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Since I started playing Ark, I’ve always wanted to go through all the story maps in order from The island to Gen2, staying on each map until completion. But I have 2 problems and because of them I’ve spent 90% of my playtime on the island restarting every few months after getting bored because I’m sick of the island. Problem 1 (low level spawns on story maps) The story maps are notorious for low level spawns, I feel like I would spend 100’s of hours on the island as I use basically official rates. Then eventually I’d take my boss ready dinos to scorched and then I would probably get through scorched too quickly, which I don’t want. Problem 2 (non story maps) I don’t want access to things that would make things easier until I’ve reached that point in the game (not having deinos for the dragon on the island for example). But I also don’t want to miss out on all the non story maps that have been added over the years because they look really good. The solution (for me at least) is one rule: “Dino / item transfers are not allowed until you have collected and displayed all Artefacts from the map you wish to transfer to. “ Following this rule will mean once you have defeated the overseer on the island and transfer to scorched, you will have to establish yourself to the point where you can collect the artefacts on scorched. So when you’re ready to fight the boss on scorched is the exact moment you’re then allowed to go and get your island dinos. This is how you would progress through the maps 1. The island - The Centre 2. Scorched Earth - Ragnarok 3. Aberation - Valguero 4. Extinction - Crystal Isles 5. Gen1 - Lost island 6. Gen2 - Fjordur You would start on the island and have access to the centre right away but remember, NO DINO/ITEM TRANSFERS until you’ve collected and displayed all artefacts on the map you’re transferring to. Then once you’ve defeated the overseer you have access to scorched & rag but when you go to those maps you will have to go naked & alone until you’ve got the artefacts there too. Playing like this allows you to get the full experience out of every map, without having to then leave your mutated boss killers behind when you finish a map. You’ll also be able to experience every non story map, in order of release, without having access to things you wouldn’t already have access to on a story map. The only thing I’m not sure on is I don’t think there’s artefacts on Gen1/2 so I’m not sure what to do there. Not sure if this idea will be if any use to anyone I’m just posting because I’ve seen a lot of people talk about wanting to do a story playthrough but not being sure on the best way to do it.

First of all, in ark 1, I think that the leveling system for humans was quite right but 50+ levels for the dinos and also you would need mods or else you had to level them 1 by 1. I think that for ark 2 would be great that yes you have to level up your dinos but only like 10 levels or less. With this they would have to make harder for the dinos to level up and also get greater stats per level. Also add more stats like (gathering ammount, glide, stamina consumtion, health regen, armor rate, food consumption, etc.). And maybe instead of only adding stats you can choose to get skills instead like: reduced/remove fall damage, fear roar, hunter sight, flock/heard bonus, camouflage (your dino changes color or straight up gets invi xD), etc... Instead of looking for leveled dinos all the dinos have the same level but for herd dinos the alpha has slightly better stats. Players don't know their exact stat values. So lets say when you are injured you get a message on the screen that says "I'm a bit injured", "I'm wounded", "I'm dying" and whatever. For thirst, hunger, stamina, sickness, ammunition (So you get surpriced my the message "Oh, I'm out" or "Last on the quiver") and stuff the same. You require saddles to access the dino inventory, also the saddle will give them space but not weight (it would depend on the dino and player's perks) Eliminate the movent speed stat upgrade for dinos and players (or make it optional in the server config). Instead of following passive tames like a fool you can just drop a bawl of food nearby and they'll start eating until they tame, petting them during the processs would increase the affection (bonus for primitive) Instead of starting from 0 you respawn with the basic stuff (depending on you character type primitive (stone pickaxe, stone hatchet, spear) or modern(metal axe, metal pickaxe, pistol/knife)). NPC's: merchant (adding currency as well), friendly or unfriendly tribes, cities (with configurable weapon use inside them), hired guards, workers, etc. A weapon combination, instead of having a sniper, an assault riffle, a shotgun, you can create your personal weapon with components. By selecting the ammo type, barrel, sight, stock, underbarrel, etc. Or for meele weapons the handle (stick, pole, swordhandle, longswordhandle, etc), blade type, weight, etc. SafeInventory: Using the server currency you can rent a safe in a city or a merchant to keep you stuff safe from stealing as long as you have the money to keep it. NPC's missions maybe from traders or the leaders you can get missions like bring a Rex in a cryo, defend the city gates, kill a bandit leader, kill an alpha dino nearby, etc (just, not clear cave missions) and the chance to cancel a mission (if you change your mind or it gets bugged). Finishing moves for dinos (when a dino or human is at critical health, some or all idk, dinos have the chance to do a finishing move on it witch it will get killed instantly). Like lets say a rex grabbing and argentavis with his mouth and munch it 3 times before spiting it or tearing apart another dino's tail. Clothing: You can use your armor everywhere or you can have the option to change your apeareance without unequiping your armor while you are in safe or neutral territory (like inside your house or a city), doesn't work in the wild or enemy territory. Electromagnetic Storm. I saw this on a comment but I don't remember who said it. There are zones of the maps where electronics doesn't work so you can't use any tecnology there. Create servers without mutations or with limited mutations. Make ruins fixable so you can get them back to their glory and also damagable so they can go back to ruins I read that there will be a perk system and I think that it could be split in 2 + 1(the extra one is a bonus for both) (you'll have to choose one of course with the chance of getting to choose it again by creating a new character or with whatever does the function of the mindwipe tonic): ---Primitive: Focused on combat, tamming and high value gathering. Faster, cheaper, better tamming. Stronger affection with your dinos so they get a bonus near you and/or while you ride them. You don't need saddles to ride dinos. Better stealth vs wild dinos. Better base stats for player character(health, meele damage, jump height,speed, gathering rate, sickness resistance, etc.). Perks like: High quality hide gathering, High quality bone gathering, Poison/torpor resistance, Damage resistance, berserker (higher meele damage with lower health), etc. Especific skills like: Detect (dinos, npcs, players, etc.), Track (you can follow the path of recent players), camouflage (you can either become transparent or harder to see if you stand still or walk while you use the skill), Undetectable (you can't get tracked or detected), etc. Weapons: Spear, sword, Staffs, shield, combat axe, bow, crossbow, throwing knifes, poison darts, etc. Armor: Heavy (reduced movent and stealth, more protection): Flak/metal, Chitin, Bone (depends on the dino). Light(Low protection, low movement penalty, low stealth penalty): Hide (Depends on the dino), Linen. Unarmored(0 armor, no penalties): Loincloth(maybe adding benefits with perks). Tools: Skinning knife (Hide), Stone/Metal/Obsidian Hatchet (wood and thatch), Stone/Metal/Obsidian pickaxe (stone, flint and ore), Stone/Metal/Obsidian SledgeHammer (Stone), climbing picks, climbing rope (can be shoot by a bow or crossbow, it isn't used as a grapling hook you shoot the arrow then climb the rope so you can't use more ranged weapons while climbing). Special Saddles: Better armor, can be made of the same materials of the human armor. Special objects: Breathing bag (since you can't craft a modern scuba suit, get back to the ancient greek knowledge by creating small waterresistant bags to help you get some extra seconds underwater), meele attachments. Dimorph nest: It sends small flocks of dimoprhodons. The flocks size depends on the ammount of dimorphodons inside the nest. They attack for a few seconds and then return (effective vs big dinos). Plant species X (Effective vs all targets. Slows and deals low damage). Dino Guard post: The dinos linked to this post will attack enemies in the area if they get out of range or die the dinos return to the post (You can only link small or medium land dinos) Potions and herbs: Heal potion (Increases healing rate), Energy potion (Increases stamina regen), beer (slightly reduces incoming damage), Strange mussrom ("It looks dangerous but it increases your rage in combat"), BerryMix tea (Slowly Cures your infection, you might need more than one but it's delicious). ---Modern Focused on automatization, building and mass production. You can create and use effectively cheaper advanced equipment (primitives can use them but with worse results like more expensive recipes and with longer crafting times) (industrial forges, fabricators or whatever machines), Weaponized saddles (with less focus on the effectiveness of the dino and more on the technology). Better firearm use (less recoil, more precision, faster reloading speed, faster aiming, weapon draw, etc.) Perks like: More material gathering, cheaper production, faster production, paralel production (one crafting station can have 2 different items producing at the same time), Medicine has a faster effect, etc. Especific skills like: Weapons: Custom firearms, police baton (good for torpor/stun), military knife, machete. Armor: Medium armor (Not so heavy, but not so light. Good protection): Riot Gear (good meele protection), Bulletprof gear (Good firearm protection), Riot shield (good vs meele, but heavy so it reduces mobility and can't crouch if it is equiped on hand, can be equiped on the back to reduce backstab damage), bulletprof vest (reduce bullet damage). Juggernaut suit (Heavy, Reduces general incoming damage, reduces movent speed, diables jumping, reduces visiibility and turnrate "I wish there was some teknology to balance it out"). Tools: PowerDrill (ore, flint and stone), Chainsaw (wood and thatch), Metal Axe (Wood and thatch), Metal Pickaxe, Automatic Drill (Can be placed to slowly generate an specific resource(speed depends on server gathering settings and ore veins nearby)), grapling hook, it slowly pulls you but you can only use it while standing so you can't chain grapling hooks (also you can't use ranged double handed weapons during it's use). Special Saddles: Heavier than normal saddles but with higher customisation like adding standing weapons like machine guns, shotguns, small cannons and small launchers. Since Carnivors are hunters they don't like the heaviest saddles Special objects: Scuba suit. firearm attachments. Helicopter (Resistant, fast, noisy, weaponized, with multiple passenger space and carry weight but not as agile as a dinosaur, careful if you fly low, near trees or in caves. Primitives can't fly them). Worm Tank: Quite resistant, slow but faster than running, can be weaponized and carry multiple players, high carry weight. Small Submarine: Fast, armored, can be weaponized, high carry weight, careful with the rocks. Big Metal Raft: Just like ark 1 but bigger and with more space for building. HeliCarrier. Simple, a flying raft. The counterpart of the quetzals. Turrets (flamethrower (effective against small clustered dinos). machine gun (effective vs all dinos) and Heavy machine Gun Turrets (Effective vs all dinos, but they are expensive)) Medical Items: Medic kit (heals 100% health over time, it gets interrupted if you receive damage), First aid kit (heals 25% hp over a short time), First aid Bandage (5% hp instanly), Antibiotics (Cure infections). ---Tek/advanced (just as the original, unlocked by bosses, craftable in the tek terminals arround the map) Instead of a tek suit that makes you extremely op, something a little less futuristic (without flight, power punch, etc.) Lets say an exoskeleton wich would boost your carry weight, meele damage, speed, focused jump (less higher than the tek suit), reduced stamina use, etc. Giving those perks in a small ammount when unpowered and in higher amounts powered (with element or whatever fuel). Tek Glasses: Always powered (lets say, by sunlight) with flashlight, nightvision (so you can choose whatever you want), thermal vision, heartbeat sensor, displayable player info (health, stamina, injuries, etc.). Both are extras so shouldn't take armor space. Mek: I think that the ark 1 meks are a little over the top, make them more like the classic movies/games like the ones on matrix, avatar (this ones fit perfect with the ark theme). I mean they made them like evangelion, but come on, they were fighting insane monsters not ancient prehistoric animals. The mek can be used by primitive players but it will be focused on meele combat (mek metal sword, mek metal knife, mek metal shield, mek metal spear, etc.) with boosted stats on it. The mek for the modern players will mainly use fire power like miniguns, shotguns, machineguns, etc. Weapons: Tek spear, tek sword, tek shield, tek riffle (with a way to choose the type of ammunition you want to use, not everything has to be laser or plasma) and instead of just getting the weapon it can be a modifier for the base weapons so they get upgraded to tek. Example putting the modifier in a rifle will make it show the current amunition, increase weapon damage by injecting the ammo with element, thermal sight, and whatever. Tek Car: Just don't add it here or fix it, idk. Maybe a tek spider will get less buggy with the capacity to gather or carry stuff, and maybe to equip a drill or gather ray on it.

(I’ve added some extra stuff on the bottom in case this one was bad) I know this sounds very stupid, but because I don’t usually mess around with other people in ark, may I suggest adding in Npcs into Arks Database? Even if it’s in single player, the ability to have comrades next to you would be an excellent sight. Also here’s some Ideas on how you could implement them, Name: Homo Sapien Class: Human/Humanoid Health base: 100 x current level stamina: 150 x .5 Level Torpidity: 400 x .5 level Weight: 50 x .5 level Oxygen: 100 x Food: 100 x level Water: 100 x level Behavior: Aggressive. Ability, to wear armor, use tools, and equipment. Passive suggestions, like Guarding positions, or defending the player against hostile encounters. Another useful thing would be allowing them to mine a specific area, maybe set a wander distance or bin they could drop off supplies to. Space Engineers for example, allows you to create bots that mine areas and deliver the mined materials to a central hub. Same with Age of Empires or even War Selection. Drawbacks of HomoSapiens (for balance reasons) Low Health, and Low stamina. Low Weight as well, being that people can only carry so much. Other ideas: Central Hub for Turret Ammunition or Items: Maybe have some sort of conveyer system that allows you to transport materials or ammunition from one side of your base to another. Landmines: Passive Defense, for animals and people. Modern Jeep: Just as a low tier Jeep you could use once you have gotten past the Riot Gear, and not at TEK. Howitzer: A not so Passive defense, used for bigger targets, 105mm shells explosive, and gas that are semi expensive to make, angle limitation, and also is manually controlled. Helicopter: Yes, I am stupid and suggesting a helicopter, it doesn’t have to be a Attack chopper, but it would be awesome, for balance it should be expensive. Tanks or LAVs: have another suggestion Box for this one Nature Vs Machine Well, if you have read this far along I applaud you for taking time to read this. I hope you take into account my suggestions, and maybe give them a once over. Not saying they are awesome quality, but these are just some things I thought of while talking to some friends about Ark!

So in Singleplayer all of the "Does NOT take place in the genesis simulation" missions are not avaliable and those are the easiest to do by yourself with a great tek bow or giga. They are also great for farming hexagons but they are not showing up. I cant imagine its because you cant do those missions without a group cause a single normal stat 100% imprint bred Giga can do the Alpha Velonasaur Stalk and Shadowmane Prowl missions with minor hesitation at best. Does anyone know or have any theories as to why in Singleplayer Xbox they took out the easiest solo missions to do?

Hello everyone, forgive my lack of photoshop skills but i had this system/idea come to mind for a potential new tamed dino follow or wild dino herding mechanic that the devs could maybe use in the next ARK 2 game! Essentially instead of the whistle follow all command that we have right now (which is difficult to use and not very good at actually having dinos follow you in a decent way) the game would have a follow grid pattern as portrayed below in figure one. With this you would get a new UI for dinos following you in a specific pattern on a grid. Each would be assigned to a specific spot in the formation, blue signifying your location and the pivot of the formation, orange showing slots already taken and green showing open slots for other tames top take positions. While roaming around the map this formations system would add way more emersion and less frustration to the follow mechanic. As with this format you could have dinos follow you a specific way. having some stronger creatures take the lead and cover your flank! Along side this these creatures could be dynamic, instead of opperating in their fixed location this could simply be a "return to" spot, so dinos ai will do their best to stick to this formation but should an obstacle come up such as a tree, cliff, rock, or wild dino, the tamed dino will 'reroute' around the obstacle and then return to its designated position as best it can. I think this is a much needed and easy update to the follow mechanic that essentially has your dinos acting like body guards moving with you in the direction you go instead of clunkily all following you and getting stuck on one another, additionally this could prevent some wild dinos from attacking you as you'd essentially have body guards protecting you. Imagine as well the opportunity for flying and underwater formations! How cool would that look to have a v formation of argys in the sky! Maybe depending of different dinos the follow patterns could even be different having 'V' shapes for flying and water dinos and this diamond shape above for land dinos. Perhaps you could also choose your own position in the formation as well having the other dinos revolve around a different point as shown above in figure 2. Finally, My last idea would be to add a 'herding' mechanic with this system in place for wild dino packs. Having creatures loosely follow each other in their formations around the map sticking to their herds, then when a threat arises the herd could reform its position and reroute following the pack leader as shown in figure 3. In that example the wild herd also has baby dinos, and are following a chosen leader, the pack notices an oncoming threat (the rex as indicated by the red markers) and thus chooses to reroute and avoid the threat while also forming a protective wall for the weaker dinos in the pack forming a sort of shield also indicated in red. This would be a pretty simple yet effective system for adding roaming herds of dinos that can be reactive to threats they come upon. TLDR: Add a grid follow system to put dinos in different slots to follow you around. You could change position as well changing the group pivot point. Wild dinos could use same system to herd up, roam around, avoid threats and protect younglings. Let me know your guys thoughts and what you think, if a system like this could exist in ark 2 and if it'd work? What flaws could this potentially bring, would you add different formations depending on the dinos riden? Also would the group all still travel at different speeds, would they find a median 'average speed' of all the dinos in the pack and travel at that, or would the pack as a whole travel at the slowest speed of all dinos in the pack? Lots of questions but i hope something similar gets added and the devs see this post so any upvotes or shares would help! Good luck survivors!