Coggage

In newbie zones boats take damage. It's to stop people leaving them all over the place, having multiple rafts and blocking the dock. It's to encourage people to move on to non-Lawless/Freeport zones. A raft lasts 10 hours, maybe an hour or two more if anchored. Keep repairing it, but you're better off getting out of Freeport and Lawless zones.

Oh, I thought green was land ahead of you and red was land behind you. They seemed that way yesterday, but I didn't give it more than a brief glance.

Pirate skill, so I have just read in a post.

Thank you SO much.  I've been trying to find Sap for the last 50 hours!

I doubt it.  You can build on them and that's how it should stay.  Freeports and Lawless are just starter zones, which is why they are outlined in white to show where you can start a new character.  All the rest of the map is "wild" zones where you can claim, build, get your corpse and gear back as well as use beds.

Utter long shot but someone earlier said go into options and set bandwidth to medium and it apparently fixed it for him.  Best info I have seen, but it's not much, sorry.

57 minutes ago, Winter Thorne said:

Apparently the 3 day limit is bugged.  People are reporting claims gone after logging out overnight or even for 4 hours.  Feels too mean to take advantage of that against someone going through all the same crap we are.

Ah.  Trouble is I don't know if it was bugged or not.  Now that the spawns are back to normal (thank god) I have spent most of the night there and, bar one player stocking up on supplies then sailing off, I have seen no-one around.  Maybe the INSANE spawns up to yesterday scared everyone off.

Space has opened up on two sides of me and no-one has moved in, so I think they are old claims that have decayed on their own(?).  This also leads me to think I haven't stolen some poor guy's land.  Hopefully.  I'm not going to claim the newly-available land though, as everyone needs a break.  It's a nice little island, bar the total lack of metal nodes.

Stick a claim down - if someone hasn't been active for 3 days they lose their claim to you.  You have nothing to lose by trying.  Quite a few player claimed everything in sight, and their timers are out because they haven't been back to their claims.  Space is opening up on the island I have a claim on.

Stick a claim down - if someone hasn't been active for 3 days they lose their claim to you.  You have nothing to lose by trying.  I noticed that the INSANE creature spawns on the island I have a claim on are gone.  I killed the only 3 Crocs I saw - lvl 6 was the highest - because they were a nuisance more than a threat.  I had ample time to Gather stuff, I even lay down and dug for water twice and wasn't attacked by anything.  From getting 6 to 10 bits of Fiber to make arrows I was able to leisurely take every patch I saw.

Up to now I was running to my raft and storing things in locked boxes in a desperate attempt to survive and scrape a handful of resources, but - by the gods! - I will actually be able to start building now.  I was past all hope yesterday and was ready to sail off and try my luck elsewhere, knowing it would be as bad everywhere else...

The Lawless and Freeport zones are starter zones, marked with white outlines so people can start off there.  The other zones fill the rest of the map, but of course you have to set sail and find them.  Claim and build, don't claim and just build, whatever suits you.  Beds work, of course, too.

Try the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of the page, maybe.

I found Salt rocks tonight, called Flake Salt, on a North Desert island in about a foot of water right next to the waterline.  About 2 feet long in size, ovoid, many-faceted but with smooth edges and bluish-white in colour.  Hope that helps.  It will be the first time I will have been able to try preserving food in 50 hours of play!

[from a similar thread I replied to, just wanted to share this]

Well, strangely, I made two brief visits to my claim earlier this afternoon and I noticed then that the spawns were markedly lower than yesterday.  No Alphas and maybe 2 Crocs I could see whereas yesterday it was a seething mass of Crocs, Snakes and Alphas all over the beach.  Two or three would hit my anchored raft, I'd have to try and kite them away and in the process picked up as many hostile mobs as I shook off.  I couldn't gather ANYTHING without being constantly attacked - gather 5 or 6 Fiber and I was attacked and had to run and try ad infinitum - and as for digging for water, well, that was utterly out of the question.  I had to die and spawn on my raft just because I couldn't get any water

I logged in about 20 minutes ago and it was even quieter!  There's a large sloped rocky outcrop which was a war zone between Elephants vs Snakes vs Crocodiles and there was ONE Giant Snake having a go at a bird.  I saw one Croc and it went pretty close to me - well within what would have been the usual aggro range - and it just walked past.  It almost freaked me out!!  Astoundingly, I was able to dig for Water TWICE, uninterrupted and unmolested.  That freaked me out as well! 

I really, really hope this is because they fixed animal spawns and I didn't notice the patch...

Well, strangely, I made two brief visits to my claim earlier this afternoon and I noticed then that the spawns were markedly lower than yesterday.  No Alphas and maybe 2 Crocs I could see whereas yesterday it was a seething mass of Crocs, Snakes and Alphas all over the beach.  Two or three would hit my anchored raft, I'd have to try and kite them away and in the process picked up as many hostile mobs as I shook off.  I couldn't gather ANYTHING without being constantly attacked - gather 5 or 6 Fiber and I was attacked and had to run and try ad infinitum - and as for digging for water, well, that was utterly out of the question.  I had to die and spawn on my raft just because I couldn't get any water

I logged in about 20 minutes ago and it was even quieter!  There's a large sloped rocky outcrop which was a war zone between Elephants vs Snakes vs Crocodiles and there was ONE Giant Snake having a go at a bird.  I saw one Croc and it went pretty close to me - well within what would have been the usual aggro range - and it just walked past.  It almost freaked me out!!  Astoundingly, I was able to dig for Water TWICE, uninterrupted and unmolested.  That freaked me out as well! 

I really, really hope this is because they fixed animal spawns and I didn't notice the patch...

It may be a fluke but the last two brief visits I have made to my patch have shown a lot less spawns on the beach.. I saw no Alphas (unusual in itself) and less Croc spawns with maybe one on the beach I can see and a couple more along the beach out of aggro range.  I hope it continues!!

I read that using Climbing Picks to get to the top of high outcrops of rock will result in finding metal nodes.  I wish I could try it!

The island I am on seems better.  Not so many spawns for some reason. Hope it stays that way!

Mortar and pestle (Cooking skill?  Chemicals?  I forget) to make preserving salt and use the preserving bag (with salt for "fuel") you make in the loom to make food last longer.  There may be other uses, I don't know about.

When I first arrived and claimed my little domain I thought, "Right, clear the beach, start gathering and then some building..." and blithely set off to do so.  Seventy-two arrows expended in minutes and the beach was no emptier than it was when I started.  I honestly got the feeling they were spawning as fast as I was killing them.  I was spamming E to try and get fiber for arrows as I evaded the beasties and managed to get about six bits in total.  It seems from this and the Steam forum that everyone has the same problem.

Large plots in Ark are for Defensive Plants, which act like turrets.  They (and the Medium) also hold more fertilizer for normal crops, but they give the same crop yield as small/medium plots.  Probably the same here, though I have seen no mention of turret plants up to now in Atlas.

Strangely, I just logged in saw only 1 Croc on the shore and an Alpha Vulture.  I actually managed to get some Fiber!!  You see, next time it will be overrun with them.

Ouch!  Now that really is a bad break.  Not even your fault, either.  My sympathies.

Yet people complain rafts decay and vanish. I do see your point though and agree.

Damn!  I saw a LOT of those yesterday on my first-ever trip out of Freeport but they must ignore rafts as they never bothered me.  Lucky, eh!

I hear you, ladies and gentlemen.  I landed to stake a claim, then planned to get some more Fiber and basic stuff to build.  Three crocs then attacked my raft and after I'd killed one the other two were somehow stuck on the mast of my raft, still attacking, so I had to flee.  As I fled, in the space of 5 or 6 seconds (I kid you not!) I had 2 crocs, an Alpha croc and a giant snake chasing me... and they chase you FOREVER!  Quite a rush, mind you, but I've already had one heart attack and would like to avoid another one.