Minecraft does sound fun, Decrepit. Can I get it on disc in single player offline mode?

Alas. Unless something has changed recently Minecraft betrays its indie origins by being available as a download only, with no equivalent disc release. While it has a very strong single-player component the game defaults logging on to the authentication server. This can be bypassed, and single-player mode itself does not actually require online access to play, but there is no simple means to disable online within the game itself. (It does so automatically when servers are down.) It can be done, but in my opinion isn't worth the hassle.

I'm normally one who shuns games that do not provide an easily accessible online disable toggle. With PC Minecraft I find I don't mind. It tends to get online right, with no attempt at funny business, and a lot of benefits such as still-free updates and being able to DL older versions of the game, going all the way back to pre-alpha. (You might want to do so either for nostalgia or to try a mod that requires a specific older version.)

Console Minecraft was at one time and still might be sold on disc. It's still a good game, but it's quite the equal of PC Minecraft. Console versions tend to by several updates behind PC Minecraft, and the playing world is far far smaller. (A generated PC Minecraft world has a surface larger than our earth.) So far as I recall, console MC also connects online, bu I don't know particulars having never played it.

As to being fun, it certainly is or can be. Very relaxing too, or challenging or a mixture of both depending on your play style. For me, few things are more relaxing than branch mining in Minecraft. Then you dig into a vast underground cavern system and the mood changes completely, should you choose to explore it.

Currently Bioshock on the PC, Asdivine Hearts and Sorcery! 2 on the Tablet.
I'm also making a game in RPGMaker VXA and CURRENTLY

Right at this minute I'm re-re-re-re-re-RE-installing Oblivion...
...Again.

Awesome!

Heh, we'll see - I have the prospect of wading through all the usual suspects mod-wise yet...!

I'm currently away from home and, as a result, my Xbox. Fortunately I have my Nintendo 3DS with me, so I've been playing Harvest Moon 3D: A New Beginning.

Having been a fan of the Harvest Moon games for years, I'm pleased that this one feels both comfortably familiar and refreshingly new. There's still the farming and friendship aspects of older games, but it adds new characters and mechanics that really improve it.

The main aim of this particular entry into the franchise is to build your very own town. Starting in a small village, with only 3 other residents, you can build houses and attract new people to the area. There's a huge array of crafting blueprints that allow you to build and edit to your hearts content.

New animals such as the Llama and the Yak join old favourites like Sheep and Cows to give a pretty big variation to your farm.

The game is a little slow to start, since you need to craft and unlock things in order to advance, but it's super fun and I can see myself pouring lots of time into this one.

Of course nothing will beat the PS2 version of Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life, but this one's not too far off.

Bit of a mixed bag today: A little Rainbow 6 Vegas, some Red Dead Redemption, and a pinch of Oblivion thrown in for good measure

Thanks to my recent Sharpe's Rifles and Horatio Hornblower watching, today I bought John Tiller's Battleground Napoleonic Wars. I played a little bit of Battleground Waterloo, then dove into Age of Sail, which came bundled with Napoleon in Russia and Prelude to Waterloo. I am proud to say I captained the USS Andrew Doria to victory of the HMS Racehorse. And now I just found it has a fictional battle between Horatio Hornblower's Lydia vs. the Natividad!

I have been thinking about buying Shogun 2 Total War, but I see it requires Steam. So now I am thinking against it. I also saw that Rome 2 TW has a Daughters of Mars dlc that adds some female units. About damn time. That tempts me to try it as well. But again, Steam..

Has anyone ever played either? Angry Joe's review on Rome 2 really turned me off of trying it. But I think he based a lot of his frustration on the multiplayer being broken, which I don't really care about since I am never going to use multiplayer. Then again, I recall him also saying the game tended to be a repetition of siege after siege. I also see a lot of people saying that it is full of bugs, traits and special abilities don't work, and so forth.

Maybe I will knuckle under and try Shogun 2. I just love this review:

I played, and enjoyed, the 1st Shogun game back in the day. I have fond memories of training as many Geishas as possible and assassinating my way to victory.

I might check out the 2nd game and see if my laptop can handle it. Doubtful, but worth a try.

I have Shogun 1 thanks to a total war games bundle I bought a long time ago with the original RTW, MTW, and STW. I never got much into Shogun 1 though. In fact, Shogun 1 was the very first Total War game I ever tried playing. When it first came out the demo for it was on my monthly PC Gamer disc (I used to have a subscription, back when people still made magazines). I tried it and was utterly crushed, even though I did all the stuff you are 'supposed' to, like use spearmen against cavalry, etc... I just could not get used to the real time nature of the game.

Fast forward a few years, and I did better with Rome Total War 1. I got the hang of pausing all the time to look at what was happening and give orders. Essentially making it a turn-based game. I got really good at that.

So late last night I knuckled under and bought Shogun 2, in spite of Steam. So far I am loving it, although I have only done the first three land combat tutorials. I still have the campaign map and sea battle tutorial. But I think I might jump right in and start a campaign first. My experience with RTW and MTW2 helps a lot, as it still plays essentially the same, with just a few new wrinkles.

The sieges are still confusing me a little. I had some European cannon in the last land battle tutorial I did, but couldn't seem to do anything with them. In the previous games we had artillery like onagers that we could use to smash open gates or knock down walls. But the game wouldn't let me do either with the cannon.

Taking the gateways was strange too, as it seems you just walk an infantry unit up to them and wait a while, and eventually it falls to your side and you can walk through it. But there is also a weird little box symbol your mouse turns into when you move over the gateway. I am not sure exactly what that does. I think it means move into the gateway? It also looks like any infantry unit can automatically scale walls without having to lay siege and build ladders, like you did in the previous games.

And it actually has female units! It is about time these games recognized the reality of female warriors in the ancient world like these naginata-wielding women

I have been playing the daylights out of Shogun 2. I started a Shimazu campaign, but aborted it after a day. I made the mistake of deviating from my normal Total War game strategy of building up economy first, and then my military second. I wound up hip deep in a losing war, with no way to afford the troops I had, let alone the extra troops I needed to win.

So I started over today following my normal tried-and-true method of concentrating on building farms, roads, and ports. I was still able to overpower my nearest neighbors and take half of Kyushu (the island I started on). I even had help from the Otomo clan clan when I destroyed the Sagara clan. I laid siege to the last Sagara castle, and an Otomo army that was nearby came in to help in the battle. That was neat.

A few turns later and naturally I was at war with the Otomo. We have both destroyed all the other clans on Kyushu. So this war decides who rules the island. It is even harder than before, because they are Christian, which means I have to deal with religious unrest on top of all the regular unrest whenever I take one of their cities. But at least when I left off playing tonight my ninja was able to assassinate one of their priests, who was trying to foment a rebellion in my most recently conquered province.

It looks like the Otomi took a lot of losses fighting the Sagara and other clans on the island. I am hoping I can finish them off with a quick knockout blow. Then I can work on wiping out Christians and restoring order, and building my economy back up.

I continue to get in a decent number of sometimes lengthy Minecraft sessions in my putz-around world. Just recently that avatar, while branch mining, dug into his first huge abandoned mineshaft complex. Within it he battled his first cave spider spawner (and survived), discovered his first conventional mob spawn (regular spiders), found saddles, horse armor, melon seeds, and a record (LP) in chests, and finally got a carrot off a zombie. He also explored several underground caverns and ravines, added a bunch of storage chests to his underground base, and continued to amass resources of various sorts.

I occasionally launch my primary Minecraft world, but do little of consequence there.

I've been playing Sunset Overdrive.

Very enjoyable. It's just fun, funny, and a little wacky but never feels like it's trying too hard. Lots of references and poking fun at other games, with the occasional 4th wall break.

Gameplay wise it's really good - a fun open-world shooter with lots of verticality and mobility.

Character customization is pretty good. Basic with regards to facial features, but a wide range of things like hair, makeup and outfits. I love the aesthetic of the characters.

Fantastic soundtrack too.

After years of playing only Beth games I feel like I need some change so today I'm starting with GTA V. I've played all GTAs until now, except those that weren't made for PCs, and though I was never in love with them as I'm with Beth games, I enjoyed them greatly. Although GTA V isn't new at all, I virtually know nothing about it except that there are three protagonists so I think / hope it should be fun.

And I´m back to Chip´s Challenge and the usual array of demo versions of Wolf3D, Critical Mass, WinBrick etc

GAAAAAAH!!!!! I LOVE Chip´s Challenge !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know, you say that every time I mention the game

I continue to visit Minecraftia, recently spending a decent amount of time in my primary world, the Autocracy, as opposed to my putz-around world. Our most elaborate 'adventure' during this period is yet another failed attempt by the Autarch to procure donkeys in the wild. He traveled many Minecraftian days from the home, discovering previously unexplored lands. Horse herds were spotted, but no donkeys. We finally broke off the hunt, not because the Autarch admitted defeat, but rather because I realized that we should NOT journey too far from known territory until I make the jump to MC1.9x. (I hold off primarilly because I'm too lazy to create a new hi-res texture override pack.)

At the Hill Fort, the Autarch made a number of fairly insignificant 'improvements'. The first of these is the addition of six more chests to the underground wool storage facility, a project that took surprising long. Here's the Facility as it looks now:



All colors now have their own individual chest. There's now one chest devoted exclusively to carpets (of all colors). These additions theoretically allow the Autarch years of gathering wool before running out of storage space.

The Enchant room saw its bookshelves reduced from the once required (for full-strength enchantments) 30 to the now standard 15. Leaving it at 30 did no harm, except that it made it a bit more cumbersome to 'torch' excess shelves on those rare occasions when lesser enchants were desired:

Out of frame at screen bottom, a work table has been embedded in the floor just in front of the enchanting table.

A wheat field has been established on the Lower Terrace between the Acacia Tree Farm and the Horse Stables. If official exists to supply feed for our horses (and hopefully donkeys/mules at some point.) In reality in is almost wholly cosmetic, though it can and will be harvested at need:


Lastly, the West Gate has been tidied up:

Nothing fancy here, but I think it looks a bit better than before. The terrace between ground level and Upper Plateau is unutilized. That's not likely to change any time soon, though I have at least added ladders so that it can be reached without resorting to 'pillaring'.

Sorry for the embedding, which I know some don't like. But I can't seem to link imgur images anymore with including surrounding clutter I do not want. If anyone knows a fix for this I will happily return to links.

@Decrepit - I always click on the image I want, then right-click on the image and copy the URL. Or I think you can choose Direct Link in the menu to the right of the image.


Really nice pixies, though

I have to agree with Mirocu; Decrepit! I haven't seen much Minecraft, but from what I've seen you are an artist with it! Amazing job!

There's got to be more to it than that. I double-checked a few of your linked images in our 'projects' thread. They all appear to me with clutter around them, same as mine. Not too terribly long ago mine showed the image in question and nothing else visible on screen. Then something changed. Even my older image links now show cluttery surrounds. If memory serves, something similar to this is what drove me from PhotoBucket to Imgur a few years back.


Thanks. Funny how people seem to think more highly of my Minecraft building skills than I do, though I admit to a degree of competence when inspired. And I DO think of myself as a pretty decent 'survival' builder, as opposed to those who are dedicated builders first and foremost.

That´s odd. Everything opens without any clutter around for me

Late last month I bit the bullet and updated Minecraft to version 194 (from 189). Almost immediately the Autarch went on a grand exploratory expedition, traveling many Minecraftian days in search of beetroot seeds and donkeys. Said donkeys were found some 4,700 blocks from home, beetroot almost 2,000 blocks further. Getting donkeys back home from so far away was a challenge, but in the end proved doable. They, and one later-born offspring, are now squeezed into our one-stall donkey stable. At some point we intend to erect a large horse/donkey/mule ranch complex outside the fortress. (Mules are not found in the wild but created by breeding horses with donkeys.)

The Autarch original intent was to establish his beetroot field on the lower terrace. Several false starts later he abandoned that plan and instead settled on installing it atop the upper-plateau hill that has for some time housed our oven-bank facility. This was one of the last areas within the fortress to retain much of its pristine day-one appears, including a number of untouched spruce trees. No longer. In the processes of creating the field and its dedicated open-air storage shed, its natural slopes were re-sculpted, all spruces removed. A sad turn of events, but inevitable and long expected.

Beetroot Field with Oven Bank facility at rear:

This is the Oven Bank's first frontal image, the view having previously been obscured by day-one spruce trees. As is hopefully obvious, the beetroot field is seen in the foreground. Decorative birch trees are not natural to the Taiga biome in which the fortress is located.

Beetroot Field with dedicated open-air storage shed:

Structure and field were established between 31 May and 1 Jun 2016. A sliver of the oven bank facility is seen screen left. The area is likely to undergo further fine-tuning before we're happy with it.

Rabbit Pen, with re-sculpted hill at rear:

Unlike the two previous images, this is a exact re-shoot of a pre existent capture, taken to show extensive changes atop the hill at rear.

I keep saying it; Wow, you really have done some mighty fine work there, Decrepit

Holy Cow, Decrepit! This is amazing! I absolutely LOVE the landscaping!

Finished the Witcher 3's Blood and Wine expansion today. Very much enjoyed it.

It adds a huge amount of content, including a very large new region with its own quests, side quests, treasure hunts, monsters etc. It could be a separate game in its own right.

This is the last DLC for the game, and thus the last Witcher content. Even though I never played the first game (PC only) I thoroughly enjoyed the second and third games, so I'll be sad to see the franchise end. On the other hand, I always say that a good ending is better than a bad sequel so perhaps it's a good thing that CD Projekt Red are moving on with new stuff.

I've been bouncing around between Borderlands 2, which I've restarted after discovering that my sniper game has gone right out the window(I need to relearn how to play FPS games ), and Fire Emblem Fates, a turn based strategy/RPG for the 3DS, which is proving to be damn good fun.

My son just got the last Witcher and has been playing it every spare moment he gets. Haven't seen him this into a game in a long time!

The Autarch was at a loss over what to do with the area between the West-side protected entrance ramp and the new retaining wall surrounding Beetroot Hill. That section of Upper Plateau had until recently been a gentle tree-covered slope leading up to the oven-bank facility, retaining much of its original day-one appearance save spammed torches to prevent mob spawn. Now only a hint of slope remained. Day-one spruces vanished. Spammed torches had been replaced by more sophisticated lighting. But what to do with the newly barren space? The area is too small for a major building project, but plenty big enough for a crop field or animal pen. Only, we currently have more than enough of those and need no more. A few false starts led to our abandoning the project.

The Autarch moved on other things, including creation of a decently decorated shield to replace the rather crappy one made just after the jump to MCv1.9. Research into shield decorative patterns revealed that the design that most appealed required not only colored wool but a vine! This necessitated a trip to the local swamp, the Hill Fort lacking a vine generating facility. Sometime after work on the shield was complete it dawned on us that the barren section of Upper Plateau might be used to house a vine farm. This eventually came to pass. We settled on simplicity . . . a planted spruce tree to which vines were attached. Not much more to it than that, other than a gravel path and paved area with trapdoor, under which is a storage chest dedicated to vines.

Here is the 'vine farm' area, shot at dawn sans shaders. (I tend to prefer vanilla lighting over shaders once the sun sets.) Not our best work but it gets the job done. Alas, the image was taken not long after harvesting vines so that they do not (yet) extend to the ground.

ADDENDUM: Woot! Looks as if linked imgur images once again display without surrounding clutter. Leastwise this one does.

That's some mighty fine Minecrafting there...*Applauds heartily*...

Having put much time, once more, (Like, is there any other way to play?) into Destiny, I suddenly hit a figurative brick wall...One which almost cost me a controller and an HD tele...

At the last moment, I held back from extreme violence and decided, instead, to stop playing for a time...

Headed back to my beloved Assassin's Creed from the start...Again...Which was a beautiful feeling...

So that was going well...

Aaaaaand then the PS3 died...Like...Died...Well...It still kinda works, plays DVDs and YouTube, but won't play games...It just freezes...Did the reset/fix thing but to no avail...The machine ist ded...

It is an ex-machine...

If it hadn't been nailed to the perch it'd be pushing up the daisies...

It's a stiff!!...

Nah, it's just restin'...Beautiful plumage!...

*Sigh*...

Aaaamywho...The family McB are in mourning for all the characters and time we've lost between us...Skyrim, Oblivion, Fallout 3/New Vegas...Kingdoms of Amalur...Dungeon Siege III...

Aaaand having looked up how you transfer saves between machines...It sounds...Like it may not work for all the effort...Urgh!...

Sooo...Start again...

Soooooooo (redux)...Went back to Destiny this morning...Figured with the recent announcement it might be worth a carry-on...

Eventually the previous situation reared its head again...And it was switched off toot sweet...

Now awaiting a new PS3 so I can carry on with the Assassing...

Much fun!...-ish...

It sounds like the Universe is telling you to buy a PS4!

Ermmmm...Yeah...*Shuffles feet and looks at floor*...Um...I actually do have one of them...We've actually got a thing - the word escapes me at this point - but it's got three shelves with the tele on top...The bottom one has the PS2, the next the PS3 and the top one the PS4...*Shrug*...I'd take a picture but that would reveal the somewhat embarrassing ordered chaos (*Stuff Hoarding) in which I/we seem to exist...

But as I've oft discussed with Treydog, it's all about what I want to do at that particular moment...I've still got tonnes to do on Fallout 4, and there's loads to do - grinding the light-level-wise - with Destiny...But at this particular point, my head is all about the PS3 Assassins...*Shrug*...

I do hate the way my brain works...(Relatively speaking...It's kinda up for discussion really...)...

I'll need to re-install Destiny before the next DLC comes out. Haven't played it since the last big expansion which was...a year ago?

Looking forward to the new content though. It should be fun.

'Twas September...

Yay for upgrading to 2TB hard drive when I did... ...

Yeah, as long as there's some story that can be done with single player, I'll be happy...Strikes aside, (Which I quite enjoy doing) I don't like the fact that The Taken King ended up with story bits that you basically had to play with at least one other to watch your back or you couldn't do it...

And as I only have the one other friend playing this...And time-differences make it...Difficult to line up the play times for more than a handful of missions at a time... ...Especially when one of us gives up and goes to play other *stuff... ...

I am back to playing Pillars of Eternity, and having a blast with Aela, Ungarion, Seridwe, Valens, and Do'Sakhar

Now on...Dun-dun-duuuuuuuh!...

Assassin's Creed II...

This makes - I bet you'll agree - a great and surprising change...

May it never change.
And may it never change us.

I liked the first few Assassin's Creed games but they're a lot like Call of Duty in the way that thy released too many similar games in a short period of time and burned me out on them.

Black Flag was the exception when it comes to the newer AC games.

Had a rather serious moment with ACII earlier, which resulted in a curse accompanied switching off...

I know what you mean about the similar games burning you out...I'm worried that might be my current problem...

I can play the original over and over until the cows come home...(And I know what time that actually is!...)...But this is the second time I've gotten to the same point in ACII and been stopped by a sudden tsunami of apathy...

This may, however, just be me in general these days... ...Hey, and indeed, ho...

Anyways...

Yes, I'm playing something...No, I'm not telling you what... ...

Having watched a number of ARK: Survival Evolved LP episodes at YouTube I developed a mild interest in playing the game. I hadn't planned to actually take the plunge until, by sheer happenstance, discovering it on sale at Steam for $16.49US. At that price I figured it'd be worth the investment even if I play only sporadically. Thanks to my by-modern-standards slow DSL connection it took from circa 1530 yesterday afternoon until around 1400 today to download, discounting a two hourish YouTube break last night.

As luck would have, it my brother called needing help with a project just as the download finished. That set me back an additional 45min. Home again I installed the game and played until supper. I must say that graphics look mighty fine at default quality settings, even on my now six year old computer (i7 930 2.8gh CPU, nvidia GTX 670 4gb GPU). It runs acceptably smoothly. Once and awhile it pauses a few seconds, but that causes no harm and doesn't occur often enough to be a bother.

The game is geared toward multiplayer. I play single-player mode. (I suspect that has much to do with it running as smoothly as it does.)

As for my time in-game, I did surprisingly well at the start, quickly amassing a few levels, ample resources and basic beginners gear. I thought I had it made, then became overconfident and lost everything during a nighttime try for a nearby 'white' supply drop. (The only color low-levels are able to open.) That led to a series of missteps and misadventures, which I have not yet recovered from (and don't expect to for some time). A piece of luck: when things looked quite bleak a white drop materialized a stone's throw from my pathetic campsite. It contained an almost complete set of cloth armor, which I had not been able to remake, including two piece I do not yet have engrams for. What I now desperately need are food and hides. (Hides will let me craft a simple bed, which will act as a respawn point for one death only. A more sophisticated bed allows infinite respawns, but that's some levels away.) I also need to learn the engram for a storage chest, for obvious reasons. I ought to have done so last level, but foolishly spent them on two thatch house pieces. Live and learn, I reckon.

I'm gonna try and stick with default difficulty settings, but might reduce the amount of nighttime, since the game doesn't allow us to sleep the night away. This is understandable in multiplayer, but seems an unnecessary hardship in single player. (ARK nights are 'very' dark.)

I'll prolly play a bit more tonight.

I can sympathise with the nighttime misadventures. Once the sun sets it's absolutely pitch dark, even with torches.

Once you get going on single player it's really fun. I messed with the settings to make resource gathering and dinosaur taming easier. I'd recommend the latter, since it can take tens of hours to tame some beasties. The sheer scale of the game is very impressive, I was absolutely blown away when I first saw some of the larger dinosaurs wandering around.

I heard that they recently added Diplodocus to the game, so I've been meaning to jump back in and going to see them for myself.





As for me, I've been playing a web game called Game of Thrones: Ascent. I originally played through it a couple of years ago, and just started a new game today.

You take on the role of a newly minted lord or lady, and work to build up your very own hold. You create your own banner, choose which house to align with (I chose Tyrell) and hire sworn swords which you use to complete quests. You can then equip items to your character and your sworn swords, and level them all up to improve your chances at successful questing. I have 4 sworn swords at the moment, 1 each dedicated to trade and intrigue with the other 2 dedicated to battle.

When you undertake a quest you choose which type of action you'll use. For example, I had to capture a rare horse and I could either chase it to exhaustion (battle), track it to a stream (intrigue), or bribe it with oatcakes (trade). Each action has the same outcome, but the action I'll take depends on whichever sworn sword is available. Your character also has these stats, which affect all quests that your sworn swords participate in.

Your character also has several 'alignments' which change depending on your actions and dialogue choices. You have Tradition (which leans towards either the Old Ways or the New Ways), Duty (which is either family or the realm), and Integrity (which is either cunning or truthful). I can't remember exactly what these do, but I think it has something to do with the sorts of choices and quests your character will be presented with in the future. You also get to choose from one of several backgrounds which have similar consequences.

It follows a mixture of book and tv show story stuff, and you sort of watch from the side lines with the occasional contribution (I have a minstrel that has been sent to travel to Winterfell with King Robert, for example). There are a whole ton of quests to complete, and all are well written and interesting with various choices and outcomes. Since I last played, there have been a load of updates and lots of new content added in. The game keeps its quests at the same place as the tv show, so as the show moves forward, so does the game.

Being a web game, lots of the actions take some time to complete - Early in the game it can just be a few minutes, then later on it can be several hours. I like being able to set a quest away, go and do some other stuff for a few hours, then come back to collect my rewards and start something else. Of course there is a 'gold' system wherein one can use real money to buy in-game gold to buy special items or speed up building, but the game does a decent job of balancing things so you don't need to splash the cash if you don't want to.

Overall - Very enjoyable, and probably the best GoT game I've ever played (though that isn't saying much).

Hmmm... There are two brontosaurus-like creatures on the smallish island I've made my noob base. I've been keeping out of their way as much as possible so don't know exactly what they are. I'll check tomorrow (assuming I play). Yeah, I'm thinking to make taming somewhat less time consuming. Resource gathering has seemed okay to me thus far, but we shall see. I did alter nighttime speed to '2.0', which I assume makes it pass twice as fast.

Speaking of taming, I came upon a beautiful red lvl 2 dodo and made it my first successful tame. Only, when it stood up after the taming it appeared to be stuck on a close by tree. I ended up having to crop the tree. I was as careful as I could be, but the dodo vanished with the tree. No death message, so not sure if it was a kill or a glitch.

ADDENDUM: Nope, my two are Brontos for sure. Attempted to take on a lvl 2 turtle thing that I figured would be an easy kill. Barely escaped its wrath, with broken bones and low health. Thought I was done for, but it gave up the chase as I forded a shallow inlet on the opposite side of my noob island. At last have a bed in place (the better one, with more than one use) so can be a bit more adventurous. Increased taming speed, but haven't had a chance to try it out. Does anyone know how to get rid of stucture-decay-over-time (or whatever its called)??? A fellow mentioned doing so in an LP episode but failed to explain how he did it. Seems legit to do so in single-player, where one doesn't have to worry about lots of abandoned thatch dwellers littering the landscape and possibly blocking important item spawn points. Or am I wrong?

Not much happening for me game-wise. Played a bit more ARK last night. Came upon a beautifully patterned red and gray Parasaus near my island. Had three narcotics on hand, so hoped to tame it. Alas, I got in no more than two hits before it took off across the water and entered an island I don't yet dare set foot on. Speaking of which, I visited another land mass next to my island camp, thinking it relatively noob friendly. Almost the first thing I noticed was the corpse of a sarco! As I see it, if something's around that can kill one of those it's no place for me. End of expedition. Didn't do much more than that except collect thatch for and begin to build a noob dwelling. I had all but decided to forgo a constructed home for the time being, then learned engrams for several items that must be placed on floors rather than ground.

Setting NightSpeed to 2.0 is starting to seem too fast for me. I'm thinking to change it to 1.5.

In Minecraftia, the Autarch did little more than harvest timber and crops at the hill fort.

Had an enjoyable ARK session earlier today. Was exploring a beach along one of several land masses next to my little island. Some distance away but not terribly far from home I spotted an almost solidly dark green female parasaur. Decided to try and knock it unconscious, expecting it to successfully flee as all previous attempts had. Flee it did, getting stock between a boulder and tree in the process. Brought it down via slingshot. Put lots of mejoberries in its inventory. Force fed it several of the few narcoberries I had on me. Ran back to camp to grab three vats of narcotics. Got killed by a mega piranha crossing over to my isle. Spawned back in base. (Hurray for beds!) Grabbed narcotics. Rushed back to the death site . . . less than a minute away . . . to claim my gear. Did so. Found a safer ford, crossed and returned to the still unconscious parasaur.

Put narcotics in its inventory. Force fed it one. Added more berries. Stood guard as taming progressed. Some time later realized I needed yet more narcotics. Ran back to base for my last three narcotic vats. Rushed back to the parasaur. Spent the rest of that night babysitting it during the tame. Broke to find water when I almost died of dehydration. Success at dawn! Attacked by dilo just after naming the parasaur . . . easy kill. Returned home with tamed parasaur. Attacked by dilo as we reached base. Easy kill, but every piece of clothing broke during battle. Repaired clothing. Parked parasaur next to the beginnings of my thatch abode. Harvested shrubs for berries and fiber. Leveled, increasing melee damage. Bought engram for a parasaur saddle. Parasaur leveled . . . increased its health. Noticed a beaver dam had materialized on my island very near the house! Grabbed hundreds of cementing pastes and some rare flowers from dam. Called it a session.

On a less positive note, the white supply drop that appeared twice at one corner of my island early on has not done so in a very long time. It's possible I altered something too near its drop point?

Heh, nothing compares to the feeling of triumph you get when you manage to tame your own dinosaur. The Parasaur was the first dino I tamed too. These days I tend to carry as much narcotics as I can, for just such an occasion as you described.

As for the supply drops, there shouldn't be anything that can interfere with them. They'll spawn even if you have buildings underneath them. It's probably just because the map is so huge and they're randomly generated, which makes repeated appearances quite infrequent.
I have a green supply drop near my house which seems to spawn every few minutes, and another that only rarely makes an appearance.

Ark is a great game! Especially when you consider that there is no story in the game and yet you are still entertained by everything there is to do.

Taming takes longer than expected but it is worth it. Dinos are necessary for the best experience.

Haven't played ARK since my last post, but . . .

I've lately been following an early ARK YouTube LP, in which the player never gets far before he dies, loses everything, and needs to begin afresh (discounting levels, skill-up, and learned engrams). By sheer coincidence the episode I reached just before bedtime last night finds him once again almost gearless, his four tamed dilos lost and with few gathered resources. That's par for the course. What's not is that the whole brief episode (less that 5m) takes place on what has become my island home! The LPer seems to like it as much as I do, and plans to make it his base of operations. Sadly, he instead terminates the LP in frustration, with no further episodes. But at least you can see a bit of where I live, including the large rock under whose arch I have begun to construct my dwelling. My isle doesn't look quite like what you see in the LP, as I've stripped it of almost all trees (few of which have respawned yet), rocks other than the arch, and many shrubs (which thankfully regrow fairly quickly).


Good to know about the supply drop. Some further away seem to materialize almost every evening, or at least every other evening. I don't yet feel myself strong enough to reach them. Wish I had been able to tame the red & gray parasaur. It would have made a nice companion for the green. I don't recall its sex, if I ever knew. (The green is female.)


I halved taming speed, and am content with it at that setting for now. Still takes a long time. Even my lvl 16 (or was it 19?) parasaur took the better part of one ARK day and all that night to tame. Admittedly, I also shortened nights somewhat, that's still quite a bit of time. (Those are the only two settings I tampered with.) Yeah, I see taming as a one of the main draws of the game. I'd love have a flier, but suspect that's gonna be difficult in single player. Not sure it's worth attempting until I can craft a bow and narc arrows, neither of which engrams I have.

I understand frustration. I ragequit playing PVP/PVE Ark because it is annoying to go to bed after building your base for 3 hours just to log in and find that alpha gamers came through and leveled your base (even a stone base can be leveled by a high level dino in a few minutes) because they didn't want competition near them.

Now I basically only play a private game that my brother and I have been playing on.

Today I experienced three steps backward for ever step forward. Started well enough, with me exploring further along the shoreline of the beach on when I tamed the parasaur. A white supply drop appears out that way from time to time. Wanted to see if I can reach it in relative safety. Turns out to be in the water between the conjunction of three land masses. That water is risky but in-and-of-itself not a deal breaker. What was was the huge predator that chased a herbivore to the drop and did battle there. I watched until the battle ended and the predator wandered off safe distance. Stepped into the water. The drop vanished. No biggie.

I'd been killing animals and collecting resources the whole way. Had amassed a very decent supply of meet and other goods. Saw a lone dilo. Decided to give battle. Mistake. Turns out it wasn't alone. I died. Not I big deal, I thought. Not terribly far from home. I'd respawn at base, grab two spears, rush back to the death site and reclaim my goods. Had ample time to do so.

Only, not only was my corpse gone, understandable under the circumstance, but my inventory pack was nowhere to be found. I searched and searched. No go. Then, still searching, that huge predator appeared not 20 yards away running toward me from across the water. Needless to say, I died. At this point I realized I wasn't going to get my goods back, if they still existed. Not with that predator roaming about. It was quite a setback, but not insurmountable. Worst was the pelts I lost . . . which would have given me enough for a parasaur sattle. Plus, I lost my reserve clothing set.

Spent some time remaking things and gathering meet. That done I decided to check out the beaver dam right behind my abode before heading out for more adventures. Nothing new in the dam.A nearby beaver attacked me, my first beaver encounter. I hoped for and quick and easy kill. It was . . . for the beaver. It killed me in nothing flat. No biggie. My corpse would be all of five seconds from my spawn bed.

It wasn't, nor were my goods. I looked and looked. Nothing. Zilch. I looked well into evening, admitting defeat when I began to starve without having collected anything to feed myself. Now I was in a bind. Those two total inventory losses greatly diminished many resources. What's more, I now had no more backup clothes. Those clothed had come from supply drops. Because of that I'd never bothered to learn engrams for three clothing pieces (hat, hands, feet). Hoped to avoid buying those engrams but instead wait and get the higher tier set. No chance for that now. I of course bought the missing engrams but would much rather have spent them elsewhere.

Spent the rest of my ARK day replenishing some of the many lost resources. Near the end I came upon a trike stuck between trees. Brought it down via slingshot. Filled it with the berries on-hand, force fed it a few narcoberries, ran back home for narcotic vats. Spent a long time attempting to tame the trike. Finally realized I would not succeed with available taming supplies, emptied the trike's inventory, and called it a loss. Returned to base. Put away remaining narcotics and gather supplies. Called it quits.