How do private servers work?

[TomatoThePotatoe]

Okay so I do not have this game yet, but I was just curious how private servers work in this game. I mainly want to play this game with my friend only without being afraid that something will happen while I am offline. So I have a couple questions regarding private servers.
1. Do I have to pay for private servers?
2. How exactly do they work (besides the fact that I can only control the server settings)
3. If I leave the game, will the server turn off or will it keep running?
4. Will private servers cause me to play this game more than 5 hours a day?
5. I heard if I create a private server, my friend has to stay close to me, can anyone explain further?

I don't want to overwhelm anyone with questions so I tried to give a few. Thanks!

[Vesuvius]

Tbh ... with an i3 and 8g ram... you might be better of renting.... a 10 slot server is cheap af... with only 2 pple you wont run into much lag/ram usage issues.

[Lordbufu]

Publicado originalmente por Vesuvius:

Tbh ... with an i3 and 8g ram... you might be better of renting.... a 10 slot server is cheap af... with only 2 pple you wont run into much lag/ram usage issues.

I agree, even upgrading your RAM might be more expensive then renting a host for several months.

[TomatoThePotatoe]

Publicado originalmente por Vesuvius:

Tbh ... with an i3 and 8g ram... you might be better of renting.... a 10 slot server is cheap af... with only 2 pple you wont run into much lag/ram usage issues.

I don't think I am going to buy servers tbh. Do I have to do all of this when getting into an online server or has it already been paid by someone else?

[Vesuvius]

Publicado originalmente por TomatoThePotatoe:

Publicado originalmente por Vesuvius:

Tbh ... with an i3 and 8g ram... you might be better of renting.... a 10 slot server is cheap af... with only 2 pple you wont run into much lag/ram usage issues.

I don't think I am going to buy servers tbh. Do I have to do all of this when getting into an online server or has it already been paid by someone else?

There are over 40,000 unofficial servers, most of them have no password and love new players.

Search Battlemetrics.com for best results

[Lordbufu]

Publicado originalmente por TomatoThePotatoe:

Publicado originalmente por Vesuvius:

Tbh ... with an i3 and 8g ram... you might be better of renting.... a 10 slot server is cheap af... with only 2 pple you wont run into much lag/ram usage issues.

I don't think I am going to buy servers tbh. Do I have to do all of this when getting into an online server or has it already been paid by someone else?

There are loads of un-official servers (private server) that offer a wide variation of mods, settings and game modes. You could find a nice popular server and play there, or a less popular and populated one if you want more "alone" time.

[JDaremo Fireheart]

Publicado originalmente por Vesuvius:

Tbh ... with an i3 and 8g ram... you might be better of renting.... a 10 slot server is cheap af... with only 2 pple you wont run into much lag/ram usage issues.

where? My usual host doesn't offer anythign that small

[Vesuvius]

If you do go to unofficials tho... dont let one bad experience put you off.

Some Admins utterly suck at it.

But many are pretty good.

[TomatoThePotatoe]

Publicado originalmente por Lordbufu:

Publicado originalmente por TomatoThePotatoe:

I don't think I am going to buy servers tbh. Do I have to do all of this when getting into an online server or has it already been paid by someone else?

There are loads of un-official servers (private server) that offer a wide variation of mods, settings and game modes. You could find a nice popular server and play there, or a less popular and populated one if you want more "alone" time.

But that will still require me to login everyday, right?

[TomatoThePotatoe]

Publicado originalmente por Vesuvius:

If you do go to unofficials tho... dont let one bad experience put you off.

Some Admins utterly suck at it.

But many are pretty good.

What are the chances of being raided on a server with a nice admin compared to one with a bad admin?

[TomatoThePotatoe]

I just wanna take a moment to thank all you guys for really helping me out with this and giving me a better understanding of the servers in this game.

[Lordbufu]

Publicado originalmente por TomatoThePotatoe:

Publicado originalmente por Lordbufu:

There are loads of un-official servers (private server) that offer a wide variation of mods, settings and game modes. You could find a nice popular server and play there, or a less popular and populated one if you want more "alone" time.

But that will still require me to login everyday, right?

I think on default settings you can stay away for almost an entire week(with a decent base), then you need to either feed your dino's or refresh structure decay timers.

[Vesuvius]

Publicado originalmente por JDaremo Fireheart:

Publicado originalmente por Vesuvius:

Tbh ... with an i3 and 8g ram... you might be better of renting.... a 10 slot server is cheap af... with only 2 pple you wont run into much lag/ram usage issues.

where? My usual host doesn't offer anythign that small

BlackboxServers does 10 slots from $13usd a month.... im with streamline tho... minimim 20 slots $15 usd per month

[Vesuvius]

Publicado originalmente por TomatoThePotatoe:

Publicado originalmente por Vesuvius:

If you do go to unofficials tho... dont let one bad experience put you off.

Some Admins utterly suck at it.

But many are pretty good.

What are the chances of being raided on a server with a nice admin compared to one with a bad admin?

Many pvp unofficials have strict server rules.

[JDaremo Fireheart]

Publicado originalmente por TomatoThePotatoe:

Publicado originalmente por Vesuvius:

Tbh ... with an i3 and 8g ram... you might be better of renting.... a 10 slot server is cheap af... with only 2 pple you wont run into much lag/ram usage issues.

I don't think I am going to buy servers tbh. Do I have to do all of this when getting into an online server or has it already been paid by someone else?

with unofficial servers it's hit or miss but with so many to choose from you'll find a good one.

Only thing to watch out for is bad admins, admins that don't even bother to play on the server or monitor it, admins that give obvious preferencial treatment to their friends at the cost of screwing others, servers with tonnes of mods installed that will cost you a day to install them all before you can join only to find that the server sucks.

my advice, if you don't have Discord, get it and join the Heritic Gaming channel
Here's the Invite Link for their channel (24hr expiry) https://discord.gg/rwrqkS
They have I believe Ark Servers running, 3 PvE and 1 PvP and they are a great community of gamers coving a wide range of games

[JDaremo Fireheart]

Publicado originalmente por TomatoThePotatoe:

Publicado originalmente por Vesuvius:

If you do go to unofficials tho... dont let one bad experience put you off.

Some Admins utterly suck at it.

But many are pretty good.

What are the chances of being raided on a server with a nice admin compared to one with a bad admin?

that question answers itself if you think about it.