ARK

[Flood]

Well, I've been playing this pretty regularly for the past week or so.  In the past I haven't been able to get into games of this stripe (DayZ, Rust, 7 Days to Die) but for whatever reason(s) I've been having a lot of fun playing ARK.  The crafting, combined with the dino taming and relative difficulty of just...staying alive, is keeping me coming back for more.  

Before I start blathering about the game itself I'm hoping to connect with anyone F13 currently playing, or maybe entice a few people to play (with me!).  I'm currently on a strictly PvE server rocking the care bear stylez, but I'm contemplating starting over on some verison of a PvP server and company (strength in numbers) would be welcome!  

But.  Bugs, technical issues; they're all over in game.  If I'm going to sit here and try and convince some of you guys to play it'd be a dick move not to mention how bad the game runs.  Caveat this may be related to certain chipsets (my machine is AMD / ATI based), and I see people that run the game perfectly with the graphics at high settings - but for most people that doesn't seem to be the case.  The loading time is anywhere from 3-5 minutes per session.  Game play alternates between lag, rubberbanding, and straight up pauses of 10-15 seconds (rarely but it happens).  Plane clipping and assorted weird graphical glitches.  After killing a dinosaur thee's a pretty good chance the corpse is going to rubberband / warp to a significantly different spot then where you killed it - sometimes in an unreachable spot (like on top of a rock or up in the air).  There's still a spate of gameplay bugs going on related to crafting, the UI, and taming.  The chat functionality is rudimentary at best.  The servers are full almost constantly.

On the other hand:

- There are hotfixes daily.  Sometimes two a day.  The devs are certainly trying.

- Dinosaurs

- Megalodons

- Everyone poops.  Visible poop on the ground.  You, the dinos.  "You just defecated".  Dino poop can be picked up as a fertilizer reagent

- There's a lot to maintain to stay alive (food, water, temperature, not getting eaten by a dinosaur, night time is dark as shit) so there's definitely a sense of accomplishment when you build your first house, craft a bed (permanent spawn point), tame a dino and so forth.  Treadmill is in effect.

- Depending on the server ruleset the opportunity for fun PvP activities (*cough* griefing, ganking, property destruction, kidnapping and imprisonment).  My first night I was attacked in the absolute dead of night by a naked level 2 named "Smallpenis".  He only had a torch and his bare hands, I had a stone pick and was level 4.  Alas Smallpenis I barely knew ye.  When I logged in my second night I discovered I had been found (you don't actually "log out" you just go unconscious) laying next to my campfire zonked out, so I was dragged into a guys "dungeon" where he had been sedating me and harvesting my blood; it puts the lotion on its skin type thing.  I quit that character, permanently.  Another time a high level guy swooped out of the sky on his pterodactyl, shot me with a narco arrow to stun me, took all my shit, then just flew away.  Yes, I'm playing on a pure PvE server at the moment.

So, anyway.  It's fun.  If anyone else is interested or is already playing please post it up.  I'm currently on server 326.  


Edit: to clarify - I'm on a pure PvE server now.  The Smallpenis beach blanket ambush attempt, Buffalo Bill dungeon and the rest happened on a server with a PvP ruleset.  Note there's PvE, PvP, and PvPvE () which makes it kinda interesting choosing a server.

[palmer_eldritch]

I enjoy exploring in this game and stumbling across some giant fortress a group has built in the middle of nowhere.

Today I came across a guy asleep in a small, partially wrecked house. I wondered why one of the walls was missing from his house but wandered in to rob him blind. As I was leaving, a brontosaurus stamped on my head and killed me (not in combat, they just tend to accidentally stomp on you if you hang around their feet).

I suspect the brontosaurus wrecked the house, because they do that if you build a house near where they live. The lesson is, don't be like that guy and build your house where the brontosauruses hang out.

[Surlyboi]

I always wanted my own roofie-saur.

  Roofiesaurus Rex.

And yes, I am playing this. Mulling a radicalthon.

[Malakili]

I'm up to my eyeballs in survival games at this point, what makes this one stand out? (is it just dinos?)

[Ginaz]

I'm up to my eyeballs in survival games at this point, what makes this one stand out? (is it just dinos?)

Pretty much.  It's fairly polished (for an early access game) and more feature complete than a lot of the other survival type games available.  But yeah, being able to tame and ride around on dinosaurs is its biggest selling point.

[palmer_eldritch]

Well if anybody wants to join forces I'd be happy to join up. Just name a server and we can form prehistoric Bat Country.

I'd prefer a server with the standard ruleset (the ones just called Official Server xx) which means PvP, not because I actually want to take part in PvP but going for a PvE server just feels like cheating a bit.

I am a euro so you'll probably never actually see me, but you might log on and discover I've built a second storey to the house.

[palmer_eldritch]

Ok clearly nobody wants to play video games with me - probably very wise - but this game is going strong with features being added on a regular basis, such as new dinosaurs and other animals, new items to make for your characters and new objects that can be added to houses.

They are also continually improving the graphics optimisation, so frame rates are up.

Here's some footage of me and some friends demolishing another tribe's bases. We ourselves got raided a few days later!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmWuMNG1E1I

[Engels]

I've looked at this, and I'm wondering how this is different say, than Dayz or H1Z1, only with dinosaurs.  Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I suspect that if I didn't like those games I won't like this either.

[Sparky]

Hankering to get disappointed by another survival game.  Anyone know if they're planning wipes for release?

I'd be minded to wait out wipes unless it's likely to be a forever EA game which everyone will have moved on from by the the time it's really out.

[veredus]

Anyone tried the non pvp servers? Any fun without pvp? Looks like something that might be fun to play with my son but I know he wouldn't be down with other people breaking/stealing his shit.

[palmer_eldritch]

I haven't actually tried the non PvP server but there's certainly plenty to do without PvP, such as building a base, fitting it out with machinery and collecting a menagerie of tamed dinosaurs.

To be honest, actual PvP is largely something you try to avoid in the game as you're almost certain to lose all your gear if you lose the fight. Some high-end gear like the rocket launcher is really hard to make.

On a non PvP server I guess you could concentrate on building your own massive castle.

[veredus]

Well looks like with a little work you can host your own servers on the computer you're playing on. Pulled the trigger on it since think the boy will love it.

[croaker69]

Anyone tried the non pvp servers? Any fun without pvp? Looks like something that might be fun to play with my son but I know he wouldn't be down with other people breaking/stealing his shit.

All three of my kids (age range 12-23) have been playing this together on a private server as a co-op game for the past month. They seem to be having a lot of fun. We had been playing 7 Days to Die but they prefer the dinos to the constant threat of zombie death for some reason.

[veredus]

I haven't jumped on it yet myself but my son has. He loves it so far.

[Margalis]

Kids love dinosaurs - who knew?

(Also kids have time to stand around forever taming a dino)

[Engels]

I got this and have played for a few hours in a solo environment, and it gets grindy right quick. I presume the idea is that you don't do all the work on your own, but collaborate with others to gather stuff to do things? Or is it one of those things that in theory is meant to be collaborative but in practice is a PVP grief fest like Arma/Dayz?

[palmer_eldritch]

I'd definitely join a tribe so you can collaborate with others on building your base. We had a group of 4 and did fine.

I played on my own for a bit before that and made myself a nice wooden base. If you're going solo though, I would aim for a non PvP server. On a PvP server you want to aim for a metal building and that takes a lot of work.

[veredus]

Use Ark Server Manager and tweak your settings. I'm playing with just my son so sped up taming times and raised resource gathering etc.

[Bunk]

Played this a bit on the weekend, single player to try to get the hang. Only eaten by Raptors about seven times.

I guess I was kind of expecting more of an explore and find the dinos game, as opposed to spawn in surrounded by thirty dinos of various size and temperament. And bugs, and sharks, and dodos, and piranhas.

I've read that its mostly about them congregating to water, which is where you spawn. But if you build too far from water, you'll end up dying of thirst, plus if you do die, you spawn back on the beach of doom and have to navigate your way back. Past the Raptors of Doom.

I like the idea, and the ding grats factor was pretty addictive,  but it screams of having no logic in it's design. One of the few times I've ever pined for a game having "more game designers"

[palmer_eldritch]

You need to build a base, with a bed which becomes your respawn point. This base can be a tiny thatched cottage which is pretty easy to make. In fact, it doesnt even need walls or a ceiling. And while you do need to be near water, there are loads of rivers inland.

However, the very early stages if the game can be hard as you can keep dying before you build even the most basic base.

One thing those of you playing on your own servers (assuming it's only a couple of you on there) may not realise is that you are playing on hard mode. On the official servers with lots of players, server-side lag means the dinasours do far less damage to you and they are much easier to kill. If you play regulalry on an official server then you notice the difference in off-peak periods when the population is low and there is less lag.

[veredus]

We're using Ark Server Manager to play on our own server. We have a custom set up for the spawns that decreases predators and larger animals, increases prey animals and spawns herd animals in groups. I tried to make it as lifelike as possible while also doing zero research cuz I'm lazy. We also added increased harvesting, faster taming and a bunch of other tweaks. So while it is definitely easy to die, things are easy to replace and build and once you knock something out it doesn't take forever to tame. I think the only way I'd play on a vanilla server would be with a group of people. This fucker is a grind without tweaks.

[Bunk]

Yea, I managed to build a small thatch house. Then I looked in to a bed. The most hides I'd gotten off a dino at that point was 2 and I think you needed 50 for a sleeping bag.

I can see the lag thing being big. Running locally, I got myself (and my house) destroyed by one of those smaller armor plated dinos. Even though he was stuck in the front half of my house, I couldn't get close enough to jab him with a spear without getting bit every time.

I may try again with some severely tweaked settings (didn't notice you could turn down predators) so that I actually get a chance to explore the island.

[veredus]

If anyone is interested I've got a semi dedicated server that I just run on my home PC. It's up whenever me or a couple other people are playing. If anyone else is interested I might see about leaving it up more often or just pop on in if it's up. Lots of custom rules to facilitate small group/solo stuff.

http://arkservers.net/1/search/?term=toadchewer

You can join from the link, PM me for password.

[Xanthippe]

This is currently on sale on Steam for 40% off ($18).

[Ginaz]

FYI, if anyone is playing this there's a chance development might stop and the game could be pulled from Steam because of a lawsuit revolving around poaching employees and proprietary technology from the makers of Dungeon Defenders.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2016/03/24/ark-survival-evolved-lawsuit/

[Signe]

Thanks for the heads up, Ginaz.  I've wanted this game (in the cheap, of course <10$) but I'll wait if things look as if stupid shit is going to happen.

[Malakili]

The game is probably the best of the current round of survival games, but I still find myself just gravitating back to Minecraft most of the time.

[Rendakor]

A friend just mentioned this game and suggested we pick it up, but not if it's about to get sued into oblivion. Guess I'll keep an eye on it and see how the legal troubles shake out.

[Signe]

I thought maybe I would buy this when it went game on sale, and it is right now for $18 which still seems a bit high for me for early access.  THEN, I saw they released an expansion yesterday.  How does an early release game get an expansion?  Now I'm thinking I'll wait until Far Cry Primal gets really cheap.  What do you guys think?  I just want some dinosaurs!! 

[Ginaz]

I thought maybe I would buy this when it went game on sale, and it is right now for $18 which still seems a bit high for me for early access.  THEN, I saw they released an expansion yesterday.  How does an early release game get an expansion?  Now I'm thinking I'll wait until Far Cry Primal gets really cheap.  What do you guys think?  I just want some dinosaurs!! 

I know people like it and all, but I can't say I agree with a game releasing paid DLC for something that is still listed as early access.  It's not like they haven't made boat loads of money already, so they're not hurting for cash to continue development.  Finish the game, "release" it THEN start with the DLC.

[palmer_eldritch]

It's pity they've done something so obviously sleazy as Ark is a great game.

I'm not sure Far Cry Primal lets you tame a giant scorpion and make a house for your giant scorpion and build a saddle for your giant scorpion and go riding around looking for people to paralyse with your scorpion sting so you can drain their blood and drink it, so I'd probably go with Ark out of the two.

[Ginaz]

It's pity they've done something so obviously sleazy as Ark is a great game.

I'm not sure Far Cry Primal lets you tame a giant scorpion and make a house for your giant scorpion and build a saddle for your giant scorpion and go riding around looking for people to paralyse with your scorpion sting so you can drain their blood and drink it, so I'd probably go with Ark out of the two.

I wonder if settling their lawsuit for $40 million prompted this being released as DLC instead of as an update or patch?

http://www.inquisitr.com/2999282/ark-survival-evolved-lawsuit-settled-ugly-battle-ends-with-defense-countering-claims/

[Signe]

It's pity they've done something so obviously sleazy as Ark is a great game.

I'm not sure Far Cry Primal lets you tame a giant scorpion and make a house for your giant scorpion and build a saddle for your giant scorpion and go riding around looking for people to paralyse with your scorpion sting so you can drain their blood and drink it, so I'd probably go with Ark out of the two.

But I want all that! 

[palmer_eldritch]

It's pity they've done something so obviously sleazy as Ark is a great game.

I'm not sure Far Cry Primal lets you tame a giant scorpion and make a house for your giant scorpion and build a saddle for your giant scorpion and go riding around looking for people to paralyse with your scorpion sting so you can drain their blood and drink it, so I'd probably go with Ark out of the two.

But I want all that! 

Play Ark then, it has all that:) It's pretty brutal when your house gets broken into and all your best stuff is stolen though.

[Azazel]

It's pity they've done something so obviously sleazy as Ark is a great game.

Not real surprising considering Jeremy Stieglitz