Thanks everyone, you guys are really sweet with your kind words and wanting Free Hotdogs back. It's very clear that you all want it back, don't worry. We've even received some generous offers to get it going again, but it all boils down to time and effort.

It's easy to set it up again, but it's the ongoing effort to maintain it on top of ARK's various game-breaking bugs, that is the main hold-up. And there would have to be changes to the rules and how we handle certain things, to maintain that certain balance of sanity/dodo-insanity that we like to teeter. Right now though, we mostly don't have the time.

Sadly I don't have any news on when the server's coming back at this moment, but you guys and gals are awesome. Just wanted to thank you guys. We feel the love!

As of 2016, ARK was supposed to fully release in December here, and that's obviously not happening... And Allosaurs are supposedly somehow still spawning in peoples' bases. I don't even.

Hey guys and gals. Sorry for being so quiet. Things were being discussed, and we were also both quite busy, out of town, or overloaded IRL.

Long story short, we've decided to take the ARK server down for a while. As of July, it's been up non-stop for a full year, which is kind of impressive for an unofficial game server IMO. I don't really know how long they usually run though.

We're going to wait until ARK is patched a considerable amount (at the least) before considering restarting the server. ARK is just so damn buggy. The Allosaurs were just borderline inexcusable, on top of all of the existing bugs. Nevermind the ORP dino stat issue.

Due to how much the server costs, and that we don't really have a need for it at the moment (beyond ARK), TeamSpeak will also be going down.

Announcements will continue to go out on this steam group if anything changes with our plans, if you want to keep tabs on our server(s).

A copy of a relatively current world save will be uploaded soon. This will be on the front page of the steam group for anyone to use in local or private servers, for what it's worth.

Thank you everyone for your kind words, and I am genuinely sorry that we were just not willing to put up with the most recent issues and that it ruined your experiences. Hopefully ARK will be kind to you in the future! And maybe the hotdog shortage of '16 will end. ;)

Seems the mods didn't load correctly, lets see how this goes? Please let me know if it happens again.

Hey all, sorry about the inconvenience earlier. The restart should have fixed connections. If not, please let me know.

Secondly, I know about the bugged dino stats. ORP is the cause, as one of the updates did not mingle well with an ARK update and caused this issue. Hopefully one of the last few patches for ORP fixed it retroactively, but if not, the only solution they had posed was for admins to uninstall ORP, reinstall ORP, move all affected dinos into and out of an ORP buff, and also manually adjust each individual affected dino's stats. This is just an absurd amount of effort just to get around a bug. Hopefully it doesn't happen again, either. ORP is still far better than the game's built in way of doing it.

So, two propositions, and I want any responses/comments/complaints to this announcement to be posted here, please:

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/groups/ARKFreehotdogs/discussions/0/360671727324705981/

One: We wipe early. This is the cleanest solution. I know it's not ideal. ARK is a buggy, buggy mess. Remember the Allosaurs? Ugh. Draining not only for you guys and gals, but for me as well. I'm disgusted that you guys have to put up with such a major bug/issue after dealing with the Allosaur incident and losses.

Two: Server takes a hiatus for a month This is more so we (primarily I) get a break. Bobbeh is under a lot of pressure at his job/career and is far less available nowadays, which leaves just me to watch the server. And I have been drained lately, while also not getting much sleep, so I haven't been around. I do keep an eye on the steam group and my messages though, even if I don't reply.

(Don't forget No Man's Sky, Deus Ex, and World of Warcraft: Legion coming out this month!)

I am (cough cough) obviously a fan of #2, as if we wipe, I still might not be around as much. :(

I will also gladly upload the server's current save file (either way) so anyone can load it up in SP and either reclaim their dinos or play around on the map.

They have gone on vacation. Sorry for everyone's losses and grief. Existing Allosaurs can be tamed, but they will not spawn or replenish until I have absolute word from the devs that they are fixed.