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Post by andarielhalo on Jun 12, 2017 17:11:20 GMT -5
a new thing thrown into the arguments over a cross-ark; a Ragnarok server!
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Post by Nails on Jun 12, 2017 20:00:55 GMT -5
a new thing thrown into the arguments over a cross-ark; a Ragnarok server! These are my initial thoughts after reading the Wild Card announcements. In an ideal world, this is what I think would be fun and cool.
Think of it as a server cluster progression From easy to hard.  I'm a fairly humble man, but this is a cool idea. Three AAH Servers, same settings across all servers, with the differences listed below. I think this setup everyone would have a place for us all and we could accommodate different game styles. Again, part of me would still enjoy adming any combination of below, but I don't have the time (or the stress level) to do it alone. Frankly, some mods change the game too much and I think ARK is fun and amazing with the core game and the layers of challenges it presents. All of you know that I LOVE ARK. Best money I've ever spent on a game. So I'm not going anywhere. I doubt this "ideal" server cluster could happen, but again these are just my initial thoughts in an ideal world.
Allow both equipment and survivor transfers for level and experience progression
No dino transfers.
-The Island (Easy-"Gamma")-In its current state. -S+ mod included* (see below)
-Scorched Earth (Medium -"Beta") -PVP -Lite to no mods.
-Fewer rules.
-Less admin moderation.
-Ragnarok (Hard -"Alpha")
-Lite to no mods (no S+)
S+ Mod Note:
S+ with no collectors, no structure pick-up options and no resource pulling.
Why have S+ then?
Because its 3x better then vanilla construction, more placement options, the no collision is pretty damn good, using these settings make it a quality-of-life improvement and NOT a game-changing mod OP mod.
This is my opinion from a balance standpoint. To me, this is a compromise, doing my best to stay true to the core philosophy behind ARK Against Humanity.
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Post by don on Jun 12, 2017 20:19:43 GMT -5
i like the idea, i think the scorched earth can be removed since 'they will add a desert with SE dinos in the long run' i think the island as our kibble farms, equipment farming and raiding XD in Ragnarok will be awesome
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Post by islander1 on Jun 12, 2017 20:20:22 GMT -5
no resource pulling is just tedious, though. Being unable to pick up items to replace them again, without that S+ is pointless. I'm not sure what removing pulling adds, other than almost a requirement to have a ton of weight on your character.
I might even be inclined to try the hard one with nothing, but at least like our SE server we mess with now, I know what I am signing up for.
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Post by Nails on Jun 12, 2017 20:31:53 GMT -5
no resource pulling is just tedious, though. Being unable to pick up items to replace them again, without that S+ is pointless. I'm not sure what removing pulling adds, other than almost a requirement to have a ton of weight on your character. I might even be inclined to try the hard one with nothing, but at least like our SE server we mess with now, I know what I am signing up for. Valid points for sure Islander. It's definitely a good discussion to have. Likely one we may have to poll the active community. I'd compromise here with allowing resource pulling to alleviate the tedium (and time sink) of organization. |
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Post by maji on Jun 12, 2017 20:34:34 GMT -5
I agree that SE isn't needed. Rag brings SE comforts and atmosphere as well.
Regarding the S+: My gametime has been so much more enjoyed because of S+. The resource pull and structure replacement is comforting to know I don't have to make 20 trips back to my quetz to unload 5000 metal. And the fact that if I decide I need to extend my wall out more, w/o losing that wall and having to rebuild is a relief. The only thing I would consider "OP" with this part of S+ is the portable taming pens. But being a PVE server, it works out (at least imo).
Edit:
Regards to admin work, I am sure there are a few people who are willing to assist in that area.
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Post by Nails on Jun 12, 2017 20:44:25 GMT -5
I'd like to throw my 2c in. I tested out some cross-ark server stuff on some servers I had. It works nicely, clustering is easy and managing mods/updates is pretty easy with ark server tools (linux) Overall i think it's a good idea and you can even get fancy with it by having multiple clusters. For example you could have one cluster with mods and one without. Or one cluster could have the island and a cool other map pack. One major drawback however is server chat. AAH is a pretty tight-knit community and one downside i see to having more servers is the lack of chat. If you are on SE you cannot communicate with those on the island. There would need to be more reliance on forums or some other means for trading materials/dinos. The other drawback is I'm not sure if Bluefang supports clusters. To setup a cluster with transferring of stuff properly restricted, all ARKs need to be on one set of hardware. You can use multiple servers, but you'd have to force enable transferring to allow people to get their stuff between servers. Then someone could just download an OP dino. So if we wanted clustering, we'd have to use a different provider which would mean a wipe which is hard to justify. (I could just be a Bluefang config noob) Tavvy is correct here if we cluster we'll need to migrate and thus wipe everything, start anew. Regarding chat I think this would be a minor challenge, everyone (including myself) would likely need to be more active in Discord. Plus there's always the AAH Community page on Steam which has a chat. steamcommunity.com/app/346110/discussions/10/451851477879126926/?tscn=1497316896 |
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Post by Nails on Jun 12, 2017 20:48:18 GMT -5
I agree that SE isn't needed. Rag brings SE comforts and atmosphere as well. Regarding the S+: My gametime has been so much more enjoyed because of S+. The resource pull and structure replacement is comforting to know I don't have to make 20 trips back to my quetz to unload 5000 metal. And the fact that if I decide I need to extend my wall out more, w/o losing that wall and having to rebuild is a relief. The only thing I would consider "OP" with this part of S+ is the portable taming pens. But being a PVE server, it works out (at least imo). Edit: Regards to admin work, I am sure there are a few people who are willing to assist in that area. Yeah, I'm getting more and more feedback that S+ is likely to be a permanent mod on AAH (at least on The Island) in its current form. The majority of the community loves it and I might be fighting a losing battle here...lol. But I'm okay with that.  The settings do need some fine tuning. |
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Post by maji on Jun 12, 2017 20:52:27 GMT -5
What about forgetting cluster, and just have a separate server? There is no real point to clustering if there are no dino download/uploads anyhow. Only thing you would possibly do would be character transfer with that. But I'd be ok starting level 1 again on Rag. That would enhance the map even more for some |
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Post by Nails on Jun 12, 2017 20:56:44 GMT -5
What about forgetting cluster, and just have a separate server? There is no real point to clustering if there are no dino download/uploads anyhow. Only thing you would possibly do would be character transfer with that. But I'd be ok starting level 1 again on Rag. That would enhance the map even more for some Agreed. This would also prevent the need to wipe The Island. |
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Post by maji on Jun 12, 2017 21:06:54 GMT -5
Whelp, I will start it off by donating a little bit of $$ sometime this week (after I get paid), not much but its something that im hoping rest of AAH can follow suit with. I might just end up doing a monthly small amount because I am having a blast and loving community. Current Island server is paid through til July (I think?) so that will be coming up soon as well. I would love to see this kick off before the release happens that way new community of people might start up / return.
Are the last Paypal links still valid Nails? The ones posted in March.
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Post by Borealis Aurora on Jun 12, 2017 23:30:55 GMT -5
I want to weigh in on a couple of points here.
First, the transfers. Just because a functionality exists doesn't mean it has to be used. It's an option.
Second, the mods. I love AAH mods. They do not flip the switch to easy mode and they fill in gaps the devs left. I only recently discovered the joys of resource pulling. Now I can't imagine life on ARK without it. It does not go against the spirit of the game. It merely eliminates some of the tedium as others have stated.
Lastly, Our admins do a fabulous job. I have been on this server a year now and, while we haven't always agreed on stuff, the admins work hard for this server. A lot of people agree with me, I know. Being a dick to the admins just makes people not want to deal with you. You'll find yourself pretty alone. Fair warning.
Salt belongs on fries and popcorn. Keep it off the server.
Cheers!
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Post by Nails on Jun 12, 2017 23:44:02 GMT -5
Whelp, I will start it off by donating a little bit of $$ sometime this week (after I get paid), not much but its something that im hoping rest of AAH can follow suit with. I might just end up doing a monthly small amount because I am having a blast and loving community. Current Island server is paid through til July (I think?) so that will be coming up soon as well. I would love to see this kick off before the release happens that way new community of people might start up / return. Are the last Paypal links still valid Nails? The ones posted in March. Paypal links are valid. Any donations will be rolled over into the next pay period if people so choose (and we have enough) we'll use the donations to open a second Ragnorok server. I need to discuss this with the other admins before making any additional announcements. But the preverbal ball is rolling. |
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Post by subsonic on Jun 13, 2017 9:50:53 GMT -5
There is no need to wipe to enable clustering or to migrate to a different provider. Just need to copy over the world data and server configs to the new place: TheIsland.ark, *.arktribe, *.arkprofile, *.ini. If there's talk of switching providers, I've used Host Havoc and found it worked well. They support clustering for a one-time $5 setup fee, IIRC. The control panel allows easy editing and changing of the command line options, which I seem to recall is (or was) an issue with BlueFang. As for the mods part of the discussion, I'm a big fan of S+, particularly resource pulling. Mainly for reasons others have mentioned, it's not really engaging gameplay to walk back and forth moving stacks of heavy resources, it's just tedious. Auto closing doors are also very nice. I don't care about the gardener/harvester type of stuff, and just don't use those. I also don't care for the "upconverting" recipes in the S+ grinder, such as converting raw meat to prime. That can GTFO  I've been around long enough that I should probably toss in a couple of bucks for server hosting myself I'm also at least somewhat willing to help out with server admin duties if there's a need. I've done it before and it's also what I do for work (not ARK/game servers specifically though). I'm fine with the technical side of things, but I'm less interested in the social aspect of it as dealing with people isn't my strongest point |
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Post by Tavvy on Jun 13, 2017 16:37:27 GMT -5
There is no need to wipe to enable clustering or to migrate to a different provider. Just need to copy over the world data and server configs to the new place: TheIsland.ark, *.arktribe, *.arkprofile, *.ini. If there's talk of switching providers, I've used Host Havoc and found it worked well. They support clustering for a one-time $5 setup fee, IIRC. The control panel allows easy editing and changing of the command line options, which I seem to recall is (or was) an issue with BlueFang. As for the mods part of the discussion, I'm a big fan of S+, particularly resource pulling. Mainly for reasons others have mentioned, it's not really engaging gameplay to walk back and forth moving stacks of heavy resources, it's just tedious. Auto closing doors are also very nice. I don't care about the gardener/harvester type of stuff, and just don't use those. I also don't care for the "upconverting" recipes in the S+ grinder, such as converting raw meat to prime. That can GTFO I've been around long enough that I should probably toss in a couple of bucks for server hosting myself I'm also at least somewhat willing to help out with server admin duties if there's a need. I've done it before and it's also what I do for work (not ARK/game servers specifically though). I'm fine with the technical side of things, but I'm less interested in the social aspect of it as dealing with people isn't my strongest point Regarding the "no need to wipe to enable cluster" -- this is not exactly true. While it's true you don't need to wipe the server to "move" it, i did some pretty extensive testing of transferring AAH data to to my VPS in Linode which was linux. I tried Debian 8, CentOS 7, and Ubuntu 16.04 and all of which ended up crashing once I loaded AAH's map files onto the server. The server would load fine with just tribe/player files and a default map. (mods were installed before-hand) ...Also made sure i had clean files by trying both a fresh world save as well as a backup file. So I believe there are some issue when switching from Windows to Linux I'm not familiar with hosting with other companies, but I did want to use Linode as their servers use SSD-based SAN's which make for extremely fast disk IO (more seamless world saves, means less lag per save, means we can save more often automatically). On top of their promising bandwidth throughput, I've never had any issues. Also using our own server, we can enforce other settings, such as player slots (increase it without having to pay more). Lastly I can write up better third-party stuff for the ark server similarly to what I had with the website before. Sure it worked but it relied on transferring everything over and was kinda lame. |
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I'm a fairly humble man, but this is a cool idea. 
I left my 80-something Survivor on Ragnarok, can we transfer our toons to AB or just start afresh? Very Happy to be Baaack!
Jan 17, 2018 16:25:34 GMT -5
Jan 18, 2018 4:34:58 GMT -5