Portal Monuments

This mod introduces an alternative to vanilla portals. Fast travel through ancient stone monuments. Find Portal Monuments scattered across the world, activate them, and use any activated monument to travel to another one by picking it on the map. Portal Monuments can also be built. Highly configurable.

Features

• Monuments across the world. New worlds get Portal Monuments in every biome, spaced about 800 m apart, plus one near the spawn point. They can't be damaged or destroyed.
• Discover and activate. Monuments start dark. Walk up and press E to activate one: its rune circle lights up blue and it starts to hum.
• Easy to spot. A pale column of light rises from every monument you haven't activated yet, visible from about 250 m and brightest at night. It fades away once you activate the monument.
• Teleport by map. Use an activated monument to open the map, then click any other activated monument's pin to travel there. Like vanilla portals, ore and metals can't come along, unless the server allows all items.
• Build your own. Portal Monuments can also be built with the hammer (Misc tab). They need flat ground, can be removed with the hammer, and take no damage.
• Shared in multiplayer. By default, a monument activated by one player is available to everyone on the server. This can be turned off so each player has to activate monuments themselves.
• Optional: disable vanilla portals, so monuments are the only way to travel.

What to expect (default settings)

• About 120–160 monuments per new world (test worlds got 118–157), always at least 800 m apart.
• One near the spawn, 30–100 m from the spawn stones, so you can activate your first monument right away.
• In every land biome, from Meadows to Ashlands and the Deep North, on dry, fairly flat ground. Never in water or lava.
• Light beams are visible from about 250 m, brighter at night, until you activate the monument.
• Activations are shared: what one player activates, everyone on the server can use.
• Vanilla item rules: no ore or metals, like vanilla portals. Admins can let every item through with the setting "Allow all items through monuments".
• Vanilla portals stay available. Admins can turn them off with the setting "Disable Vanilla Portals", so monuments become the only way to travel.
• Building one costs 10 Greydwarf eyes, 10 stone and 2 Surtling cores.

Installation

Use a mod manager (r2modman, Thunderstore Mod Manager or Gale), or install manually:

1. Install BepInExPack Valheim and Jötunn.
2. Put PortalMonuments.dll in BepInEx/plugins.

Multiplayer: the server and every player need the mod. Versions that share the first two numbers work together (for example 1.0.0 with 1.0.1).

Existing worlds

Valheim only places new kinds of locations when a world is created, so monuments don't appear in an existing world by themselves. An admin can add them with pm_generate (only fills areas nobody has explored yet). In single-player or as the host, pm_place puts one wherever you stand.

Configuration

Settings are in BepInEx/config/com.portalmonuments.cfg, or in game with a configuration manager (F1). On a server, the server's world settings apply to everyone.

Setting	Default
Multiplayer: Share activated monuments	On	Monuments activated by anyone are usable by everyone
Portal Monument: Allow all items through monuments	Off	Lets ore, metals and every other item travel through monuments (off = vanilla portal rules)
Portals: Disable Vanilla Portals	Off	Vanilla portals can't be built (existing ones keep working)
Portal Monument: Build recipe	GreydwarfEye:10, Stone:10, SurtlingCore:2	Item:amount pairs, using item prefab names. If no entry is valid, the default is used; leave empty to make it free
Portal Monument: Disable building	Off	Removes the monument from the hammer
Generated Monuments		Spacing, biomes, ground unevenness and the spawn monument. Only used when locations are generated (new world or pm_generate). A few more (Count, MinAltitude, GapToOtherLocations, SpawnMinDistance, SpawnMaxDistance) are only in the config file
Hum volume, teleport map pin size, light beam (on/off, brightness)		Per player

Console commands

Open the console with F5. On a dedicated server, admins (listed in the server's adminlist.txt) can run pm_count and pm_generate from their own game. Valheim never allows cheat commands for players on a dedicated server, so pm_place and pm_show only work in single-player or for the host.

Command
pm_help	Lists these commands
pm_count	How many monuments the world has (generated, planned, built)
pm_generate	Adds generated monuments to unexplored areas (admin)
pm_place [x z]	Places a monument here, or at x z (needs devcommands, single-player or host)
pm_show	Shows or hides every monument on the map (needs devcommands, single-player or host)

Changelog

• 1.0.1 - README: what to expect with default settings.
• 1.0.0 - First release.

Tested

Tested with Valheim 1.0.16, BepInExPack 5.4.2351 and Jötunn 2.30.2, in single-player and on a dedicated server. Not yet tested with several players online at the same time.

Known limits

• If the mod is removed from a world, monuments disappear. Generated monuments that nobody has visited yet are forgotten once the world saves, and the leveled ground around generated monuments returns to its natural shape.
• Built monuments disappear without returning their materials if the mod is removed.
• Building-copy mods (like Infinity Hammer or PlanBuild) can duplicate a monument together with its ID. Teleporting to copies may then go to the wrong one.

Feedback

Found a bug or have an idea? Message me on Discord: disr0d (with a zero). For bugs, please include your BepInEx/LogOutput.log.

Credits

Inspired by Waypoints by RustyMods. Portal Monuments is a separate mod with its own code and art.

If you enjoy the mod, you can support me on Ko-fi.