VANIR II
Our cluster has been around for 2–3 years now and was open to friends and new players. I have invested a total of 12k play hours in ARK since November 2015 (from Singleplayer, Official, BlackGoatGaming, Arkkovia to here on bukanier.org). However, in recent weeks and days, I have been increasingly considering switching to ASA.
With the release of Extinction a few days ago, Wildcard has delivered an impressively positive version, in my opinion. I am not a fan of Club Ark (minigames) and all that P2W-Fantastic-Tames nonsense with Pyromanes and Dreadmares, even though those creatures look damn cool. Furthermore, I am also bothered by the DLCs with all the steampunk stuff that doesn't quite fit into a dinosaur survival game with sci-fi, but Orionson has incorporated some good elements from his ASE mod S+. With the right configurations and mods, it is likely possible to disable the worst pay-to-win elements.
Currently, the cluster only has 1–2 active tribes left, and since I no longer want to invest time in ASE myself, I have decided to shut down the cluster. Sorry to the remaining players, but there is no point in keeping the server artificially open for days/weeks when the end is already foreseeable.
The configurations, map files, player, and tribe profiles are available for download for a while longer at the following links and can be used to continue playing in singleplayer or to set up your own cluster/server:
Maps and Profiles (Ragnarok and Island)
bye
Louis Bang Bang
