Beacons to map your surroundings

A Valheim mod (BepInEx + Jötunn) that adds scouting beacons: build one, fuel it, and map the surroundings. You can only scout as far as the ocean biome. The beacons reach and mapping speed is capped by tier. Interact with the beacon to copy new information.

Files and settings use the internal name ScoutingBeacons (SirCookie.ScoutingBeacons).

Beacons

• The model is a recoloured Obliterator; wisps circle a working beacon, red and pulsing wisps indicate it has passed its optimal range.
• Mapping: circling outwards over non-ocean biomes. The ocean is the limit: one beacon maps one island and never the sea around it. Rings the builder had already explored are not counted in fuel cost.
• Fuel: Add different fuel from inventory in the beacon. "Add all fuel" moves all possible fuel from your inventory into it. Untill you press "Fuel the beacon" you can take it out afterwards all fuel is permanently part of the beacon and is lost when it is moved.
• Fuel ratio: The higher tier beacons use fuel more efficiently.
• Cost: the minimum size the game sets as explored is an ingame 12x12m square. Each ring made out of 12x12m squares slowly raises the cost untill the final ring costs 50 fuel (1 stack of wood) to explore. Beyond the optimal range every next ring costs one stack more than the one before (2, 3, 4 stacks ...).
• Status panel: available fuel (plus what's waiting in the inventory), remaining fuel for optimal range (how much more fuel the rest of the optimal range takes, or by how much it will be exceeded), fuel depletion countdown (how long the beacon will keep working), current range from beacon (how far away it is exploring), optimal zone progress (percentage of the land within the optimal range that is mapped), warnings for limit overreach and a message that nothing further can be explored.

Fuel

In this overview you can see how much fuel you get from each resource.

Screenshots

Huginn's Cairn (bronze)

Muninn's Spire (silver)

Allfather's Eye (black metal)

Markers

• Locations (silver and black metal): burial chambers, troll and frost caves, sunken crypts, villages, infested mines, charred fortresses, Morgen holes, fire holes, drake nests, tar pits, shipwrecks, runestones, stone towers, tower ruins, the Mountains lorestone, sacrificial stones, dolmens, stone circles and henges, Dvergr towers and harbours, charred towers and more. Optional: boss altars, each trader (Haldor, Hildir, Bog Witch, Altar of Potential: the placed one, or every possible spot until it's placed), forts, Ashlands fortress ruins. Every point of interest has its own switch in the config section "07 - Locations".
• Ores (black metal): copper (Cu), scrap iron (Fe), silver (Ag), flametal and brains; tin (Tn) and obsidian optional. Ore in areas nobody has visited doesn't exist yet in Valheim, so the mod predicts it from the world seed by replaying the game's own placement; areas that exist use the real deposits.

Other mods

"Block automatic feeding" (on by default) keeps chest-automation mods away from beacons: ServersideQoL AutoStore doesn't store items into them, ChestButler and AzuAutoStore don't sort or store into them, and OttoFuel, AzuCraftyBoxes and ServersideQoL AutoProcess / TameAssist don't take items out of them.

Install

Needs BepInExPack Valheim and Jötunn. Put ScoutingBeacons.dll in BepInEx/plugins/ScoutingBeacons/. On a server, the server and every player need the same version. All settings are server settings (BepInEx/config/SirCookie.ScoutingBeacons.cfg).

Build

dotnet build -c Release (.NET SDK 8) against your Valheim install (ValheimDir in the .csproj, Steam path by default); the DLL is copied into the game's plugins folder.

Console command for testing (cheats on, single player or host): sb_orecheck [radius] compares predicted ore with the real deposits around you.

Credits

Icon: Binoculars icons created by Smashicons - Flaticon

Licence

MIT, by SirCookie.