Ark: Survival Evolved - Dinos and Leveling Survival Game

Games
1862

Gentlemen, let’s get ready to RUMBLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Extinction is live on the cluster.

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Steam->View->Servers

Add:
155.254.28.106:27295

Server password is the same as all the rest.

Note: Mods are installed, but less in number (slightly.) Some installed mods aren’t fully compatible, missing new engrams and what not, but they are working so far. The dev kit for modders won’t be out until January-ish for Extinction. We’ll be roughing it somewhat until then and/or there may be mod problems. As an example, I have yet to see the dino healthbars mod show anything, which makes me think it might be toast.

Leveling and gathering are bumped a bit, otherwise the settings are similar to the rest of the servers. Generally, low tier resources are x2, mid tier are x3, and high tier are x5. That does NOT count anything Extinction only, since I don’t know crap about the item ID’s for it yet.

Good luck, it’s party time.

EDIT: Adding a mention, cross cluster chat should be working. Server update/reboots are at 8:00AM Easter, daily.

1863

I played Ark a ton but it was all in the Early Access days and prior to the first expansion launched. How do these expansions work? Are they other worlds you access from your current one, or do you a select an expansion for the server and everyone starts a new character?

Also, did they ever make things any less janky?

1864

You’d have to ask Ragan and Grembel about how less janky it might be now. I joined in around the last DLC, Aberration. So I’ve only seen what they have now.

Each DLC is both a huge new map along with completely new scenery, some new gameplay elements, some new dinos, boss(es), etc. So this expansion is the continuation of a long story, a lot of which I don’t know much about. The gameplay will be familiar, the map and perhaps some of the dinos you remember might not be there.

Then entire cluster is PvE, so really, jankiness is minimalized without fear of meshing and the crap that comes with PvP. Personally after playing Conan Exiles for a bit with Trip, I find ARK a -ton- less buggy and janky.

The cluster is Steam (PC) setup. The servers on the cluster are modded, so when you log in the mods will auto-download and install from the Steam workshop. Since several of the mods are large, you may have to attempt re-connection a few times before everything will download completely. The cluster itself is multiple maps/dlcs, and you can transport between them with your player, dinos and gear.

The map DLCs require that DLC purchase, or the season pass (all DLC’s.) The non-DLC maps just require you to go to the steam page and subscribe to that free map content for it to kick off a download.

155.254.28.106:27125
The Island - The very first base game map, it has quite a bit to it

155.254.28.106:27045
The Center - A free map download, it has the same dinos and types of areas as The Island but in a completely different design.

155.254.28.106:27115
Scorched Earth - A DLC, new dinos, this one is on an extreme planet plagued by heat.

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Ragnarok - A free map download, it takes a little from The Island, and some from Scorched Earth and presents as an all-in-one that is one of the biggest maps.

155.254.28.106:27085
Aberration - A DLC, new dinos, this one is another extreme planet plagued by radiation.

155.254.28.106:27295
Extinction - DLC map, new dinos, a futuristic tech infused world with new dinos as well as mechs and drones.

The connection password for all servers is the same:
T0mCh1cK

1865

There have been a large number of improvements over the past couple years, along with probably a lot of new annoyances. It depends on what your pain points were before on whether they still exist or not. I’ve found that if something is a really big pain that someone has made a mod to either fix it or make life bearable.

I did have my first Ark Extinction adventure last night.

I went out exploring for more metal (only one node close to my current hut). On my way back I decided to see if I could kill a trike for more hide. Then everything went sideways.

First bad thing to happen is the there was a second trike nearby that joined in. Now I have a mate boosted pair of trikes after me. I messed up and a trike knocked me off the ledge and I fell to my death. All my metal tools & gear are now at the bottom of a this ravine that runs around the city where I spawned in at and I’m not seeing any spot to climb down.

I died once more trying to find a way down. Then I learn the parachute and got down to the my first body and recovered all my gear. Now I need to get back up. I scouted one direction and was not finding any paths back up. This is all on foot btw.

Eventually I see a lvl 125 Iguanodon and decided that I needed something or I was never going to get back to my house alive. But I was low on tranq arrows, so I made a stone foundation, meat spoiler (mod item), and a mortar & pestle to make narcotics for tranq arrows. All that to take down the Iguanodon.

While it was taming, two defense drones kept on wandering close, but they eventually chased some other dinos and moved away from me. Once the iguanodon tamed, I learned and made the saddle and took off, and promptly ran into an enraged megatherium (sloth).

I have learned from painful experiences that you don’t mess with enraged megatheriums (-75% damage, double damage, and attacks anything in range). On Ragnarok I nearly lost one of my dino caravans (paracer & 2 or 3 ankies) to a single lvl 15 sloth. On Scorched Earth, I’ve lost quite a few tames because of enraged sloths.

After the sloth lost it’s “uber berserk I’LL KILL YOU AND ALL YOUR RELATIVES!!1!” rage buff, I went and harvested all the stuff it killed. I continued to scout along the cliff face trying to find a way back up. Eventually I made it to the wastelands and started finding corrupted dinos. Now I was running from one spot to another, trying not to get trapped in by the terrain. Rexes, spinos, a wyvern, pteras, stego’s, and more. It was all after me for about 10 minutes before I found a ramp system back up to the city level.

In the end I made it back to my hut and logged off before anything else bad could happen.

1866

The summary for many ARK stories.

Today I finally nabbed a Ptera and thought, “FINALLY, I can do a better recon on this ruined city.” So I flew up above it. But didn’t pay attention to the stamina on the Ptera. The Ptera’s stamina runs out and he starts flying down, but he gets stuck on an angled roof of one of the ruined buildings. With no stamina, I can’t control him, so now I’m stuck on him against the building. I decided all I could do was jump to my death, which I did, losing my set of metal tools, crossbow, sword and scythe. Not to mention, I had burned up all my hide making the saddle for that thing, and now I can’t even see it to call it back, and I lost all my gear too. Bleh.

So I finally work up things again and eventually tame another ptera, get more hide, make another saddle, and go get the loot bag from my earlier death with all my tools. I haven’t yet found the original ptera but I’m hoping I will at some point.

Also, due to annoying wandering spiders, I’ve put up an enclosed pen around my starter shack to keep my two dinos safe.

Following the rolling droids around you can loot the things the kill, as long as you keep an eye on them and run if they turn in your direction. That helped a ton with hide.

@KevinC ARK is tougher than Conan in my opinion, but you probably remember that part. I do like it a lot more though, and that’s one of the reasons. As Ragan called it, things go sideways, a lot. You think you’re safe and know what your doing? Nope, ARK will throw you a curve ball in a heartbeat.

We’ve pumped the difficulty just a little on the cluster servers but we also pumped gathering, leveling, and settings to help the player as well. Feel free to join in on any of the servers and pop around too. Since we’re all going to be on Extinction though, you might want to give that a shot first.

Ragan, things certainly look rough outside the city. I went to make a starter shack outside, got chased off by two corrupted stegos and turned a corner to see a Rex headed my way. That was my last excursion out of the city for now. Lesson learned.

1867

Downloading ark again as we speak.

1868

I’ve signed in to checkout extinction, see how long it keeps my interest.

I have a small hut in one of the recommended areas. Already one death in. Fresh loaded in 5 feet from a spider, went about how you think.

1869

Those spiders are annoying but manageable after a bit. A better weapon and a little armor help. A little further out are raptors, and once near the city edge anything goes. Trip is in the city near the green Obelisk (, I’ll probably head that way. I’m not sure where Ragan and Midget are. My current base is approximately the red arrow, and Trips beginning his base at the green arrow. My base is unlocked if you need shelter or use of crafting in there.

I’ll be adding public stargates at major points (Obelisks, large points of interest,) so when you get to that point, make a Stargate Remote item when you’re able to. If you’ve not used it, put it in a slot, select that slot number and right click to bring up the remote (while near the gate,) select your destination and left click.

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1870

ok have a small half stone shack working near the blue biom (winter) avoided a few nasty deaths. All and all a great outing. I transferred over without looking at gear… no food and water lol lucky i did have an xbow and some tranqs that did help.

1871

So talking to skruggs about how i had managed not to die…

Well I have yet to die however I did manage to get my snow owl eaten by a pack of wolves as I was trying to secure my fresh new doed…

I hate wolves…

1872

I hate spiders. Quite a bit. Wolves I haven’t even gotten to yet, so it sounds like you skipped over to the blue dome?

1873

In case you guys haven’t seen one yet, the public stargates are in the following approximate locations, with three along the middle line through Sanctuary, and one each in the ruined Obelisks. If further are needed, let me know, though don’t forget in addition to these, you can use personal or tribe stargates.

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1874

Do you mind if the Ticket mod is added? It allows you to transfer items between servers that normally are not allowed (trophies, element).

From what I am seeing Element is going to be a huge pain to get and I’d just as soon get it from the SE boss or craft it on Aberration.

The Extinction element veins have been disabled for now (last update) Watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w53jfPVG6zo for what youhave to do for an element vein. Doesn’t look possible solo unless you are in the way later stages of the game.

1875

No worries at all. Someone mentioned the Rare Sightings and/or Classic Flyers (for speed and other effects.) Once someone hears they are okay to re-add I’ll do that.

Ticket Mod I’ll add back either late tonight or early tomorrow AM when the server is idle.

That doesn’t seem great for element farming at all for the effort. Not to mention you’d need to split that unless you came up with a single-player solution. :(

Turret dinos maybe?

1876

Yeah i made the ever smart choice to build my first post in the blue dome… not my best idea. Was fine until they ate my two fliers.

Then I started to die… and die… and die a few more times :P

1877

Actually I was thinking of taming a paracer and putting tek generator, shield generator, and as many heavy auto turrets on it as I could.

Players are infinitely inventive. I will find a way to beat it at least once. Then we will see if it was worth it or not.

1878

Not a bad idea would have to be a beafy paracer incase the shield fails.

1879

Is there a way to direct connect by IP? Or how do I find the Qt3 server?

EDIT: Nevermind, I’m getting to it via the Servers page in Steam.

1880

@Skipper Do you mind if we run a “destroywilddinos” on the Extinction server? I found the reason for the “- Updated spawn volumes to fix Beaverpocalypse” patch note.

I was exploring and found the Underground forest. And my guess down there, the tree to beaver ratio is near 1 to 1. There are hundreds of beavers in the lakes and rivers down there.

1881

Go for it. Of note, I’m out this week until Saturday morning while on work travel. I’m leaving things in the hands of you and Trip, feel free to make changes. I did get your ticket mod loaded prior to leaving.

I read they still have bugs, I mean it’s Wildcard, so we know that was a given for a new DLC. So the beaver issue might be a bug they will adjust, let’s hope.

@Ragan I believe there is an admin command to destroy a specific dino versus all wild dinos:
admincheat DestroyAll Beaver_Character_BP_C

Note that destroys tamed beavers as well, but I don’t think anyone has one.

Also don’t forget you’ll get some lag after either command. Wait it out. I wouldn’t recommend it in prime time.