I need defense tips please.

[Sukotto82]

My brother and nephew are talking about opening up our private family server to the public and I was wondering how do you defend an ocean platform from raft raiders?

It's not my main base but all the same I'd like to protect it and even though it's been a peaceful server once opened to the public plenty of trolls will join and ignore any server rules that aren't coded so our peaceful family server is about to become a nightmare from he11

I've mentioned I was partially against making the server public but at the same time it would be nice to have new people showing up but I prefer a friendly server and no public server especially ark is particularly friendly.

I'd rather stay on the server and play rather than just playing solo so what are some ways to secure my bases.

I know any of our bases are going to be targeted as soon as it's public.

So far I haven't done anything defensive aside from my main base only having 1 access point only accessible by air protected by a tek behemoth gate and a forcefield blocking the entrance if my gate gets destroyed.

[retsam1]

1. Instead of full on pvp, you can enact it as a pvpve server with specific times/areas/conditions for pvp.

2. You can opt to not use pvp at all and just have it as pve.

3. Rafts would probably be secondary concerns to aerial attacks from pvpers or underwater ones...

4. Make your server white listed and choose who you want to play instead of chasing player numbers out of expectations to compete for people out of the 90,000+ unofficial servers out there. Good consistently maintained servers attract better quality people but build a community of players that as a by product just happen to like to play ark. Not the other way around.

[Sukotto82]

Thanks I'll share this with the host.
We don't use pve because we still make use of certain pvp only things like being able to have an element farm by harvesting tek dinos that hatch from breeding pins though for quite some time they haven't been producing and none of us has bothered fixing it because we have a fair amount of element saved up around 43,000 in a dedicated tek storage box so pve isn't an option unfortunately.
I like the no cryosickness cool down on pve but they keep it on pvp for a few other reasons.

[william_es]

Originally posted by Sukotto82:

I like the no cryosickness cool down on pve but they keep it on pvp for a few other reasons.

yeah, if you have it set on PVE, you have a lot of issues disposing of the babies from breeding.

As far as defending your server from random strangers...

Great god why.

Tell the host they should practice in real life, by removing all the locks on the front door of their home. Better yet, remove the entire door. Then hang a sign outside that says "free stuff, come on in".

By opening up your server to complete strangers, you're essentially doing that.

You can plan to defend all you want, but there could literally be a legion of neverending griefers spilling into the server. In case you don't know, there are actually organized groups of griefers. When one finds your server, they can blast out the details to a dozen friends, a hundred friends, etc. Theres no "defending" against that.

[Sukotto82]

Originally posted by william_es:

Originally posted by Sukotto82:

I like the no cryosickness cool down on pve but they keep it on pvp for a few other reasons.

yeah, if you have it set on PVE, you have a lot of issues disposing of the babies from breeding.

As far as defending your server from random strangers...

Great god why.

Tell the host they should practice in real life, by removing all the locks on the front door of their home. Better yet, remove the entire door. Then hang a sign outside that says "free stuff, come on in".

By opening up your server to complete strangers, you're essentially doing that.

You can plan to defend all you want, but there could literally be a legion of neverending griefers spilling into the server. In case you don't know, there are actually organized groups of griefers. When one finds your server, they can blast out the details to a dozen friends, a hundred friends, etc. Theres no "defending" against that.

Yeah that's been my biggest fear that and the fact I spent years making max level dinos
We might have tek gear the newcomers won't have access to like access to teleporter as we've beaten the game on several maps and it seems so far anyway that you can't unlock them on this map but we do have 1 final alpha boss to defeat befor I can say for certain so at least we can quickly teleport to each other while random visitors will not be able to use the teleporters.

[Migromul]

Isn't it possible to just activate friendly fire to own dinos on a PVE-Server? Wouldn't that solve your tek-farming-problem?

BTW: on what map do you play?
I suppose Genesis 2 and Extinction are the best maps for easy element. (Fjordur has also easy element. But that's guarded hard, so not THAT easy, but easy reachable and easyly farmed if you've defeated the guards... (serveral Magamasaurs and probably X-Rock-Elementals along with standard-cave-vermin. Fjordur has also all Island-Bosses except the Overseer, so most tek-unlocks shouldn't be so difficult.)

But as how you defend Ocean-Platforms against rafts? look out for leedsichtys and set the platform near their spawnpoints. And there also is the underwater-mine. (although that's an expensive build, and has friendly fire. so you must be carefull against your own mines.)

Tek-Turrets, if you have them... don't they function underwater? If you play on your own server, you can activate, that turrets are possible on platforms. (although, then the enemy can build them on rafts, too... I'm not sure, if it's possible to activate that function only on ocean-platforms. BTW: aren't turrets bulldable on oceian-platforms as standard-function?)

If you're the host and the players don't accept your rules, Why don't you just summon some alpha-leedsichtys near your base? Those should make short work of raft-raiders. If they try to play unfair and grief, just play unfair, too. It's YOUR sever after all! And the log will show you, who attacked. Just be unscrupulous, ban them, and reaspawn your lost stuff per admin-commands! (ok. that's not so easy with dinos.)

[Sukotto82]

Originally posted by Migromul:

Isn't it possible to just activate friendly fire to own dinos on a PVE-Server? Wouldn't that solve your tek-farming-problem?

BTW: on what map do you play?
I suppose Genesis 2 and Extinction are the best maps for easy element. (Fjordur has also easy element. But that's guarded hard, so not THAT easy, but easy reachable and easyly farmed if you've defeated the guards... (serveral Magamasaurs and probably X-Rock-Elementals along with standard-cave-vermin. Fjordur has also all Island-Bosses except the Overseer, so most tek-unlocks shouldn't be so difficult.)

But as how you defend Ocean-Platforms against rafts? look out for leedsichtys and set the platform near their spawnpoints. And there also is the underwater-mine. (although that's an expensive build, and has friendly fire. so you must be carefull against your own mines.)

Tek-Turrets, if you have them... don't they function underwater? If you play on your own server, you can activate, that turrets are possible on platforms. (although, then the enemy can build them on rafts, too... I'm not sure, if it's possible to activate that function only on ocean-platforms. BTW: aren't turrets bulldable on oceian-platforms as standard-function?)

If you're the host and the players don't accept your rules, Why don't you just summon some alpha-leedsichtys near your base? Those should make short work of raft-raiders. If they try to play unfair and grief, just play unfair, too. It's YOUR sever after all! And the log will show you, who attacked. Just be unscrupulous, ban them, and reaspawn your lost stuff per admin-commands! (ok. that's not so easy with dinos.)

Yes I have 70 tek turrets defending the cave entrance to my main base and working towards tek turrets on my ocean platform.
It's not my server it's my nephews but I do have admin privileges so spawning some level 900 alpha-leedsichtys and force tame them set to aggressive and follow something at platform so they always come back but I would have to ask for permission first I have admin privileges but don't want to abuse it.

Isn't it possible to just activate friendly fire to own dinos on a PVE-Server? Wouldn't that solve your tek-farming-problem?

Hm... I didn't think about that thanks I'll do some local hosting test it out and make the suggestion to my brother and nephew if it works to see if they might be interested in that.

[RandomTurtle]

I hope you backed up your maps so you can carry on in a more private group if things do go wrong.

[Natjur]

PVP server with the current players have admin access? Do not think you need to worry about PVP, most will not join a PVP server where the other player have admin access.

[Sukotto82]

Originally posted by Natjur:

PVP server with the current players have admin access? Do not think you need to worry about PVP, most will not join a PVP server where the other player have admin access.

Ok works for me just shows their probably up to no good and afraid of getting kicked/banned by an admin.
I would be happy without those kinds of people.
As for other people who aren't up to no good, I guess that is what it is surprised most people won't play on a pvp server that have admins to ban cheaters and those who would break server rules but I guess it is what it is.
I'd be perfectly fine with that.

[Sukotto82]

Ideally it would be nice to have a whitelist server like how Ethoslab is on a server with pearlescentmoon and a bunch of other people.
They have pvp on but they all get along they all follow the rules they don't grief each other and play well together.

Something like that for ark would be a lot of fun but open server isn't going to work out that way but maybe if we take note of those who play well with others follow the rules and respect each other once we found enough people we could do a whitelist server but that will take time to put together.