Thinking of getting a server - Questions

[Don Alvarez 0]

Recently I and a some friends picked up Ark while it was free on Epic, and we enjoying the hell out of this game so far. We've been playing cooperatively on a non-dedicated server I run from my computer. There are some drawbacks to this, foremost of which is that if I am not on, my friends can't work on our game. So we've been tinkering with the idea of getting a hosted sever. I have a couple questions about this

1) Is there a way I could import our current game to an online hosted server? I've read it may be as easy as copying some folders from my PC to the hosted site. Is that true, and will it work from a non-dedicated server?

2) Is there a way to restrict access to the server, either by password protect or whitelisting? We can't abide interlopers, and just want a to host a small server that would be invitation only.

Thanks in advance

[Chris Berry 0]

I can't speak to question #1, but as for #2, yes, you can set a password on your server to keep the rabble out. And setting a password is super easy.

[Don Alvarez 0]

On 6/27/2020 at 7:52 PM, Chris Berry said:

I can't speak to question #1, but as for #2, yes, you can set a password on your server to keep the rabble out. And setting a password is super easy.

Ended up taking out a server last weekend, figured out also that #1 is possible also. Just some trial and error and had to rename a few files, but I was able to FTP up the game files from my non-dedicated server that was hosted on my PC up the SurvivalServers dedicated one. Finally got it running, all my dinos and buildings were there as well as my friend's characters. SO glad we didn't have to start over, though I was prepared to.