PixARK Test Server

[Jiro_89]

I managed to finagle a little time and try out the new PixARK game. This game would make a perfect addition to HappyDiggers for players that may not be as hardcore for Ark Survival Evolved. It has game mechanics of Ark and Minecraft but also has a whole slew of new original features such as a magic system and many new species like monsters in dungeons.

There isn't a whole lot of information about game servers other than what has been distributed by the developers and a few eager server admins. Since this game is in beta, it will be a lot like Ark was when we first installed The Island server. Meaning anything and everything could change with the drop of a hat. There is also no dev kit so mods are extremely limited (I've only found 2 unofficial mods). From what I can tell from both the configs and other server admins, the map size can't be edited. The worlds are randomly generated but are limited to 4096x4096 blocks. I'm betting in the future that will change.

For now I'm generating map seeds to find us a decent map with all biomes and hopefully all dungeons accounted for. When I find an appropriate map I'll post the IP for the server. The more people that can play the better so I can get a good idea of the server's resources we'll need for a proper PixARK world.

PixARK server: HappyDiggers.net:31015
This is a test server, so it may go offline intermittently while I make changes to it.

[Chogata]

Oh wow!

I doubt I will have time to play much anytime soon, but I will pop in for stress tests ;)

[Jiro_89]

PixARK updated to version 1.19

[Chogata]

Do we keep inventories after death? I had some free time on Sunday, so I played a bit and built myself a home. The server warned me I will be dead after 1 day (very stupid mechanic...), so I put all my stuff in chests, but maybe I did not need to?

I will be dying a lot for sure, unless the developers change something in this area.

[Jiro_89]

Do we keep inventories after death? I had some free time on Sunday, so I played a bit and built myself a home. The server warned me I will be dead after 1 day (very stupid mechanic...), so I put all my stuff in chests, but maybe I did not need to?

I will be dying a lot for sure, unless the developers change something in this area.

Items in your hotbar and in your armor slots seem to carry over with your character after deaths. Anything in your inventory drops on death though. Currently the server is set to PvE so I'm not sure if that's specific to the gamemode or not. There may be a way to disable logged out player deaths by preventing starvation or possibly making the player invincible while offline.

Configs are pretty wonky right now. Some settings seem to work while others don't. For example, I have the rates at 2x XP, 7x Gather, and 3x Tame but the rates seem to be 1x in game no matter what.

[Jiro_89]

I believe I was able to disable the offline (starvation?) death in the configs, at least it's not warning me about the death on logout anymore. This probably wouldn't prevent wild dinos from killing your character while offline though.

[Chogata]

I managed to pop in yesterday for an hour and I wasn't dead. Then I noticed that while I'm inside my home the home icon sometimes is visible, sometimes not, depending on where I stood inside my home. I couldn't find any pattern to that, it seemed quite random. My home is properly enclosed, all doors and windows were shut when I tried this. So I think there is a bug with recognising when you are "inside".

Anyway, when I stood on a block that showed the home icon, I did not get the "you will die" message when I logged out, so maybe that's it.

It was before you changed settings. But if you managed to disable offline starvation, that's even better :)

[Jiro_89]

I managed to pop in yesterday for an hour and I wasn't dead. Then I noticed that while I'm inside my home the home icon sometimes is visible, sometimes not, depending on where I stood inside my home. I couldn't find any pattern to that, it seemed quite random. My home is properly enclosed, all doors and windows were shut when I tried this. So I think there is a bug with recognising when you are "inside".

Anyway, when I stood on a block that showed the home icon, I did not get the "you will die" message when I logged out, so maybe that's it.

It was before you changed settings. But if you managed to disable offline starvation, that's even better :)

It took Ark Survival Evolved a year and a half to get the home effect/buff working correctly. It's possible some blocks count and some don't, even if they're ones you can craft and build with. It would probably take some playing with. My setup is deep inside a cave where I basically dug out a home and only used some stone foundations and a door. I don't get the home icon, so it's likely specific blocks it's looking for rather than a sealed off block room.

[Jiro_89]

PixARK updated to version 1.20

[Jiro_89]

PixARK (https://store.steampowered.com/app/593600/) is 20% off right now during the steam summer sale.

[InsaneJ]

Why didn't you tell me this game looks like Minecraft! Well I guess I'm going to have to buy the game now. And might as well seeing as I'm hosting a server for it ;) It sounds interesting though. For those of you, who like me, haven't read too much into this game yet:



Early Access Game

Get instant access and start playing; get involved with this game as it develops.

Note: This Early Access game is not complete and may or may not change further. If you are not excited to play this game in its current state, then you should wait to see if the game progresses further in development. Learn more (https://store.steampowered.com/earlyaccessfaq/?snr=1_5_9_)

What the developers have to say:
Why Early Access?

“PixARK isn’t your average sandbox / survival game - we’re going to be introducing a lot of experimental technology and features that will require extensive testing and iterating before we’re ready to ship them in a final product. We saw fantastic results with ARK’s time in Early Access, and we’re ready to once again work with the community to help make PixARK the best game it can be.” Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?

“We plan on launching the full version of PixARK later this year.” How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?

“PixARK’s full release will have a great deal more content compared to when it first launches in Early Access. We have a clear roadmap for what we plan on achieving - we’ll be sharing more info on that roadmap as we progress through Early Access.” What is the current state of the Early Access version?

“PixARK’s core systems are all fully functional; our current build supports local single-player and online multiplayer on both official and private servers.” Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?

“PixARK will be sold at a discounted price during the Early Access period (subject to change, dependent on your Steam region).” How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?

“Acting on community feedback is a major part of our development process - we’ll be constantly scouring Steam Discussions, as well as other forums, subreddits, Twitter mentions, smoke signals, and more to make sure we have a clear idea of how the community wants to see PixARK develop.”


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[Chogata]

Why didn't you tell me this game looks like Minecraft!

It looks like Minecraft on pink teen steroids ;) But the idea itself is nice, hopefully they'll copy all the good dino mechanics from Ark at some point.

[Jiro_89]

Thus far the test server is a success. The purpose was to monitor how much of the server's resources a PixARK server would require. This game is still in Early Access and there are many things that I can't change "yet" to improve the quality of the server world such as accelerated rates, but it's important to remember that we started the Ark Survival Evolved servers when that game was still early access as well. It was a bumpy road but the success and popularity of the ARK servers are self evident.

Though the current HappyDiggers PixARK server is a "Test Server", I see no reason to just convert it into our official PixARK server without resetting it. Currently I'm not ready to make that label change, but those interested should play it at full steam without reservations as I'll do my best to keep the same world.

Being a minecraft block derivative and a hard-set limited world there's only so much I can do about resources since multipliers are not functional. I can guarantee that when there is some method of block resource respawn capability or world size limitations are expanded officially or through moded support I'll make that change.

[Jiro_89]

I may put this on the back burner until I receive some interest from players. It seems like the server isn't really being played right now. There was one point when the server wasn't updated for a week or so and I didn't get so much as a peep. If I'm wrong though please let me know. If I don't get any replies for a week or two I'll probably conclude the test server and focus on Ark instead until this game gets some mod support.