For quite some time now, VIP donations have been drying up at least in part thanks to the changes Mojang made to their EULA. For quite some time now, the server has been paid largely completely out of pocket by imaxorz. The cost for hosting the server isn't cheap so let's try a little experiment.
Without any commitments, if you wanted to help keep ShadeCrest alive with a small monthly donation (like via Patreon or something) how much would you contribute? I just want to get an overall ballpark so we know the overall difference in what we have to come up.
Keep in mind if we do this via Patreon, any excess dollars we raise would likely go into actually having a marketing budget and advertising the server which overtime would grow the community, grow the number of people potentially contributing, and lessen the burden of individuals who might in the short term be willing to fund a somewhat larger share of the cost.
Edit: (Max)
Here are the figures for server costs....
Until now, since we've had a very small player population, I've managed all the game updates manually. Fortunately, we're beginning to get more and more new players and this is becoming burdensome since ARK is releasing sometimes several updates a day. Plus, for a long time I've wanted regular restarts for the servers just to keep things running smoothly.
TLDR
Automated checks for updates every 15 minutes w/ 60 minutes of warnings
Automated restart at noon / midnight PST
Automated backups on any restart
Automated mod updates on any restart
Restarts happen immediately if no one is online or if everyone logs off
So I've now (*finger's crossed I did it right*) setup automated checks for updates every 15 minutes, so when there is an update it will notify the players that an update restart is coming, save the world, back it up, apply the update, and then restart.
There should also be scheduled automated restarts every 12 hours at noon /...
If you play on our ARK servers, it is CRUCIAL that you read this.
Unfortunately as it turns out, I have learned today that our current stacking mod is now abandonware from the developer of that mod. This is of serious concern because it means as new resources are released and many resources that even exist today, they won't get their stacks modified because of course no mod changes.
So, what do we do about it? Simple and not so simple.
The simple part is shopping for a new stacking mod: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=630601751
The not so simple part is that when I swap one mod for the other, any resources of these types:
Crafted stuff like metal ingots, polymer, electronics, narcotic, sparkpowder, etc.
Gathered Resources like wood, thatch, fiber, crystal, obsidian, metal, etc
Berries (all 6 types)
Raw Meat, Raw Prime, Cooked Meat, Cooked Prime, Spoiled Meat
We are now running an unofficial cluster for ARK. You can transfer to / from any of the servers on the customer (yes that includes procedural). This can be done at any obelisk or even a supply drop. All servers in the cluster use the exact same server settings, mods, etc. As always, updated values to settings, our mod collection, etc are available here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CbRCJDBPuXRFHGOqx5hC4x_ZCLGtSTjMzUj3uAUGbIg/
Use at your own risk though because from what I can tell as it's still a very new feature, that comes with it being very buggy. For example just to test I was able to move from Procedural to TheCenter, but not all the items in my inventory transferred over (oddly it was items that were just generic stuff like my canteen and GPS). Then when I transferred back, I kinda got just a blank spawning screen and had to disconnect / reconnect to be able to spawn. Furthermore and probably the biggest deal breaker IMO is tribe affiliation is...
Ok guys, I'm kinda tired of the elephant in the room so let's get a productive, CIVIL conversation going here. People start throwing shit or pointing fingers at what individuals have done in the past and I'm going to slap the shit of them. If you're going to be critical, at least do it nicely and be productive. Overall, this isn't about the past or misdeeds of individuals, let's focus on the future and how we can bring this community back together.
Some people still love Minecraft.
Some people still love FTB.
Some people love ARK.
Some people love Overwatch.
Some people love random other games.
For the most part, aside from some particular individuals not getting along, for whatever reason, we all love each other's company and there is a desire to still play games together and possible increase the overall size of the community.
So what is stopping us from doing that?
Why do people feel they have to leave the community to start a generic gaming community?
