Sent you a PM the other day, Fozzle. The server isn’t mine but the owner remembered your name and said it’d be fine. Kelan’s and a few others are on as well. (Server being run by his friend/guildmate.)
We’re still getting our bearings as noobs again and checking things out, but so far it’s pretty great and everyone seems to be having fun.
All right, PM sent. I’m not an official gatekeeper or anything, but Ragan (the server owner) did say that I could use my discretion. Always good to see other players around.
Yeah, been enjoying the new map and trying to start over again. I had totally forgotten how to do certain things, heh.
I am getting a little established finally on the SE tropical island and have some trikes and a couple raptors and dilos that are keeping me safe for now from the occasional carno and dire bear. I got my first megalodon, but woke up this morning to find him getting munched on by a pack of other mega sharks and couldn’t save him. It bummed me out as he started at level 128, but there will be more. Those dang Manta are mean when you are a newbie again!
I finally got my first Ptera and saddle and that is a huge jump in functionality and greatly liberating to be able to fly around and snag some beacon drops and go get some crystal and metal to get better tools.
I should be around a lot this weekend. Perfect timing as we have a 4 day weekend here at work too!
Yeah, it’s loads of fun. Really loving the aesthetic of the new map. Seems we all settled in the southeast. My current location is inside one of the ruins there where it’s quite safe. Ended up there more or less by accident. My hut is adjacent to a big hole leading to an underground cave system that leads out to the ocean to the east. Initially I was thinking of building around both entrances and using the caves, but then I read about the increased damage inside caves and possibly ruins and decided I’ll have to relocate.
I finally got a Ptera as well (thanks to Lebbrin for the saddle) and last night I began to explore the map and look for resettlement spots. So many choices! It’s overwhelming. Initially I was thinking I’d want to resettle on a beach somewhere, but now I’m considering further inland in the gorgeous southwest where there’s more dino activity. Hmm…
Experience: 2x
Resource Gathering: 2x
Taming: 5x
Egg/baby maturation: 10x
Difficulty: 5 (max dino level 150)
Spoilage timer: 1x
Mods: The Center (duh, although it’s DLC now), Joan’s Pet Finder, Ark Fog Remover and No Collision Building
With the exception of the Spoilage Timer I think all of the above also applied to Kelan’s server. Unless you have played around with The Center in single player mode before, all the mods should just install automatically.
In steam you can right click on servers page and add by IP. Recently or with The Center map my Ark crashes every time I attempt to join via steam servers.
Work around is to just search for RuneArk (Ragans Server) via the in game server browser and join that way.
Is it possible to play Ark in a pacifist manner? My daughters would love the dinos as long as they’re not trying to maul us and/or we’re not graphically hacking at their bloody flesh in a nightmare-inducing search for sustenance.
There’s no official game mode/setting for that, but you could try editing game.ini and changing DinoDamageMultiplier and PlayerDamageMultiplier. Higher values result in increased damage to the dino or player (scaled by the number), not sure what 0 would do. Maybe also play around with PlayerResistanceMultiplier and DinoResistanceMultiplier. Full list of options here: http://ark.gamepedia.com/Server_Configuration#Configuration_Files.
Ok, cool - thanks for the tip. One more question – the Steam page makes it sound like an MMO. Is it possible to play in single player and/or without joining an online server?
Lots of people play alone in Single Player mode, and no special commands, mods or dlc are required to do that – there’s a “Host/Local” button for it. The biggest difference is that in SP the game world is essentially frozen in time between play sessions, whereas if you run and play on a server – alone or with other players – the world keeps changing regardless of who’s on (although dinos/items go into some sort of stasis when no one is nearby). This persistence is especially important when considering taming/breeding times.
If you’re hoping to play with your daughters, I’d recommend running it as a server on one of your PCs.
Sorry I haven’t been back to the server in a couple weeks. I got busy, then the summer sale happened, and somewhere in there the obsession compulsion broke and I’ve been off doing other things. If you guys want to raid my fridge, help yourself. I think I left enough gas for a couple of weeks at any rate.
It’s just weird. I don’t understand how they release an expansion for a base game that, by their own definition, isn’t finished. Huh? Why not tidy up what they have, call it 1.0, and roll out the DLC?
EDIT: And it’s unfortunate, because a new environment and Wyverns and Manticores sounds pretty awesome to me. But finish the damn game first… at the very least it (last time I played, anyway) had some serious performance hiccups and the melee/shooting aspect of the game is pretty pathetic.