ARK server issues and finding a way to connect through direct IP with a password.

[Darkrium]

I have searched high and low for this answer and I only get as far as "open IPaddress:port" Where does the password go? Whenever I try including one it says empty password and fails to connect me or my friend to the server. Now before I'm informed to join off a friend or something I can connect to the server just fine. My friend however is on the epic version and the server is not appearing on the unofficial server list for either of us. Help on either problem would be nice.

TL;DR: Friend on epic client cant connect to secure server through direct IP and the server won't appear on unofficial listings.

Edit: The server is unmodded and has the crossplay parameters.

[blod221]

from what ive read online the server cant have a password

[zerassar]

You seem to be conflating different issues together. Divide and conquer mate, separate the issues and resolve them individually.

How is your server hosted? Self hosted? Paid host?

Servers not appearing on the unofficial list imply that you've not correctly made required changes to your router and local firewall to allow access to those ports.

There are full guides on how to configure ark servers on the wiki... But again this highly varies depending on if you're self hosting or not. If it's a paid host, they typically give you an interface to enter these details into.

Assuming you have actually configured your server to use a password it will appear as a pop up request when you try to connect.

[Gran]

And if you're running Mods on the server, well your friend is screwed then.
No Mods for Epic Plebs.

[retsam1]

Originally posted by Darkrium:

I have searched high and low for this answer and I only get as far as "open IPaddress:port" Where does the password go? Whenever I try including one it says empty password and fails to connect me or my friend to the server. Now before I'm informed to join off a friend or something I can connect to the server just fine. My friend however is on the epic version and the server is not appearing on the unofficial server list for either of us. Help on either problem would be nice.

TL;DR: Friend on epic client cant connect to secure server through direct IP and the server won't appear on unofficial listings.

As gran said, epic purchased versions of ark cannot play on modded servers.

Additionally, they can only play on dedicated ones, not nondedicated.

Also the server owner must enable the -crossplay lanch command too.

[Darkrium]

Awesome comments and I have answers. Let's start with zerassar. It is self hosted and I have hosted plenty of servers before. After I made this post I found the server on the unofficial list once before my modem was fried just this week and has been fixed today. I know the server has a password since it does pop-up but that doesn't seem to work through direct connect.

Gran, I am fully aware of the modding situation and have no mods on the server.

retsam1, the server is a dedicated server downloaded via SteamCMD and has the -crossplay command included in the batch file.

I will be checking the server again but it is possible that my router is not functioning right since the ports on the back were fried from the same thunderstorm that killed the modem.

[retsam1]

Originally posted by Darkrium:

Awesome comments and I have answers. Let's start with zerassar. It is self hosted and I have hosted plenty of servers before. After I made this post I found the server on the unofficial list once before my modem was fried just this week and has been fixed today. I know the server has a password since it does pop-up but that doesn't seem to work through direct connect.

Gran, I am fully aware of the modding situation and have no mods on the server.

retsam1, the server is a dedicated server downloaded via SteamCMD and has the -crossplay command included in the batch file.

I will be checking the server again but it is possible that my router is not functioning right since the ports on the back were fried from the same thunderstorm that killed the modem.

Just to be clear and because you didnt specify, if modded content was being used or not. Epic players cannot play servers with mods.

Also dont rely on the in game server list as its unfortunately not able to comprehensively list all 50,000+ unofficial servers due to limitations. Instead check via battlemetrics website. One can also (when in the in game server menu screen for easiest/smoothest jumping to it) connect to servers via the bootstrap there. Sometimes when people try to type it in steam to connect, they'll make mistakes (spaces before or after an address from my experience) inputing the address into the server field.

[Darkrium]

Originally posted by retsam1:

Originally posted by Darkrium:

Awesome comments and I have answers. Let's start with zerassar. It is self hosted and I have hosted plenty of servers before. After I made this post I found the server on the unofficial list once before my modem was fried just this week and has been fixed today. I know the server has a password since it does pop-up but that doesn't seem to work through direct connect.

Gran, I am fully aware of the modding situation and have no mods on the server.

retsam1, the server is a dedicated server downloaded via SteamCMD and has the -crossplay command included in the batch file.

I will be checking the server again but it is possible that my router is not functioning right since the ports on the back were fried from the same thunderstorm that killed the modem.

Just to be clear and because you didnt specify, if modded content was being used or not. Epic players cannot play servers with mods.

Also dont rely on the in game server list as its unfortunately not able to comprehensively list all 50,000+ unofficial servers due to limitations. Instead check via battlemetrics website. One can also (when in the in game server menu screen for easiest/smoothest jumping to it) connect to servers via the bootstrap there. Sometimes when people try to type it in steam to connect, they'll make mistakes (spaces before or after an address from my experience) inputing the address into the server field.

I did actually check it before and it didn't show up. I double checked everything with my brother and all ports were open. ARK has been the hardest server for us to setup.

[retsam1]

Originally posted by Darkrium:

Originally posted by retsam1:

Just to be clear and because you didnt specify, if modded content was being used or not. Epic players cannot play servers with mods.

Also dont rely on the in game server list as its unfortunately not able to comprehensively list all 50,000+ unofficial servers due to limitations. Instead check via battlemetrics website. One can also (when in the in game server menu screen for easiest/smoothest jumping to it) connect to servers via the bootstrap there. Sometimes when people try to type it in steam to connect, they'll make mistakes (spaces before or after an address from my experience) inputing the address into the server field.

I did actually check it before and it didn't show up. I double checked everything with my brother and all ports were open. ARK has been the hardest server for us to setup.

Then you may have some other firewall thing going on either on your end(since not visible on even battlemetrics as a dedicated server) or their end, or both. Virus checker, modem, or provider one.

[saltia]

The wikia says
open IP:Port?Password
This is an unchecked info though.

Besides, why not remove the password then use exclusive join to controll who could join?
Though I am not sure this method could be used to EPIC users.

[Jyandalf]

Originally posted by Darkrium:

I have searched high and low for this answer and I only get as far as "open IPaddress:port" Where does the password go? Whenever I try including one it says empty password and fails to connect me or my friend to the server. Now before I'm informed to join off a friend or something I can connect to the server just fine. My friend however is on the epic version and the server is not appearing on the unofficial server list for either of us. Help on either problem would be nice.

TL;DR: Friend on epic client cant connect to secure server through direct IP and the server won't appear on unofficial listings.

as someone who runs a Steam-EGS crossplay cluster, I can tell you it is a bit of a pain to get the servers discoverable.

Firstly, you can NOT have a server password. EGS browser fails to query servers with a password and will not show them.

Secondly, no mods. For the time being EGS does not have mod support for Ark, only Mechwarrior 5.

Thirdly, the user has to leave their filters open. This means that map field should be on All Maps, Hide Full Sessions and show password protected have to be unchecked. Session filter should be set to unofficial as well. If that doesn't work, then I would recommend you dm someone else who has EGS version of Ark (I have both EGS and Steam for example) to see if they can find it.

Worst case scenario, you might need to delete your port forwarding and firewall rules and recreate them for it to work.

[Darkrium]

Originally posted by saltia:

The wikia says
open IP:Port?Password
This is an unchecked info though.

Besides, why not remove the password then use exclusive join to controll who could join?
Though I am not sure this method could be used to EPIC users.

We both tried that method and other methods and it didn't work.

I have thought about the whitelist but I swear it's steamid related.

Originally posted by 1nc0mp3t3nt_1:

Originally posted by Darkrium:

I have searched high and low for this answer and I only get as far as "open IPaddress:port" Where does the password go? Whenever I try including one it says empty password and fails to connect me or my friend to the server. Now before I'm informed to join off a friend or something I can connect to the server just fine. My friend however is on the epic version and the server is not appearing on the unofficial server list for either of us. Help on either problem would be nice.

TL;DR: Friend on epic client cant connect to secure server through direct IP and the server won't appear on unofficial listings.

as someone who runs a Steam-EGS crossplay cluster, I can tell you it is a bit of a pain to get the servers discoverable.

Firstly, you can NOT have a server password. EGS browser fails to query servers with a password and will not show them.

Secondly, no mods. For the time being EGS does not have mod support for Ark, only Mechwarrior 5.

Thirdly, the user has to leave their filters open. This means that map field should be on All Maps, Hide Full Sessions and show password protected have to be unchecked. Session filter should be set to unofficial as well. If that doesn't work, then I would recommend you dm someone else who has EGS version of Ark (I have both EGS and Steam for example) to see if they can find it.

Worst case scenario, you might need to delete your port forwarding and firewall rules and recreate them for it to work.

Now this, this is a healthy amount of much needed info. The first and third bits are the highlights of my issues. I suppose I need to edit the post to clarify that I am not running mods.

[zerassar]

I am fairly certain that I saw references to using whitelists for EGS users... But the pain point was how a user was to figure out their own ID.

All examples I saw was to let them login with whitelist turned off... Use admin commands to confirm their EGS ID. Then add them to the list and re-enable. Not exactly an ideal way to do that.

[Jyandalf]

Originally posted by Darkrium:

Originally posted by saltia:

The wikia says
open IP:Port?Password
This is an unchecked info though.

Besides, why not remove the password then use exclusive join to controll who could join?
Though I am not sure this method could be used to EPIC users.

We both tried that method and other methods and it didn't work.

I have thought about the whitelist but I swear it's steamid related.

Originally posted by 1nc0mp3t3nt_1:

as someone who runs a Steam-EGS crossplay cluster, I can tell you it is a bit of a pain to get the servers discoverable.

Firstly, you can NOT have a server password. EGS browser fails to query servers with a password and will not show them.

Secondly, no mods. For the time being EGS does not have mod support for Ark, only Mechwarrior 5.

Thirdly, the user has to leave their filters open. This means that map field should be on All Maps, Hide Full Sessions and show password protected have to be unchecked. Session filter should be set to unofficial as well. If that doesn't work, then I would recommend you dm someone else who has EGS version of Ark (I have both EGS and Steam for example) to see if they can find it.

Worst case scenario, you might need to delete your port forwarding and firewall rules and recreate them for it to work.

Now this, this is a healthy amount of much needed info. The first and third bits are the highlights of my issues. I suppose I need to edit the post to clarify that I am not running mods.

I kind of just Copy+Pasted from a reddit post I made a while back for a similar issue.

I picked up a copy of ark for EGS when it was given away for free for a week, so I use both installs to test and troubleshoot issues. It took me a while to master it, and I have had servers running since July, however I had one particular player who kept complaining about not being able to find the servers in the browser. I am based in Australia, they are based in USA. I have multiple other USA players able to find my server, so I knew it wasn't the configuration.

That being said, when I went to worst case scenario, it let me clean up my rules a bit and after a restart, I have not yet had issues with people being able to join my server, whether it's Steam or Epic as the launcher.

Give me a holler if you still need help, I am more than happy to help tee up a time to see if I can help sort this out if you need it still

Originally posted by zerassar:

I am fairly certain that I saw references to using whitelists for EGS users... But the pain point was how a user was to figure out their own ID.

All examples I saw was to let them login with whitelist turned off... Use admin commands to confirm their EGS ID. Then add them to the list and re-enable. Not exactly an ideal way to do that.

Yeah, there are 2 player IDs for every player, an Unreal Engine player ID and a Steam ID. When setting up exclusive join, I would highly recommend making life easier by making public server/dummy server for them to log onto so you can more easily grab their unreal ID and use that for the main server you want them to play on when it comes to EGS. Just set the dummy server to something low like 5-10 players. No one is really gonna want to join that

[zerassar]

Originally posted by 1nc0mp3t3nt_1:

Yeah, there are 2 player IDs for every player, an Unreal Engine player ID and a Steam ID. When setting up exclusive join, I would highly recommend making life easier by making public server/dummy server for them to log onto so you can more easily grab their unreal ID and use that for the main server you want them to play on when it comes to EGS. Just set the dummy server to something low like 5-10 players. No one is really gonna want to join that

Even better... Upload the testing map from the devkit and use that for your world.
A blank mostly featureless purgatory!

With some fancy handling of rcon and bots would then be able to get players to throw in a command in this purgatory that could be used to grant whitelist access on the rest of the cluster.

Once they are granted access. Have the bot kick them from purgatory.

Kinda fancy/overkill but hey that'd work well for those of us into scripting and automation ;-)

[Jyandalf]

Originally posted by zerassar:

Originally posted by 1nc0mp3t3nt_1:

Yeah, there are 2 player IDs for every player, an Unreal Engine player ID and a Steam ID. When setting up exclusive join, I would highly recommend making life easier by making public server/dummy server for them to log onto so you can more easily grab their unreal ID and use that for the main server you want them to play on when it comes to EGS. Just set the dummy server to something low like 5-10 players. No one is really gonna want to join that

Even better... Upload the testing map from the devkit and use that for your world.
A blank mostly featureless purgatory!

With some fancy handling of rcon and bots would then be able to get players to throw in a command in this purgatory that could be used to grant whitelist access on the rest of the cluster.

Once they are granted access. Have the bot kick them from purgatory.

Kinda fancy/overkill but hey that'd work well for those of us into scripting and automation ;-)

I am not sure the devkit map can be searched for by the in-game browser