Links

• CurseForge page: Grace Shield

Overview

Grace Shield is a focused ARK: Survival Ascended server-side protection mod.

It solves a common multiplayer problem: after teleporting, respawning, transferring, or loading into a dangerous area, a survivor can become vulnerable before the player has fully regained control.

Instead of requiring server owners to build protected teleport boxes, safe rooms, or custom destination structures, Grace Shield provides a configurable temporary protection window.

The goal was not to create permanent invulnerability. The goal was to make the short transition window fair.

What It Does

• applies temporary protection after detected survivor teleport movement
• applies temporary protection after survivor respawn
• can block incoming damage while the shield is active
• can prevent the protected survivor from dealing outgoing damage
• can reduce wild creature targeting during the grace window
• can optionally cancel protection when the survivor attacks
• can optionally cancel protection when the survivor moves
• exposes the main behavior through GameUserSettings.ini

Why This Was Worth Doing

The interesting part of this project was not just adding a protection buff.

The real design problem was making the protection useful without making it abusable.

A teleport or respawn grace period sounds simple, but in a multiplayer survival game it immediately creates edge cases:

• players should not die while still recovering from a transition
• players should not use the grace window as a free offensive engage
• server owners need control over how generous the protection is
• combat teleports and skill-based movement should not automatically become immunity tools
• the system has to behave conservatively around mount, dismount, respawn, and attachment state changes

That pushed the design toward a narrow protection system with clear boundaries instead of a generic invulnerability mechanic.

Implementation Summary

The mod detects qualifying survivor teleport or respawn situations and applies a temporary protection buff for the configured duration.

The default behavior is intentionally defensive:

[GraceShield]
TeleportProtectionSeconds=20.0
RespawnProtectionSeconds=20.0

bProtectTpedSurvivors=true
bProtectRespawnedSurvivors=true

bPreventIncomingDamage=true
bPreventOutgoingDamage=true
bPreventEnemyTargeting=true

bCancelProtectionOnAttack=false
bCancelProtectionOnMove=false

The protection window can block incoming damage, but it can also block outgoing damage at the same time. That matters because a grace shield should protect a vulnerable player, not become a way to start fights risk-free.

Server owners can decide how strict they want the behavior to be:

• short or long teleport protection windows
• separate respawn protection duration
• incoming damage prevention on or off
• outgoing damage prevention on or off
• targeting prevention on or off
• cancellation when attacking
• cancellation when moving

This keeps the public config simple while still covering the major server policy choices.

Abuse Prevention

A big part of the mod is deciding what should not count.

Grace Shield is designed for survivor teleport and respawn safety. It is not intended to turn combat movement into invulnerability.

Some combat or skill-based teleports are intentionally excluded, including cases such as Enforcer teleports, Malwyn teleports, Tek Spear teleport behavior, and Lost Colony skills like Strategical Retreat.

That distinction is important. The mod protects players during vulnerable transition moments, but avoids changing the balance of combat abilities that already have their own risk and timing.

Design Constraints

The main constraints were:

• keep the protection temporary
• keep the server configuration readable
• avoid creating an offensive immunity tool
• treat ambiguous state changes conservatively
• make the behavior useful for Genesis-style teleport gameplay
• avoid requiring server owners to solve the problem with physical structures

This made the mod less about adding a flashy feature and more about defining a clean rule system around a dangerous gameplay moment.

Result

Grace Shield is a small mod, but it shows the kind of systems work I care about:

• identifying a real multiplayer pain point
• designing around abuse cases from the beginning
• exposing simple server-facing configuration
• keeping the feature narrow instead of turning it into a generic god-mode system
• using technical implementation to support a clear gameplay purpose

The final result gives server owners a configurable safety layer for teleport and respawn transitions while preserving the expectation that combat still has consequences.