Ark: Survival Evolved

Jonathin

I broke. I bought it after watching a few youtube videos and it should be installed and good to go when I get home from work.

Trey

If I can find a private server I might hop on and play. How big is the world map compared to, say, DayZ standalone Chernarus?

Kresslack

The map is pretty big. It's one big island with a volcanoe, about five other mountain ranges, and two smaller islands (one with only carnivores, and another one with only herbivores. Commonly referred to as Carno and Herb Isle). It takes a few minutes to fly from one end to the other, even on a fast ptera typically. 

There's a private server I admin based out of Australia, but playing from the States I still get really good ping. Haven't had any issues. Server info should be on the first page. Everything is pretty much vanilla settings except taming, which is bumped up to 2.5x taming speed.

Jonathin

Damn. I feel like I'm going to have to buy a supercomputer to play this game.

ETA: on anything but the minimum settings w/ sound


The most difficult thing for me is recognizing when I'm being attacked. I'll be facing another way and all of the sudden, I'm getting hit but the screen barely bounces at all, so I'll be at like half health before I realize it.

Jonathin

How do I find the server? I typed the named into the search for unofficial servers and sat there for a solid 5 minutes waiting for some results to be returned.

Kresslack

Jonathin said:

How do I find the server? I typed the named into the search for unofficial servers and sat there for a solid 5 minutes waiting for some results to be returned.

Since there are so many unofficial servers, quickest way is to go to this site and use the 'connect' button. Also, just starting out, you'll want to spawn in one of the South locations, as the dino levels are typically lower there and there aren't so many carnivores. Still have to watch out for the occasional dilo, and if you're near a swamp, watch for sarcos and titanboas.

Trey

Who wants to trade me this on Steam for credits?

Kyrra

Trey said:

Who wants to trade me this on Steam for credits?

Kresslack

They've put in a lot of patches and content, and full release isn't even until June. There are rafts you can build on, saddle platforms for brontos you can build on, turrets you can physically man, there's the quetzel (think that badass bird from Avatar) which has a saddle platform which can be build upon, scuba gear, dino breeding, elevator platforms, and so much more coming. New biomes have been introduced, a lot of stuff. It's getting difficult to keep up with all the updates.

Full Disclosure: The game can be -extremely- frustrating when first starting out. By it's nature as a survival game, the odds are inherently stacked against you starting out. There are wild dinos roaming around (south side of the island is the safest to start in), you face hunger and dehydration regularly, and life is going to be pretty much miserable for your character (Survivor) until you get some basic engrams/blueprints learned. Keep at it though, because it gets incredibly fun once you get your footing. I recommend forming or joining up with a tribe if possible, as that will give a great advantage. 

Kresslack

This probably shows better than I can explain how much potential this game is already showing:

Jonathin

Mos...asaurus

Sold. Sold. Thrice sold.

Kresslack

Home sweet home. Still have a lot of improvements to make, such as stables, watchtower, flying pen, bridge, etc, but it's a start. Protection first!



I've even got a vessel to help reach other parts of the island! These rafts can also be built upon. I'll show an example when I start doing that.

Trey

You are the worst kind of person. I joined a server and literally EVERY TIME I SPAWNED I was stuck inside one beach base or another. I had to kill myself four times by eating my own shit over and over again while running myself into exhaustion before I spawned outside of a base, and then a raptor got me immediately on spawn.

This is after I joined -your- server, where I proceeded on my first life ever to swim out into the ocean, swim frantically away from a shark that beached itself, then proceeded to punch myself to death against said shark.

10/10 would play again.

Jonathin

Best story would read again 10/10

Kresslack

The Ark: Fear Evolved patch just went live. It's the Halloween theme. 

Drop capsules resemble candy corn:



Alphas, such as the Alpha Rex here, are skeletal and if you kill them you get a special trophy and skeletal skin to put on your own tamed rex:



There are also scarecrows and carvable pumpkins:

Jonathin

Yeah so, I just spawned inside of a tree. This is not panning out well for me.

Kresslack

That's a new one. You playing on the AU Dropbears server or another one?

Kresslack

A new, private server is being set up using The Center (which is now officially a DLC map and much larger than the original) as well as the Primitive Plus total conversion mod. This mod basically takes the tech tiers out but offers a lot of other interesting things for a more...well...Primitive survival experience. It also more or less introduces specialisations, from Farmer to Hunter to Builder to Warrior, etc. The idea is to essentially co-exist and survive or go solo and be a well-rounded survivor.

Information and pictures on The Center map can be found here.

Information on Primitive Plus, which is in the process of becoming official game DLC can be found here.

If anyone is interested in joining, let me know as I'll be setting up and testing this out tonight. Ark: Survival Evolved is currently $30 USD on Steam.

Elsam

Havent played much due to having noone to play with, but if anyone is still playing I'd love to hop in.

Kresslack

So due to an issue with the Primitive Plus total conversion mod (which is really awesome), we're going back to Vanilla with boosted settings such as tame speed, xp gain, and harvest multipliers. Also going back to The Island to check out the new changes there such as the addition of the Redwood Forest biome and the Titanosaur.

I'll drop the server details in this thread later tonight after I get home and test the new settings to ensure everything's kosher.

Kresslack

Ready to go:

http://arkservers.net/server/158.69.52.94:27465

Elsam

Tried joining up, it wanted a password.

Kresslack

I'll message those interested the password.

Tyamat

What are the rules on your server @Kresslack. And do you want two more new players?

Kresslack

Basically just PvE, no pvp or raiding or anything. We're all pretty much much just casually playing and enjoying the game. If that suits you, drop me a message.

Edit: At some point an arena will be set up or maybe a hunger games area sectioned off for those interested.

Trey

I remember scoring my first rifle and scoping in on some bastard that speared me to death repeatedly while I was naked on the beach. Have to say I enjoy the hell out of PVP.

Elsam

Man, I gotta say, I have been playing on their server for almost a week now and it has been a LOT of fun. Collection rates are good enough to keep you interested, but held back enough to keep you playing. I'm working my way toward the Redwoods now, getting eaten alive by the snakes though! My IGN is Elsam.

Kresslack

Once Primitive Plus gets released as official DLC at the end of the month we'll be dropping that in as well. It offers a slew of awesome new low tech content for those who want a more primitive experience, or just to accentuate what they already have.

Jonathin

Is there a set time for server restarts? Also, do you guys do dino wipes with updates? (For those that it might cause concern: dino wipes only remove wild dinos so new stuff can spawn.)

Kresslack

The server is scheduled to restart at 11 AM (EST iirc) and then 11 PM. At these same times, it will check for Steam updates and run those if necessary. Otherwise it'll just restart. The way I have it set up, it will never run a scheduled restart if someone is logged in. Rather it will defer it until the server is empty. If we need to do a manual restart, we tend to drop a message in at least 10 minutes prior.

Dino wipes only happen when either we change the difficulty (in order for higher spawns to populate), an update adds a new dino (or changes dino stats/features), or upon request. These will, however, wipe out any in-progress tames so we try to only do that after we've confirmed no one is currently taming anything.

EDIT: Also the server will be going down for a manual restart some point tonight to make some changes to the mating process and how the game handles logging. Shouldn't be down for more than a few minutes when it does, and there should be a broadcast/advance notice to allow people to find a safe place to stop.