Beacon 1.1 Beta 2

This is the second beta of Beacon 1.1. This is a major feature and bugfix update.

Major New Features

• Introducing Beacon Omni, a paid version of Beacon which supports more configuration options. For this beta, Beacon Omni features will be free to all users.
• New "Player and Dino Levels" config editor. Set the max level, total experience, and build an experience curve of your own.
• New "Crafting Costs" config editor. Beacon makes it a little less tedious to edit engram crafting costs.
• New "Custom Content" config editor. You can now edit both your Game.ini and GameUserSettings.ini files directly inside Beacon. Beacon will blend its changes with the content in this editor and the content already on the server.
• New preset editor with dynamic loot source modifiers.
• New "Add Item Sets to Default" checkbox in loot source settings allows Beacon to add its item sets to the default item sets, rather than replace them. It is unclear exactly what the min and max item set values do in this case though.

Minor New Features

• Now possible to reset a config to default. Using the "Restore" option in the "Document" menu, this option will completely remove Beacon's changes to the config, putting it back to the Ark defaults.
• Beacon is more efficient editing item sets across multiple loot sources, meaning doing this should feel much faster.
• New option to import configs from other open documents.
• Beacon will now warn you when mod items have been added to a document that has "console safe mode" enabled.
• Loot source, item set, and preset min/max values are no longer range limited. This makes some advanced designs possible, but also allows you to do funny things like set the minimum greater than the maximum.
• Nitrado deployment now analyzes log files to determine how long to wait for the server to stop. This prevents the issue where the user could stop the server with the "Servers" panel, then immediately deploy to skip the wait time, which would result in the changes not being preserved.
• Nitrado deployment now makes a complete configuration snapshot before making changes. These will show up in the Nitrado control panel under the "Configuration Profiles" section.
• Beacon no longer adjusts the weight values it generates. This allows greater flexibility, such as setting an item set's weight to 100000000 like Ark's default loot does to nearly guarantee something in a drop.
• Windows ini parsing speed has been dramatically improved.
• FTP deployment now has file browser. No more guessing the correct path to include.

Bug Fixes

• Beacon's window can no longer get tucked under the taskbar / menubar.
• Fixed missing whitespace in generated config files.
• Fixed default and cancel buttons being swapped all over the app.
• Fixed bizarre scrolling behavior of the notification list.
• The item sets status bar moves when resizing the simulator.
• Potentially fixed a number of nonsense exceptions by changing some backend frameworks. Sorry for the vague note, there's not a good way to describe this.
• Preset editor's "Create Blueprint Entry" option will correctly use only the selected items, rather than all items.
• Beacon will no longer lock up while performing the final step of parsing an ini file.
• Duplicating a loot source will now duplicate custom item sets too.
• INI parser will no longer report false errors.

Other Changes

• More vibrant loot source icons.
• During export/deploy, if Beacon's computed minimum quality is greater than the maximum quality, Beacon will use the minimum for both. This should improve accuracy of loot generation.
• Publish status will be cleared when loading community documents. This will prevent users from accidentally re-publishing a document they loaded from another user when they save it to their own account.
• Generated config files now have markup added to assist Beacon in differentiating between changes it has made and changes made by another source.
• The Library drawer will overlap the main content on Windows, just as it does on Mac.
• Beta builds now expire after 30 days.
• Importing a preset will automatically save it to the Library.

Beacon 1.0.1

This release fixes the following bugs and is recommended for all users.

• Fixes mysterious parse error on Windows when code executes too quickly.
• Clearing publish status when downloading documents from the community to prevent accidental publishing requests.
• Uses new internal build numbering to better support multiple branches of development.

Beacon 1.0

This is it. Finally calling Beacon 1.0 finished. Out of beta and ready for everybody to enjoy. Here's what has changed.

• Fixed bug when importing local files.
• Another attempt to fix a "random" exception that was previously believed to be fixed.
• Added missing Extinction map filter to engrams manager.
• Fixed a handful of other exceptions related to issue resolution and empty engram sets.
• The process of converting Beacon data into JSON so it can be saved to disk or uploaded to the cloud is now handled in a low priority thread. This should prevent all saving, including autosave, from locking up the app while it happens. For users with exceptionally large files, this should make autosave feel much less noticeable.
• Beacon will prevent users from closing documents that are busy, such as while being saved.
• Export window will correctly write new files, instead of failing silently.
• Document-level "Rebuild Item Sets from Presets" will function again.
• Turns out there are more 32-bit copies of Windows out there than there should be. So Beacon has a 32-bit version once again.

Beacon Final Candidate 1

In an ideal world, this build (39) will be relabelled 1.0.0 and Beacon will officially be out of beta after much too long.

This build is mostly a bug and quality of life build.

• Revamped set of base quality values. Users who have been advised to set their "Loot Drop Quality Scale" lower should reset to 100% and deploy/export their config.
• New top-tier quality class: "Perfected" - this tier equals 100 quality in Ark, the maximum possible.
• The Mac version is fully signed and sandboxed.
• Using "Save As" will generate a new document UUID. This allows users to download another user's file and "Save As" into their own account without ownership conflicts.
• Duplicate SupplyCrateLootQualityMultiplier lines will no longer cause a parsing error. Only the last value will be retained.
• Added status bars to most of the loot config interface.
• Fixed bug causing empty Simulator after editing a loot source.
• Document export now has an "Update File" to make the behavior more obvious. "Save As" would update the file previously, but since the operating system asks about replacing the file, this was not obvious. So the behavior as been separated.
• Importing engram data is now threaded. This should prevent "Beacon has stopped working" errors when parsing content, especially from websites.
• Beacon will more reliably restore the last used config view when opening a file.
• Significant updates to the mod editor view. Now includes a column for Extinction, along with a bunch of quality-of-life improvements.
• On OS X 10.10 and 10.11, Nitrado authorization will now be handled in the user's browser since their website is broken before WebKit 602.2.14.
• Fixed bug with server importing not correctly detecting the server's map.

Beacon Beta 28

• It is now possible to add multiple loot sources at once.
• Beacon automatically saves backup documents every minute.
• Tabs will show an indicator while saving is in progress.
• Double-clicking a loot source will show the loot source edit dialog.
• Fixed bug preventing the simulator from respecting the "prevent duplicates" settings.
• Fixed bug causing issues view to duplicate the same issue over and over again.
• Fixed showing Document menu as disabled.
• Beacon is more resilient to switching between database-incompatible version. It is still not recommended to switch backwards to old versions, but the situation will be handled better going forward.
• Fixed error on start caused by Beacon's inability to write to its log file.
• Other minor fixes

Beacon Beta 27

This is a minor bug build to fix a couple significant issues.

• Fixed error when moving the cursor over a toolbar that has not fully drawn yet.
• Fixed error with item set entry quantities not respecting the desired value.
• Fixed error with empty or zero quantity fields.

Beacon Beta 26

To be honest, there's too many changes to list. 430 commits were made to Beacon's GitHub repository since beta 25, which represents 42% of all commits made to Beacon. This is a massive release. So this change log will be more of a highlight reel.

• Major redesign
• Added Extinction map support.
• Beacon now integrates with Nitrado, making server management easier than ever. If your server provider has an API Beacon can use, let us know via [email protected].
• Added "Show only console-safe engrams" document option, which hides engrams from mods not supported by consoles.
• Added simulator view at the bottom of the item sets list. Allows previewing of loot source contents.
• Added support for SupplyCrateLootQualityMultiplier config.
• New export window shows changes for Game.ini, GameUserSettings.ini, and command line options.
• Library and Developer windows have been moved to a drawer on the left side of Beacon's window.
• Beacon documents and Preset files use a new format. Old formats will be imported, but are not compatible with older versions of Beacon.
• Users can now sign into a Beacon account, allowing easy access to cloud documents from multiple computers.
• Beacon is now a 64-bit app on Windows. 32-bit versions of Windows are not supported.
• Mac version supports dark mode.
• Mac minimum support operating system increased to 10.10 Yosemite.
• Tuned loot quality formula. Loot should more closely match intended qualities.
• Importing ini files is dramatically faster.
• Increased number of supported digits in quantity fields to 4. This means values up to 9999 are possible.
• Weight scale increased from 100 to 1000. This change does not affect any existing content, it only allows more precision in weight values.

Beacon Beta 25

This release works around an expected behavior when Ark is running as a server process. Single player instances are not affected. All server admins should rebuild their loot overrides using this version to get more diverse loot distribution.

Do not use Beacon to import your current Game.ini, as your qualities will be adversely affected. The config lines that Beacon produces are intended to be used by Ark and are pre-multiplied by Ark's multipliers. Importing, however, must assume the values are not pre-multiplied. The recommended way to rebuild your config is by opening your saved ".beacon" file and going to File -> Deploy.

Here's the nitty gritty details
Per numerous discussions online, Ark's weights should all total to 1.0. So two item sets with equal weight should be 0.5 and 0.5. In single player, this appears to be true.

However in server processes, this logic was producing an unbalanced distribution of item sets. Some item sets, decided by an unknown factor, would have a zero or near-zero percent chance of selection. Others would be selected too often. This might actually explain why water jars and crop plots appear in the official drops so often.

The solution was to use a whole integer value instead. Weights now total to 1000, which gives plenty of resolution even at low weights. Immediately, loot should feel more diverse. Single player instances work exactly the same using these new values too.

Beacon Beta 24

• Fixes the completely broken mods view.
• Fixes the lockup Beacon would experience on Windows while updating. Installing this update will still appear to get stuck towards the end of the update download, but just leave it, the download will finish. However, this should be the last time, this new version does not have the problem.
• Fixes a bug that would prevent engram updates if loot sources were reordered.
• The installer now installs/updates the Windows Universal Runtime on systems that need it.

Beacon Beta 23

This minor release adds an easier way for console admins to deploy Game.ini updates. Also fixes a bug with custom loot sources not saving their type.