NOTE: These "marching orders" are NOT actually mandatory. Rather, they are intended to help us establish community goals that we can work towards together. Your participation is greatly appreciated and encouraged, but by no means feel it is expected or required of you. Join us for what you can and most importantly, have fun! The FJORDUR map is an especially tough map to get established on. Nevermind numerous carnivores willing to eat your face off, you are also tackling extreme cold as well as difficult terrain that makes getting a foothold more difficult than on some other maps. Despite that, the Skjaldborg proper has managed to establish itself in the safety of what we are calling "Castle Rock" on the extreme east coast of the map. We also have some smaller settlements made by individuals scattered around the area. Notably, Solomance has built a large ramp directly west of Castle Rock (north of the nearby lake) that gives us more easy access to the higher areas of the Broken Meadows and the Runheimr Forest. Key notes: Blue Circle = Castle Rock - our main staging area Blue Rectangle = Solo's Bridge Yellow Circle = Hunting Grounds (for deinonychus eggs) Yellow Square = Hunting Grounds (for organic polymer) Key points I want to make about Castle Rock; inside the cave you will find: probably the safest area to log off; it is well protected with spikewalls and a gate. a steady supply of meat and veggies available for anyone to use. a well stocked bait-making station (required for taming most creatures you may need) a supply of weapons and armor that you may use (within reason) a steady supply of metal you can mine from the rocks within the cave (just please don't build too close to them) an oil pump station that produces all the oil we need (and then some). PLEASE NOTE: Castle Rock is there for everyone, but please don't abuse it. If you pull a lot of resources from it, please try to give back to the best of your ability. Look to see what we are low on and replace what you can. Finally, here are your "marching orders": Now that we have established a firm hold on East Vannaland, we need to build up our strength for a push into the mainland. This will require better gear and better creatures. These objective can be tackled in any order. OBJECTIVE #1: OBTAIN POLYMER FOR CRAFTING BETTER WEAPONS & ARMOR For better gear, it is simply a matter of crafting metal armor and guns; simple enough. We have all the metal we will ever need, but we need polymer. And the best place to get polymer material is Avalanche Point (see yellow square marked on map). There, you can hunt Kairuku for their organic polymer (be sure to use a club or sword!). Unfortunately, to get there in one piece, our only real option right now is to travel by boat. But watch out! The waters of Fjordur are filled with Leedsycthys that hate boats and will actively hunt them. Move fast and swift if you don't want to get eaten or stranded (then eaten). For this reason, it is highly recommended that you work in pairs or threes with one person staying to guard the boat. OBJECTIVE #2: OBTAIN EGGS FOR TAMING BETTER CREATURES For better creatures, it's a little less straightforward, but arguably less dangerous. The easiest way to get better creatures, is to use kibble. It is worth noting that you don't actually need EVERY type of kibble; taming tiers are broken down as such: Tier 1 tames can be fed any quality of bait Tier 2 tames will only accept Tier 2 bait or kibble that is Regular or better. Tier 3 tames will only accept Tier 3 bait or kibble that is Exceptional or better NOTE: as always, check the bait taming journal in-game for details (you craft it yourself) And for kibble, we need eggs. But not just any eggs will do now. Better creatures require better kibble, which requires "better" eggs. To be more specific: Basic - needs Extra Small Egg (ex. Dilo, Dodo, Parasaur) Simple - needs Small Egg (ex. Dimorph, Raptor, Trike) Regular - needs Medium Egg (ex. Anky, Bary, Carno, Steg) Superior - needs Large Egg (ex. Allo, Argent, Moschops, Spino) Exceptional - needs Xtra Lrg Egg (ex. Bronto, Rex, Therizino) Extraordinary - needs Special Egg (ex. Deino, Wyvern, Yuty) To narrow this down more, we need one breeding male and a host of females of the following: (a breeding male will cause females to lay eggs more frequently, even more so with an Oviraptor nearby) Primary Need: Dodo - their small size and fast breeding will make them easy to manage in a small penned in area. Steg - they are very easy to find and when mounted, they have the ability to tank loads of damage thanks to their "harden scales" ability; great as a cheap tank or general purpose "pack-mule" Bronto - besides being an easy tame and a great mount to build a mobile caravan, their eggs will also give us access to kibble that will help us tame some of the most difficult to obtain creatures. however, they will require a lot of space to house and so taming many of these might be better to delay for later. a few wouldn't hurt, though. Secondary Need: Parasaur - one of these set to sentry mode will be helpful in identifying enemies near us Trike - decent general purpose combat mount and pack mule, but lacks the durability of the Steg Raptor - decent scout and travel mount, but will be largely overshadowed by another creature we will get next... OBJECTIVE #3(a): RAID DEINONYCHUS NESTS FOR THEIR EGGS Deinonychus are a newer creature to Ark (unique only to Fjordur and one other map) and they have many abilities that we will find immediately helpful: they are a fast and powerful combat mount - pretty much anything you can't kill, you will be able to outrun. they have a powerful bleed ability that makes them useful even against bosses. they can climb verticle surfaces - this will be immensely helpful in giving us better mobility over Fjordur's difficult terrain. they have all the strengths of a Raptor and none of its weaknesses - they are raptors on steroids. we can use their eggs to make the most advanced kibble However, they cannot be tamed by normal means. Similar to wyverns, they can only be tamed from birth and that means STEALING fertilized eggs from the nests of parents... and naturally, the parents will not give them up willingly. Done incorrectly, this will be the most dangerous job. It is HIGHLY recommended you work in teams and a fast mount is almost required (preferably a Gallimimus which can carry two people). Preferred nesting sites of the Deinonychus are the southern half of the Broken Meadows. The most direct route will be through a natural mountain pass SW of Castle Rock, but you may find an easier time using Solo's Bridge to go West first and then South along the highlands. The Deinonychus like to make their nests along the ravines that cut through Broken Meadows. There's a lot of blind corners and it's full of predators so watch your back out there. OBJECTIVE #3(b): RAISE A DEINONYCHUS ARMY The Deinonychus is uniquely suited to the terrain of Fjordur and will help us greatly until we can secure more advanced mounts. At least two for each member will probably suffice, but more wouldn't hurt.
