How to get the Valentines Day event to load on server?

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nbtc971
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How to get the Valentines Day event to load on server?

Post by nbtc971 »

Just wondering if we need to add the -vday somewhere and restart?
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Re: How to get the Valentines Day event to load on server?

Post by nbtc971 »

Never mind, been told NFO doesn't support events. Disappointing.
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Vanderburg
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Re: How to get the Valentines Day event to load on server?

Post by Vanderburg »

The Ark events are provided through beta branch builds of the game server, which we historically don't support (and would take some effort to support only for these specific events). To run beta builds of game servers, a customer would need to use an unmanaged service like a VDS or full machine.
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Re: How to get the Valentines Day event to load on server?

Post by Edge100x »

Kind of a bummer how they're doing that. With their games, Valve generally rolls out holiday events and activates them by default for all servers (on the holiday), which is a bit better.
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Re: How to get the Valentines Day event to load on server?

Post by nbtc971 »

With that said, other, smaller hosts are updating their servers for Ark events. I'm discussing with my clan, moving to another host. Not that NFO hasn't been great for other games, but it's disappointing that we'll never get to be part of any of the official events.
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Re: How to get the Valentines Day event to load on server?

Post by Edge100x »

We already support two versions of Ark in our system. Attempting to support beta builds on top of that is.. not a very good idea.

In this case, an unmanaged service would be a good fit for you. You could also consider providing feedback to the developers. If you get in touch with them, please also ask them to start supporting UpToDateCheck. It's a basic server management feature that really every game should support. Regular Ark customers would really appreciate the faster updates that it would make possible.
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Re: How to get the Valentines Day event to load on server?

Post by Jackson »

I do not understand the solution that was given to this issue. If i remember correctly NFO has alway s had all the updates to update when release (with no warning) but you still provided the start up command line. 3 years later the only way to activate said events is using that command line that isnt there anymore. Updates seem to be the same as before. What I guess I am getting at is it seems like two different issues were talked about. Is there going to be a solution for an input line on this?
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Re: How to get the Valentines Day event to load on server?

Post by Edge100x »

Jackson, we have two versions of Ark in our system.

"Ark (PC)" represents the latest Ark release that is known to be required. What we mean by this is that it is the minimum version that can be run while allowing updated clients to connect. We manually trigger each game update rollout after we check and confirm that it is actually required. By having us only run the latest required release, a customer can minimize downtime due to game server restarts, and minimize the potential for random game-breaking bugs.
"Ark (PC, with all optional updates)" represents the latest Ark release, in their standard channel, that is being distributed. This will typically have small changes beyond what the latest required release has. All updates to this version of Ark are rolled out automatically, immediately after they are released, and without the need for manual intervention by staff here. This means that customers who are running under the optional track are always completely up-to-date with the latest regular game release.

Neither version of Ark in our regular standalone system, and in fact no version of any game in our regular standalone system, allows customers to directly edit the command line (this has always been the case). Customers running Managed VDSes and Managed Dedicated Servers can edit the command lines for their servers. We also provide tools on the "Easy setup" and "Server control" page that will modify the command line in specific ways.

My impression, from what Vanderburg said, is that supporting the special Valentine's Day event would have required changing our SteamCMD invocation and pulling new files through a beta branch of the game. If so, this would not be compatible with either of the two versions of Ark in our system, which do not use beta branches.

If Vanderburg was wrong, and switching on this Valentine's Day event only required changing the server's command line, then this is something that would not have been a problem for us to do for customers manually (and which customers with Managed servers could do on their own).
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Re: How to get the Valentines Day event to load on server?

Post by Edge100x »

It looks like the Ark devs are still figuring this out.

- The latest version of the game seems to enable the Easter event with the command-line variable -ActiveEvent=Easter
- A previous version seems to have enabled the Valentine's Day event with the command-line variable -vday
- Previous versions required using the beta branch for events

I've modified the "Easy setup" page to allow the ActiveEvent option to be set for Ark optional-release customers now (they have the most recent version that allows it). We'll cross our fingers that the developer sticks with this method.
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