Yeah, my group is kinda working around to that. We've been playing Vanilla including the "grind", but as we work well together as a team and we are *explicitly* trying to keep the game a bit slow as to savor it, this isn't a problem for us. I'm not sure how it'll go after we defeat the 5th boss if Hearth & Home isn't out yet. I must admit I do tease them when they mention or complain about something, "There's a mod for that, here's the link." They shout back, "NO MODS!" This after a bad time with too many mods to keep Ark Survival going.

A great deal of what you get out of the game is what you and your friends put into it. If you are all on the same page, and that page has mods, that's great. The Server Op needs to set that up and everyone ELSE follows that lead. I'm hoping you are part of a great crew like mine and this isn't a problem.