I mostly play Ark on single player mode and I have a very slow internet connection on the system that Ark is installed on. so I was wondering if I could download the update files from somewhere Where I have a good internet connection and then apply the updates to the game.
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If you have friends somewhere that play, you could let them download it. Back-up the game using the steam back-up games feature. Put that back-up on a Usb-stick/usb-drive. And then restore it on your computer.– LyrionCommented Nov 9, 2016 at 16:00
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Unfortunately none of my friends liked the game that's one of the reasons I play single player @Lyrion– HenjinCommented Nov 10, 2016 at 5:37
1 Answer
You don't have to be up-to-date to play single player, even though most updates will help you with new content and stability (LOLz for stability, though)
If you have someplace to download updates from, just install Steam there. With steam installed, use following steps to update your game.
- Start Steam and from the menu bar on top, click on Steam to open steam menu.
- Click on
Settings
and go toDOWNLOADS
tab (select from left side pane) - Check the
Only auto-update games between:
check-box and choose the hours late at night or any other time when your system will not be running (e.g. 2AM and 3AM) - Click OK to save and close the settings dialog.
- Note down the path of your steamapps folder where Ark is installed
- Go to steam library
- Right Click on
Ark: Survival Evolved
in the left pane and click onProperties
- Go to
LOCAL FILES
and click onBROWSE LOCAL FILES...
- An explorer window will open. Note the path in the address bar. It should be something like
C:\Program Files(x86)\Steam\steampapps\common\Ark
- Copy Ark from your current (slow internet) machine into a removable media (USB/external HDD etc.).
- Also copy the app manifest file for Ark from
steamapps
folder.steamapps
will be present 2 directories above the path that you noted above (e.g.C:\Program Files(x86)\Steam\steampapps\
) - Attach the removable media to the system with good internet access
- Make sure Steam isn't running on the new system
- Copy the app manifest file into
steamapps
folder on the new system. - Copy the Ark into the its path (the one you noted above).
- Start Steam. Ark must appear as installed on the new system now
- Again right click on
Ark: Survival Evolved
, click onProperties
and go to sameLOCAL FILES
tab - This time click on
VERIFY INTEGRITY OF LOCAL GAME FILES...
. This will force start any updates. Let the game verify and update. It may take a while to complete - Once the game is updated, go back to step 5, but this time copy from new system to your original system.
Make sure that you stay up to date. Especially, you don't want to miss any major version upgrade. If you miss or skip updates, it is most likely that entire game will download again instead of patch files only.
If you can spare disk space on the system with good internet, you can just permanently install Ark on it. Just keep copying it from time to time to your original machine. If you are not on latest patch, you will not be able to see official servers, but that is not a concern if you play single player only.