Ark: Survival Evolved

[SlipperyDuck]

This game is starting to sizzle from day one:

In America - they have already released it - we have to wait until about 8pm tonight for it to unlock on steam.
Anyway - you can watch people streaming it already:

http://www.twitch.tv/reverbgames

or try

http://www.twitch.tv/mrmoonshouse

or even

http://www.twitch.tv/fairlight_excalibur

[Morphza]

hhmmm... Ark....

Think Noms was the first to mention it... good man!!

[Phatso]

It is early access so don't expect a finished product.
It does look quite interesting though and its good that we're moving away from zombies in the survival genre.

Going to watch this one closely as I can't buy MP games to play alone anymore ....

[BadA$$jack]

Looks good !!!

[J_Th4ng]

It is early access so don't expect a finished product.
It does look quite interesting though and its good that we're moving away from zombies in the survival genre.

Going to watch this one closely as I can't buy MP games to play alone anymore ....

face it Phats, you can't by any games until you beat your DOTA addiction...

[Phatso]

Its because I have invested too much time in it now and enjoy WAY too much. And hate it.
But seriously, there is TI5 coming too...
/excuses

Waiting to see if it lasts past the initial buzz. From there, I'll decide accordingly.

[SlipperyDuck]

Here is the latest update from them today

[SlipperyDuck]

[ EL WALL OF TEXT O ]
Well, i can tell you it is a whole lot of fun so far.
There is a ZA community server - had about 70 people online last night at one point.

First off, it is not optimized yet....What that boils down to is that on high and extreme setting you need GTX980 cards - General masses need to set to Medium and Medium doesnt look great - but they have acknowledged this from the outset, where optimization is high on their list.

I played in Windowed mode 1600x900 and still managed to enjoy it a lot, but this is because of the mechanics of the game itself.
Im sure it will start looking better and better as they develop it more, remember this has moved out of Alpha and is now in Early Access - so a lot to improve over time.

However there is so much to do, so much more than any regular Survival game I've seen so far.

The basic startout game goes as follows:

1. You start the game, setup the look of your character - you can get quite outlandish here with them - chunky, over done, weird looking are all completely go-mode - the look doesnt affect your gameplay so people go bonkers with it....arms the size of elephants with stick legs - check - chest like a Truck and tiny head, massive hand and long arms dragging nuckles on the ground - check - all part of the fun.

2. Now you Choose where to spawn on the map seaside - North/South/East or West. it's 40Km square - so its massive - I chose West coast
[**You DIE A LOT if you are not careful – dying loses your inventory, current tools, so keep this in mind.]
[**Everything you were carrying(inventory) will drop where you die as a backpack – you can potentially go pick it all back up]

3. You wake up in the world, look at your arm that has this CHIP in it and then look around; you have nothing but underpants and are stranded on a beach.

4. The world is fairly hostile, you generally can't cope for very long without water and food, but those are in abundance - to start stay near the waterline at your low level as you will need to dive in to the lake/sea to drink and replenish your thirst/water stat.

5. Pressing Q is to swop between tool and hands – you need to use hands without a tool in them, to pick up berries from bushes and stones on the ground etc. So to start run around and press E frantically on bushes and the ground – you will collect Berries for food and Stone to make some tools
6. For your very first tool you need to make a stone pickaxe – Stone, thatch and wood. Stones you have picked up off the surrounding areas, but you need to punch trees to get wood and thatch – bare handed, you will take damage from doing this so, once the tool is made, you will use these instead to get resources. – Go ahead and bash trees until you have enough to make a stone Pick (1xstone, 1xwood, 10xthatch)
7. To actually make things you need to know how to, recipes if you will are called Engrams in Ark. The Stone pick is default, but as you level you will unlock Engram points to learn other things along the way. HIT “I” on your keyboard to go in to your inventory and you should see Craft Stone Pick there, or you can swop to the craft panel which looks the same with “V” or by clicking on the craft menu item just above the inventory of all your items. To actually craft the item, you can see what resources are needed by hovering over the craft item and a pop-up appears showing how much stone/thatch/wood/hide/fiber etc. is required to craft the item and how much you actually have.
8. So you Level, pretty quickly at first, now you Hit “I” to select a core attribute to upgrade followed by the Engram menu to select some new Items you can learn to craft. Crafting gives you quite a lot of XP for levelling, so it really helps to gather craft and level, rinse repeat at first. Here is a breakdown of Core attributes so you can understand/identify what you would like to upgrade:

• Health – Higher health means take more damage for longer – normal RPG stat
• Stamina – Run for longer – really important actually, Dinos chase you!
• Oxygen – under water much? – pump this up to dive for longer
• Food – can eat more and keep hunger away for longer
• Water – drink more and keep thirst away longer
• Weight – can carry more and more and more
• Melee Damage – can hit harder and harder
• Movement Speed – can run faster and faster
• Fortitude – can take the harsh environment more and more (quite important actually)
• Crafting Speed – craft tools and items quicker and quicker
• Torpor – actually can’t be upgraded. High Tarpor means you will be unconscious soon and also how long you are unconscious for, something to watch when battling.

9. So craft, collect, craft, kill some small dinos and harvest by bashing, etc etc. The rest start becoming apparent as you go along (eg. Raw meat and berries spoil over time etc.). For me the important thing for the days play was to level enough to build a thatch house and a Simple Bed. The reason for this, my House and Simple bed can become by semi-permanent spawn point(if it’s not destroyed). So I levelled a few times, learnt my recipe for building my house etc. etc. *note a sleeping bag is a temporary once-only-spawn, handy at first, just throw it down in an area where you seem to be doing well and should you die, you can spawn on your sleeping bag, it disappears and you go re-collect you bag of items if someone hasn’t looted them yet.
Having a Simple bed instead, means it is always there, so long as it doesn’t get destroyed by some rampaging Dino – so you can basically have a consistent spawn location other than the default ones – which is very nice indeed.

Anyway – So my house and simple bed are in – to be continued.

[Morphza]

Knock knock... got space for a guest in that little abode of yours?

[SlipperyDuck]

Foh Shoh - running around helping mates will result in fun factor multiplied by millions