ARK Surivor Evolved Host Barrier Tether Distance

Fun fact

There is the typical tether for a PC host, but if a Series X is hosting the non-dedicated session than the PC player will not have the same tether limitations.

I.E. Series X as the host almost removes the tether that's experienced by a Series S or Windows PC host, regardless of PC specs.

buy a dedicated server.

MS has no control over the tether distance it's the games devs..

Okay, so this is the only post that is specific to game pass PC that I have found. From my knowledge from trying to figure out a way to either extend the tether distance or negate it all together, there is no way to do it if you have the game from Game pass. The version through steam and epic you can adjust this setting in the settings of the game but since the game pass version only associates itself with the version on Xbox (which doesn't support it) it can't adjust it either along with the fact you can't crossplay between Microsoft and Steam/Epic even if both are on pc. I spent many hours trying to start a server as well but only to come to the realization that you can only get steam/epic server files and there is no way of getting the server files that support PC game pass versions of the game.

SOLUTION:

From my understanding, you can run a dedicated server through the game that doesn't have a tether. But this sucks cause the person running the server can't actually play, they only see a black screen that's basically a player list and command window. These are the only things I can come up with.

1. Run a different Device running the game and run the server through that. This obviously requires a second device, either an Xbox or a PC but either will work I'm sure depending on how many people are playing and the specs of the device. The worst part is that you need to own the game on a separate account to run the server. So basically two of everything. Expensive or maybe another friend has it and is willing to host endlessly for you! lol, they definitely won't do it.

2. This is the cheapest way but you need to have some computer knowledge or find some good tutorials cause you could encounter a lot of issues along the way if you do something wrong or miss something altogether. You also need a pretty good computer to do this.

- Download a Windows 10/11 .iso file
- Download a Virtual Machine on your PC, I recommend "VirtualBox"
- Set up the VM to install windows with the .iso file

- Manage the VM to run with specs that can handle running the Ark server with the preferred amount of players (do test on host Pc beforehand)

- Either enable Drag and Drop or create a shared folder between the host and guest os

- Create a new Microsoft account every month to claim first time buy game pass for $1

- Copy all Ark files from host over to the VM or download all freaken 180 GBs or whatever

- Run the game and launch the server

It is not easy by all means but it's what I'm testing right now,

my VM uses:

2 out of 8 cores

10GB of Ram

250GB of SSD Storage
Unlimited access to my 3060Ti

You might have to Port Forward for any of these options but I would try without it beforehand, I play with my household so this doesn't apply to me either way

Hope this somewhat helped, I hope they change this in the future so I didn't have to do all of this just to play a multiplayer game and not have to be near each other the whole time. We played 3 of us for a couple of hours and I, the host, basically cornered my friends in battle by dragging them along with the tether while I was at base farming. And don't even try to respawn as host with a tether, everyone teleports to you immediately. So much BS...

Here is a "how to" article about creating dedicated servers for Ark. How to Host an ARK: Survival Evolved Dedicated Server

Let me know if this was of any assistance.

Ark Survival Evolved is a full game, and Ark Extinction is an add-on. Your title and description are contrary to each other and so I'm confused.

If you purchased Ark Survival Evolved then you should be just able to play it. However, if you purchased Ark Extinction then you must also purchase Ark
Survival Evolved.