ARK is a dedicated server with action-adventure survival game. In the game, players must survive being stranded on an island filled with roaming dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals, natural hazards, and potentially hostile human players.
This is a quick deployment and ready-to-run image.
Simple and rapid installation. Easy to maintain.
How to create and connect to ARK – Action Game Server on Windows Server 2016
- The server starts with the VM. Starting the server may take from 5 to 30 minutes.
- If the server did not run at the start of the VM, then connect to it through RDP. There will be a start.bat file on the desktop, which allows you to make minimal server settings. Click on it with RMB, to open it in edit mode, and select “Edit”.
- Set the parameters in a way convenient for you:
start ShooterGameServer.exe TheIsland?listen – main command to start the game server.
SessionName – server name that other players will see when they connect.
ServerAdminPassword – the password is specified which allows you to get access to the administration console on the server.
Port и QueryPort – standard ports for starting the server. Ports are already opened in the Windows firewall. Recommended to leave unchanged.
MaxPlayers – indicates the maximum number of players on the server.
- After setting up the “start.bat” file, run it. The first start of the server may be long, wait until it is fully configured and started (from 5 to 30 minutes).
- Launch “Steam” on your PC, to connect to the server, open the “View” tab, and find “Servers” there.
- Go to the “FAVORITES” tab and click “ADD A SERVER”. Enter % vm_ip%: 27015 in the opened field, and click on the “ADD THIS SERVER TO FAVORITES” button.
- Click LMB on the server and then “CONNECT” to connect. If an error occurs, press the “REFRESH” button and reconnect. Then the game with the “Finding game” window will open, it is not necessary to click anything, the connection will happen automatically.
- After adding the server to your favorites, you can connect to it through a browser inside the game. To do this, launch the game and click “JOIN ARK”.
- In the “SESSION FILTER” list, select “FAVORITES”, click LMB on your server and then “JOIN” button.
Server update
If you were unable to connect to the the server, and “Server update required” error appeared, you should update the server. To do this, connect to the VM through RDP and do the following:
- Go to the “C:\steamcmd” folder and open the “steamcmd” file
- Enter the following commands in sequence:
> login anonymous
> force_install_dir “C:\Program Files (x86)\ark server”
> app_update 376030 validate
- Wait until the server is updated, and run “start.bat” file from the desktop again.
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