Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Tales from the Ark: Clever Guy

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After spending a few hours on my own solo play of Ark, I decided to make the jump onto a server with others. It wasn’t a random pick though, I joined Massively OP’s Ark server. It’s set for PvE so I don’t have to worry about other players attacking me, but I wouldn’t have to anyways since it’s a very relaxed server with just a handful of people that play. My kind of pressureless environment.

So I was out exploring the river and beaches around my slice of heaven and came across a small hut that was abandoned by its owner. You can tell because it allows you to demolish it. Active players will reset a timer on their structures to prevent others from just demo’ing it, so this player hasn’t been on in a while.

I thought to go check it out for any loot left behind and noticed the doorway was left open. Suddenly I hear these footsteps rushing up behind me, which pretty much means something very bad. Many creatures have a unique sound they make when you’re near them, and some make a sound when they are going to attack. Large creatures have larger sounding footsteps, but these sound light, and quiet. As a modern major general can tell at sight a Mauser rifle from a javelin, I too can pick out the silhouette, movement and sounds of many creatures on the island and I knew only one creature that would attack with this kind of stealth - raptors.

As soon as I was hit, I dashed for the doorway and quickly pushed myself into a corner in the hut. When I turned, there it was, standing in the doorway, staring me down. I only have my simple tools and a crossbow to defend myself, so I pulled out my pickaxe for a fight to the death.

You may go, “but Tyrannodorkus, why not use the crossbow?” And where I’d say “hush you, this was a matter of life and death and I wasn’t thinking.” Besides, raptors move too quickly at close range to reliably hit them with a crossbow, and they are slow to reload. My pickaxe was the best choice.

During my stare down, I noticed two more raptors pass by the door, and I hear more steps around the hut. As I counted, there were seven raptors altogether, SEVEN! I didn’t think they grouped up that largely. It must have been a couple groups that merged together to hunt me.

So I’m ready to take down one or two before my death, but realized as the one in the doorway turns around and circles the hut, they can’t fit through the entrance. Luck and game mechanics were on my side. I used this to my advantage and got close to the door to lure them to the killzone where I’d swing like the dickens. They got a few lucky swipes in there, but I emerged the victor. It felt like the 300 Spartans defending a bottleneck, except I lived in the end. Seven raptor corpses later, I’m now knee deep in raw meat and hide. Huzzah!

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