Setting Up And Using Beacon For Your ARK Server
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Beacon is a loot editor for ARK, which'll allow you to change everything loot related, from normal loot drops, to cave loot and bosses. Beacon can also adjust GameUserSettings.ini and Game.ini on the fly within the Beacon client to your server, making your server editing needs easy, quick and accessible.
Beacon is a third party application and is not a part of Serverblend. As such, using this tool is within your own responsibility. If you have an issue with the application, contact the Beacon Support team.
Firstly download Beacon here, follow all the install steps and then open it.
Log in or create a Beacon account.
Click on create new beacon file. This is where you'll spend most of your time in Beacon. Right now, we're going to import your current files from FTP using Beacon itself.
Head to the drop down menu in Beacon and select Servers
Now click the import icon, then select Server with FTP Access
Enter your FTP details, this can be found in your TCADMIN panel. Remember that your username and password are your control panel login.
Shortly after connecting it'll ask you to locate your game.ini. This'll be located here: Server/Shootergame/Saved/Config/WindowsServer
Then once you've done that, it'll connect to the FTP server and grab the files, it will ask you what you'd like to import into your newly created Beacon file.
By importing your servers config files, your custom config content will have a properly structured gameusersettings.ini and game.ini to edit.
With Beacon you're able to edit the drops of your loot beacons, you are able to use preset sets or make your own sets to use in the coloured beacons of your choice. Even Bosses, Artifact Drops and Beaver Dams can have their sets modified!
To do this, navigate in the drop down menu to Loot Drop Contents add your sources using the plus symbol.
In order to use another maps loot, you must navigate to the Maps section and tick the map you'd want. It'll then include the loot options and bosses from that map!
Here you can select what loot drop you'd like to edit, including bonus loot drops from that colour type. We will use Island White for our example.
You will find presets of various sets of items to be used in that particular loot drop. Don't worry you can add your own custom sets also. Choose if you want to import any presets or not.
Min/Max Sets are the min/maximum amounts of sets that can appear in a drop. This means it can have as little as only one set or higher. For example, you could have this white box randomly have only x sets out of the pool you selected/added.
Onto adding your own set, click on the plus symbol (1) then plus symbol (2)
In this menu you can add all the base game engrams to the loot list, you can merge the selection into one list, add spawn weights, quantities, item quality etc.
Once done, you'll see this set in your list. This should involve your custom set into the loot table of that loot drop the next time you start your server.
You may start wanting to use mod engrams to use in your loot drop list or for any other purpose. Beacon is very great at adding mods to the list.
Click on the navigation panel, the ≡ in the menu.
Clicking on the gun icon, this is where you can add your mod engrams. You can import from URL, files or from clipboard. We'll be using Eco's Terrariums mod as an example.
Finding your mods spawn codes is relatively simple, on the mods page that you are adding, scroll down to discussions. There should always be a Admin Spawn Codes discussion. Go into it and copy the URL. If there is no discussion, read the description, the author may have placed them elsewhere. Copy the URL from the link they provide.
Once you've pasted the link, press okay. Depending on how many spawn codes there are, this could take a minute. Once done, you can set what maps this engram can be used in for loot tables and other things.
Now head back to your loot drop sets and search for the item from the mod that you wish to add, this should show up in that list. You're also able to just search the mods name and all the items from it should appear.
In Beacon, you have access to the cloud and the communities own presets. You can save your own and switch them out on the get-go or if you're just wanting something really easy from a member of the community, you can navigate to the community preset page within Beacon:
Select whichever preset you'd like to try and then let it download.
Firstly, click on the rocket icon and select your server that you connected with FTP earlier. Make sure to stop your server first.
Once done, it should then be uploaded to your server.
With community presets, you will have to re-do the server with FTP process again just to deploy the correct settings. You'll notice a tab with the presets name in Beacon, use the drop-down and then go to the Servers section and go through it again, then press the rocket.
Beacon features a premium paid one time service which provides additional features for the application. If you, however cannot purchase an Omni account, you can take part in the Share The Wealth program and be randomly selected when someone buys a key.
Omni has many features such as:
Editing Crafting Costs
Player & Tame Experience
Stack Sizes
Harvest Rates
Creature Adjustments
One feature which is very useful is the Stack Sizes as this eliminates the need for Stack Mods.
The Stack Size feature is used as follows:
Open your drop down menu and select Stack Sizes.
You can change the global stack multiplier, setting it to 2.0 essentially doubles the vanilla stack sizes.
You can also click the little + sign and add your own items and adjust their stack sizes if you wish for a more controlled stack size on your server.
This guide will help you set up and use Beacon for your ARK Server
Beacon is a loot editor for ARK, which'll allow you to change everything loot related, from normal loot drops, to cave loot and bosses. Beacon can also adjust GameUserSettings.ini and Game.ini on the fly within the Beacon client to your server, making your server editing needs easy, quick and accessible.
Beacon is a third party application and is not a part of Serverblend. As such, using this tool is within your own responsibility. If you have an issue with the application, contact the Beacon Support team.
Creating A Beacon File
Firstly download Beacon here, follow all the install steps and then open it.
Log in or create a Beacon account.
Click on create new beacon file. This is where you'll spend most of your time in Beacon. Right now, we're going to import your current files from FTP using Beacon itself.
Importing Files From Your Server (FTP)
Head to the drop down menu in Beacon and select Servers
Now click the import icon, then select Server with FTP Access
Enter your FTP details, this can be found in your TCADMIN panel. Remember that your username and password are your control panel login.
Shortly after connecting it'll ask you to locate your game.ini. This'll be located here: Server/Shootergame/Saved/Config/WindowsServer
Then once you've done that, it'll connect to the FTP server and grab the files, it will ask you what you'd like to import into your newly created Beacon file.
By importing your servers config files, your custom config content will have a properly structured gameusersettings.ini and game.ini to edit.
Loot Drop Editing
With Beacon you're able to edit the drops of your loot beacons, you are able to use preset sets or make your own sets to use in the coloured beacons of your choice. Even Bosses, Artifact Drops and Beaver Dams can have their sets modified!
To do this, navigate in the drop down menu to Loot Drop Contents add your sources using the plus symbol.
In order to use another maps loot, you must navigate to the Maps section and tick the map you'd want. It'll then include the loot options and bosses from that map!
Here you can select what loot drop you'd like to edit, including bonus loot drops from that colour type. We will use Island White for our example.
You will find presets of various sets of items to be used in that particular loot drop. Don't worry you can add your own custom sets also. Choose if you want to import any presets or not.
Min/Max Sets are the min/maximum amounts of sets that can appear in a drop. This means it can have as little as only one set or higher. For example, you could have this white box randomly have only x sets out of the pool you selected/added.
Onto adding your own set, click on the plus symbol (1) then plus symbol (2)
In this menu you can add all the base game engrams to the loot list, you can merge the selection into one list, add spawn weights, quantities, item quality etc.
Once done, you'll see this set in your list. This should involve your custom set into the loot table of that loot drop the next time you start your server.
Adding Custom Mod Drops
You may start wanting to use mod engrams to use in your loot drop list or for any other purpose. Beacon is very great at adding mods to the list.
Click on the navigation panel, the ≡ in the menu.
Clicking on the gun icon, this is where you can add your mod engrams. You can import from URL, files or from clipboard. We'll be using Eco's Terrariums mod as an example.
Finding your mods spawn codes is relatively simple, on the mods page that you are adding, scroll down to discussions. There should always be a Admin Spawn Codes discussion. Go into it and copy the URL. If there is no discussion, read the description, the author may have placed them elsewhere. Copy the URL from the link they provide.
Once you've pasted the link, press okay. Depending on how many spawn codes there are, this could take a minute. Once done, you can set what maps this engram can be used in for loot tables and other things.
Now head back to your loot drop sets and search for the item from the mod that you wish to add, this should show up in that list. You're also able to just search the mods name and all the items from it should appear.
Don't feel like doing this all by yourself? Use Beacon's Community Presets!
In Beacon, you have access to the cloud and the communities own presets. You can save your own and switch them out on the get-go or if you're just wanting something really easy from a member of the community, you can navigate to the community preset page within Beacon:
Select whichever preset you'd like to try and then let it download.
Exporting All Your Changes To Your Server
Firstly, click on the rocket icon and select your server that you connected with FTP earlier. Make sure to stop your server first.
Once done, it should then be uploaded to your server.
With community presets, you will have to re-do the server with FTP process again just to deploy the correct settings. You'll notice a tab with the presets name in Beacon, use the drop-down and then go to the Servers section and go through it again, then press the rocket.
Additional Features + An Example
Beacon features a premium paid one time service which provides additional features for the application. If you, however cannot purchase an Omni account, you can take part in the Share The Wealth program and be randomly selected when someone buys a key.
Omni has many features such as:
Editing Crafting Costs
Player & Tame Experience
Stack Sizes
Harvest Rates
Creature Adjustments
One feature which is very useful is the Stack Sizes as this eliminates the need for Stack Mods.
The Stack Size feature is used as follows:
Open your drop down menu and select Stack Sizes.
You can change the global stack multiplier, setting it to 2.0 essentially doubles the vanilla stack sizes.
You can also click the little + sign and add your own items and adjust their stack sizes if you wish for a more controlled stack size on your server.
Updated on: 20/09/2019
Thank you!