How is Ark?

Truvidien88

Girlfriend is looking getting back into Ark once I build her a new gaming computer. Was wondering how it is now since launch day? Her computer couldn't run it and my friend couldn't play it either so I just left it on the side. Worth a second chance?

Thanks!

laxie

The performance is about the same. If you couldn't run it before, you won't run it now. The new expansion is even more demanding.

They have been adding a lot of content since launch. The base game has a new map, which is amazing. There are several new biomes - the snowy biome has a lot of content. They added swamps and new forest biomes.

If you played at launch, there will be triple the content now. They seem to be moving away from dinosaurs, introducing all sorts of animals (giant frogs, kangaroos, new underwater creatures).

The gameplay is still very much the same though. If you did not find it interesting before, you will find similar flaws now. They also had the controversy of releasing a paid DLC pack recently. Regardless of the dreadful reviews, it seems to be very popular on Steam (judging by play hours).

EpicJohnson

For me game is good, I am at 910 hours so far.
I play on a private server hosted on same machine as client.
PVP/PVE official servers can be problematic other humans and all that.

kitarad

EpicJohnson said:

For me game is good, I am at 910 hours so far.
I play on a private server hosted on same machine as client.
PVP/PVE official servers can be problematic other humans and all that.

Good to know my faith in humanity has not been misplaced. 

filmoret

Game is still holding a solid number of players.  Ranked 6 on steam charts.  It only has 45% approval rating in the past 30 days.  The main problem was people very upset that they sold an expansion before the game is released.  The game is also kinda grindy but at the same time its an ideal sandbox/building/survival game.  If you liked it before there is no reason you won't like it right now.

Truvidien88

Sorry to necro my own thread but I was wondering if I could ask a couple of questions. I played a long time ago when it first came out but refunded Ark due to my friends quitting and was having computer issues.  Now that comp issues have changed a friend of mine is asking me to pick it up and play it again.

However.. We're both casual players. So I'm not sure how this will work out for us. What I'm asking is:

Will both being casual hurt us with building/taming in the game?  

How does teamplay work? 

Can we both work together to build a base?

My brother said that player servers have timers that are reduced?  Is this true?

We're just looking to have a good time and not be upset if we spend 4-5 hours 3-4 days a week for everything we work for to be gone when we login.

Thanks!

laxie

Truvidien88 said:

Sorry to necro my own thread but I was wondering if I could ask a couple of questions. I played a long time ago when it first came out but refunded Ark due to my friends quitting and was having computer issues.  Now that comp issues have changed a friend of mine is asking me to pick it up and play it again.

However.. We're both casual players. So I'm not sure how this will work out for us. What I'm asking is:

Will both being casual hurt us with building/taming in the game?  

How does teamplay work? 

Can we both work together to build a base?

My brother said that player servers have timers that are reduced?  Is this true?

We're just looking to have a good time and not be upset if we spend 4-5 hours 3-4 days a week for everything we work for to be gone when we login.

Thanks!

I am a fairly casual player as well. When it comes to ARK, I love the exploration and progression, less so the long term PvP. I hosted my own server for a couple of my friends. That way, you don’t have to worry about anyone ruining your experience. The game is hard enough, where even without PvP, you still have a challenging and rewarding play through.

To answer your questions (not in order):

Private hosted server owners have the ability to modify the rates of everything. From harvesting speed, to taming speed, dino health and night time. You will get vastly different setups based on what the owner decided. As such, being a casual suits some servers better than others.

I was running 3x harvesting amount, 4x taming speed and 2x experience rate. The harvesting helps you construct things a lot easier (reduces the time spent harvesting to build a room from 1 hour to 15 minutes). It’s not necessary and depends on how you want to play. The taming speed is what is key to a casual player. Taming a dino takes anywhere from 15 minutes to 10+ hours. This depends on the dino. Speeding this up at least 4x is mandatory for a casual group of friends.

Teamplay works intuitively. You create a clan and invite your friends to join. They can have access to your dinos and items. More importantly, you get bonus experience whenever they gain experience while nearby. This means you have to tailor the server xp multiplyer based on the size of your group. Someone playing solo won’t be getting any bonus xp. Someone in a group of 6 can level up without doing anything.

You can definitely work together. Cooperation is highly advised when exploring some of the more difficult content, such as the caves.

Id say the game is perfectly viable for a small group of casual friends. I played in groups of 2-3 and had a lot of fun. You just have to find the right server to suit your needs.

Esquire1980

I run a cluster of private servers that includes every official map, The Island, The Center, Scorched Earth, Ragnorok, and Ab.  Our players can go to every map and transfer animals, items, etc.


I've got our servers set more like a MMORPG, kinda like SWG was.  We're PVE/PVP so PVP is by consent/accept only.  Taming takes minutes, not hours,  Breeding takes about an hour with 100% imprints possible.  Your base can not be destroyed.  The Island is our starting/leveling server to difficulty has been turned down, however by the time you get to SE and/or Rag, they're set 6.67 ABOVE official difficulty with Ab set at X10 official difficulty.

We've got plenty of room and plenty of server cap to go.  Yes, you can build a base via both of you by starting a guild with access to everything or nothing via the 2 of you.

We're heavily modded, 35 mods so there are several deco/building parts mods along with others.  I have also added code to make more of a MMORPG instead of a survival game.  There is a mod list on our forums. 

If you want to ck it out, take a look at our forums.  It includes how to get on the servers for the 1st time (under Server Clusters) so your steam favorites/my survivers list will pick up our servers from there on.

We're ARKCHOICE cluster.

http://arkchoice.freeforums.net/