DirkInSA

Agreed! I have always played solo - never been in an official online tribe. And no matter where I tried to make a base(s), I was wiped. Often with more than one base being whacked overnight. I don't have the same issue as you with Alpha guys - they have spent a collective effort over time to become Alpha, so good luck to them. But my experience was that the "wiping" was almost NEVER done by peeps homed on the server. It was generally an off server guy popping in with (probably) a Mana and some pocket this or that to cause destruction with. And there is my issue. How does a single, off server, player come to a map and infallibly find bases to whack. Be they hidden deep in jungle, or on a raft in the least interesting piece of ocean, or whatever. The base is found - wipe is done, and the guy is not seen on server for weeks. I understand that an Alpha with like 50 players using heatseeking spiders or x-ray owls or whatever could scout the map for stuff. But again, I ain't seen that happening. And on smalls, there are no 50 people tribes. And if a alpha were to do that on a regular basis, they would not have time to do anything else - the maps are BIG. So my issue boiled down to either peeps were using .ini hacks, or plain cheating with ESP or some such. But the answer was the same for me as you - give up official online!

I agree - once a char is overwritten there is no going back (at least on non official servers). Ark servers write map saves periodically, but they do not write character saves. Perhaps official have a backup system that is not built into the game? But I think you are without hope. Sorry!

Yeah - it goes back to the codebase. Ark has a built in "mod manager" that currently works off of a steam distribution. We could debate all day if design choice here was to enhance the game experience (by allowing easy install and distribution of mods) or a very farsighted thought around one day monetising those mods. But it don't matter, it is there. However if the guys are going to write a whole pile of new code to integrate a different source for "official" mods - I ain't sure that it makes sense for them to retain the "old" steam interface to mod code? Lots of games out there have 3rd party mod managers that do the same work of saving existing "assets", replacing that stuff with modded assets and so forth. In the event that Wildcard do choose to go entirely with OW, I think that we might see a similar kind of 3rd party thing for Ark popping up on github.

Mmmm - no they don't. Mod distribution and support is on the Mod developer, and has nothing much to do with Wildcard at all. Sure Wildcard has (currently) made mods only "valid" when it comes from steam - but in terms of the unreal engine, this could as well be a zip download into the game files. But This Is definitely a thing! They want to piggy back $ off of Modders work. And given that, your assertation that OW is likely only going to apply to console stuff may not be valid. It is possible that Wildcard / Snail choose to ONLY support mods distributed by OW - never mind the platform so that they can piggy back even more $ .........

There are a bunch of separate issues here: UE5 (and UE4 for that matter) does enable cross platform mod DEVELOPEMENT. Console platforms DO require certification of code before it can be distributed onto that platform. Save game data is NOT code it is simply data. (New) Mods could be considered as new code, and would (likely) require certification before they could be released to console. As commented above - game patches typically do not require certification. This I did not know, and if it is indeed the case, I find that this to be a massive loophole in the whole purpose on MS & Sony doing certification processes? I imaging in reality that there would be some kind of checklist that would have to be submitted around what will be changed in a patch, and this checklist would be above or below a re-certification threshold. So changing the colour of a dillo is cool, changing the networking "protocol" is not cool? In terms of functionality, the "server" portion of Ark very likely has no special bits of code in it to support differing platforms. It does not care where the data stream telling it that ToonA is building a Stone foundation at x,x,z. All it has to do is record that information, and send back to the client machine what the map looks like inside of the clients render range. Network traffic for PC or Windows or Epic or PlayStation will be no different at all. Wildcard however DO care what the client is, because they want to validate that the client is legitimate and has a legal copy of the game! There will therefore be some kind of up front wrapper that is able to do this validation of client for each of the connecting client flavours. Further this wrapper may be built to do periodic in-game validation of client to stop peeps from starting the same copy of game on multiple devices. The client portion of the game which actually displays ToonA and Stone foundation at x,y,z is likely to have a bunch of platform specific code in it, because of differing hardware capabilities, and Operating System API's that allow stuff to happen. However this functionality is built into the Unreal Engine! Wildcard does not have to do ANYTHING here - just compile the code with a different platform as a target! And as above - the client does not care to what flavour of server it is talking to, all it wants is to be able to tell the server what ToonA is doing, and get map information within render distance. As above, Wildcard DOES care what or where that client is, because they want to validate that it is a legitimate copy of the game. This is very likely the reason that there are different servers for the various platforms. That way it becomes simpler for a server to do client validation without having to make a choice about how to validate a client. i.e. If it is a playstation "server", it knows that it must use playstation validation. With all that said, the solution to the current issue of console dudes losing their "progress" on official servers: The technical answer is simple - Wildcard needs to build into the existing game some kind of "file manager" that allows console to copy and paste their saved games. The code itself that will do this file management will need to be certified, but the DATA comprising save games is not likely to need certification? I don't have insight to what the rules for "certification" on a console entails, and possibly Sony & Microsoft preclude this kind of action with the view that some "cleverness" could inject malicious stuff into a saved game? But technically the answer is simple, and if it is precluded by Sony and or Microsoft - then there nothing Wildcard can do. And in terms of ASA and cross platform servers: All of this is possible (even with the current ASE code base), it simply requires Wildcard to come up with a "unified" validation of the client install (Or to abandon validation all together - which will NEVER happen). The actual game itself would not change at all! (If I remember correctly, there was years ago a version where cross play actually worked for a short while until Sony {I think} jumped on Wildcard for "breaking the rules". Whether that was an actual release version into the wild or just a in house demo - I cannot now remember). In terms of mod support, what is needed is an (easy) way for modders to "certify" their own bits of code to the console companies. If I am building a mod for free, there is NO WAY that I am going to go jump the hoops that MS and Sony have in place for certification. I guess that is where a 3rd party company comes into the picture. The "challenges" of cross platform play is largely of Wildcards making. The "challenges" on mods is of Sony and Microsoft's making.

mmmmm - this thread has drifted from @ladymarina's topic. The thread is directed (if I understood correctly) mostly at the loss of time spent on official servers (which as it stands is not easily retained for console peeps) And the loss of "friends" that one has played with for many years which is an unstated but real issue. So to revert to (my view on) OP's "intent" - I personally think that some statement of intent out of Wildcard around save games for console is REQUISITE. Further, it would be great if there were published a "dummy's guide to running a console server" by Wildcard. This would "show willing" and maybe take away some of the pain felt by long term console peeps ?

Have one for me ! I likes mojitos!

I'm not sure I am sober enough to do this properly - but Philosophy of "dedicated devices" 101: At a moment Apple corporation released a "personal" computer complete with an operating system to the public. And then IBM figured that there might be money in this ... So they paid a nascent MicroSoft a few bob (for DOS) and punted a IBM personal computer. A little later down the line came some peeps that thought "Well - why does a consumer need to mess around with operating system and graphics card this and memory that". Lets make a "box" that has all of that stuff built in! And waaaay down the line, one of the guys that done very well out of a (X)-box figured "Why would I spend on "special" PC stuff when I hold a good bit of the console market". Oooh and never mind that, I also hold a really significant bit of the personal computer market (with background online updates). So lets make "this" the standard - and crush the opposition! I feel for Sony & playstation (albeit they are still clearly in the game). And I feel more for guys looking for a free market "space" to publish their brilliant plan. If they are no able to cross compile stuff to fly on X-Box and etc - they are a bit out in the cold! So in short answer to OP - its where the money is - so its gonna happen!

Also (stupid question - but must be asked) are the babies close enough? Rex and ShadowMane should not have died. The other two need special food.

@AscensionVibe Maybe trying for 2015 rates are not a brilliant answer. As per comments above the "release" of Ark into the wild was somewhere in 2016. Prior to release rates were really not something to build a long term relationship with! Since release the "gross" change in rates seems to be like 4 times. So a 0.25 rate on the bits that trouble you would perhaps give you close to what "used to be". Sure the devs fiddled with a lot of harvesting this and taming that over time, but 0.25 would maybe get you close.

Yeah and it were a 6 hour tame of a DILLO!!!!!!!

Fair enough - my "snapshots" of the game are a erratic - but the earliest reference I have to theries is Dec 2016 - and that is well in line with your chirp. That were a wild time with almost daily releases .... so who would actually know when and what and how much? But I stand by my comment: Pre-release Ark rates and progression was VICIOUS! (and no - I am not gonna go and spend real time hours to prove that this beta version would take 562 real time days to tame a rex )

My experience when replacing stuff - start from the bottom up. You have tek ceilings snapped to a lower level of stone walls - and now want to "extend" that ceiling layer. The snap points of the various technologies are not exactly equivalent, and if you have not gone from the ground up you will likely hit issues. So I would try to replace lower level wall and door, and probably the ceilings that join on to that - and then your snap would work ?????

OK sorry I missed the video somewhere.........

Fair enough - But why were the answers different AT ALL? You done your searches (I ain't gonna go subtract post times now) fairly close to each other. And I would bet LOTS of $ that the differences you saw was not new content - simple re-ordered content ? As per my post above, your mate's IP address has history - and that will bend the answers ...... How significant that "bending" of result is - I really dunno, and I also really dunno how to get a "vanilla" answer. I have taken particular effort to not be a guy that is "tracked" by the googlebytes. But I have seen that when my kid (using the same internet connection) searches for graphics cards (for example), then ANY damn search has something to do with that in the results ........

You guys are now debating exactly how intrusive the big "search" engines are and the googlebytes (yeah I can spell) of history companies that back those things keep. And how possible it is to get "vanilla" result out of that lot ....... And I ain't sure that this forum can give a good answer to that. Even @Joebl0w13's good answer of a clean VM is not adequate because the source IP of the query will be known and WILL skew the answers. So to be somewhat incognito (or some other small town in mexico), one would need a clean VM, a clean browser, and NEW vpn to somewhere in the world. And even that ain't brilliant, because inevitably the VPN will assign you an pre-used IP - so there will be history! But yeah - that is no an answer that can come (or perhaps legitimately be used) in this forum. Short of direct phone calls or somesuch a "clean" poll of content or opinion is not possible.

Dunno what kind of server you on - but has some guy (after the original stone build) no built too close to you to allow placement of stuff? i.e. what is the message "obstructed", no message but no snap?, what? (and is there not maybe a "spawn" of a rock or something in that place which was cleared during the build, but is now back - that has messed me up before)

LOL it would take MONTHS real time - cause there were no tickle chicken released them years .......... Ankylo Argentavis Bat Boa BoaFrill Carno Coelacanth Dilo Dodo Mammoth Megalodon Para Phiomia Piranha Ptero Raptor Rex Saber Sarco Sauropod Scorpion Spider-Large Spider-Small Stego Trike Turtle is your lot. But a Rex w raw meat would likely run to close on a whole day. I tried a croc and like 8 hours in ran out of narco, and could not "pick" enough berries as well as kill stuff for meat to keep it going ...... And it was maybe 60% "tamed".

Nobody knows - Small tribes is just the base game with some .ini adjustments. So it will be POSSIBLE to provide smalls, but what WildCard will actually provide on official servers, nobody knows. Smalls was a relatively late entry on officials as a way for Wildcard to keep interest in the game from flagging. And it for sure worked! I have spent more time on smalls than any other official "flavour".

@AscensionVibe I have a running copy of the game (ver 1.71.74). I see that in the .ini harvest and taming speed is set to 3.0, but I cannot remember if I changed those rates, or if it was shipped like that. But the rates are REALLY horrible. A hand harvested bush will give between 0 and 3 berries. A rock with a stone pickaxe will give between 1 and 4 flint. A level 3 Trike took like 7 hours real time to tame. So yeah nostalgia is great, but if you get it right to reset the stats back to that time, you are in for a really LONG road The old versions were viciously hard! (This is not to say that some dial back is not in order, because modern rates are in my opinion too high).

And 2025 and 2026 ..... LOL LOL

Each of the single player map save directories has a localplayer.arkprofile so you will be able to keep your multiple toons - just rename each one from yourSteamID.arkprofile to localplayer.arkprofile in each of the map directories. ITO of transfer I am pretty sure you can still use the obelisk to transfer data / dinos across maps - upload from one map, quit to menu, start the other map and download. It is single player so I cant see the game getting its knickers in a knot about "different people" ??? But you can try - in a "vanilla" test run in two single play maps right now ... Then you will know in advance if you need to consolidate or not.

So travel light could be zero G or NEED light because its an Aberration kinda biome, or just dark as in inside a cave. The fact that the "prize" is hanging with some playful pups, must be relevant. Bulb dogs and such don't much "hang" they hop. The new big bat was mentioned above - so that could be Fjorder, but that map invalidates the clue of "use your guide". Pups are generally off of some kind of mammal, and the only "playful" mammals that spawn are Beaver, Otter and Rhino (= friendly, not aggressive). As above wee bats are known as pups - and bats have been in the game since forever, never mind the new big bat. Sharks also birth pups. But none of that is playful! The clue speaks to TP - which I guess is TelePort. Which as above "useing your guide" leads to HLNA. Which kinda restricts to Gen 1 or Gen 2. I don't see a Rhino hanging much - so Beaver or Otter - preferably in the dark (a cave?) or in space on Gen 1 or Gen 2. As a left field thought (I dunno if a toons "drag weight" can influence getting snatched into the air by a bog spider (bloodstalker) ) but maybe have a squiz through the swamp on Gen 1 where the spiders "hang". Or Gen 2 where bloodstalkers spawn - this map I am unfamiliar with altogether, so cannot comment exactly where. Good Luck! And good riddle ..........

Dead right - I will no even think about it without Rag ..................... And even then it would depend a LOT on reviews and etc. - and I would be inclined to wait for a "free weekend" or even revert to other means of "try before you buy" ....... And also yeah - there is a lot of love & hate going on in the forum - as well as in Ark at large. I further guess in retrospect, asking the forum to rate it's own place in the larger community was a little foolish LOL

Yep - I must agree that it is generally only when there are "problems" when peeps post a lot! To be cynical - that would be 3rd quarter 2024 then ???