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Tips and advice to a new and unimpressed player


Zoglet

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On 9/30/2018 at 12:04 AM, FreelancerKnux said:

Dude there really isn't any protection you can get on official servers, people will always wait until you are offline and then level everything you have leaving you at zero again. This will happen forever regardless of anything on official pvp servers. 

I host an unofficial xbox server if you would like to play the game in a way less toxic environment. Just PM me for details.

 

Also they infected you with swamp fever, the majority of official servers are filled with the infected spreading it to others and because 70% odd are infected with it even after you cure it you will get it back quickly.

Couldn’t find a PM link buddy. If the offer’s still open to join your server I’d like to take it. I’m still surviving and growing but I’ve had a couple of pretty damaging attacks from an extremely high level guy and I don’t think I can be bothered to expend half my energy at my level rebuilding until they get bored only for another to start. I really want to get to see more of the game. At the moment I’m spending almost all of my time repairing or hardening, I’m not spending the game time on the intended play.

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Thanks mate but I think I’m out of luck, I saw in your link this is a PC server right? Im running on XBox. Sorry, never thought to say. 

Same guy came back again and grenaded his way through much of the base and killed all my dinos I’d just learned to tame. Gutted.  Funny part is I respawned in a place next to a box full of spike walls so I walled him in such that he couldn’t get out and eventually had to commit suicide. He was spitting fire and demanded I let him out or he would go nack amd make more and level my base. I laughed and reminded him that was what he was doing until he ran out of grenades. I suspect he knows the game well enough to focus on offline raiding me in the future so I’m pretty much resigned to losing this and moving on soon. I can’t and won’t invest the time as a solo player to get in a bitch fight with a seasoned malcontent. I would have liked to hand the base over to someone powerful enough to give him a taste of his own medicine before leaving though lol. 

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Sounds like you're having a rough time lol.

If you want to level up faster and unlock better stuff I'd jump server and go on the Island to do a note run, Luck by Nature has a video showing how to get to over level 70 in 90 minutes or so, now you have to allow for PvP and other players blocking notes or routes to them so if it's something you want to do just use it as a guide as you probably won't be able to get to some of them, in PvE I prefer to take my time so try to avoid using them but for PvP every advantage helps and it's the first thing I do with a new character, try to focus on speed as well.

You'll be best off teaming up with other players but if you do want to play solo then here's some general tips, don't try and build up right away especially on a beach or somewhere open, the grind is slow and you can easily find yourself being wiped back to step one every day, instead find several spots where you can stash stuff, my personal favourite though is on a floating platform under a raft, quick explanation how to do this: make 10 or so wooden pillars, depends how deep down you want the platform, hide the sail on the raft then grab the rudder and place a pillar on the hole where the mast came out of, place a thatch ceiling on top of it and another going away from the raft, now snap a pillar to the 2nd ceiling and start building downwards, once you reach a decent depth place a thatch ceiling on the bottom pillar then another coming back in under the raft, snap a foundation under the ceiling (can be any material) now you can demolish all the thatch ceilings and pillars and the foundation will be floating, from here you can expand it by snapping thatch ceilings to the edge and adding more foundations, you don't need anything too big so 3x3 should be enough then put some large storage boxes on the platform, you can now move the raft into shallow water so the boxes are hidden under the map then move it out when you want to stash stuff, the raft can be destroyed but they won't be able to get your loot, as long as you have it in a quiet area and are discreet you shouldn't have any issues, I've done this a lot and never lost my stuff, if you don't fancy doing that then at least try and have a few small boxes hidden in either dense foliage or underwater.

For the first few days just build cheap huts for crafting in, a few forges, smithy, fabby and pestles, I'll also make a spare smithy, fabby and maybe some forges and keep them stashed so you can quickly restart after the inevitable wipe, don't run the forges at night as they're too easy to spot, I also put forges down in another location just burning wood for charcoal and leave them running, just collect the charcoal when you've got time and if someone does destroy them it's no biggy, just keep stashing your valuable materials, if you keep them in a base then it's odds on that someone will steal them.

Depending on how much time you've got to put into it after a few days you should have the stuff for a compact metal base with everything you need and maybe some turrets if you want them? personally I think they're a waste of time for a solo player as they're expensive and bullets are a serious grind to make while any organised tribe will be able to soak them up quickly, I prefer to use the mats for making weapons, ammo & explosives then use them to exact revenge on the griefers, I also like to build a few decoy bases if I can afford the mats, something like a 3x2 stone base with doubled up foundations, walls, doors & ceilings so it costs a bit more to get in then have it full of dimorphs or vultures on aggressive with a box containing 200 fibre as a reward ?

Tame wise I go for a few dodos & a phiomia early on so I can get kibble for a ptera, a cheap parasaur or trike for berries, once I've got a decent ptera I'll look for an argent and either prime meat or mutton tame it then get a doed and anky, level isn't that important as long as your argent is pretty good as you can use it to carry the doed and anky about to gather mats (doed will auto harvest stone if you carry it close to rocks) keep the dodos in your hut, berry gatherer just leave somewhere hidden surrounded by spikes, for the flyers, doed and anky it depends how regular you play, if you know you're going to be playing again within 24 hours then upload them at a beacon or obi, remember to upload their saddles in the data tab or you'll lose them, I usually upload all my gear as well then go and find somewhere close by and log out naked, if you can't play for more than 24 hours then leave them with the berry gatherer, don't go building big pens as it'll just attract the great unwashed of PvP ?

The main thing playing solo on PvP is not to get attached to anything, don't keep anything you can't afford to lose in any of your buildings, don't build too big, sleep naked away from your valuables, have plenty of sleeping bags dotted around for re-spawning if you log in and someone has killed you, and just have fun, make a note of who griefs you and give it back to them 10 fold.

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Thanks Knux, I’ll have a look and figure out how to find and join in the next days. Also rage for the long explanation and tips. To be honest I made all the mistakes you mention and am reaping the rewards, big base on the beach. Every tame I have had so far has been killed within the same day so again, not sure I can be bothered. the more recent tribe invite I had was from the griefer who got trapped, hoping that my accepting would give him door access. Not aware of any other, not too sure how to access this info unless online in game. Again, issue is I’m just too new to the game. With the greatest appreciation to all for their support, I reckon it’s soon time to move on, to different location or more likely server. The game is fun but I will always be prey on the small tribes pvp server. Would be nice to have a slower pain and learning curve before getting back in the mayhem. also agree that teaming up would be a way to go, but finding a group of like minded adults looks to also be a challenge. I guess I’m getting too old for this sht lol

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Ark PVE Community is very toxic. Coming from a 3 year veteran. 

 

The current trade community for PVE to be very specific is the most toxic gaming community I've ever come across, so much so that I started to trade again but pulled back after thinking why give these people that act this way to others stats or color combinations that still to this day don't exist on the trade forums? No way. I don't mind buying from them but now I only sell stuff to actual friends that I talk to regularly. Anyone reading this that's tried to buy from me knows this to be true. As a result, people don't have my stats which is far more important to me than a stack of tek walls or color combinations.. due to the current toxic community. I'd rather quit than trade with some of these people. 

 

Who to blame? The top sellers who set the tone for everyone else, they're the ones that push the current trade climate. Not all of them are this way.. being direct is not considered toxic, not wanting to waste time isn't either nor following personal trade rules.. it's the rest that's messed up. Many are so full of themselves over having things that others dont on a dinosaur game that they don't care. Granted most have been nice to me, but I suspect that's because I have stats they don't.. or they're just nice. But to clearly newer players.. they can be outright mean. This for once is not WildCards fault nor the moderators. 

 

Trade Rant done.

 

As for PVP.. I've never really played PVP on Ark but I have with other games. I will find you, I will destroy you. Period. I will show you mercy only to toy with you then make you watch as everything you ever loved or cared for dies infront of your eyes.. what I meant to say is PVP being toxic is another story, it's the nature of the beast. You have alliances that go south, some start them just to conquer you weeks later. It's a reason why private PVPVE servers exist where people don't want that extreme of an environment. I'm serious though if we were on a PVP server, I'd let you build some, then destroy you just so I could get more resources out of you.. milking you essentially from what you have.


Dealing with Ark players in general is simple.. 100% ignore the people you don't like and trade more with the people you do. People HATE when you're the one ignoring them and not begging for help. That's another thing, NEVER beg or act weak with this game. They're like little goblins, they see weakness and wanna eat you. In PVP, trade can be a vital part of building relations.. if you keep feeding a tribes vaults filled with mats they need, chances are they're going to wanna protect you and eventually ally themselves with you. With PVP, think tactical with literally every person/tribe/thing you do. I'm that way with PVE.. so far within the past 3 years it's worked out very well for me. This honestly is what makes me hooked with Ark.. I love strategy in general so being put to the test against other players is fun, even on PVE

 

Why I come back to Ark again and again is mostly because I just like having a "home game" where I can default to a game, build up over time, take long breaks but keep everything alive and then start up again, refreshed and go from there.. I also like seeing other peoples bases (most are ugly af tbh jaja) or seeing a noob on his raft trying to outrun a Leed. 

 

Ark is a horribly addictive game. Most of us have a serious love hate relation but that toxic community is also a reason why a lot of us play because at the end of the day you do meet a lot of great people and have a lot of memorable experiences you cant get in any other game. 

 

 

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play unofficial or it will suck. If you want you can join my server, it has a week of the season left so my tribe has everything you'd need to  try things out, see game content, etc. Could raid or build, do boss fights, etc., then if you like it you can jjoin the 6 man tribe when server wipes on friday.

I know for me personally I wouldnt play ark if there was only official and no servers with 30x or higher. Im not trying to grind like a slave or wait hours for a dino to tame. lol However, there are servers that ar elike that and hence i have 5k hoursXD

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Hey knux, again thx for the invite, I tried your server but to be honest I found it almost harder. I can’t move 200 yards before I’m attacked by a level 150 argy or sabre tooth. Maybe I’m doing something wrong or I’m just lame lol. Fab thanks for your feedback, sadly not encouraging to hear pve is just as bad in it’s own way. I guess I’m just getting too old for this sht lol. I thought I bought into a dinosaur game and then some. Of course you get all sorts in an MMO. I managed to survive long enough in nigh a solid days play outside of US and weekend hours to recover and grow enough to tame a few dilos and a lvl 150 trike but seeing as I play solo and have a life outside of the recent 12 hour stints, I’ve had a day away from the game so will no doubt return to a zeroed base with all dinos killed and I reckon that’ll be it for me. If not then it will be inevitable that the weekend warriors will do same come friday and saturday. yes it sounds like I barely scratched the surface, but there seems literally no way I see without investing significantly more time in the game than I reasonaly have that any real progression could be made and maintained. This is the first game in a very long time, as long as i can recall in fact, that I’ll be walking away from. Thanks everyone nonetheless for their time and patience in providing guidance and support. All the best to you all and best wishes and good luck in the game.

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Don't walk away man, stay away from official for starters and probably PvP as well until you at least have a good grip on how the game works and even then you might not want to go back to it anyway, I play both modes as I like to build up and tame etc but also get that PvP itch which is a different play style for me, also ignore what Fab says about toxic PvE, he's right about official but there's plenty of good communities out there on unofficial servers, most of them will be boosted (some too boosted imho) so you'll have faster progression to fit in with your life.

Check out the server advertisements on here in the Xbox section, have a look on https://arkservers.online/ where you can set filters to find something which might suit you better or just look in the ingame browser, set it to unofficial and PvE and I'm sure you'll find something, I don't play on Xbox so can't recommend anything.

Try and start on the Island (south 1 spawn) or Ragnarok (jungle 1 or 2 or SW2/SW3 spawns) you'll have an easier start, still chance of running into the odd raptor early game but there's usually nothing more dangerous unless you're really unlucky.

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On 10/17/2018 at 3:17 PM, Ninjasharrk said:

Look up unofficial pve servers , the stats can be boosted a bit and taming times can be adjusted making the game a bit more fast paced and they usually have a great community that'll help you get kn your feet , could even come to my server if you want

There's also a Tribe Wars option on PvE - you get the best of both worlds. PvE to get built up and have some fun with the base game, Tribe Wars for consensual PvP on the schedule y'all can agree on.

 

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The way you presented and replied is very nice, thank you first for this. Now, on the other side, you need a plan.. this game is designed to keep you playing for months if not years once you start enjoying it. I learned the hard way, jumping servers and starting fresh on both PVP and PVE, also played on single player and built massive fortresses :P 

However, going to youtube and checking what others made and done, I started to understand more and enjoy more... yes, I did enjoy getting killed many times on PVP and enjoyed trying to tame a dodo on PVE and not be able to do that. Then I made a plan, killing others was not my game, I want the story and fighting bosses with an army so PVE was the answer. So I joined a young (in days) EU PVE server, as I travel a lot around the world I had to get a server with the lowest ping wherever I was, and built as many pillars I can carry and tamed easiest argi i can find and flew around until I found what could be my large future base. 

Now one thing you may notice, PVE got more nice people than PVP. However, less space and mostly tame capped. If you stick on that server long enough you will learn when to tame and how to handle the tame cap... my tribe now is tame capped. Many helped me and still do until today, and I would be a very ungrateful person if I didn't return it to them and new players. 

So, make a plan (or decision) what you want to do.. if PVP is your thing don't waste your time building your tribe on official server and search for a good tribe that you can join. Playing alone won't get you anywhere in my opinion. Actually, even in PVE you need a tribe, am suffering now as I can't find players who want to join a tribe on PVE and think they can do it solo, and when they discover its not playable solo they simply leave the server or the game entirely 

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Zoglet how’s it going? Sounds like you’ve had it rough! I wish you were on PS4 i would have invited you over to the server! You’ve gotta try unofficial PVE servers. Search the forums for someone looking for players on their PVE servers. I’m not a fan of pvp but I LOVE this game. I joined a fellas pve server that I found off the forums at the start of October. The guy sent us a password to log on so not just anyone could hop on and ruin your day. We played through The Island in a group of about 10 people together taming and building, we fought all of the bosses and then moved on to Scorched Earth the next month. Beat those together, and now we are on Aberration. We’re beating it together so that when November rolls around we’re ready to go for Extinction. The playthrough has been great and the veterans have taught everyone and walked us through the caves of every map. The experience on private PVE servers are the best experiences you can have when it comes to just playing the game with others and find a friendly community. Definitely check those out!

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I play on a cooperative private server. This has allowed me to build my skills and have fun at the same time. My grown children haven't been extremely helpful at times believing it better for me to struggle to learn.  They are very advanced players but I have learned (thanks google!) and can keep up now.  

We will have two tribes at some point but we have it set on our server that you can't destroy other peoples' stuff. That would be dreadful!  I have seen some servers as advertised as cooperative. Start there. You can learn a lot from observing.

First thing, pound a tree and pick up rocks. Make an ax and a pick.  Pick berries to eat. Next a torch. Then a bow and arrow. As soon as you do that make a small shelter. To begin, make that shelter close to water. Start with a thatch shelter if you must but get it done ASAP. Upgrade it to wood and then stone as soon as you can.  Campfire is very important too.  It can also keep you warm.

The first things you might kill are Dodos. You need hide and meat. As soon as you can, tame animals to assist you. Your first big animal may be a triceratops which increases what you can harvest from the woods and the ground. You will need to make a pestle and mortar to make narcotics.  Narcoberries and rotten meat are needed plus the level achieved in which to make narcotics. 

ARK is a game that takes time to master. It can be fun if you aren't playing with a bunch of aggressive people.  I have played for a year and logged over 1,000 hours. I love my wolf pack for hunting. My tribe breeds dozens of animals for eggs to make kibble. 

Find a place to play with others until you can learn. Then you can move on to battle others. 

Julie

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thank you Julie for your thoughts but I’m well beyond that point. The issue is a more experienced griefer who has taken it upon himself to mess me up whenever he’s online, killing dinos, blowing up the base. I made a lot of wrong choices when I first started, so on a sense it’s my own fault. Still it would be easier if it wasn’t for this one guy. also TheSeay, I hear from here that pve has it’s own problems. Saying that I may end up giving one a go, or back to retrying knux’s kind invite.

jbokhary thank you for the in depth feedback. I think you have hit the nail on the head in many ways. My real problem is that I do enjoy the pvp concept, but I’m simply not advanced enough to protect myself from or payback on anyone taking an interest in  griefing. Teaming up may have some benefits (ultimately being a necessity) but it also results in yu being less able to play your own game. I’ve already tried this a few times and found it frustrating to be in party chat with a bunch of kids screaming or even playing other games in parallel. I think if I ever found a more adult tribe that would be interested in playing seriously, they probably would be looking for players who would dedicate time regularly, rather than as and when they can beside other commitments like work.

The game is great, no doubt about it, but unfortunately, being a truly global free for all, you simply can’t expect everyone to want to play the same way as you, and the game can’t do much about this sort of stuff without impacting overall game play, I get it. It is what it is. Deal wih it or move on.

For these reasons, I don’t think I’ll be playing much more to be honest, it just demands far more time than I can afford to give in order to see any progression, and the fact that at any point you can be brought back to zero through no real fault of your own and have to restart simply does not appeal. I’ll pop in every now and again to smell the flowers but I doubt I will invest any more time in trying to develop. Maybe look at pve, but already, the work in rebuilding from zero doesn’t appeal, and then to find only much later im the game that someone has used some exploit to mean you can’t access some necessary resource? no thanks.

Saying that, I wish all of you all the best in it and take my hat off to you, you’re more patient than I ?

Expensive lesson learned.

Thanks all

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  • 2 months later...

Well you know what? I guess I have to eat my own words. Two months later and I’m still playing XD

PVP was painful but I held on and met some really cool people, including a couple of the alphas who wiped the server, including me. The guy was in fact cool enough to let me ride on his quetz into his base and see his set up, which was like being on another world. The scale of what his tribe had done in the course of a single week just didn’t seem possible. I was less than microscopic in comparison. And then a week later they got wiped. and then a week after that the guys who wiped them got wiped. I suppose on the grand scheme of things I had less to rebuild lol. Anyway, I had a lot of fun with a lot of cool people, including a lot of the guys who actually gave me grief came back and helped out. It’s all about attitude, I guess I was unlucky with the troll at the beginning. I still maintain that a short tutorial on what the different play types mean and impact they have would be very helpful, at least to keep you off the most aggressive servers in the beginning. I’ve actually given PVP a rest for a while and started a single player game in the last couple of weeks which I’ve found massively more rewarding when playing at my pace. Not having to rebuild each week has meant I’ve progressed and learned a massive amount. I’ve tamed a ton of creatures and learned more about their uses. I’ve got to pearn about the map and the resources. Yup, gotta say, Ark is pretty cool, albeit for the quality and performance issues that still remain on console. Still, it’s been a lot of fun, and I can see myself returning once I’ve got to lnow the ins and outs a bit better. Happy New Year everyone and thanks again for the kind words of advice and encouragement ?

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/6/2019 at 11:36 PM, Zoglet said:

Well you know what? I guess I have to eat my own words. Two months later and I’m still playing XD

PVP was painful but I held on and met some really cool people, including a couple of the alphas who wiped the server, including me. The guy was in fact cool enough to let me ride on his quetz into his base and see his set up, which was like being on another world. The scale of what his tribe had done in the course of a single week just didn’t seem possible. I was less than microscopic in comparison. And then a week later they got wiped. and then a week after that the guys who wiped them got wiped. I suppose on the grand scheme of things I had less to rebuild lol. Anyway, I had a lot of fun with a lot of cool people, including a lot of the guys who actually gave me grief came back and helped out. It’s all about attitude, I guess I was unlucky with the troll at the beginning. I still maintain that a short tutorial on what the different play types mean and impact they have would be very helpful, at least to keep you off the most aggressive servers in the beginning. I’ve actually given PVP a rest for a while and started a single player game in the last couple of weeks which I’ve found massively more rewarding when playing at my pace. Not having to rebuild each week has meant I’ve progressed and learned a massive amount. I’ve tamed a ton of creatures and learned more about their uses. I’ve got to pearn about the map and the resources. Yup, gotta say, Ark is pretty cool, albeit for the quality and performance issues that still remain on console. Still, it’s been a lot of fun, and I can see myself returning once I’ve got to lnow the ins and outs a bit better. Happy New Year everyone and thanks again for the kind words of advice and encouragement ?

just dont forget not to be too comfortable when you decide to go back to pvp, its easy to get complacent in single player not having to pay attention when flying around corners or caves to run into turret towers.

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  • 6 months later...

Sorry for long delay, thank Rip, you're right, but again, to be honest, I'm not sure that PvP is really my play style. I like coop and I don't mind a bit of PvP but I can't be bothered to spend hours building up something to then have someone insanely OP just stamp it out in an hour. I still play on PvP but keep small and see how far I can get before I get wiped. Noit very far usually. Otherwise I'm playing SP and loving it, because it gives me the opportunity to actually build and play at my own pace, no risk of massive losses if I find I have to take a break for a while. 

I'm actually back on the idea of checking out a friendly unoffical PVE server to try playing a few new found friends so again, thanks to all for the hints, pointers and offers.

@RageQuitterthanks for the server list site, using it now.

@TheSeay also thanks, I've been playing for almost a year now (funny to read first posts) but still solo so yeah, masses still to see, not got as far as to find artifacts yet and defeat bosses even lol, but got my way around many creatures, tamed and bred a fair few, built LOTS and am in the process of putting together a cave raiding plan. My first attempt at a cave resulted in me losing basically all my best equipment thatI'd spent the best part of Christmas chasing Raptor Claus for. Only after doing so did I find out that, yes be prepared for all cave creatures to instaspawn on you first time you enter and oh yes, there's a good chance when you die, your corpse will fall through the floor and not be recoverable. If only I knew about creative and ghost mode then. So many tears would have been saved lol. Oh yeah and the time a level 180 alpha rex soaked up all the bullets, arrows, dinos I had and then chewed through a months worth of base leaving me with nothing, only to find out I could have killed it with the blink rifle XD

I love how even in SP, this game is out to get you. You are never safe. Never. It should be called Australia. Everything in it is out to kill you.

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