Ark: Survival Evolved

Yeah I've really been enjoying this game. I am still hosting a PVE server thats stayed pretty popular. I don't actually play on it though. I'm playing on PVP servers these days.

You guys got any tips for a group of 2-3 beginners? Vorph mentioned Narcotics to level, and one guide I read said boxes are also good, but they're both very 'individual' activities, such that each character needs to do it themselves. The resources could kinda be split, such that one guy is on berries, another on wood, another on stone, and rotate when we're bored, but that doesn't sound very enticing. Is there another path to take that might be less optimal but more engaging?

Engrams seem pretty straightforward. Later tiers requiring earlier means that we'll be divying them up and going down relatively set paths.

Lastly, are there still some official PvP servers that are relatively young? Or, what do we look for in a server so that we don't get thrown in with guys in full Flak armor, sniper rifles and god knows what else? We realize we're behind the curve anywhere, but nobody likes those kinds of odds.

Jabberwhacky_sl said:

You guys got any tips for a group of 2-3 beginners? Vorph mentioned Narcotics to level, and one guide I read said boxes are also good, but they're both very 'individual' activities, such that each character needs to do it themselves. The resources could kinda be split, such that one guy is on berries, another on wood, another on stone, and rotate when we're bored, but that doesn't sound very enticing. Is there another path to take that might be less optimal but more engaging?

Engrams seem pretty straightforward. Later tiers requiring earlier means that we'll be divying them up and going down relatively set paths.

Lastly, are there still some official PvP servers that are relatively young? Or, what do we look for in a server so that we don't get thrown in with guys in full Flak armor, sniper rifles and god knows what else? We realize we're behind the curve anywhere, but nobody likes those kinds of odds.

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Pick a quiet spot with access to wood and stone and start building. Leveling is super easy as long as you actually keep building stuff. Don't go into "Narcotics and boxes will level you fast", which are only good for PvE servers. Go for buildings, spikes, doors, windows, walls, ceilings, ramps and build a base. Then secure it and build another. Then make a secret stash and build 5 more. And when you're armed to the teeth start taming low level scorps, sabers, dilos, raptors, make sure someone puts engram points into farming and pipes, get X Type plants and get them up and running, open supply drops when you can, be active and levels won't be a problem.

Personally I don't play on a PvP server because it seems I'm teh only one that laggs constantly every 2-3 minutes there's a 5 second pause. So I'm on a PvE server.

But I'd be willing to start over on a PvP server with a few friends if there was a relatively young one. The last one i started on had a guy in full flak armor on an argentavis using a sniper rifle to kill me and my girlfriend running around in our underwear. I don't mind PvP, but that's just retared. Or servers where all Metal spawns are being blocked by metal foundations. That's why I preferrably like private servers more. Someone griefs the entire server trying to make them NOT play or NOT enjoy the game and admins just delete their whole base and everything they placed, kaboom, goodbye griefers.

Slyminxy_sl said:

Personally I don't play on a PvP server because it seems I'm teh only one that laggs constantly every 2-3 minutes there's a 5 second pause. So I'm on a PvE server.

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Are you trying to use High textures on a 2GB GPU? I had a similar issue, especially when I'd fly back to my tribe's huge base full of dinos until I dropped it to medium, and then eventually got a 4GB card and the problem went away entirely.

So I got my little shack built, decent supply of cooked meat, spear, hatchet, and pickaxe. What now, head off into the jungle and hope not to die? Still naked too.. lol

Update: Clearly my house was in a shitty spot came back from AFK w/ some level 31 knocking down my door, needless to say I died, and he stole my wood.

Scratch your server still up? Couldn't find it.

It looks like the server is already gone

They do free weekends now and then. I'd say the main thing is you want 12+GB ram if you want smooth performance.

And 4+GB of VRAM. Anything less than that and you're stuck with textures that look like they're from EQ1, or else you put up with framerate drops into the single digits every time the engine streams textures in and out.

3 might be ok, 2 definitely is not.

There's also the option of buying and returning if it runs like shit. You'd know if it runs acceptably in a lot less than 2 hours. I'd wait for the xmas sale anyway, it's pretty likely to be -40% again.

Got this on the sale. Whatever this winter event is is gay as shit for new players. Freeze/starve to death pretty rapidly. Hard to do anything but gather berries to avoid that. Seems to run okay (fairly solid 30 fps) on a GTX 970 and 16g ram on an SSD @ High settings...

Freeze/starve to death pretty rapidly. Hard to do anything but gather berries to avoid that.

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O that is what is happening to me, I was like fuck this game is rough I have to eat every two seconds, and god forbid I get hurt.

I successfully braved the elements, built a small shack, and have some tools/spear. I can't really kill anything tho because everything around me is over level 15.

Column_sl said:

O that is what is happening to me, I was like fuck this game is rough I have to eat every two seconds, and god forbid I get hurt.

I successfully braved the elements, built a small shack, and have some tools/spear. I can't really kill anything tho because everything around me is over level 15.

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I was killing level 90+ shit at sub-5, just gotta find the stuff that doesn't fight back. Penguins and shit.

Well Well Well. Looks like I'm going to fuck some Penguins up then

This game REALLY rewards playing with friends/being in a tribe. Work buddy and I played for a few hours last night, it's so much more efficient to divide up crafting (who learns what Engrams) and making a tribe that gives shared exp.

I'd go so far as to say there's no point even playing the game at all without a good tribe. I can only think of one solo dude I ever saw who did well on his own, and he must've played hundreds of hours to get to that point. He managed to build a mostly metal base with turrets and shit, but it still didn't stop a group of people from breaking into it easily.

So some buddies and I picked this up within the last week from the Christmas Sale on Steam. Put a few good 16 hour days into it, as you should with any new game. There's about 6 of us total, but maybe 4 on at any given time at most. Got up to about lvl 30s, had a nice stone base, a decent assortment of dinos tamed (Trike, couple turtles, Pterandodon)... and then some chinese tribe comes through in the middle of the night and just rapes everything and everyone. All dinos are dead. Anything inside the house is gone. They left nothing to rebuild, destroyed EVERYTHING. Just fucking dicks.Which I'm ok if we're a threat somehow, but that seemed a bit excessive.

So we're saying fuck-all to that public server. That's no fun for people starting out in a new game. So we're currently debating between starting our own server (which would require purchasing another copy of the game), or possibly trying a different Public one. Lots of elements of this game I really do enjoy. I love having some risk involved, with losing your corpse and gear if you can't get it back. It's brutal, but finally offers some consequence in a game, and it's been a while since I've seen that. Anyone have suggestions on where we should relocate to? I like having random other people around, and even PVP i'm cool with. It's the excessive griefing that I can do without for new people.