Advice to stop aimlessly wandering the map

[DromaeoSapiens]

I don't play Ark as much as I feel I should, but I did log on to my singleplayer save today. I am partially well established with my largest animals being a pair of paracers and a diplo, and my hardest hitters also being the paracers, so there is still plenty left to obtain and do, I'm just not sure where to start.

The problem I'm facing is that just end up spending hours wandering the map and not actually get anything substantial accomplished. I feel like this is a frequent thing that happens to me and am not sure how to get out of the hole I'm in.

If anyone has any suggestions or advice on things I could do to get out of this groove, such as looking for a specific tame or trying another Ark like Scorched or Aberrant, please do share because I feel like I could really use a little outside guidance. I very much appreciate it, thank you.

[d1nk]

I have this problem from time to time and i found the best way is to set a long term goal or "quest" / RP venture you want to complete. 

 

Eg: You have just those dinos, make a plan you want to obtain a mating pair of say... Rexs or a pack of Allos or whatever dino / mammal you like! 

 

If i get real bored even with these parameters i like to impose artificial limitations on myself for a RP / themed goal. 

 

Eg. No flyers, only mammals, only live off back of pacer (no other or one select other tames) no tame etc.. I will then use that to build a story or theme around it. 

 

 

... my long time friends who play ark with me hate my alt rp toons haha.. 

[DromaeoSapiens]

8 minutes ago, d1nk said:

I have this problem from time to time and i found the best way is to set a long term goal or "quest" / RP venture you want to complete. 

 

Eg: You have just those dinos, make a plan you want to obtain a mating pair of say... Rexs or a pack of Allos or whatever dino / mammal you like! 

 

If i get real bored even with these parameters i like to impose artificial limitations on myself for a RP / themed goal. 

 

Eg. No flyers, only mammals, only live off back of pacer (no other or one select other tames) no tame etc.. I will then use that to build a story or theme around it. 

 

 

... my long time friends who play ark with me hate my alt rp toons haha.. 

Thanks D1nk for the suggestion of questing, I've never been a good goal setter but I'll give it a try. As for imposing limitations, I'm currently trying to rely exclusively on beacon blueprints for saddles.

 

[LouSpowells]

When playing alone I have times where I get just plain bored. Usually then I'll just end up jumping on a fast frog and cruising around. Breeding dinos and fishing can be fun, as can setting up a garden and stocking up on jerky to make kibble. Once you've got a bunch of kibble laying around it almost feels like a waste not to use it, so I usually end up taming stuff I don't need.

Another thing I like doing on PvP servers is die and respawn naked on the beach. Make up a hide set and a bow, and run around trying not to die, and trying to kill anyone I come across with primitive gear. Usually I'll kill a few folks and then leave their stuff in a box where they died. It's not necessarily productive...but it's fun.

[ChargingParacerParacer]

One thing I did when I first started getting bored of the gamme is restrict myself to small dinos and slowly survived my way up to the Redwood then Winter biomes, frequently going up agains't large, dangerous creatures while not having the luxury of taming my own did keep the game fun for a few months. There's also breeding what you have for better stats and exotic colors. You can also mess with the settings at the beginning of the game.

When I do play anymore I have dino attack on 3 which shreds armor on large dinos, 0.5 dino durability which makes em twice as tough. (Not 2.0 learned that the hard way.) I also have meat spoilage on 5 wyich makes even prime meat take a long time to spoil which is good because it's too easy to drown in rotten meat/narcotics. The beginning of the game slowed down a lot and i had myself established by hand by the time i had a steady supply of tranq arrows. I also have 3 times higher gather rates though and 2 times taming with excelled dino hunger so they get hjngry faster when taming. You can change wild/tamed dino stats to your own preference too.

[DromaeoSapiens]

Thank you guys for all the advice, I really appreciate it. It seems breeding is a popular suggestion and is definitely something I've considered. As for multiplayer, I don't imagine I'd be on often enough to maintain any sort of base and animals, whereas on singleplayer I can "pause" and come back without much worry, but thank you either way.

[Umber0010]

try and focus on 1 thing and one thing only, I often find myself scatter brained and don't get anything done, but this one time I was to tired to be a scatterbrain and got a ton done

[SgtMorrigahn]

I've always made this work by setting up a battleplan/to-do list...

If I log into one of my servers, without any type of goal .. I usually ending up with gliding around .. trying to look for some cool things, or just explore, without getting anything done

If I have a battleplan or to-do list .. things are a bit easier to "cope" with

[yekrucifixion187]

I do the wander thing on official but it normally makes me draw up a plan. I rarely set out with a specific tame in mind. Most of my tames are opportunity driven. I like the general hunting aspect because if you go to find something, can't find it, kill everything to make stuff respawn and do that for a few hours (Done it to try and get a Theri on Rag) it becomes tedious and work like, not a game.

Here's how a typical gaming session works for me.

Log in and do some imprints/top off baby troughs. Now in my down times between taming/exploring and especially when waiting for an imprint in 15 minutes I just craft ridiculous amounts of stuff. 20 minutes until imprint. I'll take the Mantis out and get flint and stone (really the perfect balance) and then make spark powder. Oh I still have 10 minutes. Let's take the Mammoth on a quick trek for wood and burn that down for charcoal. (next part is a bit hectic but it's how my mind works so enjoy and try not to scream at the insanity)

Imprint's ready. Wood's burning, spark powder's made. Yuty wants Anky kibble. Ok. hmm. I am less than 10 on each imprint kibble. I'll need to make another batch. Imprint done. I'll harvest the garden. I'll just throw everything in the cooking pot at once (all eggs, all vegetables, cooked, cooked jerkey, prime jerky), ton of mejo Berries and Fiber and turn it on. It'll sort itself out. Got some charcoal lets make gun powder. Oh look at this beaver, I'm raising thorny's let's see if someone wants to trade for it. Put in global chat; Level 284 beaver, born 234, currently 1535 weight. 2k crystal. 

Lets move gunpowder to smithy. Load up some ings. Simple ammo. I'll turn those into darts. Oh let me harvest the narco berries. Let me check kibbles. All done. Need a few more lemons to finish dilo. Ok. I'm set for a bit there. Put darts in bin. More gunpowder on smithy, time to make some advanced rifle ammo. Oh sweet, next imprints are due in 1 hr 30 minutes (before 8 hour timers). (just a small sample).

Anyway, so by doing all of that when I get into my "hmmm, what to do today?" moments, I know I have the resources to just up and go and do whatever like last Sunday. Log in "I want to run the Ice Queen." Grab 1000 rounds of ammo, make recipes, grab armor, boom on my way. You burn through hours of game play that way, it's not tedious or droll, and when it comes time to do the really fun stuff you can just do it because you are well stocked. 

[anubis3691]

I have this problem from time to time and i found the best way is to set a long term goal or "quest" / RP venture you want to complete. 
 
Eg: You have just those dinos, make a plan you want to obtain a mating pair of say... Rexs or a pack of Allos or whatever dino / mammal you like! 
 
If i get real bored even with these parameters i like to impose artificial limitations on myself for a RP / themed goal. 
 
Eg. No flyers, only mammals, only live off back of pacer (no other or one select other tames) no tame etc.. I will then use that to build a story or theme around it. 
 
 
... my long time friends who play ark with me hate my alt rp toons haha.. 

This guy knows how to have fun! >_> wish I was that creative sometimes... I usually find myself wandering around my base for hours thinking I'm doing alot but actually get nothing done..

[lupus142]

You just have to set goals for yourself. i didi the same but i started making a list of things i wanted to do/accomplish and i just work down the list

[d1nk]

4 hours ago, anubis3691 said:

18 hours ago, d1nk said:

I have this problem from time to time and i found the best way is to set a long term goal or "quest" / RP venture you want to complete. 
 
Eg: You have just those dinos, make a plan you want to obtain a mating pair of say... Rexs or a pack of Allos or whatever dino / mammal you like! 
 
If i get real bored even with these parameters i like to impose artificial limitations on myself for a RP / themed goal. 
 
Eg. No flyers, only mammals, only live off back of pacer (no other or one select other tames) no tame etc.. I will then use that to build a story or theme around it. 
 
 
... my long time friends who play ark with me hate my alt rp toons haha.. 

This guy knows how to have fun! >_> wish I was that creative sometimes... I usually find myself wandering around my base for hours thinking I'm doing alot but actually get nothing done..

Hahaha thanks for the compliment! Im not that creative!! Im a constant overthinker which plays havoc on my premade quest haha!! 

[anubis3691]

Hahaha thanks for the compliment! Im not that creative!! Im a constant overthinker which plays havoc on my premade quest haha!! 

You welcome! Lol you should host your own server, it could be like a D&D server with you being the dungeon master [emoji3]!!

[d1nk]

9 hours ago, anubis3691 said:

You welcome! Lol you should host your own server, it could be like a D&D server with you being the dungeon master !!

Lol i do not have the time nor creativity for that but would love to one day play a RP server after Aberration wares off! (Im console though)

[anubis3691]

Lol i do not have the time nor creativity for that but would love to one day play a RP server after Aberration wares off! (Im console though)

I'm console too, What console? I'm on Xbox

[Jtmorris]

Man, I love that I can just wander around and accomplish very little if I want.

For goals on single player we have:

1) Tried starting fresh in each biome
2) Played with no fliers (this is the BEST because everything is an adventure. Need a resource? You have to work for it)
3) get all the artifacts
4) Prepare for the boss fights by taming high levels, breeding, and collecting needed resources
5) Do the bosses!
6) Build some end game tek stuff! 
7) Finish the end game on the Island Map

[DromaeoSapiens]

On ‎12‎/‎16‎/‎2017 at 7:33 AM, yekrucifixion187 said:

I do the wander thing on official but it normally makes me draw up a plan. I rarely set out with a specific tame in mind. Most of my tames are opportunity driven. I like the general hunting aspect because if you go to find something, can't find it, kill everything to make stuff respawn and do that for a few hours (Done it to try and get a Theri on Rag) it becomes tedious and work like, not a game.

Here's how a typical gaming session works for me.

Log in and do some imprints/top off baby troughs. Now in my down times between taming/exploring and especially when waiting for an imprint in 15 minutes I just craft ridiculous amounts of stuff. 20 minutes until imprint. I'll take the Mantis out and get flint and stone (really the perfect balance) and then make spark powder. Oh I still have 10 minutes. Let's take the Mammoth on a quick trek for wood and burn that down for charcoal. (next part is a bit hectic but it's how my mind works so enjoy and try not to scream at the insanity)

Imprint's ready. Wood's burning, spark powder's made. Yuty wants Anky kibble. Ok. hmm. I am less than 10 on each imprint kibble. I'll need to make another batch. Imprint done. I'll harvest the garden. I'll just throw everything in the cooking pot at once (all eggs, all vegetables, cooked, cooked jerkey, prime jerky), ton of mejo Berries and Fiber and turn it on. It'll sort itself out. Got some charcoal lets make gun powder. Oh look at this beaver, I'm raising thorny's let's see if someone wants to trade for it. Put in global chat; Level 284 beaver, born 234, currently 1535 weight. 2k crystal. 

Lets move gunpowder to smithy. Load up some ings. Simple ammo. I'll turn those into darts. Oh let me harvest the narco berries. Let me check kibbles. All done. Need a few more lemons to finish dilo. Ok. I'm set for a bit there. Put darts in bin. More gunpowder on smithy, time to make some advanced rifle ammo. Oh sweet, next imprints are due in 1 hr 30 minutes (before 8 hour timers). (just a small sample).

Anyway, so by doing all of that when I get into my "hmmm, what to do today?" moments, I know I have the resources to just up and go and do whatever like last Sunday. Log in "I want to run the Ice Queen." Grab 1000 rounds of ammo, make recipes, grab armor, boom on my way. You burn through hours of game play that way, it's not tedious or droll, and when it comes time to do the really fun stuff you can just do it because you are well stocked. 

I know what you mean with hunting for tames, many of the mine were just "spur of the moment" where I usually just stumbled upon them, went back to get supplies and tamed them.