Getting Over the Hump

[maba987]

Getting Over the Hump

Hello Fellow Survivors,

New player here, been going at it for about two weeks now.  Already though I have fallen into a frustrating pattern of getting wiped as soon as I make any progress in the game.  I'll have spent hours building a modest thatch house, maybe have 2-3 tamed dinos in my pen, I'll log out only to find I've been wiped while offline.  I tried transferring servers, same exact thing happens.  How do you guys get over the hump and actually make sustained progress in this game?  

Sincerely,

Frustrated Noob 

[CCRogerWilco]

I only play on a private server with friends, that we host and manage ourselves. Default settings The Island map, but not the drama and the problems of the official servers.

Until Wildcard gets their act together, this game isn't going to be very friendly or forgiving. It seems to be explicit design by the current developers.

 

ARK, designed for bullies and griefers.

[perk8504]

14 minutes ago, maba987 said:

Getting Over the Hump

Hello Fellow Survivors,

New player here, been going at it for about two weeks now.  Already though I have fallen into a frustrating pattern of getting wiped as soon as I make any progress in the game.  I'll have spent hours building a modest thatch house, maybe have 2-3 tamed dinos in my pen, I'll log out only to find I've been wiped while offline.  I tried transferring servers, same exact thing happens.  How do you guys get over the hump and actually make sustained progress in this game?  

Sincerely,

Frustrated Noob 

I gave up on PVP a while ago so I could experience the later stages of the game

and it sounds like it's only gotten worse...you could have that base of thatch, made into metal, and tripled in size with some very nice dinos, only to get wiped again by a zerg tribe that's now, not only decided they're the alpha of the island...but alpha of about 15 servers

[Melcreif]

32 minutes ago, maba987 said:

Getting Over the Hump

Hello Fellow Survivors,

New player here, been going at it for about two weeks now.  Already though I have fallen into a frustrating pattern of getting wiped as soon as I make any progress in the game.  I'll have spent hours building a modest thatch house, maybe have 2-3 tamed dinos in my pen, I'll log out only to find I've been wiped while offline.  I tried transferring servers, same exact thing happens.  How do you guys get over the hump and actually make sustained progress in this game?  

Sincerely,

Frustrated Noob 

Here's what I did, and what I see folks doing.  Join a PVP server and start chatting in the global chat immediately.  Just tell folks who you are. "Hey guys I'm kinda new but this seems like a really cool game. I'd like to build up and not mess with folks but just have fun, trade, help other tribes when needed, etc. Anyone cool with me doing this and maybe give me a hand?"  If you get no response or negative response then it's probably time to move on. There are hundreds of servers and they aren't all bad believe me.  The folks that have the hardest time are the ones that are silent and keep to themselves unfortunately...

[Mortus]

Some other ideas I picked up from videos as I am not playing PvP, still getting things figured out in Single Player. Experienced players can feel free to tell me if I'm wrong.

Build stealthily as players can not attack what they can't find or don't know about. Try and find an out of the way place in one of the forest/jungles, you don't want to be to close to commonly visited resource patches. Work with the terrain keeping large trees, rocks and thick brush as intact as possible. When you can, paint your structures colours that allow it to blend in even better. You'll want to use the shadows to your advantage.

Build or place some stashes away from your base. This way if your base is hit you are less likely to loose everything. Be tricky and try to conceal them as best you can so they are not easily found by others. If they are easier to spot, make what can be seen insignificant, of little value or not worth enough effort to look for hidden stashes in or around it. You could even conduct trades at one of these places until you feel you can trust the tribes/players you are trading with enough to show them your actual base location.

 

P.S. These may also be good for starting players to try and evade wipe raids from other official servers. Again they can't attack what they can't find or don't know about.

[maba987]

Thank everyone for their replies, I tried joining a guild and it was a great afternoon, until we got raided by an even larger guild and wiped lol.  I'm thinking a PvE server might be the place for me, though I'm afraid I'm going to regret that choice once I finally do "get over the hump" and run out of PvE content.

[Melcreif]

7 minutes ago, Mortus said:

Some other ideas I picked up from videos as I am not playing PvP, still getting things figured out in Single Player. Experienced players can feel free to tell me if I'm wrong.

Build stealthily as players can not attack what they can't find or don't know about. Try and find an out of the way place in one of the forest/jungles, you don't want to be to close to commonly visited resource patches. Work with the terrain keeping large trees, rocks and thick brush as intact as possible. When you can, paint your structures colours that allow it to blend in even better. You'll want to use the shadows to your advantage.

Build or place some stashes away from your base. This way if your base is hit you are less likely to loose everything. Be tricky and try to conceal them as best you can so they are not easily found by others. If they are easier to spot, make what can be seen insignificant, of little value or not worth enough effort to look for hidden stashes in or around it. You could even conduct trades at one of these places until you feel you can trust the tribes/players you are trading with enough to show them your actual base location.

Good tips. One I'd add for stashing stuff is use Mortar and Pistols.  They are super small and easy to hide yet each one can hold 9 stacks of something...

[heiser]

I gave up on PVP really early.  Having a blast on unofficial PVE servers ever since!  YOu could learn all the basics there without fear of being wiped.  Once you feel you've learned enough you can give PVP another go.  Or stick with PVE and build a new house, breed perfect kangaroos, fish all day, or whatever floats your raft.

[Mortus]

12 minutes ago, maba987 said:

Thank everyone for their replies, I tried joining a guild and it was a great afternoon, until we got raided by an even larger guild and wiped lol.  I'm thinking a PvE server might be the place for me, though I'm afraid I'm going to regret that choice once I finally do "get over the hump" and run out of PvE content.

In that case you could try to implement suggestions on PvP builds on a PvE server. Once you feel you have the hang of finding good, concealed defensible places for your bases and how to build them strong and establish a good stealthy perimeter, then you can consider starting on a PvP server if you are getting bored.

I am using Single Player in a similar manner to explore the environment, learn about the creatures and work on my base design which I am basing on the design of a YouTuber named OneWing (Search for Nooblets if you are interested. There is not really a good tutorial on the base in question.) and working on a way to build it up starting with lower level rooms and inner defensive walls starting with the farm room then building out and up. Essentially I want to be able to grow comfortable with building this part up from Thatch and possibly all the way to Metal if thats possible, if not I will know that I will have to build a smaller one to stone then once I advance and can gather enough build a second from steel. The biggest gap I have found is there are not real tutorials for good bases from thatch to metal, all PvP tutorials seem for focus on Metal tier with the odd Stone tier and then a rare wood tier, all seperate and no good build up tutorial or explanation as to why. Perhaps in PvP you want to relocate when you up tier, I'm not sure.

[theronin]

No need to give up on official PVP you just have to play smarter.  If this is not your cup of tea, then I would recommend like that others said and move to unofficial.

For starters, dont bother even playing if you don't think you will have enough time to at least have a stone 2x2 house ready to live in before you even log off.  This is how I would start out any game from scratch:

1)  Spawn in south zone near the red ob - this is the easiest location in terms of wild dinos and typography.  Do this during daytime.  If the clock on the Join screen says it is nighttime, then wait.

2)  IMMEDIATELY run to the nearest bush, rock, or any cover you can find and HIDE.  Yes, HIDE.  Look around, get acclimated with your surroundings.  Know where any structures are, dangerous wild dinos, and especially of course, other players.  If it is safe, IMMEDIATELY start picking berries.  Do not stop picking.  Keep picking and place them in your hot slots until you have a decent amount to keep you from getting hungry (say 50 of each).  Lose the narco berries and place 5 stim berries in slot 0.  Use the stim in case you run into troodons or to let any petromax steel those (they steel first slot 0) before anything else.

3)  Once your food situation is good, you should have already learned basic thatch structures.  Start looking for your first starter base.  This is meant just to house your character when you logoff and store materials for your real base.  DO NOT BUILD ON THE BEACH.  Move inland into the trees and find somewhere that is not so easily noticed but close enough to the water.

4)  Keep grinding at your thatch hut and picking berries.  The goal is to get your little 2x2 to stone as soon as possible.  You may find yourself skipping some wood structures and that just means you are going at a good pace.  Once you have your 2x2 stone going, then you are safe to start looking for a more permanent (no such thing as absolutely permanent) base location.

More advice:

* never use the campfire or torch at night - cook all your meet during the day away from plain view.

* when you logoff, do so standing in the center of your 2x2.  if you log off near a wall, a body part may glitch through and anyone outside can grab that body part and drag you out.

* dont worry about dino tames until you have a decent stone base going with a fully enclosed dino pen.  then I would consider this progression:  trike first (never have to pick berries again), 8 dodos 1 being male for eggs, when you get to 15 eggs, get a medium (or small) farm going for rockcarrot, make 20 dodo kibbles and get a ptera.  the ptera will be your main transport and meat gatherer.

* dont get fooled into "gifts" from Chinese alpha tribes.  their m.o. is to shower you with mastercraft blueprints or other high valued items then raid you when they are bored - why they bother to shower you with these items is a perverted concept that is beyond even me,

* be careful who you trust in general and NEVER EVER speak freely on global chat.  "anyone got stego eggs?  i got 5k pearls to trade" is possibly the most stupid thing people do.  may as well go "anyone wanna raid my base?  its got 5k pearls in it!" lol

Good luck and just keep your wits about you and you will be fine!

[orionwinterfire]

If you want a more casual experience, hit me up and I'll try to help. I have a private server, or can direct you to some helpful official players.

[Matteo2000]

I loved reading that PvP advice. It makes you realise just how brutal it is out there!

 

PvE is really fun but I'd recommend disabling flyers and nerfing tamed dinos (by at least2x to both damage and resistance) or it'll get easy and boring very quickly. 

[Khaos1107]

I have been playing for about a month and a half now. First two weeks were rough but it helped me level faster having to rebuild and re tame things. Make sure you start building out of stone as soon as possible and then move on to metal. Make sure to add layers to your base. Like a base inside a base. Give raiders more layers to go through so they either run out of resources or get tired of how long it is taking. Also try to work on getting up some plant x. Even a few plants will deter some raiders. To start out with try to get a pteranadon, they are able to fly through door ways so you can keep it inside even if you use regular doors. PM if you have any questions. I'm more than happy to help. 

[theronin]

1 minute ago, Khaos1107 said:

Make sure to add layers to your base. Like a base inside a base. Give raiders more layers to go through so they either run out of resources or get tired of how long it is taking. Also try to work on getting up some plant x. Even a few plants will deter some raiders.

I would have agreed with you prior to server transfers.  These days, you can have 100 layers, no joke, and you are still naked to these server zerging Chinese.  All the xplants all the turrets all the max level rexes you can muster will be gone in one night, no exaggeration.

With that said, I'd say don't waste your time with what used to work - you will only set yourself up for a lot of grief and heartache.  Focus on being a ghost since that's quite literally the only way to survive today.

[Khaos1107]

4 minutes ago, theronin said:

I would have agreed with you prior to server transfers.  These days, you can have 100 layers, no joke, and you are still naked to these server zerging Chinese.  All the xplants all the turrets all the max level rexes you can muster will be gone in one night, no exaggeration.

With that said, I'd say don't waste your time with what used to work - you will only set yourself up for a lot of grief and heartache.  Focus on being a ghost since that's quite literally the only way to survive today.

Thankfully i havent experienced that in my server. Hopefully i don't. But you are right, i have heard about them going around from server to server wiping every one. 

[Arkasaurio]

4 hours ago, theronin said:

No need to give up on official PVP you just have to play smarter.  If this is not your cup of tea, then I would recommend like that others said and move to unofficial.

For starters, dont bother even playing if you don't think you will have enough time to at least have a stone 2x2 house ready to live in before you even log off.  This is how I would start out any game from scratch:

1)  Spawn in south zone near the red ob - this is the easiest location in terms of wild dinos and typography.  Do this during daytime.  If the clock on the Join screen says it is nighttime, then wait.

2)  IMMEDIATELY run to the nearest bush, rock, or any cover you can find and HIDE.  Yes, HIDE.  Look around, get acclimated with your surroundings.  Know where any structures are, dangerous wild dinos, and especially of course, other players.  If it is safe, IMMEDIATELY start picking berries.  Do not stop picking.  Keep picking and place them in your hot slots until you have a decent amount to keep you from getting hungry (say 50 of each).  Lose the narco berries and place 5 stim berries in slot 0.  Use the stim in case you run into troodons or to let any petromax steel those (they steel first slot 0) before anything else.

3)  Once your food situation is good, you should have already learned basic thatch structures.  Start looking for your first starter base.  This is meant just to house your character when you logoff and store materials for your real base.  DO NOT BUILD ON THE BEACH.  Move inland into the trees and find somewhere that is not so easily noticed but close enough to the water.

4)  Keep grinding at your thatch hut and picking berries.  The goal is to get your little 2x2 to stone as soon as possible.  You may find yourself skipping some wood structures and that just means you are going at a good pace.  Once you have your 2x2 stone going, then you are safe to start looking for a more permanent (no such thing as absolutely permanent) base location.

More advice:

* never use the campfire or torch at night - cook all your meet during the day away from plain view.

* when you logoff, do so standing in the center of your 2x2.  if you log off near a wall, a body part may glitch through and anyone outside can grab that body part and drag you out.

* dont worry about dino tames until you have a decent stone base going with a fully enclosed dino pen.  then I would consider this progression:  trike first (never have to pick berries again), 8 dodos 1 being male for eggs, when you get to 15 eggs, get a medium (or small) farm going for rockcarrot, make 20 dodo kibbles and get a ptera.  the ptera will be your main transport and meat gatherer.

* dont get fooled into "gifts" from Chinese alpha tribes.  their m.o. is to shower you with mastercraft blueprints or other high valued items then raid you when they are bored - why they bother to shower you with these items is a perverted concept that is beyond even me,

* be careful who you trust in general and NEVER EVER speak freely on global chat.  "anyone got stego eggs?  i got 5k pearls to trade" is possibly the most stupid thing people do.  may as well go "anyone wanna raid my base?  its got 5k pearls in it!" lol

Good luck and just keep your wits about you and you will be fine!

All excellent advice, you can make official PvP servers work. It's amazing how far being smart in global chat and not lighting fires at night can go. The only time that I think I've been noticed in the last month I was refining metal at night like an idiot. It felt like everyone in the southern half the map with a flier came to say hello. I've watched others come in, start arguing with the alpha or one of their friends and end up in the cage the same night.

The other thing I suggest, as soon as you can build in stone, look for a valley a little ways away from the beach that is heavily forested and not close to anyone else's base. If you can get in among rocks even better. In my experience, areas like this are the best shot for a lower level player without dinos building something reasonably secluded. If that doesn't exist you are probably playing on a server that is too heavily populated and should move to one with lower population, if that exists for you (I play PC official PvP, where it's easy enough to find a sparsely populated server). While there are still friendly and helpful people out there, most are not, so for new players lower population servers tend to be a better bet.

You can also roll the dice on building an enclosed raft and parking either at the edge of the map or at a remote inlet, but always somewhere different, when you log off. I've had great luck with this overall, but always expect to get raided/sunk at some point. The thing is that raft base lasts long enough to accumulate the materials and experience to build something better hidden and more defensible. Again that's been my experience, a lot of folks well tell you that their rafts get destroyed every time they log off as well.

[Captnmorgan]

hahaha.. Never build anything under stone your just wasting your time. Several hundered videos on how to level and level fast you can watch on your own. Other then that you can join a tribe or go at it alone. Wiki is your best friend you have questions look up there if not some youtuber has probably made a video on it.