Is singleplayer/offline in the game or this is always online?

[Towerbooks3192]

I am curious if it is viable to play singleplayer offline with this game. I kinda want to dive in to it and just play on my own.

[moTom]

Yes you can play the whole game as singleplayer/offline. The only difference would be that as soon as you quit your session the game stops, while on an online server the world stays alive so in single player your dinos won´t lay eggs when your not playing, your crops won´t grow, etc.

[Towerbooks3192]

Originally posted by Mofo:

Yes you can play the whole game as singleplayer/offline. The only difference would be that as soon as you quit your session the game stops, while on an online server the world stays alive so in single player your dinos won´t lay eggs when your not playing, your crops won´t grow, etc.

Oh, ok, kinda like what happens in Wurm Unlimited then. But yeah I guess that wouldn't bother me as long as I can just play in peace.

[margalus]

Originally posted by Towerbooks3192:

Originally posted by Mofo:

Yes you can play the whole game as singleplayer/offline. The only difference would be that as soon as you quit your session the game stops, while on an online server the world stays alive so in single player your dinos won´t lay eggs when your not playing, your crops won´t grow, etc.

Oh, ok, kinda like what happens in Wurm Unlimited then. But yeah I guess that wouldn't bother me as long as I can just play in peace.

It is the same as any single player game ever made. When you save and quit the game freezes. When you start up again everything is just as you left it.

[moTom]

You can adjust those rates to fit your playstyle in singleplayer so it´s not that big of a problem. Also its an advantage cause you don´t have to feed your dinos every few days, you can stop the game for a month or two and come back to the moment you left, on an online server your dinos would have starved and your structures decayed.

[Towerbooks3192]

Originally posted by Mofo:

You can adjust those rates to fit your playstyle in singleplayer so it´s not that big of a problem. Also its an advantage cause you don´t have to feed your dinos every few days, you can stop the game for a month or two and come back to the moment you left, on an online server your dinos would have starved and your structures decayed.

Oh, I can see the advantage and disadvantage of that then. Like I am afraid that as addictive as online is, it needs a whole lot of commitment. Can the decay and the need of the dinos to be fed adjusted so that when I play I still would need to feed them or take care of anything?

[margalus]

Originally posted by Towerbooks3192:

Originally posted by Mofo:

You can adjust those rates to fit your playstyle in singleplayer so it´s not that big of a problem. Also its an advantage cause you don´t have to feed your dinos every few days, you can stop the game for a month or two and come back to the moment you left, on an online server your dinos would have starved and your structures decayed.

Oh, I can see the advantage and disadvantage of that then. Like I am afraid that as addictive as online is, it needs a whole lot of commitment. Can the decay and the need of the dinos to be fed adjusted so that when I play I still would need to feed them or take care of anything?

You cannot adjust online settings. Those are determined by the server.

You can only adjust your single player settings.

And yes, you still have to feed your dinos or they will starve. You can increase or decrease the rates however you want.

[Spades]

Originally posted by margalus:

Originally posted by Towerbooks3192:

Oh, I can see the advantage and disadvantage of that then. Like I am afraid that as addictive as online is, it needs a whole lot of commitment. Can the decay and the need of the dinos to be fed adjusted so that when I play I still would need to feed them or take care of anything?

You cannot adjust online settings. Those are determined by the server.

You can only adjust your single player settings.

And yes, you still have to feed your dinos or they will starve. You can increase or decrease the rates however you want.

I'm pretty sure on single player you can remove the need to feed dinos completely with the slider. Haven't done it in a while because last it did wild dinos didn't eat either so you couldn't tame normaly.

[Towerbooks3192]

Last question: I heard there are end-game bosses kinda thing that can be raided by players together. So does that mean that those are impossible to solo?

[moTom]

In singleplayer you can adjust almost every little detail/setting in the game and for the things you can´t there are mods.
There´s also a difference in online servers, there are official servers where everthing is untouched (=vanilla) and then there are dozens of unofficial servers with changed rates, mods, etc.
And yes, as margalus mentioned also in singleplayer your dinos need to be fed, your plants taken care of, etc.

[moTom]

Originally posted by Towerbooks3192:

Last question: I heard there are end-game bosses kinda thing that can be raided by players together. So does that mean that those are impossible to solo?

Their difficulty is lowered in singleplayer

[G.I.Bill]

Originally posted by Towerbooks3192:

Originally posted by Mofo:

You can adjust those rates to fit your playstyle in singleplayer so it´s not that big of a problem. Also its an advantage cause you don´t have to feed your dinos every few days, you can stop the game for a month or two and come back to the moment you left, on an online server your dinos would have starved and your structures decayed.

Oh, I can see the advantage and disadvantage of that then. Like I am afraid that as addictive as online is, it needs a whole lot of commitment. Can the decay and the need of the dinos to be fed adjusted so that when I play I still would need to feed them or take care of anything?

Yes, there are a whole bunch of settings you can adjust to configure your single player game exactly how you want it. You can disable structure and dino decay completely, and can turn down the rates of food consumption, spoilage, adjust the strength of your player vs. wild creatures, adjust the rates of harvesting resources, taming times, etc. Although, as was already mentioned when you close out of the game in single player the state is saved and everything stops, so you can go without playing as long as you want and everything will come back right where you left off, regardless of the settings.

I've played hundreds of hours in single player. ARK may be most well known as a multiplayer survival game, but I think it's also the best single player survival game out there. It's just a matter of tweaking the settings just the way you like to provide the right level of challenge to keep things interesting but not excessively difficult or annoying, since the default settings are based around entire tribes doing the work. They recently added an option called "Use singleplayer settings" that provides an easy, one-click method of changing a bunch of options to be more appropriate for solo play, but you can still tweak all the individual settings, as well.

[Towerbooks3192]

Wow. I guess I am pretty much sold then. My only problem now will be waiting for the download to be done since internet here is so horrible. Thanks for the information guys.

[G.I.Bill]

Originally posted by Towerbooks3192:

Last question: I heard there are end-game bosses kinda thing that can be raided by players together. So does that mean that those are impossible to solo?

I haven't done the end-game bosses yet, but if they did prove to be a problem I'm sure that some combination of turning down the resistance of wild creatures, turning up the damage done by players and/or tamed dinos, or increasing the stat multipliers on your player and/or tamed dinos would allow you to defeat the bosses easily.

You can change all of those settings any time before going back into your saved game. For instance, if my player's health was currently 200 at the normal 1.0 heath multiplier, I could just exit out, change that setting to 2.0, then go back in and would find my health is now 400.

[Spades]

Originally posted by Towerbooks3192:

Wow. I guess I am pretty much sold then. My only problem now will be waiting for the download to be done since internet here is so horrible. Thanks for the information guys.

Be careful, i hear the computer specs are a little outdated, make sure your computer can handle it.

[margalus]

Originally posted by Towerbooks3192:

Wow. I guess I am pretty much sold then. My only problem now will be waiting for the download to be done since internet here is so horrible. Thanks for the information guys.

What are your PC specs? This game requires a halfway decent PC designed for gaming.
And it gets lots of large frequent updates that require downloading.