nanny will be able to imprint your baby dinos to 50% and S+ Item Collector will pick up any dropped items including Gacha Crystals, Poop, Eggs & Paste. Limited to 100 slots per collector. This, however, has seen S+ Animal Tender depart.
No ORP in 6x Areas
Trailed on our most recent beginners cycle. This feature is a permanent edition to MTS. Any tribes who decide to build in 6x areas, most commonly caves. Will be unable to place any ORP inside. ORP can still be placed outside 6x damage areas for tribes wishing to cover outside land defenses however, your ORP can be destroyed so once the outside defenses have been dropped. The cave inside will be at the mercy of no offline protection. Please see above for further information regarding ORP.
No Collision Building
No collision building is still active, players can enjoy more freedom when placing structures and building their defenses. However, we will be turning on structure collision specifically for these structures only.
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Sleeping Bags → to prevent placement inside walls in enemy foundation range
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Wooden Cage → to prevent placement on top of players, causing them to get stuck
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Ocean Platforms → to prevent placement in unrealistic areas and rivers
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Dino Gateways → to prevent the dino gating PVP causing dinos to be trapped
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Billboards → to prevent the dino gating PVP causing dinos to be trapped
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Spikes → to prevent the dino gating PVP causing dinos to be trapped
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Fence Supports → to prevent spam causing hit detection issues
Redesigned Beginners Cluster
We have completely redesigned the way our beginners servers work. More information will be posted in the future in a dedicated post outlining all the changes. As a hint for what's to come, at the end of every Beginners Cycle, one map will be added to the main cluster permanently. This means every 2 weeks there will be a new map with new bases and new players joining main continuously. More to come..
Other Notable Mentions
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Stacks size for core resources only (Wood, Thatch, Stone, Flint, Hide, Fiber & Raw Metal) will all now stack to 300 instead of 500. All other stacks still stack to 500 and ammo to 250 as normal.
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Organic Polymer & Corrupted Nodule stack size reduced to 50, but can be stored inside Dedicated Storage which is a massive time saver.
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ORP structure resistance and turret damage has been lowered from 3x to 2x in relation to the tribe size increase.
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3x Damage locations have been removed.
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Aberration2 has been removed.
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Sleeping Bags, Wooden Cage, Wind Turbines, Fence Supports & Charge Lanterns have been readded after their exploit was fixed.
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Flak Durability cap has been increased from 1000 to 1250.
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Extinction Titans are now tameable but cannot be transferred off Extinction.
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Hover Skiff engram now requires completion of Beta Master controller to unlock instead of Gamma
We invite all our players to discuss everything Chapter 2 in our discord.gg/mtsark
