Install Steam
login
|
language
简体中文 (Simplified Chinese)
繁體中文 (Traditional Chinese)
日本語 (Japanese)
한국어 (Korean)
ไทย (Thai)
Български (Bulgarian)
Čeština (Czech)
Dansk (Danish)
Deutsch (German)
Español - España (Spanish - Spain)
Español - Latinoamérica (Spanish - Latin America)
Ελληνικά (Greek)
Français (French)
Italiano (Italian)
Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
Magyar (Hungarian)
Nederlands (Dutch)
Norsk (Norwegian)
Polski (Polish)
Português (Portuguese - Portugal)
Português - Brasil (Portuguese - Brazil)
Română (Romanian)
Русский (Russian)
Suomi (Finnish)
Svenska (Swedish)
Türkçe (Turkish)
Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
Українська (Ukrainian)
Report a translation problem
Discussions Rules and Guidelines
Report this post
I was able to download mods so its not a problem with Steam as far as I can tell. For now Im playing single player which acually works ok,
But something in the process (Steam, Ark, or server) times out after a certain amount of time. If I tried again, the server would pick back up where it left off.
So if you're just getting timeout errors, try again. You can save some time by loading the mods they use ahead of time, but it will still work regardless.
Eventually.
Edited Note: I forgot to mention that the server might be whitelisted - if the server has not been told you are allowed to join, it will send you its files, but then checks to see if you're on the list. If you aren't, it won't let you join.
A password protected server will ask you for the password up front.
Time outs are connectivity symptoms not causes.
Common causes of time outs (primarily in the order of commonality):
1. Server is completely down or restarting. You can discern this from the battlemetrics website.
2. Server has bad mods or poorly managed mods and while the server isnt detected as down the mods have actually crashed it.
3. (Not your case assumingly but noting nonetheless): Player is new to a server and server triggers them to begin, one at a time with time outs inbetween, the downloading of mods for that server.
4. Server owner has enacted a region or player specific blocking/ban.
5. ISP/Firewall/Virus checker impeding on player or server owner side.
And a few others.
Discerning which timeout source is specific to you will more or less require you to do more investigating on your own such as contacting the server owner, checking your end on impedements etc.
Best of luck.
When I encountered it before, it was always because Steam forced an update on me, but I knew that my friend running the server was at work and the machine running the servers were at his home.
It was always a mod update. The server would reject a mod version different than what it was running.
However, if I deleted the mod, the server would send me it's version. It generally takes more than 5 minutes to download a mod, peer to peer. Back then, my internet connection was about 400 Mbps, which is the failure condition that triggered the time-out.
The download would timeout, I'd immediately try again, the server would resume downloading until it hit the time-out again, then I'd try again. Eventually it would work, but typically it was about 3 tries (15 minutes or so).
But as you said, the root cause of time-outs is an error trap. In my case, it was using a download connection with a less than stellar bandwidth on my end. The server operator's was better, but it's a case of the weakest link. It could happen to anyone even if they have a stellar internet connection but the server does not.
But ultimately, the root cause was Steam forcing an update on me that I knew was incompatible with the server. Which we pretty much don't have to worry about in ASE anymore.
Except when connecting to a server for the first time. Even if you have pre-downloaded all the mods, the server still needs to send you the state of its map.
Edited Note: But my main point was if connecting to a server times out, try again. Ark servers and clients seem to retain the data that was sent. Or it 2 or 3 years ago when I became intimately acquainted with server connection time-outs.
Ive tried several unofficial modded servers and the same happens on each one. Its not a matter of time. I've tried again and again over a long time.
The only thing Ive had success with is realising that if I attempt to join an unmodded server I can. So it is something related to mods.
Im starting again today, trying various things to see if I can work it out.
Ok lets more indepthly cover a few things:
1. So the way mods work is that the server owner downloads mods and enables them, in a specific order, for their server.
Then as a player when you attempt to join that server(assuming new) that triggers the ---first--- mods in their server's list to download.
While it downloads, you will time out(because you dont meet the access requirements of the server). If you attempt to join again but you've not completed downloading of that first mod, then you'll time out again.
Now, if you have fully downloaded it, then attempted to join the server again, the --Second-- mod in that server's list will trigger to start a download from the workshop. And yes, you'll time out again as with the first mod.
This process has to be repeated for EVERY mod and for servers with 10+ mods this will take alot of time. Time of course can be even longer depending on your download speed capabilities too.
2. If you attempt to join a completely different server that uses mods, the same issues in point 1 will occur -Unless- there are mods that you have already downloaded that that server is also using, that then will cut down on(or eliminate) the process from point 1.
So trying different servers doesnt mean that its not the possibility of the variable that I mentioned from original post (section 2) hours ago.
3. You may have tried some other servers using mods that may have the same issues mentioned from my other post as well. There are over 30,000 servers and statistically it is possible.
All in all, narrowing down what is going on with your situation still remains unclear due to information thus far presented.
You're going to need attempt joining more than just a few modded servers and being mindful in the steam browser at the bottom any download triggerings etc too of course.
You also should check/test your connectivity on the net as a whole too(various testing sites you can use (check through more than one).
One I've used in the past is this one: https://test.vsee.com/network/index.html
This is because it runs a test in the background, while you're doing stuff, runs for a while (not a few seconds style limited test), and checks for quality, packet loss, ms and jitter.
-----------------------
Some other possibilities that are less common but can be attributed to time outs:
1. You've an already weak internet connection. That could be due to a weak wifi, due to some connectivity issues consistencies between you, the ISP, all the way to the server itself that you're attempting to join.
2. Your steam setting regardin server pinging. You can try the following:
-Go to the top left on your Steam browser to the "Steam" menu".
-Click "Settings".
-Go down to the "In game" tab and click.
- Scroll down in that window to the "More Section"
- "Server Browser Pings/Minute" set to 250.
Then try getting on a server then.
Usually this applies to situations where you're on the server and you get booted and time out vs initially trying to get on a server but it could very well be also a possibility.
--------------------------
Try and carefully go through the above considerations, testing etc and see from there.
Best of luck.
If you don't predownload the mods the server has before connecting it tries to download them during the connection attempt.
If it doesn't finish by the timeout cutoff you bump back to the main menu but typically some of the mods have at least downloaded.
You have 2 options...
Predownload all mods. Good servers should maintain a list somewhere.
Or just keep trying to connect to the same server again and again until they all download
Ive tried other servers again and I can actually get on to some. It automatically downloaded the mods I needed.
Im starting to winder if this server banned me for some unknown reason and thats why I cant get on but (a) I cant imagine what I might have done to get banned and (b) I dont get any message saying im banned which I thought is what would happen.
I changed the Server Browser Pings/Minute" to 250. That hasnt changed anything.
I have a good fibre internet connection,
Also the distinct possibility the owner of the server recently just tripled or quadrupled the mod list. I had this happen on one server, where the owner turned the whole server over to his little (and MUCH younger) brother. The younger brother added like 80+ mods, and the server became an unplayable mess. The older brother had a list posted, but the younger brother didn't update the list.
Without know how many mods are on the list, you have no idea how far along the process it is.
1. If it hangs and you timed out, and you saw no download occuring in your steam workshop or whilst attempting to join then its not a situation of a mod download style time out.
2. If you didnt have all the mods that match the server, the server automatically trigger a download as I specified before so its not that issue.
3. The fact fact you -are- capable of getting on other modded servers shows that its an issue -specific- to -that- server.
-Its crashed due to mods but shows up(not uncommon).
-owner has implemented a white/green list of only specific people to play the server. If you're not on the list you'll timeout/get punted back to the server menu.
-owner has enacted a region restriction
-owner has banned you for what ever reason. You wont always necessarily see a message just that you'll hang and then be punted to the menu again. But it also could be as I said just that the server owner decided to change to a green/white list only too.
As for why, you're asking for a list of something that would be extremely long. They dont like you. Dont like where you're logging from(some owners dont like xyz regions logging in etc), and I can go on and on and on about this.
So at this point, chalk it up to a server that doesnt want you and move on(even if its not a direct personal reason). There's over 30k servers out there so you've tons of choices. Dont search via the in game system for new servers either because it cant list all 30k+ nor does it have a very decent search filter system. Its been a hot mess for many many many years. In stead, use battlemetrics website as its the only place that lists them all and you can filter searches decently.
Also btw, battlemetrics can show you the activity of that server you were playing on and if you're seeing others playing on it since you've been unable to, then it lends more credence to the possibility of it being a whitelist/ban from it for you. If you see absolutely no one on the server tracked on the second page for a long time(second page's stats are great for that on battlemetrics) then it may mean the server is mucked up(ie likely crashed due to mods but will show as up on the front page listing).
Alternatively, you can also check the subforum section for server adverts but read a few pages back on that subforum and avoid the ones that spam constant posts or ones that the owner bumps their own thread ever few days etc. If you want more permanence, also avoid ones that advertise wipes.
And avoid servers as a general rule that get advertised in the general forum section(as classier servers know better).
All in all, again, its not a you issue but a server/owner issue.
Best of luck.
As they stated they can get on other servers no issue with mods. The symptoms point to it being the issues I outlined in my post above, especially as they stated they'd played the same server days before in their primary post.
I have found that routers supplied by ISPs often cripple your ability to operate servers. It's usually manifested by preventing NAT loop back which results in preventing you from accessing the server using your external IP address, while people outside of your LAN can access the server just fine.
This is not a problem if only you are playing with people who are within your LAN. You can then use the LAN IP address for the server. That's how I'm currently playing ARK, even though my router is one we own and have played ARK for years using our external IP.
If you want people to join you who are outside of your LAN and your router does not support NAT loopback, you would have to buy your own router. If it's an ISP provided router, you may be paying a rental fee on it so you could probably save some money by buying your own router even if you don't want to run your own server. Or use the money you save by eliminating the router rental charge towards renting a server from an ARK hosting company.
If your computer can handle single player, odds are that it can handle running a dedicated server. Also remember Greek mythology about the Trojan war.
Not really related to this thread's topic. However, nitrado is infamous for being problematic for ASE users and now that they also have exclusivity rights for Ark Ascended others report it as a problem there too.
You may then be more apt to try another hosting service that you do better due diligence with that could provide a better experience for you.