fanfiction My single player game on Lost Island

[rpicardi1]

Lost Island Game Play (The Official Map)

 

Settings; Single player with taming, harvesting, leveling set at 3X.

 

MODS; Ultra Stacks. Kraken’s Better Dinos. Castle, Keeps, and Forts Remastered. Marnimods wildlife.

 

Kraken’s Better Dinos is a mod that enhances most of the abilities of the Ark’s creatures. Herbivores, such as a Doed, can now harvest berries. New tek creatures such as a Tek Trike and Giga are now in the map. So are several variations of new and useful creatures. New types of attacks are available on some dinos such as a stomp by the Bronto. Wild creatures may run away if they are badly hurt. It also offers a combo preserving bin, cooker, workbench that allows for the crafting of special foods from the special meat that some creatures will have when killed or from the milk of certain tamed mammels. Early, but less capable saddles are available for some creatures that have late more expensive to craft ones. Extensions can be made for platform saddles and rafts. Most interesting is the Valerian Reins that can be crafted from various rare materials. When placed on a flying creature, it enhances their speed, maneuverability, and stamina.

 

Castle, Keeps, and Forts Remastered uses special workbenchs that allow you to craft building sections in those workbench thus freeing the player to continue to gather resources or start construction of structures. Like S+, you can pick up those pieces later. Foundations will also stack. Walls are 1/3 higher then Vanilla or S+ walls which gives your player more head room in placing storage chest and other items. You do not need to learn the individual pieces in this mod, only the three crafting workbenches which produce the equivalent of wood, stone and metal structures using the same building materials and amounts. That will allow me to save up those engram points for other useful items early on.

 

Marnimods Wildlife spawn in at logical places in logical amounts. Each of her more modern creatures has a special taming requirement.

 

Game Play; Whatever Ark spawns in. No boss fight, just exploration. As I do play other maps, I will use the Obelisks Terminals to transfer spare items and tames to make exploration and survival much easier. Like the Crystal Isle Map, I will start out with my character as Level 1

 

The Lost Isle Map.

 

On this second playing on the official map, I will be starting in the Southeast region of the desert. Previous game play has been in the starter bay. That area of the map saw a lot of terrain changes from the days it was a mod map, to the present release.

This map is huge, covering 150 square kilometers of varied well detailed terrain ranging from dense jungles to open plains and from frozen tundra to desert and volcanic wastelands. Numerous large winding and dangerous caves are scattered throughout as well as smaller ones suitable for building in. There are many islands of various sizes scatter throughout the map that are suitable for settling on. Keeping with it’s primitive theme, abandoned castles and keeps can be found on the larger and main island. The Southern Desert can be considered the Scorched Earth area and is an area of the mainland where a force field marks the southern boundary of the map.

 

The Adventure.

 

As I have spawned into the recommended starter zone on previous cases, it was time to try something different. I spawned in as a new player at the shoreline of the Eastern Desert. This is listed as medium difficulty. Actually, it was not that difficult as nothing dangerous spawned in along the shoreline at this time. However, to get better resources would require a trip up into the rugged badlands where the predators could be hunting in large numbers. I make the decision to leave the desert as soon as possible and sail North to one of the islands I can see in the distance.

The first order of business for survival is to get level up, gather the resources needed to build a raft outfitted with basic tools, then check out the small islands to the North before it gets dark out and the dangerous creatures start showing up. Heading West along the beach as I started leveling up, I was able to get primitive tools and thatch clothes. A pair of Jarboas supplied me with raw meat and hide. Bolas are quickly crafted in case any Raptors or Terror Birds start showing up along the beach. While the canoe is an early craftable item, I decide to wait until I can craft a raft. The raft will give me a platform for placing some storage boxes, the Settler’s workbench, a spawn bed, campfire, and mortars and pestle. With a bola and bow and arrows, I take out a moth for silk and chitin before setting sail to one of the islands I can see in the distance.

I cook up half of the raw meat splitting up the other half to spoil to start crafting narcotics.

The trip is made to a group of islands called Sharkfin Keys. It is a series of small islands that are mostly flat, some barren, some with rocky peaks. A quick sail by determines that there are no threats on them that I can’t handle. I pick out the medium size one with a flat beach area and land the raft there. Fortunately, the Leeds on this map and happen to be elsewhere. A starter Settler’s shack is constructed just as the daylight fades in the western sky.

For those that want to know where this is, it is the island Phlinger Phoo has built his Beach Shack on in his Lost Island series. However, I am on the far Southwest side in a large flat beach area on that island chain.

The beach area has numerous river rock scattered about. I gather them with the stone pick until I have obtained 22 metal ore. Having brought along a sufficient supply of hide, I am able to get the forge built to process the raw ore into metal ingots.

Why do I need 22 metal ore and not 12 you may ask? Instead of crafting an Ark workbench, I plan on crafting the Kraken’s Better Dinos one. Not only does it have both a workbench and preserver built in it, it also has the ability to process the special foods and saddles available in that mod. Like S+, the Kraken’s Workbench can be picked up and placed elsewhere. That workbench requires 10 metal ingots to craft. With one placed down, I craft up a metal pick and go to work mining river rock for more metal. By morning, I have my basic set of metal tools, a crossbow, and some tranc arrows.

I find that the Dodos are plentiful on the little island. They soon supply me with more meat and hide.

A mid level Parasaur is soon tamed and put to work gathering berries. She is knocked out using three tranc arrows to the head with four seconds between shots on the crossbow. Later, I add a mid level male so they can be mate boosted.

Exploration on this starter island finds that there are several metal nodes in the base of the rocky crags. They are mined and brought back on Patty to process into more metal. Additional wildlife here consist of a pair of Brontos and Trikes. Both are in the rocky crag area. Some pesky seagulls are there with them as well. They can all just stay there away from my starter shack. Some lystros are also there along with a low level Parasaur that I take out with three stone arrows to the head, and a mid level male that I tame to mate boost the female.

A trip is made by canoe to head towards the Green Obelisk so I can retrieve some cryopods I have stored there from my Amissa adventure. Landing on the shore nearby, I spot a mid level Sinomacrop and with a cage placed down, get it to walk into it so I can tame it without having to chase it all over the place. The tamed Sinomacrop makes easy work of reaching the Green Obelisk where I proceed to retrieve three Cryopods I have stored there. I also find a Moschop that just wants Tintoberries. Tamed, he goes into a Cryopod for transport. Checking out some of the supply drops nearby, I get an apprentice Doed saddle from one and some misc items from another An unguarded Giant Beaver Dam gives me cementing paste and pearls before I cross the open water to head to camp.

Lacking a source for crystal for the spyglass, I make a trip back to the desert badlands to look for it up on the high crags. I take the canoe for the trip rather then risking the raft to some Leed waiting to ambush me. Good thing that I decided to use the canoe as I spot one in the shallows along the shore and steer to avoid it. With the help of my new Sinomacrop, I am able to avoid the predators that are now living inland finding some small crystal nodes on a plateau. I also luck out by obtaining two complete sets of desert armor from two separate green drops. Placing one set in the storage compartment on the canoe, I go back out to look for a Doed.

Up on the plateau, I find two of them in a fight with snakes and a Terror Bird. I help them out in killing off the threats. As the higher level one is balled up from fighting, I take down it’s lower level buddy for taming. I only need him to gather stone for the Villager’s Workbench so I can upgrade my starter camp to a more secure installation. Building near the Green Obelisk is out of the question as it borders the swamp area which is crawling with Titanboas. Tamed, I place him into the cryopod, fly back to the beach, get into the canoe, and head back to my camp in Sharkfin Keys.

The next morning, I decide that I could use a heavy lift flier in this new world. Rather then take the risk of attempting to steal dragon eggs and raising one, I head back to the Green Obelisk and make the transfer to the Amissa Ark where I have a strong Lightning Dragon living there on Pirate Island. He is the second dragon that I obtained while looking for a Doed on that Ark. He was the highest level that can spawn in on that map, a Level 190. Just a note on the dragons (wyverns) on that map. While the standard Scorched Earth wyverns can be transferred to other maps via the Obelisks, the custom Amissa ones cannot.

With the Sinomacrop uploaded, along with some chitin to feed him, basic items uploaded for me, and everything else in a storage box, I make the transfer to Amissa.

On Amissa, I download the Sinomacrop and it’s food, then fly it over to the Pirate Base. At the base, I check on my tames, check their food supply for them in the feeding trough, then go up on the roof to get Tesla to fly back to the Obelisk Terminal. Uploaded, I check what is left behind finding that Valerian Reins don’t transfer as a saddle would, so I make sure that it is uploaded into the terminal before I transfer back to Lost Island.

Back on Lost Island, I take Tesla over to the desert to gather sand and cactus sap for crafting a Thorny Dragon saddle. While I could use a Stego for gathering wood, a Thorny Dragon is faster and will reduce the weight of wood in it’s inventory.

I find that the desert area has changed a lot since my last visit. The area has become infested with raptors, snakes, hell pigs, and terror birds. Tesla cleans out the threats as I go to work gathering those materials for the saddle.

Before leaving the desert area, I locate a Thorny Dragon and proceed to tame it. Placing him in a cryopod, I head back to the Sharkfin Keys.

The next morning, I put Thorny Beaver to work gathering wood for the Villager’s Workbench. He is super efficient in getting wood from the palms and wood lying on the beach, much better and faster then a Stego in Hardened Plate mode.

Danny the Doed makes short work in gathering some 10,000 stones from the boulders and river rock on each trip I make with him. Stone is the item that gets used up quickly as I start the crafting of an 8x10 barn for the tames.

Getting thatch has become an issue as large amounts of it are also needed in the Villager’s Workbench. I find that my Moschop is as efficient in getting large amounts of thatch like the Thorny is at getting wood.

The work gets interrupted when one of those pesky seagulls agros on my Moschop. Instantly, all of the tames are chasing it off with Tesla finally frying it with his lightning breath.

With the tames sorted out and brought into the half finished barn, I finally get the basic structure done by nightfall.

The next morning is spent in detailing out the barn as I construct a loft with a bed and storage above the work area of the barn. A dock is added with the provisions of building a shed for an Amargasaurus should I decide that I want to tame one. They tend to spawn in three locations on Lost Island. Those are the Murder Snow, the volcano badlands and the southern desert. From past surveying of those areas, the Murder Snow is out. One can easily see why. From aside of quickly freezing to death even with fur armor, the area is a mosh pit of death from the numerous predators that keep spawning into that area, an impossible task unless a well prepared tribe is working together to tame one. The nearby volcano area is better, but so rugged as to be nearly impossible to travel through on foot. Therefore, the Southern Desert looks to be the best choice from what I have observed flying over it. I can build a taming pen with double walls to keep the predators from hitting it and drop one into it for taming. However, that is going to require taming a Quitz given that I have been unable to pick one up off of the ground with Tesla.

I spot a mated pair of dilos chasing wild moschops and parasaurs over by the big rocky peak that has metal rocks. Checking them out with the spotting scope, I decide to bola and tame them as they are high level. Quickly tamed, they join the other tames inside of the barn. Later, while out mining metal, I spot a level 135 lystro and tame it. I bring it back in a cryopod rather then attempt having it follow me through the rock strewn inlet where there is a shark living in the water. It was risky enough bringing the dilo pair back to the barn that same way.

As Starter Patty has alerted to me to more predators in the area, I notice the three resident wild parasaurs running all over the place. They are being chased by a Level 135 female Dilo. I bola and knock her out for taming as she will become a second egg layer in the barn.

The pesky gulls continue to be an issue in spite of placing bars across all of the barn windows. It is difficult to kill them either with the crossbow or using Tesla’s lightning attack. Time to go find a high level ptera to clean them out.

I do have several pteras living on the islands of Sharkfin Keys but they all check out at Level 20 or less. Packing a saddle, several raw prime meat, and traveling light, I head North to the open grassland.

Among all of the low level ones living there, I spot a Level 135 female. I drop her with a bola where she falls into a rugged rocky slope that is free of threats. With the careful use of three tranc arrows, she is quickly knocked out. Four raw prime meat later, I have my Trixie and fly back to the camp.

A trip on Tesla is now made to the desert to obtain toughened hide and organic polymer that I will need for another set of Valerian Reins. I find a Sarco inland taking it out for 278 toughened hide. In the high desert, I find mantas which give me the organic polymer I need as well as lots of chitin for my Sinomacrop tame. I have to work quick to kill and harvest them with Tesla as several Death Worms are approaching me from several directions. With the required materials, I head back to camp to craft up the Valerian Reins for trixie.

What a difference those things make on a petra. As soon as I place them on her, her stamina is doubled along with major upgrades in hit points and health. Best yet, not only is her flying speed doubled, so is her maneuverability. When landed, petras can walk backwards under Kraken’s Better Dinos. We ambush the pesky gulls from the air soon clearing them from the sky and gaining several levels in the process.

That’s the progress for now playing in this single player session of Ark. Enjoy reading about this adventure.

[rpicardi1]

More progress.

 

It is the following day that I get the details done to the barn. Bars are placed in the windows to keep out the gulls and a loft built for me to stay in.

While out exploring with Tesla, I spot a mid level Quetz. However, I do not have the resources on me for an attempted tame. Besides, it is flying over the dangerous swamp.

With the Sinomacrop, I go looking for an ankylo in the desert badlands finally finding a suitable one in the desert to tame bringing it back in a cryopod. During that trip, I spot a Level 150 Thylocat. I definitely can’t pass that up for a tame. Fortunately, I have some higher quality raw meat on me stored in the Sinomacrop inventory. Good thing I brought along two cryopods. With a saddle, the ankylo makes mining for metal ore among the river rocks and the rare metal nodes where I am staying far more efficient. I also get plenty of stone and flint for crafting sparkpowder. Two more forges are added to speed up the metal production process.

I get a saddle for Kitty and give him a good workout. He takes out the tree stomping brontos with ease.

A second Lystro is added to the tames as I spot a Level 135 female along the beach. Also, a third high level Dilo is added. She is actually laying eggs unlike the other one in the mated pair.

Getting further prepared to go after the Quetz, I need to make a harpoon gun and nets. As I have no obsidian, I make a trip to the desert to find some. I find lots of metal out there but only one stone of obsidian. When I fly back to the area of the Green Obelisk, I find lots of obsidian along the slope of that ridge.

Armed with a net gun and a Mastercraft Saddle I found in a drop, I go after the Quitz. It is nowhere to be found. Finding two more good saddles and a 485 damage crossbow in drops, I head back to camp for the night.

My job for the next morning will be to get some crop plots going so that I can craft up the soups and kibble needed for taming an Amagasaurus.

That morning, I proceed to lay down crop plots in preparation of growing the needed items for the Calien Soup and Fria Curry to have on hand when I finally go looking for an Amargasaurus. I could harvest and transfer Longrass and Rockarrots from the Pirate’s garden on Amissa, but that still leaves me short the lemons for Calien Soup. I get a Fabricator built and craft up polymer and four canteens with it. I also need lots of fertilizer for the garden plots, so I take a cryopod and go looking for a phenoma.

Why was this going to be an all day adventure looking for a phenoma? I find none in the plains, none in the swampland, none in the desert, the jungle is too thick to see anything down there. Finally I find one in the area of the western highlands where one can find unicorns., but lots high level of predators. I luck out finding a Level 135 alone in a safe spot to tame.

Back in camp, I load up the phenoma with berries, force feed her stimms, collect the output, fertilize the garden, and plant the plots with the three crops. While they are growing, I prep two cooking pots with thatch, the required berries and drugs, two canteens, and wait until I can harvest the crops s-l-o-w-l-y growing in the plots.

During that search, I have raided all of the drops along the way. They yield mostly blueprints for saddles and other items. Several just have stuff that I have no need for. A Red one only has just garbage, blueprints for common metal items.

I have spotted two more Quetzels, but in order to save weight while flying with the Sinomacrop, I have left behind the net gun with it’s heavy ammo and the high level saddle I got from a drop a couple of days ago. I’ll need to go looking for that second one later as it is a Level 135 flying over in a relatively safe area.

That next day, I go looking for the Level 135 Quetz. It is nowhere to be found.

A good level Mewing is found and netted. But, before the tame is complete, I get jumped by a tek raptor. Fortunately, it didn’t spoil the tame as I soon dispatch it with the high level crossbow.

I finally am able to harvest enough of the crops to cook up two of the soups. However, when cooking them up, I find that my recipes are flawed ending up with some Medical Brew instead. Later research on the Wiki indicates that I confused fiber with Mejoberries. With the correct mix, I have my soups in no time.

After a crystal run, I decide to enclose my garden plots into a greenhouse. I start on a lean to design as the garden plots are on a foundation next to my barn. I get a glass wall built but find that the sloped roof pieces are bugged. They will snap to foundations but refuse to snap to the walls. What a waste of materials. With another crystal run and a raid on beaver dams, I get the walls two high and place a ceiling on it.

An Argy would now be a good choice for a metal run with my ankylo, so I fo looking for a high level one near the Green Obelisk. Darn, all but one that I see are Level 20. There are also a lot of threats nearby. Taking out the saberscats nearby, I net and tranc an Argy. OPPS!, it’s not the Level 100 which comes in to attack and gets killed. Oh well, the Level 20 is already tamed with one prime meat, so I cryo and take it back.

Man, this guys stats are garbage as I saddle him up and take him out hunting. Lousy health, weight, gets tired in a minute, low carry weight, and weak melee. Well, maybe the Valerian Reins will help. Nope, I need more toughened hide to craft them.

I head back out with the Sinomacrop to look for a better Argy before dark. I finally find a Level 135 in the mountain and get it netted to drop on a sheltered slope. Tamed, I find that his stats are so much better with a really good melee and stamina. I bring him back to the barn, saddle him up, and get some levels on him before dark. I will still keep the Level 20, now 32 by now, and just use him as a pack animal when on a metal run. I don’t believe in just abandoning them to their fate once I have tames something.

That next morning, I take Tesla out to go hunting for Sarcos in the swampland for toughened hide. I find a couple of them which are close enough to shore to be easy kills. Two packs of Allos are also wiped out with Tesla’s lightning breath. Too bad that the pack leaders were over Level 135, but I have no need for them where I have set up my camp.

With new Valerian Reins, I find that both Argys have even better performance. They get their 50% boost in speed, endurance, maneuverability, and damage.

Having gone on drop runs, I am amazed by what has been showing up. The usual low access ones yield basic items of which some are useful, sets of basic armor which I don’t need, and mostly useless blueprints. Surprisingly, some blue and green drops will give me high level saddles or their blueprints. One had the 486 damage crossbow that I am now using. Some of the purple ones contain upgraded armor pieces of which I either use, or save to upload in a terminal. The yellow and red drops, for whatever reason, are just dropping garbage such as primitive blueprints for construction material. Most are just not worth the risk of being swarmed by Microraptors that are nearby them just to end up with a blueprint for a primitive metal water pipe.

Well, maybe tomorrow, I will find a Quetz that I can use to kidnap a Amargasaurus to drop into a safety pen for taming. The desert seems to be the safest place for taming them with it's mostly flat terrain, unlike the Murder Snow with it's moshpit of predators, or the rugged volcano area where they also spawn in.

[rpicardi1]

1-28-22

 

That morning, I am back out flying looking for a Quetz. While hitting the drops, I find two high level pistols. The yellow and red drops have just been yielding trash, primitive blueprints for metal items, etc. Today one gives me a Mastercraft Amargasaurus Saddle. What a rare find that is.

Finally, I find a Quetz of a moderate level. However, it is flying dead center over the inland swamp which is full of Sarcos, Karpos, and Berrys. Not worth using a net to drop out of the sky for taming as it keeps flying in circles over the swamp.

I continue on collecting drops as I fly towards the hilly plains where a Unicorn was spotted in the past. Spotting three white Equuis, I place my spotting scope on them. What’s This? A herd of unicorns! With only two cryopods on me, I place the Rockarrots from my garden in slot 0 and proceed to tame the two highest level ones as I luck out with the carnivores being elsewhere for once. I get a mated mid level pair of them.

Still no Quetzs anywhere as I fly back to my base on Sharkfin Keys.

Later that day, I go looking for Amargasaurus in the desert badlands. After flying around much of the day, I can’t find any but I do spot what looks like an oil seep. I head back to my base where I have an oil pump in storage I got from a drop and bring that back to the desert badlands. There are now Amargasauruses in the area as I see one low level that has annoyed a vulture and is ran in circles for about 10 minutes before the carnos move in.

I spot an additional five more of them with one that is at Level 100. However they keep picking fights on all of the predators which include those armor breaking spitting centipedes. They soon are all killed in those fight.

A trip is then made to an area near the volcano where I see three more of them in a relative safe area. Well, that doesn’t last long. They are low level that soon die to the Carnos.

Nearby, I find a Level 120 that has easily taken out a lone Carno. OK, maybe, I will take my soups and attempt to cage this one for taming. While preparing to set down a cage, I spot something glowing orange in the distance heading towards it. Damn It! A level 150 Alpha Rex. That stupid Amargasaurus spots it and runs in to attack. Since it will soon be dead, I call it a day and head back to the base.

Man, these things are so annoying to tame. Even though the tame is passive when equipped with the soups, kibble, and veggie cakes, it is an impossible task to quickly set up a pen in SP mode, let alone protect them until they are in the pen protected for the taming process. So, Screw It! (Cheat) GMSummon “Amargasaurus_Character_BP_C” 150

Hey, It’s my single player game, my rules. My one on the Amissa mod was hard enough to get near where a Tek Giga was hunting in the dune desert nearby along with three Death Worms sightings. Besides, I need him there for killing those giant crabs that spawn on the Pirate Island where my base is located.

I obtain a Level 225 male I name Andy. He has great coloring in the late afternoon sun. With the Mastercraft Saddle I got from a Yellow Drop, I place it on him and go harvesting bushes. He gathers tons of stuff with one sweep of that long neck of his. I park him on the dock and spend the night enclosing him in his own barn where I had made it large enough for that planned expansion. In the morning, I’ll take him over to the main island to do some hunting, gathering some rare resources, and more exploration.

[rpicardi1]

1-30-22

 

Finally, got a Q-Bert. I was out flying on the Sinomacrop after drops and found a Level 135 female Quitz flying over the Western Islands. As soon as she was over one of the islands, I dropped her with a net and proceeded with the taming process. Fortunately, I had the high level saddle and the Valerian Reins with me. It was a long flight back with the loot from the drops. There was just enough room between the Mewing and Tesla to land her on the roof given that I had already moved the Argys and Pteradon over to the Amarasaurus barn roof. Much of that night and the rest of the day was spent enlarging the Amargasaurus side of the barn so I can move the Allosaurus pair over there.

I do believe that the Level 140 male I tamed yesterday is the color of Selene’s Sunny from "Ark Ragnarok, The Valhalla Experiment." If you haven’t read the story posted by ArkWriter, you are missing out on a very interesting adventure. Read it carefully, don't speed read it, or you will miss out on some of the most unusual twists to the mysteries the main characters are involved in.

Now, how did I manage to obtain a mated pair of Allosaurus? I got them legit and lucked out getting them when I found a Level 135 female out hunting alone. Using my Sinomacrop to hover above it, I took her down with tranc arrows in a Mastercraft crossbow. Using a Sinomacrop is a real game changer when it comes to knocking out something that wants to eat your face off and could get loose from a net before it has been knocked out. Once knocked out, she took six cooked mutton to tame. I put her in a Cryopod, as I didn’t have a saddle on me, I spotted the rest of her pack, a Level 60 male and the pack leader, a Level 140 male.

Taking her back to the base, I crafted up two saddles and rode her into the barn, then went back out to get the pack leader.

Back out to where they were, I ambushed the Level 60 from the Sinomacrop, then knocked out the Level 140 male for taming.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to have to deal with raptors during the taming as a pack of them were nearby hunting. However, they remained hidden by the hill, so that tame was successful. Saddled, I took him out hunting to level him up as I headed back to Sharkfin Keys. It was a long swim there as Allos are not the fastest thing in the water, but he made it there with stamina to spare. I do believe that they are one of the fastest biting carnivores out there. The damage when attacking something piles up fast.

Thus ends another day in my single player adventure on the new Lost World map.