00 – Setting it up

 

ServerGridEditor

 
You’ll need to add the mod ID to your ServerGrid.json in order to download and activate it on your server cluster. Therefore open your ServerGridEditor with your prepared map, go to Project + Edit 
 
 
 
 
Commit this change with the edit button at the bottom of the edit menu. 
 
After that, export your map: 
 
 
Then go to your ServerGridEditor directory into the export subdirectory: 
 
 
And copy those files to your ATLAS servers’ ShooterGame directory: 
 
 

---

 

ATLAS Server – initialization

 
For easier server management on windows, you could use community tools like the www.guilded.gg – https://www.guilded.gg/SparcMX/groups/5D0wQMv3/channels/30ace116-ffb2-4147-8221-b0c3590dda87/forums/1922530713 from SparcMX. 
The goal is to start your server cluster once, so that the game can create the Saved subfolders for all your grids. 
 
 
You should now shutdown your ATLAS server cluster again. 
Now you’ll need to visit the atlas-commander.com – https://atlas-commander.com/ website and to create an account on this website. 
 
 
as soon as you did create an account, you will be redirected to your dashboard. On the dashboard click on create cluster and it will open a prompt with your API Key 
 
 
 
either manually copy this API Key block with the tag [ATLAS_Commander], or use the clipboard icon to put it into your PCs clipboard automatically 
 

---

 

ATLAS Server – add the API Key

 
now go into each created subfolder of your grids, inside the Saved main folder of your server, and navigate to each config/WindowsServer/GameUserSettings.ini file and paste your copied API Key at the bottom of those files. It is important that you add the API Key to all of your grids GameUserSettings.ini config files (in the example screenshot below, this would mean to copy the API key to the GUS.ini file of A1, A2, B1 and B2). (this only needs to be done once and from there on you can manage the mod entirely from the website – without needing to reboot your cluster) 
 
 

---

 

ATLAS Server – finalizing the setup

 
the final step is to simply start your ATLAS cluster again, and it will start to communicate with the web API. Wait a moment and double check if your website Dashboard does show the Gird badge correctly. You can refresh the Dashboard with the refresh icon. 
 
 
You may want to upload your ServerGrid.json, so that the website can display the actual island images of your map. As long as there is not ServerGrid.json uploaded, it will only show dummy island images 
 
And after uploading via upload button on map view or on the dashboard entry, 
 
it will be able to display the actual island images 
 
If it doesn’t show your actual island or does respond with an error upon upload, make sure you did try to upload the correct ServerGrid.json file 
 
 

01 – Cluster settings

 

Cluster Name

 
you can adjust your cluster name on the website dashboard by simple clicking the ID or Name entry 
 
 
 
 

---

 

Live cluster settings

 
It is possible to adjust the ATLAS Commander mod settings on the website, so that they get applied within 10 minutes in the game, without the need to restart your server. 
 
On this cluster settings component, you can modify all available options as well as limiting it to certain grids (which would use default values for the disabled grids) 
 
As soon as you change something on this view, it will get auto saved and applied within 10 minutes in the game. To restore default values, use the X icon at each records bottom right corner. 
 
 
 

02 – API Key management

 

Cluster API Key Manager

 
Each cluster has its own API Key manager which can be used to revoke, create or edit your API Keys for given cluster. Usually you should only need one server API Key for your cluster, so that the game server can use it to authenticate itself at the web api. 
 
When you did forget your API Key, then simply open the API Key manager via dashboard cluster button 
 
 
There you’ll get your existing keys listed. Keep them secret, especially the server API Keys! You can put the API Key of a record into you clipboard (copy) by simply clicking the API Key cell of the Key you want to copy. 
 
 
It is also possible to give keys an alias name, so that you can remember which key was used for what in the future. BUT be aware, that one cluster entry should only register one actual cluster! If you want to manage multiple clusters, it is neccessary and adviced to create a separate cluster entry for that on the dashboard. When you do not want to adhere to this advice, it will override your cluster data and will save funny stuff, ultimately making the mod unusable for you. But this can be resolved when you cleanup the cluster record again. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
To revoke an API Key, click the delete Button of the corresponding record. This will deny further data writing access of clusters with this API Key in their GameUserSettings.ini 
 
 
After that you can create a new API Key with for example the +Server button. And copy this new API Key into your servers’ GameUserSettings.ini – for ALL grids! 
 
 
 

03 – 2D map control

 

Prerequisites

 
The 2D map control does require two prerequisites. First you’ll need to associate your website account with your steam id. For that go to your profile settings on the atlas-commander.com – https://atlas-commander.com/ website and press the Sign in through Steam button. This will trigger an official auth flow via steam API. 
 
 
After that as second prerequisite you’ll get some welcome Command Token which can be used to control your first ships. 
 
 
You can get additional Command Token on the Get Tokens page of the atlas-commander.com – https://atlas-commander.com/ website. This will help with further development, maintenance and costs for the provided infrastructure. 
 

---

 

Accessing your cluster map

 
On the website, when you’re logged in, go to the dashboard and click the Open Grid View button 
 
 

---

 

Demo Video

 
In this video you’ll see a showcase of the basic controls of one example ship on a 2×2 grid cluster (yes the actual ship is controlled in the game – it has 1 NPC captain and 3 NPCs at the sails). Like it’s usual for RTS games, you can navigate with pressed rightclick and dragging the map, zoom in and out with your mouse wheel, select ships either via direct click on them or with pressed left click and dragged selection box. As soon as you have ships selected, you can create waypoints via right click for them, as well as follow up waypoints when you have your shift key pressed in addition to further right clicks on the map. In order to cancel the waypoints of a selected ship, simply press the S key. 
 

 

---

 

Precise Control

 
It is also possible to determine the desired sailing speed. For that keep your shift key pressed and the right mouse button too, which enters the direction and speed modifier modus for the next waypoint. It is even possible to give ships the command to go backwards. A waypoint for backwards movement can be created with the key combination of pressed shift + pressed ctrl + pressed right mouse button and then chosing direction. As soon as you release the right mouse button it will then commit the new waypoint. 
 
 

This is all for ARK: Survival Evolved ATLAS Commander – Tutorial Video Guide hope you enjoy the post. If you believe we forget or we should update the post please let us know via comment, we will try our best to fix how fast is possible! Have a great day!