Ark: Survival Evolved

[Jiji]

So, this game rules and it should have its own thread. For those that haven't seen me gush about it in the catch-all thread, it's a survival multiplayer game with freaking dinosaurs from all ages, mythical beasts (direwolves!), creatures from before and after the dinosaurs existed (6000 years ago, obviously!). You can tame most every creature and ride a good many of them, including a megalodon, t-rex, brontosaurus.There's even a mod that allows you to build on top of brontosauruses! It's in Early Access development stages and is coming along at a wonderful clip. There are still some issues however. The main things holding it back from being the truly tremendous game it should be are poor optimization (it's getting better all the time), less than stellar dinosaur AI, and poor physics - particularly collision detection and dead body physics. This is probably the most ambitious game I've come across because I don't think I've seen them say no to a single fan idea from their development diaries (obviously, they screen questions/requests).

 

Here is some eye candy including the two previously posted but nevertheless awesome trailers (remember the graphics won't be this nice until much alter in development if at all due to poor optimization) and a recent video showing the new bigfoot/giant ape creature, the Gigantopithecus!

 

 

 

 

(YOU RIDE ON ITS SHOULDERS AND IT CAN HUCK YOU AROUND LIKE YOU'RE PUCK FROM ALPHA FLIGHT!)

 

I'm currently playing on a player vs environment server that caps technology at the primitive level. I'm solo dolo, not joining clans, as I just want to get used to all of the game's features for now. Currently, I'm at level 25 (nearing the primitive cap for unlockables) and on server PrimitivePVE-OfficialServer476. My game name is Robert_T_Pooner and my steam profile name is Swayze Express. I would be more than glad to start a DVDVR clan and help anybody learn the ropes and ease their way into the game (and trust me, having somebody leveled up to help out in the beginning is huge)!

 

You can transfer your character from server to server by reaching one of the obelisks, though when I tried to do it, the feature didn't seem to be turned on, worryingly. 

 

Oh, right. The game is very open to the modding community. There's an officially endorsed mod called Survival of the Fittest, which pits teams of survivors against each other in a team death match environment. So, you have to worry about the other team on top of the large amount of creatures that want to devour you and literally poop you out (Dino dung! "That is one big pile of shit.").

[Death From Above]

I want this real bad but my internet can't handle the download, and I'm pretty sure my laptop can't run it either.

 

But someday, I want this real bad. It almost has a kind of He-Man meets Turok vibe to me with the combo of ancient and modern weapons (I fully expect LASERS at some point), the ability to build your own castle Greyskull, the crazy animals which you can tame into mounts, and all the MUSCLE PEOPLE running around.

 

These guys are super ambitious but they actually seem to be mostly pulling it off. I hope I have a chance to play it someday.

[Jiji]

It's coming to PS4 and Xbox One next summer. Get a PS4, dawg! I'm sure I'll be getting it on console too when it comes out as that's how my friends will be playing it.

 

Xbox One is getting the early access version, though I don't remember which month. 

 

They just added scuba gear in the latest patch they're changing over to right now.

[Tromatagon]

YOU CAN BECOME BROS WITH BIGFOOT AND THEN RIDE HIM LIKE THE MASTER BLASTER

 

DAY ONE PURCHASE

[Jiji]

I finally tamed a raptor. Its name is Chris Bosh.

 

[Tromatagon]

I'm waiting for the PS4 version and it will feel like forever

Just like Broforce

[Jiji]

You guys, you will eventually be able to mount turrets on the backs of certain dinosaurs. Holy fuck!

 

Other info from the latest Q&A:

*They will eventually include dino tracks, making it easier to hunt down specific dinosaurs.

*Certain dinosaurs/creatures will be able to wear armor. The new bigfoot mafugger already can wear armor plated skull helms.

*If you level up enough, you'll eventually be able to use transporters. Star Trek dinosaurs! In fact, the sci-fi tier of unlockables will allow you to build air-tight structures underwater! FUUUUUUCK YES. POD SIX WAS JERKS! 
*Instruments will be a thing, including war drums next month

*They're going to implement a sensory-based system for dinosaurs. So a t-rex won't pick you up from a distance if you're not running. I'm sure it could smell you if you're close enough.

*Sounds like they're going to massively improve dino AI completely (addressing one of the massive holes in the game at this stage!). Dinos will herd together and aggressive creatures will have territorial behaviour

*Dino breeding will be in.

*Next week, we get the armadillo lookin' mafugger who collects stones for you. Mining for stones is a huge pain in the ass, so that will help a lot.

*Mics are location sensitive, so unless you're within shouting distance of somebody, you must use the keyboard to type. There are however radios which you can eventually unlock and build to get around this. I'm not sure how this will work on consoles because fuck typing with gamepads.

*Night and heat vision goggles. 

*I actually think dinos will have laser turrets. Fucking laser raptors!

 

My gawd. This is the bestest!

[Death From Above]

Needs more sabretooth tiger. Otherwise good.A

 

Also if they are adding more underwater access it seems almost certain at some point they will add a creepy giant squid and I will stay out of the water for ever and ever. Fuck giant squid.

[Jiji]

Both of those are already in . Giant vampire squid slowly knocks you unconscious, similar to how the giant scorpions' attacks will KO your ass for an easy kill (and it's legitimately horrifying, sitting there knowing your character is going to die and you can do nothing about it - plus, they make this awful rapid fire clicking sound when they move). You can domesticate it, however, and refine its ink into fuel. Sabertooth tigers are a pain in the ass because they are so fucking fast. "Well trained Sabertooth can be taught to use their claws to flay corpses." The dino dossiers they put together are really, really cool.

 

Earlier on in my character build, I had recently died after starting a nice collection of gear and resources (something stupid like drowning due to fatigue while hunting for fish - Darwin Award!). So, there is a finite time you can go get your gear off the corpse before it disappears. It was dusk, so I tried sprinting as fast as I could upstream to beat out complete darkness, as I would then have to start making some tools to create a torch. I arrived at the area just in time but was having a hard time finding the exact location. Just as I started to rely on starlight and was about to give up for the time being in order to make a torch I heard some weird sound off in the distance. It was getting closer. "What the hell is that weird, aggressive clicking sound!?" OH, GOD! OOOOOOOH, GOD! I was helpless. All my gear gone. 

 

Anyway, here's a list of creatures in the game.

[Death From Above]

Goddamn.

[muhammedboehm]

odd question but how does this play as a single player I don't do a lot of multi player games but this sounds interesting?

[Jiji]

Well, I think you can create your own servers and then customize settings to your liking. I BELIEVE. As for playing in a regular server with up to 70 people, I've done it a bunch without joining any clans. I'm at level 30 and tamed a raptor and triceratops before they were killed by something huge and angry while I was offline. I was trying to build a stone perimeter wall around my new base to be but this changed my mind. I quickly filled the rest of the wall out with thatch walls and a huge dino gate. Now to tame a stegosaurus, so it can be my pack mule and allow me to mine a tonne of stone at once.

 

There's also player vs environment servers, which I'm using, so you don't have to worry about douchebags murdering you just because they can.

[Jiji]

 

I've got an ankylosaurus and a stegosaurus. I've had two raptors die on me and my triceratops is also gone to the Land Beyond Time or some shit. I've had two epic encounters with large predators recently. A spinosaurus just walked right through my shitty thatch walls around my base as I was taming a stego, ate the fuck out of my unconscious stego and then started chasing me around. It got stuck on the smaller dinosaur gate I built and was just destroy my base to shit in a fit of rage. I was meekly pelting it with arrows from outside and just as it was about to break through my shitty gate it was stuck in another player on a t-rex came by and took it the fuck out.

 

The second was when I was taming the ankylo. I was building a shitty thatch fence around the unconscious dino to keep small and medium sized predators away, then I see a t-rex rampaging upstream towards me. Just as it was about to kill me and my ankylo to be, yet another friendly player on a t-rex comes through the forest out of nowhere just in time to cut the wild rex off. His rex roared a la JP and laid a beatdown on that sum'bitch. PVE is a lot of fun. I can't imagine the griefing one would come across in PVP.

 

My shitty base is coming along. I've got a garden, a growing stone house with all of the crafting tools needed. Just need to build a second level to the house and replace the thatch parts of my shit wall with stone and I'm good.

[Jiji]

Ark is on sale (33% off) at the Humble store.

[Death From Above]

http://www.pcgamer.com/ark-survival-evolved-got-two-new-biomes-today/

 

New biomes, new things that can kill you.

[Jiji]

I logged on this morning to do my weekly feeding of da dinoz now that I'm not playing it all of the gotdayum time, only to see the area around my base is rather swampy. There were also a bunch of new dinosaurs too (which my rex ate).