Beacon 2.0 Has Been Released! Here’s What’s Coming Next.
Published

This update has been in the works for a long time and was supposed to be released just before Ark: Survival Ascended, but some changes were needed that delayed the schedule.

But it's out now! The release notes have a full human-readable breakdown of the major new features, so I won't repeat it all here. This post is really about looking to the future.

What's Next for Beacon?

Beacon 2.0 was supposed to include support for 7 Days to Die, but I decided to delay it to get ASA support done sooner. This is still coming, but I intend to continue to focus on ASA for the time being.

There's no such thing as a console server vs. PC server, since all servers are cross-play capable. This means that all PC features - such as FTP access and RCON support - are available to all servers. This opens up a number of possible features for Beacon that I will be exploring in the near future.

None of this is a promise that the feature will happen. This is just my roadmap of features I want to explore and add.

Save Data Backups

I'd like Beacon to back up the map data, player files, and tribe data. In the past, this wasn't possible for all servers because console servers didn't have FTP access and didn't list all server files. Both of these features are now available, so you should be able to back up your data during deployment. Of course, restoring those backups will also be a necessary feature, because what good is a backup that you can't use?

RCON Support

Beacon already has a lightweight RCON class that is used for ASE's Mod Discovery. My plan is to make this class more robust and build an actual RCON editor into Beacon. I've avoided this in the past because Beacon has historically been a config file generator. Well... not anymore. The site has been calling it a "server manager" for some time now, so I intend to embrace that. RCON will also be useful during deployment, as it can send custom stop messages or behaviors before shutting down.

Deploy Without Restart

ASA has the ability to update ini files while the game is running. I would like Beacon to support this. At some point in the future, you'll be able to choose between three deployment behaviors: "shutdown and update", "update and restart", and "update only". The wording of these is subject to change, of course.

Player Management

I've already got code to find the Epic Online ID, spec ID, player name, and tribe ID from the player files on the server. This information is invaluable for many cheat codes, bans, whitelists, and admin lists. Allowing Beacon to generate a list would be an incredible tool.

I'd also like to see Beacon host player control lists, but I'm still exploring options.

Dynamic Config

This is another area I'm still exploring. Dynamic config allows you to change a small subset of settings on the server without restarting the server. It requires a URL pointing to a text file, but there's no reason Beacon couldn't provide that.

For Now... Enjoy

Ark: Survival Ascended is better than I expected, in my opinion. There are issues with stacking certain items and spawn overrides don't work at all, but I see no reason why these won't be fixed eventually. Overall, the game is solid and the building improvements are fantastic. So go play the game. Have fun.

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