Best map?

[Scar]

I've played...

Scorched earth - didn't really like the heatwave survival aspect of it, but it's a decent map.
Extinction is meh to me personal.
Abberation is alright.
Genesis 1- Will probably never play because of all the divided zones.
Gen 2 - is a decent map, do like helena shop although dislike having a tek suit.
Lost Island - is a great map.
The Island - pretty good map.

Custom maps which I generally don't do.
Fjordur - Ain't too fond of tbh, started out and instantly cold, plus the map feels meh, not sure why there was a lot of hype for it tbh.

Ragnarok - is decent.
The Center - meh
Valguero - never played (because custom map)
Crystal Isles - "

Would have preferred if dinosaurs wasn't exclusive to specific maps tbh

[Smaugi]

Best by what?
Looks? Subjective
Resources dinos? Also depends on many things

[Scar]

Originally posted by Lord Gwyn:

Best by what?
Looks? Subjective
Resources dinos? Also depends on many things

I assume by looks, base locations, flat space etc
As for resource dinos - the basics are on every map, ankylo, doed, mammoth, trike

[Smaugi]

Originally posted by Flamekeeper:

Originally posted by Lord Gwyn:

Best by what?
Looks? Subjective
Resources dinos? Also depends on many things

I assume by looks, base locations, flat space etc
As for resource dinos - the basics are on every map, ankylo, doed, mammoth, trike

My basics are magmas wyverns and basilisks.
But really ragnarok Has alot of great base locations , resources, nice structures and decent array of dinos.
Crystals isles look pretty and have alot of easy reasources dinos.
Valguero can look nice if not too bright.
Abber is great and is amazing for metal farming but its hard.
Island is Basic.
SE is cool but somewhat boring and pointless.
Center is like island but a bit cooler.
Exti is THE element farm map and test your super dinos on purple OSD to get cool drops map.
Gen1 i never played
Gen2 is the cheese map you start on to speedrun the game and get an early reaper King.
Fjordur is cool with its realms and Has decent Dino and resources array.
Lost island is okaish , Has easy magmas.

[Samadhi]

My best to worst based on my personal 'fun' factor

Abberation
Extinction
Gen2
The Island
Scorched Earth
The Center
Genesis 1

All the fan maps equal last, i find them pretty boring to play with not much challenge. Great for pve base building though.

Special mention for Tamriel,,,cough cough...Lost Island.

[Liralen]

Since you've played Lost Island, Fjordur and Ragnarok, etc., which were player made (maybe the Center, too), I don't understand your objection to Valguero.

However, I too avoid player made maps adopted by the Ark devs after first adoption, since the Ark devs often make changes to them to remove content that removes some incentive to pay for DLCs. Then they bork it and break things that used to work fine and it takes the devs awhile to figure out how to fix what they broke.

Whatever, played on official settings, Ragnarok, hands down. Mostly because rich metal is plentiful and easy for new players to obtain. Both griffins and wyverns can be tamed. Taming a griffin is probably the easiest way to solo tame a quetzal and once you've tamed any quetzal, no matter how low, you can easily build a trap and tame any other quetzal.

And with a quetzal, you can pick up dinos as large as a wild therizin and carry it to a place where you can tame it safely.

When the Ark devs adopted Valguero, they removed content that reduced the incentives to buy Extinction and Aberration, or even play Ragnarok (by removing griffins). Even with those nerfs, Valguero also has easy access for new players to obtain rich metal, oil, sap, crystal, organic polymer, and chitin/keratin.

Organic polymer and chitin/keratin exist as dead dolphins and turtles on sandy beaches, easily obtained by raft.

Oil exists as underwater oil rocks that can be harvested by players who are naked other than having a pick axe, near its version of Herbivore Island. As well as an oil vein easily accessed by raft, but by then you should at least be able to handle a hyena pack or so, which can drop down from the cliffs above it.

A large field of rich metal, also exists that is easily accessibly by raft (on Valguero, land borders the outer edges, and the sea exists in the interior https://ark.fandom.com/wiki/Resource_Map_(Valguero))

And while the Ark devs removed some content when they adopted it, their support for modders is such they didn't object when the original makers of the map restored the removed Extinction, Aberration, and Ragnarok content, making the Valguero restored map, the easiest way to gain element. Although arguably unnecessary, if you use the S+ mod and make its Vivariums. https://ark.fandom.com/wiki/Mod:Structures_Plus/S%2B_Vivarium

[DarkFaceGlow]

Fjordur cold isn’t too hard to deal with. It’s also quite interesting if you take the time to explore it. Has a lot of cool little secret places.

[Scar]

Originally posted by Liralen:

Since you've played Lost Island, Fjordur and Ragnarok, etc., which were player made (maybe the Center, too), I don't understand your objection to Valguero.

It's not just valguero that I object to alone, I just prefer my maps to be made specifically by devs just like I hate to mod my games especially heavily, I like to only have a few.

[Liralen]

Originally posted by Flamekeeper:

Originally posted by Liralen:

Since you've played Lost Island, Fjordur and Ragnarok, etc., which were player made (maybe the Center, too), I don't understand your objection to Valguero.

It's not just valguero that I object to alone, I just prefer my maps to be made specifically by devs just like I hate to mod my games especially heavily, I like to only have a few.

That's fine. If so, then only the paid DLCs qualify, other than the Island, which of course is free, once you buy Ark (and paying for it is in some venues, is not always necessary, even on Steam recently).

It seems like you have bought all the paid DLCs, which leaves me with nothing to say. Other than play the canonical maps and defeat their bosses, which allow you to achieve max level and make anything, engram points and mats permitting. https://www.gamepur.com/guides/what-order-to-complete-maps-in-ark-survival-evolved

[Liralen]

I should add that of the paid DLCs, my favorite is Extinction (which you said was meh, which I get), but I suspect that's because, while I first started playing Ark in 2016, I abandoned it for awhile when Horizon Zero Dawn was released in early 2017. Then later, Ark released Extinction and so I could appreciate the nod to HZD, as well Ark's introduction of Tek dinos.

[Scar]

Originally posted by Liralen:

I should add that of the paid DLCs, my favorite is Extinction (which you said was meh, which I get), but I suspect that's because, while I first started playing Ark in 2016, I abandoned it for awhile when Horizon Zero Dawn was released in early 2017. Then later, Ark released Extinction and so I could appreciate the nod to HZD.

Yeah, Idk why tbh but I just had the most fun on the island I pretty much know where all the caves are on it, safe spots, where to get resources, it's got most dinosaurs apart from the DLC exclusive ones, I know the DLCs are supposed to get progressively harder too although I did play all of them, I was going to refund genesis at the time it came out due to genesis 1 being a zoned map was unable to get that refund due to steam support saying I owned it over a long period of time -_- would be nice if devs did add HLNA shop across the main maps.

hopefully ARK 2 comes out early next year, just looking for something to do right now since literally every great game that was supposed to be out this year got delayed.

[Liralen]

Originally posted by Flamekeeper:

Yeah, Idk why tbh but I just had the most fun on the island I pretty much know where all the caves are on it, safe spots, where to get resources, it's got most dinosaurs apart from the DLC exclusive ones, I know the DLCs are supposed to get progressively harder too although I did play all of them, I was going to refund genesis at the time it came out due to genesis 1 being a zoned map was unable to get that refund due to steam support saying I owned it over a long period of time -_- would be nice if devs did add HLNA shop across the main maps.

hopefully ARK 2 comes out early next year, just looking for something to do right now since literally every great game that was supposed to be out this year got delayed.

I have some reservations about Ark2, not the least of which is they probably paid Vin Diesel more they do their entire programming staff.

The appearance of human NPC's was troubling. While I have absolutely no problems with killing them in any other game I've played, I deliberately avoided Conan Exiles, despite being a fan of Funcom beginning from within a month after Anarchy Online was first released (I waited that long only because apparently, from reports my online friends gave me, it took that long before Funcom could handle the overload, or players had dispersed from the starting areas).

But despite the fact I was already a hug fan of Funcom because of Anarchy Online and The Secret World, I decided to pass on Conan Exiles, because although I have no problem with killing humanoid NPCs in any other game, I balked at enslaving them.

Probably because I was raised in a former slave state in the US.

[Chariot]

Valhalla if you don't care about size, file size, or story, GREAT map.

[Scar]

Originally posted by Liralen:

Originally posted by Flamekeeper:

Yeah, Idk why tbh but I just had the most fun on the island I pretty much know where all the caves are on it, safe spots, where to get resources, it's got most dinosaurs apart from the DLC exclusive ones, I know the DLCs are supposed to get progressively harder too although I did play all of them, I was going to refund genesis at the time it came out due to genesis 1 being a zoned map was unable to get that refund due to steam support saying I owned it over a long period of time -_- would be nice if devs did add HLNA shop across the main maps.

hopefully ARK 2 comes out early next year, just looking for something to do right now since literally every great game that was supposed to be out this year got delayed.

I have some reservations about Ark2, not the least of which is they probably paid Vin Diesel more they do their entire programming staff.

The appearance of human NPC's was troubling. While I have absolutely no problems with killing them in any other game I've played, I deliberately avoided Conan Exiles, despite being a fan of Funcom beginning from within a month after Anarchy Online was first released (I waited that long only because apparently, from reports my online friends gave me, it took that long before Funcom could handle the overload, or players had dispersed from the starting areas).

But despite the fact I was already a hug fan of Funcom because of Anarchy Online and The Secret World, I decided to pass on Conan Exiles, because although I have no problem with killing humanoid NPCs in any other game, I balked at enslaving them.

Probably because I was raised in a former slave state in the US.

I generally don't care about hurting human npcs, I know it's just a game and I can seperate that with basic logic, I'm somewhat glad they're appearing in Ark 2, hoping we can raise a small human tribe at least or something, as for Vin Diesel I would've preferred to have seen the Rock, but I get it Vin Diesel is a fan of ARK which is why they chose him, hopefully with him playing ARK 1 already he should already know the ins and outs of the game and what we actually want, as for pay Idk tbh, as long as the game is good I'm happy

As for Conan I generally don't care about enslaving because it's just a game, although you can play without enslaving anybody and just tame animals that or play on isle of siptah and rescue them (humans) from cages.

[Liralen]

Just to be clear, as I said before, I don't have a problem with killing any humanoid in any game. What I failed to say was the caveat "as long as they would kill me if I didn't". Of course, that's a very simple logic.

I'm just sick and tired of killing zombies generally, as if violent humanoids are the only things that can scare us. Which, of course, they are in real life.

I play games to escape from real life. Dinosaurs are a brilliant substitution in my book.

[Scar]

Originally posted by Liralen:

I play games to escape from real life. Dinosaurs are a brilliant substitution in my book.

Same tbh, ARK has actually helped me improve my knowledge on dinosaurs slightly as well as been fun, one of the main reasons why I'm looking forward to ARK 2.

Sons of The Forest is another game I'm eager for tbh, the AI in the first one was great, actually would love to play it again and do the story which I've completely avoided