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Closed. Ark: Survival Evolved Official Servers


ladymarina
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On 4/4/2023 at 4:01 AM, Pipinghot said:

Personally, I wouldn't count on that lasting too long. Game companies are notoriously bad at supporting games that are not the current version they're selling, worse than the rest of the software industry.

If you're currently doing a play though on an unofficial, private or non-dedicated server, or in single-player, I would focus on finishing that play through. Do not trust WC to keep the game working for more than a few months after ASA is released. I mean, maybe it will keep working, I could be wrong, but the smart money says it would be a bad idea to trust them on this.

I know this is a month old lol, but single player will always work. Its off line single player, game owned by the player. Private servers will too. Not that i'll be doing it but they are there forevermore, they cant take that even if they wanted to. And they probably would if they could knowing snail games. I can see Shihah now rubbing his greedy little child like hands together 'YOU BUY, YOU BUY' Ark love you long time! Lol

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5 hours ago, 460Galaxy said:

I know this is a month old lol, but single player will always work. Its off line single player, game owned by the player.

Good point, I just tested it (on Steam, I don't know about other services).

I physically unplugged my internet connection and the game still runs in SP. I have other games on Steam that stopped being supported by the publisher but even after the page is gone from Steam I can still play them in SP, so it looks like that will be true for ARK too.

Or at least that will be true until something breaks that causes ARK to fail in SP. That has also happened to me. I have a couple of old games that I got on Steam but they no longer work in SP even though I still have them in my Steam library. If the publisher doesn't publish a fix then a game that breaks stays broken. If WC stops support for ASE then they may or may not choose to fix something if it starts failing in SP.

5 hours ago, 460Galaxy said:

game owned by the player.

No, not really. You don't own games on Steam, PS, X-box, etc., you buy a license for them with ownership still belonging to WC using DRM (digital rights management). If ARK was on GoG you could truly own it, but it's not. I'm not aware of ARK being sold on any game service that lets you own it without DRM. On all of the platforms where ARK is published you're buying a license, not ownership.

This means we're completely subject to the whims of WC, if they ever decide to stop supporting ARK then everyone who "purchased" a copy through Steam, etc. is just out of luck. WC owns it and they can do what they want with it.

5 hours ago, 460Galaxy said:

Private servers will too.

Private servers require authentication and authorization through WC and Steam in order to lot in to them.

Unless there's something I'm forgetting or overlooking, you can start the executable but you can't actually connect to the private server unless WC and Steam allow you to. If WC decides to stop supporting private servers no one will have any way to connect to them.

5 hours ago, 460Galaxy said:

Not that i'll be doing it but they are there forevermore, they cant take that even if they wanted to.

For private servers, yeah they can. So you're right about SP, but I would still say that for anyone who plays on Unofficial or private servers, it would be smart to finish your play through as fast as you can, within reason. They probably won't drop support for ASE unofficial servers any time soon, but when you consider that they're taking down the ASE official servers (something that not even EA does) it only makes sense to assume that they'll drop support for ASE private servers sooner than most players want them to.

5 hours ago, 460Galaxy said:

And they probably would if they could knowing snail games.

Yeah, which means if you're on a private server it's better to focus on finishing your play through.

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Guys we've all seen the official game servers shutting down in august which means you guys have to re-buy asa.I only have 20,000 hours of ark play time, which is not very long, and recently found out that many of my friends have left ark, and he is not looking forward to asa. Instead, I chose to give up the game.If you want to confirm this, you can see from the number of people online on the server,In official words, the Ark server may be some benefits for players from the official.But in the same way, if there is no server, I think the online number of Ark will not exceed gta5.It is recommended that the official reserve some servers, which will retain some players. It is recommended to keep the pve mode, because it can attract new players to joinIf the reset version of asa. is superior to ark in all aspects, its profit may be even greater by then.It is recommended that the official reserve some servers, which will retain some players. It is recommended to keep the pve mode, because it can attract new players to join.And that requires more time to maintain. Only by doing the basic products well can we bring more profits. Perhaps the official operations department should relearn how to sell products to those who need them xD.The staff of the ark also need meals, living expenses, etc. As an ancient Eastern proverb goes, this is a method of collecting wool for sale. When the loyal fans of the Ark no longer have wool, the entire team can only go home to eat themselves.

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12 hours ago, Pipinghot said:

Good point, I just tested it (on Steam, I don't know about other services).

I physically unplugged my internet connection and the game still runs in SP. I have other games on Steam that stopped being supported by the publisher but even after the page is gone from Steam I can still play them in SP, so it looks like that will be true for ARK too.

Or at least that will be true until something breaks that causes ARK to fail in SP. That has also happened to me. I have a couple of old games that I got on Steam but they no longer work in SP even though I still have them in my Steam library. If the publisher doesn't publish a fix then a game that breaks stays broken. If WC stops support for ASE then they may or may not choose to fix something if it starts failing in SP.

No, not really. You don't own games on Steam, PS, X-box, etc., you buy a license for them with ownership still belonging to WC using DRM (digital rights management). If ARK was on GoG you could truly own it, but it's not. I'm not aware of ARK being sold on any game service that lets you own it without DRM. On all of the platforms where ARK is published you're buying a license, not ownership.

This means we're completely subject to the whims of WC, if they ever decide to stop supporting ARK then everyone who "purchased" a copy through Steam, etc. is just out of luck. WC owns it and they can do what they want with it.

Private servers require authentication and authorization through WC and Steam in order to lot in to them.

Unless there's something I'm forgetting or overlooking, you can start the executable but you can't actually connect to the private server unless WC and Steam allow you to. If WC decides to stop supporting private servers no one will have any way to connect to them.

For private servers, yeah they can. So you're right about SP, but I would still say that for anyone who plays on Unofficial or private servers, it would be smart to finish your play through as fast as you can, within reason. They probably won't drop support for ASE unofficial servers any time soon, but when you consider that they're taking down the ASE official servers (something that not even EA does) it only makes sense to assume that they'll drop support for ASE private servers sooner than most players want them to.

Yeah, which means if you're on a private server it's better to focus on finishing your play through.

Yeah what i meant is its no different than any other old game in peoples librarys. They will always work, without support of any kind. If something went wrong it would normally only be a matter of un instal, delete corrupted save files and re instal probably. Private servers get support from the server provider, the save files are yours, and dont require support from the game developer, so people will be able to play there as long as they pay for the server and nothing happens to the save file. And most back up that save file regularly so it would only be a matter of re loading an old save. And we do own the copy of the game we purchased, if yu dont on steam theres something seriously wrong lol. Game developers cant take the copy of the product you purchased, thats just not true. Hell ive got games that the developers dont even exist anymore and they still work lol

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4 hours ago, 460Galaxy said:

Private servers get support from the server provider, the save files are yours, and dont require support from the game developer

The issue with this game and servers is that it is not possible to join a "server" without the official Ark/Steam match making (or lobby if you like). What I do not know is if these "lobbies" are run by Steam (only) or if Wildcard has a finger in that pie? 

Ark networking was altered a while ago (with the inclusion of Epic Game clients) to cut out (or at least not use) the UE engine network code that allows for a "divorced" client / server setup to run. Specifically a "client" has to validate against an public list of servers - i.e. the lobby. And if that "validation" is not possible, the client gets "Lost/Timeout connection to host". This is easily verifiable - run a server on your LAN, and then try to connect to it whilst the internet is disconnected.
The built in Ark server browser - even on the LAN selection  - returns no entries. Steam (yes in offline mode) also shows no servers on the LAN. And if you start Ark with command line parameters to connect directly with that local server (like a direct invite from battlemetrics), it talks (a lot) over the network, and then actually crashes!
image.png.a3459560e05b1a0435b3b440b45b94f1.png

Further - if the server is started without internet, and then the internet is switched on (and steam is no more offline mode), It is still not possible to connect to the LAN based server - because the server could not "register" to the Ark "lobby" server(s) at start up time.

So if the "match making" servers are switched to no longer validate ASE, then all hosted games become useless. Sure you can run the server - but there would be no way for peeps to connect to the server.

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6 hours ago, 460Galaxy said:

Private servers get support from the server provider, the save files are yours, and dont require support from the game developer, so people will be able to play there as long as they pay for the server and nothing happens to the save file

What if the game developer no longer supports the game? Do hosting companies take the risk of continuing to host if an application is out of service and has been in need of repair for several years? I asked one company if ARK on their servers will still be supported because I'm going to rent a server and I know that the producer of the game ARK "Wild Card" is withdrawing from its support? The question has remained unanswered to this day. By the way, Wild Card disables something that has not been able to fix for several years. An example is continuous blue screens which can be represented in this way See That xD

And the question is what will happen when hosting companies withdraw from hosting ASE?

 

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4 hours ago, Noffek said:

What if the game developer no longer supports the game? Do hosting companies take the risk of continuing to host if an application is out of service and has been in need of repair for several years? I asked one company if ARK on their servers will still be supported because I'm going to rent a server and I know that the producer of the game ARK "Wild Card" is withdrawing from its support? The question has remained unanswered to this day. By the way, Wild Card disables something that has not been able to fix for several years. An example is continuous blue screens which can be represented in this way See That xD

And the question is what will happen when hosting companies withdraw from hosting ASE?

 

😳😳😳🙏Thank you Thank you thank you. Another thing people are not talking about this. How long will these server companies (nitrado) who has in my eyes has the worst server services I've seen. Stay running without support from WC/SG they will surely shutdown and we will have no support to protect us from hackers.

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34 minutes ago, ladymarina said:

😳😳😳🙏Thank you Thank you thank you. Another thing people are not talking about this. How long will these server companies (nitrado) who has in my eyes has the worst server services I've seen. Stay running without support from WC/SG they will surely shutdown and we will have no support to protect us from hackers.

Nitrado don't intend on removing ARK hosting.

 

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11 hours ago, 460Galaxy said:

Private servers get support from the server provider, the save files are yours, and dont require support from the game developer

Yes they do. Playing a game and playing in multi-player are two different things.

As already discussed, the authentication & authorization to log into private servers goes through WildCard and Steam. If WildCard removes support for logging into servers then no one will be able to log into any unofficial servers, including private ones. This is true of non-dedicated servers too, people can only find the server if WildCard allows it.

You can log into SP without support from WC, but you cannot log into a dedicated server (including private servers) unless WildCard supports allowing you to log in. Even when you can run a server that doesn't guarantee anyone can log into it.

This happens with many games that lose support, you can still play SP but all forms of multi-player stops working.

11 hours ago, 460Galaxy said:

And we do own the copy of the game we purchased, if yu dont on steam theres something seriously wrong lol.

No, you don't. Clearly you don't understand how software licensing works. I'm not saying that to be mean, I'm trying to help you understand that you don't own what you think you do. You don't own ARK, you license it.

Mind you, I agree that's seriously wrong, software licensing is a scam that hurts consumers. You should own the games you pay for, but that's a discussion for another day.

11 hours ago, 460Galaxy said:

Game developers cant take the copy of the product you purchased, thats just not true.

Yes it is. The publisher owns the rights to the game, they decide whether you can continue to play it. The only site that you actually purchase full rights to your games is GoG. On Steam, Epic, PS, XBox you're purchasing a license, whether you realize it or not.

11 hours ago, 460Galaxy said:

Hell ive got games that the developers dont even exist anymore and they still work lol

True, and if they're on Steam that's because Steam supports your ability to play them. But, even then, I'm betting you can't do multi-player any more.

For example, I have a pirate game on Steam called "Age of Booty", first published in 2009. It still has a Steam page, I can still play in SP, but no multi-player. When Gamespy shut down the publisher decided not to do any updates for multi-player is gone.

Again, playing in single-player and playing in multi-player are two different things. Just because SP work doesn't mean MP will.

11 hours ago, 460Galaxy said:

Hell ive got games that the developers dont even exist anymore and they still work lol

Sure, we all do. But in no way does that guarantee ASE multi-player will continue working.

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5 hours ago, frenchiefries said:

it's great thing they close that poop, all official servers are controlled by cheaters and exploiters, some tribes are even running black markets, no regular player could last more than a week on official, it's incredible it took so long for wildcard to understand how bad official servers are

Surely you understand that's not going to change.

5 hours ago, frenchiefries said:

whatever comes next better have regular wipes, otherwise that would just recreate the same toxic ecosystem

It won't have regular wipes, and yes it's going to recreate the same toxic ecosystem. WildCard isn't changing any of this, all they're doing is importing the existing ecosystem into UE5, slapping a new name on it and lying that it's a "new game".

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30 minutes ago, GP said:

Nitrado don't intend on removing ARK hosting

That's encouraging to hear, but they still don't control authentication & authorization. (Which I realize you already understand, this message isn't for you).

WildCard decides whether people can connect to their unofficial/private servers, if they don't support multi-player for ASE then it doesn't matter what Nitrado does.

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1 hour ago, GP said:

I hope none of you on PC are running Windows 7 or 8.x because ASE official servers closing will be the least of your worries.

??? I  still have several devices running Win 7. One of which is used as my cluster server for Ark! Yeah that OS has been out of support for a long time now - but it ain't stopped working. And is still working very well - particularly with older hardware that cannot deal with all the "bloat" that is built into Win 10 ..........

I ain't sure I follow your drift ???

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2 hours ago, darkradeon said:

They should add connection with ip, port and password for EPIC/EGS too to make ASE future proof (currently EGS cannot direct connect with password from single player/console).

Funny enough, but it was the alterations that were done to Ark to enable EPIC/EGS clients to connect that BROKE this functionality across the board!. Prior to those changes this was possible - direct IP:port connect. But no more (since Epic "enablement")

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43 minutes ago, DirkInSA said:

??? I  still have several devices running Win 7. One of which is used as my cluster server for Ark! Yeah that OS has been out of support for a long time now - but it ain't stopped working. And is still working very well - particularly with older hardware that cannot deal with all the "bloat" that is built into Win 10 ..........

I ain't sure I follow your drift ???

image.png

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28 minutes ago, GP said:

image.png

This is a great example of how we don't truly own our games on Steam.

Even if you have a game on Steam that was written for Windows 7, and it still runs just fine under Windows 7, you can't play it unless you're running Windows 10. No matter when the game was published your license to run the game through Steam is only valid if your computer is running Windows 10+

If you bought a game on GoG you would actually own it and could run it on any computer you want to, but not through Steam.

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3 hours ago, Pipinghot said:

That's encouraging to hear, but they still don't control authentication & authorization. (Which I realize you already understand, this message isn't for you).

WildCard decides whether people can connect to their unofficial/private servers, if they don't support multi-player for ASE then it doesn't matter what Nitrado does.

I suppose that as long as WC receives a percentage from the Servers leased from third parties, it may find it "profitable" enough to keep them available because, unlike the purchase of ASA which is a one-time cash only (excluding cash from any DLC), those Servers produce a constant monthly revenue for each single map rented.. So I suppose that as long as companies like Nitrado keep the agreements (and therefore money also in WC's pockets) WC shouldn't close this service and we will still have the possibility to rent Servers.

Obviously this is just a personal hypothesis, I am not aware of what percentage they receive WC and if it is too low then my hypothesis falls straight into the void, but I bet that especially in this period every minimum gain is quite important for them, at least until shortly after the release of ARK2 [[[-if it ever happens-]]] when they will be able to understand if they will have a "boom of receipts" or "....Flop!!"

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59 minutes ago, CervantesMor said:

I suppose that as long as WC receives a percentage from the Servers leased from third parties, it may find it "profitable" enough to keep them available

True. Assuming they even make anything from the hosting companies. I've never seen or read anything the discloses whether any of the game hosting services pay WC any fees of any sort (same with Conan or any other game that allows unofficial/private servers).

59 minutes ago, CervantesMor said:

those Servers produce a constant monthly revenue for each single map rented..

I'm not sure WC makes anything from Nitrado. This is a question I've wondered about for a long time, do you know of any good sources of information for this question?

There are good arguments in both directions, reasons why a game publisher would try to change hosting services a licensing fee and for hosting unofficial and reasons why they would not. Unless we have some real information on whether this actually happens I'm not sure that it does.

When we consider how desperately WildCard is trying to shut down ASE and start selling copies of ASA, I think it looks like they're not making money from the hosting services. It seems like making a monthly stream of income from all of the unofficial servers would make WildCard less desperate for a cash grab.

59 minutes ago, CervantesMor said:

So I suppose that as long as companies like Nitrado keep the agreements (and therefore money also in WC's pockets) WC shouldn't close this service and we will still have the possibility to rent Servers.

This is why I think it's a good idea to consider the possibility of WC shutting down access to unofficial/private servers. If WC is not making money from the hosting companies then WC doesn't want people to keep playing ASE on unofficial servers, instead they would want to force people to buy ASA.

59 minutes ago, CervantesMor said:

Obviously this is just a personal hypothesis

Same here. I would like to know whether the hosting services pay any fees to WildCard or not, the answer to that question would tell us a lot about how long WC will continue to support multi-player for ASE.

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4 hours ago, Pipinghot said:

This is a great example of how we don't truly own our games on Steam.

Even if you have a game on Steam that was written for Windows 7, and it still runs just fine under Windows 7, you can't play it unless you're running Windows 10. No matter when the game was published your license to run the game through Steam is only valid if your computer is running Windows 10+

If you bought a game on GoG you would actually own it and could run it on any computer you want to, but not through Steam.

main issue is having chromium embedded inside it. Main reason is probably chromium certificate expiration dates. To be honest, I found Steam a huge unnecessary bloatware in almost all features now, and even if this didn't start with it, embedding the chromium browser backend was the non-return point on fixing it. Chromium backend is not the new triden (internet explorer backend), it's worse.

Today you have chromium (blink for iMonkey users which is the original branch where chromium was forked) and a tiny portion on gecko (firefox, that is continuing to lose shares thanks to having a drunk monkey leading Mozilla, mocking all worse design choice they can find around).

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5 hours ago, DirkInSA said:

Funny enough, but it was the alterations that were done to Ark to enable EPIC/EGS clients to connect that BROKE this functionality across the board!. Prior to those changes this was possible - direct IP:port connect. But no more (since Epic "enablement")

it should work without password. On steam you have also the steam browser where you can directly add servers with IP and ports (also searching for ip only if the ports are in the range of 27015-27019)

The problem is epic version doesn't allow this in any form if the server has a password.

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On 4/2/2023 at 10:00 PM, Bates1960 said:

To Wildcard 

I will not be paying for the new Ark game that i have already pay for.  I have been a loyal to Wildcard and Ark from the bata this will be the 4th time that I have restart and rebuild my tribe from the ground up cause of poor actions and distions for your team.  Why do you think that your actions with shutting down a game that ever one pay for to bring out the same game that ppl have already payed for and make your player base pay 50 + of the same game where you can bring out a pach or dlc to do the same thing and keep your player base happy instead of pissing them all off.

 

I am calling for a boycott of this move and a boycott for the up coming Ark 2.  We as the customer have power and should hold the wildcard accountable for this poor choise that wildcard is making here.   We as a comunity should be banding together and making wildcard put a stop to this 

That's right I'm with you Bates. This is Snail games trying to.make Us Ark players pay more money for their future game. Stop making us pay.

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9 minutes ago, GP said:

No-one is making you pay for anything.

They are trying to makes us pay for a game that we already have. By closing official unofficial servers are not going to be stable for players etc. They need to tell us what they are going to do to improve Ark Se. Not telling us any news or giving us a piece of mind seems heartless to me. From Devs that are supposed to care for their community. LoadedCrysis just made a statement about what's going on yesterday. Look  it up.

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