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As Xbox players and hosts we've never had access to the .ini files to control our servers. Everything for us was pretty straightforward in terms of configuring settings, but we were also fairly limited in the amount of custom configuration we could implement. All of that of course changed when hosted servers arrived on scene, which opened us up to a whole-new-world of possibilities and headaches. I wanted to create this guide to help alleviate some of the pain associated with altering the .ini files, and to dispel some of the apprehension associated with implementing custom configuration code. I spent days researching, hours writing code, and hours fixing some of the mistakes I made. I figured some of you folks might find some value in the mistakes I've made, and what I've learned through my trial-by-fire. What follows is a sectional guide on the use of Expert Mode, and how to configure some of the more common custom configuration elements. NFD vs. Expert Mode When you first access the Nitrado Admin Console, you will find that they have created their own version of the configuration menu we had when running PDS through our consoles. It's all very straightforward and simplified, and it will look pretty familiar. For most of the settings you will want to alter, this is by far the easiest way to go about it. I have dubbed their console, Nitrado for Dummies. This is not to say you are a Dummy if you use this, but it is a simplified means of configuring the server; thus, the moniker. If you run a single server, and are apprehensive about altering the .ini files, this might be your best option for server configuration. A few things to consider before deciding which configuration mode you want to proceed with: How you want to customize your server: If you want to implement changes to level progression or custom stats, the NFD interface can be very time consuming (I'll get further into detail about these aspects later on) How many servers you run: if you run more than one server, and intend to implement customization, the NFD interface is a massive time-suck. Is your apprehension justified?: The simple reality here is that, there isn't a major difference between engaging the NFD interface, and directly manipulating the .ini files. Just like the NFD interface, every line item in the .ini file is easily identified. As an example: NightTimeSpeedScale=.7 DayTimeSpeedScale=.7 TamingSpeedMultiplier=3.0 HarvestAmountMultiplier=3.0 HarvestHealthMultiplier=3.0 Note: When switching to Expert Mode, most of the configuration options disappear from the General Settings interface. You will also notice that Engine Settings is replaced by Expert Settings. When switching from one configuration mode to the other, settings do not usually transfer. If you have been using the NFD interface for any period of time, it is probable that most configuration settings will show up in the .ini files; however, custom level progression and other custom configurations may not. Be sure to scan the .ini files to ensure that your server is configured according to your desires, check it again, and then proceed. Expert Mode Sounds fancy, right: Expert Mode, dun dun dun. It's neither as glamorous or as ominous as it might at first appear. If you've made it through this wall of text, and are now ready to start tinkering with the .ini files, here is where we begin. First things first, let's identify exactly what we're working with, and what goes where. To activate Expert Mode, you will navigate to the General Settings interface, click the little box at the top, and then click save. Once this is done, the pane on the left will look like: Let's go ahead and click on Expert Settings, and take a gander. You will notice that you're now nose-to-nose with an .ini file. Pretty unimpressive right? Feel free to scroll around, and familiarize yourself with what you're looking at. You'll notice that not all of your settings are here, and that's because there is more than one file in this interface. Click the area highlighted in red, and a drop down will appear. Once there, go ahead and click on Game.ini, the click Load File. You will notice that there is an Engine.ini in the drop down, but it is blank, and has nothing to do with what we're doing here. You will make use of both files in this interface when configuring your server, as they both contain different game variables. You will want to acclimate yourself with both of these files, so you know where everything is when you need to alter a variable. Note: Under GameUserSettings.ini you are going to see all manner of things you might be tempted to tinker with. Avoid altering settings directly under the following sections: [/Script/ShooterGame.ShooterGameUserSettings] [ScalabilityGroups] [/Script/Engine.GameSession] Alterable variables fall below the following sections: [SessionSettings] SessionName=[US] Ark FTW-Ragnarok (this is the name of your server, and can be changed at your leisure) [ServerSettings] (many of the settings you found under General Settings are now found here, and they can all be altered) AutoSavePeriodMinutes=15.000000 (this can be altered, but I have read there may be some performance related issues in so doing, so probably don't) In order to make any changes to these files, you're going to need to completely stop your server. Once the server is completely stopped, you can make any necessary alterations to the .ini files. Once those alterations have been made, click Save, and then go have yourself a cup of coffee. Nitrado recommends that you wait around 4 minutes before bringing your server back up, as the backend has to make conversions. I also always run a server check any time I make any changes, which is probably a good habit to acquire. If you don't wait, you may end up with corrupted data, so wait the 4 minutes. Now, let's talk about some of the custom configurations you can make, and some of the resources I've found helpful. Level Ramp Overrides This is just a fancy way of identifying the option to add a custom level scheme to your server, and it works for both Players and Dinos. I'm going to break this down into three sections: Players and Dinos, Engrams, and Resources...oh my? Players and Dinos How you proceed here will be largely dependent on the type of server you run. Using the Overrides you can add more levels, reduce the total number of levels, and completely reshape the way you progress through those levels. Altering the Dino progression scheme is straightforward; not so much for players. The game reserves 30 levels for ascension, so you need to keep this in mind when you're deciding on a max level. The easiest way to explain it is: If you want a max server level of 150, after ascension, you will simply add 150 levels If you want a max server level of 150, before ascension, you will need 180 levels in total Ramps Another factor to consider is how you want your ramp to work. What is a ramp you ask? Simply put, it is the increase in experience required per level. You can effectively create any ramping scheme you want with the override. The vanilla progression system uses a progressive ramp with a steep curve towards the end. I use the vanilla ramp up through 115, and then a wave scheme thereafter. Maybe you want a linear ramp where each level requires the same amount of experience. The world is your oyster here, so do whatever feels good to you. Code Now let's talk a bit about code, shall we? The method for coding is linear, but it is time consuming. There is an override variable for both Players and Dinos, and you will need to create a block of code for each if you intend to create custom level schemes for both. If you elect to override the vanilla level cap and progression, your code block MUST start at level 0, and MUST include every-single level you want to have on your server. I made the mistake of starting my code block at a specific level, instead of coding every level, and I magically transported every logged in player to level 82. So what does the code look like? Glad you asked: LevelExperienceRampOverrides=(ExperiencePointsForLevel[0]=5,ExperiencePointsForLevel[1]=20,ExperiencePointsForLevel[2]=40,ExperiencePointsForLevel[3]=70 As you can see, there isn't anything overly complicated about the actual syntax of the code. If you've noticed something odd, however, you're right to be suspicious. Level 0. Well, there is no Level 0 in the game, so what on earth is that for? When you first spawn on the beach, you are already at level 1, so it seems odd that this wouldn't start at level 2, right? Level 0 in this code block represents level 2 in-game. So if you are coding these blocks, always subtract 2 from the max level: If you want 180 total levels, your code block will start at Level 0 and end at Level 178. Engrams Points Now that you've coded out your level progression system, what about engram points? Just like with levels, you can employ any engram point scheme your wee heart desires, and it is all linear: OverridePlayerLevelEngramPoints=8 OverridePlayerLevelEngramPoints=8 OverridePlayerLevelEngramPoints=8 OverridePlayerLevelEngramPoints=8 OverridePlayerLevelEngramPoints=8 OverridePlayerLevelEngramPoints=8 OverridePlayerLevelEngramPoints=8 OverridePlayerLevelEngramPoints=8 OverridePlayerLevelEngramPoints=12 OverridePlayerLevelEngramPoints=12 OverridePlayerLevelEngramPoints=12 Each line ties directly to a level, and in order. So, the first line is the number of engram points you gain at Level 0 in your level code block, and so on. Your engram points code block should match your level code block in terms of numbers: If you have 198 levels written into your code block, you will need 198 lines in your engram points block if you want each level to come with engram points. Resources The following are some of the things I found useful when setting up my server's progression scheme: Ark's vanilla level scheme from the Wiki Code Generator Tool Note that the level scheme is out of date, so you will need to adjust if you intend to use the vanilla progression scheme up through any particular level Also note that, the site has other tools for custom settings aside from levels and engram points Server Configuration Specifics from the Wiki More to follow...

Support Respone Few minutes after transfering server crashed and i lost my character. I wrote ticket to support but im waiting almost 5 days for response. How long i have to wait? My dinos will die without food and my buildings will decay soon, so is there any way to get fast response from support ?

Unofficial Server Transfer Not Working Hi all, I'm running 2 servers from one Windows 10 Machine. They are both working and ports are forwarded correctly. The server is visible from the in game browser and when I select "Travel to Another Server" at the obelisks, I can see the other server. However, when I actually transfer to the other server, it will take me there and to the spawn screen, but when I actually try to spawn in it takes me back to character creation screen. The character I attempted to transfer with is then stored back on the first server that I tried to transfer from. I am running about 15 mods(most notable is extinction core). Any ideas why this is happening and how to fix it? Thanks in advance!

Support here is useless Tired of wild cards non support of anything. Always submit tickets with issues like people blocking off accesses to caves or pathways or any other violation of the so called code of conduct that they post here. Yet nothing is ever done on wild cards side. They just ignore it, send this reply after a short period, and close the ticket while doing norhing. Great player support wild card...

Possible Tame Submission Hear me out guys!! Thoughts? Giant Cricket Gryllidae Ophiomachus *High Weight *High Jump (loses altitude above 50% weight) *Can Climb *Diseased Bite (non-lethal, but drains health) *Chirps at Night (stops when a predator is nearby) *Passive *Found in Burrows *Omnivorous *Can be Bred *Can be Ridden *Can be Carried by: -Wyvern -Karkinos -Quetzal -Tusoteuthis *Tamed Gryllidaes can burrow and act as a turret by pulling smaller nearby creatures underground to kill and harvest

Rates skewed after transferring my non-dedicated save to dedicated So recently I've decided to transfer an Island save my friends and I were playing on over to dedicated using ASM so I could make it a server. We were fairly far into the game having just beaten broodmother when we switched to dedicated. I got the server working and made sure all the rates we had on our Non-Dedicated were input into ASM, only having boosted xp, boosted harvesting, and reduced mating interval as our modified rates. We load, and within the first 10 minutes we noticed something. All our 40k hp 800% dmg rexes had less than half in those two stats, averaging 19K hp and 370% damage per rex, though other stats such as weight were seemingly unaffected. We boost the add per level stat a bit in hp and damage and managed to get stuff roughly to where it was before, not perfect though, and certainly a a pain in the ass. Then my lvl 91 friend joins on and within a minute realizes the game will not let him level up. I check ASM and sure enough xp cap is at default. We check our dinos and notice, they too cant level up, with exception of our recently tamed ones, which we managed to get a couple levels out of. We reload the server with a boosted xp cap and leveling works. Later, my friend mates his two pteros, only to be told afterwards, he has to wait 6 mores hours to breed them again, on our server with mating interval at 0.25 of the default. Does anyone have any idea whats happening, and what I can do to get everything to what its supposed to be?

Invalid_Request when logging via Xbox Signin. I created this account because I am having trouble logging into survivetheark.com with the "Xbox Signin" option. I cleared my cache/browsing history as well. Tried multiple browsers. Anyone else receiving the following error:

What is the fastest way to get a GM Appointment? I play on ps4 I used to have a huge tribe then I took a break, we had beaten all bosses we were lvl 135 on both srvrs. I had recently transferred both of my characters to valguero srvrs because I was going to build one tribe as my main and have a secondary tribe on the other srvr to weed out bad players. Myself and one of my tribe mates took our characters to these srvrs to begin we had a decent setup on the first server then got attacked. We let the people know who we were with and we told we wouldn’t be touched, then our other buddies told us they had a prime spot for us on another srvr so this made both of our characters to be on valguero. He had given us a lot of mats we built our base and got some sleep the next day we planned to raise many eggs given to us. But, through the night a rollback happened we lost everything it deleted our characters because they only did rollbacks on the valguero srvrs. We searched the other previously played srvrs and our characters are gone. No download option nothing. For the last 2 weeks we have both been putting in tickets for them to fix our characters and we haven’t even gotten a response. We have even been speaking to wildcard employees through twitter. Nothing has been done. No support. We have played this game since release and as you all know it takes a lot of work to get to lvl135 so both of my lvl135 characters are gone. I can’t play and I’m not getting support. If you have a way to get ahold of one of the GM’s please respond cause this sucks ass! Our plan was to play valguero until genesis is here and now we have nothing. My psn is drum0501 Twitter is the same let me know if you know how I can get in touch with someone to fix this

Server crashes Server crashing every few minutes for the past 4 days, submitted multiple support requests all been closed with a msg to submit a report at ark.gg/outage. That didn't help, 4 days later no change and nothing on the server outage list. What's next? Who should I contact now?

Primitive Plus structures bug After this 23gb update on Xbox One i signed into the primitive plus server and everything thats built with lumber and the structures on them have disappeared and the learnt engrams have been refunded. Ive lost almost everything on that server after months of playing. Please fix. This happen to anyone else?

Still no response from support! So about a month ago or so I built a base on aberration to farm metal, overnight a tribe named NinetyNineProblems came in and pillard Me In (1 tribe member in particular) to where I couldn't build anything outwards and only had a 8x8 space to work with, when I asked the kid why he did it and if he would remove it he started to be a little prick and threatened that if I didn't remove my base he would destroy it and my other bases whenever I came online. Since aberration usually is very sparsely populated anyways my server rarely has more than three people on it at a time but this kid just has to have all of the land to himself. So I went and filed a support ticket to see if the game managers would do their jobs and remove his pillars so I can build and be able to actually play the game the way it's supposed to be (kids like this little prick should stick to their own private servers and leave the people who have RESPECT FOR OTHERS alone!) Anyways I filed that ticket a month ago and never received a response two weeks after the incident I filed another ticket still to no response so it's good to know that when little punks like that do crap like that there will being nothing done about it making this game just a bit more unfun then it already is it's getting to the point where I'll stop playing and won't bother buying any more DLCs. They can't make the game fair for everyone and they can't fix the simple bugs and glitches that we already have what's the point? To have everything we work for messed up by some little selfish Punk? ITS A PVE SERVER FOR CHRIST SAKE!

IN NEED OF ADMIN URGENTLY I am currently being meshed and I need and admin to come help me I'm helpless Server 2 Center, Small tribes

Settings not saving/Reverting back to what they were Settings (Video,Audio, Controls) and Ark Settings ( Tame speed harvest ect...) Changes aren't saving on single player i can not change the settings when i do change them and go into a world or go back to the main menu they reset to what they were set before. I tried changing them from the GameUserSettings.ini when i launch the game it works but loading up a world reverts them back to normal.

I can not open the start menu He does not let me play, I give him a start and he shows me that, then the screen freezes, really please please, I beg of you, does anyone know the solution? I bought the game in microsoft store and I really want to play it.

Do any command codes or gfi codes, spawn codes or whatever disable any acheiments or effect the game at all in single player?

Xbox: Error code 0x80a4001e Unable to continue, Please check account privileges I had bought an Xbox today in-order to play Ark and have downloaded everything related to the game. While on PC I was not able to download Extinction or use the in game voice chat I was still able to play the game. When I downloaded and installed the game on my Xbox, I hit X on Join Ark and received an error code: 0x80a4001e and the game telling me "Unable to continue, Please check account privileges". I checked everything and everything is in order and should be fine. I contacted Xbox Support and they told me to get in touch with the game developer as this doesn't seem to be an issue on their side. Any help with this would be appreciated.

Sitze auf server FEST Hallo zusammen ich spiele ark jetzt wirklich schon richtig lange doch nun hab ich ein größeres problem und zwar habe ich mich von meinem officel server aus hochgeladen, und mich auf einen anderen server runtergeladen. beides officel server von ark. nun folgendes problem das runterladen des chars hat funktioniert nur kann ich mich jetzt nicht mehr hochladen, kein zugriff auf obelisk oder lootjob um mich wieder hochzuladen denke mal es liegt an dem zu hohen ping. könnte mir hierjemand freundlicher weiße jemand aus der patsche helfen. MFG

Can not find servers Good morning, since a few months ago I can not play online servers correctly because the game tells me that there are no sessions and I can only play servers in Lan, I can not play Official servers and not Officials as I solve it? I have already tried to delete the game and reinstall it also erase data from the cache and the problem persists help please.

Hello, long time fan of Ark. Love the game. I would really like to see some actual VR support in Ark. like games that don't even have basic support I can get to run using VorpX and work arounds like that, but with Ark I can't get it to even fake it... I have a beast PC so this talk of how it wouldn't work because of low fps is not a good enough excuse for me. I have no doubt my machine is more than capable of playing Ark in VR. the real lquestion is will Ark get any support at all for it down the road? I have read a lot of stuff over the years regarding the topic of Ark in VR so please refrain from trolling and bashing because I probably already heard/read your opinion on the other posts I have read over the years- this is more a question for the devs behind Ark as I haven't been able to find an answer online from someone other than another gamer. Thank you for taking the time to read my post.

Does it matter how I set my settings for single player in order to receive achievements? Can I set it to whatever I want and still get all the game has to offer?

Hi wildcard It would be amazing if after 5 months we could get some patches for the switch. Ofcourse the DLC's would even be better but im already happy with general game improvement kind regards

!SOLVED! So, I have somebody who pillared around where im building on my official server. (On one side) I was here first building, then they came up and started pillaring it. They are new to the server, but its frustrating as I was here. Ive used SO many mats on it and i will not restart. One of my tribe members told me its against the rules and considered griefing. What do I do??!

So when i was playing today it caused rubberbanding which never happened before and i have 60 ping in that server so its not a internet issue.This rubberbanding doesnt happen when im crouching or when i am riding my dino but when i run or walk it happens and i cant even play the game properly.

Ever since the Easter patch I can't play ark... I go to join server then, it reads primal game bp and crashes ... Tried on online and on single player.... Please sort this out I was planning on getting some time in over the long weekend, specs for my computer are gtx1070 16gb ram, 500gb SSD ter hd, and Intel i7 core....

So, over the past 2 months response time for tickets has severely decreased at least from what my tribe is experiencing. SO my question to the community is how long are your tickets taking to be acknowledged, answered, and addressed? It used to be that at least in 5 days you would get a response in regards to the ticket and then over the next 5 days you would be communicating back and forth with the GM. It might be 1-3 weeks for an appointment to meet them at least from what i have seen personally. Lately, we have tickets out there over 20 days that still have not even been acknowledged. Is this what everyone else is experiencing?