Game is 20x better on Unofficials, just fyi

[ChargingParacerParacer]

If it wasn't for singleplayer I never would have been interested in this game in the first place and certainly wouldn't still be playing every once in a while like right now. I just can't see myself trying to put up with Wildcard's idea of 'fun' rates/stats and with the lag that's always been there too that's a recipe for completely hating a game.

[powerstuck]

18 hours ago, Majix said:

I see all this anger and qqing and just bless my stars I play on an Unofficial. 

• QoL mods or radical changes that can enhance your play

So...what about the anger and qqing about bugs ? Oh wait, there are mods for that, so the modded game is great, the official game is what tho ?

Anger and qqing about lack of servers ? I guess your solution is to play on unofficial. Fine.

Why does no one who has a ''nice, 2k hours unofficial'' publishes a name/ip adress of their nice unofficial server ? I mean I would be willing to give it a shot but can't find a suitable one, maybe yours is.

[Jerryn]

3 hours ago, powerstuck said:

So...what about the anger and qqing about bugs ? Oh wait, there are mods for that, so the modded game is great, the official game is what tho ?

Anger and qqing about lack of servers ? I guess your solution is to play on unofficial. Fine.

Why does no one who has a ''nice, 2k hours unofficial'' publishes a name/ip adress of their nice unofficial server ? I mean I would be willing to give it a shot but can't find a suitable one, maybe yours is.

Because no one should be publishing anything about their servers anywhere except for the forums that allow server ads.  Otherwise, the excuse to spam up the forums with 'try my server' responses would skyrocket.

If you are interested, you can PM them for the information.  Or, you can check their posting history and see if you can find the server ad that way; assuming someone else is not handling the ad.

 

As to the actual topic:

Some of us prefer a small group, as we play for out own reasons, and don't need the 'accomplishments' of official PVP; sorry, that type of comment always makes me want to giggle.

I play for fun and like to play the way I want, and that is all the matters, no matter anyone's opinion. 

Never understood why these Official vs Unofficial vs Single Player, or PVP vs PVE, discussions have to to be turned into a mix of rocket surgery, generalities, hyperbole, and backhanded insults.  As I said, I play the way I like to play, and don't need anyone else to actually care or believe my way is the best way; and, it is not the best way, just my way.  For me, my personal value in the world has never been tied to performance in a game.  Plus, you get strange reactions when you list your game accomplishments on a resume...not sure why thought.  (So I see you designed an accounting system for tracking over $1b of inventory and $600m in monthly transactions, and you also helped establish an alpha tribe in PVP...very impressive.)

Now, contrary to myth, there are multiple servers out there that have been running since 2015.  Some have hardly, if ever, wiped.  Some will start new maps if players become bored or want a change.  Some do run different mods for different experiences, sometimes with it being known the server is short term and just for trying things out.   And, the great thing is, no one is forced to play them.  If you don't like the settings, you don't have to play that server.  If you don't like the mods, you don't have to download them, because, you don't have to play that server.  And, for those who do not want to deal with any of that, there are the free Official servers.

[Thorium]

19 hours ago, ForzaProiettile said:

From a PVP perspective unofficial servers act like a honey pot for bad and lazy players who can't handle the intense competition of official servers. These lesser quality 'Beta' players demand all sorts of ridiculous rules and regulations to accommodate their lack of ability and laziness.

 

As a result you end up with ridiculous rules such as the following which I've seen on several servers:
- Don't kill 'passive dinos' when raiding
- Players should only destroy a minimal amount of the structure when raiding.
- No 'griefing'
- No KOS
- Not allowed to attack the same tribe twice in a certain time period
- Must not build within 100m of a base

 

Not only are these rules against the spirit of PVP but they are also are not clearly defined or well thought out. What exactly is "minimal amount"? What happens if the enemy stores all their loot on their passive dinos? What the fk is "griefing", similarly how do you exactly measure 100m?

Yeah, the rule sets of many unofficial servers are indeed ridiculous.

Thats why i have a very simple rule set on my cluster:

Rules:

• It's a unmoderated server. So you don't have to be nice to people, you don't have to be politically correct. Everything you write in chat is considered part of the game. As long as you don't dox people you can write or say what ever you want, i don't care.
• No cheating, this includes bug abusing or exploiting. You are not allowed to abuse a game breaking bug, for example duping. There are a lot of small bugs that will not get you banned. If you are not sure what will you get banned and what will not get you banned, just ask me in Discord.
• Since we are using the ORP2 mod for offline protection we need to restrict the use of the offline protection, so you can't block content. You are not allowed to offline protect obelisks and caves with artifacts. You can still build there, you are just not allowed to offline protect there.
• You are not allowed to have alt tribes and characters for the purpose of protecting your stuff by abusing the ORP2 mod. You are allowed to have alt characters, however they need to be in the same tribe as your main character.
• You will not get compensation or help for stuff you lose to bugs. This is mainly so no abuse happens. If an admin loses stuff, he will never spawn it back. The same goes for every player. If you get stuck, you will not be teleported out. Ask players to help you. Or simply die. Losing tames is not as hard of a hit on our server as we have very fast breeding. This is a hard server with no admin intervention, but it's one you can be certain there is no admin abuse.
• There are no warnings and there are no punishments. If you don't stick to the rules, you will be permanently banned. This is a server you can do all kinds of stuff on without admin intervention. If you can't stick to the few rules we have, we just don't want you on our cluster.

[Thorium]

8 hours ago, Sphere said:

I wonder if it's because of an entitlement, because of server ownership. However they forget that it's not simply their server, it's everybody elses server too. Otherwise you might as well play singleplayer.

It's because it's tempting. There is this saying "Opportunity makes thiefs."

"I just teleport over. It's just to save some time."

"Can't place this wall from down here, i just fly up, it's just so i don't need to get the flyer out and save some time."

"Can't find my dino, i just go quickly into observer mode to find, just to save some time."

And they don't even realize they abuse. The best thing to avoid abusing as a admin yourself is: Don't give yourself admin while playing. And always ask yourself: "What i want to do right now, can this be done by any other player on my server?" If the answer to this is no. You don't do it! It is abuse. No matter how small it may look.

[IamTANK]

my server only has a few rules

- no griefing ( on my server griefing is wiping someone every day just to make sure they cant build up at all) raiding is fine

- do not block artifact caves or obbys ( everyone should have access to endgame if they choose)

as far as the admin abuse issue i have 1 admin besides myself . my admin tribe ( which is named as such so there is no confusion)  is a pve only tribe. we don't spawn anything in for anyone but ourselves. we don't give intel of any kind.  or take sides in any conflict. all other tribes are fair game to each other. this has worked out great on my server so far.

[Sphere]

3 hours ago, Thorium said:

It's because it's tempting. There is this saying "Opportunity makes thiefs."

"I just teleport over. It's just to save some time."

"Can't place this wall from down here, i just fly up, it's just so i don't need to get the flyer out and save some time."

"Can't find my dino, i just go quickly into observer mode to find, just to save some time."

And they don't even realize they abuse. The best thing to avoid abusing as a admin yourself is: Don't give yourself admin while playing. And always ask yourself: "What i want to do right now, can this be done by any other player on my server?" If the answer to this is no. You don't do it! It is abuse. No matter how small it may look.

This is a good reason why players will never be admins, including server staff. Actually going to have one account that is admin, that is in no way a player. All staff log into that to do in-game customer support work. This includes events. Going to suck to buy another copy of the game tho. lol

[KyloCruxOnYouTube]

Being a YouTuber, I have to agree. Unofficial servers have made the game a lot more pleasurable to an audience when taming takes 30 minutes to an hour instead of 3-4 hours and. x10 everything servers and the experience is just so much better compared to official, though I still play both I have to agree unofficial is better. 

[ForzaProiettile]

7 hours ago, Thorium said:

Yeah, the rule sets of many unofficial servers are indeed ridiculous.

Thats why i have a very simple rule set on my cluster:

Rules:

• It's a unmoderated server. So you don't have to be nice to people, you don't have to be politically correct. Everything you write in chat is considered part of the game. As long as you don't dox people you can write or say what ever you want, i don't care.
• No cheating, this includes bug abusing or exploiting. You are not allowed to abuse a game breaking bug, for example duping. There are a lot of small bugs that will not get you banned. If you are not sure what will you get banned and what will not get you banned, just ask me in Discord.
• Since we are using the ORP2 mod for offline protection we need to restrict the use of the offline protection, so you can't block content. You are not allowed to offline protect obelisks and caves with artifacts. You can still build there, you are just not allowed to offline protect there.
• You are not allowed to have alt tribes and characters for the purpose of protecting your stuff by abusing the ORP2 mod. You are allowed to have alt characters, however they need to be in the same tribe as your main character.
• You will not get compensation or help for stuff you lose to bugs. This is mainly so no abuse happens. If an admin loses stuff, he will never spawn it back. The same goes for every player. If you get stuck, you will not be teleported out. Ask players to help you. Or simply die. Losing tames is not as hard of a hit on our server as we have very fast breeding. This is a hard server with no admin intervention, but it's one you can be certain there is no admin abuse.
• There are no warnings and there are no punishments. If you don't stick to the rules, you will be permanently banned. This is a server you can do all kinds of stuff on without admin intervention. If you can't stick to the few rules we have, we just don't want you on our cluster.

Good rules. The only one I think that you will have issues with is the alt char one. How do you know if someone is using an alt in another tribe? IP's could match but they could argue its a family member. Seems like if someone wanted to flout it, it would be rather for you to prove it.

[ForzaProiettile]

6 hours ago, IamTANK said:

my server only has a few rules

- no griefing ( on my server griefing is wiping someone every day just to make sure they cant build up at all) raiding is fine

- do not block artifact caves or obbys ( everyone should have access to endgame if they choose)

as far as the admin abuse issue i have 1 admin besides myself . my admin tribe ( which is named as such so there is no confusion)  is a pve only tribe. we don't spawn anything in for anyone but ourselves. we don't give intel of any kind.  or take sides in any conflict. all other tribes are fair game to each other. this has worked out great on my server so far.

Your "griefing" rule is not only poorly defined but is against the spirit of the game. If someone gets wiped everyday then that is honestly just bad luck. Logic would tell them they should join up with another tribe to fight back because they are obviously too weak and meagre to fight back.

Your second rule is also not the best. On a PVP server players have a right to map control. If someone wants access to a gave they could just blow their way in.

[skuIlman]

Biggest bait thread I've seen in a while.

[Voidstar]

On 9/16/2017 at 2:41 AM, Majix said:

I see all this anger and qqing and just bless my stars I play on an Unofficial.  Yeah I know this post will make no sense at all, but I don't care. Happily playing on Unofficials for 2 years now and not once have I had issues with other players, or reconfiguration that forced wipes, or even wipe in itself.  I'd take the (very small mind you) chance of my server wiping than Official servers any day.  Starting over is fun on occasion.  

Look at the pros of Unofficial:

• Fully admin'd and monitored
• Nice community
• QoL mods or radical changes that can enhance your play
• Better server stability and maintenance
• Ruleset for both PVP and PVE which is actually enforced with admins. 
• Multiple map crossover (Including the non official maps)
• Increased rates for a more casual/solo gameplay

Ok, yeah a few Cons:

• Fear of server closing down (which can be negated with actual good host community)
• Admin abuse (Again, finding that good host/admin who is mature enough)
• You might have to feel generous and donate a few $$.

If people wish to share more cons, be my guest.  All I know is 2300+ hours, and still having fun.  If you are fed up with Officials, look to the UO servers, you might find something you like and will ask yourself, "Why the hell did I wait so long?"

 

as i agree with you taht unoficcial is a way better choice than official....

QoL mods or radical changes that can enhance your play

This. The worst mods possible on all servers. tried servers for two weeks. QOL life mods are actually mods for young gamers who seek instant rewarding. Upgrade bench ? Ascendant items in the first 20 minutes? auto collector? s+ gather all items from a radius in once place? farm element? put 1 stat of weight gain 50 weight, end up with the carry capacity of a damn quetzal. Lvl 50000000000+ Dinos, because well lvl 150 was by far not enough. Breeadable wyverns, breedalbe rocks, super spyglass etc etc

then you have other "astonishing" things like pugnacia and extinction core where all dinos are alphas and some are mega alphas [isn t it the same as they are all non alphas and few are alphas?]. But no they have to be even bigger and have their colors changed because well...that s what means bringing something new to the game for many. What s worse than a wyvern with current turning radius? An even bigger one.
 

Not to mention the x10 20 30 40 50 10000 rates... I mean 3x for all is already enough and makes game progression very fast...Tried an unofficial once with 5x, i killed at lvl 8 a low lvl alpha raptor alone and got to lvl 68...

 

But in conclusion it is a better experience than official if you manage to find a server without such game "enhancements". Hell if you are into this kind of stuff then it is even better.

[Sphere]

18 minutes ago, Voidstar said:

But in conclusion it is a better experience than official if you manage to find a server without such game "enhancements". Hell if you are into this kind of stuff then it is even better.

I am not a fan of that crap either. How can one progress in the game, when everything can be obtained asap?

[Thorium]

18 minutes ago, Voidstar said:

as i agree with you taht unoficcial is a way better choice than official....

QoL mods or radical changes that can enhance your play

This. The worst mods possible on all servers. tried servers for two weeks. QOL life mods are actually mods for young gamers who seek instant rewarding.

There are QoL mods that enhance the game a lot. Why do we need to pick up eggs and poop by hand? It's just a boring task. It's fun the first time you play but it gets old quickly. Egg and poop collectors remove a lot of boredom from the game. It's not about getting everything instantly, the time to get the eggs is exactly the same. You just don't go and collect them by hand.

[Voidstar]

2 hours ago, Sphere said:

I am not a fan of that crap either. How can one progress in the game, when everything can be obtained asap?

yes and everyone calls them "quality of life"

yeah right. might aswell give you admin commands

Only mods I use in single player are eco decoration mods and dino hats...

[DeningWei]

On 16/09/2017 at 9:55 AM, Demigod said:

we play official servers for a purpose. not because they have horrible rates or because the community is toxic, but because there is a sense of accomplishment. unless you want to fork over more money to craft your own server rules, player dedicated simply doesn't offer the same experience that official servers offer. 

i know you think you're doing a good thing here by influencing people to switch. but i can bet that 98% of the people who read this have already gave player dedicated a shot, including myself. and there are advantages that player dedicated has over official. but it's just not for me.  

Spot on

[IamTANK]

12 hours ago, ForzaProiettile said:

Your "griefing" rule is not only poorly defined but is against the spirit of the game. If someone gets wiped everyday then that is honestly just bad luck. Logic would tell them they should join up with another tribe to fight back because they are obviously too weak and meagre to fight back.

Your second rule is also not the best. On a PVP server players have a right to map control. If someone wants access to a gave they could just blow their way in.

it isn't poorly defined . and my server is pvpve.  this " spirit of pvp" that u talk about is the reason many turn to unofficial. if your only way of staying strong is never giving anyone a chance to compete then i say you're a coward afraid to face someone on an even playing field. with that said , everyone has a diff idea of what pvp should be which is why having many unofficial options to choose from is great.  there is always one out there with a ruleset to suit you.

[Fatality]

When I first started playing ark back in 2015, I joined an official PVE server(I've always played PvE, because I know I wouldn't enjoy PVP servers). I had no idea what unofficial meant. This was when dinos weren't even over lvl 100 wild. I played a little bit, got my bearings on the game and joined a tribe. It was kind of fun for a good long while until more implementations came about, such as the higher level dinos that took many many many hours to tame. Once I found a what I think was maybe level 50 herbi to tame, it took I think,  a few hours to tame it. Eventually as wildcard began putting more and more into the game it took more and more time. My major hobby and passion in Ark is to tame and raise dinos. Official servers requiring more and more time wasn't something I was too keen on, mainly because I have a job that only allows me to have sporadic free time and not a lot of it. I then started checking out unofficial and my ark life was forever changed. I loved that you could have boosted rates which allowed me to enjoy the game more because if I remained on official, I would eventually just quit playing because I wouldn't have the time to accomplish much at all in a decent time frame. Not only this but there is no admin to visit the server. There was one tribe on my first server who walled off the entire north beach near the waterfall to the point you couldn't cross anywhere because, not only did he have that walled off, he also had it moving south all over the place. We as the community for that server, had to wait for his timer to be up to demo it and allow other players some land to build and allow the rest of us to use our land dinos without having to do through major hoops to bypass. I think he made that huge base to troll the server and quit playing, because we never saw him again.

 

So it's not that unofficial servers suck to those who play official, it's about convenience of not worrying about having to decide if i want to tame a dino for 8 hours, go gathering, hunt wyvern eggs or someone trolling the environment, just because. I actually really enjoy having options with my game time. Yes there are servers out there with admins who abuse, but there are also a lot of unofficial server admins who are fair and allow people to play freely without ruining the enjoyment for the server community as a whole.

[Drinkinthepink]

On 2017-09-15 at 8:53 PM, ForzaProiettile said:

I strongly disagree with this.

From a PVP perspective unofficial servers act like a honey pot for bad and lazy players who can't handle the intense competition of official servers. These lesser quality 'Beta' players demand all sorts of ridiculous rules and regulations to accommodate their lack of ability and laziness.

 

As a result you end up with ridiculous rules such as the following which I've seen on several servers:
- Don't kill 'passive dinos' when raiding
- Players should only destroy a minimal amount of the structure when raiding.
- No 'griefing'
- No KOS
- Not allowed to attack the same tribe twice in a certain time period
- Must not build within 100m of a base

 

Not only are these rules against the spirit of PVP but they are also are not clearly defined or well thought out. What exactly is "minimal amount"? What happens if the enemy stores all their loot on their passive dinos? What the fk is "griefing", similarly how do you exactly measure 100m?

 

Even if you manage to find a server that isn't running some kind of social justice ruleset then you still have to put up with admins and their abuse. What many players fail to grasp about unofficial servers is that they are run more like a business, that just happens to not be profitable. The admins are the CEOs and they want their little server to be successful. If that means they have to engage in unethical behaviour ie admin abuse then so be it, they'll do it if it benefits their server.

 

Admin abuse is unfortunately very common on unofficial servers especially if your tribe is PVP competitive like we are. We go onto a server, build up extremely fast and begin PVP as early as we can. Typically the other tribes then complain, threaten to leave and then the admin will step in. Admin abuse comes in various forms. Sometimes the admin will try to be stealthy and unlock all the doors to your base, other times it will be overt such as outright banning you or he will spawn in a whole bunch of free stuff for the tribe your fighting.

 

Admin abuse can't be countered and it can even happen when you have known the admin for a decent amount of time. We had one case where we'd known the admin of a private server from helping his tribe previously on an Official server. He invited us to join him on his private server as he was looking to boost server pop and grow his server.

So we joined did our usual thing (PVP other players) and then a week later I go to join the server and I'm banned. I msg him on steam about this and he comes on our Discord to explain the situation. In a nice enough way he tells us that our methods were basically killing off his server population and therefore he had to ban us.

 

Also apart from silly rules and bad admins a lot of unofficial servers are crammed with pointless mods that you are forced to install/download to play on. Stuff like glass/see through walls and other non functional junk like pretty looking sign posts. It's rare to find a mod that actually adds anything meaningful to the game.

 

100% agree

-----------------------------------------------

 

edit:

this thread is also clickbait and you are only posting to get some server advertising in. Click bait.

Any good pvper worth a grain of salt would be banned off your server simply because all the weaker players would be raided and quit. You don't want people to quit so you ban the good pvper.

[IamTANK]

53 minutes ago, Drinkinthepink said:

100% agree

-----------------------------------------------

 

edit:

this thread is also clickbait and you are only posting to get some server advertising in. Click bait.

Any good pvper worth a grain of salt would be banned off your server simply because all the weaker players would be raided and quit. You don't want people to quit so you ban the good pvper.

not every admin does that when my pop drops i just recruit more. i  never ban anyone for being to good at pvp.

[Sphere]

What do people here think of local laws applying to unofficial servers?

For example, hate speech laws.

Personally I hate those who push for social justice, and then threaten and intimidate for the express purpose of lynching a dude because of a perceived injustice; especially when it's a case of "he's guilty, or the system failed to make him guilty". However on the other side of the coin, I do have to abide by local laws to the best that is possible and that I am aware of, to maintain safe harbor. But I am of the opinion that punishing people because you are offended, when offense is subjective, and also you can only take an offense, not give one, is a bit wrong in of itself. Because by your offended state of being persecuted, you effectively can dictate society and all those who have to deal with that crap.

Where it's obvious that a person knew that something which they are using in the form of words, either written or spoken against that person is offensive, and uses it to attack another, for the express purpose of actually trying to hurt that person as an individual, sure, I'll step in and do my job, where it's required by me to do so. However, if it's an opinion about an idea, ideology, or political stance, but not an individual, and you try and paint the narrative that you're offended and oppressed, and want me or any other staff to support your cause to rid that other person or persons, get out of here. No idea is immune to criticism.

Of course, if you're the victim, where I'm required to go to your aide, but you also then do the same thing back against those who did it to you, and they file a report, and I'm able to come to the conclusion that they are a victim, I'm going to do a double KO. You can count on that. And if you think you can take your twisted story to the media and paint a narrative that I'm a bad person for doing my job, according to what you agreed upon when you joined the server and started playing, as a part of the terms of service, then I may actually consider using sunlight as the best cure for slander.

Then there is this nice article:

http://www.lawstuff.org.au/sa_law/topics/bullying/cyber-bullying

[Thorium]

15 minutes ago, Sphere said:

What do people here think of local laws applying to unofficial servers?

For example, hate speech laws.

Personally I hate those who push for social justice, and then threaten and intimidate for the express purpose of lynching a dude because of a perceived injustice; especially when it's a case of "he's guilty, or the system failed to make him guilty". However on the other side of the coin, I do have to abide by local laws to the best that is possible and that I am aware of, to maintain safe harbor. But I am of the opinion that punishing people because you are offended, when offense is subjective, and also you can only take an offense, not give one, is a bit wrong in of itself. Because by your offended state of being persecuted, you effectively can dictate society and all those who have to deal with that crap.

I go around that by stating that everything that is written or said in game is part of the game. It's not an attack against the player, but his in game character. That only holds up as long as no one is doxed. That is the line you can't cross. If someone doxes people on your server, he should be banned.

This is my rule for that on my cluster:

It's a unmoderated server. So you don't have to be nice to people, you don't have to be politically correct. Everything you write in chat is considered part of the game. As long as you don't dox people you can write or say what ever you want, i don't care.

I am not a lawyer, i don't know if that would hold up on court. But at least it's common sense.

[Sphere]

5 minutes ago, Thorium said:

I go around that by stating that everything that is written or said in game is part of the game. It's not an attack against the player, but his in game character. That only holds up as long as no one is doxed. That is the line you can't cross. If someone doxes people on your server, he should be banned.

This is my rule for that on my cluster:

It's a unmoderated server. So you don't have to be nice to people, you don't have to be politically correct. Everything you write in chat is considered part of the game. As long as you don't dox people you can write or say what ever you want, i don't care.

I am not a lawyer, i don't know if that would hold up on court. But at least it's common sense.

Common sense is an oxymoron, because it is not common. And yeah, I doubt it would protect us from being sued successfully, if going your route. I would rather keep out of kids play, especially if the adults are being immature with each other. However I don't want to be sued and held liable. My rule of thumb for protection is, if it's not directed at a person to cause harm to that person in real life, then I don't care to moderate it. I especially don't believe in taboo words, when those said words are not being directed at somebody with harmful intent.

[Thorium]

3 minutes ago, Sphere said:

Common sense is an oxymoron, because it is not common. And yeah, I doubt it would protect us from being sued successfully, if going your route. I would rather keep out of kids play, especially if the adults are being immature with each other. However I don't want to be sued and held liable.

The most probable outcome is that it's dismissed by court because of it's insignificant nature. My cluster is located in germany, so german law applies and from personal experience, this is the most likly outcome.

[yzerman]

The only issue I have had with unofficial servers has been weeding through the ones that I personally just don't like. Whether it be too many mods, rates too low/high, poorly implemented rule sets, admins that install beta mods on a whim, etc. 

However weeding through all of the bad servers, I have found a few good servers that were properly run. Shout out to those admins for running awesome servers that I actually enjoyed. 

While it is true that there are bad admins and bad servers out there, you can usually spot the problem servers before you invest too much time/effort  on their servers. Once you do find a server that suits your needs, the experience is much more rewarding, even if the official player community thinks you didn't earn it. 

 

Hell even WC put up an "official" server for streamers that had increased rates, that just tells me they know their own game is a boring grind fest, but at least there aren't dailies we have to do. 

For those actually interested in unofficials and not sure where to start, look for servers that have a decent player base on at the time you usually play (5-12 players online is usually pretty good). Then out of those servers, if you are looking for increased rates, look for a server that has the rates that appeal to you. I find 5-10x rates seem to still be a challenge without costing you 4 days of your life to raise a tame from a baby.  Then if you want mods, look for servers that have a basic set of mods installed, such as S+, Automated Ark, Dino tracker, etc. I would suggest avoiding servers with mods that change the game like Extinction Core. While these can be fun some people will be turned off by these types of mods. When you find your server, ask the community if there are usually admins present and if there are any rules you should know, and if they have mods installed, how good are they at updating the server once someone gets a Mod Mismatch error. 

Good luck, and have fun, and fair warning, mods will likely spoil the official servers for you.