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Made quite a lot of progress in the dev kit, regarding the ice-themed test map. All creature spawns for the main land as well as icebergs are 100% complete. Tonight, I also finished all my custom loot tables for the supply crates. However, drops placement needs to be completed. I'll finish them up and place player spawns in a day or two. Map should be out for testing by friends/familly in a few days. My TODO list before public test release : - Add SFX. - Fully create/implement my snow structures tier (Resources already in the map). - Lower ocean floor in order to spawn dunkleosteus, plesios, etc. - Add ocean floor meshes. (I already have a trench concept for resources). - Get started on the inland caves network. (Which also acts as the entrance/proving grounds towards the mini-Ab zone.) - Get started on said mini-Ab zone. Still debating if I'll go heavy swamp or ice cave themed on that one... Let's go nuts and make it a frozen Aberration according to my map theme!

Valguero, Official, PvP, all by myself. I gave up on building a home in the White Cliffs area. Even if I made it totally inacessible, I cannot just walk out the front door. Being at the end of a box canyon with the rest of the canyon full of Allos and Raptors is not conducive to starting out by myself. Every spawn point in the region had Allos camping out around my dead corpses and my death beacons littered the landscape like Christmas lights. Perhaps when i get more resources and some larger dinos (or any dinos for that matter), I will come back and reclaim my partially-built fortress. I also kept having my stone foundations disappear along with everything on them like mortar and pestle, forge, drying rack (or whatever the cheap fridge substitute is called). I think that maybe it is because I did not have enough other structure around them for the game to consider it a "house". I do not remember this mechanic from The Island. If I built a foundation and put a forge on it, it was there the next day when I logged in. Maybe Valguero has different rules about decay or something. Is was not due to dino or player damage. Anyway, after my 20th (or so) death yesterday, I gave up and respawned back at the Small Islands. I found a relatively sharkless spot and swam over to the Redwoods area. I have not had any issues gathering resources and have not seen an aggressive dino all day. I will camp out here and gather more resources before attempting a new journey to the White Cliffs. Redwoods are great! They give more than 100 wood or thatch each. Much better than the measly 5-10 for each Acacia tree in the White Cliffs.

Remember when PvP’rs used to Pteranobomb people’s bases which fast tracked the inevitable flyer nerf? You’re right, you just don’t see that level of creativity any more so I agree with you wholeheartedly. People act as if their way is the only way to play and that any suggestions made, even if there are mechanics in place to support it, are wrong and impracticable because PvP’rs say so.

Finally, the Linux version of ARK client was updated and for the last couple of days I have been trying to build a safe place in PvP Valguero. I estimate 20-30 deaths per day, but now I can find my way back to my stronghold blindfolded from any spawn point. I discovered that you can drop any amount of distance into water as long as you miss rocks. About half my paths back home included diving off of the White Cliffs. I built a 1x1x1 stone cube in which to respawn, but I died before I could build a bed for it. The rest of the day was spent respawning and trying to make it back to my cube. I gave up on day 2 and cowered in place for a while. There are a lot of box canyons in the White Cliffs and some are narrow enough to build a wall across them with only a few walls. There were some rocks at the back of the canyon in which I was cowering behind which to hide and none of the carnivores seemed to wander too close. I built a foundation , a bed, and a storage box behind the rocks and called it my hideaway. I spent the rest of day 2 gathering resources for my walls. I would peek out from behind the rocks. If the Allosaurs, Raptors, and Dienonychus (ARD) were far enough away, I would run like mad for a tree or rock, gather some resources, and return. I would deposit everything in the box and run out again. If ARD caught me while I was out, I was only down a pick and a hatchet. I decided to use stone fence supports to make the fence level. While I was putting up the last few fence supports, an Anky wandered into my area and so I just trapped him in there. I will tame him later and he is not really bothering anything. I built a stone dino gate and built up two rows of stone walls. At last I had some breathing room. I built a forge and am still working on getting the resources for a smithy so that i can use the metal that I have gathered along with the rocks and flint. An Allo came over my two-high wall, but he just chewed on my trapped Anky and then left without bothering me. I really need the third and fourth course of rock to keep out bigger dinos. I wonder how high Dienonys can jump? Wild dinos keep falling off the cliff above my base into my base. Fortunately, they have all been nonagressive herbivores, but I am not set up yet to keep them after taming. They all seem to despawn in a few game days except for the original Anky which has been around for a couple of real days so far. I should be able to use this to safely tame a few dinos without having to guard them outside. I have had the following drop into my base: Sheep, horses, lots of kangaroos, and an armadillo. The next canyon over is walled off with a giant dino gate and I have not seen any movement from them since I got here a few days ago. I do not know if they are AWOL or just infrequent. I hope they do not take offense to my closeness and trash my base. Although I have defenses against dinos, people can get in easily by going up a little trail and jumping. The thing that I like the most about Valguero is that everyone is so busy trying to survive the tremendously aggressive and numerous carnivores that there is hardly any time to snipe each other or destroy bases. Ironically after I started wandering a bit further from my base as I gained confidence, I discovered thay my original 1x1x1 stone cube was almost in sight from my dino gate. I had almost made it home before I gave up, but it resulted in a much better home.

PS4 - Unofficial Server On Monday the flag color changed on the cluster, so last night I was transferring to my base on each map to update to the current flag color. When I got to my RAG base, I noticed that my Thylas and Rexs were all out of order. And it was obvious that they had found something, and were now farther away from my base than they should be. this surprised me, because these dinos were in a dino leash containment zone, and the zone was surrounded by plant X turrets. Notice this was worded in Past Tense. All of my dino leashs and plant x turrets were gone! I checked the tribe log, and all of them had "auto-decayed" the previous day. (Tuesday), yet I was just at the base on Sunday, so how could they have decayed in 72 hours, when they have been fine for 3 months prior, including me not logging on for 5-6 days at a time. I can only assume this was some weird bug, and best I can tell, I only lost a couple of my Thylas. So I'm guessing it was an alpha that spawn and was kited into my base area. On this cluster, the admins give plant X turrets that hit for 32k each shot, they do this to help reduce lag, and tell people not to build huge walled/gated bases. It normally works great, but in the case of this autodecay bug, it sucks. Anywhoooo, I spent the rest of the night getting the dinos back in order, cryopodding some for safety, and redoing the dino leashes and turrets. I also added some regular turrets and loaded them with ammo, as back up. Because I have been spending the majority of my time on Extinction and Valguerro, I think tonight I will go back to RAG, and cryopod or transfer (to Val) most of the dinos. I can then also reduce my "land claim" area on RAG, as I won't need it for the high number of dinos I originally had. (Rag was my Rex breeding base originally, but will move them to VAL) My small base on the Island map only has a couple Ptera and a few cryo'd dinos. It is small and takes up very little land. My base on Scorched is literally a 4x4 base with a bed an storage. And my base on Aberration is larger more of a 6x15 size, but is way off the beaten path, and no one else is even near me. I only have a couple ravagers and Pteras parked inside the base, and a couple tek stegos parked on the roof. I have a base on each map, because of the lost character bug. To get around that, I actually have a toon on each map, so I need a base to house them safely. Though when I logged into SE last night, a Pego was attacking my character who was lying in bed, and it had already killed my Jerboa. Apparently Pegos can get thru open windows. I was not aware they could do that, but there is no other way they got inside the tiny base.

Operation Mindwipe has been a rousing success. Here's to all the brave dinos who lost their lives ensuring I could rectify that stat point I put into Food. Operation Cry Havoc And Release The Dogs Of War will resume until further notice. Operation We Really Need To Do Something About The Egg Situation is currently awaiting review.

I'm aware. I was responding to someone who said to remove the entire ally system. I was explaining why the ally system serves a purpose other than war. I was saying war was like the only thing it WASN'T used for outside of abuse

Extinction, Singleplayer, PS4 Built a greenhouse and started growing veggies. Made a trip to the sunken forest to tame Gachas. 2 of the 3 I tamed produce oil, so my oil shortage problem is now solved. 1 of them also produce black pearls, which will be useful later. Also made my first real journey in the waste by flying around the southwest corner of the map in search of a dung beetle. My fire wyvern, Reckoning, had no trouble dealing with the mobs of corrupted dinos, but the heat was slowly killing my character. So I jumped over to the desert biome for silk. Now I have a full set of desert gear.

What else did I do today? I discovered, after 18 months of playing ark, that you can place markers on the map to record locations..... How did i never know this before? Hahah

Dear Mrs Parasaur Butcher, I regret to inform you that your son has died in the line of duty. The cause of death has been recorded as: Sacrificed self to save superior officer [ ] Heroic last stand in face of overwhelming odds [ ] Collateral damage in routine mining operation [X] Shot self in back of head (bullet) [ ] Shot self in back of head (arrow) [ ] Shot self in back of head (rock or bludgeoning instrument) [ ] "Food shortage" [ ] Miscellaneous [ ] As a token of our appreciation for his service, Private Butcher has been posthumously awarded the not applicable. Yrs etc, and could you get that out for the lunchtime post please, thank you Margaret.

PS4 - Unofficial Cluster Spent the majority of my time on Extinction. Went back to the snow biome to try and tame any Owls leftover from the weekend Easter event on the map. Sadly, only found 1 colored Owl, as it seems everyone else was looking for owls too. But I did find a couple more high level MegaSloths, and also while not planning on it, kept getting attacked by leftover colored manas. I was able to trap and tame 5-6 different colored ones, including yellow, mint, brown, and orange ones. Now to just breed them with my high level manas, to get the color on better level manas.

Raised my new 170 Wyvern. Added a new layer and sloped roof to my Tower Tamed a Doed with my lil boy and added a new staircase to the repaired ruined Fort. I really wish Rock Drakes were in Valguero =(

PS4 - Unofficial cluster Well last night the 2nd in command Admin on the cluster retired. I'm feeling more guilty about saying no to the admin offer, but I will just make sure to set a good example by being a patient and helpful player, and assist noobs when the admins aren't on. This weekend was a Easter color event on Extinction and Valentines on Island. So naturally I spent most of Saturday taming owls in the snow biome. I know it is kind of cheating, but I tamed up a event owl that had the last Cyan zone that I had been missing for a month. Was able to breed that zone in on Sunday, and now have a breeding pair of solid Cyan owls. On Saturday evening, the admins had a paint party on Ragnarok. Every paint party I've attended before on servers, the dinos had to be either unbreedable (wyverns/Griffins) or neutured/spayed. But that wasn't a rule this time. So I took a breeding pair of my identical max level owls, and had them painted all albino white in every zone. I figured with all white breeders going forward, the color mutations will really stand out when hatched. (My current max level breeders all have brown shoulders, grey wings and white chest and stripes.) Not wanting to take the fun out of breeding for colors in the future with other dinos, I only had a wyvern and a Griffin painted beside the breeder owls. I had my fire wyvern painted black in the body and then blaze orange in the wings and belly. Looks AWESOME. I also had a Griffin painted black body with neon green wings and chest. My buddy who already had the vast majority of Gigas in color mutations, had them make him an all black giga, and then he spent the weekend breeding up color mixes on the Island taking advantage of the event timer bonus. I managed to tame a event owl that is Chocolate brown everywhere but the chest, which is more of a caramel brown. I think I have a chocolate chest owl in cryo, so I should be able to make a solid chocolate soon. I tamed an owl that had a slightly different red (watermelon) in its chest, and a lighter yellow wings than my yellow solid, so looks like I have more colors to breed to all solid. I then spent most of my ARK time on Sunday building the main house base on Valguerro in my new location, and then moving supplies/dinos from the old base location to the new one. Thankfully the distance between the two is not far, but it is over water, so I had to cryo all the dinos for transport. So for most of the evening, I had about 50 sleeping rexs, allos, yutys, wyverns, manas and Rock Drake. It was a weird sound to try and build with a constant barrage of "zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz" ringing thruout my base. I still have to build a breeding/storage barn or two for the larger dinos, but the main house is done, and 85% of the supplies & items transferred over from old base. I sure hope that there are some event dinos still alive on Extinction tonight, as I want a few more color options, and I need to find a high level colored MegaSloth to breed to my max level brown female. My buddy wants to try them in a cave with a lot of Arthos. By the way, my new buddy that got hooked on Owls had to crypod a bunch on Sunday, as he reached his tame limit, and it is 99% just owls. LOL, he is addicted just like me.

Couldn't help myself and spent some time again in the dev kit on the test map... Here is the current progress : Next step, custom dino spawns & drops! Land creatures of the starter region will include (Creatures not seen here will be part of the harder regions of the main map) : + jerboas

(SP Extinction?) The metal base on the roof above the City Terminal is complete. Still trying to decide if I want to add turrets, but I don't think I'll really need them. Anyway, after wandering around almost got me killed last time, I decided to change things up. It's time to take a trip to Valguero. I put Mortley and Myrtle in charge of the base while I'm gone (crosses fingers), grabbed my pteranodon (Triton), and flew down to the City Terminal below. Things started off well, like finding an old Lotto ticket in the pocket of your winter coat that turns out to be a winner well. I opened the terminal, and even though I had cleared my SP save data at the start of this play through, I had a bunch of rexes and saddles in there from a previous SP character. Woot! I proceeded to load Triton and the rest of my equipment into it before uploading my survivor (Slynn), and we were off. Of course, I picked the islands area to spawn in, since I know it's safe. I constructed a small stone base, containing the essentials, tamed a female phiomia named, "Fridgina," to hold meat and berries, and then realized I still had my HLN-A skin on me. She popped into existence a few moments later. After looking around, she focused on me and said, "We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto." "Hmm. So, I'm a little dog?" "Oh no, Dearie," she started, "He was much smarter than you." "Okay, thanks." Tick... Tock.... Tick... Tock... Tick... "WTH?" Anyway, with a static place to re-spawn, I was ready to retrieve my stuff from an obelisk. After careful consideration, the fact that journeying to red obelisk was a purlovia risk, and journeying to blue obelisk was a yuty risk, led me to decide on Green! It was my favorite color when I was younger, after all, seeing as our currency is green. (Seriously, though, I was just trying to be cool when I told my parents this.) I swam from the island to the closest shore and began making my way in that direction. I tried crossing the water a couple times toward green obi (Hindsight roll: Nat 20. "Doh! Why didn't I make a raft?") but was forced back to shore by sharks, piranhas, and what looked to be some type of jellyfish rave. (I'm pretty sure that's what's happening at my base on Extinction right now. But instead of jellyfish, it's owls and otters.) I entered the White Cliffs area with some trepidation and soon ran across a dilo. Deciding that I may have need of a distraction, I punched him senseless, and named him, "Goner". We traveled along the beach, eventually making it to a spot that looked safe to cross. Well, it was sort of safe. I was only attacked by one shark as I was nearing the opposite shore. Goner and I both made it. "I really didn't think you were going to make it this far," HLN-A said, before dialing her bookie. "Um..." Goner and I said looking at each other. Or at least, that's what I imagined him saying. We followed a switchback, leading upward, the giant green obelisk hovering in the background. I ran afoul of a raptor shortly after reaching the top, but managed to defeat it. Unfortunately, Goner, perhaps living up to his name, was nowhere to be found afterward. I pressed on, swimming through the lake with all the beavers. It was nearing 5:00pm by the time I left them behind and emerged on the opposite shore. Spear at the ready, I made my way to the obelisk. A raptor charged me as I was descending to the platform with the transmitter. Fumbling, I was actually able to change over to my bola and stop him before I was pounced. More hide was added to my supply, and then we were there. The first thing I did was remove, "Rexy," and put a saddle on her for protection. That was a good choice, too, seeing as I was attacked three separate times while getting Triton and my equipment out of there. "I just can't win a bet for anything today," HLN-A commented after that last carno dropped. (So I ended up stumbling across a cave that is atop one of the nearby waterfalls and am in the process of making that my main base on Val. While doing so, I retraced my path and ran into Goner. Wagging his tail, he sprinted toward me, and it was a happy re-union. I might have to change his name, now, though. Any suggestions?)

After almost 2 years of constant breeding, every larger group now has incredibly mutated dinos that are nowhere close to what the game was originally balanced around. This means that dinos like Rhinos or Therizinosaurs deal much more damage and are much harder to kill than they were 1.5 years ago when the game released. Politically, the game is currently very stale, with alliances constant, no big conflicts and many people leaving the main cluster for others clusters or other games for a fresher and more exciting experience. A wipe would easily reset breeding back to its original state and bring these dinos back down to what they were originally, and bring back many players that have left over the last year. edit: im talking (mostly) about the Official PvP network, non-legacy, main cluster)