So I've been playing Survival Plus on the official beta survey, and I love it. I've actually found I give approximately zero fucks about ARK's Ascension/Tek Tier/end game grind.
It's been a lot of fun to actually have to...well...survive again, as well as be part of a system where you can only learn one profession, and have to rely on others to craft gear, tools, buildings, etc. Keeping yourself properly fed can even be a challenge. Dinos are also more utility focused (the few you can actually tame) and not game-breaking murder machines. Well, unless you're caught on foot and have to deal with a T-Rex.
It makes the game a lot more exciting when your tribe is panicking over how to deal with a T-Rex dawdling around your base, when the answer isn't "let me grab something and chop it real quick". No turrets. No plant X. No guns. Just you, a bow, some arrows and you wits.
Even a single argent can wreck one's day completely.
Figure it out, survivor.
ironzerg on
0
KalnaurI See Rain . . .Centralia, WARegistered Userregular
So I've been playing Survival Plus on the official beta survey, and I love it. I've actually found I give approximately zero fucks about ARK's Ascension/Tek Tier/end game grind.
It's been a lot of fun to actually have to...well...survive again, as well as be part of a system where you can only learn one profession, and have to rely on others to craft gear, tools, buildings, etc. Keeping yourself properly fed can even be a challenge. Dinos are also more utility focused (the few you can actually tame) and not game-breaking murder machines. Well, unless you're caught on foot and have to deal with a T-Rex.
It makes the game a lot more exciting when your tribe is panicking over how to deal with a T-Rex dawdling around your base, when the answer isn't "let me grab something and chop it real quick". No turrets. No plant X. No guns. Just you, a bow, some arrows and you wits.
Even a single argent can wreck one's day completely.
Figure it out, survivor.
Do you mean Primitive Plus? Not that I'm interested, mind you. That sounds like exactly the opposite of what I'm looking for. I just want to be clear for other folks.
I make art things! deviantART:Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
So I've been playing Survival Plus on the official beta survey, and I love it. I've actually found I give approximately zero fucks about ARK's Ascension/Tek Tier/end game grind.
It's been a lot of fun to actually have to...well...survive again, as well as be part of a system where you can only learn one profession, and have to rely on others to craft gear, tools, buildings, etc. Keeping yourself properly fed can even be a challenge. Dinos are also more utility focused (the few you can actually tame) and not game-breaking murder machines. Well, unless you're caught on foot and have to deal with a T-Rex.
It makes the game a lot more exciting when your tribe is panicking over how to deal with a T-Rex dawdling around your base, when the answer isn't "let me grab something and chop it real quick". No turrets. No plant X. No guns. Just you, a bow, some arrows and you wits.
Even a single argent can wreck one's day completely.
Figure it out, survivor.
I remember doing something similar with an Alpha dino hanging around my base when they first came out.
The answer was apparently convince a tribe mate to take off all her gear and lead the alpha away with a trail of her corpses.
Before following any advice, opinions, or thoughts I may have expressed in the above post, be warned: I found Keven Costners "Waterworld" to be a very entertaining film.
One thing that bothers me about Ark is the way in which dinos are spawned.
That game world does not seem to have any sort of "low level zones" or "high level zones." Yes, some dinos only tend to spawn in certain locations, but there's nothing that governs the levels that spawn.
So being a newbie, you spawn in Island South or whatever the recommended location is. Then you get mauled by a level 150 velociraptor on the beach.
Why the hell are there level 150 dinos spawning on the recommended start location for new survivors?
Yes, the world is meant to be mean, unfriendly, and deadly. But there's a difference between giving someone a fighting chance and being downright cruel. And spawning level 150 dinos that a new player has no hope of surviving even one hit from is definitely in the realm of cruelty.
These are survival games. But survival is impossible when dinosaurs spawn at that high of level.
Heck, let's say a person survives 4 straight game-days, levels up a bunch of times, learns to make a spear and some armor. They still don't have a chance at survival when level 150 dinos spawn on those beaches.
Raptors don't actually spawn on the beach, they just spawn in areas near the beach. They also chase prey. Prey runs from them, often to the beach. So that's how raptors on beaches happen.
It used to be more possible when there were fewer dinos. At low levels by the shore, the worst thing you had to deal with consistently was Dilos. Now though with Compys and Troodons, and god help you if you are near a swamp...
Before following any advice, opinions, or thoughts I may have expressed in the above post, be warned: I found Keven Costners "Waterworld" to be a very entertaining film.
+1
KalnaurI See Rain . . .Centralia, WARegistered Userregular
So I've been playing Survival Plus on the official beta survey, and I love it. I've actually found I give approximately zero fucks about ARK's Ascension/Tek Tier/end game grind.
It's been a lot of fun to actually have to...well...survive again, as well as be part of a system where you can only learn one profession, and have to rely on others to craft gear, tools, buildings, etc. Keeping yourself properly fed can even be a challenge. Dinos are also more utility focused (the few you can actually tame) and not game-breaking murder machines. Well, unless you're caught on foot and have to deal with a T-Rex.
It makes the game a lot more exciting when your tribe is panicking over how to deal with a T-Rex dawdling around your base, when the answer isn't "let me grab something and chop it real quick". No turrets. No plant X. No guns. Just you, a bow, some arrows and you wits.
Even a single argent can wreck one's day completely.
Figure it out, survivor.
I remember doing something similar with an Alpha dino hanging around my base when they first came out.
The answer was apparently convince a tribe mate to take off all her gear and lead the alpha away with a trail of her corpses.
I remember that. I still thank Salla for leading the alpha raptor away from my herd.
Though on the lower south Island we were on, the far beach did very commonly have raptors. Regardless of if they spawned there, or if they were there by default, there could easily be 1-3 raptors on the east side of our island down there.
I make art things! deviantART:Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
So I've been playing Survival Plus on the official beta survey, and I love it. I've actually found I give approximately zero fucks about ARK's Ascension/Tek Tier/end game grind.
It's been a lot of fun to actually have to...well...survive again, as well as be part of a system where you can only learn one profession, and have to rely on others to craft gear, tools, buildings, etc. Keeping yourself properly fed can even be a challenge. Dinos are also more utility focused (the few you can actually tame) and not game-breaking murder machines. Well, unless you're caught on foot and have to deal with a T-Rex.
It makes the game a lot more exciting when your tribe is panicking over how to deal with a T-Rex dawdling around your base, when the answer isn't "let me grab something and chop it real quick". No turrets. No plant X. No guns. Just you, a bow, some arrows and you wits.
Even a single argent can wreck one's day completely.
Figure it out, survivor.
Actually I could totally see getting into that. Although I'd want to be able to have access to a bigger creature occasionally.
Maybe if someone modded in a way to temporarily tame stuff like when we summon the dodorex or tame a titan.
There's no plan, there's no race to be run
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
So I've been playing Survival Plus on the official beta survey, and I love it. I've actually found I give approximately zero fucks about ARK's Ascension/Tek Tier/end game grind.
It's been a lot of fun to actually have to...well...survive again, as well as be part of a system where you can only learn one profession, and have to rely on others to craft gear, tools, buildings, etc. Keeping yourself properly fed can even be a challenge. Dinos are also more utility focused (the few you can actually tame) and not game-breaking murder machines. Well, unless you're caught on foot and have to deal with a T-Rex.
It makes the game a lot more exciting when your tribe is panicking over how to deal with a T-Rex dawdling around your base, when the answer isn't "let me grab something and chop it real quick". No turrets. No plant X. No guns. Just you, a bow, some arrows and you wits.
Even a single argent can wreck one's day completely.
Figure it out, survivor.
Do you mean Primitive Plus? Not that I'm interested, mind you. That sounds like exactly the opposite of what I'm looking for. I just want to be clear for other folks.
Nope. There's a mod in progress now called "Survival Plus". It's a lower tech game, but focus way more on the survival and community aspects.
So I've been playing Survival Plus on the official beta survey, and I love it. I've actually found I give approximately zero fucks about ARK's Ascension/Tek Tier/end game grind.
It's been a lot of fun to actually have to...well...survive again, as well as be part of a system where you can only learn one profession, and have to rely on others to craft gear, tools, buildings, etc. Keeping yourself properly fed can even be a challenge. Dinos are also more utility focused (the few you can actually tame) and not game-breaking murder machines. Well, unless you're caught on foot and have to deal with a T-Rex.
It makes the game a lot more exciting when your tribe is panicking over how to deal with a T-Rex dawdling around your base, when the answer isn't "let me grab something and chop it real quick". No turrets. No plant X. No guns. Just you, a bow, some arrows and you wits.
Even a single argent can wreck one's day completely.
Figure it out, survivor.
Do you mean Primitive Plus? Not that I'm interested, mind you. That sounds like exactly the opposite of what I'm looking for. I just want to be clear for other folks.
Nope. There's a mod in progress now called "Survival Plus". It's a lower tech game, but focus way more on the survival and community aspects.
I've tried it out on an unofficial server. I think it's a good idea, but the way it's implemented makes crafting just too tedious for me. I think the community aspect is a good take. I think it should even be named "Community Plus" or some such. That's much more descriptive than "Survival Plus." When I think of a survivor, I think of someone who is competent at being very self sufficient in a bare bones situation. Not like, someone who is good at filling a niche in the local village.
When I think of a survivor, I think of someone who is competent at being very self sufficient in a bare bones situation.
You can absolutely be self-sufficient enough to survive in a bare bones situation. I mean, that's exactly how the game is built. As an individual, you'll be perfectly capable of surviving. But if you want to do more, you need to make friends, form a tribe and work together.
ARK is a different game when you have to really rely on people. It's almost...fun again. :biggrin:
0
KalnaurI See Rain . . .Centralia, WARegistered Userregular
When I think of a survivor, I think of someone who is competent at being very self sufficient in a bare bones situation.
You can absolutely be self-sufficient enough to survive in a bare bones situation. I mean, that's exactly how the game is built. As an individual, you'll be perfectly capable of surviving. But if you want to do more, you need to make friends, form a tribe and work together.
ARK is a different game when you have to really rely on people. It's almost...fun again. :biggrin:
I have a lot of trouble, personally, with relying on anyone else to make a game experience fun. Which I suppose is also the reason I play MMOGs solo as much as possible. Beyond the specific PA forumer interactions, playing games with "people online" has nearly always ended in disappointment for me, at best.
I make art things! deviantART:Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
I loaded it up today on a lark, but I had a catastrophic hard drive failure a couple weeks ago and I've lost all my dinos and character. Kind of puts a damper on the whole thing.
I would probably get about a day or twos play out of it and then stop because of the grind. Even with super high settings I feel like single-player this is a bit... too grindy.
I will say, if it's not too onerous to unlock the cloner, then that might make the solution to killing bosses a bit less annoying. Breed up one really good dino, then clone a bunch of them to kill a boss.
But you'll probably need to kill the tek boss to get it.
There's no plan, there's no race to be run
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
So Sallah and I are playing this on an RP server which has a lot of mods, one of which is the Ragnarok map. We don't RP much because we're building our base in the Scotland biome, a lovely rocky grassland with few trees no carnivores and herds of wild sheep and horses, which is pretty much on the opposite side of the HUGE map from where you spawn in. So all the other players are far, far away from us.
(large) Image someone else took of Scotland, our build is under the middle rock spire you can see in the distance. The tower you see is a map feature, not a player build.
Anyway, as is super appropriate for a 'Scotland', last night a level 90 male Unicorn spawned. We named him Emblem.
A little bit later, after I went to bed, apparently a female spawned as well, and Sallah tamed it.
So now we've got fucking unicorns.
Before following any advice, opinions, or thoughts I may have expressed in the above post, be warned: I found Keven Costners "Waterworld" to be a very entertaining film.
There has been some optimization in one of the more recent patches. It's been a couple of months since I played but this weekend I was messing around in single player and couldn't believe how much better the game ran for me.
Related: I hate the new UI.
hey @ironzerg, is the server cluster you were talking about several months ago still going? I've been talking with my brothers about playing again now that we're pretty close to the game going gold, and we can't be arsed with official, obviously.
Edit: Or anyone, really? Looking for something at least with similar settings to what we had going here for a while!
So i like the new interface, but does it disable the old inventory commands? Like hovering and pressing t for transfer and such? I am really sad if those are gone -- I see key indicators on the interface but it only really works if I click on the buttons.
The hotkeys still work, in addition to new hotkeys. Also, at some point they snuck in being able to hold 'E' on raw meat in a carnivore's inventory to force feed/heal it. Used to have to hammer your left button on remote use item.
The hotkeys still work, in addition to new hotkeys. Also, at some point they snuck in being able to hold 'E' on raw meat in a carnivore's inventory to force feed/heal it. Used to have to hammer your left button on remote use item.
Well damn. They just totally don't work for me -- that's kind of annoying. I've tried all of the old "t, alt+t, ctrl+t" stuff, and it just does jack all now. I guess I can try reinstalling.
I will probably try to get the journal and map on ebay or something. I am not spending $160 to buy the game for systems I don't own, just for those.
I have a PS4, but after spending 2k+ hours in the game, I'll be damned if I'm going to try starting up on some new system and service and blow 160 bucks just so I can have some shinies.
Even though those are pretty bitchin'.
I make art things! deviantART:Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
I will probably try to get the journal and map on ebay or something. I am not spending $160 to buy the game for systems I don't own, just for those.
I have a PS4, but after spending 2k+ hours in the game, I'll be damned if I'm going to try starting up on some new system and service and blow 160 bucks just so I can have some shinies.
Even though those are pretty bitchin'.
It sounds like if they sell out (they probably will) they intend to make a pack with just the physical stuff you can buy separately.
There's no plan, there's no race to be run
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
I'm playing on that map now. It's gorgeous, has lots of neat areas to explore, is surprisingly bug free , and is designed so that there are massive amounts of places to build really nice bases without making those places stand out as unnatural.
And while not all the caves are done, they are done really well. Like in the video where the Ice Worm pops up (and it's an ice worm, not a deathworm, a creature custom made for the map) that's the Ice cave. At the end of the cave is a huge cavern with the frozen carcasses of mammoths and dinosaurs where the Alpha Ice Worm lives, the end boss of the cave. If you defeat her, you can find her nest, which is filled with giant (non-lootable) ice worm eggs, where you can see the baby ice worms growing inside the clear shells, and a chest filled with high end loot. Then you keep going, find a river, jump in, and get washed out of the cave completely, out the side of a cliff, so you don't even have to walk all the way out again.
I highly suggest that you give it a look.
Before following any advice, opinions, or thoughts I may have expressed in the above post, be warned: I found Keven Costners "Waterworld" to be a very entertaining film.
The trailer looks neat. I think it's funny that they're using flying so much in the trailer when they have a hard on for knee capping that playstyle.
Anyway, new map is fine for single player. I'd like to see them address the issues with the official servers like cross realm raiding, pillar griefing, and the like.
I took a look at the Ragnarok map this morning since I was up early.
It's a huge step up from their previous map, Valhalla. Valhalla had some really neat features, but between them was miles and miles of boring forest. Ragnarok improves on that by making the terrain in each 'area' fairly distinct. They clearly either got some help or upped their game immensely.
It's somewhere between the Island and the Center in terms of 'fancifulness'. No floating islands, but a lot of cool shit. It was also clearly designed with cool bases in mind, as many of the more interesting spots on the map have water veins so you don't have to run pipes down the side of a damn mountain.
It's got a few interesting ruins, including the big castle. An active volcano and hot springs, even a Wyvern trench. (right next to the area with all the sheep, which is amusing). Basically, they are trying to make a map with a bit of everything in it. Plus griffons.
There's a desert section still under construction.
There's no plan, there's no race to be run
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Did they ever make it so the full achievement/trophy list can be completed on the other maps? Currently the only way to "Plat" the game is to play on the Island, which is the worst map.
Posts
Yeah, something about a Tek Cave.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
It's been a lot of fun to actually have to...well...survive again, as well as be part of a system where you can only learn one profession, and have to rely on others to craft gear, tools, buildings, etc. Keeping yourself properly fed can even be a challenge. Dinos are also more utility focused (the few you can actually tame) and not game-breaking murder machines. Well, unless you're caught on foot and have to deal with a T-Rex.
It makes the game a lot more exciting when your tribe is panicking over how to deal with a T-Rex dawdling around your base, when the answer isn't "let me grab something and chop it real quick". No turrets. No plant X. No guns. Just you, a bow, some arrows and you wits.
Even a single argent can wreck one's day completely.
Figure it out, survivor.
Do you mean Primitive Plus? Not that I'm interested, mind you. That sounds like exactly the opposite of what I'm looking for. I just want to be clear for other folks.
I remember doing something similar with an Alpha dino hanging around my base when they first came out.
The answer was apparently convince a tribe mate to take off all her gear and lead the alpha away with a trail of her corpses.
That game world does not seem to have any sort of "low level zones" or "high level zones." Yes, some dinos only tend to spawn in certain locations, but there's nothing that governs the levels that spawn.
So being a newbie, you spawn in Island South or whatever the recommended location is. Then you get mauled by a level 150 velociraptor on the beach.
Why the hell are there level 150 dinos spawning on the recommended start location for new survivors?
Yes, the world is meant to be mean, unfriendly, and deadly. But there's a difference between giving someone a fighting chance and being downright cruel. And spawning level 150 dinos that a new player has no hope of surviving even one hit from is definitely in the realm of cruelty.
These are survival games. But survival is impossible when dinosaurs spawn at that high of level.
Heck, let's say a person survives 4 straight game-days, levels up a bunch of times, learns to make a spear and some armor. They still don't have a chance at survival when level 150 dinos spawn on those beaches.
It used to be more possible when there were fewer dinos. At low levels by the shore, the worst thing you had to deal with consistently was Dilos. Now though with Compys and Troodons, and god help you if you are near a swamp...
I remember that. I still thank Salla for leading the alpha raptor away from my herd.
Though on the lower south Island we were on, the far beach did very commonly have raptors. Regardless of if they spawned there, or if they were there by default, there could easily be 1-3 raptors on the east side of our island down there.
Actually I could totally see getting into that. Although I'd want to be able to have access to a bigger creature occasionally.
Maybe if someone modded in a way to temporarily tame stuff like when we summon the dodorex or tame a titan.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Nope. There's a mod in progress now called "Survival Plus". It's a lower tech game, but focus way more on the survival and community aspects.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=829467257
I've tried it out on an unofficial server. I think it's a good idea, but the way it's implemented makes crafting just too tedious for me. I think the community aspect is a good take. I think it should even be named "Community Plus" or some such. That's much more descriptive than "Survival Plus." When I think of a survivor, I think of someone who is competent at being very self sufficient in a bare bones situation. Not like, someone who is good at filling a niche in the local village.
You can absolutely be self-sufficient enough to survive in a bare bones situation. I mean, that's exactly how the game is built. As an individual, you'll be perfectly capable of surviving. But if you want to do more, you need to make friends, form a tribe and work together.
ARK is a different game when you have to really rely on people. It's almost...fun again. :biggrin:
I have a lot of trouble, personally, with relying on anyone else to make a game experience fun. Which I suppose is also the reason I play MMOGs solo as much as possible. Beyond the specific PA forumer interactions, playing games with "people online" has nearly always ended in disappointment for me, at best.
Not gonna lie, I am occasionally tempted to load up the game in single player. This is one of those times.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
I will say, if it's not too onerous to unlock the cloner, then that might make the solution to killing bosses a bit less annoying. Breed up one really good dino, then clone a bunch of them to kill a boss.
But you'll probably need to kill the tek boss to get it.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Finally we're getting some more optimization
I suspect I'll play again for a while come summer
I don't know why, but for some reason this is a summer game for me
Been that way the last two years
(large) Image someone else took of Scotland, our build is under the middle rock spire you can see in the distance. The tower you see is a map feature, not a player build.
Anyway, as is super appropriate for a 'Scotland', last night a level 90 male Unicorn spawned. We named him Emblem.
A little bit later, after I went to bed, apparently a female spawned as well, and Sallah tamed it.
So now we've got fucking unicorns.
Literally. *whistles loudly*
But literally every day when I open Steam, Ark patches.
Looks like optimization got pushed *sigh*
https://survivetheark.com/index.php?/forums/topic/166421-pc-patch-notes-current-v25756-upcoming-v258-eta-may-29/
Related: I hate the new UI.
Edit: Or anyone, really? Looking for something at least with similar settings to what we had going here for a while!
-edit-
I might check it out in single-player.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
Well damn. They just totally don't work for me -- that's kind of annoying. I've tried all of the old "t, alt+t, ctrl+t" stuff, and it just does jack all now. I guess I can try reinstalling.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
I have a PS4, but after spending 2k+ hours in the game, I'll be damned if I'm going to try starting up on some new system and service and blow 160 bucks just so I can have some shinies.
Even though those are pretty bitchin'.
It sounds like if they sell out (they probably will) they intend to make a pack with just the physical stuff you can buy separately.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.
I'm playing on that map now. It's gorgeous, has lots of neat areas to explore, is surprisingly bug free , and is designed so that there are massive amounts of places to build really nice bases without making those places stand out as unnatural.
And while not all the caves are done, they are done really well. Like in the video where the Ice Worm pops up (and it's an ice worm, not a deathworm, a creature custom made for the map) that's the Ice cave. At the end of the cave is a huge cavern with the frozen carcasses of mammoths and dinosaurs where the Alpha Ice Worm lives, the end boss of the cave. If you defeat her, you can find her nest, which is filled with giant (non-lootable) ice worm eggs, where you can see the baby ice worms growing inside the clear shells, and a chest filled with high end loot. Then you keep going, find a river, jump in, and get washed out of the cave completely, out the side of a cliff, so you don't even have to walk all the way out again.
I highly suggest that you give it a look.
Anyway, new map is fine for single player. I'd like to see them address the issues with the official servers like cross realm raiding, pillar griefing, and the like.
It's a huge step up from their previous map, Valhalla. Valhalla had some really neat features, but between them was miles and miles of boring forest. Ragnarok improves on that by making the terrain in each 'area' fairly distinct. They clearly either got some help or upped their game immensely.
It's somewhere between the Island and the Center in terms of 'fancifulness'. No floating islands, but a lot of cool shit. It was also clearly designed with cool bases in mind, as many of the more interesting spots on the map have water veins so you don't have to run pipes down the side of a damn mountain.
It's got a few interesting ruins, including the big castle. An active volcano and hot springs, even a Wyvern trench. (right next to the area with all the sheep, which is amusing). Basically, they are trying to make a map with a bit of everything in it. Plus griffons.
There's a desert section still under construction.
The harder the rain, honey, the sweeter the sun.