Jump to content

Need Some Dino Suggestions for Aberration


Kage360

Recommended Posts

Hello, so My Friends and I are playing through each of the Story Maps by beating the Alpha Version of the Main Boss, leading up to release of Genesis Part 2, the we have agreed on taking 1 or 2 dinos with us each time we go to a new map I'll break down the rules we've created that determine what we can and cannot bring with us
- No Flyers can be brought with us
- 1 Dino if it is bigger in length than a Carno (Head to Tail)
- 2 if they are smaller in Length than a Carno (Head to Tail)
- Cannot bring a Mate Boosted Pair
- Cannot Bring the Same Type of Creature as Someone Else
Now I'll break down what dinos are being brought by the others
- [Friend 1] Baryoynx and Daeodon
- [Friend 2] Dire Wolf and Unicorn
- [Friend 3} Spino
- [Friend 4] Nothing
- [Friend 5] Undecided
- [Friend 6] Undecided
- [Me] Thylacoleo and Undecided


So any suggestions here would be good
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well one thing to keep in mind is that not only are flyers not allowed on AB, only dinos that spawn their naturally are allowed to be brought over with the exception of some extinction dinos.

So the Daedon, dire wolf, thyla do not spawn there and you wont be able to bring them unless there are some private server shenanigans going on there. There are equus there but I have never seen a unicorn, nor is it on the wiki of AB creatures so not sure if thats able to be brought. Also the procoptodon as the last person said is not able to be brought either unfortunately.

Baryonyx is able to be brought, and as for dinos that are worth using on ab, most of them are better off being gotten on ab as they will be aberrant versions with slightly different base stats and some will have the ability to survive the radiation that normal creatures will die from. Spinos, megalos, ravagers are the most commonly used dinos there Id say. Also karkinos I guess but its usefulness is dwindled in my opinion since magmasaur came out which can also suprisingly be able to be brought to ab.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A Mana would be the most useful dino that the game will let you bring, but if you're coming from SE that's not an option.

We found that the best dinos on Aberration were ones that we found there. Little things like the Bulbdogs and bigger things like the Rock Drake are essential to surviving the harder parts of the map. Ravagers and Roll Rats are useful too, but again, only found there.

If I were in your spot I'd bring some good resource gatherers, like a Doed or an Anky, and be prepared to do lots of taming and breeding upon arrival.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You can only bring certain creatures to Aberration. You can only bring non-flyers (Managarmr doesn't count) that either have aberrant variants, or are from a DLC/map that came out after Aberration (Deinonychus, Bloodstalker, etc) I would recommend bringing things to help with base building, so ankies, doeds and stegos now that they can harvest wood and thatch. As soon as you can, tame a Karkinos as their ability to carry 2 tames around makes harvest resources all the more easier. That being said Aberration is best suit for the creatures found there, don't rely too much on old tames for too long, as eventually they will likely be killed as Aberration is one of the harder maps. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Bueno yo diría algo grande y poderoso para defenderse en la superficie hay muchos ravanger que además de atacar en manada sacan mucha vida si vas a llevar pocos dinos yo por lo menos llevaría un rex y el resto se tamea en el mapa y tal vez un anky y un castoroides en ab los árboles dan poca madera (por lo menos cuando empiezan escacea)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OK I want to clarify it is a private server we are doing so yes we are doing the setting that allows any dino, I'm aware of the radiation thing we are not planning on taking theses dinos down into that zone to be killed, and so far we have only been on the Island and Sorched Earth so we haven't had access to any dinos that came in extinction, and genesis yet, what we brought from the island that is unique to Scorched Earth was a spino and a Bary both of which are being taken to the next map as well by my friends, I brought a Rex from the island but with the wyverns he has become a paper weight and wouldn't be useful again until Extinction which I can get new rexs there, and I plan on taking a Reaper King to Extinction when we are done with Aberration, but I'm dead set on Thylaco for Aberration, just want suggestions for the 2nd dino

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Given your self imposed rules and the fact you already bringing a thyla ( excellent choice btw ), I'd probably go with a Theri.

Not sure if a Theri would fit you rules size wise thou.

A good mantis from SE using their tool slot will serve you well if you have one ( it can gather anything efficiently depending on what tools you slot in and can also fight if you give it a sword).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Theri would have been a great choice if I had brought the one I had over from the island instead of a rex, unfortunately it's not on SE plus it's definitely bigger that a carno, but Mantis would be a great choice I have a breeding pair of them on SE already, but I'll have to think about it, I'm bringing a thyla for an early game way of getting around until I can get a hold of a rock drake

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/10/2020 at 2:36 PM, Kage360 said:

Hello, so My Friends and I are playing through each of the Story Maps by beating the Alpha Version of the Main Boss, leading up to release of Genesis Part 2

...

So any suggestions here would be good

Hi Kage, I have a private server and bunch of friends and we're doing the same thing you are.

I have suggestions, but whether they're good for you depends a great deal on how much of a challenge you and your friends want, and how much time you want to spend progressing through each map and by extension how much time you want to spend progressing through the game. Which is to say, do you want to "beat ARK" in 6 months or are you all happy to play for a couple of years, fully and deeply experiencing every map?

 

* Suggestion 1 - don't allow the use of any engrams/recipes from maps that you haven't gotten to yet. For example, when you move from Scorched Earth to Ragnarok and/or Aberration then allow yourselves to use whips but don't allow the use of mining drills yet, which weren't in the game when SE was released.

 

* Suggestion 2 - don't allow all dinos on every map, especially predators/carnivores. When each of the maps were new a big part of the thrill/challenge/fun was only being able to use the species that were native to that new map. Each map has its own unique feeling and flavor and if you play each map on its own terms you'll get more enjoyment from them in the long run.

For example: A big part of what makes Aberration fascinating and challenging is that it uses the 3rd dimension in a completely new and interesting way. The first four maps are just big flat spaces and all you need is a flyer or a good carnivore to travel anywhere you want to go with zero difficulty. They use the third dimension a little bit but not even close to what they did with Aberration. If you take a Thylacoleo into Ab then you're instantly negating the need to have ravagers for your early-game progress, and ravagers are a big part of the feeling and ambience. Even ravagers have their limits, they're not apex predators, they're not going to be used for meat farming, what they're important for is scouting, exploring, speed and maneuverability. The only thing a ravager can do that a thylacoleo can't is use ziplines but honestly if you have a good thyla then you simply won't care. I assure you that that one benefit won't matter, bringing a thyla with you instantly demotes ravagers to nothing more than an interesting novelty. A thyla will be able to go anywhere you actually care about at first and it's a good predator for meat farming. If you want to get the most enjoyment out of Aberration then don't bring any animals that allow you to defeat the unique nature of the Aberration map without any effort. Climbing hooks, ziplines, ravegers - these are all important elements in enjoying the challenges (and the story) of Ab, they are a big part of what gives that map its unique flavor.

I could make the same case for other maps beyond Aberration but you get the idea. Speaking as someone who's doing the exact same thing you and your friends are doing, I think sticking to the native species will make each new map more challenging & fun for you.

 

Suggestion 3 - maybe make an exception for harvesters, but only one of each.

As you progress from map-to-map-to-map you'll find that some of the early part of each map gets a little tiresome. The first day or two when you're struggling to survive and build some 2x2 thatch huts as you decide where your main base is going to be will continue to be fun on each map, but as soon as you start building that starting base the game gets tedious for 2-3 weeks, as you find more & better harvesting animals and gather the resources to build a stone base that's the right size and configuration for your group, including creating a pen for your tames using dino gates or whatever building method you use. If you bring an anky (metal & flint), doed (stone) and a thatch harvester (either a megaloceros or gigantopiethecus, depending on what's native to each map) then you can make this somewhat tedious period a lot better. You can still have the first few exciting days, and you can still have the sense or progression as you branch out and explore the map, but honestly building your first "main base" on each map will start getting old pretty quickly.

 

Suggestion 4 - limit predators/carnivores to Lvl 100 or less.

Any predator from any map is super OP if they're over Lvl 100 when you're first starting out. They're going to get a bunch of levels right away, levels that usually go into melee and make them even more OP and they pretty much strip away any sense of risk or danger when you're new to the map. Even if you bring a species that's native to the map (for example taking dire bears or carnos to Aberration) it's just so boringly easy to lay waste to everything while riding your OP carnivore that you might as well not even bother with playing for the first two weeks of progress. You might as well just use cheat commands to fly to your location, spawn in a bunch of stone building materials and build your base in a few hours. Powerful predators are such an important part of the goals on each map that any powerful predator with you negates any sense of struggle or progress for your first 2-4 weeks. The only way to lose a high level predator on any map is by making a really stupid mistake, it's a recipe for making each new map feel boring during your first couple of weeks.

For what it's worth, we go into each new map with new Lvl 1 characters and we don't bring any animals with us. For the first few of days we have that exciting "new character" experience where everything is dangerous & exciting and we have to work together as a tribe to get established in our first chosen location. This also puts us in a position where we can't build every engram at first, we enjoy that feeling of earning the progress to get to generators, refrigerators, etc. Then, some time after Lvl 50 but before we do our first cave run, we swap out our new-temporary characters and we bring in the characters that we played on previous maps for the caves & boss fights. But even when we bring in our permanent characters, we still continue to play the map with the species restrictions. Playing on a private server is just so much easier than playing on Official that we have found that the species restrictions help make each map more enjoyable. It makes sense on the Official servers that they eventually open up each new map to allow more and more species, but for a private server where you can use mods and custom configurations to make each map as easy or as hard as you want it to be, we have found that we have more fun only using native species.

 

* Suggestion 5 - a couple of good QoL (quality of life) mods, like Structures Plus or something comparable.

These are the QoL mods we use - Structures Plus, Super Spyglass (Open Source), JP's ARKNav GPS HUD.

Our goal is to use mods that take care of tragically boring busy-work tasks (like gathering poop for dung beetles) and filling in the gaps that we don't like. I understand why Official ARK has GPS that are lame, but understanding it doesn't necessarily make it fun.

And even with S+, we don't allow ourselves to use any S+ engrams that are from future maps. We use the same rule for S+ engrams that we use for vanilla engrams, we only use engrams that were in the game when that map was released.

 

* Suggestion 6:  If you have anyone in your group that really likes building there are some great building/architecture mods.

We use use "CKF remastered" (Castles, Keeps & Forts, remastered), but there are multiple good mods out there that builders can use to scratch that itch. I'm not much of a builder personally, after years of playing ARK I still build blocky, barely decorated, rectangular block buildings, but if anyone in your group enjoys making aesthetically pleasing buildings then a good building add-on will keep them more interested and as an added benefit the rest of you will have better looking buildings to enjoy in your bases.

 

* Suggestion 7: but... not too many mods.

I think mods are an essential part of what makes ARK a great game, but too many of them can end up making the game less enjoyable. Having a zillion engrams available makes the engrams page cluttered and annoying, and most of the stuff you add ends up being ignored by the players anyway.

 

* Suggestion 8: Play every map, even the free DLC's

If you've been playing for a long time you'll know that WildCard made some pretty smart choices, and alternating between paid DLC maps from WildCard and free DLC maps was smart. Obviously it's a good way to let people who haven't paid for all of the expansions have access to new engrams, but for a group like you and your friends it allows you to have a varied experience on each new map.

For example:

Going from Scorched Earth to Ragnarok allows you to bring in some species you tamed on The Island and Scorched Earth and it will be easier to master and beat Ragnarok and it would be if you went straight to Aberration. You might spend only half as much time mastering and beating Ragnarok as you will Aberration, but the free DLC maps are there for a reason. They were maps that won a contests to be added to the game, and the people who made them were darned good map designers who enhanced the game with each new free DLC.

Obviously this is one of those time related suggestions. If you just want to see all of the content once and "beat ARK" as efficiently as possible then your group is going to want to skip the free DLC's, but if your goal is to see and explore the whole game as part of the process of beating it then you should play every map, each one of them has interesting things to offer.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Pipinghot said:

Hi Kage, I have a private server and bunch of friends and we're doing the same think you are.

I have suggestions, but whether they're good for you depends a great deal on how much of a challenge you and your friends want, and how much time you want to spend progressing through each map and by extension how muchc time you want to spend progressing through the game. Which is to say, do you want to "beat ARK" in 6 months or are you all happy to play for a couple of years, fully and deeply experiencing every map?

 

* Suggestion 1 - don't allow the use of any engrams/recipes from maps that you haven't gotten to yet. For example, when you move from Scorched Earth to Ragnarok and/or Aberration then allow yourselves to use whips but don't allow the use of mining drills yet, which weren't in the game when SE was released.

 

* Suggestion 2 - don't allow all dinos on every map, especially predators/carnivores. When each of the maps were new a big part of the thrill/challenge/fun was only being able to use the species that were native to that new map. Each map has its own unique feeling and flavor and if you play each map on its own terms you'll get more enjoyment from them in the long run.

For example: A big part of what makes Aberration fascinating and challenging is that it uses the 3rd dimension in a completely new and interesting way. The first four maps are just big flat spaces and all you need is a flyer or a good carnivore to travel anywhere you want to go with zero difficulty. They use the third dimension a little bit but not even close to what they did with Aberration. If you take a Thylacoleo into Ab then you're instantly negating the need to have ravagers for your early-game progress, and ravagers are a big part of the feeling and ambience. Even ravagers have their limits, they're not apex predators, they're not going to be used for meat farming, what they're important for is scouting, exploring, speed and maneuverability. The only thing a ravager can do that a thylacoleo can't is use ziplines but honestly if you have a good thyla then you simply won't care. I assure you that that one benefit won't matter, bringing a thyla with you instantly demotes ravagers to nothing more than an interesting novelty. A thyla will be able to go anywhere you actually care about at first and it's a good predator for meat farming. If you want to get the most enjoyment out of Aberration then don't bring any animals that allow you to defeat the unique nature of the Aberration map without any effort. Climbing hooks, ziplines, ravegers - these are all important elements in enjoying the challenges (and the story) of Ab, they are a big part of what gives that map its unique flavor.

I could make the same case for other maps beyond Aberration but you get the idea. Speaking as someone who's doing the exact same thing you and your friends are doing, I think sticking to the native species will make each new map more challenging & fun for you.

 

Suggestion 3 - maybe make an exception for harvesters, but only one of each.

As you progress from map-to-map-to-map you'll find that some of the early part of each map gets a little tiresome. The first day or two when you're struggling to survive and build some 2x2 thatch huts as you decide where your main base is going to be will continue to be fun on each map, but as soon as you start building that starting base the game gets tedious for 2-3 weeks, as you find more & better harvesting animals and gather the resources to build a stone base that's the right size and configuration for your group, including creating a pen for your tames using dino gates or whatever building method you use. If you bring an anky (metal & flint), doed (stone) and a thatch harvester (either a megaloceros or gigantopiethecus, depending on what's native to each map) then you can make this somewhat tedious period a lot better. You can still have the first few exciting days, and you can still have the sense or progression as you branch out and explore the map, but honestly building your first "main base" on each map will start getting old pretty quickly.

 

Suggestion 4 - limit predators/carnivores to Lvl 100 or less.

Any predator from any map is super OP if they're over Lvl 100 when you're first starting out. They're going to get a bunch of levels right away, levels that usually go into melee and make them even more OP and they pretty much strip away any sense of risk or danger when you're new to the map. Even if you bring a species that's native to the map (for example taking dire bears or carnos to Aberration) it's just so boringly easy to lay waste to everything while riding your OP carnivore that you might as well not even bother with playing for the first two weeks of progress. You might as well just use cheat commands to fly to your location, spawn in a bunch of stone building materials and build your base in a few hours. Powerful predators are such an important part of the goals on each map that any powerful predator with you negates any sense of struggle or progress for your first 2-4 weeks. The only way to lose a high level predator on any map is by making a really stupid mistake, it's a recipe for making each new map feel boring during your first couple of weeks.

For what it's worth, we go into each new map with new Lvl 1 characters and we don't bring any animals with us. For the first few of days we have that exciting "new character" experience where everything is dangerous & exciting and we have to work together as a tribe to get established in our first chosen location. This also puts us in a position where we can't build every engram at first, we enjoy that feeling of earning the progress to get to generators, refrigerators, etc. Then, some time after Lvl 50 but before we do our first cave run, we swap out our new-temporary characters and we bring in the characters that we played on previous maps for the caves & boss fights. But even when we bring in our permanent characters, we still continue to play the map with the species restrictions. Playing on a private server is just so much easier than playing on Official that we have found that the species restrictions help make each map more enjoyable. It makes sense on the Official servers that they eventually open up each new map to allow more and more species, but for a private server where you can use mods and custom configurations to make each map as easy or as hard as you want it to be, we have found that we have more fun only using native species.

 

* Suggestion 5 - a couple of good QoL (quality of life) mods, like Structures Plus or something comparable.

These are the QoL mods we use - Structures Plus, Super Spyglass (Open Source), JP's ARKNav GPS HUD.

Our goal is to use mods that take care of tragically boring busy-work tasks (like gathering poop for dung beetles) and filling in the gaps that we don't like. I understand why Official ARK has GPS that are lame, but understanding it doesn't necessarily make it fun.

And even with S+, we don't allow ourselves to use any S+ engrams that are from future maps. We use the same rule for S+ engrams that we use for vanilla engrams, we only use engrams that were in the game when that map was released.

 

* Suggestion 6:  If you have anyone in your group that really likes building there are some great building/architecture mods.

We use use "CKF remastered" (Castles, Keeps & Forts, remastered), but there are multiple good mods out there that builders can use to scratch that itch. I'm not much of a builder personally, after years of playing ARK I still build blocky, barely decorated, rectangular block buildings, but if anyone in your group enjoys making aesthetically pleasing buildings then a good building add-on will keep them more interested and as an added benefit the rest of you will have better looking buildings to enjoy in your bases.

 

* Suggestion 7: but... not too many mods.

I think mods are an essential part of what makes ARK a great game, but too many of them can end up making the game less enjoyable. Having a zillion engrams available makes the engrams page cluttered and annoying, and most of the stuff you add ends up being ignored by the players anyway.

 

* Suggestion 8: Play every map, even the free DLC's

If you've been playing for a long time you'll know that WildCard made some pretty smart choices, and alternating between paid DLC maps from WildCard and free DLC maps was smart. Obviously it's a good way to let people who haven't paid for all of the expansions have access to new engrams, but for a group like you and your friends it allows you to have a varied experience on each new map.

For example:

Going from Scorched Earth to Ragnarok allows you to bring in some species you tamed on The Island and Scorched Earth and it will be easier to master and beat Ragnarok and it would be if you went straight to Aberration. You might spend only half as much time mastering and beating Ragnarok as you will Aberration, but the free DLC maps are there for a reason. They were maps that won a contests to be added to the game, and the people who made them were darned good map designers who enhanced the game with each new free DLC.

Obviously this is one of those time related suggestions. If you just want to see all of the content once and "beat ARK" as efficiently as possible then your group is going to want to skip the free DLC's, but if your goal is to see and explore the whole game as part of the process of beating it then you should play every map, each one of them has interesting things to offer.

 

Agree with this so much. Within the week of starting with your listed tames you'll be hatching drake eggs, going to surface, farming element etc basically "beat" aberration outside of doing the boss.

 

Think about it. We did the same a few years ago and thats one thing we all agreed on - bringing in your old tames really devalues it. Ab start was one of the most dangerous/ fun starts for us. Finally getting a good ravager, finally getting a carno and that first crab.. oh boy 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, d1nk said:

Agree with this so much. Within the week of starting with your listed tames you'll be hatching drake eggs, going to surface, farming element etc basically "beat" aberration outside of doing the boss.

 

Think about it. We did the same a few years ago and thats one thing we all agreed on - bringing in your old tames really devalues it. Ab start was one of the most dangerous/ fun starts for us. Finally getting a good ravager, finally getting a carno and that first crab.. oh boy 

Yea, this x10. If I had one regret from Ab it was that we brought a bunch of dinos with us. It would've been a great map to start naked on the beach (or the closest thing to it) all over again. With so many dinos and other new things, it'd almost be like starting Ark over again, but with different challenges.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...