Ark Extinction DLC Discussion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pW5XOuD81g

The final boss cinematic for Aberration showed a new Ark that the developers confirmed would be the Extinction DLC. A release date has been slated, so it's time to start a discussion about the potential addition to the HappyDiggers servers or not. I want this to be an open forum for everyone in the HappyDiggers community about whether we should consider adding a new Ark DLC server.

Here is why this thread is necessary:
We have a limited amount RAM available and between 4 Ark Survival Evolved servers and 1 PixARK server we have maxed out our allocation of RAM. This is under the assumption that PixARK will require more RAM than it currently is operating with considering that only a few players have played the world at any given time and that the game is still in early access.

How do we add another Ark DLC server?

• One solution is to increase our RAM. In order to do that we need more donations. InsaneJ would need about 700 euros to properly upgrade our RAM another 64 Gigs. Currently we have allocated 36 Gigs for use with the 4 Ark and 1 PixARK servers.
• The next solution would be to remove one of our Ark servers and install the Extinction DLC in its place. This isn't exactly my favorite option as I feel each map has something to offer, but logistically it makes sense considering some maps are much more popular than others. The downside to this method is that we will lose access to certain map specific resources such as special dinos like Phoenix on Scorched Earth or map specific bosses.
• Another possible solution would be to do a sort of map swap once a month or perhaps once every 3 months. This would allow all map access over time. Character, tribe, and alliance data would transfer between the swapped servers and the saved server worlds would be held in stasis while not in use. When the stasised world is selected again it would be exactly as it was when it was last saved.

Ark server information:
Not all Ark servers are created equal. Each Ark server uses a different amount of RAM and each server has different and unique resources to offer. Here is some information to consider in your responses.

• The Island - Averages 7 Gigs of RAM. The longest running HappyDiggers Ark server. Has Ascension and all of the original bosses. The game was designed and built around The Island.
• Aberration - Averages 4.5 Gigs of RAM. The newest official DLC. A unique map, creature, and environment experience. A whole set of special items, dinos, engrams, and boss rewards.
• Scorched Earth - Averages 4.5 Gigs of RAM. Another unique experience to Ark illustrating the brutality of the desert environment. A whole set of special items, engrams, and boss rewards. The only map that has wild Phoenix (Can currently be bought with our shop plugin though).
• Ragnarok - Averages 8 Gigs of RAM. Has unique Tek engrams and a dual boss fight. Largest map we're operating with. Every biome in the game is available.

During peak times when we have many players online expect another 3-4 Gigs of RAM shared between all of the Ark servers. Add on that the current test server average for the PixARK is 2-3 Gigs with the assumption that it will be using upwards of 7 Gigs when it becomes modded and has been developed further.

Would love for it to be added so i donated about 100$ , but i guess that's still not enough aww. Well hopefully we will meet required amount or maybe the required ram parts will go on discounts to save money hmm.

In this thread you can see what we upgraded the server with in the past:
https://happydiggers.net/showthread....ger-new-plans)

Since then the CPU got replaced by a 14-core / 28-thread Xeon CPU and the RAM got upgraded to 96GB by replacing the 8x8GB with 4x16GB and keeping 4x8GB in. The motherboard has 8 slots for RAM total. Oh yean, the ASUS motherboard was also replaced by an MSI one due to stability issues.

Right now, if we want to upgrade the ram, we need to take out 32GB and replace that. Currently 64GB of memory cost around, like Jiro mentioned, 700 euro. Which is almost double the cost of the 64GB that went in before. RAM prices are crazy and have been like that for the past few years now. It's pretty clear that memory producers have made illegal agreements on their prices and they are being investigated. Even the Chinese government has had enough and told the manufactures to lower their prices... or else. Which would probably mean China would start producing RAM with government funding which would give them a huge edge over their international competitors.

Here you can see what 4x16GB of RAM costs in my area:
https://tweakers.net/categorie/545/g...QztkAogPBqa2sB

Right now I'm not saving up for a RAM upgrade. The 100 euro you so generously donated has gone towards server maintenance. A while ago one of the SAS drives started showing early signs of failure and was replaced. And I'm pretty sure I need to replace the case fans in the not too distant future. They've been running 24/7 for a few years now and are starting to produce more noise. Not to mention all the other replacements I did in the past. Don't get me wrong. This is not a complaint in any way. I'm running this server as a hobby and as such it's OK for me to spend money on it. It's just that we don't have the budget to upgrade the RAM just like that for a hobby.

If people would be interested in doing a donor drive, I'll start one and save the money towards the goal of upgrading the RAM. Jiro suggested a thermometer kind of thing which we could show on the home page to indicate how close we are towards reaching our goal. Again, if people are willing to support us in that way (comment below) I'll set that up. Keep in mind that 700 euro is a lot of money and donations have been slow the past year or so. Staff members can view donations behind the scenes so they know what the situation is. So if you are willing to donate and are not shy of letting other know, please let us know how much you are willing to donate if we do this.

I'll start. I'm willing to donate 150 euro.

If we reach 400 euro in pledges I'll start the donor drive thermometer thing. Come to think of it. We could probably do a Patreon or GoFundMe kind of thing. But let's just gauche interest here first.

If a donation drive takes place, I can throw in up to 100€. I'll just ignore Steam sales for a while :D

I'm wiped right now, so I cannot promise more than 50 euro immediately. But if this goes through, I can promise another 50 come October (so after J wipes his piggy bank to buy RAM, he will have something in the fall for other server related expenses ;) ).

I won't probably play ARK this year anymore, but I will support the RAM upgrade anyway, because of the past fun I had on the servers.

I've been thinking of Aquiring my donor status for some time. Even though from a poor country i can definitely try to scrape 30 Euro :)

Thirty euro isn't a small amount. As far as I'm concerned that's very generous :)

That would bring the total up to 380 euro. Just a little more to go and I'll get the donor drive thing going.

I'll pick up those last 20 euros to start the drive.

The people have spoken. We've raised enough money through donations for the RAM upgrade. Assuming all goes well with the memory J was able to snag, we'll be able to add the Extinction DLC to our Ark server cluster whenever it is released (+ a day or two of preliminary testing).