Why so negative about unofficials?

[Ulta]

55 minutes ago, ducttapefixeseverything said:

Well, I grew up in a time before special snowflakes wanting extra attention and privileges. So it has nothing to do with being "hardcore". More of a general disgust at the people who used game genie instead of actually playing the game. I see no difference. It is why I decided to go back to official from hosting my own server. no sense of accomplishment. Did'nt ffel like I had earned anything. If it tickles your pickle to play easy mode, go ahead. Just don't brag about using cheat codes.

Unofficials can be a spitting image of an official server with the same rates if the admin so wanted. The only difference is it's owned by an admin and they get a vastly wide selection of mods if they want to change up their server. That does NOT instantly equate to 'easy mode'. If you add a mod that makes super high levels and such, or bump up the rates to extremely high level's, then maybe it can become easy mode. But those servers don't live very long BECAUSE of it. I myself ran into this problem where the high levels of a server I played on made the game boring after a few months. So what did I do? I rented my own server, made the rates just a smidget higher than official, added some mods that gave us SE dinos and some extra building things, and that was it. The vastly slower (but tolerable) progression and seeing how now all the vanilla dinos were back to being useful again was a wake up call.

So next time, before you seem to accuse everyone who plays on unofficial to be 'uncool kids', think about what you said. You telling us were are cheating babies is just as bad as unofficial people bragging about whatever they do in their 'easy mode'. I love unofficial for it's sheer customization. You like official for what WC is intending, which is great! We need people like you to help test the game that's under their vision. But let us who enjoy having fun in a different way than you without the mud-slinging shall we? If WC was completely against using mods for their game, they would have never allowed workshop content. Nuff' said.

On topic though, I can see how some would be scared of unofficial just because it could shut down at the admin's whim. Same with admin abuse. But if you can find a server that has an admin who loves ARK and has a great community, I can't tell you how much fun and rewarding it is.

[Warreng]

I play official but i have played non dedicated and I also have single player world's that I play on as well. I feel a sense of accomplishment when I do something on official but when I get tired of chat drama or want to try something that was just released I play single.

[GP]

46 minutes ago, ducttapefixeseverything said:

Well, I grew up in a time before special snowflakes wanting extra attention and privileges. So it has nothing to do with being "hardcore". More of a general disgust at the people who used game genie instead of actually playing the game. I see no difference. It is why I decided to go back to official from hosting my own server. no sense of accomplishment. Did'nt ffel like I had earned anything. If it tickles your pickle to play easy mode, go ahead. Just don't brag about using cheat codes.

You are exactly the sort of reason I choose not to play officials. Your view of anything outside of official is very toxic.

[thedogowl]

Yeah, my memories from official were; worse performance, less fun, more assholes, more salt, less space, lower QoL gamewise.

Now don't get me wrong we struggled to find a nice server for ages, a lot the rates are just too high and like has been suggested it takes a lot of the sense of achievement out of the game, or it has some enormous mod list that will inevitably cause problems down the line, or it's abandoned/in the process of being abandoned. 

We found a few good ones and eventually a really good one found us and we've been on for the last few months; just gotta sift through the unsuitable ones and eventually you can find a server that fits exactly what you want/enjoy!

[Darkwinter]

What are the costs to host an unofficial server? 

[Ulta]

To add this this, is there a website out there where ARK server owners can post what mods their server has? Deos one already exist? Because it would be awesome if there was a website out there were players looking for a new server can see and search for that perfect server. It could include the ability to search via what mods they use, rates, or maps, etc.

[1david25]

4 hours ago, GP said:

I think generally it's either lack of faith that the admin will keep it running (many say the majority shut it down after a month, but I don't believe that), or they don't trust admins due to admin abuse.

I've been running one for 5 months and it's not going anywhere! The fact is there is much more admin support on unofficials than there is on officials.

But i've never played on officials so I could be wrong, but that's just what i've observed in regards to people's dislike of unofficials.

Yep right on the money. People do not trust community's. Mine has been around for a year now and unofficial with good admins have much better support.

[thedogowl]

As well if the admin's don't clean up wrecked bases what often also happens from my experience is people will get raided, rage quit to another server, then numbers slowly start to dwindle because fresh people log in and see all the spots taken by ghost bases and assume it's already been abandoned, speeding up the death of the server no end.

[ducttapefixeseverything]

24 minutes ago, GP said:

You are exactly the sort of reason I choose not to play officials. Your view of anything outside of official is very toxic.

Incorrect. This is Ark "Official Forums" Not "Look at my level 1 million T-rex!" This place is supposed to be for "Official". It's in the title. Unofficial is an entirely different set of rules and rates. Having people compare 50X harvesting with Classic flyers mod on a PVE server is not the same as a discussion about primitive plus on an official, and should not be regarded as the same. I care not about your game mode, or even system you choose to play it on. Do I have a different view towards different modes? Yes, as does everyone. I can't count the number of times I have seen insults hurled back and forth at "manchild toxicity" in PVP and "care bear PVE servers". Perhaps a place where people could go discuss their unofficial modded servers? Instead of muddying up "Official" forums with "Unofficial" stuff?

Just for clarity's sake?

And yes, accelerated rates on unofficial modded was very unrewarding. Two months unofficial, 17 months official. Everyone's tastes are different. And people who play in one mode don't usually care for others in a different mode, because they play entirely different games with some of the same creatures and maps and have no bearing on each others game modes or experience. Why do you think players cry so much about across the board nerfs or rollbacks due to one mode gaining an unfair advantage and blame each other continuously?

I'm not going to pretend that people do not get mad in PVE mode at PVP players, or vice versa. It happens, and will always happen. Neither side will be happy, ever.

I did giggle a bit at your joke though. Me, toxic indeed. Perhaps GMs should spend a bit more time in bad official servers and learn what toxic really is. Maybe there is some sort of disconnect with the people who work on the game and moderate it versus actual real players. Rules prevent naming and shaming servers, but thirty seconds of research would do you to find a nice nasty server to gain some "Toxic" experience for a week or two and so broaden your horizons on just how "Toxic" this game can be. And not on an official PVE, although official PVE does have it's own brand of trolls and toxicity combined with the utter helplessness of being able to combat the trolls or even build a campfire.

I am actually a friendly player. Believe it or not. I am just not afraid to say out loud how each game mode views each other. I'm not going to pretend everything is all sunshines and rainbows in candyland. And I do not play hardcore mode because it does not appeal to me. But props to the guys who do. That's some rough stuff.

See? I do not see my game mode as hardest. I know it is not. Is it the best for me? I can't ever see myself playing PVE. Unofficial? I have before. I do not discount the possibility, only the probability. But you cannot compare apples and beets. Reason I say beets is because oranges are still sweet fruits.

Beets are still food, just not anywhere close to apples in taste or appearance. Same as the many different game modes and systems.

[DankestKhan]

Personally I play unofficial because I have no desire to play another MMORPG, which is what official servers and vanilla rates feel like to me.

Plus no mods, which is half the fun of this game.

6 minutes ago, ducttapefixeseverything said:

stuff

I'm chiming in to correct the record on a few misconceptions you may have about these forums.

1) Moderators are volunteers on these forums, not paid staff

2) Official forums means that they are hosted by WC in contrast with offsite forums. An example of an unofficial forum would be reddit.com/r/ark

[GP]

8 hours ago, ducttapefixeseverything said:

Incorrect. This is Ark "Official Forums" Not "Look at my level 1 million T-rex!" This place is supposed to be for "Official". It's in the title.

You seem to fail to understand what "Official Forum" means. Official Forum means it is the real forum set up by the Developers of ARK for the ARK Community. An "Unofficial Forum" would be a forum set up be a fan of the game who wants to create their own community. Official Forums has nothing to do with Official or Unofficial servers.

8 hours ago, ducttapefixeseverything said:

Having people compare 50X harvesting with Classic flyers mod on a PVE server is not the same as a discussion about primitive plus on an official, and should not be regarded as the same. I care not about your game mode, or even system you choose to play it on.

Who is comparing apples with oranges and classing it as the same? Again, the fact you fail to understand what Official Forum means clearly means you fail to understand the point of this Forum. The point of this forum is to make a place for all the ARK community to chat and share experiences and get help etc regardless of how they play ARK.

You claim Unofficial Servers are "easy mode", yet you fail to realise that some unofficial servers are exact duplicates of official server settings, the only difference is it is run by an admin that can provide support as and when it is needed. Is this considered easy in your books even though all settings are equal? Some unofficial servers keep the settings the exact same as Official servers but also have a single mod like Difficulty 6+ (where dinos spawn upto lvl 180), or Difficulty 8+ where they spawn upto lvl 240. Is that still considered "easy mode" just because it's an unofficial server?

8 hours ago, ducttapefixeseverything said:

I did giggle a bit at your joke though. Me, toxic indeed. Perhaps GMs should spend a bit more time in bad official servers and learn what toxic really is. Maybe there is some sort of disconnect with the people who work on the game and moderate it versus actual real players. Rules prevent naming and shaming servers, but thirty seconds of research would do you to find a nice nasty server to gain some "Toxic" experience for a week or two and so broaden your horizons on just how "Toxic" this game can be. And not on an official PVE, although official PVE does have it's own brand of trolls and toxicity combined with the utter helplessness of being able to combat the trolls or even build a campfire.

I know how toxic official servers can be, that's why I prefer unofficial servers because many have admins that care about their server and the players on their server. Doesn't change the fact you clearly have a toxic attitude towards anyone outside of official servers and therefore anyone that doesn't play the way you play.

 

[GaleTheWhale]

I like unofficials that have a balance in their rates. For me, the grind of vanilla rates is just too slow and boring to keep me interested, while rates that are too high give me no sense of accomplishment. Building that really cool base on balanced rates is a really nice feeling.
I also try to find a server that has a small collection of quality of life mods, like the Structures Plus series of mods. I avoid servers with mods like Annunaki like the plague, those kinds of mods are not my cup of tea and I feel like they add something that Ark doesn't really need.

I think the fact that many admins abuse admin rights and that many servers go down after a month or two turns a lot of people off about unofficials. And it can take a while to find a server that you feel is a good fit for you, and the constant starting over on a new server can burn someone out pretty fast.

[Housatonic]

11 hours ago, Darkwinter said:

What are the costs to host an unofficial server? 

It depends on where you host exactly, but I think the average for a modest but decent server would be $20-30 a month.

[BobRoss]

11 hours ago, Ulta said:

To add this this, is there a website out there where ARK server owners can post what mods their server has? Deos one already exist? Because it would be awesome if there was a website out there were players looking for a new server can see and search for that perfect server. It could include the ability to search via what mods they use, rates, or maps, etc.

ark-servers.net allows you to promote your server and gives the option to state the mods and rates you use. 

[BobRoss]

i think its mostly people being afraid of the server shutting down without notice or the admins abusing their rights or making adjustments to mods and multipliers they dont agree with. 

on the other hand i think its also a feeling of satisfaction they get from playing official. to achieve things the way the devs want it. 

the third reason is only my opinion but the ongoing discussion on this thread confirms it for me. people want to be sociopaths or bullies and know they will get instabanned on unofficial if they do this. they know official is poorly monitored so they can do as they please with a minimum risk of getting banned

[DBN]

IMO its officials are hard to get started. But a huge ass multiverse of pvp and raiding times!

[JetJaguar]

I'll never understand the Official vs Unofficial arguments. Like someone threatening me to drink Pepsi instead of Coke. They crop up in almost any thread where someone complains about nearly anything: "Well you should be playing on unofficial. that's what you get for playing on an official server".

Having ran a server and also played on unofficial servers, my two cents are this:

• Unofficials are never a "guarantee" the same way officials are. If you goto the Steam forums, since these forums have not been around since day 1 of Ark's release, and look at the advertisements, you will see very few if any, of the original unofficial servers remain.

• A good chunk of the unofficial servers are run by kids/college kids (20 somethings..). Due to college/financial situations/moving onto another game/relationship issues, and so forth, the servers can come and go like a ship in the night. Imagine spending 6x months building up stuff to be told the server is shutting down; admin is going to Call of Duty or graduating college or too busy with a SO to bother anymore, etc.

• Unofficials are at at the mercy of the provider that's hosting it. Its not in the admin's control. They can only email them for help if there are any type of server issues.

• Some of the unofficials are completely bogged down with dozens of mods. it completely changes the game and gameplay.

• Because of the, for lack of a better word, distrust with admins, many servers have just small handfuls of players. Id rather play with 20+ people online when Im on, then with 5 online each time Im on. No one wants to goto another server for fear of that server's admin shutting down at some point so everyone mulls around on the server where they feel its "safe" and not going anywhere.

• Occasionally you have the server where the admins spawn in whatever their buddies want or find it "funny" spawning crap into your base or making life difficult for you just to be "funny".

Those are some of the many varied reasons unofficials can be an issue. But like with choosing a soft drink, its YOUR CHOICE and your own reasoning behind why play or do not play on either type of server.

[ducttapefixeseverything]

5 hours ago, GP said:

You seem to fail to understand what "Official Forum" means. Official Forum means it is the real forum set up by the Developers of ARK for the ARK Community. An "Unofficial Forum" would be a forum set up be a fan of the game who wants to create their own community. Official Forums has nothing to do with Official or Unofficial servers.

Oh, I get it now. You are right, I did not at first get it. Now, I do. Your organization of types of game play types into one lump area not even by system leads to a lot of bickering between different game modes due to different priorities and styles of play. But, that must be what you want. Otherwise you would have organized it better.

6 hours ago, GP said:

You claim Unofficial Servers are "easy mode", yet you fail to realise that some unofficial servers are exact duplicates of official server settings, the only difference is it is run by an admin that can provide support as and when it is needed. Is this considered easy in your books even though all settings are equal? Some unofficial servers keep the settings the exact same as Official servers but also have a single mod like Difficulty 6+ (where dinos spawn upto lvl 180), or Difficulty 8+ where they spawn upto lvl 240. Is that still considered "easy mode" just because it's an unofficial server?

And normal, official rate servers are the rarity among unofficials. And an increase of difficulty on the dino spawns? Nah, Level increase of the dinos do not make difficulty harder. At the point where you tame your first high level dino like a rex, it all becomes pointless anyway. No different than vanilla at that point.

7 hours ago, GP said:

I know how toxic official servers can be, that's why I prefer unofficial servers because many have admins that care about their server and the players on their server. Doesn't change the fact you clearly have a toxic attitude towards anyone outside of official servers and therefore anyone that doesn't play the way you play.

And I grew up in a time where we settled issues between two people by talking or fighting. Not by screaming,"You're a big evil meanie", and hiding behind authority.

[Jerryn]

For me, I started on a private server, completely Vanilla rates, and no mods, back in Jun/Jul 2015.  I played when there was no kibble and when there was no Quetzal; and, fortunately, no Gigas.  We did not even have crossbows or tranq darts; you tranqed everything with bows(often more than 1) and tranq arrows.  When I started, max wild level was 30.   And, that was when harvesting, taming, and such was 1X, and there was no weekend bonuses. 

The only change made during time on that server is that eventually wilds went to level 120.  I managed to tame the first 120 rex on the server, by myself; tribemate got DCed, at his end(storm), as we started.  Harvested prime by myself.  Nearly froze to death twice.  And, in the end, tamed that 120 and gave it to my tribemate.

Later, the player count dropped and we eventually moved on, either out of the game or to other servers.  I played on a few private  servers.  Some did close down, and some were just not right for me.  No big deal, as I moved on and used my experience to build big, better, and faster.   The nice thing with some of the new servers were rates that allowed me to play solo, so that I did not have to rely on anyone else.  Nice when others were around to help, but not necessary for me to enjoy the game; and, is that the whole point of playing.

Eventually, got asked by someone who had played on a few of the same servers to come over to a new server he had and to help admin it.  That server has been up since Sept 2015, and currently has been extended another 7 months.  Since then, we have added two more servers, one which is currenlty extended out for another 6.5+ months and the other for 4.5 months.  In that time, we have only replaced a map once, when everyone has pretty much done and tame everything; so we switched from the Island to the Center.  Eventually, we added Scorched Earth and then the Island again.   We run mods and rates that are friendly for solo and small tribes, and we are small community.  Wouldn't mind a few more players, but, not a big deal to me either.

As an admin, I resolve server issues, deal with losses do to glitches(usually replacing lost items/tames with stuff from my own inventory instead of spawning stuff in), watching for griefers, adjust settings, build raidable bases, and fix things as needed; so far, I have been able to repair every issue and avoid any unplanned wipe due to either a patch and/or mod issue.   

Now, we are planning on dropping the SE server, as no one is playing it.  But, since we have it cross-arked with the other two servers, players have time to move their tames and stuff to one of the other servers; I am still moving.  Once everyone is moved, we are bringing up a control extinction server, with higher rates, different map, and different mods.  Basically, just going to let people play fast, try out all kinds of stuff, and then when are done, recycle and do another map and different mods.

And, or servers, which are mod heavy, for quality of life and variety(better rafts, different building mods, and such), is not for everyone, and how could they be.  But, they are just right for some, and that is what counts.

So, that is where I come from, and found that I have enjoyed my nearly 5,000 hours for the most part.  I have had times of frustration, when working out a server issue, dealing with a glitch(either fixing for some one or dealing with it myself), or the game just trolling me.  But, those moments are few in the grand scheme of it all.

As for this silly Official vs Private(Unofficial) war, I just don't get it.  Just like the PVE vs PVP silliness.  If you are playing the way you want(with out exploits, cheats, and hacks), then who cares.  I certainly am not going to get my knickers in a knot because someone is playing 20X vs 1X, or they are using 1 mod, 40 mods, or no mods.

And no server is without risk.  A private server could run for years, or it could be shut down after 1 month.  You could be on offical and get completely wiped or even captured and kept a prisioner for days, weeks, or months.  An official server could go low pop and be recycled.  Or you might have to deal with exploiters or griefers and wait for an admin.  Or you could be on a server with 'admin abuse'; or, in some cases, 'abused admin'.
 

In short, find what works for you, with the level and type of risk you are willing to accept, and have fun; it is not rocket surgery and it is not a world crisis.

 

[d1nk]

15 minutes ago, Jerryn said:

For me, I started on a private server, completely Vanilla rates, and no mods, back in Jun/Jul 2015.  I played when there was no kibble and when there was no Quetzal; and, fortunately, no Gigas.  We did not even have crossbows or tranq darts; you tranqed everything with bows(often more than 1) and tranq arrows.  When I started, max wild level was 30.   And, that was when harvesting, taming, and such was 1X, and there was no weekend bonuses. 

The only change made during time on that server is that eventually wilds went to level 120.  I managed to tame the first 120 rex on the server, by myself; tribemate got DCed, at his end(storm), as we started.  Harvested prime by myself.  Nearly froze to death twice.  And, in the end, tamed that 120 and gave it to my tribemate.

Later, the player count dropped and we eventually moved on, either out of the game or to other servers.  I played on a few private  servers.  Some did close down, and some were just not right for me.  No big deal, as I moved on and used my experience to build big, better, and faster.   The nice thing with some of the new servers were rates that allowed me to play solo, so that I did not have to rely on anyone else.  Nice when others were around to help, but not necessary for me to enjoy the game; and, is that the whole point of playing.

Eventually, got asked by someone who had played on a few of the same servers to come over to a new server he had and to help admin it.  That server has been up since Sept 2015, and currently has been extended another 7 months.  Since then, we have added two more servers, one which is currenlty extended out for another 6.5+ months and the other for 4.5 months.  In that time, we have only replaced a map once, when everyone has pretty much done and tame everything; so we switched from the Island to the Center.  Eventually, we added Scorched Earth and then the Island again.   We run mods and rates that are friendly for solo and small tribes, and we are small community.  Wouldn't mind a few more players, but, not a big deal to me either.

As an admin, I resolve server issues, deal with losses do to glitches(usually replacing lost items/tames with stuff from my own inventory instead of spawning stuff in), watching for griefers, adjust settings, build raidable bases, and fix things as needed; so far, I have been able to repair every issue and avoid any unplanned wipe due to either a patch and/or mod issue.   

Now, we are planning on dropping the SE server, as no one is playing it.  But, since we have it cross-arked with the other two servers, players have time to move their tames and stuff to one of the other servers; I am still moving.  Once everyone is moved, we are bringing up a control extinction server, with higher rates, different map, and different mods.  Basically, just going to let people play fast, try out all kinds of stuff, and then when are done, recycle and do another map and different mods.

And, or servers, which are mod heavy, for quality of life and variety(better rafts, different building mods, and such), is not for everyone, and how could they be.  But, they are just right for some, and that is what counts.

So, that is where I come from, and found that I have enjoyed my nearly 5,000 hours for the most part.  I have had times of frustration, when working out a server issue, dealing with a glitch(either fixing for some one or dealing with it myself), or the game just trolling me.  But, those moments are few in the grand scheme of it all.

As for this silly Official vs Private(Unofficial) war, I just don't get it.  Just like the PVE vs PVP silliness.  If you are playing the way you want(with out exploits, cheats, and hacks), then who cares.  I certainly am not going to get my knickers in a knot because someone is playing 20X vs 1X, or they are using 1 mod, 40 mods, or no mods.

And no server is without risk.  A private server could run for years, or it could be shut down after 1 month.  You could be on offical and get completely wiped or even captured and kept a prisioner for days, weeks, or months.  An official server could go low pop and be recycled.  Or you might have to deal with exploiters or griefers and wait for an admin.  Or you could be on a server with 'admin abuse'; or, in some cases, 'abused admin'.
 

In short, find what works for you, with the level and type of risk you are willing to accept, and have fun; it is not rocket surgery and it is not a world crisis.

 

Please help us get devs to add some qol changes to console hosting such as weight spawns, configable dino spawns, other qol ini changes (platform struc, etc)

Pwease!

[Ryuk]

I've noticed there is many unofficial servers where the admins just abuse their powers. Even with admin log enabled they can still spawn things in when nobody else is online or maybe just disable it without anyone knowing? I've been on many servers where the admins just own the server to wipe out the people who join. It's really strange. 

Another factor is the admin may not be dedicated enough to update the server fast enough or they might just decide to stop paying for it.

There has never been an unofficial server that I've played that isn't one of these two things. The good severs just go down eventually and the others are admins who clearly spawn everything in yet they still want to raid the people who join anyway.

[BulletForce]

My experience has been as follows. I've played on 3 unofficial servers with "PVP" in their title. We did PVP on those servers and were either banned or had an admin come and mess with our base and in the last server it was blatantly obvious that the admin was spawning in stuff for his own tribe not to mention making quite obvious use of an aimbot.

On the first server the admin came and deleted all our doors off our base. On the second server the admin basically told us straight up on Teamspeak that we were "bad for his server" and that we were "causing people to leave his server" and thats why he banned us. The third server we played on for some mysterious reason had Battle Eye disabled.  The admin was in his own tribe on that server that was incredibly wealthy and as it turns out did not have a problem with a player in his tribe blatantly aimbotting...

I haven't bothered since with unofficials. Not worth the time or effort.

[ducttapefixeseverything]

Speaking of admin abuse, I used to troll, or scavenger hunt, or just be a doofus, I dunno. I ran around nekkid all of the time and would hide small wooden boxes with a piece of gear, or a vault placed with a few good items locked in it, basically just hiding stuff in hard to reach or find places. About three fourths of the time, there would be stuff in the box or vault. Sometimes not. It amused the crap out of me. Especially the one time a guy used a bunch of c4 to blow a vault I had hidden only to find an ascendant phiomia saddle with nearly 200 armor. That provided me with giggles for a week. I know he farmed the c4, because I did not leave explosives in the stuff laying around. Saddles and armor and weapons. No bullets or explosives.

So yes, there are bad unofficials, maybe more bad unofficial servers than official. Some admins troll, some cheat, and some just spawn in stuff for their friends to run all over everyone else. And some just do silly crap. I remember an instance once of spawning in a players inventory 1000 large animal feces because they were complaining about having to run around and gather poop for their dung beetles. I meant to only do 100, but it was an accidental extra 0, I swear. (I know it did not give them 1000, but they were still item capped on poop.)

It was more of an occasional thing. Asking got you nothing. But they still had to fill dung beetles and wait for the fertilizer to be produced so they could plant their Plant X.

[Melcreif]

Great topic actually.  I first started playing on my own dedicated server about 15 months ago because my friends and I couldn't find an official server where we could all join at the same time.  We pooled our money and created our own.  The issue with dedicated was the server software which needs alot of improvement.  Our server would go down way too often and we'd need someone available immediately to get it back up and running. We kept it up for about 3-4 months and then decommissioned it permanently due to lack of players.  I then joined an official PVP server for about a year.  I'm still on that server and about a month ago joined the alpha tribe as an alt in an alliance with that tribe.  My tribes numbers have dwindled and a constant war with a tribe from another server kinda wore me out and I've since started playing again on a dedicated server.  The admin for this server is great and really tries his best to keep it fresh and alive.  He schedules events every Friday, is currently working on a SOTF map in the underworld (we play on the Center), and he even changes the map some weekends to Scorched Earth where we've been able to farm and create a base there as well.  It's cool!  The only drawback is the same as it was before.  I was playing this morning actually and while trying to get organic poly Xbox decided to do an update and so I'm stranded there until the server is updated and back online.  I of course had to go to work so I'm just hoping my Pteri is still there and my stuff hasn't been trolled.  I do think the pros of the RIGHT dedicated server out-ways the cons though and I think I'll be there awhile.  I can't imagine starting out new on an official server and actually making any headway with how paranoid alpha's have become.  I know our Alpha tribe pretty much kills all noobs on sight assuming they are probably just another Alpha from another server scoping us out...

[Rhedosaurus]

I've been running a server for over a year now and it's been working great. I ask who would like which mods, toss 'em in, and change the map every few months when things get stale. We play with pretty boosted rates now, but not for the first, say, 8 months. We all understand the grind, and just want to have a fun sandbox to goof around in now. The disdain for people who just want to play a game after work or school is ridiculous. No, I don't want to tame a rex for 5 hours, I just want to have fun after work and before bed for an hour or two.