When in doubt wait about an hour for slow/large servers (many mods)
Secondary to that after trying another time please create a support ticket and we have some action plans in place for these instances.
Please submit a ticket so we can take a look at your game server directly to give you an explanation for a longer than usual load time. It's account specific generally.
We utilize NVMe drives. The problem is that ARK is a gigantic game even on the server end. It takes time to update and/or verify game files. There are ways to improve the regular start up or if you want to change a quick setting without re-verification of files, all of that can be configured using your control panel. We'd be happy to guide you through if you create a support ticket.
Time zone is a good idea and we'll look into it.
Yes you can specify custom launch params using the "custom" under map drop down.
From there click on the little "i" info icon next to Map to read more details about how to do everything.
As far as the NYE event yes we'll have a toggle up for that shortly.
I also checked your ticket and see that you created a ticket at 5:37pm, wrote this forum topic at 5:56pm, and our staff responded in your ticket 6:01pm.
Not all of our staff are listed as Administrators. There are moderators here that are staff as well.
Our primary avenue to reach out to us is support ticket. These are community forums not a direct support line. We do check here semi regularly though (a few times a week and more regularly during a major issue or game/content release)