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Game play of Desert Pete on Scorched Earth. (Not to be confused with The Story of scorched Earth.) In this session, all settings have been set to default with a selected few set to 1 or three. They are as followed; 1. Difficulty is defaulted to 0.2. That means that the max level for any creature will be at 40. 2. Gathering and Taming are set to 3. It just reduces the grind of getting resources and waiting for a creature to be tamed. 3. All nerfed health and melee damage settings for creatures are restored to 1. The following mods have been added; 1. Krackin’s Better Dinos. It has a combo Workbench and Preserving Bin that doesn’t require a foundation for placement. Several unique items can be crafted to further improve a dino’s abilities. Several new resources are available from existing dinos as well as some new types of them. 2. Ultrastack. Makes gathering easier due to the stacking and weight reduction on heavy items. 3. Castle, Keeps, and Forts Remastered. I’m not likely to take advantage of this one early on given that one needs to use Adobe for protection from the Megaheat and wood is scarce in most areas on this map. By default, Midlands 4 is used for spawning in to Scorched Earth. On the official map, it is either considered the Eastern Badlands, or the Southern East Low Desert depending on your spawn in point. While no place is easy to get started in, if one plays that location correctly, they can get to a place in the Southern East Canyon with a pond that is sheltered from the Megaheat and is free of the more dangerous creatures living in and around the canyon area. With XP gain fixed at 1, it’s going to take a while to get established with Desert Armor, Adobe structures, and Metal Tools. Pete’s Adventure. Spawning in at Midlands 4, I proceed to get my bearing of the main landmark in the area which is the Green Obelisk. I do not want to head there given that it is a haven for numerous dangerous creatures such as Terror Birds, Sabers, Raptors, Wolves, and Kapros. Given that it is already hot, I head West down a dry wash gathering resources on the way and keeping an eye out for predators. Starting resources are rather abundant in the area such as stone, berries and fiber which I gather as I am heading downhill to my planned destination. I need to get to that pond in the Southern East canyon before it gets too hot to survive. A pick is quickly crafted from a stone, thatch, and wood. There are few trees here, mostly cactus and brush. However, there are small pine trees that can be picked for wood and thatch thus saving one’s fist. A level up soon is reached in which the points are placed in either fortitude or weight. The hatchet and spear are unlocked and crafted as soon as possible. Hitting a cactus with a pick will yield thatch and cactus sap. While the sap, along with the berries are mostly useless for hydration, the act of harvesting cactus plants will quickly restore your water. One can also use Jug Bugs and Water Seeps for a water source, but none are spotted along the downhill path to the Canyon area. With the next level up, thatch clothes are unlocked and crafted. Between increasing fortitude and wearing thatch clothes, it makes resisting the heat a lot easier. Another note on game play on this map is that one does not go running around. Doing so just uses up your water faster as well as it makes you overheat. Only run when you need to get away from something such as a raptor which are known to be in this area. Lead them to some unsuspecting herbivore and you will be safe. As luck would have it, my character is able to make it to the canyon pond without overheating or running into raptors. That in itself is unusual given that the first time I played scorched Earth in 2016, I spawned into a pack of them twice. The third time the Morelys smashed them into a boulder allowing for some free hide. However, while there were herbivores about, there was nothing that could be easily killed with a spear for meat and hide. Even through the early game, after reaching a sandstone shelf above the pond for building a Beach Bob box hut on, unlocking needed items turned out to be quite difficult for those first 20 levels. Therefore, the priority was to get basic weapons, clothes, then build a Beach Bob thatch hut. I didn’t bother with a slingshot, boomerang, or water skin. Learning those just waste Engram Points needed for more important items. Besides, those will soon show up in a drop. Water skins are just plain useless due to how fast that they leak. Getting a bola, bow, and arrows is most important to deal with any attacking raptors that show up. By noon, I have reached the sandstone shelf and started constructing a 2x2x2 thatch box with a small storage box and campfire for when it gets cold at night. The rest of the afternoon was spent in gathering materials to prepare to replace the 2x2 with adobe. 22 metal is mined from one of the metal boulders down below the shelf in preparation to melt down for the KBD workbench. Wood, thatch, sap, narcoberries, sand, and fiber is gathered for future construction. Clay is manufactured in the Mortise and Pestle to help in earning Engram Points. I am limited to the lower area for now as heading to higher ground exposes my character to the dangerous afternoon heat which drains one health. By evening, I have hide clothes, a forge, and the KBD workbench. With a metal pick, the three small metal rocks below are harvested and place in the forge. Day two, Pete has leveled up enough to upgrade the 2x2 hut to adobe. Metal tools and a crossbow soon replaces the stone ones. Three dozen tranc arrows are also crafted. A Green Drop appears which yields a bunch of crafted materials including a spyglass. Desert Gear is finally obtained and crafted. The low growing flowers yield some silk when they are harvested. While Pearls are plentiful in the canyon near the water, the nearest crystal is a long distance away on top of a dangerous mountain. The Desert Helmet will have to wait. Later that morning, the two Titansaurs that showed up early in the game are becoming an issue. They had spawned in close to the pond and are now threatening the campsite. Normally, they could be killed with a leveled up lightning wyvern, but I am a long ways off from obtaining one of those. So, to get rid of the threat, I end up doing a wild dino wipe. Interesting, after the wipe, some raptors are now showing up in the canyon so I get prepared to tame a pair. Too late, they get killed by the Ankylos that have also spawned in the canyon. Oh well, they were just low level. They are easy meat and hide. Later that afternoon, I am able to obtain two female raptors of which one is a Level 31. By the evening of that second day, an additional male raptor is added to the pack along with a good level parasaur for berry harvesting and a Jarboa for weather forecasting. I make it back from taming the male raptor just in time to avoid being baked by the afternoon Megaheat. With having obtained some tames, it is now time to expand the construction to include a large pen and barn for their protection. This is going to require a lot of adobe and stone structures. The Adobe I already have learned. The stone I will use from the Castle, Keeps, and Forts mod. Both are going to require vast amounts of wood, thatch, stone and sand. I need to get a Doed and Morley to help in gathering those materials. The Morley is easily obtained early that morning. They can now hold 1,000 units of water. I take it into the pond so that it can drink it’s fill. It is super efficient in gathering wood from the small pines and thatch and cactus sap from the tall cactus plants. However, I am restricted to mining rocks with the metal pick until I can level up enough to learn the Doed Saddle. Adobe Foundations are made to expand the floor on the sandstone shelf. I have to use the stone foundations from the mod in one area given that Adobe Foundations do not stack. It isn’t until the morning of Day Three that I am able to obtain a Doed Saddle and tame the one that has been hanging around my campsite. Between the Doed and Morley, the mining of the needed materials has gathered enough for me to construct an 8x12 foundation which includes an overhang corner to the edge of the pond below. I do face some delay in that work thanks to a sandstorm that blows up. A water tap is going to be needed given that working outside in one also drains water with one’s stamina. Thanks to all of that crafting, I reach Level 44 by the morning of Day 4. On Day 4, Pete is able to complete the construction of the enlarged pen. Adobe is used at the pond section which also encloses the 2x2 hut, while the Villager Workbench is used to construct the lattice walls, then the ceiling. Thanks to the Does and Morley, the required materials are quickly gathered in the quantities needed. Those hand harvestable pines not only yield lots of wood when harvested by a Morley, they regenerate quickly. Mixing the two types of construction can be tricky. It takes four walls of adobe to equal three walls in the castle mod. Even then there is still an uneven match where the two meet. Still, both construction methods are needed as Adobe gives the higher heat insulation while the castle mod works without tying down your character with crafting with the weight of the materials needed. It also saves on engram points as all parts are unlocked. A Morley will fit through the castle gate where an Adobe Behemoth one is needed otherwise. Still, I needed to make a porch in the back to provide a level platform so that the Morley doesn’t get stuck in the door in the gate. It helps with the raptor pack getting inside smoothly. They have been set up in groups of 2 to follow close and at medium distance. The setup with whistle commands has allowed me to have them automatically follow my alpha leader but not me. With that setup, I don’t have to worry about my other tames getting involved when I have to quickly take them out to deal with any threats that show up such as other low level raptors, wolves, and Hell Pigs. They will automatically follow the pack leader and not me. An additional higher level raptor has shown up in the lower canyon. He is taken down with a bola and added to the pack. A male Parasaur is also added to have a mated pair for berry harvesting and alert detection. On Day 6, Pete has finally reached Level 60. It has been long hours of crafting and gathering to reach that objective. The Doed and Morley have made gathering of stone, sand, wood, and sap so much faster and easier. That morning, I find a Tek Ankylo. (It’s a KBD exclusive.) Even though it is low level, it will do for efficiently gathering metal ore and flint. Stone plumbing is added to the house from the pond below. The nearby supply drops have supplied the needed items for the project. One of the blue drops has given me an Oil Pump. I place it on one of the raptors, then take the pack up to the hill by the Green Obelisk that has a table rock on it. I know that it is a safer spot then the plateau to the Southeast where Thilos, Terror Birds, Hell Pigs, and Thornys hang out. The raptors prove useful for clearing out a nest of microraptors before I am able to place the oil pump on the nearby oil seep. As I finally have the pelt and Rare Mushrooms, I go look for one of the giant roos. I find a decent level one stuck in the rocks and knock it out. Wow! Can these thing jump a long distance or up high cliffs when you charge up their jump meter. I have never notice that before when they first came out years ago. With that ability, good carry weight, excellent harvesting of sap and thatch, and the ability to kick away a predator to a long distance, this Joey is proving to be a worthwhile tame. It’s just too bad that you have to kill three of them to get enough pelt for a saddle. End of Day 7 Pete reaches Level 75 thanks to using Tammy to collect several Explorer Notes. That event takes place when I spot a Level 37 Fire Wyvern in the area and decide to trap her. Now, one can tame the wild Wyverns if they are using the Immersive Taming mod. Since I am not using it, I just use the DoTame cheat which works just fine on them. By using her to collect several Explorer Notes in the area, the both of us are quickly able to get leveled up. She is also a big help in collecting drops of which some are loaded with useful items and other contain just garbage blueprints for common construction items. By using her to kill and harvest some mantas and ankylos, I am able to obtain the needed hard to get items to craft the Valerian Reins for her. Those will allow a flyer to have increased speed, maneuverability and endurance. By that evening, a Level 36 female raptor gets added to the hunting pack. It only takes two tranc arrows on a crossbow to the head to knock out. Need to be careful using them for taming low level creatures. I may wait until I have crafted a Longneck Rifle and tranc darts before going after an Argy.

Ark Survival Evolved; The Genesis Trip, A Most Strange Adventure of Survival. This story is inspired by the present undertaking of Elan Musk to build star ships capable of placing settlements on Mars, the political turmoil that took place in the later half of 2021, the newly released paid DLC of Ark Survival Evolved known as Genesis 2, and the upcoming version of the new survival game Ark 2. It will be developed as more game play takes place in Genesis 2 and especially Ark 2 once it has been released. This is a story of a fictitious flight aboard one of Elan Musk’s Starships as it is heading to mars with a cargo of engineers and their supplies that are part of his continuing project to build a colony that will eventually support one million settlers on the Red Planet. After their ship is destroyed by a meteor, as they are coming in to land, they find themselves reborn on a gigantic interstellar colony ship that has been taken over by a mutated evil scientist from the 19th century. After they have escaped from that crippled ship, they find themselves fighting for their survival in a strange prehistoric world in a star system in some unknown part of the Galaxy. This story is fictional, the character involved fictional, the early mission based upon known information of the planned Mars missions, the rest based upon Ark Lore without the benefit of the normal game play. WARNING! Current divisive politics are involved in the beginning of this story that may not be accurate. The Ship’s Crew; (may add details to them in the future.) 1. Commander Pike – Mission Coordinator. 2. Mary Pike – Pilot and flight officer for 007. 3. Nathen Scott – Flight Engineer. 4. Jane Conway – Crew Leader. 5. Carlos Gonzales – Construction Crew Chief 6. Dr. Sandra Mays – Medical Technician and Mission Biologist. 7. Dennis Lytle – Computer Technician. 8. Nancy Conway – Navigator. 9. Mike Allen – Chief Mechanic. 10. David Evens – Electrical Engineer. 11. Ahab Sorus – Geologist. 12. Sarah Wright – Nutritious. 13. Danny Washington – Physiologist. 14. Carol Thompson – Physical Conditioning. 15. Dr. Leslie McCoy – Medical Doctor. 16. Margaret Thatcher – Environmental Engineer. 17. Tom Jefferson – Botanist and hydro farming technician. 18. Jeffery Claus – Mining rig drilling specialist. 19. Julie Sorus – Chemist and wife of Ahab. 20. Conner Wilharm – Construction Technician. 21. Clark Camp – Rigger. 22. Tammy Sellis – Mechanical Engineer. 23. Macy Nunn – Metallurgy and Machinist Tech. 24. Stella Lox – Solar Energy Production Specialist. 25. Terry Taylor – Atmospheric Maintenance Specialist. 26. Stella Lopez – Communications Expert. 27. Dawn Faucett – Waste Management and Recycling. 28. John Jerry – Construction Specialist. 29. Laura Schultz – Construction Specialist. 30. Tina Nicholson – Construction Specialist. Chapter 1, A Mission to Mars. This story starts on December 6th 2030. Afters years of preparation, the first large colony fleet of Starships have been launched into earth orbit and are being refueled, manned, and made ready to make the seven month trip to Mars. Their mission, to expand the budding new colony started there two years ago. With the 2031 launch window being open soon to send ships to the Red Planet, this first large scale fleet of ships, carrying the skilled technicians and tons of cargo needed for that major expansion, will start to leave Earth’s orbit to make the long journey to Mars, enter into Mars orbit, and land at the new colony site. 2024 had seen the first test flights of the concept of landing automated Starship on Mars. There had been a failure in landing the first ship, when it touched down on an uneven surface and fell over, but later flights, during the week, successfully landed to unload their computer controlled cargo of exploration and mining equipment. In 2027, additional equipment had been sent to the landing site along with the first astronauts to ever land on the Red Planet. Those early pioneers had set up their first structures to test out the process of producing food, air, and rocket fuel from the resources available on Mars. With the success of that mission, 2029 saw another set of launches that brought in a serious number of engineers and equipment to make the budding settlement ready for a larger influx of settlers. With the success of that mission, The go was given for the 2031 launch. That mission, involving 100 Starships with their technicians and supplies, is planned to be the first large scale transfer of settlers to Mars. The mission goal, to establish a self sustaining colony in preparation to support some one million pioneers most of which will spend the rest of their lives living and raising their families on Mars. There had been no shortage of people that wanted to get away from the political turmoil on Earth to start a new life on the Red Planet. The United States and many of it’s European Allies, were headed towards bankruptcy due to spending created inflation, as the political turmoil continued over the mandates caused by the endless varieties of COVID-19, illegal immigration, food and energy supply disruptions, out of control urban crime, serious threats from China to invade Taiwan, hackers from Russia installing cryptolockers on infrastructure computer systems, major silencing of anyone that threatened to expose the political corruption of the career politicians running the country, and Western Government taken over by those career politicians that were well under way in establishing their New World Order under a Russian or Chinese Dictatorship. The Starship Program had continued to get funding and materials both from Elan Musk’s personal wealth, NASA, and rich investors, especially among the super rich that were not supportive of the political party that has seized power and was attempting to confiscate all of their wealth. Therefore many of them, not involved in taking control of the governments of the world, had purchased a ride on one of the 2050 flights to leave Earth and settle in one of the new Mars colonies. With his private security force and the backing of the Texas and Florida Governors, where his spaceports were located, Elan Musk had been able to control who was going to be on those trips thus ensuring that each flight would contain only the skilled people he needed for the construction of the colony. The billionaires financing his project would travel on the 2050 flight when the colony would be self sufficient enough to comfortably accommodate them and their families. Yet, Musk was not alone in this venture to colonize Mars. The Chinese Communist, while having a rocky start with their own version of Starship, have also placed into orbit a fleet of colony ships to take advantage of the same launch window. They were joined by Russian billionaires that had launched a smaller fleet with a similar goal. Establishing colonies of their own in other location on the Red Planet, the official in charge of their program has been coordinating launching with Elan’s fleet. Even though they are competitors in this venture to colonize Mars, they were forced to do so for safety concerns. With thousands of additional refueling tankers in orbit, it became necessary to set up a traffic control system so there are no accidental collisions that could threaten the entire program. The fleet command ship, Starship 007, was like all of the other ships in the fleet scheduled to make the flight that year. With her cargo of skilled technicians and over 100 tons of supplies on board, she had been launched into earth orbit three weeks earlier from Musk’s spaceport in Texas. Commander Pike, Age 42, a veteran of several test orbital flights of Starships, has been placed in charge of this mission. At the age of 18, he had joined the Navy where he was soon serving on board the modern nuclear powered aircraft carriers USS George H W Bush. His military training had advanced to the point where he had been placed in control of flight operations. However, at the end of 2021, he was forced out of the service for refusing to obey a Presidential Mandate. He was soon hired for the Mars Settlement Program where his job became that of fleet commander. For this latest mission, he has remained busy coordinated the positioning and refueling of the 100 Starships that are in orbit waiting for their launch window. He has also been tasked with working with his Chinese counterpart, Wo Chang, and his Russian counterpart, Ivan Sikorsky, in making sure that each fleet of ships have the maneuvering room to prep their ships for the flight. As the preparations get completed, he has flown up on one of the refueling shuttles to take overall command from Starship 007 and be with his wife. Flight officer Mary, age 38, Pike’s newlywed wife, is the commander and pilot of Starship 007. She has received her training in the navy flying carrier based fighter aircraft before being forced out that service in late December of 2021 by that same Presidential Mandate. She was hired a week later to join the Starship program as a pilot in the Mars Settlement Project. Flight Engineer Scott, like all the other engineers on their star ships, has been kept busy with Crew Chief Gonzalez, in refueling operations on 007 and later, in docking the Mars booster rocket to the ship in preparation for the Mars insertion burn. Like Mary, he has been forced out of the military where he worked as a flight mechanic in the Air Force. The same job of docking and refueling is being conducted on the other 99 Starships by their flight engineers as a steady stream of refueling ships are launched into orbit from the two bases in Florida and Texas. With the tight schedule to reach the orbits of the 100 different ships, it is almost non stop work in spite of most of it being under control by the flight computers on board and those in the Spaceport in Texas. Crew leader Jane Conway, age 44, who resigned in protest from the military in 2021 after losing a friend to the disastrous orders given by the White House to withdraw from Afghanistan, is also busy coordinating the inventory and storing of additional supplies that have been brought up by a supply ship docked to 007. It is an important job to be sure that everything is stored in a balanced location and secured for the insertion burn and landing. In addition, the crew on each ship, is made up of an environmental engineer, biologist, medical technician, electronic specialist, navigator, construction engineer, and various other technicians required for the construction and daily operations of the new colony. Many of these personnel had former careers in those fields of their specialties until they were either forced out of their jobs by the COVID-19 mandate in late 2021, or had just plain quit in protest due to job burnout, or from working conditions that soon became impossible for them to continue on their job. All too soon, the launch window has now arrived for sending the fleet to Mars. During this ten day period, a Starship would starts it’s Mars insertion burn at the assigned launch window of it’s orbit. Commander Pike and his Russian and Chinese counterpart coordinate those launches so that each ship will have plenty of maneuvering room for any course corrections needed to achieve Mars Orbit. With all ships successfully underway towards the end of the tenth day, 007 fires her booster at the appointed moment to escape Earth gravity to make it’s way to Mars. Proving the reliability of the Elan Musk design, every ship in the three fleets has been successfully sent on their way. The start of the seven month journey has proceeded smoothly even though the political situation on Earth has kept getting worse. With an energy boycott of Europe by the Russians, an Arab Oil Embargo against the now energy dependent US, and the massing of an invasion fleet by the Chinese around Taiwan, that political unrest is soon threatening to derail the Mars colony project. Still, production has continued on preparing about 200 more Starships for placing into earth orbit for the 2033 launch window, many of which will be used for carrying more then enough food and materials needed for an additional 5 years or more. It has been estimated that such supply runs will need to continue until the colony has become completely sustainable, hopefully by 2050, when everything they need can be manufactured as well as all food grown on Mars in support of the estimated one million colonist that are planned to be making Mars their home by then. However; Early that Spring, the Russians launched their invasion of the Ukraines with the goal of taking complete control of that country. A day later, after NATO is dragged into that war, the Chinese attack Taiwanese military and industrial installations with air and missile strikes. A major sea battle soon erupts between the US, Chinese, and Japanese forces. While the use of nuclear weapons has so far been avoided, so much damage has taken place in the invasion attempt that all three fleets have suffered major losses. The island of Formosa lies in ruins from the bombardment. Facing a major shortage of critical components needed for the construction of the new Starships and the political turmoil a two front war has caused, Musk has arranged for an emergency conference between Commander Pike and his engineers back on Earth. Given the several minute delay due to the distance the ships are now away from the Earth, the conference last for several days. Commander Pike assures Musk that they should be able to continue their mission with enough supplies, along with what they will be able to produce on Mars, should the scheduled 2033 launch end up being delayed for several years. August 18th. 2031. Starship 007 has finally reached Mars having been placed into stable orbit. There, it awaits clearance by Mars control for its landing window as it gets into position to break orbit for descent to land at the colony site. After maneuvering into position, Starship 007 gets it’s clearance to land on pad 15. With the concordance programmed into the ship’s landing computer, the ship’s main engines ignite at the proper moment to start the ship’s descent to the assigned landing pad, a maneuver called a “suicide burn” given that the atmosphere on Mars is much too thin for aerobraking or parachutes to slow down such a large heavy ship for landing. Without warning, the ship is struck by a meteor the size of a baseball. It comes crashing through the forward dome. In a microsecond, it has taken out a support strut causing several of the panoramic windows in the ship to blow out of their supporting frame. The trajectory leaves a baseball size hole through all decks, the cargo hold, and a fuel storage tank in the now crippled ship. With alarm bells screaming, everyone in the observation section of the ship gets sucked out into space. Those down below attempt to stay at their stations. The effort is mostly unsuccessful as internal bulkheads are failing from the rapid pressure imbalance of liquid methane vaporizing inside the lower decks, the fires they cause in the presence of oxygen, and the vacuum of space on the top side. Anything not tied down is flying out the hole left by the missing window. Most of the crew are soon dead from rapid decompression when their space suits get damaged by flying debris. Many others are blown out into space where they die from impact on the Martian surface. Knocked out of it’s landing trajectory by the venting methane that has ignited in what is left of the atmosphere in the crippled ship, 007 ends up crashing into Mars when the few survivors up on the bridge, are unable to regain control of the crippled ship due to the damage done to the control systems and the lost of fuel from the punctured fuel tank. The remaining fuel and liquid oxygen ignites into a fireball upon the high speed impact into the surface forming a crater there. Fortunately, the ship has crashed into a hillside just outside of the colony perimeter sparing it from any major damage. Rescue teams are quickly sent out from the colony command center. They find the smoldering remains of Starship 007 scattered around the impact crater it had made in the hillside. There are no survivors.

The Story of Scorched Earth. This is a fictitious adventure of a small group of individuals that get lost in the Arizona Territory as they are fleeing from a gang of thieves looking for the fabled Lost Dutchman Gold Mine during the early 1900s. In an area of that territory later known as the Superstition Mountains, they end up teleported into a strange land as they take shelter in a mine shaft from a vicious electrical storm. They find themselves lost in a strange harsh land called Scorched Earth. Rated M due to adult subjects and graphic violence. The cast of main characters in this story; Desert Pete. A middle age prospector, who is barely making a living off of his claim, he has come across a map to the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine that a stranger has brought with him while staying at the hotel in the old mining town of Oatman. Jessie. A Spanish American war veteran in his late 20s, he had been attracted to the Arizona Territory with the promise of finding gold in the surrounding mountains. He has won a map to the Lost Dutchman Mine from an old Mexican while playing poker in a saloon in Laughlin. Getting lost, while heading to Kingman, he has wandered into Oatman. Charlie. Age, mid 30s. He operate the local blacksmith shop at the stable where he would shoe horses, repair mining tools, and manages the livery stable for a living. Winslow. A newspaper reporter from the New York Times, who was researching a story about the Arizona Territory becoming a state and the latest gold rush around Oatman, he just happened to end up in the wrong place at the wrong time. Whitefeather. A Mohave youth, 17, from the nearby reservation, he worked as the room service for the Oatman Hotel located above the saloon. James. Age 38. He is the Deputy Marshal in Oatman at the time of this story. Dolly. Age 24. Barmaid and hooker who worked at the Oatman Hotel. The town of Oatman, Laughlin, and Kingman are actual locations in Arizona. Scorched Earth is based upon a paid DLC for Ark Survival Evolved. It is a desert themed map with dinosaurs and fantasy creatures such as dragons. Chapter 1, The Map to the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine. It is in late in the spring of 1904 when this strange adventure takes place. Rumors of prospectors finding rich gold deposits in the surrounding mountains has started a population boom in the tiny mining town of Oatman, which is located in the rocky hills east of the Colorado River in the Arizona Territory. Those rumors have resulted in an influx of those seeking to get rich quick, those seeking to get rich quick by supplying goods and services to the prospectors, and those that would get rich quick by swindling, even robbing, the prospectors in this mining town or stealing their claims. It has kept the local assayer office busy with filing claims in the surrounding area for those hoping to get rich quick and the deputy marshal chasing away those criminals that were robbing from the miners or attempting to steal their claims. The story begins when Peter, known to the locals as Desert Pete, has arrived late that Friday afternoon to pay a visit to the assayer’s office in Oatman to trade his small bag of gold nuggets for cash. He has had to walk several miles to town from his claim as he doesn’t have a horse and his burrow, used to pack his mining tools, has ran off on him at the last moment to parts unknown. “Where’s Jenny?” asks Jeff the assayer at the office when he sees Desert Pete coming into town without his burro. “I usually see you riding her into town every Friday when you come here to sell your gold.” “She ran off with that white Jack that’s been hanging around my camp the past several days,” Peter tells him. “It wouldn’t have been so bad had I had the chance to take the pack saddle off of her first so she wouldn’t have ran off with my mining tools. I’m probably going to end up finding them scattered all over the place when I get back to the claim in the morning. Fortunately, I had this in my pocket instead of in one of the saddlebags or at my camp. I’ve had issues dealing with claim jumpers that have been snooping around the past several days rummaging through my stuff.” “All the prospectors have had issues with them,” Jeff tells him as he takes the bag of gold and empties it onto the scales. “Deputy Marshal James has been kept busy chasing them out of the territory.” “It’s bad enough having to deal with the occasional four legged predators out there,” answers Peter. “Now, I have to worry about these two legged varmints as well.” “The more that the word gets out that there is gold in them hills, the worse it will get,” answers Jeff. “At least, you were able to bring this in with you. Several of the other prospectors working out there have had their stash stolen from their camps while they were busy working on their claims.” Having been paid for the gold he has brought into the assayer’s office, Peter decides that it would be better to stay into town for the night rather then chance walking back to his camp in the approaching darkness. Monsoon season has arrived early where vicious lightning storms can blow up suddenly to dump heavy rain and hail in short order. Such storms can cause dangerous flash floods throughout the numerous dry washes in this rugged arid landscape. With lightning flashing in the evening sky from several thunderheads surrounding the town, he heads over to the Oatman Hotel to rent a room for the night. There, he is assigned an upstairs room where he is able to take a bath in the commons down the hall and get into some cleaner clothes. Refreshed, with his backpack locked in his room, he heads downstairs to a small private dining room behind the kitchen where he orders a beefsteak for supper while sitting at the table with his good friend Charlie, who is sitting there with two other strangers, one dressed in a wool business suit, another dressed in an old tattered army uniform. “Where’s Jenny?” asks Charlie as Peter sits down in the one empty chair at the dinner table. “You usually leave her at the stable when you come into town for the night.” “She ran off after that white jack that's been hanging around my claim the past couple of days,” answers Peter. “You should have bought one of the gelded burrows instead of her for prospecting,” suggests Charlie. “She has always been good company, staying close to my claim when I was not using her to pack my mining supplies,” answers Peter. “Besides, I found her in trouble last fall with an old steer skull wedged into her front hoof. She makes a good watchdog by warning me when those blasted claim jumpers are snooping around.” “You will probably have a second burrow by this time next year,” Charlie tells him. “I don’t doubt that,” answers Peter. “I can be good company as well,” Dolly, who is the barmaid and hooker for the hotel, tells Peter as she massages his neck and back. “You are soooo tempting,” answers Peter with a smile. “It has been a rough week at the claim. I barely have enough money for the supplies I will need when I head back to my camp in the morning.” “Here’s your grub gentlemen,” Whitefeather, their waiter interrupts them as he brings in their meal. As they are finishing their meal, Peter and Charlie are getting to know the two strangers that are staying at the hotel with them. “I find it unusual that a big city news reporter would make such a long trip to a mining camp in the middle of nowhere,” Peter tells Winslow as the introductions are made. “As you may know, the politicians in Phoenix are lobbying Congress to turn the Arizona Territory into a state,” answers Winslow. “My boss sent me out here to get the story of why Arizona should become a state and not remain a territory. I am also wondering why there is a second gold rush taking place in a town that’s been basically a mining camp for years.” “What brings you to this town Jessie?” asks Charlie. “I got lost while heading towards Kingman from Laughlin.” answers Jessie. “I though that I knew the shortcut through the mountains to get there, but I got twisted up following the burro trails instead of the stagecoach road.” “You should have had a compass and a map,” answers Peter. “It’s so easy to get lost in these parts once in these mountains where everything looks the same.” “I do have this old map I won in a poker game back in Laughlin,” answers Jessie. “The old Mexican I won it from claims that it is a map to the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine. While it is suppose to be from this area, these landmarks just don’t make any sense.” “Can we have a look at it?” asks Peter. “Sure,” answers Jessie as he takes a strange looking parchment map out of his shirt and unfolds it on the table. “This is interesting,” comments Charlie as he studies the landmarks on the unusual map. “It looks like that Oatman might be this settlement marked in the lower left corner. I do see where finger rock is located on this map as well. I just don’t recognize any of the other landmarks on this map or what these three strange markers represent.” “I’m at a lost of what is to the North and East of Oatman if that is Oatman,” answers Peter. “There is nothing there that looks familiar. Dolly, go find Whitefeather. He is from the reservation that’s in that area. He may be able to recognize what we are looking at.” Dolly soon returns with Whitefeather who looks like he is in shock when he sees the details in the old parchment map. “Where did you find this?” he asks the four men. “It vanished from the reservation years ago.” “I won it from a seedy looking character in a poker game in the bar in Laughlin.” answers Jessie. “He claims that this map would lead me to the Lost Dutchman Gold Mine.” “Can you tell us what we are looking at?” asks Charlie. “According to the stories from my elders, this map was created by Chief Turok in the 1600s when he found a portal into a strange land while his tribe was fleeing from the Spanish invaders who were looking for gold.” answers Whitefeather. “The land was brutal due to the daytime heat, lack of water, terrible storms, and giant carnivorous feathered lizards that walked on two legs. The story goes that the Spaniards had followed them into that strange land where they found huge boulders of gold laying along a dry riverbed. While mining them, they were killed by a giant flying lizard that incinerated them with fire. Turok’s tribe was trapped in that strange land for years until one day, they found the portal to get back to this world. Many invaders to our reservation have searched for centuries looking for that portal to the land of giant gold boulders but none have ever....” Suddenly, their conversation is interrupted by a fight that breaks out in the bar when a group of ruffians storm through the door. Shouts of “Where’s Carlos!” are heard above the noise of kicked over tables and chairs. More noise is heard of running feet and doors being kicked in upstairs above them. A gunshot is heard followed by twin blast from a double barreled shotgun, then more gunfire as a bullet come flying through the wall facing the kitchen. “We better get out of here and fast,” warns Dolly. “That was Mike’s shotgun that he keeps behind the bar. Follow me out through the tunnel to the stable.” Charlie, who is the last one out, pulls the hidden door shut before following the rest of the party through the tunnel connecting the stable. The noise continues in the bar and upstairs area as more shots get fired. Sometime during the room to room searches, a kerosene lantern gets tipped over which soon starts a raging fire in one of the upstairs room. The townspeople, awakened by the noise, are rushing to the hotel with fire buckets, as they see the flames coming out of an upstairs front window. They are soon pinned down in a gun battle with the ruffians holed up inside. “We had better get out of town and fast!” warns James, the deputy marshal as he and Charlie quickly get seven horses from the stable saddled up. “That’s the Marcus Gang. There’s too many of them to take on at once.” “How do we get out of town without being spotted?” asks Jessie. “Lets head up to my camp for now,” Peter tells him. “Walk the horses up the burrow trail behind the stable until we are far enough away from town to ride them without being seen.” “Good idea,” answers James. “We will need to head to Kingman through the back way. They must have cut the telegraph wire somewhere before entering town. I got a telegraph message that they were in Laughlin stirring up trouble before the line went dead. Hopefully, they can all be rounded up once I come back with the District Marshal and his men.” Quietly sneaking out the back door of the stable office, the seven individuals with their horses, use the cover of darkness and the stable to start up the burrow trail. The light from the fire, reflecting off of the approaching storm clouds, give them just enough light to see where the trail is. Traveling single file up the trail, they find their way to Peter’s camp. “We better take shelter in the mine before that storm hits,” orders Peter as they stop just long enough to grab some beans, jerky, coffee, and some cooking utensils. Reaching the mine entrance, the horses are unsaddled and staked to a picket line at the mine entrance. The wind soon picks up as the lightning gets worse. The glow from the fire in Oatman soon vanishes in the approaching downpour that can be heard above the noise of the wind. Suddenly, a blinding bolt of lightning strikes just above the mine entrance causing a shower of gravel to splatter everywhere. The horses bolt in a panic pulling the picket line apart and head off to parts unknown. Then the rain and hail come pouring down. “There goes our rides,” warns Winslow. “Don’t even try to follow them in this,” warns Charlie. “They will probably head back to the stable in the morning.” “We had better shelter in here for the night, then be prepared for a long hike to Kingman in the morning,” orders James. Under the light of a mining helmet, everyone drags the saddles and saddlebags back deep into the mine. It is a sleepless night as the storm rages for hours. Then all is quiet allowing everyone to get some rest the best they can before daylight arrives. Author's note. The offsprings of that white jack can still be found today begging from the tourist that visit the ghost town of Oatman.

I personally think that the nothosaur would be a great addition to ARK

So, you want to start surviving on Fjordur. Good! Fjordur pulls no punches. It'll throw cold at you, vicious predators out for your blood, and so much more. This is your guide to surviving on Fjordur (FYI-this is only for PvE, pvp is not my forte). STEP 1: Get up to the thatch hut asap. Get yourself a pick, an axe, and lots of extra spears. Also unlock the campfire on the way, because it'll be helpful in surviving Fjordur's deathly nights. Level fortitude and health until you get up to around 25-30 fortitude, which should be good for the time being. STEP 2: Once you get up to the thatch hut, make a 2x1 thatch hut, which is all you will need for the time being. Immediately place a campfire in the corner away from the door, so you don't kill yourself by accident. Place a storage box and a sleeping bag near it. You can upgrade to the simple bed later. STEP 3: NEVER go out at night unless you have fairly high fortitude and at least a set of hide armor. You can get hypothermia, even with this set of equipment and levels. If the cold doesn't kill you, the dark will. You won't see any approaching predator until it's too late, as I learned when I was assaulted late at night by a giga. STEP 4: Tame some kind of travelling tame early on, such as a parasaur or raptor. An Andrewsarchus would be preferable, but you may need a pteranodon to reach them, as they live in some fairly high-up cliffs. You can walk there, but it will be a dangerous trek on foot, as Fjordur's landscape is fraught with dangers, including the cold, predators, and high cliffs. If you can't find either, a Deinonychus will work-just beware of their bleed and pack bonus when stealing eggs. A lone Deinonychus will be able to run away from essentially any threat, and a good pack will be able to take on just about anything that blocks you. A flyer would be key, as they don't have to worry about cliffs and predators. STEP 5: Establish a secure base, such as in one of the castles, since you don't need perimeter walls. One of the castles I know has easy access to water in the form of a water vein, on which you can place a well and take advantage of Fjordur's lush natural resources. And that's all I have! If you guys have anything, make sure to post down below! Good luck on your Fjordur adventures, and Happy ARKing!

So, I spawned in Easy Zone South 2 (I think). I had a pretty good run. Did the stuff. Punched the trees. Killed an Ovis that was conveniently right next to our spawning point. I had a shirt and cloth pants by the time my tribemate logged on, at which point I gave him a few extra spears, a hatchet, and a pickaxe. We went through the general motions and established a sort of camp, with a campfire and a few storage boxes. I set out for something to tame, like a dodo or lystro or something. As we were travelling, we ended up on a cliff overlooking the beach, and lo and behold! A shipwreck, complete with crates with amazing loot! I started down a path but misjudged a jump, instead landing on the ground below the cliff and taking a bunch of fall damage. I whacked a few crates, getting two metal hatchets, a metal pick, a crossbow, some cooked and spoiled meat, scrap metal, and wood. A pretty good haul. I left the crates deeper underwater, because it was getting cold and dark, and sharks were always a problem. We started making our way back, and promptly got lost in the all encompassing darkness. We decided to just settle down for the night in one spot, gather and eating berries as we got hungry. And then, all of a sudden, I heard loud, stomping footsteps and the world started shaking. I looked up just in time to see the massive head of an R-giga pop out of the darkness, say hello for a second, and then bite. The last thing I saw were the foot long teeth of the giga. I decided to respawn a little bit away from my death point, so I could eventually get my stuff back. Within 10 seconds, I had been mauled to death by terror birds and also attacked by titanomyrmas. I then decided to spawn in Easy Zone north, which turned out to be a mistake, as I froze to death within minutes. I then decided to quit my Fjordur adventure for the moment, and return to it later. This is most certainly not over. Good luck, and happy ARKing!

My latest game play adventure in Ark Survival Evolved. The map; The official release of Forjor. Settings; Single player with taming, harvesting, leveling set at 3X. MODS; Ultra Stacks. Kraken’s Better Dinos. Castle, Keeps, and Forts Remastered. Echos Viking Structures, Marnimods wildlife. Kraken’s Better Dinos is a mod that enhances most of the abilities of the Ark’s creatures. Herbivores, such as a Doed, can now harvest berries. New tek creatures such as a Tek Trike and Giga are now in the map. So are several variations of new and useful creatures. New types of attacks are available on some dinos such as a stomp by the Bronto. Wild creatures may run away if they are badly hurt. It also offers a combo preserving bin, cooker, workbench that allows for the crafting of special foods from the special meat that some creatures will have when killed or from the milk of certain tamed mammals. Early, but less capable saddles are available for some creatures that have late more expensive to craft ones. Extensions can be made for platform saddles and rafts. Most interesting is the Valerian Reins that can be crafted from various rare materials. When placed on a flying creature, it enhances their speed, maneuverability, and stamina. Castle, Keeps, and Forts Remastered uses special workbenchs that allow you to craft building sections in those workbench thus freeing the player to continue to gather resources or start construction of structures. Like S+, you can pick up those pieces later. Foundations will also stack. Walls are 1/3 higher then Vanilla or S+ walls which gives your player more head room in placing storage chest and other items. You do not need to learn the individual pieces in this mod, only the three crafting workbenches which produce the equivalent of wood, stone and metal structures using the same building materials and amounts. That will allow me to save up those engram points for other useful items early on. Marnimods Wildlife spawn in at logical places in logical amounts. Each of her more modern creatures has a special taming requirement. Echo’s Viking Structures provides a range of Viking lodges, Furniture, and other useful items such as the Viking Longboat. Very important if you are installing the official map and have the mod map Viking_P installed in your Ark map listings. If you have the mod map version installed on your PC, It is highly recommended that you unsubscribe to that map, delete your Viking_P saves in the SavedArksLocal folder, and delete the 1838617463 mod ID folder from the Content/Mods folder to recover some disk space before downloading the official mod. Since there have been changes made to the map, you could run into issues if you try to use your renamed Viking_P save on the official map. You can always upload your character, important tames, and hard to get resources to an obelisk before deleting the mod map. Still, just prepare to start from a new or downloaded character. There is no guarantee that you won't run into issues if you have both the official and mod map installed. Note, selecting the new map for download will start Ark, but the map will not appear until it is downloaded. Just exit the game and wait until Steam indicates that the map has finished downloading. Then start playing Ark and the map will appear at the top of the non story map listings. I will be playing this adventure totally unscripted. While I will have specific goals in mind for my adventure, what happens in this map will be whatever the game play presents to me. Comments will be included from my past game play on this map to compare what happens in this adventure. Gameplay to come in the next posting

Put your favorite ARK memes here!

I'm new here, I don't know how this site works, I don't know anything really beyond what I want to inquiry. Basically, I want to make a fiction survival book on dinosaurs and need information on Mezizoic era, Ice age, and perhaps Precamberian creatures. I have a few sources; Wikipedia, official archeology sites, perhaps some trusted video makers on platforms. Back to my point, I want to know if I can use Ark as a source of information on dinosaur behaviors (since we don't especially know how such creatures habits were enacted) without going through the struggle (once again) of finding an official on here (on mobile so it sucks more to navigate) to get explicit permisson. Mind you, I plan to have an entire page or chapter dedicated to sourcing and citing at the very front and first page, so credit will be given immediately upon opening the work.

This is not a story or anything like that. It's simply humor. With all the frustration Ark can cause, sometimes it's best to pull back and relax. Humor is said to be the best medicine. Aside from being (hopefully) humorous, these will be examples of what can happen when we make an unintended typo, don't take into account words with double meanings, or write things in an ambiguous way. Disclaimer: This humor post is in English. If translated to another language, the humor will be lost. Sorry. First up is a line from an article I read regarding the creatures of Ark, and an example of what can happen when a typographical error slips by. It is about the beaver, and reads as follows: "These creatures are very friendly and will attack you only if you try to acquire resources from a dame they've built, or if you attack them directly." Those are some talented beavers! Next up are a few headlines. They are based on real headlines but I've altered them slightly to give them an Ark twist. The first three are grammar gaffes, and in the last two a word's double meaning wreaks riotous havoc. ENRAGED DODO INJURES SURVIVOR WITH HATCHET MISSING OTTER FOUND BY TREE VELONASAUR SHOOTS MAN WITH KNIFE SPARROW TRIBE GETS SHOT AT NEW TEK BASE NARCOTIC PRODUCTION REACHES NEW HIGH If you like these, I'm sure I can rustle up some more. Feel free to make your own contributions as well.

So, this tale starts off on Herbivore Island, where I've begun building a base for our metal smelting needs. My tribemate's been working on the metal for the industrial forge, and we've got 3,000+ coming along nicely. It's been really darn hard to get all the metal to the raft base, so I devised a plan. I would tame a bronto, which could carry the metal as the anky mined it. So, I set off to tame one. I killed two, a level 20 and a level 35, and decided to tame the lvl 95. I started it with 11 tranq darts in a Mastercraft longneck and 34 or so tranq arrows in a regular crossbow (might have had a better one, but whatevs). I climbed up on my weirdly op Moschops, and started tranquing. My Moschops took the hits as I shot, and I ran out of darts. I switched to the crossbow, and I hardly acknowledged the slowly building stars on my stat counter area. Halfway through, I fall asleep (which is ironic, since, y'know-tranquing bronto). Turns out I was hungry, so I ended up falling off, and the bronto and getting almost killed before I woke up and started munching on some cooked meat. I shot the bronto one more time, and it started running. I exuberantly chased after it, only for the bronto to turn back and beat the absolute crap out of me. I respawned at the raft bed, and went on the direwolf to pick my stuff back up. I had not ran out of arrows, so I decided to continue the taming. I ran out of arrows. The bronto was still awake. I ran. And that's it! It was a pretty good ARK session anyway though, made a bit of progress on the base, tamed a Phiomia for the comp. bin, and also tamed a lvl 130 PT with amazing colors. It was a while since I'd played, so the event creatures were still on from the valentine's event, I think. Also made up our first two cryopods, mined a crap ton of metal, , and also made a pump shotgun. And that was pretty much it. Pretty productive, if you ask me. Also, this is going to be the start of a sort of story, where I compile my tales of fortune and woe. Hoping to get more poly at penguin island next time. Happy ARKing!

My latest game play adventure in Ark Survival Evolved. The map; crystal Isle. Settings; Single player with taming, harvesting, leveling set at 3X. MODS; Ultra Stacks. Kraken’s Better Dinos. Castle, Keeps, and Forts Remastered. Marnimods wildlife. Kraken’s Better Dinos is a mod that enhances most of the abilities of the Ark’s creatures. Herbivores, such as a Doed, can now harvest berries. New tek creatures such as a Tek Trike and Giga are now in the map. So are several variations of new and useful creatures. New types of attacks are available on some dinos such as a stomp by the Bronto. Wild creatures may run away if they are badly hurt. It also offers a combo preserving bin, cooker, workbench that allows for the crafting of special foods from the special meat that some creatures will have when killed or from the milk of certain tamed mammals. Early, but less capable saddles are available for some creatures that have late more expensive to craft ones. Extensions can be made for platform saddles and rafts. There is even a Trike platform saddle available. Most interesting is the Valerian Reins that can be crafted from various rare materials. When placed on a flying creature, it enhances their speed, maneuverability, and stamina. Castle, Keeps, and Forts Remastered uses special workbenches that allow you to craft building sections in them thus freeing the player to continue to gather resources or start construction of structures. Like S+, you can pick up those pieces later. Foundations will also stack. Walls are 1/3 higher then Vanilla or S+ walls which gives your player more head room in placing storage chest and other items. You do not need to learn the individual pieces in this mod, only the three crafting workbenches which produce the equivalent of wood, stone, or metal structures using the same building materials and amounts. That will allow me to save up those engram points for other useful items early on. Marnimods Wildlife spawn in at logical places in logical amounts. They range from rats to elephants. Each of her more modern creatures has a special taming requirement. I will be playing this adventure totally unscripted. While I will have specific goals in mind for my adventure, what happens in this map will be whatever Ark presents to me. Comments will be included from my past game play on this map to compare what happens in this adventure. I don’t plan on doing any boss fights under single player due to the grinding needed to build up a dino army strong enough to take on the Heir Queen Wyvern. Instead, this will be more of an adventure of exploration of the many areas of this map. The first days in Crystal Isle. My character, given the name of Robinson Crusoe, starts his adventure in the Southwest Tropical region of this map. There are several spawn points in that region where one will spawn on the beach. The one exception is a spawn point that will place your character on top of a mesa next to a small pond. Being just sheer cliffs on it’s edge, there is no way off of this area on foot other then a ramp in the far back that leads into a dangerous swamp. All stones in the Southwest Tropical only yield stone, flint and sand. Metal nodes are scare and hard to find in this area. On this first day, he wakes up on the ground on top of the mesa. This spawn point contains a small pond nearby for water. Generally, the only dangerous creatures on this mesa in the past have been the dilos and the pesky seagulls. I know that getting enough hide to get started with basic tools is going to be difficult. Finding metal bearing rocks will involve a long trip around the mesa to find the path to it’s top where several metal rocks are located. This adventure starts out with several dodos in the area, a level 20 Parasaur, and a level 95 Tek Parasaur. The first tasks at hand is to get leveled up, get some weapons, build a starter shelter, and place down a bed. Until I can unlock the Settler’s Workbench, I will unlock only a thatch foundation that I can use for crafting items and a bed saving the engram points to get weapons and crafting items as quickly as possible. The three Dodos are quickly dispatched for meat and hide. Half of the meat is soon cooking with the other half split for spoiling. With leveling up to unlock the wood tier, the Settler’s Workbench is unlocked and a 2x2 wooden hut is built for a starter shelter. More Dodos have spawned in giving me the hide needed for a bed, mortise and pestle, and a refining forge. With a bola, bow and stone arrows, I decide to take out the Tek Parasaur to get the scrap metal needed for the Better Dino Workbench and basic metal tools. Later, with a saddle made for one, I tame the level 20 Parasaur so that I can have my first utility dino for gathering berries and alerting me of danger nearby. I name her Starter Patty. To make a spyglass, I take Starter patty up into an area where larger crystals are located. The small ones located by the pond cannot be mined. I get the crystal needed for a spyglass along with a rare mushroom. It is the next morning when the scrap metal from the tek parasaur is smelted, the Workbench put in place, and some basic metal tools are crafted. I need to go hunting to get more leather and raw meat. I take along the new crossbow for the hunt. I also take the rare mushroom and flowers along as I know that I have found moschop in the past on that long trip towards the ramp to the swamp. I haven’t traveled far when I spot another mid level tek parasaur and a Level 150 Male Parasaur. I prepare to tame this bad boy. He will be a huge improvement in stats over the present starter one. The bola and take down goes well. With the 3x rates, my new Perry is soon ready for me to continue on. I head back to camp to get the saddle off of Starter Patty as I am short on hide for crafting a second one. I am now ready for that first serious metal run to the top of the mesa using a much stronger parasaur. I level Perry up in weight and melee as his other stats look good. That soon pays off when I run into Dilos near the ramp up to where the metal rocks can be found. Perry dispatched three dilos in short order. They give me more meat and hide along with a low level parasaur the dilos had just killed. I also have observed two Moschops in the area. I’ll come back to see if I can tame one of them after I get the metal back into the refining forge. Some more Dilos are dispatched on the trip back to camp. Making the trip back on foot, I find the two moschops where I had last seen them. One of them is a Level 150 male that asks for my rare mushroom. He is tamed in the one feed thanks to the Better Dino mod. Coming back, I find a low level tek parasaur stuck in the terrain. It is soon chopped up by Bart into scrap metal, oil, and other resources. A Level 145 female Parasaur has spawned in while I was gone on the moschop run. I come back to tame her. That now gives me three Parasaurs and a Moschop as tames by the end of the day. While out exploring the next morning, I find a way to scale the steep terrain above me to reach where the metal rocks can be found. I take Perry up that same path and load him up with metal ore. There are some of those pesky seagulls in the area, but the Krakens mod reduces their agro range so I don’t have to deal with them. The forge is now filled as I now have my full set of metal tools by the end of that day. So far, I have not seen any of the Tropical Wyverns in this area. In past game play, I have spotted them either in the swamp, or up where the metal rocks are. It is hit and miss what will spawn in on this map and when. The only creatures that have showed up so far on this mesa are the dodos, seagulls, low level pteradons, moschops, parasaurs, and dilos. With the Marnimods Wildlife mod installed, chickens and camels should show up in the beach areas of the other spawn point. Most interesting on her camels is they like the yellow berries with one being more then enough to tame a Level 150. They can be ridden with or without a saddle. And, like real camels, they can spit at something when attacked. However, they have poor stamina and are quite squishy with only a stomp attack, the spit doing little damage to it’s target. The next day is spent on a major project. I want to go down directly to the beach below the cliff and back up to where I am camped. I would also like to take a parasaur or moschop down the same way as well. Loading up the Settler’s workbench with wood, I get some foundations, pillars, ceilings, and ladders made to set up temporary scaffolding for constructing a ramp to get down to the beach. It takes a lot of material to construct the stairway and platform steps. Those modded pillars are so much easier to snap to the edge of a ceiling then the default ones. Still, it takes much of the day to construct the stairway that a parasaurs can use to get down to the beach. A raft is then outfitted for further exploration of the area. I quickly find out that sailing towards the interior from the stairway location is not safe. While I have yet to see one, Leeds are an issue on Crystal Isle and can spawn into the interior waterways. A Berry is spotted along the shore at the base of the cliff. The Bolas don’t appear to work to immobilize it. I also spot a Krapro in the water as well as a Sarco on the beach. I take out the Sarco with the new crossbow which yields 285 toughened hide. That will be useful for crafting the Valerian Reins later on for a flier. Two beaver lodges are spotted in the nearby shallows. I’ll raid them later due to being on a raft and the number of beavers I see living close by and in the swamp. A trip is made to a safer island area back away from the swamp. There are chickens along the beach with the Dodos. I mine the area for wood and thatch loading them into the Settler’s Workbench on the raft as I have stripped the camp area of those materials for the stairway up off the beach. Sailing back to the stairway, I find that the Starter Patty is alerting me to some unknown danger up in the camp area. She has spotted something in the pond. It turns out to be a Dimorphion. I have never seen them spawn in this area before. They normally would spawn in the Swamp below the plateau. I take it out with the crossbow from shore as they are a real pain in the butt to tame being only partially useful as a living air conditioner for egg hatching. The next morning, I start sailing along the shore towards the Green Obelisk. I spot some of Marnimods Camels and Elephants along the shore of a large island. Then, I spot a blue Tropical Wyvern that has just landed in the jungle on this island. The spotting scope IDs it as a Level 150 female. Level 150? I have never seen that high a level as a first spawn before on previous plays on this map. They are usually low level ones early on in a single player map. Having just reached Level 76, I decide to make this my first flier with my attempt at a passive tame. Time to prepare for this quest before it despawns from the area or I lose it. I gather up the large stack of crystals the tame will need along with a parachute. Then, I slowly approach the wyvern so that I can get onto her back to start the tame. That is necessary because, even if they are stuck in a tree, they will take off for parts unknown with that first feed. Besides, I don’t have the materials on me to set up a trap as they will usually fly off when you start putting one down. You could also lose the ability to passive tame one if you agro them to get them into a trap. Luck is with me as I am able to stay on her back as she flies all over the Southwest area of the map. Still, even on 3X, this is a long tame and quite a ride until the process has been completed. Finally tamed, I do some hunting with her as I head back to where the raft is. I have her follow me back to the stairway as I sail the raft back, then fly on her to land next to my starter hut. I check out the requirements for the Valerian Reins. I have everything I need except for the organic polymer. A trip will need to be made either to the snow biome to kill penguins, or to the desert area to kill mantis. That will have to wait until the following morning. As it is, the Tropical Wyvern are fast fliers on their own, They can become even better with increased speed, turning radius, and more stamina when equipped with the Valerian Reins. I most certainly want to craft a set for Tropical Tammy. It will greatly increase her ability for exploration, gathering rare resources, and in obtaining utility tames for my camp upgrades, especially to Villager structures that require lots of stone. The next morning, I take tropical Tammy out on a trip to the desert to look for mantas. The trip goes along the tropical islands along the South, then into the desert south of the Heir Wyvern Mountain to avoid getting into a fight with them. Eventually I find two groups of mantas in the open desert and get the organic polymer needed for both the reins and gill armor. That mission is completed before it gets too hot to be out there. Returning to the camp, I find Starter Patty going nuts with warnings about danger nearby. She is picking up sharks and mantas swimming close to the drop off by the cliff side shoreline. I finally have to move her to the other side of the temporary shelter which puts them beyond the range of her radar. I build a wood taming pen built next to the pond as I want to find a doed for harvesting stone for my camp upgrades. With the Valerian Reins and Gillie Armor crafted, I spend the rest of the day looking for a doed. I find that Tropical Tammy flies so much faster using those reins as well as has a lot more stamina and hitting power in her attack. While I have observed locations containing many other creatures, finding a doed has remained elusive. I will resume that search in the morning. To be continued?

Ragnarok. The single player adventure. Ragnarok is the second player created map that became available as an official stand alone map for Ark. It is a large map with logical transitions between them. With terrain that has sections that were modeled from the real world, the terrain is gorgeous and believable. The history of this map was interesting having been released well before it was finished. Those areas being blocked by a barrier. With each map update, more and more of those areas were opened up with extensive details. In spite of the vastness of the terrain and the details, the map remained well optimized. Even under the sea has been well detailed right up to the world border. The mod game. Settings; Single player with taming, harvesting, leveling set at 3X. Movement Speed at 2X. Hatching and maturation rates set at 6X. Tamed dino’s health and melee set at 1X. MODS in use; Ultra Stacks. Kraken’s Better Dinos. Castle, Keeps, and Forts Remastered. Ultra Stack is a mod that makes gathering so much easier through larger stacking, weight reduction, and reduced spoilage time on all meat types. Kracken’s Better Dinos is a TLC mod that improves the ability of dinos in the game. It adds some additional Tek creatures such as an Ankylo, Trike, and Griffin. Cheaper to craft starter saddles are added for some high level creatures as well as a platform saddle for the Trike and extensions for existing platform saddles and rafts. Trikes and Brontos have a stomp attack. Doeds and Ankylos can now harvest berries. Fliers have the ability to move backwards. Equipped with Valerian Reins, all flying creatures have improved stamina, maneuverability, flying speed, and other useful improvements. Female Mammals can now be milked including Wyverns. New meat and hide types are available from some creatures. A combo Smithy and Preserving Bin adds new abilities including a way to cook and preserve new food types. And a substitute egg and Wyvern Milk replacement can be crafted for taming. Castle, Keeps, and Forts Remastered is a building mod that uses three special crafting benches for creating the numerous building shapes available that are equivalent to wood, stone, and metal. All pieces are compatible with Structure+ and vanilla building pieces. The one exception is that all wall structures are 1/3 higher then standard which is useful for giving your player more head room and allowing large storage boxes to not poke through a ceiling. Morellotops and Amaragsaurus will fit through dino gates. When you learn the crafting bench, you have all the pieces available to you thus saving your engram points for other needs. Best of all, you just load the crafting bench with the required resources and let the items craft independent of what you are doing, just like the Mortise and Pestle. With the extra pieces available, one can make a proper looking round roof as well as a corner roof sections, and single section gable roof so that a three wide structure doesn’t need a flat center. Foundations will stack, pillars place properly, and all pieces can be picked up at a later time. The Crafting Bench can be placed on the ground, a foundation, or the raft. (Platforms?) It also acts as a huge storage crate. The single player experience. There are four main areas of the map one can get started on along with three subsets of each of those. 1. The Highlands. This area can be harder to get started in due to it being colder then the others. It also tends to spawn in Allows, Rexes, and Gigas. Being mostly of plains populated with sheep, horses, and Gallys, wood tends to be scarce around there. 2. Viking’s Bay. Resources tend to be abundant in this area. Depending where you spawn in, it is either safe, or moderately dangerous. 3. Jungle. Of the three areas to spawn in, Jungle 2 will place you next to the Blue Obelisk. While you will have access to wooden crated that can be looted for metal tools the area is lacking in creatures that can be killed for meat and hide. Jungle 1 and Jungle 3 spawn in more small creatures, but many of them tend to be compys, dilos, and those annoying seagulls. All three areas contain much more dangerous creatures once you head inland. 4. Southwest. This spawn area was added upon completion of the map. It is an arid region with many dangerous creatures. For this game play, I spawned in at the west side of Viking’s Bay. This is a large flat sandy area bordered by a rock formation to the East and hills to the West. The area has an abundance of palms, bushes, stones and ground litter one can pick up along with sand. An abundance of river rock, along with some metal nodes, will get you started on metal tools. You will need a flier if you want to obtain any crystal as one cannot climb up to where the nearest nodes are located. Expect to find Pegos, compys, spitters, and seagulls to annoy you. Otherwise, Dodos, Parasaurs, and lystros can be found nearby. The path up into the jungle will take you up to the high bluff where you can expect to find Hynadon Packs, Sabres, raptors, carnos, and Argys. Some loot able wooden boxes can also be found at the top of the bluff. Day One of this adventure; Spawning in at Viking’s Bay West, I need to quickly get away from three thieving Pegomaxes. Thankfully, they don’t take any interest in me as I have nothing on me that they can steal. Down at the shallow end of the sea area, I set about on the tasks of getting the basic tools and supplies. Resources are good here for that. Thankfully, those pesky gulls are not spawning into this area of the map. I save the engrams for when I can get the Settler’s Workbench to build a starter shack next to a large rock outcropping. Next step is to place a storage box by the cliff. As I gather up wood, thatch, and fiber, the extra gets placed into it. Several Dodos bite the dust in order to supply me with much needed hide. With Bolas now crafted, I can go after larger low level creatures of which a Level 15 Parasaur bites the dust. With the wood tier reached, the Settler’s Bench is now available. Loaded with the required building materials, a 4x4 starter hut is built. It is equipped with a spawn bed, large storage chest, and a mortise and pestle. Narco berries and spoiled meat is placed into it to get narcs for the tranc arrows once they are unlocked. As late afternoon approaches. I add two more foundations to the hut. A Refining Forge is placed there and loaded up with wood and metal ore. The River Rocks that are abundant close by give me more then enough raw metal that is needed for the Kraken’s Workbench as well as the stone and flint for sparkpowder. Heading West along the beach to get some metal ore from some rocks along the ridge there, I spot a Level 140 Parasaur and proceed to tame it. I can keep her hid behind the starter shack until I have gathered enough materials to build a proper pen. By the end of the first day, I have a starter hut completed along with a spawn bed, forge, the Krakens Workbench, a tamed Parasaur, and a high level Moschop. I keep Patty and Miss Chomper hid behind the starter shack for the night. During the night, I keep the Settler’s Workbench busy crafting fence foundations. I know that this area can become dangerous in a day or two. While gathering wood, a Pteradon of Level 140 has been spotted. As I have the karatan needed for the saddle, I proceed to tame her and park her by the cliff. With Tammy, I am able to get the crystal needed for a spyglass. As I am preparing to start placing the fence foundations, I spot a pack of “Murder Puppies” coming down from the jungle. I quickly unload the foundations and grab Miss Chomper to go after them. Killing the nearest one, the pack leader howls and they all go charging over to my starter camp. Fearing the worst, I race back with Miss Chomper. Fortunately, they ignore Patty and Tammy by going after something else in the water. I track them all down and take them out with the Moschop. OK, this fence needs to be built and fast. I spend the rest of the morning placing down the foundations and the walls. It takes a lot of wood gathering, but as soon as it is done, I have to deal with a Sabertooth that comes down from the same area as those Murder Puppies. A raft is soon crafted so that I can head West to an area where I can cut down a lot more wood and thatch. The crafting bench on it is stocked with the needed fiber from the Moschop as the next project will be to go with a foundation 10x10 with walls three high. With the supplies now crafting on the raft, I am able to start with the construction of the 10x10 just inside of the fence wall. I get most of the work done during the night. The next day, I am finishing up with the pen when I place Patty on turret mode. She spots something stuck in the rocks in the bay. It makes no sense unless it is a shark, so I wade out there to investigate. It turned out to be a Megalosaurus of all things sleeping up in the corner in the water. Given that they usually only found in caves, or just East of the Lava Beach area it was strange that this one was in the Viking’s Bay rock outcropping. I proceed to tame it and name him Marty. He takes a while to get back into the pen but once in there, he curls up on the floor and goes to sleep. I spend the rest of the day locating and taming an Ankylo and Doed. Annie is most useful for getting metal ore and rock and flint for sparkpowder. Danny is put to work to fill up the Villager’s Workbench for a more ambitions project, a two story round barn that is 36 panels in circumference. A wood and thatch run into Viking’s Bay loads me up with those materials. Picking the large flat beach nearby the Settler’s pen, I start from the center out with well over 100 triangle foundations and many square ones to form the round foundation. The land is flat enough so that the only stacking needed is in the deeper part of the water. I use that spot for a dock. That evening, Marty wakes up, so I saddle him up for an all night hunting run by torchlight. He is not the greatest hunter in the world but does the job well in cleaning out all of the nearby low level creatures around. The next morning, I am pestered by a bunch of sea gulls in the area. I use the pteradon to ambush them from the air which works well in spite of not having Valerian Reins as I need organic polymer and toughened hide to craft them. That will come later. Work continues on the round barn which requires a lot more stone, wood, and thatch. While I could use a Stego for wood and thatch, I gather the wood by hatchet as I use the parasaur for thatch. Eventually, by Day 9, I have a two story barn with an attic for the crafting and living area, and a watchtower on the top of the roof. I will soon move all of the tames into the round barn and set up the work area in the attic. The old pen will eventually get a roof so I can use it for a flier’s landing platform. That will be on a later date as I have been distracted by a new player created map called Lasum. Blame a Matt Bishop video on the ten least played mod maps he picked out of the end of the Steam mod map listing. It has turned out to be a well made map that is mostly completed. I can see that map making for an interesting role playing world ranging from primitive mid evil to futurist apocalyptic world. Expect a single player report on that map in the near future.

My single player game of Valguero. Valguero is a stand along map that is available as an official download for free. Unlike most maps, where the land mass is surrounded by a sea, this one is based upon a valley setting around a large lake surrounded by mountains that act as the border. Hidden in a cave system are a huge ocean and an Aberration cave setting. A boss cave featuring the Brood Mother can be found in the redwoods. An Ice Trench in the snowy mountains is infested with Ice Wyverns where deep inside of that trench is a cave to a lava trench with Fire Wyverns. There are also new types of Rock Golems hiding in the biomes. Numerous structures can be found in the land that can be built in. The most dangerous creature found in the Chalk-lands are the Denonicous, nicknamed The Fluffy Raptors. To obtain one, you have to steal their eggs out of their nest, then hatch them. The babies eat raw meat. These raptors have the ability to climb vertical surfaces including up trees, can glide a short distance, and take no fall damage as they land like a parachute. They can also latch on to a larger creature causing massive bleed damage while avoiding that creature’s effort to defend itself. Beware that they can take you off of a flier if you get too close to them. The mod game. Settings; Single player with taming, harvesting, leveling set at 3X. Movement Speed at 2X. Hatching and maturation rates set at 6X. Tamed dino’s health and melee set at 1X. MODS in use; Ultra Stacks. Kraken’s Better Dinos. Castle, Keeps, and Forts Remastered. Ultra Stack is a mod that makes gathering so much easier through larger stacking, weight reduction, and reduced spoilage time on all meat types. Kracken’s Better Dinos is a TLC mod that improves the ability of dinos in the game. It adds some additional Tek creatures such as an Ankylo, Trike, and Griffin. Cheaper to craft starter saddles are added for some high level creatures as well as a platform saddle for the Trike and extensions for existing platform saddles and rafts. Trikes and Brontos have a stomp attack. Doeds and Ankylos can now harvest berries. Fliers have the ability to move backwards. Equipped with Valerian Reins, all flying creatures have improved stamina, maneuverability, flying speed, and other useful improvements. Female Mammals can now be milked including Wyverns. New meat and hide types are available from some creatures. A combo Smithy and Preserving Bin adds new abilities including a way to cook and preserve new food types. And a substitute egg and Wyvern Milk replacement can be crafted for taming. Castle, Keeps, and Forts Remastered is a building mod that uses three special crafting benches for creating the numerous building shapes available that are equivalent to wood, stone, and metal. All pieces are compatible with Structure+ and vanilla building pieces. The one exception is that all wall structures are 1/3 higher then standard which is useful for giving your player more head room and allowing large storage boxes to not poke through a ceiling. Morellotops and Amaragsaurus will fit through dino gates. When you learn the crafting bench, you have all the pieces available to you thus saving your engram points for other needs. Best of all, you just load the crafting bench with the required resources and let the items craft independent of what you are doing, just like the Mortise and Pestle. With the extra pieces available, one can make a proper looking round roof as well as a corner roof sections, and single section gable roof so that a three wide structure doesn’t need a flat center. Foundations will stack, pillars place properly, and all pieces can be picked up at a later time. The Crafting Bench can be placed on the ground, a foundation, or the raft. (Platforms?) It also acts as a huge storage crate. Game Play Day One; There are several places one can start on this map, some safe, some a bit more dangerous. By far, the safest place is Small Island. However, it will be lacking in small creatures needed early on for meat and hide. I spawn in my character on Small Island. About 50% of the time, one will spawn in on one of the two island. Otherwise, you spawn in on the shore of the nearby mainland. While the same creature types will spawn in with you as they do on the two islands, there is the chance that a Purvolia may show up nearby to end your day early. As I spawned in on the mainland near the beach, I will need to swim over to one of the two islands before it gets cold out, then set up my starter camp before dark. I quickly get the required resources for basic tools and thatch clothes. However, fiber is hard to get as the sagebrush bushes on this section of the mainland have a hard to find gather box. There are no Dodos or Lystros in this area to get for hide so I have to watch out for a low level trapped Parasaur to take out for meat and hide. Once I am basically equipped, I look for the closest way to swim across to one of the two small islands. One has to be careful as there are sharks in the deeper section of the channel. Oil rocks are easily accessible down there for later game use. On the larger of the two small Redwoods Islands, I set up a Settler’s Crafting Bench and start constructing a 2x2 hut for the night. It can get quite cold on these Redwood Islands. Why did I pick this location? There are no predators on those two island, no dilos, no pesky seagulls, no compys, no Thylo up in the tree to pounce on you, just larger herbivores that are living here. That makes it a challenge to get hide and raw meat early on. Once I have the bow with arrows, I am able to find a trapped low level Parasaur to kill for meat and hide. With bolas, I now have the means to take down other Parasaurs and Phenomas for meat and hide. Under Kraken’s Better Dinos, Phenomas will yield lots of hide. They also yield a special meat that is listed as good for healing carnivores but poor for taming. Unfortunately, that meat spoils quickly and cannot be cooked in a campfire. It can, however, be preserved in the combo Smithy and Preserving Bin by placing charcoal and spark powder in there with the special raw meat. The good thing, one low level Parasaur and Phenoma gives me enough hide for bolas, leather armor, and for crafting the Mortise and Pestle, Forge, and combo Smithy and Preserving Bin. With plenty of river rock along the shoreline, I have the required metal ore needed to craft the combo bin and basic metal tools. The fast spoiling Phenoma meat allows me to craft tranc for arrows for future taming. By nightfall, I have obtained enough levels to craft basic metal tools, built a raft, and tamed a high level Parasaur for berry harvesting. Day Two; In the morning, I sail across the lake to the northern spawn point to go hunting and harvest some unusual resources there. In that bay, as I dodge the pesky seagulls, I kill some Dodos, spitters, and compys for their meat and hide. I chop up a dead turtle which yields hide, spoiled meat, and far more karatan then one can get from killing one. The dead beached dolphins yield valuable organic polymer, which will be needed for Gillie Armor as well as for Valerian Reins once I can obtain a high level Pteradon. It also contains hide and lots of spoiled meat. I get the Gillie Armor crafted as where I am heading next will be quite hot. Next, I sail over to a set of ruins where I tie up the raft at the dock. Here, it is quite hot, so I put on the Gillie Armor, then head up the path to where there is a garden containing Rockarrots and Savroot. At the garden, my harvesting is cut short as a nervous Gally goes flying by me with a Carno hot on it’s tail. Fortunately, it doesn’t see me, so I am able to finish with harvesting the advanced crops available there. I leave quickly as that Carno is still around chasing lower level prey. There are Pteradons in the area but none of them are worth taming all being Level 20 or lower. Back at my starter camp, I place the bounty into storage. A high level Ankylo has been spotted on this little island. Facts are, quite a few higher level herbivores spawn in on this island including a Level 140 female Bronto that is knocking down all the trees in the area. As I can now craft the saddle for one, I proceed to tame the Ankylo. She will be most useful to mine the abundant river rocks for stone, flint, and raw metal. By that night, I have her tamed and the forge filled with metal ore. Under the mod, Ankylos can harvest berries, wood, and thatch, and get some sap from the redwood stumps. Day three. Still no luck in finding a high level pteradon. I need one to start surveying the Chalk Lands as well as to obtain some crystal for a spotting scope. Day Four. I tame that female Bronto. Under Kraken’s Better Dinos, their stomp attack is awesome for harvesting. They get massive amount of wood from a stomp as well as stone, flint, and metal ore from the boulders. It is also a bit more selective then the tail swipe which is mostly good for getting berries and some thatch. I do more exploration with the raft and continue looking for a high level Pteradon. No luck. They are all Level 24 or lower. Day Five. Lucked out with a higher level pteradon. First a Level 60 that lost some taming effectiveness due to passing out just as I hit it with another tranc arrow. Later, the next day I get a Level 150 that lands by my starter camp. Finally, I have something that I can use to get crystal and safely explore the Chalk Land. With a raft parked along the shoreline so I can store items on it, I take off for the exploration with the now Level 225 pteradon. From him, I can safely observe the activity below as well as look for fluffy raptor nest. It doesn’t take long to find them out hunting as I see one of them latched onto the side of a Bronto chewing a hole into it. When one goes on an egg hunt, you never want to do this on foot, even with several tribe members. It is best to snatch eggs by using a quick flyer such as a Pteradon, bait the raptors away from the nest, then do a quick land and grab before they all come running back after you. I find a nest and do a quick land and grab. Crap, level 20 egg. I find another nest. Same thing. Level 20 egg. I take them back to the raft. Continuing the exploration, I find more nest. Level 15. I throw it out. The next nests after leading the fluffy raptors away from it, is a Level 55, then a Level 150 egg. I take them back to the camp to place in the preserving bin until I am ready to hatch them. Day Six, I have much better luck with nest raiding. The resulting game of raptor tag and fast raid yields me a Level 55, a Level 90, and a rare Level 180 egg. It will be time to set up a taming pen that will need about two dozen torches fueled by Sparkpower which thanks to the Ankylo, I have an abundant supply as fuel. During that raiding session, I spot a unicorn. With rockarrots obtained from the garden in the ruins, I an able to find and tame him in a relatively safe area. I use the raft to bring him back to the starter base. At the end of Day Six, I am at Level 76 thanks to the crafting of spark powder and narcotics from the spoiled meat harvested from the dead turtles and dolphins along the beach. So, with Day Seven, I will be building a hatching – taming pen for the fluffy raptor eggs. Past experience has shown me that I need about 18 torches arranged in a U shape inside of a pen given that when those little brats hatch, they are totally out of control for the first couple of minutes. A Feeding Trough filled with raw meat is most necessary to keep them fed as they grow up. That way, they only need food placed on them for the first several minutes of growing up. Having comfort foods on hand will help if you plan on imprinting when you start breeding the higher level ones. It is also best to just hatch a couple of eggs at a time given the chance of twins and triplets which can make claiming and controlling them a lot harder. Some info on this map that may cause you grief and frustration. 1. The Brood Mother Cave is extremely complex and dangerous to explore in order to get one of the artifacts needed for the boss fight. A megatherium, the giant sloth, is a must for cleaning out the bugs and spiders as their insect buff will make short work of killing off the numerous high level ones infesting that cave once you have killed the Broodmother and her horde. 2. One of the entrances to the underwater ocean is located South of the larger of Small Island. As that inlet is a good source for oil, you should easily find it in the deeper water. Beware that a deep sea creature could show up unexpectedly in that area. While the lake itself is Leed free, they do live in the depths below the underwater entrances 3. The beach side entrance to the Aberration Cave may toss you off of a flier to your death if you happen to fly anywhere near it. The entrance is big enough to take a Bronto into it. 4. Hopefully, it has been fixed by now but at one time, there was a spot in the Aberration Cave where you could fall through the mesh to a layer below. Even worse was a spot that you would fall through the world to teleport to the plateau on the surface if you didn't get killed by the anti meshing feature now in use. 5. Given that Rock Drakes were removed from the official map, I see no reason to go down into the dangerous radiation zone. 6. Some resources, such as pearls, are hard to come by. The one area in the lake where they can be found is infested with Karpos and Sarcos. Overall, the map has it’s biomes logically placed out and populated with the expected resources and creatures. You might want to turn down the creature spawn rates as it tends to be quite high in places. Thus ends this report on the Valguero adventure.