After you have created and uploaded your first ARK mod, you will be able to test it on all platforms before publishing it or sending it to moderation.
Make sure that you have the following prerequisites:
Take me to...
- Link your CurseForge account with Steam / PSN / Xbox accounts
- Adding members and testers (optional)
- Testing your mod on PC & Consoles
- Testing your mod on servers
Link your CurseForge account with Steam / PSN / Xbox accounts
As your mods are uploaded to your CurseForge account, you will need to connect your CurseForge account with the various platforms in order to test the mods in-game.
In order to do so:
Login to your CurseForge account
Go to “My profile”
Click on “Edit profile”
Go to the “Connected Accounts” tab
Use the dedicated SSOs to connect your CurseForge account with the various platforms accounts.
Note: You can link only one CurseForge account to every platform account and you can connect only one platform account to a single CurseForge account.
Adding members and testers (optional)
If you want to share your creation with teammates and other collaborators, you can share it with up to 5 team members and allow them to see your unpublished mod in-game to allow testing the mod before publishing it.
The steps to add a tester are as follows:
In the project page, click on “Manage Project”
Go to the”Members” tab and type the CurseForge user name of your teammate in the search bar.
Select the relevant result and click on “Add Member”
Select the relevant role for your teammate, check the box next to “Cross Platform Testing” and click on “Save Changes”
Once this is done, your team members should be able to test out your mod as if they are the owners of this project.
As you change the role in the dropdown, it will check/uncheck capabilities in the list according to the role permissions. You can change the roles as needed.
Testing your mod on PC & Consoles
After you and your teammates have linked your CurseForge account to the various platforms, open the ARK game on the platform you wish to test. Once the game launches, follow these steps:
In the main screen go to the “MODS LIST”
Navigate to the “My mods” tab - You and your allowed team members should be able to see the new mod you created
Click on the mod and in the mod page, click on “Install” in order to install your mod
Once installed you can create a new game
Go to “Mod settings” > “Available mods”
select your newly installed mod and select “Activate mod”. The ARK logo should be added next to its name
Your mod should appear in the “Active mods” tab as well
Launch a single player or a non-dedicated game session with your newly created mod in order to test it
Testing your mod on servers
You can also test your mod on a server before publishing it. You can test it on a private server or an official ARK server.
ARK Survival Ascend game hosting servers are exclusive for Nitrado. In order to test your mod, make sure you have a Nitrado account and a server set up.
If your mod is published, just add the desired mod/s ID in the “Active Mods” field, or select the mods from the menu below.
If your mod is not published yet, you can test it by entering the mod ID from the CurseForge project page with the suffix “-dev” (i.e. “xxxxxxx-dev”).
For example “897846-dev”:
You can test both published and unpublished mods on the same server.
Launch a game on your newly created server to test your creations
Note: If you added an unpublished mod to a server, only users with a dedicated permission will be able to play on this server (see “Adding members and testers” for more details)