Ark: Survival Evolved Review (Ebon)
As someone who has nearly 6k hours on this account, and another 2kish floating around on my alt acc (For when I hosted my own server, an account for admin commands/ plus when my PC was broken and used my fathers steam to play **Switching accounts causes issues within the mods, causing them to corrupt and force you to uninstall/reinstall the game AND all mods**)
Here is a couple tips on what TO DO and what NOT TO DO.
Do: Take your time, test out the waters before you go in. Be aware of your surroundings ESPECIALLY when
you're taming a new dino-friend to join your Tribe!
Do: Play PvE! I cannot stress this enough if you are new! This will keep your items and tames **MOSTLY** safe from other players!
Do: Tame a male and a couple females for your egg farms. Also tame an Oviraptor for faster egg laying!
Do: Keep taming supplies on you 80% of the time, you'll never know when you see that sweet high level dino you've been searching for unintentionally!
Do: Carry extra food and water! You never know if you'll get side-tracked and starve-hunting means you can't heal or have to spend precious time gathering those bushes for food!
Do: Join alliances! you get your own ally chat, and it helps form relations with other tribes without having to hope for the best and hand all your items over. Tribes have been known to recruit you and all your belongings just to kick you out right after!
Do: Help out a player if they're having a rough time. If they're new, simply giving them a decent leveled Ptera, some food, basic metal tools goes a super long way! Don't give anything too crazy, though! It can kill the immersion and leave the game feeling bland because you just gave 5 max level wyvern eggs to some dude on the beach.
Do: If your server doesn't have one, build a community center! They offer a great place for meet ups and trades, and all around add a nice feeling to your server, especially if it's PvE, it gives a sense of unity and community.
Do: Share the wealth! If you and another member on the server are both Wyvern Egg Hunting, or looking for rare resources, don't be 'that' guy and steal all the eggs before they get a chance. If you're alone, it's best to pick up all the eggs so new, higher level ones can spawn! :)
DONT: Never! NEVER let someone YOU DONT KNOW into **YOUR** tribe. This is how you wake up either 100% foundation wiped, dinos stolen, resources stolen and precious, precious blueprints gone in the blink of an eye. **As a server owner, I cannot say how many times I had to deal with petty drama, namecalling and more because someone decided they didn't want to be in a tribe anymore and thought that all of the items belonged to them!**
DONT: Play PvP. Just don't. Save yourself the agony of waking up to someone have completely raided and foundation wiped all your hard work.
DONT: DO NOT PLAY OFFICIAL PVP AT ANY COST. I played 4k hours in official PVP. Just don't. Take my advice. Do not. You will get 500+ dinosaurs, Turrets and more instantly wiped from a chinese hacker on a level 1 ptera. Hacking and Duping is almost a given on every single Official PVP server.
DONT: Do not play any 'pay to win' PvP servers. I've seen many servers hand under the table rare resources, over leveled dinosaurs to Alpha Tribes because they slip money under the table or flat out purchase dinos/items from the shop. This leaves it to whomever has the biggest wallet and if you spend 10 dollars on a high level dino, you're wasting your time and money because they can just die at a moments notice. -- I have also seen admins take payment, give the dino or purchased item, then turn around and tell the Alpha Tribe to wipe you because you purchased something.
DONT: join servers that have the day set to always 1. Those end up being high rate servers with tons of players, especially high rate servers. You'll spend more time looking for a space to build than you will be trying to play the game. They also wipe frequently.
DONT: For the love of God and all that is holy. Never ever, never, and when I say NEVER, I really mean it. Never join 500x all or higher servers. Those are the most absolute clusterhell servers that entice spoiled brats who will attempt to lure and kill your dinos even in PvE for simply refusing to give them a single item.
Example: Spoiled kid who was ungodly rude and entitled demanded *not even ask* for me to give them a high level egg. I had told them no, next thing I know they (and on this server we had teleporting)- They teleported all of my dinosaurs *before cryopods/dino storage mod* into the ocean to drown. - And this isn't even the last time I encountered such entiled children.