(tried embedded link.. And welp.. Nope)
So I need stuff to stabilize and so far Ark is it.
I'm loving Ark because it is nothing but minute to minute survival and anything can happen.
Even after setbacks like losing my first trike 4 minutes after taming her because she was set to aggressive and was killed by a turtle.. and losing my boat to a bastard Carno... try, try again.
At times it can be hours of in-game monotony while gathering resources, especially if you're playing by yourself like I am.. there's still a level of tension when the light goes out and you happen to forget to equip your torch.. or you happen to piss off something massive and the ground starts to shake.
You really just can't allow yourself to let your guard down.
So usually that means anything can and will go wrong. Like taking the boat out for a spin and getting caught with your hands full by some random asshole Carno looking for a midnight snack on what was a deserted beach.
My mission on day 1 was to get a Trike up and running so as to be able to farm narco berries.
So Day 1 was effectively a miserable failure.
I mean from watching JamieStews06 and her friends on Twitch for about a week and a half, I've got all the ground work stuff down.. or so I thought.. I decided to commit that first day to familiarization with the games controls and basics. Which are actually straightforward BUT hard to juggle.
I'm not so good with the basics, because after a certain level bump (20) you're into the base building and advanced weapons and tactics. Until then there's no need to really make clothes or a base. Plus asshole dinos will come in and wreck shit because they can.. so why bother.
I'm loving Ark because it is nothing but minute to minute survival and anything can happen.
Even after setbacks like losing my first trike 4 minutes after taming her because she was set to aggressive and was killed by a turtle.. and losing my boat to a bastard Carno... try, try again.
At times it can be hours of in-game monotony while gathering resources, especially if you're playing by yourself like I am.. there's still a level of tension when the light goes out and you happen to forget to equip your torch.. or you happen to piss off something massive and the ground starts to shake.
You really just can't allow yourself to let your guard down.
So usually that means anything can and will go wrong. Like taking the boat out for a spin and getting caught with your hands full by some random asshole Carno looking for a midnight snack on what was a deserted beach.
My mission on day 1 was to get a Trike up and running so as to be able to farm narco berries.
So Day 1 was effectively a miserable failure.
I mean from watching JamieStews06 and her friends on Twitch for about a week and a half, I've got all the ground work stuff down.. or so I thought.. I decided to commit that first day to familiarization with the games controls and basics. Which are actually straightforward BUT hard to juggle.
I'm not so good with the basics, because after a certain level bump (20) you're into the base building and advanced weapons and tactics. Until then there's no need to really make clothes or a base. Plus asshole dinos will come in and wreck shit because they can.. so why bother.
Making at least a string of boxes, sleeping bags, or beds and campfires will make it much easier to survive the first few days.. but ultimately NOT Dying will be that all important rule. You can die as often as can't be prevented of course, but getting set back because you can't locate your body.. but a trying experience.
Taking down those first few Trikes (or anything really) with a dinky slingshot is remarkably easy.. but then what? Oh fuck I forgot to eat, drink, hide from basically everything because everything is designed to kill. And when you're only counting on yourself to get all that raw material and bring it back safely to your base.. it is very tense.. At any step of the way something could jump out of the bush and try to eat you.. or just kill you for sport.
I'm here like can't I just make a shack and then just go to sleep and ignore the wildest part of the day... I mean ignore the night?
Well no.. since priority 1 is gathering those narco berries and raw meat to make narcotics to have enough prepared to drop large dinos... everything is juggled around that primary goal.
Ultimately I found that gathering berries is easiest at night if you can find a relatively safe patch.. just have a torch up.
And having that water pouch filled will also make it much easier to keep berry gathering at night. Having 20+ well cooked Dino meat steaks also keeps you stuffed. Even if it was only the second day to realize it.. the herbivores sleep at night making them even easier pickings. But almost total safety for picking berries.. that can't be passed up at all. Leaving the more dangerous work for daylight.
During the day I spent most of my time attempting to gather meat to cook and put into boxes to have it rot to make narcotics and then the hides for use in crafting stuff.. along with everything else.. like leveling up and steadily learning what various engrams are actually useful and which ones aren't.
Skipping all kinds of stuff because I was waiting on that level 20 to get the trike saddle made for different challenges because I didn't have clothes nor any good places to hide when having my survivor running for his many ultimately very short often wasted lives. It sucks that your character if otherwise well managed never actually has to sleep. But again.. basics.. This game is about basics at first and then complexity later on.
But where I see not sleeping as a big omission it also means you have that much more time to actually explore. Of course exploration is only basically going to lead you to new resource caches and nothing worthy of actually exploring. And you'll sometimes get caught up in the geometry.
I was at a loss for a while, half an in-game day or more, because I'd just spawned and accidentally got trapped on a rock. With no way to kill myself I tried everything.. even whistling.
Eventually a trike came along and for whatever reason it murdered my survivor. THANK YOU!
Superficially this is Avatar's Pandora and literally everything does really intend to kill you. But I'm not even going to ask for it to be a beautiful and wondrous as James Cameron's cinematic paradise... I'll just imagine it and the hardware it would take to bridge the gap.
Taking down those first few Trikes (or anything really) with a dinky slingshot is remarkably easy.. but then what? Oh fuck I forgot to eat, drink, hide from basically everything because everything is designed to kill. And when you're only counting on yourself to get all that raw material and bring it back safely to your base.. it is very tense.. At any step of the way something could jump out of the bush and try to eat you.. or just kill you for sport.
I'm here like can't I just make a shack and then just go to sleep and ignore the wildest part of the day... I mean ignore the night?
Well no.. since priority 1 is gathering those narco berries and raw meat to make narcotics to have enough prepared to drop large dinos... everything is juggled around that primary goal.
Ultimately I found that gathering berries is easiest at night if you can find a relatively safe patch.. just have a torch up.
And having that water pouch filled will also make it much easier to keep berry gathering at night. Having 20+ well cooked Dino meat steaks also keeps you stuffed. Even if it was only the second day to realize it.. the herbivores sleep at night making them even easier pickings. But almost total safety for picking berries.. that can't be passed up at all. Leaving the more dangerous work for daylight.
During the day I spent most of my time attempting to gather meat to cook and put into boxes to have it rot to make narcotics and then the hides for use in crafting stuff.. along with everything else.. like leveling up and steadily learning what various engrams are actually useful and which ones aren't.
Skipping all kinds of stuff because I was waiting on that level 20 to get the trike saddle made for different challenges because I didn't have clothes nor any good places to hide when having my survivor running for his many ultimately very short often wasted lives. It sucks that your character if otherwise well managed never actually has to sleep. But again.. basics.. This game is about basics at first and then complexity later on.
But where I see not sleeping as a big omission it also means you have that much more time to actually explore. Of course exploration is only basically going to lead you to new resource caches and nothing worthy of actually exploring. And you'll sometimes get caught up in the geometry.
I was at a loss for a while, half an in-game day or more, because I'd just spawned and accidentally got trapped on a rock. With no way to kill myself I tried everything.. even whistling.
Eventually a trike came along and for whatever reason it murdered my survivor. THANK YOU!
Superficially this is Avatar's Pandora and literally everything does really intend to kill you. But I'm not even going to ask for it to be a beautiful and wondrous as James Cameron's cinematic paradise... I'll just imagine it and the hardware it would take to bridge the gap.
Like what if the character animations and flora were based on Natural Motion Euphoria.. and if the trees and other plants were even more lush and detailed.. and seasons and whatever else. Sure one could play this game on a PC capable of Ultra graphics settings, but the game doesn't seem to be built to allow it to be as gorgeous as other recent games. I find t his perplexing save only for the fact that it is multiplayer and needs to be simple enough to run smoothly when many things are on screen at once.
It isn't ugly.. but.. why isn't it entirely procedurally generated like Spore? I mean as simplistic as it is..
Baby steps.
I'm thinking if the game wasn't so flipping low res robot chicken and shit that it could actually be Pandora.. and that's not the point. This game is amazingly fun. It is about game play and planning and execution. All those things that should make for a meaningful gaming experience.
I mean once you've given yourself over to it. That everything will kill you. If you can get over those first few rage quit moments and keep coming back.. you might miss that the game on its default settings is rewarding. Your setbacks and accomplishments and each of these little stories you can capture and remember fondly are easily worth the price of admission, even when it takes a while to get stuff done.
Plus I mean if you're willing to then imagine the possibilities based on what the game provides.. the possibilities are endless.
Plus what I had really rage quit from was multiplayer. I'd joined a EU server and the lag was incredible. There's no fun to be had there.
I'm told that even being in a player hosted session (on Xbox) is misery because there's a distance tether to the host. Disastrously stupid design.
I can't speak to how irritating that is or WHY they implemented anything like that but if it makes people miserable in multiplayer and they decide they don't like that game because of it.. that would be a great shame.
The game is just awesome.