This vs Evolved? Can I play single player?

[Netsa]

I've seen ARK thrown around in discussions about Palworld, which has gotten me interested in ARK. I've had friends who were into this, but I just saw it as "an incremental about dinosaurs" and skipped it. I saw the new game got released, but the reviews aren't very good. Should I just check out the first one? Any major differences I should know about?

Also, should I be worried about servers and such if I just plan to play solo, or is solo not an option?

[Pixel]

You can pick up ASE for pretty cheap and there's tons of free maps. It's running much better than this and doesn't require a NASA computer that can only manage 60 fps on medium.

[gnrrain]

Originally posted by Pixel:

You can pick up ASE for pretty cheap and there's tons of free maps. It's running much better than this and doesn't require a NASA computer that can only manage 60 fps on medium.

+1

[tzeraph]

And as I understand you can still play SP i ARK Evolved. The official servers though, I belive are closed.

[Seiko]

As mentioned above single player is no problem with no restrictions and plenty of content.
If you decide you want to try multiplayer there are still plenty of populated dedicated servers you can join and a lot have very helpful community's with discord support.

[retsam1]

Originally posted by tzeraph:

And as I understand you can still play SP i ARK Evolved. The official servers though, I belive are closed.

The Official 1400ish number of ASE servers did close at the end of September. However there's still 49,000+ unofficial servers (ASA has only 44k-ish unofficials by contrast).

And yes of course ASE folks can still play in single player and nondedicated too.

[Netsa]

So I guess the consensus is to go back to Evolved for the time being? Thanks for the answers, guys.

[Arasine]

This game crashes every 10 minutes for a huge number of players. Are you into gambling ?

[Arics]

Originally posted by Arasine:

This game crashes every 10 minutes for a huge number of players. Are you into gambling ?

People think the game is perfect because their game isn't crashing even so the game has tons of other problems, while ASE is actually almost flawless.

[leongt1954]

You can still player single player on both

[HiGenX]

1k hours in ASE and a few hundred in ASA, i would absolutley choose ASA over ASE simply cause I don't like buying into outdated tech. You being new means you've never seen any of the maps, so the Island map has tons of things for you to do and lets you get a good feel for the game. ASA has all the same content coming that ASE has, it will just be on cleaned up code with the newest engine, build system and QOL improvements.

Lots of negative feedback for ASA are from folks who feel as though they should have received it for free or they insist on running max settings and if they cant then "da GaMe iS tRasH"

[Netsa]

Originally posted by Arixh:

Originally posted by Arasine:

This game crashes every 10 minutes for a huge number of players. Are you into gambling ?

People think the game is perfect because their game isn't crashing even so the game has tons of other problems, while ASE is actually almost flawless.

Any examples? I haven't played either game yet, but I play a lot of games in general so I'll probably have some understanding of what you're talking about.

Originally posted by HiGenX:

1k hours in ASE and a few hundred in ASA, i would absolutley choose ASA over ASE simply cause I don't like buying into outdated tech. You being new means you've never seen any of the maps, so the Island map has tons of things for you to do and lets you get a good feel for the game. ASA has all the same content coming that ASE has, it will just be on cleaned up code with the newest engine, build system and QOL improvements.

Lots of negative feedback for ASA are from folks who feel as though they should have received it for free or they insist on running max settings and if they cant then "da GaMe iS tRasH"

I'm all for unpopular opinions. Steam has a refund window if I get crashes, and you're right, I haven't seen any of the maps so I don't know how they compare. How long do you think it would take for ASA to get the same level of content, though? I don't like investing in content that doesn't exist since that's all too often a really bad idea.

[RobbIe]

Originally posted by Netsa:

I've seen ARK thrown around in discussions about Palworld, which has gotten me interested in ARK. I've had friends who were into this, but I just saw it as "an incremental about dinosaurs" and skipped it. I saw the new game got released, but the reviews aren't very good. Should I just check out the first one? Any major differences I should know about?

Also, should I be worried about servers and such if I just plan to play solo, or is solo not an option?

The major difference between ARK Evolved and the new ARK Ascended is just better, newer graphics. They use now UE5 in ASA instead of UE4 in the older ASE. But the devs are still learning the usage of UE5... This is the reason that ASA is in Early Access - something to consider as well!
Gameplay and original maps (ARKs) from developer Wildcard are the same in both versions. But for ASE additional community made maps from modders exist, which you get free in download without any cost. I guess these great maps like Fjördur, Ragnarok, a.o. will never become transformed to ASA and only function in Evolved.
Additional in ASA some little extensions from former MODs in ASE are included, but you will get those in better conditions and with all functions in ASE.

If you own an older PC with older graphics card I would recommend to buy ASE and not ASA. With my AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT with 16 GB RAM from September 2023 the ARK Ascended set in EPIC graphics settings just run with frame rates around 30 to 60 FPS.

[Netsa]

Originally posted by RobbIe:

The major difference between ARK Evolved and the new ARK Ascended is just better, newer graphics. They use now UE5 in ASA instead of UE4 in the older ASE. But the devs are still learning the usage of UE5... This is the reason that ASA is in Early Access - something to consider as well!
Gameplay and original maps (ARKs) from developer Wildcard are the same in both versions. But for ASE additional community made maps from modders exist, which you get free in download without any cost. I guess these great maps like Fjördur, Ragnarok, a.o. will never become transformed to ASA and only function in Evolved.
Additional in ASA some little extensions from former MODs in ASE are included, but you will get those in better conditions and with all functions in ASE.

If you own an older PC with older graphics card I would recommend to buy ASE and not ASA. With my AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT with 16 GB RAM from September 2023 the ARK Ascended set in EPIC graphics settings just run with frame rates around 30 to 60 FPS.

You said the gameplay is the same, but is there missing content? Or is it just community maps and everything between the base games is roughly the same? I'm not too concerned about mods.

[RobbIe]

Originally posted by Netsa:

You said the gameplay is the same, but is there missing content? Or is it just community maps and everything between the base games is roughly the same? I'm not too concerned about mods.

Everything between the two versions is roughly the same.
Inside each map is no missing content.
Missing content in the new version at the moment are the additional maps of developer Wildcard and the community maps. If you buy ASA you get only one map at the moment (one map = one ARK). Regarding the story of ARK, each map is a separate ARK, orbiting around the earth. Atm you get the first map, the starter map, called "The Island". The other Wildcard maps for ASA are to released step by step via updates until next year. We should get the next ARK named "The Center" end of February and in April we should get "Extinction" as next ARK for ASA. For ASE all these ARKs are already exisiting and they work. Absolutely to recommend as Mods (for both versions) are two mods - one is a better Spyglass and the other is the S+ (Structures Plus) Mod (for ASA now called QoL+ Quality of Life Plus).

[Praxis Abraxis]

ASA has a lot of QoL features and a much improved building system.
Refined and slimmed tech tree as well.
The visuals are actually amazing, with even lower settings being better than epic settings in ASE...

There really is no way I think I could go back to the original....
And yet, I stopped playing ASA atm... because, I can play it
On a mix of high/medium settings at 2k.

But it crashes, still.
Been a constant problem. Watching, waiting for a fix. And excited for The Center
(because, based on The Island, the revamped map is quite a treat)

But ASA is, frankly, jumping from borked to half borked consistently.

meh...

-

Did want to relay this, though.
ASA is more than 'just better graphics'
And in fact, some of those 'graphics' count for more than just good looks...