Just in case you're out of the loop and it's relevant to you: they're remaking Ark in Unreal 5 and going to be shutting down official servers for "old" ark within the next few months. And then it looks like you might have to pay for everything all over again. At the very least the base game already seems to have a set price.

Unfortunately, my Ark addiction has resurfaced. I truly wish there was a better game that had utility mechanics for tamed beasts. I love when different dinos fit different purposes other than just "kills other things faster. If the Ark unreal 5 remaster that's supposedly coming out has a good modding presence, doesn't break all the time, and puts some resources towards some more dino TLC updates again I'll likely keep playing the damn game. I have no hope/expectations for Ark 2, sadly.