#All this said I don't want to mod a server of 100+ people so hopefully it doesn't get out of hand BUT

[nanatsuyu]

is the parallel play discord youre talking about making just for close mutuals/friends? genq!!

nope! im very happy to have anyone who wants to join! i want to make a lil space where people can feel comfortable chatting about stuff they're working on and perhaps not feel so isolated when doing so. (I know I work a lot better on deadlines or for xyz amounts of time if I have someone also doing the same.) so as long as everyone's cool, it'll maybe function as a lax study group of sorts and more friends can be made (: even if the 'study' is like me organising my backlog of papercrafts while in a vc while someone else works on art and so on and so forth.

[synthbutts]

Hey, sorry about anon, I'm deadly shy. Wanted to ask about Ark, since you're THE expert here. Do you think someone like me could play and enjoy it? I don't do any group content, ever. I always do everything solo in MMOs and if I can't, I just skip. So would I be able to enjoy all those cool wyverns and all if I only play solo? Thank you for your time.

Hey anon!

Short Answer: Yes Ark is totally playable and enjoyable as a singleplayer game and has a singleplayer mode (called ‘Local game’) on both PC and console! I’ve been playing solo for two years now, never done anything other than singleplayer and playing alone (sometimes with a friend) on my own server.

Long Answer: (I did cover a bit of this in a previous ask) Singleplayer and ultimately PVE Ark is what you make of it. Since you’re a solo MMO player then I’d imagine you’d have no problem creating your own goals and doing your own thing, but I don’t know you personally so I’m not able to 100% guarantee that it will be your sort of game.

Read more because it got too long

When you play singleplayer, you can adjust a load of settings to suit you, like your XP gain and health regen, or give yourself the ability to kill anything with one punch if you want (If you do end up playing and want some recommended singleplayer rates, I can provide these). While you can change all these settings, an important thing to remember is that Ark is meant to be a challenging game, meaning that you have to work your way up to achieving things (like wyverns or tek gear) but it’s all completely possible on your own! (In fact, I’d go as far as to say it’s the EASIEST way to get things in Ark, since official servers have gather rates and XP rates super low, and this and other reasons is why I tell people to stay away from official servers)

Also playing singleplayer means mods and cheats. You don’t feel like going up a mountain to get metal today? just spawn some in. You want to be able to knock out any dino with one dart? There’s a mod for that. This goes back to the ‘Ark is what you make of it’ point - it’s a completely customisable game that you can tweak to your liking (with restrictions to Xbox and PS4 versions however, since you can’t get mods on these platforms yet. Pretty sure you can still use spawn codes though)

Some points about Ark in general though:

- Make sure you have a decent PC before buying the PC version. I have a GTX 970 and my PC is starting to struggle with Ark and I certainly can’t have the highest settings. If you’re ok with low-medium graphics settings though, this isn’t an issue. Optimisations are coming in the next few months which will hopefully fix a lot of issues.

- Xbox and PS4 versions are not something I know much about but they’re pretty up to date these days and do more or less the same things the PC version does. I think they’re like... a week or two behind updates though? Nothing major however.

- Don’t expect a flawless experience. It’s early access, there are bugs and glitches, but that’s why mods and cheats are so great in singleplayer.

- Ark is currently on sale on steam, not sure about consoles but if you really do want to play, I would suggest getting it now and not at full release (8th August) because the price shoots up to $40-$50 soon.

- Ark is not a primitive dinosaur game set in the jurassic period lmao contrary to what the toxic fandom screams about on a daily basis. It’s a sci-fi game about an alien space station harbouring a synthetic ecosystem filled with a variety of prehistoric and fantasy creatures, where humans must adapt and evolve to use the creatures and tools around them to reach end game. There’s plenty of story content through the explorer notes and the lore of the ark (what we know so far) is really interesting.

I’M SO SORRY FOR WAFFLING I hope that clear is up at least. I know you said you’re shy but feel free to message me if you have any other questions about stuff :D