How to spice up private dedicated server?

[Justice66]

Hi all,

 

We have had our private server going for a few years now and have been looking to make it more challenging (at least in a dynamic way, not just ramping up the creature resistance levels to absurd numbers).

The best we've been able to achieve is the use of Zoology mod (though previously better in it's form as Food Chains). The Zoology/taming part is goofy however the Food Chains' creature behavior /AI changes were kept and they are definitely a nice addition to how the world works. Watching carnivores attack each other makes things feel seriously fresh. And despite the taming system changes, the way you learn about creatures before you can tame them is excellent for new players. We have some friends coming on the server and I feel that's going to make it so much better for them, particularly because they're walking into a server that's multiple years on and has lots of tames, bases and effectively easy mode for them. This way, they'll be like a prospect in a biker gang - they'll have to earn their stripes so to speak.

 

Though we were hoping to take it further. I have seen the following mods and wondered your thoughts.

 

• Bush People(Appeal : Has NPC humans running around building bases and attacking you, or you can tame them) - Forums are littered with concerns and general posts about it not installing properly let alone working as advertised. Seems that it's still a ways away from what they want it to be
• Ark Remastered(Appeal : has creature AI modification similar to Food Chain/Zoology) - Not working since Q4 2017 (or for anything post ARK 277-278)
• Prehistoric(Appeal : General realism in many aspects) - Same as above, not working
• Food Chains(Appeal : Great AI behavior overhaull) - Ended. Evolved/migrated into Zoology
• Call of the wild (Appeal : General mayhem fun events) - Good for a few laughs though repetitive, doesn't feel natural. Would make more sense if it happened at random out in the world so you would not know the waves were coming.
• Extinction Core (Appeal : ???)  Too fantasy driven, doesn't seem to be our thing, and lots of other core changes we wouldn't want in regards to taming and dinos from all expansions spawning on your map.
• Annunaki Genesis (Appeal : Almost a conversion which includes difficulty and something new) - Decent all around mod for someone wanting more difficulty however other than the custom dinosaurs and some other pieces, it's just a culmination of tweaks on .ini files. If it had a creature behavior AI adjustment like as with Food Chains/Zoology, it may be worth it.
• Dino Overhaul (Appeal : Similar to Annunaki) - Though reading through all the changes, that sounds a bit much and I worry the 'difficulty' he raves about is more from silly changes than actual strategy being required.

 

The one I am currently trying is Survival Plus Beta. 

 

I also have been studying the Stasis aspect of the Unreal Engine more, particularly in ARK and my understanding is that unless someone is logged in the world pretty much stops and therefore there's no real reason or interest/need to leave it on if you know for a fact no one will be playing in the off hours. We used to think that the world was persistent at least in activity enough that wild creatures would attack your base or your tames, food would deplete at the normal rate, experience gain was the same, maturation carried on etc. all as if you were logged in.

I have not seen a mod that forces some kind of anti-stasis, although Dino Patrol has such a feature for any dinosaur that's on a patrol path.

We considered that you could login a character(s) and leave it at the base(s) though much like leaving the server on during off hours, it's a bit inefficient.

 

Therefore question time :

 

1. How have you made your ARK more exciting, without using mods that give uber items, flying unicorns and turning it into World of Warcraft?

2. Are there any mods currently working other than Zoology that deal with creature AI? As a reminder, Food Chains/Zoology and Ark Remastered changed Dinosaurs to be less aggressive when well fed and more aggressive when hungry, increasing their scanning range for food and not locking them into that carnivore vs everyone, attack everything behavior.

3. Could we create some type of dummy AI character to keep our bases from going into stasis mode when all the human players are not present? Or some other method to make the world stay active while we're offline? 

4. I am having difficulty getting caves to respawn. I am told that the timer should be roughly ten to thirty minutes and you only need travel a few clicks away to leave the proximity range. Additionally you cannot build a base inside the cave TOO close to the spawns however you can still build inside the cave. Point n case would be the Carnivore island cave. You cannot descend without building platforms inside, therefore I do not believe building in the cave is the issue, as long as it's not next to every spawn point?

I know this is slightly unrelated however hopefully someone might set me straight on this as the caves are good proving grounds for our new members and I can't respawn them without doing world dino wipes.

5. Are there any mods that help with managing dinos, like setting level restrictions on being able to ride creatures or where you have to provide your own saddle before riding one? This is to tackle the issue of how to train, teach and reward new players on pre existing tribe tames.

 

Any general or further suggestions, even if only an .ini adjustment, please let me know.

 

 

 

 

[Justice66]

After much searching and asking around, I came across exactly what we were after : 

 

 

Survival Plus 

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=829467257

 

Hopefully this is of interest to any other players that are a bit worn out from the same old Ark experience/mechanics.

Please know that mixing any dinosaur mod such as Zoology with Survival Plus will have negative results.

 

I can confirm that custom maps work with Survival Plus and the developers are constantly responding to questions in the comments section.