ARKon Server Launcher - Message to Ryan

[evershawn 0]

I have been trying to discuss the ARKon server launcher with you and the community in the forum, mostly because it's a great tool to manage mods with from the desktop and more effectively than the control panel, among other things it does better and more easily.

 

The first time you locked the topic before I could even reply to your comment, now it appears you've completely deleted both topics. Is this topic some kind of threat to you some how? People talk about useless or answered stuff all over and you don't even lock or delete that but you delete this?

 

I'm a 100 slot server paying customer, why are you not allowing me to discuss a topic that is very much valid and something I'm interested in discussing in the forum? I think I made a good point and it would seem you do not want anyone to see it for some reason...

 

I'm tried to PM this to you but it says you cannot receive PM's.

[hannya 2]

my best advice is if he thinks it might be sensitive for some unknown reason to me, maybe make a ticket and instead edit this post to reflect the ticket asking him to please check the ticket number. Its essentially as good as pm'ing him ive learned. Just ask him to address ticket #blahlbah and he'll respond.

[evershawn 0]

This really is not a ticket type matter, more of a community discussion. If I could think if any reason this would be sensitive I wouldn't persist but as it stands, I can not. To be honest, I'm completely puzzled. He's either going to answer me or not. I guess that will determine if I ever renew or use a service with him again.

[Ryan Pennington 359]

If you do a simple search in our forums you will see this has been discussed and answered repeatedly, which is why I am removing these posts.

 

We will never be implementing the ARKON server side tool as a third party integration.. but you can still "use it" (read below or skip to TLDR)

 

Every single feature that is baked into this tool or any other desktop server management tool for individual server owners is either already released or will be released within our control panel & ARK config tool within the next few weeks (there are a few missing config features that are on the implementation list, any additional ones can and will be added per customer request in the features topic here on the forums or via support ticket). You heard that right! Yes, every single feature! In fact, we have 85% of these features already implemented.

 

We are not supporting it because it's intended for desktop server owners, not server hosting companies. All of our software is in-house unless there's a reason to utilize third party software (like we support BEC for ARMA servers). We've already gone down the path of making our own tool (ARK Server Config Modify tool).  These desktop tools are still missing features and still reliant on constant updates. You can be assured that we will be keeping up with the latest patches, latest config values, etc, because our customer base relies on this tool. In the case of these desktop tools, you have community developers contributing to these tools and if they just decide to stop developing the tool you are basically out of luck. These remote tools are not secure. The developer could add in some malicious code and have it automatically run on our dedicated machines. It adds clunk, adds an extra executable process we have to micro manage in our dedicated machines, and opens up a plethora of backend issue possibilities. If they break something in the remote tool, it just adds major headache. All around, not good. From a programmer's perspective, it's just bad news. Other hosting companies have added this tool and I think that's a mistake.

 

I know some people might like the UI of the other Windows desktop tools, but unless they release some sort of FTP upload process, the only way to use these tools is by grabbing the saved Game.ini and GameUserSettings.ini that they generate and abandoning our Server Config tool.

 

TLDR: You can still use those tools with a bit of knowledge and we are not supporting them because they are intended for desktop server admins, not server hosting companies.

[evershawn 0]

What I had said before is that there is issues managing and updating mods using the control panel and this particular tool is made and updated by Wildcard, which are the game developers, not some third party hobbyist that may or may not update or give proper attention to their tool. This tool gives you the ability to easily manage the mods and update them directly from the folder and steam. Since most unofficial servers use mods, I figured this would be a big deal and maybe even take some work off your shoulders having to constantly update and fix bugs or answer complaints about the control panel (at least from the modding side of things). I spent 2 days figuring out mod related issues and even had to wipe my server.

 

And yes, I know you say you don't support mods, (seems rather contradictory to your website and ads description for ARK BUT I'm sure this is mostly because it has been problematic so far) but not many people buy servers to not mod them, people would just play official for that experience. So the reality is, if you want to sell ARK servers to people, it's probably in your best interest to support modding as best you can. This tool could help you do that. Currently the control panel is a major pain in the ass to use with mods.

[Chrome 3]

Which mods have some issues?  Only curious cause I have 10 or so and no problems yet.  There's a few more I'm interested though, just paranoid to add too many and screw things up.

 

My List:

Joan's Death Helper

Joan's Pet Finder

Joan's Meat Spoiler

Temp Building Mod

Industrial Grinder

Joan's Charcoal Baker

Big Walls

Joan's Egg N Poop Collector N Incubator

Tavan's Trough

Metal with Glass Set

 

I've added 4 or 5 at a time before, but I have yet to remove any to know how that process might go.

[evershawn 0]

Honestly I'm not sure what exactly the issue is. I just know that I personally have to update them by putting each one in the first slot to get them updated or installed. Maybe it's isolated but I've been on two seperate servers / data centers so far and both had the exact same issue so my assumption at that point is that it has to do with the control panel's method of installing them. Basically just took me like 6 restarts to get my 5 mods working and would be the same process when there's an update required.

[Ryan Pennington 359]

If you have any issues you can create a support ticket and we can see what is going on. Not a single of our customers is having the issue you described. It's working, most of our customers are using it, and zero currently reported issues. I would recommend trying it and see for your self. Compare the mod folder sizes we fetch to your local desktop ones. Should be the same!
 

..is made and updated by Wildcard

This is not correct. It's made by a single person, I have him on Skype. He doesn't work for Wildcard as not affiliated with them in any ways. They simply promoted his software when the game was in need of a server management tool outside of the in-game server host button. The ARK Server Manager is actually a much better software than this one, in my opinion, but this one does not have the "remote" feature. Again, I will reiterate, we'll have literally every option in these software already or within the next few weeks guaranteed.
 

And yes, I know you say you don't support mods, (seems rather contradictory to your website and ads description for ARK BUT I'm sure this is mostly because it has been problematic so far)

Nowhere in my post did I say we don't support mods. Read my post man.

[evershawn 0]

Ok then I guess my incident was isolated, just saw a couple of threads that had the same problems I'd experienced and I deduced that it was the issue (didn't have mods I selected then server has an outdated mod and you can't connect, I had both of these issues) then when I FTP'd in I noticed that mod folder would only contain the mod which was first in the list even if I had 6 of them comma separated in the control panel. Then when I switched the order it would install the next first in the list and so on, until they were all installed using that method.

 

It's fine I guess, maybe I was doing something wrong somehow, but it seemed fairly straight forward.