Cymas

Well, I had a nice relaxing Friday evening that was all about building. Not the most exciting of sessions, but it needed to get done and now I'll be that much more prepared. It's amazing how quickly an area because "safe" once you start building. I got the entire taming facility structure basically finished, save maybe a few aesthetic touches here and there. Honestly as far as builds go it's much more complete than my actual base is. So there we go, I can tame in 99% safety and comfort. I put one of my old forges inside so I can easily run metal for repairs. Just for now, I'll probably make another epic forge at some point. I can easily keep my lower level anky here and farm while taming. This facility might even end up more advanced than my base. It would make so much sense to have a chem bench here, and a cooker. Especially once/if I manage to solo tame a quetz and can simply carry most animals straight here for taming. We'll see. For now I still need a couple more levels. I've already been out with the new rex, he needs some levels to bulk up himself. Honestly I'm tempted to breed him with Lillith just to get an imprinted rex, but patience is a virtue. I'll have a good spino soon enough and then it won't matter.

Haven't had a lot of play time lately but in my post-turkey coma I decided to relax with some Ark. First did some work around the base, something that's been aggravating me. I had cleared two of the Pearl Lake paths but not the third. I went ahead and did that, giving me all clear lanes into and out of my main base area. Much, much better. Still working on leveling up enough to make a cooker, so I took Lillith out to stomp around a bit. Naturally we came across a 140 male rex and I had no gear. Went back, got my bird, lured the rex into the little canyon area next to the volcano river and set my temporary taming trap up. Didn't quite work as intended and managed to accidentally trap a 55 rex also, but we eventually succeeded. He stood up with trash stats, but I have a good use for him anyway. I kept him where he was and went back to base to grab my doed. The newly tamed, unsaddled rex stood guard while I started work on a permanent taming facility. To call it a pen would be a disservice because it will have a lot more than that. The pen is built in the canyon itself of course, and it has a roof to prevent sky dilos falling in. I already started extending it out to build the base portion. This will have taming supplies, basic craft/repair stations, will lead to the hanging shooting platform inside the pen, and will also have a secure pen for keeping mounts safe while I worry about the tames. I'll probably keep the trash rex here as a guard/hunter. Maybe I'll keep a seagull here too. I could keep my stego or trike from herb island for berries as well...hm hm. We'll see.

Not much to report today. Ran some cables and set up my hatchery area with hatchery, incubator and nanny. Also made an egg collector. Still not a single megalo egg, most likely due to my accelerated night cycle. Funnily enough I did pick up 4 golden hesperonis eggs from the one that lives in the lake. I also mass crafted stimulants, narcotics, gunpowder, sparkpowder, and did a massive metal run. All weekend prep really. Tamed a 145 pelagornis also, but without kibble or fish prime so a bit of a waste, but still pulled some decent enough stats. Mostly just want to see what a high level pela tame is capable of. The weight is pretty lackluster though, if I didn't have a stacking mod that reduced the weight of most items the pela would not be a particularly useful mount. I feel like it has a lot of potential but is very much in need of a TLC. There are a few things that bug me about it. First and foremost, it does not transition from sea to land at all and it should. If you go from sea onto land it automatically launches into flight. This can get a little bit annoying, especially when fishing near the shore and having to reposition. Second is the combination of low stamina and low carry weight. If WC wants people to use an animal, make it, well, usable. Being a little slow is fine if it's worth the trip. Increase stamina, carry weight, or both. My thought was also to give it either a glide or a hover ability. Gliding wouldn't be like rock drakes. It would be relatively slow, but use much less stamina and can't change direction. Or, since it can't pick up anything or otherwise be useful, give it a hover with a greatly increased base stamina stat. While hovering the bird does not move, cannot attack and it drains stamina faster, but the trade off is that you'd be able to use mounted weapons in this mode. Also for the love of the Ark why does it only have 2 color regions, and one of them is nearly invisible at that. Way to make it so even people who breed for fun will never touch this slow, low statted seaplane. I would make the second region more prominent and make the feet/beak a color region the way it is on argents. I dunno, I love the concept of the animal, but its design and utility is so uninspired compared to so many other animals. It just doesn't stand out at all. I want to use one so bad but it's just so much easier to hop on an argent.

Quite the day today. Decided to start the day strong. Made a tree platform and taps and got those set up. Then I took my tek rex out to start looking to cross a few animals off my list. Found some pachyrhinos, which I need for bary taming. Of course the pretty one was a high level male...I hate taming these things so I actively look for low levels. But then something else caught my attention. A blood rex came stomping over the rise, destroying the herd and giving us a run for our money. Literally. A quick check with the spyglass revealed a 140 female. I may not be a huge fan of rexes, but I don't waste good animals either. It took quite a bit of work but we lured the bloody nightmare all the way to the newly constructed taming pen, got her down and tamed. The tek rex survived too. She didn't stand up with any breedable stats, but still a monster of a tame. I decided she earned a name, so she is now Lillith. Yes I did recently watch the Sabrina reboot, it seemed apropos. She is now my main mount. We went back to the field where she had torn through the pachyrhinos, and one remained alive. A low level female. Tamed and returned to the lake. We then went in search of a direbear of a decent level, 130+. Did not find one right away, but did find a 150 saber. Tamed it, returned to base and did some prep work. This saber was tamed for one purpose, and one purpose only: going into the volcano cave to tame a beetle. Made our way in, a hard fight down as we ran into a high level athro straight away that broke all my armor in the fight. Then we came around the corner and thankfully it was still daylight, because we stumbled almost literally over a megalo. Low level female. 4 active on the map at a time and we happen to find one and a female to boot. Found a beetle as well, tamed and quickly returned to base. Loaded up the bary and went out to capture the megalo. That was a scary encounter. Did you know they can pick up baryonyx? TIL. Almost lost him, and almost lost the megalo after forgetting to whistle passive. Lucky, lucky. It was a long, tense journey back to the lake, for sure. Then back out again and found a 140 direbear. Tamed him up. A lot of back and forth today. Got him saddled and went out to spend an hour harvesting enough honey to make an S+ hive, then a nanny who is powered by honey in the absence of tek. Also went out to look for a rare sightings otter as I'd never tamed one before. They are adorable, for the record. Almost immediately a new rare sighting popped up for a wolf in the snow. Took Lillith out one more time. Did not find the wolf. Did find a particularly persistent yuty who followed us even beyond the snow. Low level, but beautiful dark blue and lavender female. Who am I to argue if she wants to come with us? Got her down and tamed and walked her home. All in all a very busy and productive day. Even found time for a metal run. Definitely in a very good position now. Plenty of supplies and resources. I actually can't make a cooker yet, really wish there was a middle tier option for that. Will start stockpiling mats in the meantime. I'm basically ready, now I just need animals to tame. I know where there's a 145 spino that I plan on going after soon. Will need an oviraptor, and probably another megalo or two. I do have shorter night cycles which makes it even harder to get eggs from them. I guess that's really the main argument for boss rexes, at least they're easy to get. Boss theris might be much more versatile, but they are much harder to set up for. I might give megatherium a try too, it all depends on what I find when I'm out on the hunt. I feel like the lake is going to fill up rather quickly.

A long and productive day yesterday. First I did two runs back to herb island and cleaned out almost everything. All that's left behind is a bed, a smithy, the crops, foundations and the animals I'm not taking with me. Everything else went to what is now my main base at Pearl. I set up all the crafting stations and built a quick and not especially pretty base. I'll work on it later, it serves its purpose for now. Once that was completed I built an epic forge from Seven's Forge kit, 50x faster metal refining. When you can't rely on server timers to put in some of the work for you, sometimes the solution is to simply boost production with mod help. I also got a new set of crops going. And I crafted, then upgraded until I got an ascendant longneck. Given the high cost of materials to use the upgrade station, I think it's fair. I also made 100 darts to start with. Unfortunately there wasn't too much to hunt yet because I had another major project to work on first. The hidden lake is very, well, hidden and part of the issue with that is moving animals in and out of the gates with so many obstacles. So I spent much of the afternoon clearing two of the three valleys, using foundations to block respawns and building up quite a stock of materials with my doed and mammoth. I also built a small dock for my raft and built a taming pen into the end of one valley, with an elevated shooting platform. Then it was off to hunt and clear spawns with my spino. Unfortunately he is a low level and it shows; we eventually retreated back to base to heal after a particularly nasty fight with an alpha raptor, a carno and a 125 rex. I took my bird out to scout instead. Eventually I brought back a 140 event colored anky, which is one of the animals on my checklist. I also want a good doed, mine is painfully bad and I have the resources so it's time to upgrade. Didn't find a doed, but I eventually found a 114 tek rex I had scouted previously along the volcano river. In the absence of a taming pen I simply used the valley by the end of the river. Luring her in was hard. KOing her, easy. Unfortunately her TE got wrecked by a raptor of all things, so basically no bonus levels. Disappointing, but it's not like I'll be using her for breeding or anything I guess. In any case, a 100+ apex predator is a fine mount and her job is basically to clear spawns and harvest prime meat from alphas, both of which she does admirably well. I haven't actually named any of my animals yet. Usually I do. I guess I don't care as much when I'm by myself, heh. Granted I never name breeding project animals either, only the animals born from the project. Anyway. I'm in a much stronger position than I was at the start of the day. Today's goal will be continuing to build up. I need pachyrhinos, a beetle, megalos, a better doed, a bear, a tree platform with sap taps, sheep...I don't know if I'll get everything, and I still have plenty of building and crafting to do.

Honestly when you're just starting out, high level animals isn't hugely important. I find taming levels 50-60ish is fine, and for starter utility animals I'll grab whatever I can find. I know I'll replace them later on with better ones anyway. For myself, not a hugely exciting evening. I built the remaining 2 gates I needed and set them up. Of course, animals can still fall in from above; I'm still thinking about how to block that in a way that isn't totally ugly. The only true concern is a giga roaming too close and falling in...that would ruin my day, for sure. But since I had my immediate safety handled, it was time to do a little shuffling. I headed back to the raft and sailed all the way back to herb island and loaded up a few choice tames. My anky, of course. My bary. And my spino. Yes, the one adventure I didn't post about included my first spino tame. Fun fact/detail: if your spino is on your raft and you turn the raft too quickly, the spino stands up! It's like he's trying to balance himself, very cool. Offloaded everyone and then spent a significant amount of time laying foundations. Also clearing the area of annoying spawns. Kept the beavers, ate the paras, compies, dilos, trikes, stegos, etc. Basically anything that could be a potential issue. I might tame one of the beavers, not sure yet. Decided to get started on eggs for argent kibble to tame spinos so I headed over to carno island with my raft and my bird. On the way we scooped up a surprise visitor, a lystro who was randomly swimming in the middle of the ocean. Oh, and I did go and rescue mine on my way to tame the mammoth...it was promptly snatched up by a seagull and eaten. Would have been safer on the beach where it was. Sigh. Anyway. I lured a bird I liked into the pen and KO'd it. While I was getting prime a female scorp started following me to the pen so I tamed that too in case I decided to do some boss rexes instead of or alongside theris. Then I tamed the lystro because why not. Brought everyone back to base and that was about it for me for the night. Today's plan is basically to spend some time at herb island gathering up the rest of the animals/materials I plan to bring with me. Some of them are staying because I either don't need them or don't want to lose them ie the stupid seagulls. Once I've consolidated everything I've got some more stuff to build before I'll really be ready to start hunting.

I've built up enough that I decided I need to get a foothold on the mainland. Just like irl, herb island is a perfect example of how we trade convenience for security. It might be completely safe, but it's a hassle to do anything. So I loaded my doed, mammoth and argent up on the raft and sailed north. I was already planning to build up there anyway so why not now? Pearl Lake, an area I have never built in because it's been occupied on every server ever. Not surprising, given its relative safety and proximity to useful things. Once there I set up a tiny platform to operate from and tamed a red monkey that happened to be wandering around. No particular reason. Anyway. Farmed up a bit and got one gate up. That's honestly all I had time for. Pearl Lake is going to be my breeding facility, basically. At least for my semi-aquatics. Barys, spinos, pelas, etc. I'll probably keep herb island as it is for now and eventually convert it into a sea pen. I'm not too worried about it being too far out of the way for that because honestly I rarely use full aquatics. Don't really need to with spinos, but they are still good to have for some situations. I will say I'm tempted to check out Extinction, but I'd really like to progress through the maps in the proper order.

Weekends, the boon and curse of Ark. Day 5: The Circle of Ark Having set myself up handily with supplies and a new taming raft, I decided it was time to go pick up some utility tames, and my first dedicated combat mount. Off I went with just my seagull in search of an argent, all the way back to carno point. I specifically chose that area because there's a spot away from the fighting where dodos spawn, and I know the gull can get prime meat from them. Unfortunately the only bird there worth taking hit a dimo. I wrote it off immediately and went after the prettiest of the remaining birds, because why not. They're all gonna suck might as well get something I can breed later. Got a gorgeous, golden feathered male successfully taming. Didn't bother with prime, he was only level 10 anyway. Got the saddle on and immediately left the area, parking on the weathertop side of the river around the back of Cragg's Island. So many glorious spino spawns up and I refuse to block any of them. There are so many in spots I've never even seen before because of those spawns being blocked on every server I've ever played on. And this is from someone with 4k+ hours who maintained an active list of spawn points long before anyone thought to map them on the wiki. There is nothing as beautiful as spino river being actually full of spinos. And barys My goal was not a bary but rather a doed. I had seen an event one by black beach that I wanted. Unfortunately it had been attacked and was balled up, so I went scouting around instead. And this is where the game gets frustrating, not from any sort of challenge but rather just plain cheap crap. I had to take a phone call and landed on a high, high ridge on the side of the volcano. There was absolutely nothing around. I got up for about 30 seconds to check something. Came back to see I had been killed by a 174 (!?) Tek raptor that had come literally from nowhere and pounced me right off the bird. Really game? I got back to the area just in time for the argent's death message to pop up. Wrote off the seagull entirely, it wasn't worth searching for. Luckily I had already planned to go have coffee with a friend from my previous job, so that gave me time to calm down and collect myself. Back to carno point for another argent. Misfortune turned to luck as I spotted a level 50 argent with more than a passing resembling to a phoenix. I tamed him successfully, he even happened to have the same golden feathers on the trailing edge of his wings. There was also a low level doed in the area, as soon as the bird was up I put him to use and got the doed. Then on the way home I tamed a pair of dilos for eggs. I returned home triumphant and offloaded my finds, then right back out again to get a bary. I almost managed to carry a level 95 all the way back to the raft but a rex ate it and I ended up with a 35 instead. But he is pretty neat in his own right, purple with blue spines and an orange underbelly. He'll make good color breeding stock later. If he lives that long. Got a new icthyornis too, killed about half a dozen before I thought to switch to a regular bow. What I really need is a gun and tranq darts. I also really need to build a bigger taming pen and get my first spino, I'm tired of being dragged off my mounts by raptors all the time. I don't really have the build for that kind of damage. I also took the bary on a long walk around the edge of the redwoods to eat deer and collect pelt. Got enough to make 3/5 of a set of fur, so I can use my good pela to farm organic polymer to make a set of ghillie. That was about the end of my day. Today's plan: I haven't quite decided yet. I've already chosen where to build my breeding base, so now I'm debating if I want to even keep this outpost on herb island. It really is quite far out of the way. On the other hand it would be a great sea pen but again, so far out of the way. I still need a deer, and a female seagull for breeding. I'd rather breed a few in case I lose one than have to keep taming the stupid things. I could try to recover the one I lost by the volcano if it's still alive, it was a female. I think at this point a spino or a rex would be the most beneficial. I might just go for a rex, then start setting up the second/main base. I'd just rather be taming, you know? Building gets stressful for me because I get so hung up on design/details. I have never once built a boring box or behemoth gate base. Just not my style.

Got a two part episode, I promise no cliff hangers lol. Day 3: Mine!? Mine. So, I decided although the logical thing to do would be to work on building, I really wanted a pelagornis. I'm not entirely an idiot though; first I moved basically everything valuable into storage boxes on the beach. If another whale fish attacked, I wouldn't lose anything overly painful. Did keep the refining forge on and running though, gotta melt that metal. Anyway. I set off and of course it didn't take long before I spotted plenty of pelas. I picked one that was conveniently already walking around, one bola and 2 tranqs later it was out. Unfortunately it was also a low level. Once it stood up and I put the saddle on, I was quick to realize that like pteras, they just don't have a lot of stamina. They have higher base stam, but at low levels it doesn't make much of a difference. So I continued on and tamed a second, slightly higher level pela. Then I went for a long flight cruising around. Pelas are quite fun actually, I love the water landing feature. Plus they are boss at killing piranhas. Definitely a great utility tame for someone who spends a ton of time around water. I also flew up to harvest a small amount of crystal and made my first super spyglass. Love it. So I scouted around the rivers mainly. Very happy to see so many spinos and barys out and about. Can't wait to start taming them. But, patience. I'm not ready yet. I was also scouting for a female pego to go with my male. Need the eggs for taming high level pelas. As you might guess by the title, I also tamed my first icthyornis ever. You know, I never realized how big they actually are until I saw one up close. They are comically large on a survivor's shoulder. I think I probably will tame at least one high level to make breeding easier. I hate taming these things, and I hate running into them wild, but tamed they are perfect for my needs. That took up basically all of my evening, so I sailed home with my new small flock. The other reason I tamed 2 pelas is my personal rule about animals that fly or swim: always have 2 of each in case you lose one. Many a panicked rescue mission has been salvaged by simply having multiple animals that can travel the same way. Day 4: Advancing After my field trip, my adventuring spirit was calmed for a bit and I quickly got to work. Since herb island is safe, and there's no one else around to worry about, I built an entirely open crafting platform. Pretty simple, bordered by railings. With S+ and its integrated inventory system I don't have to pull tames up next to the working area, so I kept it relatively small. I also got my crops started, as the large plots finally filled up enough. The most exciting part was advancing enough to build a fabricator and a generator. We've got power! And can now craft anything I could possibly want to make. But obviously I've still got some work to do before I can truly advance in tech. Namely, the severe lack of utility tames is now going to be an issue. I cleared the raft and built a small taming pen on it. I just have to add a few amenities and I'll be ready for my next immediate target: an argent. I know I have the pelas, but it's impossible to ignore the pick up ability for taming. Especially since the bird can now pick up the animals I need the most right now: a decent bary and a doed. That's today's goal. An argent, a doed, and two barys, basically in that order. And possibly a mammoth, although transporting it will be problematic. Oh and maybe a deer too... Yeah, I'm going to be taming a lot today. I honestly love the hunt more than anything. I should probably make some saddles first.

Day 2: Foundations So, it turns out my stacking mod is working, I forgot it won't apply retroactively. So add StackMeMore 1.4 to my mod list. I also removed the weight multi I increased since it's no longer necessary. First thing I did upon logging in was make some bolas and do a sweep for that pelagornis. Unfortunately it seems to have flown out to sea while I was occupied with other things and is nowhere to be found. That's ok, I'm sure I'll find another one soon enough. It would have been extremely convenient is all, given that I have a beached meg in my harbor. It's not dead, it just can't move. Easy pickings for piscavore feed. No point trying to tame it really. She'll just hang out and look pretty until I need to turn her into fish food, I suppose. Of course she's event colors too. Almost all of my time today was basically a game of Harvest Moon. You know when you first inherit the farm and you have to go around breaking boulders and clearing tree stumps? That was me pretty much. I didn't make nearly as much progress as I would have liked but then, it is quite a large area. I basically built a border all around the inner sanctum of the island, for the lack of a better term. All the way down to the water on each side. I also cleared the whole area out. Little known use for parasaurs, they make great arborists. Their hitbox is so narrow you can easily remove just the plants you want without accidentally knocking down a particular tree you want to keep. Sadly my effort was wasted when I accidentally hit a bronto's tail while chopping rocks. It didn't kill me or anything, but it annihilated the tree I wanted to keep. Jerk. TBH I did use admin commands to delete him and his friend, life's too short to deal with brontoquakes when trying to build. I also tamed 2 more tek paras. The one I scouted yesterday, and a new cooler looking one that popped up after I cleared out a huge herd of stegos for hide. Set up my crop plots, not really enough fertilizer and I'll probably need 2 rain storms for full irrigation, but at least that's off the list for now. Tons of levels from all the crafting, so much for progression. I got around 25 levels total, high enough to get me into metal tier and electricity when I don't even have a roof over my head yet. I'm debating doing an open base layout though, with only a small enclosed room for myself. I like to run high fort anyway so it won't matter pretty soon. I know it's only day 2, but I'm already getting bottlenecked by my need for advanced materials in order to progress. But I really have to focus on the base build before I really do anything else. This isn't going to be hugely elaborate or just plain huge like the Arkanus used to be, but I refuse to make sloppy builds. I'm also incapable of small bases lol. It all depends on what I feel like doing tomorrow. I could also build the raft and/or go hunt for a pelagornis. I could just grab a ptera but I don't want to, I want to try something new (to me). I'm stubborn like that. I could also try my luck on the coastal bary spawn over by weathertop, would be an easy tame. I could also break down and just go for an argent to make it easy for utility animal collecting. So many coulds and what ifs. The curse of a sandbox game, sometimes there's too many choices.

Day 1 Redux But wait, shouldn't I be on day 3? Yes, I would be, except that I wiped my save. I was a chronic Pokemon restarter too, if something didn't go juuust right I would reset. Similar situation here. I did some reading and decided to change all of my settings around and add some mods I've never had before. I've never really chosen to do modded play on my own, usually I just end up with whatever the server is running. But I decided it wouldn't be "fair" to change everything and then continue my game, so poof it went. On the multipliers I pretty much just sped everything up considerably, especially breeding. I've played on official rates and whatnot, I don't need to suffer through it again. Twin quetz on the original breeding timers with my tribe partner back in the day, and helping a non-tribed friend with 3 food-bugged baby gigas (triplets). I think I've earned the right to breed however I want lol. I didn't go too crazy with mods, just some basic QoL, a couple of admittedly EZ mode, and one I wanted to try since I first heard of it ages and ages ago and am so happy to see it's still around and has had some amazing advancements since I last played. So my mod list: S+, Platforms +, Super Spyglass, Upgrade Station, Death Recovery Mod, DinoTracker, Seven's Forge, Rare Sightings. I was going to add a stacking mod but I'm too lazy to go through all the steps to reload the map with it, so meh. Rare Sightings has me super psyched, especially since I'm not using SP settings and still want to conquer all the bosses solo. Anyway. I loaded up for my second first day in a week. Spawned on the east coast this time, cause I have a plan, man. First thing I noticed was some pegos roaming around. Within 10 minutes I had two of them tamed. I was testing the new settings, and also just wanted them out of the way. I left one behind at "camp" if you can call a single storage box a camp, then went to tame a couple of dodos. The one I left behind was killed by another pego. Went back and tamed that pego. Survived a compy ambush, tamed a stuck lystro, and then the new pego died to an icthyornis. I had bows by then, always craft two for the hotbar so if one breaks in an intense moment you're not SOL. Learned that from SotF. Anyway. Killed the flying pego, recovered the pego's stuff, and tamed a stuck lystro while warily observing an alpha raptor some ways down the coast. Stockpiled mats while I leveled up enough to make a raft. I actually turned my exp down so there's a sense of progression. I was level 83 or so on the last file, that's just too fast for me. I like my exp at x2. I also noticed an interesting effect, since I have harvesting way up, but not player harvest damage, so it still adds some effort without being overly grindy. Dino harvest damage is up, so basically I make it hard until I get a tame, which tbh is pretty accurate in general. Finally got my raft made and loaded everything up. Except the poor lystro, because I couldn't carry it and hadn't built any structures on the raft. If it's still alive by the time I'm back in the area I'll rescue it. Then it was off to herb island, this time with no surprise assault by giant fish. Once there I offloaded the animals and had a run around, found a few animals I want to tame. My taming settings are up high enough that kibble is for convenience, not a necessity anymore, so that's cool. But I will still need some kibble animals for imprints, which sucks. Unless I rely solely on the S+ nanny. I hate stockpiling animals I'll never actually use for anything. The dodos at least are great as noob fridges and the pego is bait if I get into a tough situation lol. Grinded a little bit more and laid down crafting stations on the naked raft until I got what I wanted, metal tier tools. Tamed a tek para (yes, again) first to hit up some berries. Then I grabbed a stego, two ankys and a trike. There's a better tek para I might grab later, and I'm going to take a different track this time and tame something I have never had before: pelagornis. There's a decent level one flying around herb island, and I can make the saddle. Killed a couple of trilos at one point, chitin for daaaaaays. Basically, my theme is very much versatile semi aquatic animals. I've been maining spinos since they were first added to the game and absolutely love the utility of them. And everything else, really. I once had a pink frog that soloed an alpha raptor. I don't even remember her name anymore, but she was a beast of an amphibian. I was really meh on barys in the beginning, until we got some in my old tribe specifically for doing caves and now I appreciate them quite a lot for their (surprise!) versatility. So it's only good sense that I would love a pelagornis too, the Ark version of a seaplane. I know my tribemate P loved them, I once helped him hunt for a specific colored one for ages. So I'm gonna try one and if I like it, I might just do a few breeding projects too. That was all I had time for, but I'm obviously in a much, much better position than I was before so I'm quite pleased overall. I cut all of the waffling out so am pretty much right where I was, only with better tames. Now I just have to decide what to do from here. I know I am going to build up on HI a bit. I'll still need crops and some egg animals, and I saw a design I like and can adapt to the area. I'll most likely use it as a small farm, refueling/refining station and early sea pen. The raft will again be a mobile taming pen with amenities. Logically, for efficiency I should start the farm as soon as possible. I already started fertilizer production, but I won't be taming any beetles until I get a bary that can survive a cave long enough to find a few. But until then I can run a few plots, maybe just one of each to start. TBH I don't think I've ever needed crops in such quantities that I've needed more than that really. One person can only use so much stuff. So that's the plan. Pela, plants and poop.

Well, day 2 went from awesome to bad to better. I ended up skipping the icthyornis entirely and went in search of a bary. Alas, the only one I found was level 5, but hey it's better than nothing. Tamed it up, made a saddle and brought him home. Incidentally I named him after my old tribemate who was known for dying a lot and loves barys. The name was prophetic. Once back on herb island I tamed an anky and a second tek para, because I can. The anky was of course immensely useful and I started stocking tons of metal up to smelt. I decided I had more than enough to make the jump to the next tier, so I jumped on the bary and headed northwest to carno point and easy pearls. Got a bunch of oil too. But I decided to take a shortcut and cut through the interior of the island, rather than the longer coastal journey. Well, even veterans make stupid decisions sometimes. Got stunlocked and torn to pieces by a pair of wild barys in the volcano river while I was busy avoiding a spino, never even had a chance. So I lost everything I farmed, the new saddle, and of course the bary. Only lost about half my gear, because I took it off and stored it to save weight. Back to the raft we went. I ended up rebuilding the front quadrant into a small taming/transport pen. Made a second forge, a metal storage box courtesy of S+, and stocked up on some raw mats for the ease of access during my travels. We are basically as set up for success as we can be in the current situation. I've got the anky loaded up and ready for the journey as well. The next goal is to get an argent. I already made the saddle. Just one half decent bird is all I need to turn this game around.

Well, I've been away from Ark for a very long time, about 6 months to be exact. Due to my current life circumstances, I simply don't have the time to put into a server anymore. But the itch to to play is still there, so I decided to fire up a SP game with heavily modified settings. I've played on a whole range of settings from official rates to EZ mode, and decided to go somewhere in the middle. Mostly I'm just speeding everything up because I can't sit around playing all day anymore. Back on The Island Spawned in familiar territory, on the west coast where I keep rebuilding my base, the Arkanus. But I got the northern spawn for that point and ended up a bit south of Carno Point. It was actually quite safe, so I got to work. My exp settings are a little too high, but that's ok. I didn't establish a base in the beginning, I just made enough for basic storage while I built my tools and whatnot. I built a raft, and since I upped the max structures on a platform by quite a bit (so sue me, I want functional platform bases) I decided to make a full mobile base. I'm using S+ of course so as a handy bonus, when I do pick where to settle I have it basically prebuilt, just have to dismantle the raft base. Anyway, I was able to build stone tier and immediately headed up north a bit for advanced resources (ie metal), but was quickly turned back. I didn't lose anything important but an icthyornis did kill my dodo, never seen that happen before. That's what I get for not building a roof. So I did the logical thing and sailed all the way down to herb island to safely build up out of primitive tier. Got attacked by a leed on my way but managed to escape, barely. Also may have gotten punted to death by trikes a couple of times in my pursuit of a mount...ended up finding a tek parasaur roaming around, you bet I tamed that boy right up. Low level, but shiny and on the only truly safe spot on the island so it's all good. With his help I was able to collect lots of metal and make a ton of narcs. Equipped with metal tools and a crossbow, I decided that was good enough for now and left the safety of the island to head back to the mainland. Left the para on the island. I honestly don't like herb island that much due to it not being close to anything useful, otherwise I would build something there. Anyway. I decided I wanted to look for a bary, but found a spino blocking the way. Also realized I don't have a spyglass. So back to carno point I went instead. Once there, I fended off sabers and freezing cold temps to gather a small amount of crystal and made my glass. Now I can see! Scouted a couple of rexes and some argents. Honestly though, now I'm a little conflicted on what to do. Even without a tame on these settings it won't be hard to get any of the potentials I saw. I don't have any saddles premade, so that could prove to be an issue. Logically an argent is my most versatile choice, but even a low level rex is a huge advantage for taming. Obviously I can just get both, but the lack of saddles, especially for a bird, would be problematic in the long run. This is also kind of touching on why I want a bary specifically. They're versatile and perfect for how I play Ark; I honestly don't use birds for much beyond resources, and with the complete run of the map the need to have them at all is lessened considerably. I might just skip birds entirely, beyond my need for their eggs. That's an aspect of SP I hadn't considered until now really, is that without other players I can have as many bases, outposts and conveniences as I want. I also think I've been a little too impatient. Ark has always been very much about the journey. The best thing to do would be to go tame one of those stupid seagulls, then make a saddle and go hunt down a bary. I might build on herb island after all. Now that I think of it, it's the perfect place to have a farm set up. It's safe and out of the way, and my preferred mounts (ie spinos) have no trouble getting there. Hm.

Saturday was almost entirely a taming day as a result of a failed high level spino hunt. Yesterday the server was so laggy I was getting screen tearing, which almost never happens. So I did the logical thing and stayed close to home for the morning. Finished off the second floor of the Arkanus, my original base I'm rebuilding on official. Much better design, if I do say so myself. The top floor layout is going to be tricky due to a combination of official rates, changes in base design, and the fact that I'm just plain better at building than I was when I built the first one. After my afternoon break for lunch/nap (surgery recovery is going well, just need extra rest) I logged back in to find the lag much improved. I went out to hunt high level spinos and ended up bringing home a pachyrhino, a spino and a bary, all low level Easter colors. Did not find any high level spinos, it seems like the server was just too busy and I know at least one other person was hunting spinos to tame. I am debating building a new taming raft specifically for spinos on the volc river. There are open taming pens scattered about everywhere, but they're all too small for a spino, and the only consistent spawn point I've seen on this server so far is of course the swamp spawn. Even seen two up at the same time there before, first time for that. I could easily park a raft nearby, I think. Or just rebuild the one I already have and spend an hour sailing it around, lol. I also got a surprise, M is back and tribing with me again. His PC still won't run Ark but he borrowed his cousin's to at least get on the server. As is typical of him once we tribed up he decided to try to go off and level on his own (naked) instead of using Cadbury to powerlevel, after I spent 20 minutes cleaning his inventory so M could use him. Eventually he died to a raptor and decided to take Cadbury out after all. Silly man. The point of tribing is to share resources. Even he can't get that rex killed unless he walks into a high level alpha rex or a giga. While he was doing that I went on an oil run, having discovered the generator ran out while I was napping. Forgot they use more gas now...should be good for the rest of the week now. M didn't stay long, but I promised him he'll get his own room lol. We each get our own, not just for personal gear etc but also because he tends to be messier than I am. He has a habit of dumping everything on him into the nearest crafting station when he goes to log, instead of making a logoff box like a normal person. Drives me crazy. That will be incorporated into the top floor design as well. Top floor is basically dedicated to personal rooms and the greenhouse. Second floor is the workshop, main storage and the library for blueprints. Bottom floor is the kitchen, small animal housing, gear and taming supplies, electrical (ie generator) and the forge room that is integrated into the workshop with direct aviary access. The aviary itself is a split level combined aviary/farm. Bottom level for ground based animals, second level for all birds, for now at least. Depending on space the egg birds might end up below eventually, but right now we only have argents and pteras so they don't take up much room. Today I'm back at work so no more extended play sessions for me. Tonight I'll probably talk to I, who sold me 40 argent eggs essentially on credit, still need to work out what the repayment will be. He's potentially interested in fertilized eggs from my Easter animals, though I have no male spino for breeding yet. Also fine with paying in ingots or structures or whatever else we agree on. Overall goal this week is to build an industrial forge and finish the Arkanus main structure. I already started the forge box, and I guess I'll work on mass producing sparkpowder tonight to run the 5 refining forges I already built in anticipation. So glad argents can carry ankys now, I would be in a tough spot if they couldn't, though at least with M now we can tame our own quetz. Honestly though I'd be just as happy buying one from I if he has any available. PVE servers definitely have their own movers and shakers, and I is one of them.

That's why you leave the rex on passive and use a pike/sword/crossbow to kill the dilo. Or spike walls for protection. Yesterday was another busy day. First off I will say...I didn't do any building. I did make a grill and immediately farmed oil and then a couple of alphas to fill it. With my jerky supply finally rolling I went off to hunt, mainly looking for two argents to round out my farm. Out to carno point, the first thing I took notice of was a lone Easter argent attacking an alpha raptor...and the alpha was fleeing. You better believe I checked that bird first, a 135 male. I had a feeling I should tame it so...I did. I got it down and took a huge risk running home to make what I could for kibble, then ran back. I was going to starve tame but the alpha had disappeared so I did the next best thing. Gathered a bunch of prime, fed it, chucked the kibble in then went off to farm. I eventually found the alpha (it had run into the snow and gotten stuck out of sight) but obviously it was too late by then. No matter. Still got the tame as good as I could manage and it stood up a 190. Very respectable, and the stats aren't too bad either. 39 HP, 33 weight and 34 melee, stamina got the shaft a bit but I'll take it. Got him home and went back out to hunt. Eventually tamed and brought home 2 Easter ankys, a terror bird, 3 more argents and 2 pegos. Yes, you read that last one correctly. I tamed pegos. On purpose. Crazy, right? I also went looking for a pachyrhino but didn't find any at a level I was willing to tame. The only screenshot I took last night, I did tame that anky successfully and brought her home: Today's goal: coax eggs from my argents and going out to hunt for the good spino I so desperately need. I was getting so frustrated with Cadbury last night. It's not his fault, but he's just too slow and cumbersome, and the Blue Spino Ranch needs, well, spinos. I only have the one so far, and she's not strong enough for much beyond the occasional swim in the bay below my ridge.

Finished the workshop, built a fabricator, a generator, cabling and my first refrigerator. I've got powah! Very nice, about time. Still a very long way to go. I also desperately need a better anky and a bird, and a quetz would be nice too...but one step at a time. Having completed my building for the day I went out to tame and came back successful. Added 2 more dilos, a dimo, a pachy, 2 paras, a ptera and a terror bird to my farm. I also ended up taming another micro because it was annoying me while I had the terror bird down, so I now have an unintentional egg group of those lol. I'm actually in pretty good shape now, with at least one female of every imprint kibble animal except gallis and dimetrodons, of which I currently have none of either. Animal wise my biggest priority now will be two more female argents to complete an egg flock. I am really hurting without a good spino, I just do not like rexes that much. With the workshop completed my biggest base priority by far is the aviary itself to protect my rapidly growing collection of farm animals, plus it will eventually house my working birds too. But I also need a lot of interior work. The biggest in every sense of the word is of course an industrial forge, but an immediate need is also a grill so I can begin jerky production in earnest now that I have a fridge, eggs and crops. One fridge will also fill up very quickly, as I'm used to having at least 4 or 5 just for basic food storage. And of course who can make kibble without a cooker... So, so much to do.

Quite a day, whew. So I'm off of work for the rest of the week recovery after a surgical procedure (am fine for the record) and decided to use my time to get a bunch of stuff done. I built and I built and I built and... I apologize for the terrible image quality, but that's basically 1/4 of the new Arkanus completed, the entire bottom floor. The bird's wing is obscuring the split level on the left and of course you can't see the chambers under the ceilings. There's 6 main rooms all connected by interior corridors, not including the open space in the middle. That core part of the base is the aviary/egg pen. I haven't yet built the exterior landing pad/ramps so I only ended up moving the smaller animals in. It's a bit messy right now, which is why I appreciate a relatively clean in progress shot. Having spent most of the day building, I decided to use my evening hours for hunting. Came back with a new para to begin a new herd after the previous one was completely destroyed by the rogue theri. Also tamed a pachyrhino, oof those are not fun tames. Also found two Easter microraptors and happened to have some flowers from raiding dams earlier, so I got both. I used to breed micros actually, so I'm happy to have them. They are no joke, one of mine even got the kill shot on a 130 theri on the walk home. Spent some time moving animals around to a better configuration now that the weakest/smallest of them are safely protected by large, very thick stone walls. I won't relax entirely until I can move all the farm animals up but that's still going to take some time. For now they are ringed by my stronger animals as it will be some time before I completely secure my perimeter. At the very least tomorrow I would like to get the workshop enclosed so I can start working on building all the necessary crafting stations. I still only have forges, a smithy and a mortar at this point. Ideally I'd also like to get power hooked up and at least one fridge built to accommodate my rapidly growing egg collection. Even without an oviraptor (the biggest downside to this event) my animals are still producing fairly steadily, which is nice. I'd also like 2 more dilos to get more eggs faster--the ankys I already tamed just aren't good enough for my purposes. At least I can keep two for eggs and I'll try to sell the other male off. Also two more argents, the faster I get a good spino the happier I'll be.

Yesterday I did basically the same thing as Monday. Built one chamber of my base, this actually completes the bottom third of the first floor aside from a few corridor ceilings. Worked a little more on the floor layout as well, I think I have it mostly in my head now. Then I went out hunting, some bad luck meant I didn't really find anything. Did get a stego but the tame took forever ugh. I don't understand why they didn't leave x2 on for the event but whatevs. But that herd is complete so barring any unforeseen circumstances and more rogue theris I won't ever have to do that again. Now I'm trying to decide what I should prioritize in the base build itself. The aviary will take the longest because it's the single biggest part of the entire base. It is very important and I would feel a lot better if I were able to move all my farm animals inside. On the other hand the other rooms in the base will be more immediately useful because I can't set up most of my crafting stations until the second floor is done. One of the problems with such a highly integrated base design is that the base basically needs to be built before any of the interior can be set up. I guess I'll just do as much building as I can stand to do today and see where that gets me.

Surprisingly productive, short day. Hopped on in the morning just to get fertilizer for the crops and found a pretty male lystro in my yard to replace the one who was killed by the rogue theri. Tamed him up, then went to work. Got home and built another chamber of my base and laid out a large part of the floor layout. It's similar but different from the original design, in large part to accommodate an indoor egg barn as part of the aviary. Then I went out to tame. Basically right now my deal with myself is I have to do something to contribute to the base build before I do the fun stuff. No wild and crazy day long adventures here. I tamed a male trike to finish one herd and a female ptera to go with the male I already have. I did look for argents to add to the flock but didn't find any. Did come across a new player and chatted/helped him out for a bit before moving on. Then I went back to base, did a couple small tasks and logged for the night. I think I want a couple more dilos because their kibble is so useful to have. I'm already thinking about expanding the ranch to including specialty breeding of a couple other animals besides spinos. But there's just so much to do it's a little overwhelming. Trying to take it one step at a time since I really can't do too much during the week normally. Priority right now is split between base build and kibble farm. TBH though the farm is mostly because I'm trying to construct it entirely out of event color animals. I'm more than halfway done with collecting, but some of the remaining ones are tricky to get, like gallis and dimetrodons. Really missing PVE pickup right now lol. Also I found a really cute purple snail I would have loved to tame but no cakes. That's something else on my ever growing list...

Having spent most of yesterday building, I decided today would be good for taming. Unfortunately I did not foresee a rogue theri getting into my base and killing 7 freshly tamed farm animals. It was a 100+, there was no chance to save them. I was very frustrated and took a break for the afternoon. If it had killed my spino I honestly would have quit. I don't know what it is about official servers but I've lost more animals since I started official than in my last 6 months on unofficials. Crazy. Came back and have made a very good recovery. Not counting what I lost, today's tally: 2 turtles 3 dilos 2 dimos 1 lystro 1 pachy 1 ptera 3 raptors 1 stego 2 trikes 2 argents 3 ankylos I'm actually still taming one of the turtles, as soon as he's up I'm done for the night. One of the reasons why I'm going so crazy taming: all of these except the ankys are event colors! If I'm going to stare at butts, they better be pretty, you know? One of the raptors is actually an extra, only tamed because he was trying to eat one of my turtles while it was down. I'll probably try to sell/trade it for something I actually need. Also since I have the ankys and can now generate sparkpowder in bulk I am starting crops and will be doing an oil run soon for jerky. Don't have power yet but soon enough.

Very busy day yesterday for me. First I completed my secondary gate exterior. It's by no means finished but it's "good enough" for now. Then I really got to work, laying the foundations of the new Arkanus. It's a very large base design, 21x24. I wasn't as careful placing the foundations so ended up with pillars and ceilings over a much larger portion of the floor. That's ok, though. I'd say at least half is still foundations, very solid. I also built a single room which I will live out of while I set up the rest. Building on this scale is frankly exhausting, especially when it's a design I've used and built before. But with the main foundation laid it should take a lot less time for the rest, it's just a matter of balancing my will vs. my impatience. I did take breaks to go taming and have started a very nice egg farm full of event color animals. It's tough to stay focused when I know how important it is to get my tames sorted out now before tame capping is a high risk. With the event all the bored players who transferred in to this server are going on massive taming sprees for animals even they admit they don't need. And with the changes to the spinos it's more important than ever I have enough argents to produce kibble for taming them, raw prime is fine for a low level animal but it won't cut it for a high level, and I have no theri or annoying seagull to pick up the slack on raw fish prime harvesting. So I also need beetles, a garden and fridges. So much to do, so little time. My tribemate M would come and help but Ark no longer loads for him since the second TLC patch and he can't figure out what the problem is. Sigh. Always something. Today will probably be more of the same, taming and building. I must remain content with one event spino for now.

Even though I was tired after work I was also excited to participate in my first event on an official server, so I hopped on as soon as I got home. Refresh timers, feed everyone, then decide what to do. The issue I have is I wanted to tame lots of event color animals, but I'm still working on my base. Plus, I have no kibble yet. But I decided to press forward anyway and at least get one Easter spino. This would also be my first spino ever tamed on official, the first for the Blue Spino Ranch, and my first post-TLC. I've been very wary of them because of the changes, but I want to give them a chance. Seeing all the cool animals did get me super hype, so I decided to check my "secret" spot--the swamp spino spawn. It has the advantage of being relatively local to my base too. Cleared out the barys, rerendered and found a gorgeous, very blue Easter female. Low level, which is actually ideal for me because I have no kibble. I was very, very surprised by two things: how fast spinos are now, even more than they were before, and they are much more persistent, at least away from the water. By the time I got her kited to my base Cadbury was hurting quite a lot, and his movement speed is base so he couldn't outrun her if he tried. I have no taming pen but I improvised and got her KO'd on the beach next to my base. Raw prime is less effective for sure but if it's all you got it's what you use, it wasn't too bad really. When she stood up I was very happy, my first spino tame is always the most exciting part of any new server. I haven't named her yet but here she is, my new ranch mascot: I swiftly decided I need some Easter argents to provide eggs to tame more spinos, but I also desperately need to get my base going. So before I logged I started working on my secondary gate. Once I complete the outer shell of that wall I can start laying the foundations for my base itself, and then the real work begins. So I'm compromising with myself a bit there, because the event animals I tame are also important since that's my kibble farm and the start of my breeding lines. Either way it was quite late by then so I finished up for the night. Today's overall goal is building and taming. Also lots of narc crafting to keep my stock high in case I come across another spino to tame.

Very short amount of time tonight, about an hour to 90 minutes max. Tamed 2 dilos, a lystro and a dodo, and made about 300 narcs to use up some of the spoiled meat from the stock I generated taming Cadbury. Basically just working on the beginnings of my kibble farm and trying to build up narcs and grind out some more levels at the same time. If I were smarter I would set up compost bins and got fertilizer going since I don't have any beetles yet. I do have tons of thatch courtesy of my stego anyway might as well use that up too. Getting rather short on storage space but not really willing to build more when I know I'll be building the main base soon enough. It's just that protecting the tames always comes first. I don't worry about too much with Cadbury around but accidents happen.

Didn't feel like grinding first thing this morning so I spent some time doing whatever I could think of to get exp. It was tough but I finally got the 3 levels I needed to make a rex saddle. Fun fact, I took out an alpha raptor with my trash level 44 argent, and the bird survived. So pro. While I was at carno point I noticed a 130 rex stomping around, pretty much keeping to himself away from the chaos. So naturally I decided to take advantage of the x2 weekend. Got the saddle on my trash rex, loaded up supplies, and back to carno point to tame that 130. KOing him was an interesting experience--he seemed not particularly interested in the human poking at his thick hide with arrows, and basically kept on doing his rex thing until his torp got high and I KO'd him. Not quite according to plan but I'll take it. Got some spikes and a fire up and got to hunting with my frustratingly bad rex. Was totally worth the pain of grinding out over an hour of nonstop prime. Got the saddle onto my new bad boy, almost perfect prime tame except at the end where my Ark luck turned sour and not a single prime dropped. Went and took out a couple of alpha raptors I knew were around for some easy levels, and I now have an all around beast and my first actually good tame. Given his relatively docile nature and chocolate coloring, I of course named him Cadbury. Too bad there isn't a monocle skin. Then it was back to the grind for the rest of the night. I almost didn't think I was going to get it done, but lo, the results of my weekend project: The exterior side of the back wall of my territory is completed, or as close as it's going to get for now. Still have some interior work and the inner side to do, but that's for later. Next construction project will be the secondary gate to finish sealing off the ridge from wild animals. Then and only then will I be able to lay down the foundations of my actual base.

No time to play at all during the week so today was my first time playing since last Sunday. First thing I did was hop on my argent (really like how smooth the new animations are) and refresh all my timers. Then I did a quick food run to get everything fed and straight to work. Grind, grind, grind. As much as I would have loved to go on a taming spree, the construction of my base takes priority. Today was the big wall, the rear exterior perimeter of the ridge. I'm not even close to done but I got the initial thatch down then successfully rebuilt in stone, got the ceilings and now it's just filling in the actual walls. Doing the wild facing side first, of course. Filled in a not insignificant chunk, but it's far from finished. I'd say the most disappointing part is all that grinding only got me 2 levels, and I need 3 more before I can make a saddle for my rex. I did also set down the thatch for the side wall/second gate on the far end, will probably work on converting that to stone and getting the actual gate up tomorrow. Haven't laid a single foundation for my main base structure yet but it's starting to feel more like home already. I occupied this same ridge for the better part of a year on my first server, lot of nostalgia and memories. Still missing the most important part, though: Smaug, the best spino I've ever had. Still have him in storage, but he was nailed with the nerf bat long, long ago so my glorious, beautiful Smaug, destroyer of alpha rexes, is permanently retired to my everlasting sorrow. I converted half my old server to spino mains because of him, he was so distinctive and well known. Such is life on the Ark.