Since this is about ARK, I replied to it in this thread. Thanks for the info. Does a PVE server respect private property any better than PVP? How severe is the death penalty in this game? Thanks!
Private Property
PvE servers
- you cannot destroy other people's structures
- you cannot kill other people's dinos
- you cannot loot unconscious people (you can be unconscious because of some game mechanics, or when you disconnect - you never actually disappear from the world)
PvP servers
- you cannot destroy other people's structures
- you cannot kill other people's dinos
- you can loot unconscious people
Both servers
You can steal stuff from campfires, mortars, or any other item that doesn't have a lock. You can put a passcode to your storage boxes to secure them as well. By default, they can be opened by anyone.
Your house door is by default locked, so if you put your stuff inside, no one can loot you (unless you leave it open... it happens!) in PvE. In PvP they can destroy your door/walls and loot you, so you'd better lock your boxes.
Tribes are another matter. You can set your tribe so that structures and dinos are tribe-owned or personal. If they are tribe-owned, you can select if when you leave the tribe, your dinos/structures leave with you or they stay loyal to the tribe.
I think all boxes are shared, so you would have to make a town with separate housing for each member in order to keep your privates, well, private.
Death Penalty
Two server modes, hardcore and normal (officially called non-hardcore). Almost all servers are non-hardcore.
In hardcore, when you die you are born again level 1.
In normal, you keep your level and all your engrams.
In both cases, when you die, your corpse stays on the spot where you were killed. You can run there and recover all the stuff you were carrying (and eat your corpse!). If someone else gets there first, they can loot you.
Most of the time the stuff you carry around is not that critical and you can get it back fairly easily (cloth, basic weapons/tools, etc) so it is not that critical. Maybe there are some advanced weapons you have to invest a lot of mats to recover, I don't know.
You generally get more upset for losing your house and the stuff locked inside it than losing the stuff you carry around.
EDIT: I just read the full title of the thread. This game is no longer Windows - only. As a matter of fact, I've only played it in OS X!