No Longer Able to Run Private ASA Servers... maybe?

[Larkfields]

6 hours ago, zero064 said:

Anybody get the whitelist working? I added -exclusivejoin and copied over my PlayersExclusiveJoinList.txt from an ASE setup, but it seems to ignore the text file and kicks everybody.

I'm wondering if we have to use the new ID's that are used in the player's filenames.

 

[zero064]

5 hours ago, Larkfields said:

I'm wondering if we have to use the new ID's that are used in the player's filenames.

 

Good idea, but I couldn't get that to work either.

[MuddyArk]

Being a Linux guy I had to follow a winders guide and this one seemed good. It may work for you.
https://hub.tcno.co/games/asa/dedicated_server/
 

I can't tell if my server works because my client keeps crashing when I hit join game but it "looks" right.

[Larkfields]

32 minutes ago, zero064 said:

Good idea, but I couldn't get that to work either.

Plan B...

Pick a cooperative player and use the in-game adminmanager to ban them.
Look at the file that's generated to see what the banned ID looks like.

Then unban the player before they get annoyed 🙂

[OB9000]

I know the "I'm refunding the game if I can't run my own server!" dramatists will love to pretend they've "won", and I don't want to take that away from them, but the fact that this was remedied so quickly suggests it was an oversight rather than a cash-grab.

[Joebl0w13]

4 hours ago, OB9000 said:

I know the "I'm refunding the game if I can't run my own server!" dramatists will love to pretend they've "won", and I don't want to take that away from them, but the fact that this was remedied so quickly suggests it was an oversight rather than a cash-grab.

Right. The wording that was added to the EULA for ASA and then later removed was an oversight.

Edited October 29, 2023 by Joebl0w13

[zero064]

4 hours ago, OB9000 said:

I know the "I'm refunding the game if I can't run my own server!" dramatists will love to pretend they've "won", and I don't want to take that away from them, but the fact that this was remedied so quickly suggests it was an oversight rather than a cash-grab.

It could've been one of many things. Maybe it was a business decision that Snail regretted, or maybe in the rush to get Ark out the door nobody put much thought into it. It could also be that there was some disagreement internally about how to handle it, so they waited to see what the reaction was.

In the end, all that matters to me is that somebody took the time to make it work, and the kids and I can go play Ark.

[Pipinghot]

17 hours ago, OB9000 said:

I know the "I'm refunding the game if I can't run my own server!" dramatists will love to pretend they've "won", and I don't want to take that away from them, but the fact that this was remedied so quickly suggests it was an oversight rather than a cash-grab.

1) It's silly to call them "dramatists", it was a legitimate complaint against two companies (WC & Nitrado) that were trying to abuse customers.

2) Nothing about that suggests it was an oversight. They crafted language for the EULA that demonstrated their choice was made with deliberate intent.

Edited October 29, 2023 by Pipinghot

[Pipinghot]

2 hours ago, zero064 said:

It could also be that there was some disagreement internally about how to handle it

No, it was intentional, which is proved by the fact that they wrote the EULA to reinforce that decision.

2 hours ago, zero064 said:

so they waited to see what the reaction was.

Yes. They were trying to see if they could get away with it or if there would be enough of a backlash for them to reverse the decision. You obviously have the right to buy and enjoy the game if that's what you want, but there's no reason for anyone to make excuses for them deliberately trying to rip off customers.

 

[KriegTiger]

TL; DR: ASA looks amazing and I *REALLY* want it but until and unless I can run my own server on my own equipment for my friends and I, I will not drop a red cent on ASA.

 

I grabbed ASE at the beginning of Early Access, and had my own server up and running the moment I had the ability to do so. It was buggy as hell, not optimized, and generally a pretty rough experience and I still logged HUNDREDS of hours into it because me and my friends could play together easily. ASE has come a long way from the early days and is a much more stable (even polished!) experience.

I wrote a thorough Linux dedicated server guide for the steam community that to this day STILL gets comments, thanks, and updates as needed.

I run a full story map cluster (Island, Scorched, Aberration, Extinction) out of my home server and my friends and I completed the whole thing over the course of a couple years before the story was completed, then went back and did it *again* to gather all the notes, see all the lore, and generally experience the game 'as it was meant to be experienced'.

My server was running would run for months at a time without anybody doing more than logging in on the occasional whim, then suddenly we'd all be on daily for weeks at a time. I now have thousands of hours logged in the game, and you know what I never had to do? I never had to connect to a public server or pay a rental/hosting company a dime, and it was F'ing GLORIOUS.

To say that being able to play the game with friends, and for me in particular being able to facilitate our play without ANYONE having to pay some form of subscription, was a key factor in how much time we logged and how much fun we had would be an understatement on the level of calling the ocean a puddle.

It. F'ing. MATTERED.

So now, with ASA being a hosted or public only multiplayer option? Nope. Forget it. Not going to see a penny from me. I refuse to have my fun be held hostage by random strangers; whether that's public server griefers or third party companies. And playing the game single player is boring, I don't care how pretty it is.

I (me personally, my opinion, only speaking for me) was OK/interested in pre-ordering ARK2 when it was said that ASA (base game) would be a freebie reward, I was a little salty when it became its own standalone game purchase but knowing how much time and effort goes into this sort of thing (because it wasn't a copy/paste conversion) but that was palatable because I assumed (wrongly, apparently) the same formula would be kept. IE 'here's the game, there's public servers, hosted servers, and if you have the chops for it you can do it all yourself'.

So I applaud the dev team for all their work in getting the game over to UE5, and changes like the water delivery system are amazing and welcome. I have a double-bird F-U to the companies pulling contractual BS that sets the game up to be either public/official or rented systems only. It's them that I want to understand using the loudest and most staunch slamming shut of my wallet: I WILL NOT BUY OR PLAY YOUR GAME ON THESE TERMS.

If there's been an update that makes this rant/corpo-PSA obsolete, someone please PLEASE let me know; otherwise I'll just be over here staying forever on my ASE home cluster, there's plenty to still enjoy even after multiple thousands of hours.

Edited October 29, 2023 by KriegTiger

[MirageUK]

Not sure if there's a linux server available yet but they released a windows dedicated server which can now be accessed via steamcmd and anonymous login afaik.

[KriegTiger]

6 minutes ago, MirageUK said:

Not sure if there's a linux server available yet but they released a windows dedicated server which can now be accessed via steamcmd and anonymous login afaik.

I did find a reddit post which mentioned finding the game ID for it and I may try it, it's something at least. Heck even after all these years the Linux dedicated server for ASE still has zero documentation and a couple mixed up issues (like they include the windows steam client rather than the linux one in the folder structure).

[Dekota]

On 10/26/2023 at 7:43 AM, JonnyJonnster said:

Honestly, i stand behind you, brother.

If ASA is gonna be Nitrado only, im gonna refund the game, hosted my own server over pterodactyl on a small machine besides me. And i aint gonna shove 30+ Bucks in Nitrados mouth just for some 2nd grade shared machine.

I to stand behind this as it is not acceptable.  I won't support Nitrado, heck even my bank won't support them as I tired to rent a ASE server from them and my bank failed the transaction due to suspected fraud.  So if my bank won't trust them how can we?

[MuddyArk]

Do a search for cdp1337 ARKSurvivalAscended-Linux on github you will find it.

Setup a fresh Debian 12 box and run this installer it works great. Only thing so far is it's FASTER And uses half the RAM the windows server does, thanks open source community!

[darkradeon]

On 10/29/2023 at 8:57 PM, KriegTiger said:

I did find a reddit post which mentioned finding the game ID for it and I may try it, it's something at least. Heck even after all these years the Linux dedicated server for ASE still has zero documentation and a couple mixed up issues (like they include the windows steam client rather than the linux one in the folder structure).

they removed the DRMs (steam account subscription and multiple instance check), as well the EULA. It's unclear if in future, once crossark/clustering is supported again, this will applied or not also on non-nitrado private hosting.

Edited November 1, 2023 by darkradeon