Acting on input from Ghastley and Kiln I removed the western bridge. Sure enough, several ARK days later the formerly nearby green/white supply drop reappeared. I was not as lucky in finding and removing foundations added at drop sites further west. I came upon and removed one of them right away. The second eluded me. I believe removing the one has restored one of two stopped drops in that general area but am not yet able to verify.

In other news I can't seem to bring down a Pteranodon for taming. I manage only one solid Tranq Arrow hit before they flies beyond bow accuracy. Wasting too many Tranq Arrows on the attempt. But boy would I like a Pteranodon.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Jul 16 2016, 10:29 AM

Pteranodon can be tricky. If they don't fly away it's usually because the tranq arrow just killed them

I always find the eagles easier to tame, since they're easier to shoot and less likely to run. Of course reaching the eagles is a challenge in and of itself since they live in the mountains.

Event 1:
...Gather common resources on landmass to immediate east of home isle, trike in tow.
...Shoot at several Pteranodon with tranq arrows. Never score more than a single hit.
...Half heatedly attempted to bring down another Pteranodon. First arrow hits. Creature flies away. Make my best guess as to trajectory. Let loose tranq arrow. Wait several seconds. Pteranodon plummets to earth across wadable ford.
...Rush across ford. Place available raw meat and narcotics in Pteranodon inventory.
...Rush back to base, trike in tow, for enough Narcotics to finish taming.
...Leave trike inside base corral.
...Rush back to unconscious Pteranodon.
...Began force feeding Narcotics to Pteranodon as needed.
...Hear whooshing sound behind me, followed by attack.
...Turn around, see attacking Terror Bird, draw spear, battle it.
...Kill Terror Bird.
...Pteranodon dead.
...Recover remaining narcotics and raw meat from dead Pteranodon.
...Return to base.

Event 2, several ARK days later:
...Gather common resources on landmass to immediate east of home isle, trike in tow.
...A Pteranodon lands close by. Only three Tranq Arrows on me. Decide to waste 'em on it.
...Half heatedly shoot at Pteranodon. First arrow hits. Creature flies away. Make my best guess at trajectory. Let loose arrow. Wait a few seconds. Pteranodon plummets to earth.
...Rush to it. Begin taming. Goes VERY slowly, especially for a level two creature.
...Success!!!!!!!!!
...Set Pteranodon to PASSIVE. Return to base.
...Tell Pteranodon to stop following. It lands largely out of the way but in a slightly awkward spot.
...Tell Ptera to follow, then stop. It lands directly in front of the gate so that it can't be used.
...Tell Ptera to follow, then stop. It lands outside corral.
...Tell Ptera to follow, then stop. It lands half in, half out of corral.
...Tell Ptera to follow, then stop. It lands blocking where the trike parks to offload goods.
...Repeat and rinse a number of times. Past the time I want to exit game. Get careless. Mistakenly change aggro setting to aggressive rather than follow.
...Ptera goes ballistic. Attacks dinos outside corral. Rapidly moves further away from base chasing Parasaur.
...Can not catch up with Ptera. It soon vanishes in far distance.
...Admit defeat. Write of Pteranodon taming.

Event 3, a good number of ARK days later, following days of mundane recourse collection and several unsuccessful explorations to find chitin for chestpiece repair:
...Return to base with trike loaded down with gathered resources.
...Open corral gate. Notice spastic flying creature battling turtle in water surrounding base isle...my thought lost Pteranodon!
...Quicky park trike inside corral. Rush to battle area. Attempt to switch Ptera out of aggressive mode. Can't lock on it.
...Turtle eventually dies. No other creatures nearby to attack. Ptera momentarily calms. Lock on it. Switch it out of aggressive mode. Lead it home. Tell it to stop following. It lands inside pen in a an acceptable but slightly awkward position. I leave well enough alone. Success.

Event 4, next ARK day:
...Explore sans trike for chitin bearing insect. Success at last. Gather some 15 chitin pieces.
...Attacked by Carno (large predator).
...Expect to die. Run toward home, so that my corpse/inventory pack will be fairly easy to recover.
...At last get close enough yet still sufficiently far away so that Carno shouldn't invade base isle.
...Turn to face Carno, expect to die. Battle it. Hide chestpiece breaks. Win!!!!!!!!!!!!!
...Loot Carno for meat and hide.
...Return to base, all wearable hide armor piece almost broken.
...Repair all hide armor save chestpiece.
...At long last repair and don chitin chestpiece. Put broken hide chestpiece in storage as backup.

These are not my entire adventures, just the more interesting one. Sadly, I don't expect to have the resources for a pteranodon saddle for quite some time.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Jul 18 2016, 12:06 PM

Just surviving is half of the fun. That's why 7 Days to Die is great too. Finding/growing food, getting water, and building a defendable base is awesome to me.

By Azura! By Azura! By Azura! Such a blunder. The gods weep.

My island has been Bronto-free since having them chase me onto the landmass to its immediate east quite some ARK-time ago. Alas, a lone Bronto returned several RL days ago. It proceeded to get its front legs stuck on a wall of my corral. I thought to pepper it with arrows until it once again chased me across the water, lose it and double back home. I expected a few destroyed corral walls and damaged home pieces in the process, but nothing overly serious. Fool of a Took!

Peppering with arrows worked. I'll give the plan that much credit. Arrows might have saved me much grief had I but enough of them on me to finish the beast. But no, I carried only enough for the pull.

Here's the deal. The Bronto could not free itself. It began frantically thrashing about, causing who knows what sort of damage within the corral.

The first loss occurred. The Bronto thrashed into my lvl 3 tame Pteranodon, who I thought was set to passive. Apparently not. It attacked the Bronto. It died.

I elected to charge the Bronto, pike in hand. It simply swatted me away with its tail. Repeatedly.

By now I'm pretty beat up. What's more, I suspect the Bronto is wreaking havoc to my base. It comes to me what should have been apparent as soon as the pull failed. My best hope is to run away until out of aggro range, wait until the Bronto calms, and return to base.

I do so.

Returning home, I enter via the corral gate. So far so good. No corral pieces are totally destroyed. My first moment of panic comes when I do not see my primary trike, the one I take on most gathering expeditions. The one with saddle. The one holding my raw, cooked and spoiled meat supply, some narcotics, tranq arrows and a few other odds and ends. Praise the Nine, I notice it flung from its pre-battle position to a hard-to-see spot between my turtle and the huge boulder which partially protects my abode.

I then noticed the abode itself. Five pieces of flooring, gone. Worse, four large wood chests were destroyed, their contents on the floor in packs, timers ticking down by the second. I frantically construct three new large chests and begin transferring dropped goods to them. I am only partly successful. I lose a whole large chest worth of fiber, much wood and thatch. None of this is critical. It will all be easily replaced by simple gathering expeditions. Lots of expeditions.

I should have been paying more attention to the base-as-a-whole rather than rush to salvage the first destroyed chests I saw. Now, long after their dropped contents had vanished, I notice three other large chests missing. One held, among other things, all my hundreds of hides save a few in the refinery, all keratin, hundreds of cementing pastes, some rare drops, and a small amount of raw metal. Another chest held all charcoal and many personal item backups. The third chest held all farming items. To the plus, I had transferred my tiny reserve of chitin and most raw metal to the smithy and refinery, which survived, not long before the disaster. In the short term, loss of hides will likely hurt most, as I use them regularly for all sorts of repairs. Plus, a number of items I hope to craft call for a great quantity of hides.

Almost all remaining abode walls and floor pieces were damaged and in need of repair, as was much of the corral. Several floor torches were lost.

I repaired/rebuilt damaged/destroyed abode pieces right away, along with much of the corral. Gonna replenish my wood reserve before tackling the rest. All chests are replaced, as are floor torches. Was able to collect around 70 hides during a day-long gathering hunt. Was quite lucky, finding at least three dinos stuck on trees to the east. I've no moral issue with easy kills, since dinos apparently feel the same toward me.

After the fact I wonder why I didn't just demolish the corral wall section(s) on which the Bronto seemed stuck. Assuming it worked, their loss would have been far more bearable than the results of my SNAFU.

An irony is that the Bronto freed itself next ARK-day. I'm gonna wait till it's safely away from base, and only then let it chase me off the island.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Jul 22 2016, 11:46 AM

That has to be frustrating for you, but the way you tell it is so humorous; I can't help but laugh reading it!

These humiliating experiences oft end up as treasured memories after the fact. If that's the case, ARK has provided, and very likely will continue to provide, a good many treasured memories.

Much of my ARK time since the debacle has been spent in the necessary but mundane task of replenishing lost resources. I'm reasonably back up to snuff on wood and thatch, but have a long way to go on certain resources. Some, such as cementing paste, I've not yet begun to replace. Low hide reserves continues to be a thorn in my side, delaying several anticipated crafting project.

Lack of chitin is rearing its ugly head again. I simply can't find the creatures who drop it in my local area. I have very few pieces in storage, not enough to repair my chitin chest-piece, which is already petty worn.

Soon after the debacle, heading out on a resource gathering expedition with my trike, still on my home island, I notice a wild trike stuck on a tree. Thinking to add more hide to my meager reserve, I bombard it with sling-stones until it turns, then move in with pike to finish the job. I then notice a non-stuck wild trike barreling toward me, and not far behind it a second charging trike.

That's one too many trikes to suit me. Off I run, hoping to outdistance at least one of 'em. Doing so, I notice a third charging trike behind the others. I begin to suspect things aren't going well, but am not (yet?) panicked.

Off I go, crossing the wadable ford to the landmass immediately east. I switch from slingshot to bow, peppering the lead trike with arrows as I run. Run, turn and fire, run, turn and fire, run, and so on. The furthest behind of the three trikes loses interest at the ford. Two to go. Run, turn and fire, run, turn and fire, yada yada. The second trike loses interest as I run north along the shoreline. More turning and firing, less running. Out of arrows. Hoping that the remaining trike is near its end, I ready my spear and rush the trike. (There is a chance that my own trike will catch up and join the fray.) First spike stab. Down goes the trike. Battle over. Chop up dead foe for hides and meat. Return to original stuck trike. Search area to ensure no other wild trikes are nearby. Kill and chop up stuck trike.

Several ARK days later trike and I are walking the shoreline of Base Island, looking for metal-bearing river stones. I spot several not far out in the water north of base. Chopping said stones, I feel a bite. Assuming it a mega piranha attack, I quickly ready my pike and prepare to engage. (Mage piranha are no longer almost certain death unless a large school catches me unprepared far from shore.) Only, it's not piranhas. It's a croc! Eeeep. This might go badly. Very badly. My trike rushes in and attacks the croc. Expecting the worst, I join trike in battle. Down goes the croc!!!!!! Whoa... Fearing trike, who did the tanking plus most of the damage, might be severely wounded, was pleasantly surprised to find her no more than scratched. I chop up croc for hides and meat. Resume raw metal hunt.

(I don't give much thought to tamed dino names in ARK. This one I call Plain Jane because that's what she is, a uniform drab gray with no patterning. My secondary trike, a female who serves as a permanent storage and never leaves the corral, is named Nosy Rosie. She's mostly drab grab, but the center portion of her armored face is a solid burgundy/wine color.)


In other news, I launched Daggerfall late last night for the first time in months. Was surprised how quickly I re-acclimated myself to the controls. Then again, they're modified to be little different from other games I play; Oblivion, Minecraft or ARK. As for my avatar, he accepted an assignment to track down and dispose of a traitor to the Temple of Kynareth, supposedly holed up in the Dungeon of Paristair, Kingdom of Daggerfall. He traveled to and entered the dungeon, but had not yet found his prey when I became too groggy to carry on my observance.

This post has been edited by Decrepit: Jul 29 2016, 11:33 PM

Played a little bit of We Happy Few, the upcoming survival game, this evening.

The demo had a limit of 45 minutes, and it took me about that long to figure all of the survival aspects out and get the hang of everything, but I quite enjoyed it. The style of the game is great, visually and thematically. The game is permadeath, so if you die you have to start from scratch, and the game will be procedurally generated each time.

There wasn't much of a story to it, since they're still working on that part, but from what I've gathered: It's set in an English town called Wellington Wells in the 1960's. The townsfolk fended off an attack by the Soviet Union several years earlier by doing something bad (which nobody talks about) and as a result the government now gives people a drug called Joy which erases unhappy memories and blinds the people to the true state of the town - falling apart, running out of food, water etc.

People who stop taking their Joy are labeled 'Downers' and are usually killed on sight by the Joy users (Who lose all sense of morality when on the drug.) Anyone who isn't killed is thrown out of the town to live in the slums, which is where you start the game.

The goal of the game is to make your way through the town and escape, however you can. You have to monitor your food and water levels, sleep regularly, craft items etc. as you might expect in a survival game. You can also take small amounts of Joy to better blend in with the normal townsfolk, but this can apparently have negative side effects.

It's up on steam early access (I think) and Xbox preview if anyone wants to try it.

This post has been edited by hazmick: Jul 28 2016, 11:43 PM

@ Decrepit & Hazmick: Both these games sound fun; but frustrating,

Two recent games: Overwatch and Elder Scrolls Legends.

First, Overwatch. Been having a ton of fun with this one. Simple 6v6 objective based shooter, with a range of role-based character with various weapons and abilities. It looks great and is fun to play, especially if you can get a full team of friends together.


Second, ES:L. It's currently in open beta if anyone wants to check it out. It's alright but there are much better card games out there. The games feel quite slow sometimes, and there's little need for tactical play since you don't usually have a large selection of available cards. The story mode has these weird live-action cutscenes that feel really out of place, and the whole game is clearly just an averagely developed cash grab with the Elder Scrolls name on it.

Been playing No Man's Sky today. Having a lot of fun with it. It's just the sort of game that I'll be able to throw endless hours into.

Also got Master of Olympus: Zeus which I haven't played for about 10 years. Looking forward to revisiting it.

Too bad it's not on the Xbox or I'd own No Man's Sky already.

I've been having a lot of fun playing Monster Hunter: Generations on my N3DS

Mostly Daggerfall, as chronicled in the appropriate sub-forum.

Spent some time in Minecraftia yesterday, doing nothing more than putzing around at the Hill Fort.

Launched ARK: Survival Evolved for the first time in weeks earlier today, mainly to download a substantial (?) update made available since last I played. Not sure why I've not been playing lately. I certainly haven't lost interest in the game, judged by the number of ARK YouTube LP episodes I've watched almost daily.

I've been having some fun today with a rather neat little game I stumbled across called Gladiabots. There's something rather satisfying about creating a simple little AI for some fighting robots and watching them go to work on the opposition.

This post has been edited by Callidus Thorn: Aug 20 2016, 10:44 PM

I've been playing Total War: Warhammer. Really fun! Plays pretty much like any other Total War game, but it is set in the world of Warhammer Fantasy. Currently there are 6 different playable races (with more coming later), and each has very different mechanics and fighting styles.

In my first playthrough I went with the Dwarfs, and focused my attempts on taking out the Greenskins. By the time I was ready to head North, into The Empire, the hordes of Chaos had descended and destroyed every other faction apart from myself and the Vampire Counts. After booting Archaon the Everchosen back into the wastes and putting the Vampires down I realized that one of the keeps I needed to capture for my victory conditions had been tainted by Chaos and was un-capturable. Had to quit there.

In my second playthrough I've gone for the Beastmen, who have completely different mechanics from the Dwarfs. Beastmen have no bases and can't capture land, and if they stop fighting for too long they'll start killing each other. After a shaky start I've begun spreading Chaos along the Imperial borders - once I arrive at Dwarf territory I'll turn back and focus on Bretonnia and The Empire.

Today I celebrated Daggerfall's 20th Anniversary by observing my avatar execute a rather convoluted mission as detailed in the appropriate sub-forum.

For the past some days I've watched the Autarch perform a few insignificant cosmetic "improvements" to the Hill Fort and harvest resources there. I took a few updated screenshots to replace more-or-less identical views taken prior the Keep receiving its upper few floors and roofing. I also condensed the games current-as-of-today save files so that they can be made available for download by the zero people who want to explore the Autocracy on their own. My current linked download is dated Oct 2015, predating the Keep's upper floors and roof, Beetroot Hill, the Vine Farm, improvements to the Lower Terrace east side, and lighting tweaks throughout the Fortress. Gonna be a bear to upload over my slowish DSL connection. The 7z file clocks in at 490mb!!!! Can you imagine trying to launch an Oblivion save that large? Me either.

Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition on my cheap-butt tablet. Early game is rough. So rough I'm still in it. Finished the Black Pits expansion pack though; fell in love with the Dark Moon monk class that I'm considering maining as one instead of my min-maxed female berserker.

Currently extremely angry at Ark. After 15 days of progress (real time) on one map, the new graphical update, while doing a good job at improving the framerate and resolution, wiped the map completely. A huge base with over a dozen tamed animals and 4-5 buildings I'd built with friends totally erased. All of the items I'd worked so many hours collecting are also gone.

If you're on the Xbox I highly recommend waiting until they get a hot fix done before updating.

Just so depressing...

How frustrating!