ARK: Survival Evolved - Catch All

It's fun - no mistake about it - but my play time is precious to me and I like my games a little less alpha and a little more done. And oy, the performance. I've turned everything down to minimum and it's playable but still would like it to be better. I'm sure it will improve.

Not keen on having my house, body, dinos, garden, etc all be fair game to anyone when I'm offline. I get why it adds to the game but also just not my thing. I also prefer the precision of snap-to-grid or similar, my need for matching details just doesn't work any other way.

danaere wrote:

It's fun - no mistake about it - but my play time is precious to me and I like my games a little less alpha and a little more done. And oy, the performance. I've turned everything down to minimum and it's playable but still would like it to be better. I'm sure it will improve.

Not keen on having my house, body, dinos, garden, etc all be fair game to anyone when I'm offline. I get why it adds to the game but also just not my thing. I also prefer the precision of snap-to-grid or similar, my need for matching details just doesn't work any other way.

You can play solo

Just tamed a rex at level 19. Took 3 days. Don't be like me, use prime meat.

And it's albino

Totally agree on it being very alphaie. It's in a very playable state, but the performance is not consistent at all. I took a venture into the center of the island today, after being accustomed to my fairly sparse island, and my PC just chugged. Ugh.

Have you checked out Wurm Online, danaere? Heavily involved crafting MMO with terraforming. Everythings set up in a nice grid. It's one heck of a grind though.

I have been having a lot more fun with this now that I can get 10-15fps rather 2-3. Of course I have everything turned down and the "-nomansky -sm4" options for the low memory setting, but I am just happy that I can play at all.

I used to play ActionQuake2 at 320x240 software mode and for the most part I have always been behind the power curve to 1 degree or another since then so I don't feel that 60fps is necessary to have fun. I certainly understand people complaining that they should be getting better performance with high end rigs but it is early access and the devs have proven that they are dedicated, so the people saying it is a garbage game because they can't get 60+ are just not being fair IMO.

I must say the scales are tipping more and more towards me buying this game. If it comes up in the Steam sale there is no way I won't.

Okay, so I'm having a helluva time finding a server to play on. Who wants to send me an invite? I promise to clean up after my charges.

I gave up trying to find a server that was not full most of the time and was playing solo/offline. i just found a server Tuesday that has been good to me so far. It was only full once when I had time to play.

Don't have the full name but it is a PvE server, number 337

It is a carebear server though, so only minor griefing. If you want the hardcore experience then you will need to look elsewhere

I have a small structure up a hill from the south beach with a bed so I can finally spawn in the same spot, and just added a raptor to my 2 dilos. I can't wait until I can ride her (as a mount, not in the way you might be thinking with your filthy, filthy minds!)

Yeah, just hammering away on the refresh/join on my favorites list to get into official 19. Every time. Lame.

Ummmm. I really shouldn't, but I'm tempted to pony up for a 30 slot server. Just tell my wife I'm spending that money on drugs.

Druidpeak wrote:

Ummmm. I really shouldn't, but I'm tempted to pony up for a 30 slot server. Just tell my wife I'm spending that money on drugs.

I've got a couple questions for you Arkers if I could.

From what I've seen in the streams this develops into a pet collecting, base building game which isn't a bad thing. It looks like a lot of fun. Is there another aspect I'm missing or that you see in their roadmap?

For those on public servers, how is the griefing? I can imagine higher lvl tribes on a continual fresh spawn hunt.

Fripper wrote:

For those on public servers, how is the griefing? I can imagine higher lvl tribes on a continual fresh spawn hunt.

Public PvP servers are pretty much a nightmare, you can expect to get punched to death repeatedly upon your initial spawn-in by people before even making it off the beach. Digital Normandy at its finest.

Structures and fortifications that take days to create can easily be destroyed in minutes, all while you're offline and helpless. PvP in this game does have incredible potential, but IMO that potential can only be realized with a closed server where there are designated battle events and people abide by a peace agreement in the non-battle times.

Even on the closed server I've been playing on we've had issues with people stealing and killing tamed dinos. It definitely leaves me wishing I could run my own server, but $35 a month for a server that maybe a dozen people would end up playing on is hard to justify.

Elycion wrote:
Fripper wrote:

For those on public servers, how is the griefing? I can imagine higher lvl tribes on a continual fresh spawn hunt.

Public PvP servers are pretty much a nightmare, you can expect to get punched to death repeatedly upon your initial spawn-in by people before even making it off the beach. Digital Normandy at its finest.

Structures and fortifications that take days to create can easily be destroyed in minutes, all while you're offline and helpless. PvP in this game does have incredible potential, but IMO that potential can only be realized with a closed server where there are designated battle events and people abide by a peace agreement in the non-battle times.

Even on the closed server I've been playing on we've had issues with people stealing and killing tamed dinos. It definitely leaves me wishing I could run my own server, but $35 a month for a server that maybe a dozen people would end up playing on is hard to justify.

I figured as much, thanks for letting me know.
It looks like it's a great game when you've got the right type of players. If I had the time and a smaller pile, I'd go in with you on the $35/month.

It finally happened. My little abode lasted 3 days without being raided. Lost my Trike, Raptor, saddles, 2 storage closets, bed, and a few walls yesterday. Oh well, still enjoying the heck out of this thing.

I'm off to Montana to visit family for the next week, so I wasn't counting on my digs lasting that long anyways. I'll keep entertaining the thought of picking up a server, and am game for going in on one with folks. If anyone finds themselves on official 19, and needs a roof, my place is on the SW island by green obelisk.

Looks like the Jurassic Ark update is about to go live. clicky/linky

I would move my character to a GWJ server. Right now I'm on Panda.

I would pitch in for that too.

SpaceDog wrote:

I must say the scales are tipping more and more towards me buying this game. If it comes up in the Steam sale there is no way I won't.

It's on sale.

Shoal07 wrote:
SpaceDog wrote:

I must say the scales are tipping more and more towards me buying this game. If it comes up in the Steam sale there is no way I won't.

It's on sale.

I'll wait till a daily deal or the last day of the sale.

SpaceDog wrote:
Shoal07 wrote:
SpaceDog wrote:

I must say the scales are tipping more and more towards me buying this game. If it comes up in the Steam sale there is no way I won't.

It's on sale.

I'll wait till a daily deal or the last day of the sale.

Yeah, I should not have clicked on that "Let's Play" that I came across on Youtube. It's like a first-person Don't Starve. I will own this by the end of the Steam sale.

I would love to get in on a private server.

I've put about an hour in to this and I'm having fun. I started out near a Spinosaur, which was--hopefully coincidentally--following me for a while, so I was kept hopping between it and doding the spitters, until I got past a Brontosaurus that seemed to convince it to change course. So far I've only died once, a spitter got the drop on me while I was trying to figure out camping fires. Luckily I got back to my little campsite and my belongings right as night fell and recovered everything. Since then I've killed several spitters without much trouble, a few dodos, a pushover of a mole-hippo, and by the barest of margins one of those giant tortoises.

My only complaint right now is that the leveling seems very slow. I have built everything I've unlocked: full cloth clothing, an axe, pickaxe, and several spears, as well as a water bag. However I'm still nowhere near leveling up again and unlocking more things to construct.

Started playing this this weekend. Really last night (about 1 hour of play before last night). Petrie and I got most of the basics down. Built a small hut (built it once got DC'd lost about 1 hour progress on server rest then had to build again). Once we got that with bed I had to leave but logged on this morning to see we had 2 small dino's guarding us. Guess Petri did some work. Having allot of fun with it so far.

Things I noticed so far

Good
* Content wise for early access pretty good. Lots of stuff to build and do at least early on
* Crafting system is pretty easy to get a handle on
* Lots of different Dino's right from beginning
* Lots of content for early access in first week or two

Neutral
* Map is not small but not too huge about 30 min walk inland got us near mid of the island

Bad
* Optimization is really bad. Be prepared to turn settings down quite a bit
* Normal Alpha/Beta issues. Dino's skipping a bit. Some bodies rag-dolling super far, some bodies flying away etc.
* At least as far as I've seen taming a dino is a time commitment.

Taming a dino is indeed a pretty big time commitment. I managed to tame a "Trike" last night and it took about an hour and a half, at least two in game days. I have heard taming thinks like a brontosaurus takes around 4 hours.

Arkon wrote:

Taming a dino is indeed a pretty big time commitment. I managed to tame a "Trike" last night and it took about an hour and a half, at least two in game days. I have heard taming thinks like a brontosaurus takes around 4 hours.

Isn't it reasonably hands off though? If you give him a bunch of Narco Berries to keep him sleepy and a bunch of berries to eat, he'll slowly eat them himself as he stays dozing? How often do you have to stop by to "top him off" so to speak? Of course you have to keep them protected too, but can't you just stick in the area and mine and harvest while you tame?

It was fairly hands off, outside of the fact that I kept on running out of narcoberries. I had to keep running laps to find more plants to harvest to then get back in time to force feed him 10-12 narcoberries every 7-10 minutes or so. The other berries, yeah it wasn't too bad I just dumped about 400 regular berries on him.

Protecting is the other issue for sure. I lost my first attempted taming of a Parasaur when a spinosaurus came out of nowhere, destroyed my camp, ate the unconscious parasaur and then chased me down. This is easier with a dino that will chase you as you can lead it to safety before knocking it out.

I actually logged out before the scorpion finished taming. Just loaded him up with gross meat and punched him to max sleepiness and believed. It was actually really fast to tame the little dinos. Also I've learned how to make drugs, though collecting the berries seems to take a really long time!

We've moved on from our beachfront hut and built on a slightly larger scale a bit inland.
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/ppwoOJ9.jpg)
I'm still having an absolute ton of fun with this game. On the negative side, the rubber banding has gotten really bad in the last week or so and if they don't manage to fix that the game will rapidly become unplayable.

Petriefied wrote:

I actually logged out before the scorpion finished taming. Just loaded him up with gross meat and punched him to max sleepiness and believed. It was actually really fast to tame the little dinos. Also I've learned how to make drugs, though collecting the berries seems to take a really long time!

I did not even leave the hut. After I logged on I just noticed the 2 names and had to run to work. I did notice you just logged off steam like 8 hours ago late night? lol

Elycion wrote:

We've moved on from our beachfront hut and built on a slightly larger scale a bit inland.
IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/ppwoOJ9.jpg)
I'm still having an absolute ton of fun with this game. On the negative side, the rubber banding has gotten really bad in the last week or so and if they don't manage to fix that the game will rapidly become unplayable.

That's pretty gaudy and tasteless compared to my "campfire next to a large rock" base. A timeless classic.

Edit:

See how beautiful my base is! I'm sure your knees are weak with jealousy.

IMAGE(http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/6183787959313137947/E3A7251676E4DD8BB16193D08EA72B5F9521173E/)

After talking with my wife tonight we're ready to abandon our progress thus far and rent our own server to begin anew. The one we've been playing on has been decent, but has some quirks that I'd just as soon get away from.

This means that there should shortly be a GWJ-friendly password protected 40 player server available.

My preferred server provider currently has a backlog on setting Ark servers up due to the massive demand, but I'm hopeful that we're only looking at a few days here. I'll post more info as soon as they provide me the details.