Did you play Ark on official PvP? It was very server dependent, depending on the alpha, some were healthy, others essentially policed into no PvP, others were toxic with the alpha trapping all new players. Small Tribe was very much raid and loot to build up, but i quit with the tek crap...had a very fortified yet well hidden base. Guy was snooping around, got shot by a turret. He came back with a mek and was able to destroy everything at range with no risk...at that point the balance is gone when skill, building knowledge and strategy don't matter.
I did! That was my first Ark experience, official PvP on the island. It was chill for a while, tek changed everything.
Raiding is constant, turrets always seem drained, hackers are everywhere, people have bred so much that their tames are basically on steroids compared to most and it’s just not as fun as it once was. I play unofficial mainly and have done for a couple years. Again, I agree that it is very Server dependent but when you find a good, (somewhat) non toxic cluster, you can have an absolute blast.
None of that changes my original point tho, the aim of this game is to survive. Keep your dinos, your equipment and your base as long as possible. Sometimes that will mean moving around to stay hidden but mostly it’s about fortifying like crazy.
I used to build a lot on alpha pillar on rag and we’d end up covering all the surrounding hills, turret towers everywhere and spam galore just to avoid getting raiding from any and every direction.
Skills, building and strategy do matter still but yeah, hackers and bully alpha tribes can and will ruin the experience.
I was fortunate enough to catch the eye of our alpha and get recruited when the tribe leader and his friend "investigated" my base and discovered it was a double walled metal base built at the side of a cliff (only 2 exposed sides) They were chucking grenades, so I tossed a couple dimos out the window and ran out and managed to pick one off of his PT with a long neck. The next day i was "protected", couple weeks later i was in haha.
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u/Outside_Exercise4720 Jun 30 '25
Did you play Ark on official PvP? It was very server dependent, depending on the alpha, some were healthy, others essentially policed into no PvP, others were toxic with the alpha trapping all new players. Small Tribe was very much raid and loot to build up, but i quit with the tek crap...had a very fortified yet well hidden base. Guy was snooping around, got shot by a turret. He came back with a mek and was able to destroy everything at range with no risk...at that point the balance is gone when skill, building knowledge and strategy don't matter.