Our little band of survivors saved what we could from the wreckage and built a raft. We traveled up the coast under the cover of night until we came to a river mouth. Up the river we traveled, and the rising sun illuminated the entrance to a swampy forest. Cautiously we made our way through the swampy, battling Titanboas and giant bugs to the chorus of massive frog. Large horse-like creatures called Paraceratherium shook the ground with every step. Finally, after what seemed like days (it did take several ark days) we were free of the swamp.
We began exploring the area on foot and finally found a relatively flat shelf in the shadow of a mountain, just uphill from the river. There we built a magnificent base, and for a while, it was peaceful. Raiders came but they were small in number, and we did not store valuables at the base. As we leveled our characters we earned the ability to craft metal weapons. We made flak armor and painted it vibrant colors. At first, the base remained hidden in the woods, but soon the forest began to creep back, exposing a barren land around the outer walls. As the base grew, so did our little tribe. Barrett, a friend from Destiny joined, and we convinced more friends to join in.
I built a large base, with three buildings. One building was small, and held preserving bins and campfires. It boasted cat walks that crept out over the outer wall and provided an excellent place to ward off oncoming creatures with arrows. Another building along the southern wall of the complex held storage boxes and crafting stations. Standing tall above the rest of the building was the aviary. This building was comprised of six dino gates, 3 on the west side and 3 on the east side. The bottom of the building held more storage bins for saddles and equipment. Inside the gates were six stalls and a walkway in between. This building held our very first birds. Birds enabled us to fly all over the map. We used them to get the best metal on the highest peaks, carry in high level animals to tame, and battle mounts to pick up unsuspecting raiders and drop them from hundreds of feet in the air.
My first bird was named Sungold, because the unoriginal name “Fawkes” wasn’t permitted.
While I was busy exploring the map with Sungold, Thing 1 built a taming pen, just to the west of the base. Hidden in the woods, the pen was comprised of high walls and a small row building to store taming implements. Taming is very interesting in Ark. You have two types of tames, Passive or Knock out. Passive tames are done by following an animal in a crouched position and feeding it when it gets hungry. The more common taming type is the knock out method. That involves pin cushioning a dino with tranquilizer arrows or darts until it passes out. Then you fill it with food and narcotics, and force feed it narcotics until it’s tamed. Just in case you were worried that the game wasn’t creepy enough, you can also do that to people, the just don’t become tamed.
Barrett build a magnificent bridge. I wish I had pictures because nothing I can say could truly describe the splendor of this bridge. It towered 10 stories high, bridging our mountainside to the hill across the gully. Its covered platform was 30 feet wide and held tables and chairs surrounding a large industrial grill. Ark had just released an update that included beer barrels, so lining one side of the platform stood a dozen kegs. Be careful though, beer affects you differently in Ark.
We had settled in quite nicely and were manufacturing metal tools with ease. We lined the top of the buildings with special plants called species X. These plants could fire green balls of something or other at people, tamed dinosaurs, and wild dinosaurs. You could adjust the settings of the plants to determine what it should fire at, and the range at which it would begin to fire. Eventually, we had leveled up enough to begin producing auto turrets to defend the base! Unfortunately, the resources needed to build turrets were difficult to gather and we were not able to produce more than one. But that one lone turret stood proudly on top of our main base. For about a day. Then all our shit came crashing down at the (tiny) hands of an Alpha TRex. I still remember the fear as I tried in vain to get the animals out. I was on all by myself, whistling frantically to get the animals to follow. As I tried to fly out of the base on Sungold with the rest of the birds set to follow, the rex knocked me back and killed me instantly. My bird, and subsequently all the other birds, died while hovering patiently over my body. Dejected and alone, I left the Ark.
Base Two Summary
Ark Location: 55Lat 54Lon
Environment: Dense forest between mountain and river
Dangers: Sabers, Scorpions, Rexs Carnos, Cold.
Tribe Members: Kant, Thing 1, Thing 2, CQBarrett, Outlaw, Kan