Taming

[Zieg]

Change it completely, its horrible. The worst method to tame an animal ingame i have ever seen.

[Siliconhobbit]

I've just recently completed my farm, though, it will forever be in flux anyways. But to add more, once you've tamed a few things, it gets easier and easier. It's like any learned skill.

So far I've got 8 Yak, 5 Fae Deer, 6 goats (regular), and 5 Bunnies. The goats and rabbits started reproducing within a day. Nothing yet on the Fae Deer or the Yaks.

1 Heart animals are of course the easiest and require very little effort. Sneak up while facing them and toss food at their face. Back up a little if you see the red exclamation mark. Wait for the Yellow question mark with the circle timer and when it's finished the animal moves in to eat the food.

Approach while still in stealth and if they lift their head to look at you, you'll have 2 options: A red exclamation mark means to back off and wait a second or two, and the yellow question mark means just to wait where you are.

When the red exclamation mark disappears after you've backed off, approach again in stealth carefully when they begin to eat again. Generally rather quickly you'll be able to approach close enough to pet the animal and at 1 Heart you'll be able to pick it up immediately.

If you keep seeing a yellow question mark with the circle timer, just wait it out till you can again approach to pet the animal. Again, at 1 Heart, you'll be able to pick them up quickly.

If any of the indicators does NOT progress to the next part, either when you back off or hold still, abandon the attempt on that animal and move on. It's most likely bugged from the terrain.

Points of Note and Tips:

• Terrain is a factor that can temporarily bug out a taming attempt. Attempt taming on flat ground with straight approaches. I had 2 rabbits (Hophares) yesterday just circle the bait over and over again while standing near a small hill and they would not eat the bait at all (diseased I tell ya. Decided I didn't want them in the herd anyways!). Back off and move on to other animals or scare them into a larger section of grass or a field.
  
• Always attempt taming from the front (best practice) of the animal or within the animal's peripheral vision. Tossing food in from behind may or may not get their attention and may hinder your ability to approach properly.
  
• Practice on the 1 Heart animals first until you get a good feeling for the process.
  
• Adverse weather conditions make taming easier, such as night time and rain.
  
• Focus on one animal at a time. Often times you'll find a group of 3 or more of the same animal together. Each one, if close enough, may respond to the bait. Pick on and work with the one you choose. The others will move off but they won't go far and you can work with them after.
  
• Cats are the hardest and seem to bug out the most on varied terrain. If you can get them into a room that is fairly empty, you'll have an easier time as they won't bug out on furniture, rubble, or other fixtures in the room.
  
• You can choose a field and build fencing around it, or excavate like I did and build up terrain walls to keep animals in. While I am not sure if it makes a difference or not, I have built shelters with a roof and an open front for the animals to sleep in with their beds.
  
• You DO NOT have to build a barn enclosure where the animals have no place to move. If your farm is open but protected (fencing) the animals are happier and run around all over but will stay near food and shelter. Watching the Hophares run around is great, especially the little ones.
  
• Place beds and food relatively near each other, though they do not have to be under the same roof. Also place these items first and then set down the animal. The "lacking" food and shelter will disappear immediately in this manner.
  
• Wolves and Big Cats cannot be tamed. But dammit I want them to be pets!

Hope this can be of some more help!

[Mush]

at first i thought the taming was horrible, the cat is just a pain in the rear end but it's mostly because of the location it is in.
once you get the hang of it, taming is a rather straightforward experience.

throw bait, wait until the animal gets to the bait then sneak closer and
question mark = wait
exclamation mark = retreat (or turn around, that also seems to work in a lot of cases)

[Aviarium]

i just tried to tame the first cat i've seen .. and thought of it as extremely frustrating, with just one thing that would change it: why do the hearts have to reset? if the progress stays, and i only have to restart the current heart, it would be okay in my opinion, but resetting progress is not a rewarding experience

[Rhouna]

Originally posted by Aviarium:

i just tried to tame the first cat i've seen .. and thought of it as extremely frustrating, with just one thing that would change it: why do the hearts have to reset? if the progress stays, and i only have to restart the current heart, it would be okay in my opinion, but resetting progress is not a rewarding experience

You can choose to keep the taming progress in the game options.

Have fun!

[Siliconhobbit]

Originally posted by Rhouna:

Originally posted by Aviarium:

i just tried to tame the first cat i've seen .. and thought of it as extremely frustrating, with just one thing that would change it: why do the hearts have to reset? if the progress stays, and i only have to restart the current heart, it would be okay in my opinion, but resetting progress is not a rewarding experience

You can choose to keep the taming progress in the game options.

Have fun!

Wut WUT?!?! Must Check Settings!

Edit: Found it, not under General Settings at the start menu or even in game, but the custom settings you can adjust for that particular world you're using.

Its titled: Taming Startle Repercussion
Options are: Lose All Progress, Lose Some Progress, Keep Progress

[Rhouna]

Originally posted by Siliconhobbit:

Originally posted by Rhouna:

You can choose to keep the taming progress in the game options.

Have fun!

Wut WUT?!?! Must Check Settings!

[Siliconhobbit]

AHEM!

I was promised baby Yaks!

I have NO baby Yaks after several days (real days).

WHO IS TO BLAME FOR THIS OVERSIGHT & TOMFOOLERY!?

[Mush]

Originally posted by Siliconhobbit:

AHEM!

I was promised baby Yaks!

I have NO baby Yaks after several days (real days).

WHO IS TO BLAME FOR THIS OVERSIGHT & TOMFOOLERY!?

place a few extra yak beds.

[Kibou]

lol, ♥♥♥♥ vanilla ark taming, this here is so much nicer

[Siliconhobbit]

Originally posted by Mush:

Originally posted by Siliconhobbit:

AHEM!

I was promised baby Yaks!

I have NO baby Yaks after several days (real days).

WHO IS TO BLAME FOR THIS OVERSIGHT & TOMFOOLERY!?

place a few extra yak beds.

I got plenty extra beds for more yaks! Maybe the entire herd I tamed is all male or all female. /shrug

[Dingaia]

once you get used to it, it's not so bad, i had same experience at first, but after some research i realized what others have told you here, just throw that bait, wait, see exclamation mark crouch away, see the question mark, stand still, see nothing, get close. rinse repeat. and remember to crouch away quickly after petting. also you can go into difficulty options before you enter your world and change how taming works so make it more forgiving(doesn't really help much but it's there I guess)

[fefnir3284]

Bad system.

[The Big Brzezinski]

Conan Exiles had the best animal taming system. Grab a baby animal, stick it in a pen, feed it, wait for it to mature. Simple and easy.

[Xiane]

Taming is not horrendous but do admit that the cat locations are 99% of the difficulty. Usually its a small area where its insanely easy to lose all progress.

[Seditious Emu]

So I had a huge issue with this at first. The cat is a horrible demon of fur and I forged my tame skill on our new bond we share now. Best to think of it as: yellow question mark that fills means just stop, doesnt matter if cat is looking right at you. red exclamation point means sneak as fast as possible away perferably behind stair case. After each pet just start sneaking away immediately and do this 3 times total. I struggled with this as I over thought it using common sense and thinking moving fast would be worse, dont think the game takes into consideration the speed of sneaking during red exclamation point times. I also had faster sneak skill perk as well.