Nitrado deal: why the misinformation campaign by content creators?

[Riksis]

There are a load of videos on youtube stating that the Nitrado deal will kill ARK as we know it as nobody is able to host any ARK ASA server apart from Nitrado.

While I agree that deal and the resulting price hike is harmful to the community and BS, the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ is plainly wrong.

According to the Nitrado page, each ASA copy purchased on Steam contains a single license for a dedicated server that can be self-hosted. So there will be a number of dedicated community servers that are not provided by Nitrado. But no way of running a cluster of multiple maps without either buying multiple copies of the game and self-host or paying Nitrado a huge amount of money each month.

The dedicated server is available with steam as well (under tools). It just needs to be authenticated login to enforce the 'once per purchase' rule as opposed to the unauthenticated steamcmd of the original Ark.

Thinking about it - buying multiple copies of the game is the cheaper variant from the second month onwards...

So while it is much more inconvenient to self-host an ARK ASA server compared to just rent one in a healthy competitive market, everybody is allowed to host Ark ASA servers.

Please stop spreading misinformation that the only dedicated servers must go via Nitrado, otherwise you are also part of the reason in case ARK dies.

Source: https://server.nitrado.net/en-GB/news/ark-survival-ascended-server-hosting-exclusivity-news, look under section "Self-Hosted Free Use Dedicated ASA Server (PC Steam Only)"

[OperationDx]

You don't see this as a problem? lol. Alright then. Carry on.

[Caduryn]

Originally posted by OperationDx:

You don't see this as a problem? lol. Alright then. Carry on.

Examples of "those" Problems?

[Mr Conspicuous]

#1 you're forced to rent 26 slots for $33, you can't just rent 3 slots for you and couple friends for cheap. And you must use nitrado only and some folks have had bad experiences with nitrado. And being as official servers are so so sooo bad you have to play on unofficial.

#2 You can no longer just use your own machine and host a dedicated server. You instead have to buy one from nitrado. And here's thing you don't know if it's 3 day server or 30 days and no one pays bill anymore and that's it, weeks wasted.

#3 Nitrado settings to host a server for ASA is a nightmare to say the least and half of the settings you can't don't even take... you can't set them up as you wish, you have to ask nitrado and be approved for everything.

This is a single player game because currently online is extremely dissatisfying.

[Shadow Moses OG]

The problem is that Nitrado lent them millions of dollars. So that they could make money from that loan and make money from being the exclusive host. The problem that everyone has is Nitrado will have a monopoly on the hosting. Meaning no competition for them so they can do what ever they want with the prices. Sure you can buy another copy of the game but if you want to host a server with any large amount of players you are going to need a beefy server as well. And those are not cheap at all.

[Maeve]

Originally posted by Hax:

#1 you're forced to rent 26 slots for $33, you can't just rent 3 slots for you and couple friends for cheap. And you must use nitrado only and some folks have had bad experiences with nitrado. And being as official servers are so so sooo bad you have to play on unofficial.

#2 You can no longer just use your own machine and host a dedicated server. You instead have to buy one from nitrado. And here's thing you don't know if it's 3 day server or 30 days and no one pays bill anymore and that's it, weeks wasted.

#3 Nitrado settings to host a server for ASA is a nightmare to say the least and half of the settings you can't don't even take... you can't set them up as you wish, you have to ask nitrado and be approved for everything.

This is a single player game because currently online is extremely dissatisfying.

bro forgot to read the post

[Caduryn]

Originally posted by Hax:

#1 you're forced to rent 26 slots for $33, you can't just rent 3 slots for you and couple friends for cheap. And you must use nitrado only and some folks have had bad experiences with nitrado. And being as official servers are so so sooo bad you have to play on unofficial.

#2 You can no longer just use your own machine and host a dedicated server. You instead have to buy one from nitrado. And here's thing you don't know if it's 3 day server or 30 days and no one pays bill anymore and that's it, weeks wasted.

#3 Nitrado settings to host a server for ASA is a nightmare to say the least and half of the settings you can't don't even take... you can't set them up as you wish, you have to ask nitrado and be approved for everything.

This is a single player game because currently online is extremely dissatisfying.

All lies

[Riksis]

Originally posted by Hax:

#1 you're forced to rent 26 slots for $33, you can't just rent 3 slots for you and couple friends for cheap. And you must use nitrado only and some folks have had bad experiences with nitrado. And being as official servers are so so sooo bad you have to play on unofficial.

#2 You can no longer just use your own machine and host a dedicated server. You instead have to buy one from nitrado. And here's thing you don't know if it's 3 day server or 30 days and no one pays bill anymore and that's it, weeks wasted.

#3 Nitrado settings to host a server for ASA is a nightmare to say the least and half of the settings you can't don't even take... you can't set them up as you wish, you have to ask nitrado and be approved for everything.

This is a single player game because currently online is extremely dissatisfying.

#1 i agree, the single commercial hoster deal is crap and insanely expensive (as I've written)

#2 Is simply wrong. You don't have to buy from Nitrado if you self-host (see original post)

#3 Can't comment as I never used Nitrado.

[Proton Decay]

Originally posted by Hax:

#1 you're forced to rent 26 slots for $33, you can't just rent 3 slots for you and couple friends for cheap. And you must use nitrado only and some folks have had bad experiences with nitrado. And being as official servers are so so sooo bad you have to play on unofficial.

#2 You can no longer just use your own machine and host a dedicated server. You instead have to buy one from nitrado. And here's thing you don't know if it's 3 day server or 30 days and no one pays bill anymore and that's it, weeks wasted.

#3 Nitrado settings to host a server for ASA is a nightmare to say the least and half of the settings you can't don't even take... you can't set them up as you wish, you have to ask nitrado and be approved for everything.

This is a single player game because currently online is extremely dissatisfying.

No, you are not forced to buy from nitrado, you can run your own dedicated server on your hardware or better yet any dedicated server/virtual server from any hosting provider.

ASA is still a pile of crap.

[OperationDx]

Is it true that you can only have one consecutive singleplayer save? I see people complaining about this.

[onedudesmind]

There are lots of game companies that use only one place for their servers lol. Wildcard owes Nitrado Millions so they made a deal to stop from being sued.

[D0PY [Syntex&Ashe's <3]]

Why are you speaking about this as if you know what you're talking about?
The dedicated server requires auth trough the steam client, not steam CLI, which is what headless servers (aka 99% of all dedicated servers) use, therefore it is impossible to host your own dedicated server unless you run it on a windows machine that you physically have access to.

[GigaRoot_NGS]

I have to agree with the OP here, while also stating outright that it *is* problematic that this has happened in the first place.

The amount of outright misinformation flooding these forums is staggering and making it difficult for people to find *accurate* info. I haven't purchased yet and still may not...but what I've found so far with substantial digging seems to be:

Yes, you *can* host your own dedicated, unofficial server on your own hardware. There seems to be limitations baked in vs going with nitrado...which is, in no uncertain terms, garbage.

Yes, you can only host *one* per steam account.

NO, you do *not* need to purchase 2 copies of the game in order to run a server and play on it. Nor do you need 2 copies of the game to run the server on a separate machine that you own. The only valid reason to purchase 2 copies of the game outside of gifting it to someone else (and this may become invalid with future information from Wildcard...we'll have to see) is if you intend to run multiple servers to cluster together.

Yes, Nitrado has an exclusive agreement with Snail to be the commercial server provider for ASA. This absolutely sucks, but it's reality. Snail sh*t the bed with bad business decisions and everyone else is paying for it.

Yes, The existing ARK DLC stuff will be provided "at no additional cost"
No, the existing Ark DLC is not available yet for this.

So far, there are no Linux server files (big negative for me)

Performance seems to vary wildly. This is Wildcard and doesn't surprise me at all. Not saying it's right, but in a lot of cases it can be fixed with patches to the game.

Regardless, people need to calm down and do their due diligence in researching *before* jumping into a frenzy just because things aren't exactly the way they want them to be.

I think Wildcard's lack of communication on some of this is adding fuel to an already stupidly out of control dumpster-fire. Also, it might be prudent to release a single-player "demo" for people to download and see if it will run on their system *before* making them spend $40 + download time just to have to refund it.

Do I think this game should have been launched in Early Access? Probably not. Do I think it was rushed? Yes.

Do I think it's completely terrible? Not from what I've witnessed on livestreams from various people (family members included)

Do I think people are over-reacting? Absolutely.
just my $0.02.

[Riksis]

Originally posted by Karmaterrorᵁᴷ:

The issue is hardware....

Sure i can buy 10 copies of the game, but then i have to buy machines capable of running those servers to get all the maps going (when the come out). I would also need some pretty industrial strength internet to handle it all (say 5, 70 slot servers)

Thats why server hosting companies exist, because its not practical to have all the bells and whistles required at home, especially with games like ark where multiple servers interact with each other so you need more than one.

Now enters the problem with exclusivity... With multiple companies there is healthy competition for price. However Nitrado has no competition now. This leaves them free to set the price at whatever they want and people have no other options short of investing a lot of money to get a comparable experience.

I agree that deal harms the community by driving the prices up to to the monopoly. Full d'accord.

It just pisses me off that everybody vents about they HAVE to go via Nitrado. They can go to any random hoster, rent a Windows server and self-host.

Sure, it is less convenient compared to a healthy market, but it is an option.

[Epochian]

The issue is clusters. It is unclear if clusters will be possible. In the past I have never been able to run a cluster from multiple sources. To compound that, nitrado is pretty unreliable. They tend to issue refunds for lost time in my experience with them, but I would lose days of access each time there was an update. Then it takes days of emailing back and forth to get a refund. Running the server off of a personal machine, I would lose maybe two hours of access updating a cluster with all the maps. To be clear, I don't think this deal is illegal, but it is shady enough that I will take my experience with hosting elsewhere.

[Hills]

nice, I need to buy more copies for each DLC map server.
it's not wrong but so DUMB, lol.