Originally posted by Hermit:

Hey, this mod looks like it's very useful, and I'm considering subscribing to it, kudos to the author for bringing it to us^^ However I do have a couple of questions I'd like to ask before using it, if I may.

First of all, I guess that this is designed for use with big servers that simulate the entire map all at once? As far as I'm aware, single player Ark games work differently, only loading in a small section of the map around the player as they move. And I also host a local private server on my home computer for just myself and a friend to play - I believe this server works the same way as single player. So my question is, would this mod still work in those instances, where when the player dies and respawns they may teleport to another area of the map and the death point (and any homing birds in the area) would be unloaded from memory? Or would the birds effectivley freeze in place until that area of the map is loaded once more?

And secondly, I'd be interested in using this mod in single player as well as multiplayer. But of course in single player one cannot create tribes, and I notice that the homing beacons for this mod specifically say they are owned by your tribe. Does this mean they will not function if the player placing them is not a tribe member, or will they work fine for solo players just the same as tribe players?

Any assistance anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated, thanks^^

Originally posted by PommieGamer:

Some good very questions.

A1) To answer your first question, you are right in saying that ARK optimises the game by only loading into memory what it is currently using. Normally when you leave an area all dinos go into stasis, a sort of suspended animation of sorts.

What the mod does is when it is triggered (on last known rider death), it runs a custom AI Behaviour Tree to navigate to the closest flag, and most importantly it prevents the flyer from entering stasis (it is literally as simple as a boolean value for the actor).

This means the game engine treats the actor controlled by AI in a similar way to how it would treat any other player, loading and unloading areas as the actor moves through it.

A2) It works with or without tribes, as each flag still has a personal owner, so it will work in all game modes, single, non-dedicated and dedicated. I do extensive testing in all game modes before every new release to ensure compatibility.

I hope this answers your questions and enjoy using the mod.

Originally posted by Hermit:

Originally posted by PommieGamer:

Some good very questions.

A1) To answer your first question, you are right in saying that ARK optimises the game by only loading into memory what it is currently using. Normally when you leave an area all dinos go into stasis, a sort of suspended animation of sorts.

What the mod does is when it is triggered (on last known rider death), it runs a custom AI Behaviour Tree to navigate to the closest flag, and most importantly it prevents the flyer from entering stasis (it is literally as simple as a boolean value for the actor).

This means the game engine treats the actor controlled by AI in a similar way to how it would treat any other player, loading and unloading areas as the actor moves through it.

A2) It works with or without tribes, as each flag still has a personal owner, so it will work in all game modes, single, non-dedicated and dedicated. I do extensive testing in all game modes before every new release to ensure compatibility.

I hope this answers your questions and enjoy using the mod.

Ah, thanks very much for the response^^

Hmm, very interesting about that keeping the bird in play...and very clever too. I'm always fascinated by ingenious coding logic and what skilled programmers (especially modders like yourself) can do. My coding expertise so far is limited to some very basic LUA commands that I've been learning for Minecraft Computercraft mod, but even that limited exposure has given me a small insight and a great respect for those who can do so much more. The genius of the pc modding community continues to amaze, nice work :D

And good to hear it works in single player as well, I'll go ahead and give it a try in my game then. Thanks once more for bringing this to us, and for your reply to my concerns^^