Context
So my ISP uses CG-NAT and the only way to get a static IP address is by upgrading to a business account which is just too expensive considering I only want a server for my friends during the summer vacations, after summer I have to go back into college and my mother would be stuck paying for the business account.
Situation
I have followed several tutorials on using the Ark Ascended Server Creation Tool (ASCT) and the other threads here and after lots of struggle I manage to setup a server I can join by using the console command open IP:Port. The problem is, my friends play in console… They play Ark through Cloud Gaming using Xbox Game Pass and no matter what we try we can’t manage to make them join the server. First they used the open command inside a non-dedicated instance of The Island which made the instance super buggy so we thought it was maybe loading the mods but it never joined the server (I was getting the message in the ASCT that their IP was trying to join) and after a while they would get kicked out of Cloud Gaming and Ark would bug a lot. The furthest we got was one of my friends connected their keyboard to the Xbox and used the open command from the main menu. That actually allowed him to enter the server and see the character creation screen but shortly after the game crashed and since then everytime he joins the game continues to crash.
Help
I know this is a really specific case since I can’t do port forwarding, am using playit.gg, playing crossplay with Xbox users that have to use Cloud Gaming since they don’t own a Xbox Series, and all that stuff. But I would infinitely appreciate it if someone could help me or at lest tell me that this isn’t going to work so I can give up and simply use Nitrado (which I hate).
- So is there any way to help my console friends join my server?
- Why my friends keep crashing when joining?
- Is it really impossible to make servers that use playit.gg appear in the in-game servers search area?
Edit
After more testing I think the problem is with Xbox Cloud Gaming. I am running out of time so I did ended up renting a Nitrado server but my friend’s game still crashed shortly after joining. I am guessing due to the amount of mods. I had over 100 mods on the server since my pc can handle that and more and this being an external server I thought the cloud service wouldn’t need to do a lot more but I am guessing that isn’t the case. Currently removing mods little by little to see what is the maximum amount of mods I can have for them to actually be able to play (like 30 of the 100 are kilobytes sized mods of quality of life things for console players).