Guide to Setting Up a Player Dedicated Server

Around last Friday, after a day of playing and raving about this game, my two other buddies playing ARK became roughly 12 other buddies playing ARK. We had started on a PVP server we found in this subreddit, but I felt guilty for unintentionally overcrowding the server and we were all experiencing 200+ ping constantly.

So we started our own server. I'm not completely inept when it comes to this stuff, but I'm also not exactly an IT whiz, so I had to piece together how to set the server up through various questions posted here and the comments answering them. Figured it might help some people searching in the future to have that info all together somewhere.

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YOU WILL NEED:

• Two Xbox Ones if you intend to play on your server; One Xbox One if you are just setting it up for someone else;

• One Xbox Live Account with Gold ("Gold Account");

• One copy of ARK: Survival Evolved (Game Preview) on the Xbox Live Account with Gold.

• A halfway decent internet connection; ideally with at least 2mb upload dedicated to the server Xbox.

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INITIAL SET-UP

1. Set up the Xbox One you'll be using for the server ("ServerBone"). This Xbox will always be on if you are running the server 24/7, and will need to be hardwired to your router, so pick the location in your home/office/sex dungeon based on those two factors.

2. Complete the beginning configuration on the ServerBone. Set up a new Xbox Live account on the ServerBone with the email and gamertag you want for the ServerBone's profile. E.g., "ARKServer15". When it prompts you to get Xbox Live Gold, just hit B to go back and skip that for now.

3. Sign in to the ServerBone with your Gold Account. Under Settings -> Preferences, select "My Home Xbox" and make the ServerBone your home Xbox for the Gold Account. This will not affect your primary Xbox games/apps. This will probably screw something up if you already GameShare from your Gold Account.

4. Change the profile back to the ServerBone gamertag. You should now be able to access all the games, apps, etc. which are tied to your Gold Account.

5. Go in to My Games & Apps, and the games you own should be on the right-hand side. Select and download ARK: Survival Evolved (Game Preview).

6. Configure the ServerBone settings while you wait, detailed in next section.

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SETTINGS FOR SERVER XBONE

• Open NAT Type: under Settings -> Network Settings, in the middle of the screen you will see your NAT type. It should show as "Open", not "Strict" or "Moderate". If you need to change it, check the link supplied.

• Instant-On: Under Power & Startup, change the Xbox's mode to "Instant-On" if it wasn't already. The other option is "Energy-Saving".

• Turn Off After: Under Settings -> Power -> Turn Off or Restart you want to change this to "Don't turn off automatically" so that the ServerBone stays on indefinitely.

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STARTING THE SERVER

So hopefully now you've got everything configured and I didn't leave out a really crucial step which is very possible but likely will be pointed out and edited relatively quickly. Anyway, now you'll want to start up the game and set up the server.

1. Start the game up. Choose "Host/Local Server".

2. Customize the settings how you would like. Read through all the options, as some of them are important depending on how you would like to play and what your plans for the server are.

3. When finished, in the top right select "Host Dedicated Server". The initial load time will take quite a while, that's normal.

4. Once the loading is complete, you'll see a Server Admin menu. Ignore that, run back to your primary Xbone and join the ServerBone through friends.

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To add people to the server, have them add the ServerBone's gamertag as a friend, then add them back from the ServerBone. I use the Smartglass App to do several at a time.

Enjoy!

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TL;DR: Setting up a player dedicated server from scratch.

If I missed anything or anyone has any questions, please let me know and I'll get it corrected.