Roastd The verdict is in. 2 crit4 warn2 info Roast your own server

No backups. The world exists once, and only just.

2 critical, 4 warnings, 2 observations found. Every finding below comes from what was actually in the pasted files. Treat the fixes as suggestions: they cover the common causes, and this case may need more digging.

ARK: Survival AscendedMap: TheIsland2 mods

Effective rates

2xHarvest
5xTaming
2xXP
10xMaturation
0.5xMating interval
1xEgg hatch

100% imprint is not reachable: the cuddle interval is too high for this maturation speed.

critical

No backups. The world exists once, and only just.

Take a backup now, then schedule them daily and keep copies off the machine. Backups are the only undo button a server has.

Automated daily backups →Why this happens: Taking a manual backup →
critical

ServerAdminPassword is blank. RCON is enabled as well. The cheat menu is effectively public.

Set ServerAdminPassword in the [ServerSettings] block of GameUserSettings.ini to a long, unique value. RCON is enabled as well. Without it, anyone who guesses the port can run admin and cheat commands, and RCON has nothing to authenticate against.

ServerAdminPassword=<a long unique value>GameUserSettings.ini
ARK hosting locked down by default →Why this happens: ARK: Survival Ascended troubleshooting →jump to GameUserSettings.ini line 2
warning

No auto-restart. Every crash waits patiently for a human.

Run the server under a wrapper or service that restarts it on exit (systemd, a start script loop, or a panel that does it for you). A crash should be a blip, not a night offline.

Auto-restart on crash →
warning

Singleplayer settings switched on. ARK is quietly rewriting your multipliers.

bUseSingleplayerSettings=True layers ARK's singleplayer balance on top of your own multipliers, so harvest, taming and XP end up different from what GameUserSettings.ini says. Set it to False on a dedicated server and tune the rates directly.

bUseSingleplayerSettings=FalseGame.ini
Why this happens: ARK: Survival Ascended troubleshooting →jump to Game.ini line 2
warning

Saving every 5 minutes. That hitch players feel is this.

A world save on a populated ARK map freezes the tick for a moment. At AutoSavePeriodMinutes=5 that happens constantly. Raise it to 15 or higher, or trim the map, so saves are less frequent and less noticeable.

AutoSavePeriodMinutes=15GameUserSettings.ini
ARK hosting tuned for big maps →Why this happens: ARK: Survival Ascended troubleshooting →jump to GameUserSettings.ini line 6
warning

Fast growth (10x) but the cuddle interval is the default 1.0. Babies grow up before the imprints land.

At BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier=10, babies mature far quicker, but the cuddle interval is the default 1.0, so there is not enough time for the cuddles that 100% imprint needs. Set BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier to about 0.1 so the two scale together.

BabyCuddleIntervalMultiplier=0.1Game.ini
Why this happens: ARK maps, mods and rates →jump to Game.ini line 4
info

DifficultyOffset set, but no OverrideOfficialDifficulty. Your wild dinos are capped low.

DifficultyOffset on its own leaves wild creatures capped well below the max. For level 150 wild dinos set OverrideOfficialDifficulty=5.0 in [ServerSettings]; it takes over from DifficultyOffset entirely.

OverrideOfficialDifficulty=5.0GameUserSettings.ini
Why this happens: ARK maps, mods and rates →jump to GameUserSettings.ini line 5
info

DinoCountMultiplier at 3. The wild population, and the tick cost, just scaled with it.

DinoCountMultiplier=3 multiplies wild creature spawns, and every one is simulated. On a busy server that shows up as lower FPS and higher RAM. Keep it near 1.0 unless the box has headroom to spare.

DinoCountMultiplier=1.0GameUserSettings.ini
ARK hosting with the headroom for it →Why this happens: ARK: Survival Ascended troubleshooting →jump to GameUserSettings.ini line 7

Your config

Problem lines are highlighted.

GameUserSettings.ini

As received, after redaction.

  1. [ServerSettings]
  2. ServerAdminPassword=
  3. RCONEnabled=True
  4. RCONPort=27020
  5. DifficultyOffset=1.0
  6. AutoSavePeriodMinutes=5
  7. DinoCountMultiplier=3.0
  8. HarvestAmountMultiplier=2.0
  9. TamingSpeedMultiplier=5.0
  10. XPMultiplier=2.0
  11. AllowThirdPersonPlayer=True
  12. [SessionSettings]
  13. SessionName=My ARK Server

Game.ini

As received, after redaction.

  1. [/script/shootergame.shootergamemode]
  2. bUseSingleplayerSettings=True
  3. MatingIntervalMultiplier=0.5
  4. BabyMatureSpeedMultiplier=10.0
  5. MaxNumberOfPlayersInTribe=8

Launch command

As received, after redaction.

  1. ShooterGameServer TheIsland?listen?SessionName=My ARK Server?RCONEnabled=True?Port=7777?QueryPort=27015 -server -log -mods=928988,930100 -NoBattlEye

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