Figured I should start a general thread on ARK..
The controls do take a lot of get used to that is for sure.. Also expect to starve or die from dino attack when you first start... Collecting food is really important.
If you have a sleeping bag or bed you have a clear re-spawn point otherwise you can chose a random spawn in a specific area... So remember which area you where in.
So far spear fishing in shallow water seems to be the safest source of meat for a low level character.
However there are nasty piranha fish that will get you sometimes as well.
Well I have established a thatch hut, now if only I could get enough hid to make a bed / sleeping bag I could spawn there.
I died a lot tonight. The elements and everything that moves almost wants to kill you.
Had to dial the detail settings back to about medium to get 30-40fps in the game.
One thing that strikes me about this game is how alive it is when you go exploring... There are massive, dinos, medium ones all over, fish in the water and even insects in the bush and most of them will try to kill you.
Apparently unlike minecraft and other games, the server simulation continues to run in the background... So there is a chance your thatch hut can be destroyed while you are offline if a large dino decides to walk through it.
This sounds a lot more volatile than RUST holy cow
Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk
Structures also have basic load physics. If you destroy a wall or floor in a building, everything above it will also collapse.
So running and hiding in a low level shed may just result in a Dino breaking though the door, eating you and the roof collapsing.
It seems kind of epic actually.
Is there a decay mechanic too? Do wooden structures break over time?
I don't know about over time, but dinos can and will destroy your @%&#.
Structure decay should be disabled currently on my server. Thatch, wood, stone and steel normally have different decay rates . I am contemplating just making it high but the Dino's do a good job of messing things up so the whole survival cost still exists. Also it sounded like you wanted to do building PvE so it seems fair.
I have also made the night cycle half since getting stuck in the dark can be terrifying at low levels. You hunger still grows, you can die from being cold, you can't see if you don't have a torch aaaand the Dino's still hunt you.
I should note that food still decays. If you fill your crates don't expect it to be there when you log back in.
I believe cloth clothing also might decay
Reached level 15 last night, progress feels good, start as a castaway nearly naked, advanced to primitive villager.. Now I have a mostly wood house and two pet dinos, starting to feel like a pioneer.
Also so far it seems there are no larger predators in the general area I have setup base so it is relatively safe compared to were I originally spawned.
It is lonely here on the server, so I decided to make a few friends
Dug, DeeDee and Bolt? :o
Haha
Quote from: Tom on May 05, 2016, 09:59:02 AM
Dug, DeeDee and Bolt? :o
Dug and DeeDee are Dilophosaur's hence the D names, also one is male and one is female... There are breading mechanics in the game.
Bolt just happens to be very fast. Need to get a saddle crafted for him so I can go exploring further.
FYI Ark has a lot of wild life variety.
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Creatures
The oceans are terrifying and you can craft underwater gear as well as tame water dinosaurs at the higher levels.
There are also several boss type challenge objectives.
Well with three of us playing on our own server now the game is still looking strong. Some things I have noticed.
- Built in voice chat works well. It is clear and easy to use. ( I have enabled global chat, not just proximity)
- Tribe members that area near each other when earning XP share XP even for crafting.
- once you have a slightly more difficult to capture dino you start to get huge resources... IE I tamed a Trik last night, now when stomping through the forest it can harvest mad amounts of berries.
- The variety of dinos spawning in an area changes / cycles, they arn't fixed spaws within the biom.. We have seen a number of small and large as well as deadly dinos spawn NEAR our settlement.
- Still fun to play solo, semi social (trading), or together (building, collecting for a common goal)
Haven't run into the new disease mechanic yet, hoping it isn't too brutal.
So we've been playing a bit now and I'd thought I would give my impressions of the game so far.
First off, at the very simplistic level, when looking at this game, and my first impression that holds somewhat true right now, is that is it Minecraft meets Pokemon. There are elements of both in this game that really show up, and I find myself thinking that most of this game is building up your skills/crafting/infrastructure to get better dinos. The game is very pretty to look at, the graphics are some of the best in the survival/crafting games out there. There is a real impact when you first run up against a very large dino, you are very humbled on just how large they seem to be.
What I am struggling with is how brutal this game can be in terms of survivability and your dino's life expectancy. I find every time I try to explore with what I think is a fairly capable group of Dinos at my back I seem to end up loosing my dinos and sometimes my own life just only a few 100 yards from our settlement. I know Lazy and Mags are better at it than me and are higher levels than I but I find that most of my time in game has been upgrading and robusting our settlement for fear of loosing more dinos or my hard found stuff trying to explore.
In contrast to my first time with Minecraft my progress in this game feels slow and a bit frustrating, but you also get a sense of how vulnerable you would really be in a survival game. I'm still having fun but I might also try Mr. A's Rust server to compare.
RUST moves a little faster I think, there's less to worry about without PVP though (other than PVE, which is just as deadly as ARK)
I'll get it up and running again after I finish installing my SSD
I want to start ARK as well I just need to find a good day where I can sit down and get familiar with it
Well good news, our ARK server is only PVE.
Initially I found ARK super brutal and unfair when alone and without gear. Death without bed spawn points really sucked.
Other than a few time sinks that I have been reducing via server settings (no building decay!, shorter night and faster taming) I think it is brutal but fair.
If your Dino is a herbivore nearly any medium carnivore will take it out with ease. Like wise raptors do decent damage but are not tough, it makes them easy to tame but not able to stand up to big Dino's.
Avoiding some threats requires observation and some knowledge of how dangerous things are. There is a spyglass you can craft around level 20 that lets you ID a Dino from a distance.
Still finding the game a challenge but at the same time feel like it lets me still progress.
Your pet stats matter, after taming some Dino's will have really low health or small hunger bars. This might be why we ended up with some paper raptors.
I have published the server settings as they change, if anyone wants changes let me know. Somethings are double edged however. If I reduce Dino hunger we need to feed carnivores less but taming will slow down as well.
It took a few arrows but with some team work we got this one to sleep
Wow! :o
I was going to try and get a pic with Mags in it for scale but fog rolled in and I needed to go to bed.
I am assuming the tame was complete as it was 3/4 do when I logged off and Mags was still working on it.
Left you something in your smithy Lazy
Somebuddy crash landed!
Map changes coming soon
http://steamcommunity.com/games/346110/announcements/detail/820030895000377977
Dossier: Purlovia
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=682223754
Not sure how I feel about these things launching out of the ground and attacking me.. Probably not too bad if on a mount.
Other than the Dino, nothing really affecting our current location.
Quote from: Melbosa on May 16, 2016, 04:31:44 PM
Other than the Dino, nothing really affecting our current location.
Correct, but as we get into flying mounts most of the island will become accessible.
I'm just glad that I can be more productive now that I have some actual direction. Not going after dangerous mounts like you guys yet, but at least I can do some stuff!
Quote from: Melbosa on May 16, 2016, 05:17:27 PM
I'm just glad that I can be more productive now that I have some actual direction. Not going after dangerous mounts like you guys yet, but at least I can do some stuff!
While Mags goes after dangerous stuff solo, we teamed up to take down that bronto and also the bear I am using. Many narco arrows makes fast work.
As for the bear fail, I think I stated the wrong things to begin with, needed passive not neutral set on our pets. Should have also clarified to run like hell once you argo the bear if it charges you.
Also most of what I know about the game I have been learning from Lets Play videos and google as well as chatting with Mags.
ARK is currently 33% off on the steam store right now.
I think we should pull the server and every time someone dies you should autopost who and how here on the forums... I'd get a kick out of that!
Quote from: Melbosa on May 18, 2016, 09:01:10 AM
I think we should pull the server and every time someone dies you should autopost who and how here on the forums... I'd get a kick out of that!
This might require more research.
Hey guys, just a reminder, check those food bins before logging off. Logged in tonight and there was no meat and the carnivores reserves were dropping pretty fast.
Probably doesn't help that we have more carno's now. I wasn't on at all last night .
I wonder if there is a difference between consumption on trib owned animals and individual owned if the owner is offline.
While I knew Ark was still under development I didn't know SO MUCH was actually in the planned road-map
http://ark.gamepedia.com/Upcoming_Features
Spoilage
Just a quick reminder that spoilage works in real time on the server even when we are logged out.
Here is a handy table of the times http://ark.gamepedia.com/Spoilage
Stacks spoil one item at a time at the same time for each stack.
Carno dino's will eat cooked meat, and if they are already tamed it doesn't matter if they don't like it as much.
Raw Meat:
Player - 10m
Feeding Trough - 40m
Cooked Meat:
Player - 20m
Feeding Trough - 1h 20m
Meat stacks only 20 items deep, so regardless of the number of stacks you put in the max time is x20.
Using base times.
Raw meat in Feeding Trough: 40m x 20 = 800min or about 13hrs
Cooked Meat Feeding Trough: 80m X 20 = 1600min or about 26 hrs
I have changed the global spoilage setting on our server to 3x now.
That should mean that you find some meat lasting between real time days now.
There will be less spoiled meat for nacro but as you can see there should still be plenty.
I am going to recommend we start cooking meat before putting it out in the Feeding Trough.
Edit: Cooked meat can also be stacked in to stacks of 30 which will also extend its decay time.
http://www.inquisitr.com/3141507/ark-survival-evolved-biome-update-delayed-e3-reveal-and-the-center-updates-planned/
Looks like the big 242 biome patch is delayed but a small patch is expected today that will put up marker walls to outline the areas that will change
Interesting note on the redwood Forrest is that the trees will be too big to harvest. Sounds interesting.
Mags and I were taking about falling off flying mounts last night and sure enough I did and died.
Hind sight being 20/20 the game does have parachutes and we have some stored from drops already.
I think I am equipping one the next time I go flying.
I want to do a beginners guide type series of videos on ARK starting later in June
Would anybody be interested in helping me with this project? I'd finally log into the server and basically just need a guide to kind of show me the ropes and show off the cool stuff you guys have already created.
Quote from: Mr. Analog on May 30, 2016, 11:19:02 AM
I want to do a beginners guide type series of videos on ARK starting later in June
Would anybody be interested in helping me with this project? I'd finally log into the server and basically just need a guide to kind of show me the ropes and show off the cool stuff you guys have already created.
Mags is on all the time and I know we have stock pilled some of the low level stuffs for you so you can get into the swing of things pretty quick. But yeah I think we can all help you out!
Quote from: Melbosa on May 30, 2016, 11:24:49 AM
Quote from: Mr. Analog on May 30, 2016, 11:19:02 AM
I want to do a beginners guide type series of videos on ARK starting later in June
Would anybody be interested in helping me with this project? I'd finally log into the server and basically just need a guide to kind of show me the ropes and show off the cool stuff you guys have already created.
Mags is on all the time and I know we have stock pilled some of the low level stuffs for you so you can get into the swing of things pretty quick. But yeah I think we can all help you out!
K, well I ask because whoever helps out will appear in videos on YouTube / livestreams
Quote from: Mr. Analog on May 30, 2016, 11:19:02 AM
I want to do a beginners guide type series of videos on ARK starting later in June
Would anybody be interested in helping me with this project? I'd finally log into the server and basically just need a guide to kind of show me the ropes and show off the cool stuff you guys have already created.
There to help buddy
Thanks my dude
Is in-game voice decent or should we be using TeamSpeak?
In game Voice Chat seems to work just fine.
In game voice works very well and is set to global so there is a chance of random players going online and chatting randomly but there aren't many of us so that should not be a big deal
As always quality will depend a bit on the microphone of individual players.
FYI if anyone wants their survivor renamed, apparently I can do this with the admin commands.
Our main base and dino pen are located in the bottom left of the island map. If you want to have the start from scratch look without seeing all of our stuff all the time starting one grid marker over to the right might work.
I would suggest logging in, let us put some gear on you then we could fly your around to scout it out. There is some randomness to dino spawing so sometimes something significantly hostile does spawn near our base but not often.
Random catastrophe makes videos much more fun :)
Thanks all!
https://steamcommunity.com/app/346110/discussions/0/594820656447032287/?
242 is now marked for June 1st release, IE tomorrow.
They have updated the release notes, there is will also have a release event apparently.. (Dodo rex or other special creatures might spawn.)
A nice post that details what happens when no one is on the server.
https://reddit.com/r/playark/comments/4lzf7m/what_happens_when_the_server_is_running_but/d3rdqym
In short the world is chunk loaded like minecraft however when chunks are activated I calculations are done on stats like decay and hunger to instantly catch them up.
So if no one is on, no fear of Dino stomping, however if one player passes though it can activated everything.
Quote from: Lazybones on June 01, 2016, 10:30:43 AM
A nice post that details what happens when no one is on the server.
https://reddit.com/r/playark/comments/4lzf7m/what_happens_when_the_server_is_running_but/d3rdqym
In short the world is chunk loaded like minecraft however when chunks are activated I calculations are done on stats like decay and hunger to instantly catch them up.
So if no one is on, no fear of Dino stomping, however if one player passes though it can activated everything.
Interesting, there is a similar mechanic in RUST however there are 2 entities that randomly go through the game world even if no one is playing (supply planes and attack helicopters). From what I understand as long as materials aren't directly attacked they will remain in that state when all players are offline. That said I'm guessing that most ARK / RUST pub servers have people on all the time (which is where the real damage comes from anyway)
Neat stuff!
Quote from: Mr. Analog on June 01, 2016, 12:17:18 PM
Interesting, there is a similar mechanic in RUST however there are 2 entities that randomly go through the game world even if no one is playing (supply planes and attack helicopters). From what I understand as long as materials aren't directly attacked they will remain in that state when all players are offline. That said I'm guessing that most ARK / RUST pub servers have people on all the time (which is where the real damage comes from anyway)
Neat stuff!
On our server we don't persistently have someone on, but we do frequently have at least one person on and we work out of one main base / camp so it is good to know.
I swear every time I am on a bronto attempts to stomp on our stuff. Hence the increasing spike wall around our main dino pen and why my house is now much taller.
Haha
ARK One Year Anniversary and Patch 242: Enter the Dragon!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCptFi1elDQ
New patch info
http://steamcommunity.com/app/346110/discussions/0/350532536098950862/
https://twitter.com/bubblywums/status/738125783986634752
the Biom change has been pushed out to a separate patch, boooo.
Just a heads up, I would stay out of the swamps if possible and be careful if you get the new swamp fever... Apparently persists through player death and it spreads to the dinos and the cure is very costly to make.
A few more patches went up last night, looks like swamp fever is less deadly and easier to cure now.
On the other hand a carno spawned near the base and killed me while I was walking back to my house. The then proceeded to try and eat me though the walls so I made some upgrades.
Probably should finish that spike wall around our pen.
E3 update showed some quick clips of the redwood biome and tree houses. Looks like grappling hooks will be important there.
If you thought the bronto was big, check out this new dino
http://s33.postimg.org/55wat6sr3/screenshot_13.png
(http://s33.postimg.org/55wat6sr3/screenshot_13.png)
whoa
The Redwood Biomes Update and Spotlight: Titanosaur!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qv23Mqknw0Y
Official MODs
Primitive Plus Official Mod Launch - July 28 for both PC and Xbox! (expanded lower levels with no high level tech)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHdAebezB98
ARK: Primal Survival Official Trailer! (play as the creatures)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dha-P6U6lxY
For scale, the Titanosaur (not my images)
(http://i.imgur.com/CprAv89.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/Mpg0PRD.jpg)
Ark is currently less than $20 on the steam summer sale for those that don't already have it.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/346110/
This bronto spawned on / in our green house.. or should I say former green house.
Ouch!
Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk
ARK sure pulls down a lot of updates!
Quote from: Mr. Analog on July 04, 2016, 01:35:18 PM
ARK sure pulls down a lot of updates!
ARK is still early release and under HEAVY development. StarCitizen gets similar amounts of updates every month, at least in the early test groups.
Ark is adding events and significant content every month.
That's cool to see. A game dev that actually rolls out frequent updates! Very cool
Quote from: Mr. Analog on July 04, 2016, 02:36:18 PM
That's cool to see. A game dev that actually rolls out frequent updates! Very cool
When looking at Ark vs Rust this was one of the biggest things I noticed..
As per the thread below they announced two new official game modes that will be added as free DLC coming at the end of the month.
Current and future official patch notes / schedule
https://steamcommunity.com/app/346110/discussions/0/594820656447032287/
RUST is far more simplistic so I'm not surprised, that said they were pushing a lot of updates as well mostly physics / balance changes, as not many people were into it I uninstalled it to get back some drive space for Dank Souls III
Quote from: Mr. Analog on July 04, 2016, 02:57:54 PM
RUST is far more simplistic so I'm not surprised, that said they were pushing a lot of updates as well mostly physics / balance changes, as not many people were into it I uninstalled it to get back some drive space for Dank Souls III
Well ARK interest has also been so so.. Mags was playing hardcore and I was on frequently with Melbosa also playing on and off.. My bro just joined our server so I have been back on a little more but for the most part it has been rare for more than two people to be on the server at once.
Quote from: Lazybones on July 04, 2016, 03:05:39 PM
Quote from: Mr. Analog on July 04, 2016, 02:57:54 PM
RUST is far more simplistic so I'm not surprised, that said they were pushing a lot of updates as well mostly physics / balance changes, as not many people were into it I uninstalled it to get back some drive space for Dank Souls III
Well ARK interest has also been so so.. Mags was playing hardcore and I was on frequently with Melbosa also playing on and off.. My bro just joined our server so I have been back on a little more but for the most part it has been rare for more than two people to be on the server at once.
I still want to check it out, I'm actually still fiddling around with ShadowPlay and OBS (still not sure which one is better, OBS gives me more control over volume but ShadowPlay drops less frames when recording)
I want to complete my playthrough of Far Harbor and then get into it, maybe even at Fraga (lol)
Started work on a water pen last night, tamed a Ichthyosaurus (dolphin) and a low level Megalodon (shark) that happened to be hanging out in the area.
The pen is not yet complete, placing pillars underwater is very hard.. The pen is not designed to keep small fish or piranha out as most mounts can deal with those.. The pillars (when complete) should keep out mountable dinos.
Need to build some beach walls / spikes to keep the larger carnos from walking in and eating them as well.
A titan has wondered rather close to our base.
don't piss him off...
I hope he doesn't step on anything.
I have not set the optional tame option for them so don't try taming it, it would take several of us anyway.
Found some lost / glitched dinos... I have made some smaller pens within the now single large pen to help manage dinos.
It was getting too cramped for the super size ones and the small ones where all over the place.
Also for those that haven't been on the server in a while, remember that although the dino hunger timer feezes when no players are near it catches up as soon as they are... Since we have active players on the server that can mean dinos starve if someone flys over..
I have tried to keep remote dinos fed or consolidated them at the community pen. Remember to bring berries with you to the volcano as there are two up there at the moment.
There is now an industrial grill in the pen if you have many stacks of meat you want to cook.
1 gas is all that should be needed to cook all of the stacks.
Do not use it for small amounts of cooking (still use the camp fires), also 1 gas is consumed as soon as you start it, so don't put more than one in or stop / start it once it is going. There is some gas crafted in the nearby storage.
New ark update out...
Also ARK is 50% off on steam right now only $16.49
http://store.steampowered.com/app/346110/
Looks like active players has become almost Nil now.
I might shut down the server to maintain what is there unless I can find a way to stop the realtime clock when it is running.