I really need help, weird connection issues and unwanted mod downloads!

[Sarius07]

Hi.

Since about 1 week im playing ark again. A friend in the US (im from germany) made an unofficial cluster server (i think its called that way) and im trying to play on it. On the first day he told me the password and i searched it in the server list. All the servers showed up and because i had no DLCs other than scorched earth but wanted to start on the island, i tried to connect to the island server. But always the message "Connection Failure - Invalid Server Password" showed up. After 2 days and SEVERAl attempts, i was preety sure that i typed in the correct password ;-). He updated his server, deleted the password, reinstalled it, i reinstalled my game, searched the local data thingy for issues and so on. Didnt have any luck. Then i heard of direct join via Steam, so i typed in the IP and Password and tryed to join. Then it downloaded mods (there is S+ and Classic flyers on the server. Then it said "Host pending connection timeout - Lost/timeout pending connection to host. After about 15 - 20 trys with sometimes this message, sometimes the game randomly closing or a message where it sais something with UE4 and assertion: NewWorld it finally connected to the server. Until today it does this every time, so i need about 2 hours to join the sever every time. Other weird thing is that it constantly downloads new mods that are not even installed on the server. So i ended up having 40 mods or so, that i dont even wanted, unsubscribed them in the workshop but it keeps reinstalling them. Only abhout 2 at a time, then the game closes/crashes or even trys to connect me to a completely different server, i start it again and its again downloading 1-3 mods only to crash again. When ark decides to connect me to my server, the game runs pretty much solid, had 2 or 3 disconnects from the actual gameplay itself but thats okay if it would only let me reconnect in a normal way. I have absolutely no clue what to do as ive searched the whole internet and didnt find anything that is directly related to this case! 

Oh and i dont have any real problems with joining on official servers. I also deinstalled scorched earth because when i had it installed int always kept connecting me to the sc server and not the island server. I would be awesome to be able to join via the server list and notvia direct join, because sometimes while connecting steam opens and is suggesting me that i should download scorched earth so that tells me that its trying to connect me to the sc server again. I dont know if that is because steam or the game cant differentiate between the single servers in the cluster as they share the same ip and ark trys to randomly connect me to one of them, or they all have their own ip, - i really dont know. Also after the first day i was never able again to find all of the (4 ithink) servers in the servers list although ive ticked unofficial and show password protected. only the island server shows up but thats only because ive favourited it and sais invalid password anyway. My PC isnt a beast but it shoudnt have such problems, ive never experienced such severe issuesin the past years. I have an asrock Z-77 mainboard, i5-3350P, a GTX 980 and 16 gb of ram. And of course the graphics driver was reinstalled and updated properly.

Hoping for help and please excuse my english grammar that might not be on point every time 

Greeting from germany!

[DuoMogAgain]

Validate Ark's game files...

Right Click on Ark Survival and choose properties.
Click the "Local Files" tab, then click "Verify Integrity of Game Files"

 

If you're trying to connect to an Extinction server, then it's possible that one of the mods is not compatible with Extinction.
WildCard have recently released an updated Dev Kit due to incompatibilities with Extinction, so it might be that your friend has to remove one or more mods until they are recompiled with the new Dev Kit.

 

[Sarius07]

Thank you for reading this wall of text!

Sadly validating the files doesnt help, im having this issue for at least 2 weeks and tried everything i could think of to solve it.

They have a server cluster with Islan, Center, Ragnarok, Scorched Earth and Aberration. Im trying to connect to the Island server.

Also this never ending mod downloading is really weird i think. Today i deleted about 35 mods after 2 hours of trying to connect, and it installed them right back. Ive managed to connect about 20 minutes ago but i mean there must be some solution or at least a specific reason for my issue. 

Ive also opened a topic on steam a few days ago and a guy meant it could be the lightsaber mod which is maybe bugged, but why then nobody else on the server has the problem and it doesnt explain the wird mod downloading to me. 

 

[DuoMogAgain]

Is your friend using -automanagemods to ensure that his server gets the latest version of the mods?
I suspect that the versions of the mods you have are different to the versions your friend has on his server.

Another thought:  Are there any other Windows accounts on the PC you use - that also have Steam installed?
I believe that having Ark installed under several different accounts on the same PC can cause this kind of problem.

[Sarius07]

I honestly dont know if automanagemods is installed but we both updated our mods several times, i also reinstalled the game several times on both my harddrive and ssd. Didnt make a difference.

No im just using one windows account, i also reinstalled steam, also no difference.

Seems to be a pretty uncommon issue, at least the constellation of issues that i have as i didnt find anything directly related to this on google...

[Rattgtg]

have you checked what mods you are subscribed to in the workshop for ark, open steam library, click on ark, scroll down a little and you should see browse the workshop. Next you will see something that says your workshop files, hoover on the drop down that says your files, you should see subscribed items. Unsubscribe to any mods that you are not using. Then i would try to join the server from inside the game if you can see it in the list, if there are any mods trying to download when you are trying to join a server, this includes mods trying to update, it will make you get that error, so i you see a mod updating just let it update before you try and join the server.

 

[Sarius07]

Everyday it downloads like 35 mods and everyday i unsubscribe like 35 mods. Again and again. None of them i subscribed myself or is actually installed on the server.

Is it possible that the server is just hard to connect to for some weird reason and sometimes it directs me to another (random?) server instead and this has all the mods on it? Just an idea.

[Rattgtg]

have u tried to wipe this folder? \steamapps\common\ARK\ShooterGame\Content\Mods

 

[Sarius07]

Yes, ive also tried that. It just reinstalled them. I had the ip and PW in my steam direct connect thingy, deleted it and tried to join the server via battlemetrics, it seems to work out better now.