Will there be Unofficial Servers in Ark Survival Ascended?

[MarzyTheMenace]

I know all official servers will be removed from the old ark and they will be created new but I want to know if unofficial servers will be in the new Ark Ascended game. If so would they be the old unofficial servers we played in the first one just with updated graphics or would everyone have to change their servers over too? Let me know if you know something I don't or just your thoughts on this.

[zero064]

There's been no news at all on unofficial servers. I can't imagine they'd make us all go official though, since so many of us (maybe most of the player base) is on private servers. I doubt my group would even play ASA if we couldn't have our own server.

Edited April 24, 2023 by zero064

[Pipinghot]

14 hours ago, yungps4e said:

I know all official servers will be removed from the old ark and they will be created new but I want to know if unofficial servers will be in the new Ark Ascended game. If so would they be the old unofficial servers we played in the first one just with updated graphics or would everyone have to change their servers over too? Let me know if you know something I don't or just your thoughts on this.

Unofficial servers are owned by individuals who will each make their own decision. Some will want to stay on ASE, some will want to change to ASA, the only way to know for a specific server is to ask the owner.

[darkradeon]

with multiplatform the dedicated server runtime will have to ditch probably multiplatform itselft, otherwise the alternative is having "private" servers in EA style, wich means no runtime cuze NDA. I don't think both Microsoft and Sony will allow non-nda users to get their "precious" bits for multiplatform.

Edited April 24, 2023 by darkradeon

[MrrCupcake]

Hosting my own community dedicated server will be the deal breaker for me. I won't rent one.
I've bought enough hard drives to have room for Ark!! (I'm a little worried about needing a full 1TB for ASE and ASA to be installed at the same time LOL)

I'm reservedly hopeful WidlCard can do it. 
pcgamer.com has an article about crossplay dedicated server using steam for Valhiem with xbox and Steam crossplay. I haven't tried it though. It is possible at least!! I'd be happier if dedicated servers were not crossplay than not being able to host my own. 

I really hope WildCard doesn't take a step too far back from the great (in my opinion) SteamCMD and the Steam Workshop 'experience'. I'm not optimistic Overwolf will have anywere near as good an experience as Steam Workshop. At least SteamCMD has a lot of crossplay work already done and other game titles use it for more than a Steam and Epic crossplay Dedicated server! 

But, like Pipinghot suggested, without ASA self-hosted unofficial dedicated servers, I'll be one who sticks with ASE. Really really glad WildCard won't break ASE as originally announced (UE5 would have broken ASE saves and mods). 

With mods and my own self-hosted unoffical server I'll be buying ASA. Hope wildcard reads these!! 

[Pipinghot]

3 hours ago, MrrCupcake said:

Hosting my own community dedicated server will be the deal breaker for me. I won't rent one.

The method you use for hosting shouldn't change. If you host you own dedicated server there shouldn't be any reason why you would need to rent on under ASA. Obviously I can't guarantee that both methods will be available, but WC hasn't said anything about changing how Unofficial servers are hosted, so far it looks like this will stay as it is.

3 hours ago, MrrCupcake said:

I've bought enough hard drives to have room for Ark!! (I'm a little worried about needing a full 1TB for ASE and ASA to be installed at the same time LOL)

I'm confused by that comment, why would you need both unless you plan to host two different clusters (one cluster of ASE-UE4 and one cluster of ASA-UE5)? They're going to be two different products, they won't mix together or interact with each other in any way, you would only need to host one or the other.

3 hours ago, MrrCupcake said:

I'd be happier if dedicated servers were not crossplay than not being able to host my own.

I'm pretty sure that they're not going to force Unofficial server owners to use crossplay. If you host your own Unofficial/dedicated cluster that can only be accessed by Steam players that should be fine. WildCard is bragging about enabling crossplay, but that doesn't mean they'll force you to do it.

3 hours ago, MrrCupcake said:

I really hope WildCard doesn't take a step too far back from the great (in my opinion) SteamCMD and the Steam Workshop 'experience'. I'm not optimistic Overwolf will have anywere near as good an experience as Steam Workshop.

Personally I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Steam is one place that they won't be able to force Overwolf on people (and I can't see any reason why Steam would allow Overwolf into their space, they don't want to do extra work to support whatever Overwolf wants when they already have their own system).

When I read the announcements by WC it looks like what they're doing with Overwolf is using OW to bring mods to other platforms that don't already have them.

Example, "...to introduce an industry-first cross-platform modding experience where mods created on PC are delivered directly to end-users’ consoles from a custom modding backend."

And, "...we’ve got it working internally with Overwolf technology – this dramatically changes the nature of the console experience."

  Frankly, if they try to force OW on Steam users, that's the final nail in the coffin, I would never buy ASA if they do that.

3 hours ago, MrrCupcake said:

But, like Pipinghot suggested, without ASA self-hosted unofficial dedicated servers, I'll be one who sticks with ASE. Really really glad WildCard won't break ASE as originally announced (UE5 would have broken ASE saves and mods). 

With mods and my own self-hosted unoffical server I'll be buying ASA. Hope wildcard reads these!! 

WC is very aware of the fact that the majority of players play ARK on Unofficial servers (and that many people have zero interest in buying ASA if they're forced to play on Official servers) I seriously doubt they will take away Unofficial servers with ASA. They might do something stupid, like force everyone to install Overwolf, but they know that more than half of their income depends on people being able play on Unofficial servers. I wouldn't worry too much, I'm sure you'll be able to host your own.

[Frack]

I agree on no Overwolf. Period. 

[GrumpyBear]

Do I have to have overwolf installed to play on official servers?

[MrrCupcake]

12 hours ago, Pipinghot said:

I'm confused by that comment, why would you need both unless you plan to host two different clusters (one cluster of ASE-UE4 and one cluster of ASA-UE5)? They're going to be two different products, they won't mix together or interact with each other in any way, you would only need to host one or the other.

I host servers for a couple of communities.  I'll keep playing with friends and host whatever they play on. Like you said, I may host both ASE-UE4 & ASA-UE5. I expect to host both until I'm sure I like ASA. I don't host xbox but I had xbox and Steam Ark on my desktop until most switched over to Steam. Ark has used a lot of HDD space lol. 

Priority 1
-self-hosted unofficial dedicated servers
Priority 2
-crossplay  Mods
Priority 3
-crossplay

 

9 hours ago, GrumpyBear said:

Do I have to have overwolf installed to play on official servers?

12 hours ago, Pipinghot said:

  Frankly, if they try to force OW on Steam users, that's the final nail in the coffin, I would never buy ASA if they do that.

I'm a little afraid WC will force OverWolf. Hopefully not, but I'd be surprised if they maintained two mod systems. Overwolf might not be a dealbreaker for me. But I'll wait and see. OW is a little why I wonder about self-hosted dedicated servers. If some mods are paid for, I could see some type of prevention to stop copying mod file folders to servers like ASE works now. I'm looking forward to more unofficial server news!

If ASA adds crossplay without sacrificing any core features of ASE, it will be great. Hopefully!! (I could see putting up with Overwolf for that)

[DirkInSA]

I think that the elephant in the room here is that in order to facilitate cross platform this and overwolf mod that, the devs may be going to (again) alter the game networking code base. Like they did when Epic became a thing that could join PC hosted games.

And if they do that, then the gloves are completely off and no one can know what will still be feasible. I clearly remember the earlier change (with the inclusion of Epic clients) in networking code being a HUGE mess-up for my private hosting setup. No more direct server -> client UPD, everything had to go through the Steam Network protocol, and there was no longer any way to host a pure LAN server with no internet. Steam / Ark lobbies had to be in the picture for things to work. So this contemplated change (being a much bigger alteration that inclusion of Epic clients) is likely to be very disruptive to what is the current status quo.

[darkradeon]

14 hours ago, GrumpyBear said:

Do I have to have overwolf installed to play on official servers?

events will be implemented as mods, so probably using overwolf.

[Joebl0w13]

2 hours ago, DirkInSA said:

the devs may be going to (again) alter the game networking code base.

• Unreal Engine 5 performance gains: instanced-rendering (large-bases etc.), threaded server networking, and native physics engine

 

[Frack]

3 hours ago, darkradeon said:

events will be implemented as mods, so probably using overwolf.

overwolf means a $59.99 savings for me

 

Edited April 25, 2023 by Frack

[darkradeon]

3 hours ago, Frack said:

overwolf means a $59.99 savings for me

 

they should added switch off for app scans and privacy setings, but it's time Microsoft stops fooling around killing the few desktop features (start manu, taskbar) and implement a full sandboxing opt-in for users per application.

Edited April 25, 2023 by darkradeon

[Frack]

Sharing data with Overwolf

By default, the data collected locally by the Overwolf client is shared with Overwolf, or in other words — sent to our servers.

Yet, If you prefer to opt out from having this data shared with Overwolf, you can always opt out from having diagnostic (#1) and customization (#2) data shared. To opt out, visit the “Privacy” tab in Overwolf settings. Please note you cannot opt out from having basic data (#3) shared with Overwolf, and you can stop sharing this information by uninstalling Overwolf.

Edited April 25, 2023 by Frack

[DirkInSA]

5 hours ago, darkradeon said:

and implement a full sandboxing opt-in for users per application.

mmmm that's an interesting idea. The normal way forward for me is to run "dodgy" software inside a VM = your sandbox. But that is not really viable given that this a very resource intensive game.

Your comment also leads me to wonder what will be the state of the linux game client? Does OverWolf even exist in the linux space? On linux I could run the game on bare metal in a sysrooted space - and then OverWatch can scan all it like LOL .... 

[DirkInSA]

5 hours ago, Frack said:

Yet, If you prefer to opt out from having this data shared with Overwolf, you can always opt out from having diagnostic (#1) and customization (#2) data shared. To opt out, visit the “Privacy” tab in Overwolf settings. Please note you cannot opt out from having basic data (#3) shared with Overwolf, and you can stop sharing this information by uninstalling Overwolf.

Its like a a modern day highway robber - "Stand and Deliver, your data or your life"

[RealNomad]

If paid mods are a thing in ASA then dont expect them to be anywhere near as popular. Just think for a second about how many mods you have to install on an average unofficial in ASE. How many people do ya think are gonna play if you gotta pay 20-30 bucks for mods just to play a server?  

[darkradeon]

18 hours ago, RealNomad said:

If paid mods are a thing in ASA then dont expect them to be anywhere near as popular. Just think for a second about how many mods you have to install on an average unofficial in ASE. How many people do ya think are gonna play if you gotta pay 20-30 bucks for mods just to play a server?  

imagine if the mods get retired by author than :V (happened days ago with HG mods)

[RealNomad]

5 hours ago, darkradeon said:

imagine if the mods get retired by author than :V (happened days ago with HG mods)

People are always making new stuff.  If paid mods arent a thing people will still create mods and share them with the community. As soon as money becomes involved though it will all go to poop. The revenue split is really atrocious too. If the goal is to pay creators for their work then Wildcard and snail should pay them not us.  ARK doesnt belong to us. It's their IP, and mods add value to that IP.  Why should we be the ones to pay for that added value? They are the ones making an issue out of it as well. 

[darkradeon]

5 hours ago, RealNomad said:

People are always making new stuff.  If paid mods arent a thing people will still create mods and share them with the community. As soon as money becomes involved though it will all go to poop. The revenue split is really atrocious too. If the goal is to pay creators for their work then Wildcard and snail should pay them not us.  ARK doesnt belong to us. It's their IP, and mods add value to that IP.  Why should we be the ones to pay for that added value? They are the ones making an issue out of it as well. 

Did you ever tried to see what are the cost for an unofficial server? From gaming servers (nitrado/gportal) to VPS KVM to dedicated bare matel machines (rented or directly hosted in your home). Unofficial communities live thanks to donations or payed slots by players. If you add also mods to the costs this becomes no more feasible.

Edited April 30, 2023 by darkradeon

[MrrCupcake]

On Nitrado's official announcement to be "exclusive providers for ARK: Survival Ascended server hosting. " They mention SELF HOSTED servers on the FAQ:
----
Can I monetize my ARK: Survival Ascended Server?
Nitrado’s commercial exclusivity for community servers will not prevent monetization of your self hosted or even rented server, such as but not limited to donations, “VIP” roles, reserved slots, items and anything else that is permitted within the Terms and Conditions & End User License Agreement of ARK: Survival Ascended.
----

Hopefully that includes dedicated servers, but at the very least it looks like there will be a way to host our own games