A couple of newb questions

[Ryan220]

Hello all

New player here with a couple of questions.

I've been playing  for a few weeks now on PVE official and I am enjoying it immensely – especially the survival aspect of game (because the server is tame capped most of the time). Its pretty much everything I ever wanted in a survival game with dinos thrown in. Awesome game.

Anyway, I built myself a house on the Footpaw and have been just chilling in the immediate area, with only the occasional trip east to 76-45 to get some metal. Im not very adventurous and have basically just been surviving.

But now I fancy a bit of a sailing trip West and North to 45-18 to scout out an overland trip to the Grands Hills – Im hoping to find some obsidian there so I can make some scissors to cut off my beard (my needs are simple). Perhaps even set up a FOB there for future runs. Maybe I’ll even tame a Raptor along the way as I've always wanted one.

But mostly I just want to have an exploratory trip along the coast to see what it is like. I've built a raft with a few necessities on it (preserving bin, storage, camp fire etc) and I can forage for food along the way. Its going to be an in-game vacation which I am very much looking forward to.

1)      Whilst Im on my sailing trip, how many in-game days can I afford to be away from my dinos before they starve?

2)      I think I read in a recent post that structures/ dinos can get deleted even if you log on, but don’t get them to render – is this something I need to be concerned about if my boat trip takes a bit longer then I planned?

3)      Id like to take a Pteranadon with me as a scout flyer,  but the last time I tried taking one for a trip on my raft,  it didn’t move when my raft did and got left behind – is this WAI? It would be nice to be able to take a Ptera along and it would also be nice to be able to bring back any Raptors I tame. Did I suffer a one-time glitch or is dino raft transport too buggy to trust?

Thanks for reading

Ryan

[RageQuitter]

Rafts can be a bit glitchy, usually around beaches and rocks sticking out of the water where you can kind of sail through them but if any tames touch the beach/rock they act as though they were stood on it, you can always extend your raft so you've got more room for storing tames, plenty of vids on youtube showing how to do it, look for xONEWINGx as he's one of the best raft builders.

If you're looking for obsidian you're better off just flying to the volcano from the footpaw as the only obsidian in the north is in the snow biome and you might not be able to stay out in it for long unless you have some decent fur gear or have been levelling fortitude, plus a lot of it is in dangerous areas, might not be too bad if you have a bed on your raft and a spare ptera so you can quickly get back and get your stuff and other ptera, also if you go to far north on a raft it can get a bit tricky to navigate because of the ice flows, you'll be forced out into open water so might run the risk of getting aggro off a Leeds, if you want to do some exploring on a raft then I'd stick to the south coast, keep tight to the beaches then go up the east coast, think the east is Leeds free, I've never run into any in that area anyway and usually give the swamp a wide berth if I've got tames on the raft as I've had sarcos and kapros aggro on them.

In all honesty I would just scout the map on a ptera, it doesn't take long so you don't have to worry about your base getting deleted or tames starving, that way you can see who's built where and then maybe look to set up some outposts near resources.

[Globy]

 

Aaron Longstaff

Done a beautifull boat too if you're looking for a "RP/nice looking" boat

[ShakerDazzy]

I used to love my early time in ark doing just this... Exploring by raft. Make your raft into a small mobile base, put the basics in there including a bed and you can fast travel back to your main base to feed your pets and reset any timers...and then fast travel back to your raft, although your dinos wont die of hunger for several real time actual days. Your bird will be fine, sometimes they slide off with lag, wait a few seconds and they should slide back on once the server catches back up...you could always set it to follow if you like...good luck on your explorations!!!

[Ballzack]

Ah a kindred spirit! My main home is on the footpaw. Unfortunately what Ragequitter said basically nails it. Your honest best bet would be to tame a pteradon and fly over the redwood biome to the base of the mountains where Argents spawn, build yourself a platform so your Pterry is safe, and work on taming an Argent. (I'd shoot for a low level one and level it up, minimizing the amount of time your in such a risky area). Have the argy follow your pterry back home and slap a saddle on that bad boy (I think it unlocks in the 50s? If your spamming storage crates that shouldnt be too hard to reach) and voila! 

I usually make a volcano trip once a day on one of our argies. They half the weight of metal and obsidian so you can load them up pretty decent and make the flight back home in time for tea.

 

Fair advice for sailing: Use the alt look often, and watch under the boat. The large whales can eat your raft in 4-5 bites, the alpha versions in 1-2. So be careful my friend! Throw a bed campfire and a preserving bin on your raft for long distance incursions! Good luck and have fun!

 

 

EDIT: FOR LARGER RAFTS: 

To put it as easily as I can if you make a stone fence foundation, it has holes in the top of it. if you place the second hole perfecttly where the mast is, you can snap a wooden pillar to the rear end of the foundation, which would be right around the center of the raft. At this point you can snap down 9 wooden foundations all around the raft, greatly inreasing the surface area of the boat, as well as allowing you to snap walls and ceilings onto it making it much larger. If you want to get crazier than that you can snap pointed wood foundations along the front and create a proper bow. 

 

(cell phone pic, sorry for quality)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/119n5JiEKixqaAb-J4frkxZkM983Q_vP-/view?usp=sharing

[Kawarriorking]

I envy you my friend, your first raft trip around the island is a special thing. So much to see and explore. As stated above your ptera will get clipped on rocks and other water obstacles which can knock it off your raft. An EZ solution is to build a crows nest. Put 5-6 pillars stacked and a small platform on top. Be careful not to block your field of vision with it or it will make sailing the boat difficult. Then you can perch your ptera on that and it should be above most things it will clip on (also keeps it safe from sarcos and megladons).

 

                                                                                                                    may good winds find you! 

[Ryan220]

Thanks for all if the replies everyone. Much appreciated.

Lots for me to think about and learn in the posts.

Ive decided to take my time with Ark and enjoy each stage.

Having played (and still playing) DDO for 8 years I know what its like for a game to become a grindfest hence my wanting to really get the most out Ark whilst Im still new.

Believe it or not, Im level 70 and havent really gone anywhere yet, but Ive got so much to explore. Ive got a couple of Pteras and Dilos but thats about it really. I built myself a small second house with a balcony on the Footpaw today, on the cliff at 81-31 just so I had somewhere to chill in between gather resources.  My kids think Im weird for enjoying it, but what do they know :-)

Yup, Im really liking this game.

Thanks again all

Edit added...Ive also hatched and am raising my first Dino today - a Dilo. Getting it to hatch took a long old time without aircon. I could only get the egg out from 0400 to 0700 for the correct temperatures, but its worth it now I have my first home grown.

[Moonie1]

While piloting the raft, whistle your ptera to follow. It will follow the raft and fly along with you as you boat along. No issues with rocks knocking it off that way.

I feed my official dinos every 7 real days. On Sundays, when hopefully its an event for x2 food gathering. They have gone longer than 7 days without food but you run the risk of smaller dinos dying from starvation if you push it further. 7 days without food is fine as long as they were topped off to start with.

 

Edit: Oh yeah, I do log in every Wed to reset timers on buildings. I know I have more time I just like to be safe. So between logging in on Wed and Sun all of my buildings never decay (adobe/stone/metal/wooden ladders).

[Ryan220]

Thanks for the info.

If my Ptera gets tired/ runs out of stamina whilst its following my raft, were will it rest? Or is it a case of it will never run out of stamina whilst noone is riding it?

The advice about the sleeping bags is excellent. I never even knew they worked like that. I assume I can teleport at anytime (barring cooldowns) and that my inv needs to be empty?

I am free to start my boat trip at any time now as sadly my baby Dino passed away over night due to starvation - pretty sure I put 20 raw and 30 cooked in its inv before I logged off. Oh well, theres always next time.

Ive tried to give rep to people that have posted advice but cant see how to do it - I assume its because my own post count is too low being new.

Cheers

[azurebell]

1 hour ago, Ryan220 said:

Thanks for the info.

If my Ptera gets tired/ runs out of stamina whilst its following my raft, were will it rest? Or is it a case of it will never run out of stamina whilst noone is riding it?

The advice about the sleeping bags is excellent. I never even knew they worked like that. I assume I can teleport at anytime (barring cooldowns) and that my inv needs to be empty?

I am free to start my boat trip at any time now as sadly my baby Dino passed away over night due to starvation - pretty sure I put 20 raw and 30 cooked in its inv before I logged off. Oh well, theres always next time.

Ive tried to give rep to people that have posted advice but cant see how to do it - I assume its because my own post count is too low being new.

Cheers

Make sammiches and drinks in a cooking pot.

That way you do not have to constantly hunt for food. ( raw meat for sammiches and berries for drinks )

You write it on a note inside the cooking pot. All ingredients should  put in the pot ( clarification )

 .One sandwich could potentially fill your food level and one drink could fill your water. There is recepies online you can find. 

Make sure your dinos have food leveled in case you need to stay away for more then 3 days. Do not worry, if you level the food, you can breed new babies , from the same dino, that will not have the food leveled.What you do with a dino does not affect babus.

Little ones tend to die since their food level is low. If you can get 8 metal, make a feeder, for your dinos and fill it before you leave for your trip. 

Your inventory indeed needs to be empty, to transport with a sleeping bag. Anything left on you, will just be left behind. Btw, i am not sure, but it is one sleeping bag use only..?          (i kinda forgot it, since i stopped using them  ) i think they vanish after one use. But maybe i am wrong.

Stamina does not go down while you are not riding your ptera. Unless it is a bug. It should be fine to follow you. Make sure to always be in a rendering distance, cos sometimes they stop. And have it on medium follow. You can change that in behavior settings. That way it will not be too close to you or too far away. If it is attacked and on neutral it might fly high up in the air, if it is on passive it will not hit back and if it is on agressive it will agro on anything around it. Argies can be a problem so be careful. 

It is all i can think of right now. Good luck on your trip. 

 

[RageQuitter]

2 hours ago, Ryan220 said:

Thanks for the info.

If my Ptera gets tired/ runs out of stamina whilst its following my raft, were will it rest? Or is it a case of it will never run out of stamina whilst noone is riding it?

The advice about the sleeping bags is excellent. I never even knew they worked like that. I assume I can teleport at anytime (barring cooldowns) and that my inv needs to be empty?

I am free to start my boat trip at any time now as sadly my baby Dino passed away over night due to starvation - pretty sure I put 20 raw and 30 cooked in its inv before I logged off. Oh well, theres always next time.

Ive tried to give rep to people that have posted advice but cant see how to do it - I assume its because my own post count is too low being new.

Cheers

I've never raised dilos so no idea how long it takes and how much food you need but just checked crumplecorn and it's 64 raw meat through baby stage and another 395 once it hits juvenile through to adult, cooked meat more or less doubles the amount needed, then you also have to allow for spoiling as well, it's just short of 23 hours on 1x including incubation so if you decide to hatch another it'll be better to do it during a 2x weekend.

Be careful on your trip, the island isn't great for rafts to be honest because of the leeds, biggest problem I found on official was the number of big bases with water pens where you have to go out into open water and can't get back to shallow water if you get attacked, lost quite a few rafts doing that, if you've got stuff you can't afford to lose then put it in your ptera, make a few grapple hooks before you set off so if you do get sunk you can grapple the ptera and get on it if you're not close to a beach, also check weight before leaving as well, nothing worse than getting sunk and grappling a ptera only to find you can't move , best thing is just take the basics and leave anything you can't afford to lose in your base.

Try and keep some mats on you for repairs, wood, fibre & hide, the raft doesn't say how much you need so make sure you've got plenty, if you get hit by a regular leeds wait until the 3rd or 4th hit before repairing, takes 6 hits to sink you, if it's an alpha then pray as it only takes 2 hits ?

If you're on PC then use K cam, keep it zoomed out and just under the surface to look out for them then just switch between normal and K cam when you need to steer, it's a bit harder to do the switching on consoles with the radial menu and that, one thing I've found is that I can outrun a regular leeds if I have K cam zoomed out in front of the raft, for some reason a lot of the attacks seem to miss but that is on my own server on the same network my PC is on so have virtually no lag, I wouldn't be surprised if lag on official made it harder to outrun them, good luck anyway ?

[DiamondLlama]

22 hours ago, Kawarriorking said:

...build a crows nest...

That right there is a brilliant suggestion! Over 1 000 hours in game and I'm so excited to go and do that tonight! Thanks!

OP: If your heart is set on a boat journey, I would recommend you stay in the South Sea. Go and visit the dude who took over Herbivore Island and tack the coastline so you can spot a nice raptor. That crows nest would serve as a great vantage point and taming platform too!

Personally, I'm an flyer kind of guy, so I recommend you go get an Argy. It really changes the game. If you can manage it, tame a Icthyornis first so that you have easy access to prime meat. Don't go up against the argy alone though, someone on the map will have set up a taming pen in the Redwood Area, and it probably is unlocked for public use. Just ask in local!