New player questions

[Ezh]

Hello dear community! I'm a new player and would like to ask for some assistance with getting started:
1. Are there in-game descriptions of stats/attributes ? I see, for example "Fortitude", but I was not able to find any information in game about what the "Fortitude" actually is? Yes, I know there is the game wiki and I can find this info on the web, but it is so immersion breaking ...
2. I like to play survival games at max difficulty. But when I use Hard spawn point in this game, it is just like instant kill within the first 10 seconds. So, what is the point ? Are these spawn points for already leveled characters ?

Thanks in advance!

[Vig]

Fortitude is required to be less immune to extreme climate conditions i.e heat and cold. You will experience both. Each map will require diffirent fort settings and only experience will be able to really help you here. To start on the island, and everyone is diff, and depending on what settings you play at, then i would start with first a little weight, fort, stam, health in that order. i also, against against the trend opt for a point on oxygen as well. you can roll this back later on in the game. So if you play with no speed increment settings then this oxy is essential for me. to explain, you will usually start on a beach, You will be slow with no weight and stam. IF YOU get sited by a Raptor which likes beaches, then simply you will die as you cannot outrun them until you have a speed setting(if enabled) of 13.5. My recourse is to dive into water and submerge as at a certain depth and distance the raptors dissengage. you can usually swim away with the extra oxy setting. Thats my take. remember little bit of each at first. on the island you will eventually need close to 40 in fort. Aim for 500+ weight. stam 250 and more when affordable. as much health later on as poss. I never do much health in early game as it will make no diff if you get caught by raptors or a theri. If you play with speed setting on then the above would change. the fort though is still essential. Sorry long winded but so many peramiters. Why not join a dedicated server and pal up with someone more experience to give you some pointers.

[Killjoy:)]

Use max diff but start in green zone. Also the time crunch in this game is hardcore. I strongly suggest looking up a settings guide so your not taming a dodo for six hours and taking 8hrs to raize a rex. One thing that is very good for early def is spiked wooden walls. If your dying alot dont worry. Its just Ark. Use orbital camera alot and make sure you lay down or crouch for stealth. Good luck!

[Ezh]

Vig, Killjoy thanks for sharing your knowledge! Much appreciated!

Originally posted by Killjoy:):

Use max diff but start in green zone.

But what is the purpose of red zones ? I really would like to understand ....

Originally posted by Killjoy:):

If your dying alot dont worry. Its just Ark.

I play survival games only at Permadeath (either as a native game mode or as a self-imposed restriction). The only way to play such games for me, otherwise it all have no sense at all :)

Originally posted by Vig:

Fortitude is required to be less immune to extreme climate conditions i.e heat and cold. ... then i would start with first a little weight, fort, stam, health ...

So, when I'm playing the game, is there any guide, ARK-pedia, help screen, UI tooltips that explain (at least in bare minimum) these attributes and conditions ? Or this game intentionally does not provide this information for player ? At the moment it looks like a bug for me when I hover mouse over the "Fortitude" attribute in UI and see no tooltip about what this "Fortitude" is for. What is the point to hide this information from the player ? Really, is it add some depth to the game experience ? (and I think no, it does not)

Originally posted by Vig:

Why not join a dedicated server and pal up with someone more experience to give you some pointers.

I'm a solo player looking for good [challenging] PVE exploration & adventuring vibe. This is why I was asking here in a first place: I really like to explore the game (as a set of game world + game mechanics) on my own, trials & errors. But game should at least explain the basics (and it seems ARK does not do this ?). I really don't like it when one need to google to play the game, this breaks the immersion for me in a very harsh way.

[Scheneighnay]

Originally posted by Ezh:

Hello dear community! I'm a new player and would like to ask for some assistance with getting started:
1. Are there in-game descriptions of stats/attributes ? I see, for example "Fortitude", but I was not able to find any information in game about what the "Fortitude" actually is? Yes, I know there is the game wiki and I can find this info on the web, but it is so immersion breaking ...
2. I like to play survival games at max difficulty. But when I use Hard spawn point in this game, it is just like instant kill within the first 10 seconds. So, what is the point ? Are these spawn points for already leveled characters ?

Thanks in advance!

1. There's a UI setting for expanded tooltips that might be off by default. Holding H which also add text to some HUD elements.
Bear in mind that status effects still have no in game description, but things like fortitude will.

2. Difficulty is just level scaling, which to me adds nothing of value if you raise it.
If you're playing on default settings (not single player mode), that's already hard mode because the devs balanced everything around having a large active tribe to do everything in a group all the time and babysit tames that take several hours. Building also takes a long time on default rates.

Personally I prefer to lower the difficulty because most weapons like primitive turrets and explosives are weak at best on the default difficulty and have no way of getting their damage boosted without mods.
Lowering the difficulty makes them actually viable.

[Klandor]

@Ezh, the Zones sort of define the types of Dino's you're likely to encounter. Trying to fight a Raptor in the very beginning is practically impossible, as they're VERY fast in terms of both speed and attack frequency. That does not mean that you cannot encounter a Raptor in a Green Zone, but a Red Zone will have some VERY aggressive Dino's, be it Raptors, Rex, or some other VERY deadly Dino). If you're a new player, start in a Green Zone, especially seeing as you have a self-imposed permadeath. ARK is all about dying and being revived as, within the terms of the game itself, it's a simulation.

Depending on how you configure it, when you die, you can configure it to let you keep whatever you had on you or lose everything you had. Dino's will remain where you were, even when YOU respawn either back at base or at a Spawn point. That Dino may then be killed by whatever killed YOU, or it may get away... You may prefer playing Single Player, but going into a PvE Server with another player will give you some basics of the game. If you don't like that, then go over to You Tube and watch some videos of people playing ASA to get an idea of what you want to do. There are a number of You Tubers who play to teach and will advise on things like prioritization of stats, taming Dinos, Dinos to target, etc.

[Ezh]

Scheneighnay, Klandor, thank you for your feedback! It seems the solo permadeath run at hard difficulty is close to impossible in ARK :) A challenge! :)

[Vig]

set the game to low when beginning to be able to learn the game mechanics. its pointless playing hard and dying all the time you sort of learn nothing. `FEEL` your way up in the game until you become more competant and know `if I do this then this will happen` kind of thing.. hard setting you can die so so fast and wonder what just happened. Gradually increase the difficulty to gain more challenges. Red zones are where the extreme temps can be with the real tough dinos, rex wolves theri, giga, etc though temp and dangerous dinos WILL exist also in the yellow and green zones, but less so