ARK: Survival Evolved

ARK: Survival Evolved

Arkitect
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Update: 28 Feb, 2022 @ 5:59am

This update brings a few features meant to aid server admins in setting up "public/community" areas on their maps, with structures and crafting stations usable by anyone. These features can also be used to do things like build an indestructible maze (specific example comes from a request someone made months ago).

Admin Rifle
Several new features
- New way to switch Primary Modes. Instead of Right-click, hold Reload (R) to open radial menu. For Primary Modes that have Sub-Modes, cycle through Sub-Modes with Right-click.
- Deforest Mode is now called Forestry Mode.
- Forestry Mode has 2 Sub-Modes: Deforest and Reforest. Reforest uses the same logic that Re-Fertilizer uses, and is therefore subject to the same limitations and cooldowns. If you try to regrow an area and nothing happens, a structure is in the way or you need to wait more.
- Deforest/Reforest AOE has been reduced to half the previous size, to give a little more control to the user over what gets destroyed/regrown.
- Structure Mode is a new Primary Mode. It has 6 sub-modes: Set Unlocked, Set Locked, Set Indestructible, Set Destructible, Set Neutral, and Take Ownership. These modes are all single target by default, but can be toggled to apply to All Connected by Middle-Clicking the mouse.

Arkitect Bench
To go with the new ability to set up neutral structures, the Arkitect Universal Crafting Bench has received some updates.

Firstly it will remember which mod was active after server reboots.

By default, neutral Arkitect benches can be used by anyone, and any available Workzone Perks will apply to anyone in range.
There are 2 new ini options for the bench:
AllowNeutralWorkzones=(True by default)
AllowNeutralBenchModMenuForNonAdmins=(True by default)

Setting the first one false will prevent neutral Arkitect Benches from providing Workzones (and by extension, the Workzone Perks such as flying, infinite weight, etc).
Setting the second one false will prevent non-admins from switching the active mod in neutral Arkitect Benches. Admins can place multiple neutral benches, and set each one to a specific mod if they so choose. Now that the bench remembers the mod on reboot it effectively "locks in" the capabilities of each particular bench.

Notes:
- Lock/Unlock may not persist through server reboots, depending on your server settings and depending on how modders have set up their structures. Benches/Boxes/Doors set to the Arkitect Neutral team will be force-unlocked on server reboots, regardless of settings.
- Set Neutral actually does three things: it sets the team of the structure to the Arkitect Neutral Team ID, it sets the structure to be indestructible, and if it is a container, it gets set to unlocked.
- Turrets WILL fire on anyone/everyone if you set them Neutral with their default settings. Plan accordingly.
- Auto-Open/Auto-Close (on mod doors and gates) will not function on Neutral structures. Doors and gates will have to be opened manually. Nothing I can do about that, sorry.
- Most of the crafting stations in CKFR and CKF:SF will be inaccessible if set neutral. This is a bug with those mods. It will require updates to CKFR and CKF:SF to fix (I haven't tested CKF:Legacy yet). Recommend using vanilla/S+ counterparts, or my Arkitect Bench (since it is a universal crafting bench, it will have all the CKF parts by default) for neutral facilities.
- If you mark a base as neutral, then realize you want to build more stuff on it, you will need to use the Take Ownership mode of the admin rifle to turn the base back to your team. Ark building rules dictate you can only build onto your own teams structures, and I cannot override it. So, convert it back to your team, build, then set it back to neutral.

Update: 19 Feb, 2022 @ 5:42am

New Features:
- Spawn items with quality - for players with the proper permissions (see ini options in Discussions), and for items that have a quality range, you can now choose a quality to spawn items in at. This is available when right-clicking items in the spawn mode of the Item Menu. This is enabled for server admins by default. It can be enabled per-player via a new ini option "ExtraSpawnOptionsAllowedFor="
- Test Mode - Admin only feature. Toggled in the Options tab of the Item Menu. If you enter test mode, Arkitect will treat you as a non-admin to make it easier to test some of the ini options (checking if an item is blacklisted, or if non-admins can fly, for example). You must deactivate and reactivate the Arkitect Hammer each time you turn Test Mode on or off, in order to refresh your current settings.

Improvements:
- Admin Vault now snaps to other Admin Vaults (and S+ vaults because why not?).
- Arkitect's item scanning logic has been improved to find more items automatically.
- On-Demand Crafting is enabled by default again. It has been reworked to consume resources before equipping structures on left-click. Cancel placement or switch to a new structure to issue a refund then, and only then. The rework was required to work this way due to limitations and bugs in the previous incarnation.

Bugs Squished:
- Fixed the Item Browser acting weird if clicking multiple checkboxes rapidly.
- Fixed Snap-To-Grid not appearing to work on some maps and other random times. (Visual bug)
- Fixed quirky behavior of recently-changed Auto-Respawn/Auto-Craft logic. It should trigger more accurately now.


Ongoing streamlining and optimizations
- More efficient data replication. Less network traffic is always a good thing.
- More messy graphs consolidated and simplified. This doesn't affect players in any way, but it does make it easier for me to add things and fix bugs.

Update: 30 Nov, 2021 @ 10:13pm

Admin Rifle improvements:
- There's a new option to retain the rifle when deactivating the Arkitect Hammer buff. It won't be destroyed.
- The rifle will remember the mode it was in (this is saved per rifle though, so if you toss it out and get a new one it starts on default mode).
- The Deforest mode works better now. Cleaner logic, and can remove bushes as well (previously it could destroy rocks and trees but couldn't do bushes).

Bug fixes:
- Another attempt at fixing the flight parachute/cooldown logic. If it works, only damage dealt to/received from structures, players, and creatures will trigger the parachute and flight cooldown. Admins should be automatically immune to this feature. Just a reminder, this feature can be turned off by setting the flightcooldown ini to 0.
- Better auto-spawn logic that should hopefully be more reliable.
- Additional Items ini should work better now.

Misc:
- All mods will be listed now under categories, even if no items or creatures are found in them. The category list will therefore double as a quick reference of the entire mod list on a server, and their load order.
- EnableHotkeyDestroyFor=Admins is now default (previously None)
- ODCAllowedFor=None is now default (previously All). Since it's more broken than I realized it's going to be opt-in rather than opt-out, for now.
- When using the search box in the item menu, you can now list multiple search terms. "wall,foundation" will search for walls and/or foundations, for example. You can add a dash in front of a term to filter items out, as well. "wall,foundation,-thatch" would not show thatch walls or foundations. Do not start your search with an exclusion. I will fix that later.

Update: 14 Nov, 2021 @ 4:00pm

New Feature:
- Added Creature Spawning by popular request. It requires players to be a server admin AND have permission for Advanced Menu. It cannot be given to non-admins, even if they have Advanced Menu privileges. It is the first release, and I've only tested it with vanilla dinos and the Better Dinos mod so far. Creatures will show up as a new checkbox in my Item Menu, alongside the other Item Type checkboxes (Structures, Weapons, Armor, etc). Non-admins will see this checkbox for now, but it is disabled completely for them.

Notes on Creature Spawning:
The dino spawning menu has the following options:
Untameable - If checked, dino can only be tamed with cheats.
Tamed - If checked, dino will spawn in as tamed by you.
Female - If checked, dino will spawn female instead of male.
Level - Set the level you want the dino to be when spawned.
Randomize - Will randomize the gender and level for you if you want to sprinkle some creatures in an area quickly. Randomize will not choose levels outside of your server's wild level range.
None of these options persist. If you close the menu they revert to default. For now.

Minor improvements:
- Server admins can now fly in water with Arkitect's flight mode. A bonus side-effect of this is most water creatures will ignore you. (Apparently they ignore players that aren't "swimming".)
- Server admins will no longer have their flight mode disabled, or any cooldown added, when giving or receiving damage.
- Damage events that can trigger the disabling of flight mode and associated cooldown have now been restricted. It should only trigger from damage done to or caused by creatures, players, and structures. In other words, harvesting or simply running into a tree while flying should no longer cancel flight and trigger the cooldown.
- Old crafting bench model added back as a "Primitive" variant on the bench.
- Item Menu now has an "All" checkbox to toggle all the other Item Type checkboxes at once.
- Improved the item scanning logic. It should be able to find spawn-only, non-structure items now.

Bug fixes:
- Light bar animation on the new sci-fi bench model will now stop animating when crafting is finished, in Singleplayer.
- Possible fix for admins not automatically getting all item types allowed in Spawn Mode by default.
- Possible improvements for people playing on someone's non-dedicated server.
- Possible fix for issues with certain Item Menu options, when running the game in a different language than English.

Update: 6 Nov, 2021 @ 3:36am

Fixed bug with On-Demand crafting

Arkitect bench has a new, work-in-progress model, courtesy of ExileAcid. Despite his busy schedule he managed to put something quick together for me, and despite the "rush job" I think it looks pretty cool. The old model will be re-added later as a primitive variant, and the new model will get improved later when he and I have more time.

There was a third thing I did...another bug I fixed I suppose, but it's late and I forgot to write down what it was.

Should be the last update for a while.

Update: 3 Nov, 2021 @ 10:25pm

Quick update to fix bugs from yesterday's big update

- You will not deploy a parachute every time you hit something or take a hit from something while you are on the ground.
- Fixed some issues with the Auto-replenish logic.

Update: 2 Nov, 2021 @ 1:21am

NOTE:
Due to adding new saved options to the item menu, your saved menu settings will be reset to defaults. This includes saved filters, checkboxes, favorites, recents, etc. I have also changed the layout of the savegame file, so that hopefully I do not have to reset again in the future if I add new settings.

NEW FEATURES:
On-Demand Crafting (ODC)
- Select a structure from the item menu and build with it immediately. No need to craft items first. Crafting resources will be deducted from your inventory or nearby storage as you place them. The feature can be disabled via ini, and players that have the feature can toggle it on and off in the new options menu.

Inventory tab
- instead of Player Inventory being treated like another mod in the Categories list, it now has its own tab. Right now it is still just a way to quickly select structures in your inventory but I plan to do more, later.

“All” Category
- Replaces “Player Inventory” at the top of the Categories list. “All” will let you see all items from all categories. In combination with the search filters and Item Type checkboxes this a nice way to find an item if you don’t know what mod it’s in, or see all structures from all mods for example.

Favorites and Recents tabs in Crafting mode
- if you have Standard menu privileges, or Advanced Menu privileges with crafting toggled on, you now have access to Favorites and Recents. These lists are kept separate from the Favorites and Recents of Spawn mode.

Options tab
- A new tab for me to stuff options that won't need to be accessed often, to save space on the main menu and keep it from getting too cluttered.

New options
- On-Demand Crafting (since this is a new feature, and required a lot of complex logic to make it work properly, I've given players who have permission to use the feature the option to toggle it off if they are having problems with it but still want to use other features of my mod).
- Give Admin Rifle (if a player has permission to receive one when activating the Arkitect Hammer buff, they now have the personal option to not receive one)
- Hotkey to Destroy Structures (if a player has permission to use this feature, they can toggle it on or off)
- Weight Buff Warning (if the player has been granted Restricted Infinite Weight, they have the option to disable the big red warning message that pops up when they leave Work Zone boundaries)
- More options are planned, for both new and existing features, where it makes sense, and when I have time.

USER INTERFACE IMPROVEMENTS:
- I did a massive refactor of the code for the UI. It is now much more organized, much easier to make sense of, and as a result, easier to work on and add new things.
- Optimized the logic for displaying items in the menu. Longer lists of items, such as large mods or the new "All" category, were locking up the entire game for up to 2-3 seconds in my tests. The new logic should eliminate that.
- Switching between tabs will now grey out parts of the menu rather than hide portions of it. I felt it was less jarring this way, visually, and it also keeps the options in the lower left and right corners available on other tabs like Favorites, Recents, and Inventory.
- You can now click on the text of a checkbox option to toggle it, not just the box itself.
- Menu should not ever close while typing in the search box. I thought I had fixed this before but apparently it could still sometimes happen.
- Item tooltips now include their crafting cost.
- Player Inventory and Nearby Storage checkboxes will now remember their settings. They are also now available on the main menu, not just the crafting pop-up.
- When Nearby Storage is enabled as a craft-pulling source, and the player is crafting via the Arkitect menu or using ODC, messages will now display that tell you resources are being removed from nearby storage. This should provide better visual feedback and a reminder that you are consuming resources from elsewhere.

GENERAL IMPROVEMENTS:
- The Arkitect flight ability will deactivate when a player deals or takes damage. It activates a parachute for the player and by default a cooldown of 30s before they can fly again.
- Arkitect Bench has been optimized logic to prevent/reduce game freezing when placing one, especially in single player.
- Rewrote some of the logic that manages the list of available items. What this should mean to Arkitect users is no more "Item Index Mismatch" errors, such as when there is a corrupted mod on the server or a client.
- Seeds added to the Official item list.
- The Admin Rifle will now show the DinoTag in the Inspect mode.

NEW INI OPTIONS:
ODCAllowedFor= (All,Admins,PlayerID,SteamID)
- Completely disables the On-Demand Crafting option for a player or group of players.
AlwaysLearnedEngrams=(EngramEntry_Example1_C,EngramEntry_Example2_C)
- List engram entries in this, and the Arkitect Bench and Item Menu will treat them as if the player knows them, even if they are unlearned by that player, or hidden by the official ini setting.
FlightCooldownDuration=(Default 30 seconds. Range of 0 to 3600 seconds.)
- Setting it to 0 will disable the cooldown


BUG FIXES:
- Arkitect Bench can now craft things properly when BenchRequiresPower=false
- Items that couldn't be clicked in the Item Menu should hopefully be clickable now. Never quite nailed down what the reason was but I've changed some things that should help with that.
- It's possible that the bench and the item menu were not respecting the hidden status of mod engrams. Now they should.

FINAL NOTES:
- I tried to squeeze as many suggestions made by Arkitect users into this update (search all, disable flight in combat, etc). The rest are still on my to-look-at pile.
- On-Demand Crafting was a challenge. It took months of brainstorming ideas for how to make it work, then weeks of work to fight against the entire item/structure/crafting system built into the game, to find something that would work reliably. I came up with 2 solutions that worked great in the editor but fell apart in live for undetermined reasons. In short, lots of hair-pulling, but I'm happy with the result. I think it's going to be my favorite new feature when/if I ever get back to actually playing the game.

Update: 28 Aug, 2021 @ 5:42pm

New Features:
Grid Overlay and Snap-to-Grid

New ini option:
GridsAllowedFor=(All, Admins, or None are the options. It is All by default.)

Grid Overlay -
Pressing Shift-G while looking at a square foundation will attach a Grid Overlay, a large 41x41 red grid.

Each square represents the size of one foundation. The Grid Overlay can provide a quick way to see just how flat your new building spot actually is, and give you an idea of how big the area is in foundations. It's main use is to facilitate Snap-to-Grid.

Snap-to-Grid -
Pressing Ctrl-G while a Grid Overlay is deployed will toggle Snap-To-Grid.

While within the bounds of the grid, any square foundation you equip to place will "snap" to the grid, aligning itself both horizontally and vertically. It can also align Large/Medium/Tek Crop Plots horizontally. The structures still follow normal building rules. They do not actually snap to the grid, as the grid is not a structure and will provide no support.
STG can help line up separate structures across distances, build more easily on uneven terrain, or perfectly line up crop plots from any mod onto any square foundation. Other structures may be allowed to snap to the grid at a later date.

Notes -
- Shift-G and Ctrl-G will not work while placing S+ Crop Plots due to their use of G to toggle their own snapping logic. You can either cancel placement temporarily to toggle the Grid Overlay and STG, or you can rebind Drag to a different key, since technically I use Shift-Drag and Ctrl-Drag.
- Snap-to-Grid works best with vanilla structures if No Collision is enabled in the ini settings. S+, SS, CKF mods all have No Collision built-in so you should not have to worry about this setting if you never build with vanilla parts.
- Grids cannot be attached to structures that are on moving platforms (platform saddles, rafts, skiffs, etc).
- Snap-to-Grid will not work if the currently placing structure is too close to a dino, structure, raft, skiff, etc).
- Grids are client-side. They will only be visible to the player that creates them.

Update: 13 Jul, 2021 @ 6:48am

Fixed a keybind issue

Update: 12 Jul, 2021 @ 8:35pm

Arkitect is now a sponsored mod! I have many ideas for new features to release over the coming months. Most are still in the early stages of design. In the mean time, I've fixed some annoying bugs and added some new ini options. Enjoy!

Bug Fixes:

- New Tek Helmet hotkey should no longer conflict with default hotkey for Arkitect Item Menu and open the Item Menu unexpectedly.
- Items from Stack Mods should show up now, even if the stack mod is not first in the load order. Tested with HG Stacking Mod 5000-90 V313
- Recent Items (Spawn Menu feature) will track recently spawned items more reliably now.
- Weight Buff warning will once again only trigger once when leaving a work zone.
- Workzones will no longer function on saddle platforms, skiffs, and rafts if AllowBenchOnSaddles is true (this was a bug and unintentional. However, I have added an INI to separately allow work zones to function if the bench is place-able on moving platforms. See below.)
- Arkitect Benches placed on saddle platforms, skiffs, and rafts should no longer detach and float in the air on server reboot.
- Arkitect Benches should no longer take damage when damage is done in their general vicinity (punching or shooting the air nearby for example). Big thanks to the modding discord for helping me troubleshoot and solve this issue!

New Features/Ini Options:
- AllowVaultAddItems=(default false): Allows placing any item in the admin vault. NOTE: I have not tested sticking items with quality in the vault. Use with caution! This feature is more for testing/admin purposes.
- BenchRequiresPower=(default false): You can now require the Arkitect Bench to require power to craft and provide Workzone perks. Unpowered Workzones will appear grey instead of the usual orange.
- AllowWorkzoneOnSaddles=(default false): You can separately allow the Arkitect Bench Workzones to function on saddle platforms, skiffs, and rafts. AllowBenchOnSaddles will now only allow the bench to craft.