New player, expansions needed to play?

[Demiser]

me and my friends are thinking about buying ark but is expansions necessary?
if i dont have the expansions am i limited to vanilla servers or how does it work?
is there alot of people still playing ark on vanilla and not the expansions?
Regards

[VEGλ]

Essentially with the base game you'll get The Island, as well as any free official downloadable content (Valguero, Ragnarok, and The Center). You will only be able to play on the base map and free maps without the expansions. The paid expansion maps (Extinction, Abberation, and Scorched Earth) DO provide some advantages in the game, but some of those advantages are also obtainable on the free maps. The maps listed below of certain things in common.
Scorched and Ragnarok: Wyverns, cactus, silk, ect.
Abberation and Valgeuro: Some Abberation creatures, but none of the major players such as reapers and rock drakes. Valgeuro also has wyverns.
--
While the base game is limited to this, you CAN however install mods to get all of the expansion items on one single map, making it so you won't have to buy any of the DLC's anyway. There are also plenty of maps created by modders out there that also have the expansion items and dinos. Though in my personal opinion, it is worth it to purchase all of the expansions. They have their ups and downs, though provide the best Ark experience in the end. I play on a good (basically vanilla with a few mods) cluster that will wipe on the 25th with the release of genesis, so there are still good base game servers out there. I feel like most people play on the island anyway since they don't want to buy the DLC's.

[Rinaldo]

Originally posted by VEGλ:

Essentially with the base game you'll get The Island, as well as any free official downloadable content (Valguero, Ragnarok, and The Center). You will only be able to play on the base map and free maps without the expansions. The paid expansion maps (Extinction, Abberation, and Scorched Earth) DO provide some advantages in the game, but some of those advantages are also obtainable on the free maps. The maps listed below of certain things in common.
Scorched and Ragnarok: Wyverns, cactus, silk, ect.
Abberation and Valgeuro: Some Abberation creatures, but none of the major players such as reapers and rock drakes. Valgeuro also has wyverns.
--
While the base game is limited to this, you CAN however install mods to get all of the expansion items on one single map, making it so you won't have to buy any of the DLC's anyway. There are also plenty of maps created by modders out there that also have the expansion items and dinos. Though in my personal opinion, it is worth it to purchase all of the expansions. They have their ups and downs, though provide the best Ark experience in the end. I play on a good (basically vanilla with a few mods) cluster that will wipe on the 25th with the release of genesis, so there are still good base game servers out there. I feel like most people play on the island anyway since they don't want to buy the DLC's.

What do you mean by advantages ? so if a person owns an expansion and i dont he got an advantage? doesnt we have the same circumstances if we play on the same serveR`?

[Lordbufu]

All assets across the main game and its DLC's are shared so you can, without having the DLC, get all the dino's and items (Trading, mods, cheating etc).

So technically you wont have a disadvantage, besides not being able to follow people onto certain maps when it comes to PvP.

That being said, when on a PvP server, trading might not always be an option (why trade a powerfull dino/item with an potential enemy ?).
In those few rare cases having the DLC would be an advantage, as you dont have to rely on others to get those few dino's/items you could not get otherwhise.

[187]

Look for a server with the mods that has the dinos from the DLC's.
Then you don't have to buy any DLC's and gain access to the dinos but as for the maps.
Aberration map is beautiful.
Watch some gameplay nd decide for yourself;p

[Rinaldo]

But if we play on the same server and 1 guy owns all the expansions can he go to a place where i cannot? because i only own the base game

[taeles]

the guy who bought all the expansions can go to all the maps. the guy who only has vanilla can only go to the vanilla and free dlc maps.

[Rinaldo]

i dont think u quite understand. If me (vanilla version) and my friend (all expansions) play on the same online server can he go to places where i cannot? and get items i cannot etc etc etc or do we have same limitations/possibilites

[Lordbufu]

Originally posted by DraMigBaklänges:

i dont think u quite understand. If me (vanilla version) and my friend (all expansions) play on the same online server can he go to places where i cannot? and get items i cannot etc etc etc or do we have same limitations/possibilites

On the same map and server, you have the same limitations as a person with all DLC's.
You just cant play on all the maps that the person with all DLC's can.

[Sicksadpanda]

Just for the record, if you're going to play on unofficial server, they might not always have paid DLC maps. Mods exists to bring whatever expansion items the other maps have, so server owners can host those as well.

In the end, it's ultimately where you play on. I don't think expansions are necessary to be good anymore as you could find most of these items via free DLC maps.

[Secret_Squirrel]

Originally posted by DraMigBaklänges:

But if we play on the same server and 1 guy owns all the expansions can he go to a place where i cannot? because i only own the base game

Unless the paid DLC's are in the same cluster... you would both be on equal footing.

Join a non clustered server... or a cluster that has no Paid DLC... and all equal

[Cobretti]

First question to ask is are you into PvP or PvE? PvE players would benefit more from the DLC as you get the difficulty of that map. The maps that have the DLC dinos such as Rags and Val have significantly reduced difficulty relative to the DLC those dinos are originally from.

That aside, new players are better off learning the game on the base map of The Island so no rush to get anything else at this stage.

[Doug chase hates truckersmp.com]

well fist is i hate mods it just hurt my computer it is not a gaming desktop computer but i do not like to do it my own because i bored easy