ARK: Survival Ascended players were in an uproar due to server hosting. Now they have got their way.
What was the dispute about? The ARK community was angry shortly after the release of ARK: Survival Ascended (ASA) because the remake had strict server hosting restrictions.
The server provider Nitrado has had the exclusive rights to server hosting the Dino game since the summer, but many players do not want to book with the German company. In the past, ARK players have criticized Nitrado’s server stability, customer support and prices (via Reddit).
However, due to Nitrado’s exclusive rights, players in ASA cannot rent their private servers from providers such as Gportal, which is why small groups of friends in particular, but also individual communities, want to use dedicated servers. The servers would then be hosted for the players from their own hardware.
However, this was not possible in ARK: Survival Ascended shortly after its release. Anyone who hosted a dedicated server could not play with the respective account, but only host it. This can also be read on the Nitrado website. There it says:
If you purchase ARK: Survival Ascended on Steam at launch, you will be able to create a free-to-use private PC server (“Steam Server”) where you can invite friends or other community players to experience the remastered ARK game. to share cards. With the “Steam Server” there are limitations that you can expect, including a lack of creation tools for mod developers and the fact that you will be limited to creating a single Steam server for your Steam account, which requires authentication before launch.
via nitrado.net
Another problem with server hosting was that the ASA server recognized when someone logged in with a different account to host multiple servers and then prevented a second server from starting, writes Nekatus, a well-known German ARK -Modder on Twitter.
Server clusters were virtually impossible due to the restrictions
Why is that a problem? ARK is not just about taming and breeding dinosaurs. Part of the fascination behind ARK also comes from the maps – especially the mod maps, which are sometimes really breathtaking.
Accordingly, it is part of the gameplay to travel back and forth between the maps. You start playing on a map, explore the landscape, build a base, tame a few dinosaurs, level up and farm resources. At some point you will travel to another map and do the same thing there.
This is reinforced by the fact that the maps offer different creatures. Not every living creature in ARK is on every map. The cards also play differently and also have their own bosses that players can compete against.
Many players therefore play on so-called server clusters, which offer a variety of maps between which they can travel back and forth. But due to the restrictions, operating a cluster was virtually impossible.
ARK: Survival Ascended is shown for the first time in the trailer
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Players, content creators and modders are raising their voices
How was the dispute resolved? The ARK community has expressed its displeasure at every turn. Many players criticized the server hosting restrictions on social networks – including content creators and mod developers.
For example, YouTuber NeddyTheNoodle explained in a 9-minute video why this was bad and gave ASA a week to lift the restrictions. If that doesn’t happen, he no longer wants to offer servers for his community or create content for the game (via YouTube).
German modder Nekatus also commented on Twitter that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to continue creating mods for ARK under these circumstances (via Twitter).
On top of that, there was an online petition that quickly collected over 6,400 votes to lift the restrictions on server hosting with a view to dedicated servers (via change.org)
The community wins the argument
How did the argument end? The ARK community won the argument. It is not known whether the petition or the creators’ statements played a role, but the restrictions on ARK: Survival Ascended were lifted on October 27th (via survivetheark).
The modder Nekatus classified the change in more detail on Twitter and explained that it is now possible to host several dedicated servers on your own PC.
However, there will be no change to Nitrado’s exclusive rights. You still cannot rent private servers from companies like Gportal.
If that’s a reason for you not to play ARK: Survival Ascended, here are other survival games you can play instead:
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