I've been playing Tree of Savior, a free-to-play Japanese MMO.

So far so fun. The art style is absolutely gorgeous, with really nice background art and super cute character design. The soundtrack is pretty good too.

Gameplay-wise it plays really well. I'm using an xbox controller and the support for it is great, I didn't have to map all the keys manually which is a huge bonus. Combat is pretty simple and fun, though mobs tend to respawn really quickly, so you often end up getting a bit too close for comfort when something appears right on top of you.

The game has a really good class system too. You start off as one of four basic classes (Archer, Cleric, Swordsman, Wizard), and you can then move up a sort of class tree as you level up. I started as an archer, and I'll eventually be able to move on to classes like Hunter, Fletcher, or Schwarzer Reiter. Each class tree has at least 12 classes to it, so you can really go with whatever style you prefer.

I've only played a couple of hours so far, but I'll definitely be playing more.

Tree of Savior sounds interesting. I like the idea of a game based on Lithuanian mythology. But unfortunately its an mmo. Too bad...

I spent the afternoon getting the latest version of Morroblivion installed and gave it a whirl. But it was CTD'ing about every 5 minutes, so that did not last long. So instead I spent some time with Persephone's Oblivion game.

Spent almost the whole of my ARK time on the mundane task of gathering basic resources: wood, thatch, fiber, stone, flint, a small amount of metal and so on. In this I was somewhat more adventurous than in the past, braving a section of the dense jungle-forest to the immediate east of my little island home to strip it of those resources. To my surprise, I found not one (or more than one) hostile creature lurking there. I also unearthed a small stone ruin. Took my tame Parasaur along to increase the amount of goods I can gather before having to return home. Spent the entirety of three ARK days gathering, using nighttimes to stow items in my various chests. If I make this a habit I'm gonna need to return nighttime speed from 1.5 to its default setting of 1.0, as the current setting doesn't let me put stash everything before daylight.

I've mixed feelings about my chosen home. On the plus side, it's a nice noob location in that no hostile creatures spawn there save an occasional dilo. It's also one of only a very few spots on the map where beavers spawn. And the 'scary looking' island across the water turns out to be one of the best places on the map for a certain resource, I forget which, maybe metal? Not very important to me at the moment but will be later on.

On the down side, the water surrounding the isle is inhabited by mega piranha, which are native to the area and thus always a risk. After some levels those will likely become inconsequential, but I ain't there yet. Also, all land masses in the immediate vicinity are covered by dense jungle-forests in which all sorts of dangerous critters might lurk. As I progress this will become less restrictive but for now it keeps me pretty much confined to narrow strips of open land along various shorelines. None of these negatives means I'll move my base any time soon, but I understand there's a very nice base location not far east. I attempted to visit there yesterday (earth time) but ran into hostiles I couldn't deal with and had to abandon the quest.

Hit level 15! Bought engrams for upgraded chest and leg protection. Am still deciding on the rest. Lots of good stuff. Can't afford it all, not even close.

No deaths or near deaths. That might occur next session as I'm running low on meet, and need more hides.

I really enjoy quietly following the adventures and trials of such intrepid gamers here as Decrepit, hazmick and SubRosa as you all share differing games here. Living among and taming dinosaurs sounds amazing!

I've been on Ark myself today, for the first time since ~March. The first order of business was tracking down some of the new creatures - particularly the Whooly Rhinos and Diplodocus. They look awesome!

Second order of business was moving house. I was living in a small cottage that sat atop a very steep hill. It was nice, but didn't have much land around it which I could use. I found a large area sandwiched between two cliffs, overlooking a lake, which is much better. I've built a small stone cottage, and surrounded the immediate area with walls. A second area next to that has also been walled off and will act as a paddock for tamed beasties to wander around in.

There aren't any predators in the area, and a whole load of herbivores, so it's absolutely ideal. I did spot a Spinosaurus down by the lake but she wandered off after eating her fill of fish.

Took some screenies:

Birds eye view. The section on the left is where my house is, and where I'll be planting crops in the future. The section on the right is the paddock, and to the right of that is a large open area that's home to about half a dozen different species.

Workshop and cottage.

The lake. Home to 3 different fish species, and where I get my water.

A new ride.

Another earth day of resource gathering, to which was added taming. Tamed four colorful dodos, one of which disappeared while I was away harvesting. Tamed a trike, now my beast of burden on gathering expeditions. With him in tow I am able to stay in the field collecting resources from dawn until dusk without needing to return to base and stow things. Course I do that during the night, a pain in the rump. At some point I need to design a special 'receiving station' set up so that I can park my pack animal and be able to access all chests without having to be out of animal inventory range. Can't ride the trike yet. Think its saddle is available at lvl 25???? Wish mine was a higher level trike, but found it stuck between trees, making bringing it down via slingshot a breeze. Couldn't pass that up. Even with taming speed doubled its tame took a very long time. (My only game alterations remain changing taming speed for 1.0 to 2.0 and nighttime speed from 1.0 to 1.5. (Originally 2.0, but I found that too fast.).)

Had my first raptor encounter. Darn thing got the drop on me while harvesting. Miracle of miracles I survived, by a thread. My health was so low you couldn't tell I had any. Three pieces of clothing broke. Was down to my last spear. Had to stand in place for some time afterward recovering before risking the walk home. Wouldn't ya know it? Once on my supposedly safe island I got jumped by a herd of tiny predators. Thankfully the spear held up, letting me take 'em out without dropping below half health.

Braved a forest to the immediate west to reach a white supply drop. It had the same items the previous two did, a full set of noob clothes and a noob pants blueprint. Fine by me, they make nice backups. Braved those same woods later for what proved to be a blue drop, which I'm not qualified to access. Sadly, the only green drops I've noticed are far in the distance, too far for comfort at my level.

@hazmich: Nice abode you have there! A far shot better than mine, which is nothing more than some wood and thatch foundations, a few walls, lots of storage chests, a fire, a mortar and pestle, a bed and...and...nothing more I guess. Am thinking to buy the engrams for stone walls to fence off an area for my animals. Also thinking about farming, but will prolly hold off on that until in the 20s.


ADDENDUM: Holy Crappoly!!!!! Decided to attempt reaching the green drop that occasionally spawns evenings to the west northwest of my island home. Crossed the water without incident. Entered the jungle. Traveled some little way without incident. Then, all of a sudden, was jumped by a raptor or carno. Iomehow bested it, but was down to a mere sliver of heath. Had a few stimberries on me, which provided just enough healing to pull thru. Good thing too, coz a flock (?) of insects attacked in the darkness. I somehow destroyed them, and finished recovering. At last felt well enough to light a torch, I saw the corpse of a bloody bronto immediately above me! Looted it for a trophy, stepped away, saw a T-Rex not 20 yards away!!!!! It was not looking my direction at the time. You can bet I didn't hang around long enough to give it a chance to. Off I went through the jungle, lost, making my best guess as to where home was. Ran into a spitter, a normally easy battle, except it was still dark and I fought blind. That out of the way I resumed my trek, not long afterward climbing a hill to see my island at medium distance in the direction I'd been traveling. No problems from then until arriving home, helped by growing daylight.

I attempted the same drop several nights later with similar results. No more green drop runs for me, not any time soon.

Can at last complete my next-tier armor set. That'll hopeful help survivability, though not enough to brave another green drop run.

Am getting ideas on how to modify my base for better usage, though it means demolishing much already in place. We shall see.

Oh yeah, insects are the main threat in forests. You can never see them coming, and they just swarm all over you. A good trick to remember is that they're attracted to corpses, the bronto you saw was probably what drew them in.


I decided to try my hand at breeding Trikes last night. First task was to find and tame a Dimetrodon, which are invaluable at maintaining comfortable temperatures for other dinos and players (and eggs). I'm restricting myself to only use certain technology, which doesn't include anything that utilizes electricity - namely air conditioners which are usually used in breeding.

Managed to find a Dime in the swamps to the south, tamed it without issue only for it to be devoured by a swarm of Megapiranha before it could get out of the water. No matter, try again...3 times this happened before I finally got a tamed Dime on land. Unfortunately I couldn't pick it up with my Argentavis (eagle) so I'd have to walk home. Got about half way and accidentally got too close to a Direbear - killed me and my eagle quite quickly. I spawned at home and ran all the way to my previous location to retrieve my gear and Dimetrodon, and finally got it back home.

The rest of the breeding process was pretty simple. I tinkered with the settings to make it take as little time as possible, but I was still standing around for quite a while. Finally hatched a little male Trike, and now I'm waiting for it to mature. Again, the process has been shortened as much as possible but it looks like it'll take another 9+ hours of constant monitoring before he's all grown up. Regardless of the time, it's very exciting and I'm very pleased with it all.

Newborn Trike - No taller than a blade of grass!

With mother for scale. No wonder he needs to eat so many berries to grow.

A juvenile, 3 real-time hours after birth. Already the same height as me, and cute as a bug.

Not a lot to report, ARK wise. My biggest scare occurred not within the game but while launching it. As I entered the world the game froze, then began to progress as what I'd guess to be something like a frame every 20 seconds. Turns out the entire computer was affected by the slowness. Took forever to bring up Task Manager and shut down the game, which was listed as not responding. Next launch went smoothly, and the borked launch didn't harm my save.

Decided to dispose of a beaver guarding the dam immediately to the rear of my abode. Last time I battled one it demolished me in nothing flat. But that was some levels ago. I've better armor now. The beaver in question was only level four. The bloody thing annihilated me. Not even close. My one saving grace, and it's an important one, is that unlike last time I was able to find my corpse and reclaim my goods. (I chopped up my corpse afterward for the meat.)

Otherwise I did little more than place a few wood walls and add several large chests to the house. I'm finally beginning to collect eggs from my tame dodos. Store them on my parasaur, where they last very much longer before spoiling.

Still not sure what to invest my engram points on. So much good stuff, and never enough points to get it all. Sort of wish I'd waited to invest in a trike saddle, as I don't expect to have enough hides any time soon.

Another slight game modification. I enabled the crosshair after acquiring a bow. I'm not always a fan of crosshairs, but like its presence here.

Also little to report here. Spent all day downloading an update - the Xbox version now has the Redwood Forest biome and Titanosaurs!

Tamed a new eagle an flew over to inspect the new biome. It looks incredible, and I'm thinking about building a little treehouse or something when I have the time. The update also added ruins that are dotted around the landscape, which look really cool. Found some ruins in the forest that gave off a very 'Amon Hen' (from LOTR) feel.

Didn't manage to spot a Titanosaur though, and it began to rain heavily so I returned home to continue babysitting the Trike. He's an Adolescent now, and should be fully grown in 2-3 hours.

An enjoyable if unsuccessful adventure yesterday evening. Attempted a nighttime green supply drop. Managed to reach this one, to find its 'crate' perched atop a large non climbable harvestable boulder. Destroyed boulder. Crate now floating in air, just out of reach. Could activate its menu at the highpoint of jumps, but unable to select the open option. It finally despawned. Realized after-the-fact I 'might' have been able to open the crate had I build a platform immediately beneath it. Should I attempt that run again I'll carry a wood foundation with me. (I'd make a special run to install one beforehand, but am not sure of the exact touchdown location.

Returning home, now daylight, crossing a sizable stretch of water, came upon my very first successful tame attempt, a low level Dodo. Thought it had died when I cropped away the tree on which it was stuck. How it came to be where I found it I don't know. Was able to bring it home and add it to my growing Dodo herd.

Spend more of my day Trike watching. The little fella is finally all grown up, and I took him out for a ride around the plains nearby. We had a run-in with a lone raptor, which posed little threat, and found a female Trike with some really nice green and brown colouring, so we tamed her and brought her home.

Now that I don't have a baby to worry about I decided to leave the gate of my paddock open to allow my dinos more freedom to wander around. The Trike that I hatched and raised myself will stay behind the walls, but everyone else is free to come and go as they please. Also discovered today that Diplodocus can be tamed without having to knock them unconscious first, so the next time one wanders into the plains I think I'll give it a go.

For now though I'm going to start work in some crops, and I still want to find a Titanosaur so I'll be taking regular trips to the Redwood forest..

These are so cute!







D'Awwww, how cool !!!!

Lots and lots has transpired in ARK, more than I can relate. (And there was much rejoicing.) Keeping things relatively simple...

...Attempted to kill Bronto who appeared to be 'stuck' on the huge boulder with arch opening under which my dwelling stands. Bronto thrashes about, breaks free, chases me off island. Finally lose it somewhere to the east. Return home. Attacked by raptor fording wadable water to my isle. Killed raptor, but down to a sliver of health. Broken bones. Eat several stimberries. Wait at ford until sufficiently recovered. Return to base. Discover thrashing Bronto had damaged most of my home floors and walls, mortar & pestle, bed. Two standing torches destroyed. Four small chests destroyed, their contents laying on the floor in bags, despawn counters ticket down by the second. Move all bag contents to already existent intact Large Chests before anything despawns. Spend time and resources repairing damaged but not destroyed walls, floors, mortar & pestle, bed. Replace standing torches. Retrieve six tame Dodo from where they had been slung. Move tame Trike and Parasaur back to their normal positions.

...Attempted to reach a green supply drop to the west of my island, not far away and in theory not overly risky. Got owned by a Carno en route. Spawned back at base.

...Attempted a corpse run to reclaim gear. Got owned by a scorpion. Spawned at base. Decided to call it a loss.

...Remade all armor and gear, at a huge dent in my stored hides supply

...Make two or three successful green drop runs. Not much good loot, but pilfered large supply chests come in handy and not having to make 'em myself saves resources. Also a blueprint that will save me engram points.

...Reached level allowing me to make metal tools and weapons. Did so, first pike, then hatchet, and just a bit ago Pickax. Those, a smithy, a refiner, and one or two other items cost me all my saved up engram points, and further depleted my hides reserve.

---Added a few more wood foundations and walls to the 'house'. Created a large entrance gate and a number of wood fence foundations but have not yet placed them.

...Made numerous day-long resource gathering runs.

...Made a special 'hides' run to replenish reserve. All went well until a small winged insect attacked my tamed trike, who was not set to protect itself. Due to enemy size and nearness to the trike, I could not attack the insect. Insect finally dies. Trike very damaged. Set trike to defend himself if attacked. Waited in-place while trike healed enough to safely travel. Trike attacked by Raptor. Trike runs raptor off, gets stuck on three trees doing so. Had to chop the trees away so the Trike could move. Trike greatly damaged in the process, down to a sliver of health. Evening by now. Created, placed, lit a campfire. Stayed in-place all night, pike in hand, guarding Trike as it slowly healed. Able to return to base with Trike just after dawn.

...Found low-level Dilo stuck on a tree. Knocked it unconscious via slingshot. Tamed it. Success. Removing tree killed the Dilo.

Heh it's always 1 step forward, 2 steps back with Ark.


I spent all day yesterday downloading Red Dead Redemption, which has made it's way onto the Xbox One backwards compatibility list. Been a while since I last played RDR, and I'm having a lot of fun.

Not much to report ARK wise. Hadn't intended to play another session last night. At around 2130 discovered I'd paused the game earlier rather than exiting as intended. How could I resist?????

I was running low on metal. Decided to make a brief local metal run before calling it a night. Did so, finding about 15 pieces from rocks in the shallow waters bordering my isle's east side. Having stored those, noticed a supply drop to the east that looked both reasonably near and theoretically safe. Made the run. Lots of construction pieces in crate, drastically slowing my return home. Got back from that. Noticed one of two green drops active at mid distance west of base in an area I know to be relatively safe, if hard to reach. Quickly stored first drop loot. Made my way to drop in west. Got a full set of hide armor from crate, plus a few things now forgotten. Came back. Putzed around a while. Called it a night.

Steam says I've played ARK 53hrs! Hard to believe, considering how recently I bought the game. But it's easy to lose track of time there. With so much to do you tend to keep ultra busy from launch to exit and never quite catch up. Definitely worth the asking price so far.

Had a shortish ARK session early yesterday afternoon. Only thing I recall of it is that a white supply drop appeared not far to the east. Successfully reached it. Contained only normal harvestable resources, including a lot of hides, which are much appreciated. Looted resources weighed so much I could barely move. Took forever to reach base due to weight. RL bro arrived on visit as I neared home. Carried on, stowed supplies, ended session.

In Minecraftia, the Autarch confined himself to gathering resources at the Hill Fort. Harvested both tree/timber farms. Culled cattle and chicken pens. Bread pigs. Sheered sheep in the Upper Plaateau pen. (The bulk of our wool sheep reside on the Lower Terrace.) Havested pumpkins (twice), carrots, cactus, beetroot, vines. Fished at the Mid Terrace pool, catching, among other things, an enchanted book with a choice between three very nice enchants. Visited the Goddess shrine.

Played a three-game session of Solitile, among the first games played on my first computer back in 1989, still a favorite of its genre. It's been every computer owned since then. Played The Bridge configuration as always, which I consider classic. Won the third game after much struggle where almost every move until near the very end might have been the last . . . the best kind of victory.

I've been playing 7 days to die. It's a lot like Minecraft for adults. Basically you need to craft a base and defend it from a zombie horde that comes every 7 days or so. Prepping your base is paramount to your survival. It's a surprisingly good game for $30.

Welcome to ARK, where the good times never end.

Went on all-day resource gathering mission on the land mass to the immediate east of my island, trike in tow. Normally use trike solely for storage. Decided it had enough levels to set to 'neutral'. Would now defend itself and fight anything that attacked me (or that I attack so long as the target hit back). All went well. Collected tons of resources. Battled several foes, all of which fell before us, including beaver whose dam I wanted to loot. Ended hunt as sun approached western horizon. Arrived home just prior to dusk.

Decided to loot dam immediately behind base. No beaver in sight. Suspected the two of us would handle one should it materialized. Looted dam. Heard patter of approaching feet. Saw beaver barrelling toward me. Readied spear. Beaver lunged, got in hit, breaking every piece of my armor. Fought beaver a few seconds. Died. Waited for trike to finish beaver before respawning. After lengthy engagement trike killed by beaver. (!!!!!)

Respawned. Reclaimed personal goods from corpse, passing now docile beaver en route. Spent entire night frantically transferring goods from dead trike to base storage chests. Transferred all but around 400 pieces of wood (ironically almost exactly what was looted from dam) before trike corpse vanished.

Repaired armor.

Went on a special run to tame another trike. Searched shoreline of all immediate surrounding land masses. Found no trike stuck on trees beyond one unacceptably low level. Returning home at day's end, found stuck lvl 13 trike on base isle! Tamed trike, getting three bonus levels in the process. (Thought I would get four, but dropped one level near very end.)

Transferred dead trike's perishables from chests to new trike.

Decided to tame a 'turtle', who would remain permanently at base to hold perishables. Quickly found stuck turtle just across water to the east. Knocked it out. Began taming. Taming goes well. Near half-way point, due to get four bonus levels, plan to keep it that way. Storing loot on trike, hear rapidly approaching steps, then munching sounds. Turned to find raptor attacking turtle. Went to its defense. Raptor runs away. Turtle damaged, not dead. Only two bonus levels left. Taming progress greatly reduced. Stood guard. No raptor. Turned to finish storing goods on trike. Hear rapidly approaching footsteps. Ready spear. Charge raptor. Battle it. Win. At end, raptor glitches me INSIDE turtle. Impossible to get out without killing and chopping away turtle. Chance that once turtle tamed I might become unstuck as it revives. Might not. Turtle now down to one bonus level. Training progress further reduced. Destroy turtle. Call it a loss. Return home with trike. Call it a session.

hazmick - Never played RDR.

Kiln - Nice to see you and hear that you're playing!

Decrepit - Boy, you weren't kidding about progress in ARK. Seems like 3 steps forward and 2-4 steps back.

Glad to be around.

I play games pretty often but have tons of responsibilies so there is not nearly as much free tome as there once was.

Ark is a great game. I highly recommend it if you have a few guys/girls to play with on a private game.

Hey guys! Long time no see!

Anyway, I am not currently on the right generation of consoles, but my boss and his roommate have their own ARK server, and it is definitely on my wish list! Right now I'm using the original dark souls as my excuse for not upgrading. Once I beat it, I'll get Xbox One. I'm on the final boss (who is frustrating) so it should be soon!

Also on my list is Bloodborne, Witcher 3, Overwatch, Dark Souls 3, Fallout 4...it goes on endlessly. Playing in a touring band that barely breaks even really kills your gaming vibe sometimes.

Danny! Woo Hoo! Happy gaming and great to see you!

Um- on-topic.... XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Dantrag!!!! WOO HOO! It has been TOO long!


Erm ... On topic: ESO

Situation 1, which occurred not long after my last report. Out resource gathering with new trike. Saw turtle stuck in tree along shore of land mass to immediate north. Crossed wadable ford. Hit turtle with sling stones until passed out. Begin taming unconscious turtle. Taming goes well, with most bonus points preserved. Near end, realize Narcotics on-hand just shy of what's needed. Leave trike in place. Rush home for more Narcotics. Return to tame site. On approach, discover trike being attacked by small flying insects. Quickly set trike to defend itself. Trike can't hit insects, who hover directly above its back as they bite. I can't hit insects due to size and proximity to trike. New trike dies. Kill insects. Frantically transfer loot from dead trike to unconscious turtle, whose taming completes within seconds. Limp home with new turtle.

Situation 2, which occurred much after the above. Completed day-long harvesting run with yet another new trike. Finished stowing all gathered resources. Noticed normally easily reachable green supply drop on land mass to immediate north of home island. Traveled to drop. Took supplies from crate. Supply beam shatters (as always if all loot is grabbed). Become disoriented. Total darkness except for small area immediately surrounding torch. Nothing familiar. Take best guess. Begin return. Eventually hit shoreline. Nothing familiar. Attacked by raptor. Kill it. Walk a few steps. Attacked by swarm of inspects. Kill them. Somewhat damaged. Attacked by two raptors. Die.

Spawn at base. Quickly make three spears. Don spare set of low level noob clothes. Grab food. Attempt to recover goods from corpse. Absolutely no idea where it (or its pack) is other than theoretically along a shoreline to north. Search as far as I dare without success. Call off search once beyond corpse/pack despawn time limit. Return home. Remake all gear at much cost of metal and hides reserve.

Situation 3, not terribly long after the above. Evening. Completed day-long harvesting run. Finished stowing all gathered resources. Noticed normally easy green supply drop to west. Reached and looted it without issue. Supply beam shatters. Become disoriented. Notice beam of another green drop in distance. Believe it to be to west. Turn toward what seems east and begin trek home. Not fifteen steps later torch breaks. Attempt to repair torch. No wood! Total darkness. Can't see trees. Began moving and swinging ax blindly. Find boulders but no trees. Realize wandering about in darkness is making me more disoriented. Stop in place. Stand there throughout long remainder of night, spear in hand, hope for best, expect worst. Faint glow of oncoming dawn eventually appears. Notice vague silloeutte of trees not five steps away. Chop one. Repair torch. Note direction faint sky glow is brighter. Deduct said direction should be east. Began return. Within two minutes spot base on isle across water. Success.

Besides the above, I made an adequate size corral in which to house my tamed animals, which now consist of Parasaur (1x), Dodos (6x, for eggs), dilo (1x), turtle, 1x), trikes (2x). Added four or five more storage chest to the base. Bought engram for and made Chitin chest piece, but don't have enough raw chitin to repair or replace it. Don't expect to any time soon.

Currently playing Fallout Shelter, which has made its way over to PC. Pretty fun and free.

In ARK, built a wood bridge to the land mass immediately west of my island. It's too narrow for trike-size or larger critters to cross in follow-mode without great risk of them falling off. I'll take care of that once depleted wood reserves are replenished. Hope to eventually build bridges to the east and north, maybe south.

Chose to build west first because one of three relatively safe local supply drops occurs no more than a minute or two walk from the the bridge. Ironically that drop, which has been consistently frequent, hasn't occurred once since finishing the bridge. Go figure.

The totally safe supply drop that touched down on a corner of my island three times very early on has never appeared since.

No recent setbacks. Spent most of my time, bridge building aside, gathering common resources.

I thought I read somewhere that supply drops wouldn't happen close to your construction (presumably so you can't just build a wall around one and keep it to yourself). So have you chased them away?

This. Same goes with dino and supply spawns.

I feared as much. Nothing I can do about it on my island, as my house is built within the arch of a huge boulder. I hoped the bridge was far enough away. Apparently not. Two other drops off in the distance have stopped too. Put down platforms nearby to make 'em easier to reach. Gonna have to travel to those during daylight and attempt to find/destroy 'em. That prove impossible in the densely grown jungle.

As for the bridge, I hate to remove it. With it gone I'm forced to swim a wide stretch of mega piranha infected water. Last time I did so I was attacked by a school of five or six. Survived by a thread, and didn't dare continue on into the jungle until sufficiently healed. By then the drop had despawned.

Yeah the drops are good but not 100% necessary. Once you set up a long term base and defend it you can depend less on random loot like that.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

@ 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.

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!