How important is a water source?

[Excessive Paranoia]

I've just started playing ARK (level 25 currently) and am at the point where I'm wanting to start building a better base than the thatch shack I've been using so far. I'm playing a local host single player game, so I don't have to worry about other people bothering me / my stuff, but I'm not sure where I should build. I like the space around me on weathertop, but there is no easy access to water without walking down to the river or beach and I'm not sure if this is going to be a real problem later on when I want to farm.

Do I need direct access to water (i.e. building directly on or next to a lake / river / ocean), or would several rain collectors work to fill my needs?

[Mightylink]

You can survive on just berries until you build a water tank then that collects rain water anywhere.

[Ginkawa]

particularly in your sort of situation, you can run pipe as far as you want, and that can solve the water problem. its not always pretty though.

if you're picky about not wanting to run pipe, you could set up an array of water reservoirs and be pretty well set.

[Furyion]

water source in base is convience...and for cooking kibble useing industrial cooker.Dinos so far do not drink water.

[Housatonic]

Large crop plots exposed to the air can also be irrigated off of rain alone. I have never had issues with smaller sizes either, but can't say I've had them over extended periods of time, so unlucky droughts may or may not be an issue for those.
For low tech kibble, just put a cooking pot at the edge of the river, and you can refill your skins without even leaving the cooking pot menu if you position pot and character right.

[Drago]

It takes 100 water per kibble,Rockwell foods, med/energy brews. So it's best to have pipes running to water or have at least 20 metal water tanks which only hold 500 water each.

If you have a greenhouse you'll need more water tanks.

[Excessive Paranoia]

Ideally, I don't want to have a separate location for cooking kibble (I have a bad habit of getting caught off guard by mean things when I'm not at my shack...), hence the concern about how much water I will be needing. I've read on forums that rain is enough to keep plots watered (yet for some reason the wiki says its not), but how much water is needed for cooking kibble? Seeing as how kibble is ultra effective in taming, you don't actually need that much of it, but even then, even then at a minimum of 25 water per batch, most higher level citters would need at least 750-1000 worth of water to make the right amount. Metal water collector only hold 500 water each, so that means a minimum of two for one tame.

I'm also a little curious about how well they actually fill up in the rain? If I have an empty collector and it rains, will it fill completely, or is the fill amount a function of how long it rains? Lastly, I don't really want to run pipe to the water (it would be pretty ugly...) but if I did, do I have to worry about dinos damaging it?

[Excessive Paranoia]

Originally posted by Drago:

It takes 100 water per kibble,Rockwell foods, med/energy brews. So it's best to have pipes running to water or have at least 20 metal water tanks which only hold 500 water each.

How much cooking do you think I'll actually have to do? 20 metal collectors seems like an obscene amount of water...

[Drago]

1 rain event will be enough to fill a water tank but once it's empty you have to wait for the next rain.

[Drago]

Originally posted by Excessive Paranoia:

Originally posted by Drago:

It takes 100 water per kibble,Rockwell foods, med/energy brews. So it's best to have pipes running to water or have at least 20 metal water tanks which only hold 500 water each.

How much cooking do you think I'll actually have to do? 20 metal collectors seems like an obscene amount of water...

That's only enough for 100 water needing recipies.

[Excessive Paranoia]

Originally posted by Drago:

1 rain event will be enough to fill a water tank but once it's empty you have to wait for the next rain.

I guess that makes sense... if it rains every 2-3 days, I don't want to have to wait to be able to accomplish a cooking task.

[Excessive Paranoia]

Originally posted by Drago:

Originally posted by Excessive Paranoia:

How much cooking do you think I'll actually have to do? 20 metal collectors seems like an obscene amount of water...

That's only enough for 100 water needing recipies.

I thought the waterskin didn't need to be full to use it in a recipe? That said, I've never used a water skin, so I'm guessing you mean I can't control how much I fill it up?

[Drago]

The water skin has to be 25% full bit ALL water in the container is used.
So if you were to use a full water jar or canteen you just wasted 100/200 water.

The Devs never fixed that and I doubt they have any intention of doing so.

Another thing. If you try filling a partilty filled jar/canteen it will remove 200/300 water from the tanks. Another broken thing.

[Ginkawa]

honestly if you're gonna do enough cooking to need 20 water tanks... seems like its probably worth just running the pipes, regardless how far they have to go.

[Excessive Paranoia]

Originally posted by Ginkawa:

honestly if you're gonna do enough cooking to need 20 water tanks... seems like its probably worth just running the pipes, regardless how far they have to go.

I don't know how much cooking I'm going to be doing... seems like its going to be way more than I originally thought. I definitely don't want to be running a mile of water pipe so I can have my base on weathertop, so maybe I should look elsewhere.

[Drago]

Originally posted by Ginkawa:

honestly if you're gonna do enough cooking to need 20 water tanks... seems like its probably worth just running the pipes, regardless how far they have to go.

Can't always run pipes.

Water tanks should really hold more water when you consider a canteen holds 300.