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Logan96

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Everything posted by Logan96

  1. Call me crazy, wrong, or paranoid if you will, but I personally suspect that you pipingshot play amongst the lunatics that that you mention...and it may be that you have found the best way to play! I have some major gripes with tribing up in this game though, honestly I think tribe play and following the storyline directly clash. First of all, let's take a look at what it takes to be a good teammate in this game. 1. Microphone: This is a great tool to coordinate teamwork during raids, dungeons/caves and bosses, but let's be honest. A microphone especially when combined with other tools like discord are a complete emersion buster. Call me a nerdy ass role-player if you want, but when I play a game, whether for the story mode or not, I want to be as emersed as possible. Hearing and talking to my teammates about random poop completely breaks the emersion aspect for me. 2. Commitment: This isn't as much of a problem in other types of games, but games like ark are different. Once in a tribe you have forfeited your right to play for the story. You may dispute that if you wish, but I will hold the claim that nobody who plays in a competitive PvP tribe plays for the story. They play for the betterment of the tribe (like Nerva) and that is all. 3. Kill On Sight (KOS): Call me crazy, but in my experience if you can't communicate wit someone in the game (because your mic is locked in a stupid discord chat room) and you are in seperate tribes then your encounter will most likely be a violent one. KOS was not always the norm in ark, but these last few years the KOS has risen dramatically, and I suspect it's because the people who continue to play are those who already have an established tribe that they only speak to through discord. Why this relates to your post: 1. The survivor documents that we follow throughout the story are faced with their own "PvP encounters." Mei-Yin vs Nerva for example. As such I believe that our own survivor is meant to face the same PvP threats that these figures fought against. Anything else is a betrayal to the storyline. 2. For the reasons I listed above, tribe gameplay is pretty much oblivious to story gameplay. We can only conclude that our main heroes/villains of the storyline such as Helena and Rockwell went their own ways solo, with the larger "oblivious" tribes serving as allies, or enemies, so I expect that our own survivor is following their path as well. Conclusion) : Solo PvP based on a story perspective was always the intended way to play, from a story perspective. Unfortunately, the true gameplay of solo PvP is a completely different experience than what the story portrays and as such it is as I've stated broken. Instead solo PvPers spend their days hiding in the shadows and becoming the villains of the story because it's the only way to survive against this so called intended player base.
  2. Honestly the biggest hinderance here was burnout. The initial start was extremely fun, despite a few setbacks, but once I got a taste of what kind of time investment it would take to complete the challenge I had zero desire to complete it. It wasn't about challenge, only time investment...and the gratification as you said is simply not worth it. Ironically enough, it's the moments after getting raided when the desire to continue playing kicks in. Almost like a stubborn will that refuses to be beaten by a simple raid. Once things started going smooth is right about the time I reached the burnout point. I had a well hidden lava base with breeding capability and multiple recovery stashes at my quitting point. The next 2-3 months would have been nothing more that running the same caves and islands for tames and saddles to complete the bosses. Without the fear and danger of facing a total setback the game becomes dreadfully boring for me. I am a firm believer that early-mid game is the best experience that ark has to offer.
  3. Absolutely! I do think PvP still has it's place in Ark, even when solo...but playing for the story is a little broken because as you say the progression on the island is pretty slow compared to other maps. Hopefully in Ark 2 they get a better balance figured out. Those shadowmanes are pretty insane. I looked up counters and the only 2 I've seen are people recommending net guns or getting a shadowmane yourself...so basically genesis is required to hold your own now lol. A big thanks to you DirkInSA for being such a positive voice throughout the run. I may have quit sooner had it not been for your replies. As you say maintaining a healthy work/social life is pretty hard when trying to survive out there. After attempting this I'm now convinced that a healthy PvP solo run is less about progression and more about the encounters. Providing the starter tames to my allies and getting into a derpy frog battle was the most enjoyable part of the run. I don't really care about end game content now. I have more fun just messing around on beaches with high population servers. I think that was one of the metas that joeblow mentioned in the beginning of this post. Good Luck on your own official run! Take your time and enjoy the experience!
  4. Going to disappoint on this one guys. I frigen love this game, but after the third week of averaging 4-5 hours a day I am getting burned out. All I can say is that you guys were right about the practicality of it all. I've actually been hoping to get wiped so that I can put the games down for a bit lol. I don't really know what to do at this point. All I need at this point is some mating rex's to start taking on the bosses, but after a week of killing low levels I found maybe 2 that were barely above level 100. It's a little frustrating to know that I could easily get these rexes by simply transferring to a newer map. I think it may be time to call it quits on the challenge unfortunately. The challenge is a cool idea and I think I could do it If I had the patience, but I think it's best to leave the PvE goals with the PvE servers. Sorry for the sudden ending!
  5. Yep, everything in caves takes 6x damage. To be honest though these days the damage is a moot point. Explosives and Arthropleura are so easy to come by that structure health dosent really matter. Also this isnt just in a cave. There is a bridge that you have to cross with a giant lava pit undeneath. I actually grappled down into the pit and built under the bridge so its pretty dang hidden.
  6. Week 3-The Great Migration My god this was a pain in the butt...so after the attack 2 nights ago I had spent some time scouting until I found a suitable place to make base. I'm taking a slight risk posting it, but let's be honest, most people left in this good community aren't going to raid me...right? 😅 It's not the best picture, but it is definitely a change of scenery. As I was moving my stuff there a thyla grabbed me mid flight and while I was pinned a stupid pego ran up and stole...my megatherium! The little bugger ran off with him while I was still pinned down from the lion. I then spent the next hour searching every damn bush in the redwoods, but at last I found him. BugzB still lives! That mega is actually a crucial tame. To survive down here I need both a steady supply of antidotes for the bats and ghillie for the heat...oh and also cryo pods and grapples in order to get out! It's a bit of a hassle, but now the raiders will have a few hoops to jump through before they can reach me. I am also pleased to say that I have made my first true ally on the server. Most of the guys I supplied with tames just kind of disappeared, but these guys are a tribe of 3 and seem pretty experienced. We named our alliance "The (server number) Defenders". A bit cliche, especially since we haven't really defended anything, but I like to think that this is the start of something that can grow into a real community. All of this being said, I must admit that I have fallen off track. Between breeding the initial tames and building a new home I lost sight of the bigger picture. My new base still requires fortification, but It's also about time i got back on track and continued the hunt for some boss dinos. The weekend Is just beginning so with some luck I'll post again with some more good news!
  7. To be completely honest I don't believe the turrets were doing any good at all. I had 4 under the raft set to all for the leeds and the ones up top set to players and tames. The dude was just casually swimming around while taking fire lol. I didn't have them fully stocked yet, but he absorbed 3-4k rounds without flinching and that's without a soaker!
  8. Week 3 Update Part 1-Attacked Well...it finally happened, I guess i couldn't stay hidden forever. Out during a rex hunt I showed up and found my species x destroyed and raft damaged. My first thought was that a leeds hit the base then shortly after my arrival the turrets on players only began firing. A lone raider. I felt confident in my rafts ability to hold off a raider on my same level, but this attacker had a level 400+ shadowmane at their side, and they seemed to care very little about my turrets. They were underwater so none of the tames I had been breeding could take them on either. My best bet was to load up my argy with all the cryos and run...as i made my dash to safety I started to understand the power of this beast as it instantly dismounted me. Allright so that didn't work...upon respawn I knew my turrets were getting low, so i decided to move my raft to shallow water and I powered down my generator. Surrender isn't the most noble move, but It's all i could do at this point and at least if they destroy my raft I could try to scrap up some of the remains in the shallows...then the unexpected happened and the raider backed off. I don't know why they decided to spare me, but one thing was for sure. My position was compromised and now I need a new place to live. It's been a good little base, but its time to move on. I moved my remaining dinos and gear into my hidden caches for the time being. Looks like this weekend I will be building a new base. Hopefully someplace where shadowmanes can't reach me. So long crab shack...
  9. Maximum damage per shot is achieved at 90% pullback, so if you have the arrows to spare it's more damaging to rapid fire into the enemy. In my opinion it's better to save on the arrows, unless you are in a rush to kill something.
  10. I like it! I have 3 more levels to go before the platform saddle is unlocked, but after that we will take to the sky!
  11. Thank You! It's been fun, but a bit stressful too. All it takes is one dude to sink my raft and I'll be back on week 1 progress lol.
  12. Thanks, been a lot of fun. Not sure how to change it though. Is there a way?
  13. Week 2 Summary-Big Progress-TLDR: Did Stuff LOL The breeding station has been fairly successful so far. Being slightly submerged the offspring from the ovis ended up falling through the floor and drowning which was a bit unfortunate. I also was not able to find any decent rex's to tame either, but I did find 2 direwolfs of opposite genders to tame up instead. I'm very happy with the starting stats on this line. One has 3300 health after taming and the other has 373 melee. With the imprint boost and pack bonus I expect these puppies to shred. I was even lucky enough to get 2 twin females on the first breeding session. In addition to the wolves I'm also raising up a direbear that has +53 melee base stats. I think a wolf/bear combo will be able to see me through the northern ice cave with some preparation. With my list of tames and supplies growing, the micromanagement of all my hidden caches has been getting out of hand, so I figured It was finally time to set up a central base. The island is still too dangerous to build on, but now I have the resources to fend off the leeds attacks, making raft life possible again...so here is my own take on a PvP expedition raft. With the raft assembled, I expect that I will start drawing more attention from raiders, so going into week 3 I think It's about time I made some allies on the server. I don't feel quite ready to introduce myself to the alphas, but I have been watching a couple smaller tribes attempting to get setup on the island as well. The plan will be to gift them the lower level tames that I started out with, along with a few defenses. With any luck we can start to unite the server and help each other rebuild after each attack. It's probably a pipe dream but this stage right here is my favorite in Ark. Still vulnerable but powerful enough to make a difference on the server. Week 3 is going to be all about fortification and assisting the little guys, while I continue my hunt for some decent boss rex's.
  14. Week 2 Update Some great progress was made this week. For starters a GM was able to reimburse the dinos I lost from the prior weeks border glitch. It was my first time submitting a ticket for support and despite what people say, the process was actually pretty simple and the GM was extremely helpful. While the gear I lost couldn't be recovered, the tames were reimbursed at level 225 unleveled...basically as though they were all perfect kibble tames. I went ahead and set up a breeding station, as I have a 3 day weekend on the way and It's a great time to breed up a couple of those reimbursed argies. One thing I noticed is that I haven't really been relaxed in this run. Every corner has felt pretty stressful and grindy. I decided to make my breeding setup somewhat PvEish to get back the good old relaxing feeling of playing ark...something that I think many PvPers forget to enjoy. Since I can safely upload the dimetrodons I won't lose anything if somebody comes to grief me. My hope is that they will simply leave the breeding dock alone as there is nothing worthwhile here to raid. Additionally, I managed to get a male and female ovis for breeding. The calculator on dododex states that using mutton on a 150 is only a 4 level difference from kibble these days, so the plan is to also start raising up sheep for my initial rex line as well. Last but not least I managed to get past the aggressive theri in the swamp cave and get my artifact. I went as far as I could with my megatherium and then I used grapples to get past the theri without aggroing it. Thats 3 artifacts down now! On a final side note I'd like to say that this has been a pretty enjoyable run so far, however If something happens that results in a total wipe I will probably call it quits on this challenge. I won't allow myself to be upset as its what I've signed up for, but It has taken so much effort to stay hidden and get this far and I simply don't care to start over by this point. That aside, I do intend to see this through. Almost at the breeding stage of the game now!
  15. Thanks for that, you can make fun of me if you want to though. I usually do!
  16. Week 1 Update (Part 2) Slight change of plans, as I was scouting for some ovis this morning I came across a megatherium, level 115! Used my bear to honey tame it and it came out decent...level 165 with 5k health. Now I was ready to take on the swamp cave, standing at just level 81 myself, It seemed like a good opportunity to try and get some blueprints, levels and snag another artifact. The run was mostly a success, no good loot except for a journeyman longneck...might come in useful. Got my newest tame up to level 213, with 20k health and 300 melee. My strongest tame yet, left in upload along with my best argie and bear for safekeeping. I did however run into my first major hurdle of the run...at the end of the cave, just before the artifact, someone left a level 417 therizinosaurus on aggressive. Currently I have zero tools at my disposal to handle a threat like that and I had to pull out. At least the rest of the cave is open for farming still. At the moment It looks like I'll need to transfer servers If I want to get the next artifact...really not looking to make an enemy on my home server. Finished up the morning by taming an aurthropluera as suggested by @DrSmithDVM. Coming into week 2 I think the plan is take it a little easy and make up some extra staches as well as do a cave run each morning. With any luck a stronger tribe will run the cave and take care of the theri for me. In the meantime I could continue my ovis hunt and possibly even get some sleep...
  17. Kinda like updating this because it gives me the chance to get some additional tips along the way. But a diary is kinda cool too, as long as I dont end up like Rockwell.
  18. Week 1 Update After my last progress post I made the decision to risk one night with all my tames and gear stored in the same location. After all it was only day 2 and nobody knew of my presence so far. What a mistake that was...woke up the following morning with everything destroyed, although not to a player, but a glitch. Looks like I built too close to a border and got everything erased...oops! Spent the next few sleep deprived nights and mornings before work trying to double time it and catch up. Despite not having a base anymore I actually have been pretty successful living out of raided bases and using the scraps left behind to recuperate. Despite the overall success it was a pretty hard recovery, with multiple setbacks along the way, but I'm pretty determined to see this through. By the weeks end I have made my recovery and am back on track to pursue the veggie cake production. Then I can finally start pushing the PvE goals.
  19. I didn't realize an xbox one was old enough to be considered back in the day!
  20. Yeah that's hard. Im hoping Ark 2 will have a refined offline raid protection mode. It use to be my favorite mode and let you still have a life, but everyone started building in the caves and obelisks. Couldn't make progress after that.
  21. Thanks man, even if failure is the result it has already been a hell of a run. really enjoyed the second day. On a mission, to beat this these maps, LETS GO!
  22. Huge shout out to @DrSmithDVM for the in depth advice. Some of which I used today and it helped immensely. DAY 2 Woke up with my gear mostly intact. Found that one of my hidden staches was destroyed. Thankfully it was just my narcotic station. I'm wondering if it's because It was only a wooden foundation with some pestles...rebuilt on metal and with walls in the same area to test. After that I went ahead and tamed up my duplicate argy and anky. Cryoed and hidden...at least now if I'm killed while gathering I'll have a backup. I feel pretty confident in my hiding spot at the moment so I decided to store them at home base instead up uploading. Now that I finally had my starter dinos established it was time to make progress to the mid game. I chose to pursue the most important tame yet for my progression...the dire bear. Now some of you may be scratching your heads at this next step but hear me out. I did my research and I'm pretty sure that mutton tamed rex's with some yuty/daeno support are capable of handling the gamma dragon...no breeding needed. If so that is going to save me a TON of time, so the current plan is to start producing veggie cakes for the sake of ovis taming...and to do that with a low footprint means a bear is needed. So whalla! ..... After taming I decided to do a little leveling and get my first artifact. Artifact of the clever at the central cave. It was a struggle...the bear tamed out to level 75 and after the cave we are standing strong at a whopping 104 which tells you how much of a fight it was. Now to make the veggie cakes. I needed tree sap so I decided to make use of the c4 from last night and go on a few raids while I scouted for a tree platform. It was a fairly successful trip. I got my tree sap along with a host of other materials but something about these raids just felt wrong. I actually ended up trying to help a fellow pvper recover from my own raid out of guilt. They ended up leaving to start fresh on a PvE server...I have never felt ashamed from a video game before but that did it... After the looting I was able to make up 11 c4 (net) along with some useful saddles for later. Last thing needed are crops for my veggie cake production...hopefully there will be some humanity left in me after accomplishing my goals. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unfortunately, that wraps up my weekend and now life calls. I think it was a pretty good start, however my job now requires me to work 2 weeks straight before getting another weekend. I feel fairly good about my hiding spot but 2 weeks is a long time to go staying hidden. I should still be able to get an hour or so in each day, so the plan now is to setup my crops and tame any ovis I can find each morning before work. After my 2 weeks of work I will get 4 days off so the goal is to tame enough ovis to begin mass taming my initial rex line. Lets just hope that the odds of finding ovis are in my favor as well as the odds of being found. Due to the circumstances, I don't expect any major progress to be made until the 4 day weekend, so unfortunately, I don't expect to be making another progress post until week 2. I will however keep checking in with you guys for more advice and general comments. Y'all are the frigen best.
  23. Honestly I do stuff like this even in pvp. I am not very successfull in my ventures most of the time lmao.
  24. Well just finished my first day and so we will see how well i hid my stuff. I ended up scraping the raft idea, its been awhile since I've played raft life and it seems like there are more leeds than before...lost 3 rafts in different areas so that mess was a strikeout. Other than that things have gone pretty well. Got my gatherer dinos all tamed up and uploaded so those are safe tonight. I tamed up a level 10 argy which was surprisingly useful despite the low level. Made good use of the mobile smithy and put up a little fabricator station in the forest. Left it all open so if someone comes along I'm hoping they will just loot it and move on. Uploaded a couple hundred electronics and poly made from said fabricator, so I suppose it's served its purpose. I also managed to find a relatively well hidden spot, which I think I'm going to turn into my main headquarters. As far as making plans for breeding I'm playing with the idea of taming up an army of dimetrodons and using them to hatch eggs out in the middle of nowhere...either that or I'll probably use the advice @St1ckyBandit provided and make a sky quetz. Last but not least I managed to make 6 c4 and got that into upload. I think I'm going to avoid raiding and pvp as much as possible and just prioritize getting the bosses beat as fast as possible, but I'd like to build up enough gear for some sort of retaliation effort if someone manages to grief me. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm trying to take multiple screenshots along the way but it looks like I can only upload one per post...so here my best one of the day. I always love the early stages of the game. Ironically it seems like the stronger you get the less freedom you have to just explore and have fun. I took my time during this note run. All I remember at this point is waking with a single entity calling for me to find her. Hopefully I can complete the mission before Ark 2 releases...
  25. My game plan for the island is to play as though I am going to get wiped literally every single day. The plan is to make a crafting/kibble production raft and immediately after that make stuff for a second one but upload it. After that I'll tame duplicates of the starter dinos...for me that is argy, anky, frog, doed, beaver...those go straight to upload. It will be a pain to pull them out and refresh upload each night, but I'm confident that with a duplicate set I can recover everything mentioned within two hours even if fully wiped... Thats the starter plan at least. Getting my rex lines and water mounts going for the caves/bosses is where things are going to get tricky.
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